The Tackle: Mark Robinson’s likes and dislikes from round 2, 2023
The Crows have shown glimpses of good footy so far but if they can’t improve their consistency, could Matthew Nicks find his job at risk? Mark Robinson names all his round 2 likes and dislikes.
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The Saints and Kangaroos are 2-0, the reigning premier is 0-2 and there are serious questions for the winless Dogs and Dockers.
Round 2 was a nightmare for tipsters but there were no shortage of talking points.
Chief footy writer Mark Robinson names hits and misses from the weekend – and scroll down for this week’s guest Tackler.
DISLIKES
1. Disjointed Dogs
It’s rarely said of the Bulldogs, but they embarrassed themselves on Saturday night. They kicked 41 points to follow their 65 points in round 1, and their scoring is one part of the problem. The other is a lack of talent and player impact. What’s happened to Jack Macrae? He had 25 disposals (seven kicks and 19 handballs) and two clearances. He plays like he’s loping, and although he’s never been agile, he’s always had an insatiable hunger to impact. It’s not happening. Macrae is not alone, for the mids are struggling to impact. In the forward 50, Jamarra Ugle-Hagan is pedestrian, Aaron Naughton kicked two goals and young Sam Darcy can’t find it, which means the forward group is non-threatening. Meanwhile, Zaine Cordy, who was sacked by the Dogs, kicked two third-quarter goals and took six marks for the Saints. Forget finals for a moment, the Dogs are scrambling to find an identity ahead of round 3. They’ve become Luke Beveridge and the Easybeats, losing by 50 points to the Demons, and 51 points to a team which outplayed them with a mountain of injuries. These Dogs aren’t playing finals until they fix their problems, which is both offence and defence. They can’t stop the opposition scoring and can’t kick goals themselves. And where’s their energy? Their season is in danger of collapsing after just eight quarters of footy.
2. Trouble in South Australia
The Crows can hardly pat themselves on the back for rallying for a quarter-and-a-half to at least make it a contest at Adelaide Oval. They still lost by five goals after trailing by 45 points at halftime. They are a stop-start team, which makes them a frustrating team. It happened the week before against the Giants in the first half, when they had control and failed to capitalise before falling away in the second half. On Saturday, they were absent in the first half and competitive for the next quarter-and-a-half, before falling away again. Coach Matthew Nicks needs to find consistency because if he doesn’t, Crows fans will start debating whether Nicks needs to find a new job. Already, there’s a sense of impatience in Adelaide and talkback radio this week surely won’t be kind. The Crows have the Showdown this weekend, and if they go 0-3 they will be a hotbed of discussion.
3. And in Western Australia
Forget the controversy at the end, the Dockers got beaten by North Melbourne at home. That’s a red flag which comes after last week’s red flag when they lost to St Kilda on the road. If they lose to West Coast in the derby on Sunday, forget the red flags, there will be blood in the quaint streets of Fremantle. The Dockers are wobbling. Million-dollar recruit Luke Jackson is yet to dominate and ruckman Sean Darcy on Saturday night had 41 SuperCoach points, his lowest ranking game since Round 7, 2020. Adding to the problem, North won clearance by 15 and contested ball by two, which is a small number but a big result on the road. The Dockers are the early-season disappointment. Scoring is an issue – they’ve kicked 52 and 72 points in the first two rounds – and their efficiency is a glaring problem. They currently have the lowest score-per-inside-50 rate in the competition, and — not for the first time it can be said – Matt Taberner is not the answer. What are they going to do? Until that is fixed, the Dockers can’t think about playing in September.
4. Uncompetitive Hawks
Hawthorn would be on the nose with the AFL. As much as the Hawks needed – and wanted – to strip their list to begin their rebuild, the AFL has made it known they don’t want such a drastic list overhaul at clubs. It creates uneven contests, which doesn’t help TV ratings, and can impact crowd attendance. On Sunday, the Hawks kicked a paltry 4.13 and lost to Sydney by 81 points. Last week it was 9.11 and the margin was 59 points. This season shapes to be a confronting one for the Hawks. Add the ongoing racism investigation, which some at the AFL believe could’ve been better handled, and it’s easy to see why the Hawks are a problem child at present for the league. Sunday’s match was over 10 minutes into the contest and by the end the final siren couldn’t come quick enough. They conceded 10 goals from the back half after last week conceding nine goals. They have an aggressive offensive nature but when they turn the ball over, they struggle to defend it. They won clearance by seven, which is a plus, but too often it goes to waste. Their pressure is still not up to scratch. It was 149 last week and 171 on Sunday, which is still way below the competition average of 180.
