Mick McGuane names the players who need to deliver in this year’s finals series
Tom Hawkins and Charlie Dixon have been two of the year’s best forwards — but can they stand up when it matters most? Mick McGuane says the pair owe their clubs for finals flops in previous years.
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The pressure is on in finals – for some players more than others.
For a range of reasons, some players owe their clubs to perform on the biggest stage.
It might be repaying a fat contract, a suspension, disciplinary breach or below-par form, but this is the time they need to step up and make it right.
For starters, I’m putting the heat on Geelong spearhead Tom Hawkins, Collingwood ruckman Brodie Grundy and Port Adelaide and Western Bulldogs forwards Charlie Dixon and Josh Bruce this finals series.
But there’s plenty more in the gun.
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GEELONG
Tom Hawkins
On the back of missing the preliminary final last year after his one-match suspension for striking Will Schofield, the ‘Tomahawk’ has a bit of making up to do.
Sure, he’s won the Coleman Medal this season, but his absence last year hurt the Cats with a Grand Final spot on the line.
He would have been sitting in the grandstand at halftime of that match probably breathing quite easily when the Cats were 21-points up.
He would have thought “the pressure valve is off, I won’t be under the microscope here”.
But the easy breathing would have turned to heart palpitations as the Cats went from 21 points in front to four points behind in 30 minutes, eventually losing the game by 19 points.
They were aching for a key forward in that time. At the game’s end their highest goal scorer was Tim Kelly, who kicked three goals.
The big forward’s omission in the preliminary final made the game far easier for David Astbury, Dylan Grimes, Nick Vlastuin and Nathan Broad after his act of poor discipline.
That’s the reason why he will be thinking deep down he owes his teammates and his club – and needs a big one this week.
COLLINGWOOD
Brodie Grundy
He got the big deal, the big money and, now, Brodie Grundy really needs to step up against All-Australian ruckman Nic Naitanui.
Grundy and the Magpies were fantastic against the Eagles in the west last year.
But this season, I question why Grundy often trails the opposition ruckmen at boundary-line thrown-ins, giving upfront position therefore losing his control at stoppages.
This has led to a decrease in his hit-outs to advantage, his clearance numbers and his follow up work hasn’t been as great.
Get more proactive rather than being dictated to. His fellow midfielders need him at his assertive and aggressive best.
If he can improve his contest work, fix his hit-outs to advantage and increase his clearance numbers – he will be trump card Collingwood needs in this cut throat final. Winning the ruck battle against Naitanui and helping the team gain territory is a must against the Eagles.
On the back of that, he then becomes an active participant in score involvements, which are also down this year.
Jaidyn Stephenson is another. Nathan Buckley has showed a lot of faith in him this season. He has played timid footy and without confidence for most of the year. Why is that?
We witnessed it again last week, although after halftime he was a little bit better.
Stephenson needs to revisit vision of his 2018 season, culminating in his Grand Final performance and how he approached the contest in only his 26th game.
Now that his games have doubled, you’d think he’d be more settled and comfortable in that competitive environment. He should be better served, but he’s not.
Finals footy ramps up in terms of contests and he has to be ready for that.
If he could do it back in 2018 on the biggest stage of all, he needs to believe in himself and rediscover his competitive attitude in this huge game, providing Buckley and the coaching staff pick him. If Bucks goes with him he owes the club and his teammates a quality return.
WESTERN BULLDOGS
Josh Bruce
It’s time to put the acid on Josh Bruce.
A 103kg forward should be really hard to play against. But this year, the facts are the facts.
He has had 16 games this year and he has only returned 13.8 and that includes a bag of six against the Kangas in Round 5.
But more importantly, Bruce has been held goalless nine times those 16 games this year.
There is some injury concern over Mitch Wallis and Aaron Naughton and if they don’t play, Bruce will have to shoulder the responsibility of being the most important forward on the ground for the Bulldogs.
It’s his first final so there will be anticipation and nerves, but can he absorb that pressure?
Western Bulldogs got him out of St Kilda to rectify their forward issues and to this point I think it’s fair to say he hasn’t repaid them.
Ruckman Tim English is another one I want to target.
He needs to be much more competitive than we witnessed against the Paddy Ryder – Rohan Marshall combination way back in Round 2.
That pair were too aggressive and dominant, particularly at the hit-outs. English and the Western Bulldogs conceded 49-12 hit-outs that game.
But the damning statistic is the Bulldogs lost the hit-outs to advantage 20- 5. Now that is the most hit-outs to advantage recorded by any side in a match this season.
English has to turn it around in the final. We’ll see how far he has come with his maturity and aggression since Round 2. He has to step up.
ST KILDA
Dan Hannebery and Bradley Hill
Dan Hannebery and Bradley Hill – they could be the heroes, or the villains when it comes to their output in a cutthroat final against the Western Bulldogs.
One thing we do know is there has been a huge investment in both these players.
Both have tremendous finals experience. Hill has played in 12 finals, winning nine and losing three. Hannebery has played in 22 finals, winning 11 and losing 11.
