The big shakers among South Australia’s football powerbrokers
IT has hasn’t been a standout season for South Australia’s two AFL football teams in 2018 but there has been some exceptional performers through the year. Michelangelo reveals his Top 10 Shakers.
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IT wasn’t the football season anyone expected, certainly not the commanders at the Adelaide and Port Adelaide football clubs. No finals for both SA-based AFL clubs for the first time since 2011 is a major fail for the Crows and Power, putting both teams as the most-disappointing - along with Essendon - in Season 2018.
Each year there are those who rise to greater power in SA football and those who fall to failure or irrelevance. Season 2019 is no different. Some have had their stars shine brighter; some have been pushed off the big stage. They are the movers and shakers of 2018.
This week, The Roast looks at the top-10 Shakers of the year - those who positioned themselves to greater relevance, attention or power in SA football.
1. BRETT BURTON
WHEN Brett Burton was promoted from fitness coach to football boss at the Adelaide Football Club in November 2016 many were surprised - and questioned if he had the experience to fulfil the demanding role. Less than a year later, Burton had overseen a football program that made the Crows live to a minimal injury list and rise to AFL minor premier and the most-attacking Adelaide team of all-time. The critics, some of whom wondered if Burton’s appointment reaffirmed the “boys’ network”, were silenced. Now they are lining up again to hold Burton accountable for the fall-out from the contentious pre-season camp with Collective Mind on the Gold Coast in late January, the hefty injury toll at West Lakes this season and the team’s fall from AFL pacesetter to 12th with more and more questions about the football program as players, such as contracted forward Mitch McGovern, and assistant coaches move on. It has been some fall.
2. MATTY HAAS
IT was a package deal from Brisbane when Brett Burton returned to the Adelaide Football Club and encouraged Lions conditioning coach Matty Haas to follow him to West Lakes to replace him as the Crows’ fitness coach. As with Burton, it was a dream first season as Adelaide had no injury crisis while rising to the minor premiership last year. But this season was a nightmare and leaves many questions on the program Haas has overseen at West Lakes. In Brisbane there are those within the Lions camp saying Haas was feeling the heat mid-season and supposedly asked of opportunities in his old den. Brisbane chief executive Greg Swann is said to have made it known the door was not opening again.
3. BEC GODDARD
FROM inaugural AFLW premiership coach to no job at the Adelaide Football Club at the end of the second season - and no AFLW rival hiring the best coach in the national women’s football game. Bec Goddard’s exit from the women’s big league - which has no female in a senior coaching role next season - leaves more questions about the AFLW than of Goddard. She has returned to the ACT - with the Australian Federal Police - to work with the NEAFL Canberra Demons as an assistant coach. And it is no surprise that the Demons qualified for their first NEAFL finals this season.
4. JACK WATTS
WHAT is it with Jack Watts and expectation? The 2008 AFL No. 1 draftee left Melbourne - after 153 AFL games - to start again at Port Adelaide as part of the Power’s big signings in the October trade period. Rather than be the centrepiece of Port Adelaide’s attack, Watts was to take the attention from key forward Charlie Dixon. How did it work out (as Port Adelaide scored less this season than last year)? Watts was dropped from the AFL line-up mid-season as coach Ken Hinkley took issue with his “intensity”. By the numbers, Watts had his less-productive figures since his second season in 2010 when he had played just 18 games (average 14 disposals this season compared with 12.6 in 2010). Port Adelaide might have to reinvent Watts next season when the Power attack should include Dixon, young gun Todd Marshall and ruckmen Patrick Ryder and Scott Lycett in tandem. Is Watts, who was brought to Alberton to take advantage of his pristine skills, to play on a wing (the one vacated by Jared Polec in his move to North Melbourne).
5. KEN HINKLEY
KEN Hinkley was in clover 12 months ago when Gold Coast was keen to consider his return to the Suns as senior coach - and Port Adelaide president David Koch delivered a contract extension that keeps Hinkley at Alberton to the end of 2021 (at least). And beyond the halfway mark of the season - with Port Adelaide at 11-4 and looking at a top-four finish - Hinkley, Koch and everyone in teal felt on the path to well-planned, hard-earned success. But losing six of the last seven games of the home-and-away season - to have the Power fall from equal second to 10th - has taken Hinkley from clover to a “scorched earth” at Alberton. As Hinkley says, he is wounded - and has fallen from a mover to a shaker in SA football. He adds he is not dead. Season 2019 will be demanding for Hinkley.
6. DON PYKE
FROM “coach of the year” in 2017 by leading Adelaide to its first minor premiership since 2005 (under Neil Craig) to 12th (with a winning record of 12-10), Don Pyke has fallen in the coach rankings. He also has a contract to the end of 2021. It was a fascinating season for Pyke - from the stare down of the Crows players during the 91-point humiliation to Melbourne at Alice Springs, the uneasy media conference in late June as the Collective Mind program was brought to an end at West Lakes and the transformation in his coaching and public presentation from the start of the season to the end. To use the Adelaide mantra, “things change”. As with Hinkley, results in Season 2019 will be telling of how Pyke is seen and judged.
7. TAYLOR WALKER
NOT a good year on the field where the Crows key forward played while carrying injury - and the burden of putting his team in the frame for a fourth consecutive AFL finals berth. Not a great year for the man judged by his peers as the best AFL club captain for two consecutive seasons - and subjected to long-running debate on whether he should abdicate to vice-captain Rory Sloane or defender Daniel Talia. Taylor Walker is a polarising figure outside his clubhouse. His football has not done enough to silence the critics. And the merit of his leadership this season has created new external debate on his place at the Adelaide Football Club. It seems the Crows are locked in by the profile of the hero they have created at West Lakes.
8. PATRICK RYDER
ALL-Australian ruckman in Season 2017 - and battered by Achilles strain and hip strains, along with a chase of a house-breaking villain. The Port Adelaide ruckman did have a difficult AFL season this year - and with his woes came problems for the Power that was heavily reliant on the one-ruckman model. Ryder will need support next season - and the most-likely source of that help is West Coast restricted free agent Scott Lycett rather than the tyros at Alberton, Billy Frampton and Sam Hayes. Ryder’s revival could emerge as a forward more so than as a lead ruckman next year.
9. EDDIE BETTS
AFTER four consecutive seasons as Adelaide’s leading goalkicker with 51, 63, 75 and 55 goals, Crows small forward Eddie Betts tumbled in productivity and in his status as one of the AFL’s leading small forwards. Betts scored 29.20 in his 18 AFL matches for Adelaide this season. This is Betts’ smallest return as a goalkicker since 2013 when he kicked 27.15 in 18 games in his last season at Carlton. Betts also suffered multiple hamstring strains this season as the “black cat” curse returned with a vengeance at West Lakes this season. He was clearly stirred - if not shaken - the Crows-Collective Mind pre-season camp on the Gold Coast in late January. Betts is on contract for the next two seasons - and needs to rediscover both his comfort in the game and his power to score so that defenders tremble.
10. MATTHEW BROADBENT
NO AFL game for the Port Adelaide half-back as the ankle concern that derailed Matthew Broadbent last season became worse. A year out of the big game is always concerning for any player - and repetitive concerns with injury do leave doubt on 28-year-old Broadbent who was sixth in the Power’s count for the John Cahill Medal in 2016. Clearly, Port Adelaide needs the injury curse to end for Broadbent - and Hamish Hartlett - so that the Power can get some polished performers in the exit play from defence when there are many concerns with the skill base of the players Ken Hinkley has at Alberton.