The Tackle: Mark Robinson’s likes and dislikes from Round 4 of the AFL season
There’s talent and then there’s substance and Bulldogs skipper Marcus Bontempelli has displayed both in the past two weeks — answering claims he was overrated after struggling in rounds 1 and 2.
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Essendon fans want their club to be taken seriously, but the Bombers continue to put sub-par efforts out on the park, while Richmond appears a shell of its former self.
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Mark Robinson laments how defence has “devoured” our game, while The Bont is back in the good books and he shines a light on a Gold Coast veteran who has been every bit as important as the young brigade in the Suns’ rise.
ALL ROBBO’S LIKES AND DISLIKES BELOW
DISLIKES
1 DON LIKE A DINNER
Reckon the Bombers are flirting with people again.
They could be a good running team, but instead play like an underwhelming, disjointed team.
Should have lost by five goals to the Blues, as the statistics indicate.
The Bombers never had control on the ground, nor in the coaches’ box. They allowed Sam Docherty to have 32 disposals as he mopped up and propelled Carlton’s attacks from the back.
Defensive stopper anyone? Maybe Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti.
Up the other end the Bombers were scattergun with their delivery. That might make them unpredictable but when it doesn’t work it looks horrible.
The targets on were Jacob Townsend, McDonald-Tipungwuti, Shaun McKernan and Jake Stringer. Walla is small and Stringer has taken two contested marks in three rounds. Last year he had 16 in 19 games. Time and again on Saturday night when the midfield got the ball inside 50 — the count was 49-34 — the Bombers were dysfunctional.
“Seriously. Why can’t you leave a key forward in the forward 30 all of the time so your mids actually have someone to kick to??????????’’ tweeted ex-Bomber Joe Misiti.
2 TIGERS LOSE THEIR GROOVE
The Tigers are in trouble, just listen to the coach.
“We have been in this situation before. We have dug ourselves out of it, but we have got some work to do. We are certainly well off the pace,’’ Damien Hardwick said.
The Tigers are frustrated and out of form. Nick Vlastuin throwing opponents to the ground and giving away free kicks and goals is selfishness we’ve not seen at Richmond for some time.
Dylan Grimes pushing Jack Lonie after Lonie kicked the ball, which gave up another, is much the same.
Their frustration comes from being under siege.
3 STACKS OF QUESTIONS
Hope the Tigers have depth — they’ll need it.
Former coach Ross Lyon loved to say players picked themselves. Richmond can’t go with Sydney Stack or (probably) Josh Caddy for this week’s clash against West Coast.
Stack has talent, but seems to have lost his awareness.
He has given away eight free kicks this season, the most by any Richmond player, and is making too many mistakes.
A one-handed effort on the wing in the final quarter against St Kilda wasn’t good enough.
Caddy is another worry. 3AW commentator Matthew Lloyd said on Saturday opposition clubs would be “licking their lips’’ when Caddy was on the wing, given his lack of pace.
4 BORING, BORING, BORING
The first half between Geelong and Melbourne showed why football is in danger of strangling itself.
As the game was played between the arcs, four goals from 310 possessions was mind numbing.
There was no daring as seemingly both teams were too concerned about being scored against on turnover.
The Geelong plan to hold possession and kick short might’ve won the game, but near the end the lack of scores after such dominance almost killed the Cats.
Cats coach Chris Scott is not paid to worry about the look of the game, just to win.
Still, 47-44 is not a great advertisement for the code.
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5 ONLY SLIGHTLY LESS BORING
It wasn’t much better at Marvel. The Hawks won because they got more out of their mid-sized players and the fact they defensively strangled North Melbourne for three a half quarters.
It’s becoming a common theme in football and one that AFL has to be concerned about.
These coaches are to so adept at managing their teams and the players so wired to defend at all costs, the sport is losing its lustre.
North kicked four goals in three quarters, and were scoreless in the third quarter, and then kicked four goals in the final quarter when they dominated clearance and opened their forward line.
Where was that in the first three quarters? It was an odd game in an odd season.
6 WHAT WOULD JACK DYER SAY?
He would say bad kicking is bad football, and Collingwood on Friday night kicked itself out of the four points.
It lost Jeremy Howe, which is just terrible for him, but also lost the game because of its wastefulness against the Giants’ doggedness.
Collingwood kicked 3.6 and had two complete misses from set shots. In the fourth quarter, with the Giants two regulars down in their back half — Phil Davis and Zac Williams — the Pies kicked 1.3 and had one miss from a set shot. They came from Scott Pendlebury (4th minute), Chris Mayne (8th), Callum Brown (14th) and Will Hoskin-Elliott (15th).
The Pies arrived with confidence but departed without Howe or the four points.
7 RUB OF THE GREENE
If you didn’t know better you’d think Toby Greene was being victimised by the umpires.
That would never happen, but as much as defenders used to make forwards earn their kicks, it seems Greene has to earn his from the umpires.
Case in point was in the first quarter. Greene was tackled high and no free paid.
In the fourth quarter, a similar tackle on Brown produced a free kick for the Pie.
This season Greene’s free kick ratio is zero for and six against. The feisty forward can be reckless, but 0-6 is a stretch.
8 GROUNDED EAGLES
Problems galore at the Eagles. Will Schofield’s an idiot for his headbutt, the intent being much worse than the contact, mind you.
“Will Schofield played his last game for the club … he was undisciplined,’’ said club great Glen Jakovich on 6PR radio.