And we know for a fact they are renowned gut runners, which is a form of courage that is required in finals and probably underestimated.
Arriving on big money, Hill is probably not getting the amount of disposal (averaging 15) you would like for a person who can run the lines and penetrate as he can.
Hannebery has only played 11 games, six of those this year, in the two years he’s been at Moorabbin.
As the Saints prepare to play their first final in nine years, there has never been a more important time for Hannebery to show his wares as a leader and bring his experience, hardness and footy intuition into a finals campaign.
PORT ADELAIDE
Charlie Dixon
Charlie Dixon has had a terrific season, rightly culminating in his first All Australian selection. But I just can’t get out of my head the last final Port Adelaide and Dixon played.
In the 2017 elimination final – when Port narrowly lost to the West Coast Eagles in overtime with a Luke Shuey goal on the siren – Dixon was a beacon. He couldn’t have played much better, gathering 23 disposals, 16 of which were contested, and taking seven marks.
But the nightmare of his poor goal kicking would live with him today and still haunt him.
He kicked 3.6 that night in the narrow two-point loss and it wouldn’t have gone to overtime if Dixon had converted his chances – and conversion is key in finals.
Of course, there are other fundamentals you have to get right, but when you have the chance to convert, you’ve got to take those chances. In Charlie’s case, he didn’t that night.
In the years since, he would have had some sleepless nights, so he would be thinking deep down, ‘I owe this club something’.
He’s not alone at Port. Peter Ladhams and Dan Houston demonstrated poor discipline with their breach of league COVID-19 protocols last month.
It could have been a major distraction for the club and derailed Port’s season. We know it hasn’t – the Power have been able to perform and secure the minor premiership – but the pair have the chance now to make it up to the club on the finals stage after their transgressions.
BRISBANE
Harris Andrews
It’s time for Harris Andrews to show everyone he really is the best defender in the competition.
He’s an All Australian – and deservedly so.
But last year, if you look back, he had a below-par finals performance.
After injury, Andrews will be looking to justify his selection in the team this week against the Tigers. He is ahead of schedule and I expect him to play.
That’s a huge positive for the Brisbane Lions and he has the chance to turn around his finals output against Tom Lynch.
Let me tell you, there is no love lost between these two – they are both competitive beasts.
It will be about one upmanship. Key forward versus key back. Who is the best of the two? We know Lynch is lippy out on the field and he has got under the skin of a few Brisbane Lions players. Just ask Alex Witherden when he recently put his head into the turf.
But this is a great opportunity for Harris Andrews to say “Yeah, last year was disappointing, out in straight sets, here is my chance for redemption’. It’s a great opportunity to silence Lynch and, to a lesser degree Jack Riewoldt, because he will play on both at some stage I would have thought.
Mitch Robinson is another. He was involved in the Lynch spat and was spoken to by coach Chris Fagan. He needs less talk, more action.
I love the energy Robinson brings to the team. It’s outstanding.
But one message I have for Robinson in finals footy is stop going to ground approaching the contest. He must keep his feet and run through the contest with momentum and take the hit and, in doing so, he will win more respect than engaging in a Twitter slanging match.
RICHMOND
Shane Edwards, Dion Prestia, David Astbury
This trio are three players who haven’t played a lot of footy in this campaign.
They are all three outstanding premiership players, but I suppose it comes down to the faith Damien Hardwick has in you and the team has in you.
They owe the team because there have been others – who are probably less talented – and in the trio’s time of injury or absence from the team for personal reasons, reinforcements have been prepared to carry the can.
But in the pecking order, the footy world knows they are better than some of the incumbents and they leapfrog them in selection because of their talent.
Those premiership stars will be thinking, “Geez, I owe this group some payback in terms of performance” because they have not been a part of this journey in 2020 as much as they would have liked due to injury or circumstances at home.
They would be thinking internally, “I’ve come back in Round whatever … I’ve missed x amount of games, now it is finals. and I’ve squeezed someone out … I owe this group a strong performance. ”
WEST COAST EAGLES
Tim Kelly
The Eagles eventually got their man, but they moved heaven and earth to get him home.
Now it’s time for Kelly to repay the Eagles’ investment.
He becomes even more important now Elliot Yeo’s season is over and Luke Shuey and Jack Redden haven’t had the ideal preparation leading into finals.
Last year at Geelong, Kelly was a prolific clearance winner.
He needs to ramp up his competitiveness and hardness around stoppages to feed off Natainui and win first possession to kickstart the Eagles’ offence. We haven’t seen that a lot this year.
The other thing Kelly has to add to his game in finals is to get his goal kicking mojo back, which has clearly escaped him at this year.
He has only had nine shots on goal this year, kicking five. Compare that to last year when he had 42 shots at goal for a return of 24.18.
This is Kelly’s chance to shine and pay back the faith West Coast had in him.
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Originally published as Mick McGuane names the players who need to deliver in this year’s finals series