Mark Robinson reveals his likes and dislikes from Round 3 of the AFL season
GOTY from the GOAT? Lance Franklin’s matchwinning goal against GWS should be goal of the year. And Buddy might be the best player of the past 40 years, writes Mark Robinson. VOTE
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SEASON 2018 keeps delivering.
From the thrillers of Saturday (and Buddy’s heroics) to the return of some key big men, Round 3 showcased everything that’s great about footy.
But things aren’t all rosy at a couple of clubs.
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Here’s what caught Herald Sun chief football writer MARK ROBINSON’S eye across the weekend.
WHAT I LIKE
1. The goal of the year (to date).
The football world went berko, and rightly so, when Sydney’s Luke Parker nailed the scissor kick in Round 1 against West Coast, declaring he had already won goal of the year. Parker’s goal was immense, but it has been usurped by Round 3. Lance Franklin’s 70m drop punt with Sydney leading by 10 points in the final quarter on Saturday night was insane. He gathered inside the centre square, gave Nick Hayes a don’t argue, whirled on to his left foot and ended the game with the 70m bomb. And then he kicked the next goal. It was better than Parker’s because of the context of the game and the fact, that while many players could have made Parker’s kick, no-one could have done what Buddy did.
2. Could Buddy be the GOAT?
In the past 35 years, there has been Leigh Matthews, Jason Dunstall, Tony Lockett, Gary Ablett Snr, Wayne Carey, Gary Ablett Junior and Buddy Franklin. That’s a gang of absolute greats. At the weekend, Franklin joined Collingwood great Peter McKenna on 874 goals. If he plays another four season and continues to average three goals a game he kicks about another 250 goals. That will give him an estimated 1120 which would trail only Lockett (1360 goals), Gordon Coventry (1299) and Dunstall (1254). He might not end up the GOAT but he will be in the conversation.
3. Did we see the smother of the year?
Minutes before Buddy’s exploits, teammate Dane Rampe saved a goal in the goalsquare by launching at GWS midfielder Stephen Coniglio. It was less spectacular than Heath Shaw on Nick Riewoldt in the 2010 Grand Final, but equally as effective. It is an underrated stat, smothering, and seemingly on the rise this season.
4. Western Bulldogs
Against a backdrop of accusations about player relationship breakdowns — which angered the Bulldogs hierarchy — the Doggies were back to their scrounging, running and swarming best and Essendon had little answer to the game style. Mitch Wallis, Jack Macrae, Lachie Hunter, Luke Dahlhaus, Bailey Williams and Caleb Daniel tormented the Essendon midfield, which poses a couple of questions. Where’s that been from the Dogs? And how uncompetitive are the Bombers? The Dogs had eight of the top nine possession winners and almost 100 more possessions than their opposition in what was a statement about cohesion and togetherness.
5 Nic Nat
More about ruckmen below, but we’ll start with Nic Naitanui. Plenty of players deserved plaudits in a ripping first half, but it was Jack Darling forward and Nic Nat in the ruck who rescued this game. Naitanui was enormous in the final quarter. His hit outs found targets in the middle and one found Mark Le Cras for a goal to ice the game. His comeback from a leg injury has been extraordinary and he’s still only playing marginally above 50 per cent of game time.
6. Tall and short bookends
Commentator Gerard Healy was spot on with his assessment of the first three weeks from Fremantle defender Alex Pearce. If the All-Australian team was selected now, Pearce is in the team. Kept Tom Lynch to a goal, which was a free kick, and has subdued Charlie Dixon (Round 1) and Joe Daniher (Round 2). Three huge scalps to start the season and even more notable because he missed 14 games last year with injury. Hayden Ballantyne played his best game for two years. His 18 disposals were his most in a game since Round 12, 2016, as were his eight score involvements. Footy’s good when Ballantyne is playing well and annoying opponents.
7. Lethal takes on the AFL
Leigh Matthews is not allowed to be a member of the Competition Committee but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the ear of AFL boss Steve Hocking. The pair, after not talking for almost three decades, have become telephone buddies. Their next chat will be about the tackler versus the ball winner. The AFL wants to reward the tackler to keep the game flowing, but Matthews wants more protection for the player who wins the ball first. Matthews rarely gets emotional about football, but he did on 3AW on Saturday because he fears for the future of the game. Football is not about tackling, he reasoned, it’s about flow and flair. It’s difficult to disagree with him. The tackler should be rewarded, but not above the player making the play.
8. The return of the ruckman
Collingwood’s Brodie Grundy stamped himself on Friday night as arguably the in-form ruckman of 2018, then Max Gawn did the same the next day and Stefan Martin did the same later in the afternoon. Gawn was huge against North Melbourne’s Todd Goldstein (he won the hits outs 50-15) which should embarrass Goldstein. But Martin was even better against Port Adelaide’s Justin Westhoff mainly and sometimes Charlie Dixon. He had a game-high 30 disposals, five clearances, eight score involvements and 49 hit outs. Phenomenal performance for a big man.
9. The other Gray
Robbie gets most of the attention but Sam is getting all of the ball. He’d be rated fifth in front of Jack Watts in Port Adelaide’s much-vaunted forward group, but he’s much better than that. Smart, quick and skilled, Gray had a game-high 10 score involvements, kicked three goals and had a game-high 16-disposals in the forward half and a 128 ranking points.