5. Suns run out of steam
Gold Coast should’ve led at three-quarter time after kicking 4.6 and dominating field play in the third quarter. The final quarter was miserable. Beaten up in the middle, their pressure dropped from 175 to a lowly 149 and they were outscored 5.6 to 1.2. It’s looming as another season of unfulfilled possibilities. Where is this franchise at? Clubs giggled at them during trade period last year when they offered up Jack Bowes and pick 7 in a bid to dump salary. Don’t get me wrong, plenty of clubs chased that deal, which was won by Geelong. But clubs were amazed how a team which hasn’t played finals had a salary cap problem. And now they start the new season with a bad loss to Sydney and a lacklustre last quarter against the Bombers. Wise observers say they have the talent, but do they? How deep does it run outside of Touk Miller, Matt Rowell, Noah Anderson and Ben King? We’re not trying to bash the Suns, but they are behind the eight ball already. They play Geelong in round 3 and it’s a must win. If not, the 2023 boat has already set sail.
6. The Bounce
Stats are not on hand, but does anyone else feel that the consistency of the centre bounce has diminished? Recalls are more common than what they should be, which wastes time, and when games are being decided by the smallest margin and games can be won or lost in seconds that wasted time is unnecessary. It’s time to start the game and every quarter with a bounce down and the ball thrown up by umpires after that. The seconds used to recall the ball all add up to opportunity lost.
7. Three-week Broadside
Dangerous dump tackles are still in the repertoire, and although Nathan Broad apologised to everyone, the fact is Broad’s throwdown of Patrick Parnell was a crude opportunity to hurt. If Adelaide’s McAdam received three weeks for a late bump on Jacob Wehr, then Broad has to sit for the same amount of time, for Parnell was left in worse shape than Wehr. It was a brutal and illegal dump tackle, which adds weight to the argument pushed by Collingwood great Scott Pendlebury last weekend that a sin bin be implemented.
LIKES
1. Parish and McGrath
Darcy Parish is the Essendon midfielder who is a free agent at the end of the season and already there is media speculation about what he’s worth, and what he should get paid. The Bombers should desperately work to keep him. He’s a $750,000 midfielder when he has games like he did on Sunday. He had 30 disposals, 11 clearances and 10 score involvements, that last category the one he needed to improve. He can find the ball, but he hasn’t always been an ultra-damaging player, although when he has the ball the opposition doesn’t, which is a plus. He needs to be re-signed as a priority. McGrath supplied the run and rebound in a vastly improved defensive group. When players were tiring in the final quarter, McGrath kept running and he went at 77 per cent efficiency and had high metres gained (492) behind Setterfield (631m), Parish (569m) and Merrett (551m).
2. What to do with Joel Amartey?
Logan McDonald (five goals) and Amartey (four) filled the void in Lance Franklin’s absence. It wasn’t the goals that stood out, it was the marking. They combined for nine marks inside 50m and they took 14 in total. There will come a day when coach John Longmire opts for a combo of McDonald and Amartey over Franklin, but we’re not there yet. So, Franklin comes back in, but for who? Maybe it’s for ruckman Hayden McLean, which would allow Peter Ladham and Amartey to split the ruck role. Longmire might play four big blokes. We’ll have to wait and see. Amartey was a pleasing surprise. He’s as languid as Michael O’Loughlin (O’Loughlin was 189cm and 90kg, while Amartey is 195cm and 100kg) without having O’Loughlin’s class. It’s his sixth season now, but he’s never really had the opportunities because of Franklin and Sam Reid, the obvious choices as key forwards. Maybe his time has arrived.
3. Mason Wood
He once, in a moment of merriment at Flemington many years back, boasted he’d soon get a double-page feature written about him in the Herald Sun because his football was tracking toward stardom. He was never short of confidence, Mason. That took a hit when North Melbourne jettisoned him from the list and the Saints, under Brett Ratten, picked him as a rookie ahead of the 2021 draft. He played nine games in 2021 and 19 in 2022, establishing himself as a high forward/wing at his new club. Now 29 — where has it gone so quickly? — and that one-time bursting self-confidence is being matched by performance. In Round 1, he had 20 and kicked two and on Saturday night he had 24, kicked a goal and logged eight score involvements. He’s become the player he always wanted to be, creative and with a big-moment feel about him, and he’s deserved it because of the work he’s put in to save his career.
4. Noah Balta
He floats between being horribly spasmodic and being a generational talent, and against the Crows it was the latter. He took nine intercept marks, which is a rare feat for a defender. The AFL record is 10, which is held by Tom Stewart, Jade Rawlings, Daniel Talia, Liam Jones, Steven May and Aliir Aliir. Balta played on Tex Walker and conceded two goals. Eleven of his 13 disposals were intercepts and he was third across the match for metres gained (479). They are the numbers, but it’s attitude which stands out when he plays well. He attacks the contests and is always on the bounce, always wanting to be involved.