10. Ben Jacobs
If Clayton Oliver didn’t know Jacobs before the game, he does now. What a focused, determined stopper he is. It was the second time in Oliver’s career he has had a direct match-up for more than two quarters — the other was Collingwood’s Brayden Maynard in Round 23 last year — and he didn’t handle the extra heat too well. Champion Data clocked the match-up at about 60 minutes and in that time Oliver had just 11 disposals.’
WHAT I DON’T LIKE
1. The great pretenders
Essendon has stamped itself as a wishy-washy team already after being beaten by Fremantle and the Bulldogs. Skill level was deplorable on Sunday, especially coming out of the defensive 50m, and they were outnumbered at so many contests and out-pressured at those contests. The midfield was obliterated. The excitement factor surrounding Essendon in the pre-season once again showed that excitement means nothing. They’re pretty good on their terms, the Bombers, not so good when the opposition has the reins. The Bulldogs outmarked Essendon 152-80, which was indicative of how much the Bulldogs controlled the contest.
2. Geelong
Five goals in arrears at halftime and being played with by the Eagles, the Cats responded in the second half, incredibly so with three players on the bench with injury. They won the lead in the last quarter but turned it up because, when Gary Ablett departed with a hamstring injury, the momentum turned. Gazza is a huge blow and he will probably miss three weeks. Oh so close and it would’ve been one of Chris Scott’s finest wins. But they lost, they are 1-2 and have an injury list growing by the game.
3. Carlton
The Blues won’t like it but once again they are the laughing stock of the competition. The green shoots are taking time to sprout and Blues fans who are being asked to be patient are fed up. Friday night was a debacle. They allowed 10 unanswered goals and the margin of 24 points at the end was flattering. That said, for Carlton to get so close on the scoreboard is a positive for coach Brendon Bolton. How can they be so inept and remain only four goals in arrears? The Blues are lost. They are lumbering in a world where they want be more aggressive offensively but that opens holes in defence. Does Bolton continue to wear the scores against or knuckle down in the backline?
4. So where were Carlton hurt?
On the outside. They were solid around the contest, losing the contested ball by 134-133, but smashed on the outside, losing uncontested footy by 86. The game was lost in the second quarter. The Blues were -37 in disposals, -11 in contested possessions, -3 in clearances and -10 in inside-50s. Watched the game with a Blues supporter and he was as despondent as he was three seasons ago. Spoke to Blues fans on Saturday night and they are expecting to win the wooden spoon. Dark skies hang over Bluesville.
5. St Kilda
The mission statement is to be consistently competitive and the Saints failed again on Saturday night against Adelaide. And they won’t be competitive until they kick the goals that need to be kicked. Trailing by 10 points at halftime, the Saints had several opportunities via Blake Acres and Patrick McCartin to get within a goal, but both blew their kicks. The result: The Crows kicked the next six goals and the Saints were made to look silly. The second half was 10.7 to 4.4. The positive was they were competitive in the first half. The negative was they were a rabble in the second half. Seven goals from 51 forward 50m entries has the forward line on notice.
6. Don’t laugh about the goalkicking
Goalkicking coach Ben Dixon was hired and his job continues to be a work in progress. Acres, Shane Savage and Jack Newnes kicked 3.7 between them. The Acres miss at the 12th minute of the third quarter saw momentum shift drastically. Acres kicked the behind to make the margin seven points and from there, the Saints crumbled. They were -42 points, -63 disposals, -15 contested possessions and minus eight inside 50s.
7. Who is in the gun at St Kilda?
He was on notice last week and it’s now worse. David Armitage is one of the favourites at the Saints because he is a head down, bum up, win your-own-footy type of player. Missing most of the 2017 season, however, has seen him struggle to get in the flow of 2018. Just 13 disposals on the night and the fact he ended the game in the dysfunctional forward 50m means Richardson has to make an immediate decision on him. Back him and trust him or send him to the VFL to help find his groove. The game moves quickly when you’ve had 12 months away and Armitage, for all his heart and soul, was never quick in the first place.
8. Giants rucks
You’ve either got a good ruckman or you haven’t and there’s nothing in between. Rory Lobb was slaughtered last week by Brodie Grundy and this week, Lobb and Jonathon Patton were put to the sword by Callum Sinclair, who played the game of his life with 45 hit outs. At the moment, Giants coach Leon Cameron is running Lobb and Patton in the ruck and Jeremy Cameron forward, but he will have to contemplate bringing in Dawson Simpson if he’s fit. He might not get a better number than Lobb, but he will shift the ruck dominance away from the opposition.
9. Rucks who hit people off the ball
Fremantle is playing aggressive, hard football and Aaron Sandilands took it a step further. He is likely to be suspended for crunching Gold Coast’s Jarryd Lyons off the ball. Shoulder met head, Lyons didn’t see it coming and down he went. It was cheap shot but because Lyons was not KO’d or concussed, Sandilands is looking at a week off. Only luck stopped it from being three weeks.
10. Policing the protected zone
From ground viewing and from the couch there’s been a relaxing of the protected zone rules. It’s supposed to be about 10m and although the umpires paid free kicks at the weekend, several encroachments were missed. The coaches had every reason to be sceptical.
Originally published as Mark Robinson reveals his likes and dislikes from Round 3 of the AFL season
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