5. Griffin Logue
The defender had two goals kicked on him by Oscar Allen last week and this week kept Luke Jackson and Matt Taberner goalless. It’s pretty solid for an undersized key defender. He gave Taberner 4cm, Jackson 5cm and Allen 3cm. Also a standout is Logue’s ability to kick the ball. He hasn’t missed a target in both games, and with Aidan Corr, they were staunch down the back. With Luke McDonald, Jack Ziebell, the calmness of Harry Sheezel, Ben McKay to return and the kids in Miller Bergman and Josh Goater, the Kangaroos are putting together a defensive group. It was a meritorious win, a gutsy win, because every time Fremantle threatened, the Kangaroos were able to score in return. Not so long ago, the Kangas would’ve folded under that opposition momentum. Now they are proving to be an honest team.
6. Steele Sidebottom
You have to be wary of questioning the champs. In round 1 against Geelong, Sidebottom fumbled and bumbled and it was a concerning start to the season for him. At 32, and in his 15th season, there was a slight wonder if the reflexes and thought processes were starting to abandon him. Not so, it was just a bad game. On Saturday, Sidebottom was once again his customary assertive and creative self on a wing, collecting 24 touches and eight score involvements. He’s been a hell of a player and has seen the Pies rise three times across his career. The first time won a flag (2010) under Mick Malthouse, the second time was a Grand Final (2018) under Nathan Buckley and now the third under coach Craig McRae.
7. Handing the baton
Two games into the 2023 season and Nick Daicos and Luke Davie-Uniacke are probably each on six votes in the Brownlow Medal. Daicos had 32 and kicked two goals in a slightly different role on Saturday. He played roughly two-and-half quarters as a defender and the rest of time on the wing and in the middle. He attended nine centre bounces, which was the most in his young career. LDU was remarkable. He had 30, 11 clearances and six score involvements. The footy world should never get tired of reading about and watching these two players, for they have arrived as superstars of the competition.
8. That’s the real Tim Kelly
The butt of condemnation because, it is said, the Eagles gave up too much when they traded for him from Geelong, Kelly was majestic in the middle for the Eagles against the Giants. He had seven disposals and a goal in the first 10 minutes and finished the game with 32 and nine score involvements. West Coast’s smalls had their best game collectively for some time. Jermaine Jones, on a back flank, might’ve broken his handball receives record – he had a game-high 14 in a rampant running effort – Jayden kicked two goals and Sam Petrevski-Seton played one of his best games of his career, according to Dermott Brereton. It was the third time the Eagles had kicked 100-plus points in their past 35 games. It was a promising outing at home, won on the back of a stoic defence, a lot more run and overlap, and an eight-goal second quarter. The Derby is up for grabs.
GUEST TACKLER: PETER MOODY
LIKE: MY LIONS
“I like the fact the Lions came back from the poleaxing against Port Adelaide the week before. If you put my head in a vice, I’d probably say I was a Lions supporter, being a Queensland boy. I have one daughter who plays for Carlton, so she was very happy, and I have another daughter playing for the Bulldogs, and she sat here on the couch on Saturday night, kicking herself about the Bulldogs getting back to within one goal of S Kilda in the second quarter. I fell asleep and woke up Sunday morning and saw that St Kilda powered over them, and she wasn’t very happy. It wouldn’t help the Dogs, and this is me thinking this, but why the hell in a sport that involves so much money and professionalism doesn’t the team have its home ground operational? It’s beyond me. So it can’t be helping. I know it has to be done at some stage, but it’s just a pain in the arse when it happens. Who would’ve said a month ago St Kilda and North Melbourne would be undefeated after two rounds and the Bulldogs would be 0-2? I know that wasn’t expected from anyone.”
DISLIKES: DON’T BLAME THE UMPIRE
“Football is a lot like racing in a way, where you can be beaten by a bob of the head in a photo finish, or get a little brush from a horse at the 1200, and you wonder if that what’s cost me victory. I watched the end of the North Melbourne v Fremantle game 20 times and I still don’t know if the siren went first or not. But is that what’s cost Freo victory? Should the game have got to that point? It’s like horse racing. Should the jockey have made a decisive move at the 1000 or 1200, so he wouldn’t have been in a position where it came down to a head bob on the line? Instead of blaming the umpire when the siren blew, maybe the players could blame themselves for missing a kick, a goal or a mark in the second quarter.’’
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