There’s other issues, such as Jack Darling not getting a kick. The Eagles have fallen apart. They are being beaten in the middle, lack winners forward and their defence is under siege. It would take a miracle to win it from here.
9 ACTING A BIG FLOP
St Kilda’s Jack Lonie put mayo on a hold from Richmond’s Trent Cotchin, and Giant Jeremy Finlayson collapsed to the ground after being pushed against Collingwood.
It was a silly act that gave Finlayson a free kick and goal at a time Collingwood was dominant. Lonie’s flailing arms made him like Sgt Elias in that famous scene in Platoon.
Not required or welcomed.
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LIKES
1 PATTY’S LUCKY BREAK
Not a lot to like about yesterday’s match at the MCG, other than Cam Guthrie’s dominant performance in the midfield, but how lucky for all of us Patrick Dangerfield didn’t break his jaw in a collision with Melbourne’s Michael Hibberd.
That’s because Dangerfield is one of the few players at the Cats who tries to take the game on.
At one stage in the first half yesterday, Dangerfield marked the ball, played on, busted a through a tackle and delivered inside 50m.
It was the highlight of a dull first half.
Now to next week when the Cats play Gold Coast, which looks like a contest between the old stagers with a careful game plan versus the young tyros who are loving how they play.
2 SAM DOCHERTY
The last bloke you want running loose at the back in any game against Carlton is Docherty.
He’s smart, quick and sure-footed and made a mess of Essendon on Saturday night.
Had 32 disposals in a shortened game. Not even the best midfielders in the competition are getting those sort of numbers.
Kyle Langford kept Patrick Cripps to two clearances, yet the Blues still won that overall count 38-23, led by ruckman Marc Pittonet with eight and Will Setterfield with six.
Remember, Docherty missed two years of footy with two knee injuries and in just his fourth game back he looked like the All-Australian halfback.
3 IN TO BAT FOR NAT
Mick Malthouse nailed two-time Brownlow medallist Nathan Fyfe at the weekend.
“The word champion is not him. No. He’s certainly not in my top quality players that are playing league football,” Malthouse said on ABC radio.
His argument was Fyfe was not great defensively, which is probably true.
But Malthouse’s opinion emphasises how much defence has devoured our game. So, we now nail midfielders for not defending like Alex Rance, regardless of how inspiring and explosive they are at winning the ball.
Defensive demands and mindsets are killing our game and, it would seem, the reputations of our game’s greatest offensive players.
4 JARROD’S TIME IN THE SUN
The old buggers are missing the kudos as the young tearaways at the Gold Coast hijack the headlines.
And, yes, the hype around Matt Rowell, Noah Anderson, Ben King, Jack Bowes, Jack Lukosius, Will Powell and Connor Budarick deserves a Foxtel subscription so you can watch these young men play.
But one old bloke deserves headlines. Ruckman Jarrod Witts was the highest-ranked player on the ground on Saturday night with 147 points. He had 15 hit-outs to advantage and six score involvements. If not for Rowell, he could be leading the B&F.
5 HAIL KING CHARLES
Back-to-back likes for Charlie Dixon.
This week for planting the flag for big-marking key forwards in the game.
The sport is changing this year. Team setups and defence make for a nightmare for key forwards, but in the past two weeks Dixon has revitalised those who love full-forwards clunking the ball and kicking goals.
“The game is moving away from a key forward, especially if he doesn’t cover the ground all that well,’’ Hawks great Dermott Brereton opined.
Dixon is fit, aggressive and a beacon for his midfield.
Unquestionably, he and teammate Todd Marshall are flourishing because of the exciting way Port Adelaide is moving the ball. It gives them time and space to perform against teams that haven’t flooded back to defence. Hope he wins the Coleman Medal.
6 IT’S THE CHAD
In a match where players struggled to find room to explore and excite, Chad Wingard’s 18 disposals and three goals was match-winning — just.
And, frankly, there wasn’t much else to talk about until North Melbourne motored in the final 10 minutes.
Don’t know exactly what to think of the performance from both teams. The Hawks controlled field position, but didn’t kick enough goals, before the Kangas gathered up the momentum and kicked four consecutive goals in the final quarter.
Of the players, Todd Goldstein had nine clearances which was enormous, and James Sicily was the intercept master with a game-high 11.
On to next week.
7 THE BOLD BONT
There’s talent and there’s substance and Bulldogs skipper Marcus Bontempelli has displayed both in the past two weeks.
Claims he was overrated, after rounds 1 and 2 need to be addressed.
Under enormous pressure as captain, Bontempelli stood his ground against the bullyboy GWS Giants in Round 3 then was imposing against Sydney on Thursday night.
We saw plenty of substance from ruckman Tim English, too. His one-wood is not his ruckwork at this stage, it’s getting around the ground and winning the ball.
It was a career-high 22 disposals from English.
8 HUGH BEAUTY
Lions midfielder/forward Hugh McCluggage is an inch off being one of the competition’s elite players. Yes, he’s that good.
What stands out is his want to kick the ball, to take the responsibility to be the playmaker.
He had 18 kicks, six handballs. He also had seven inside-50s and 12 score involvements. That’s a huge workload for the 22-year-old.
9 DEFENCE A LONG SUIT
Dan Butler forward and Ben Long down back have been winners for the Saints.
Butler is the recruit of the season for what they gave up for him — pick 56 — and Long is cementing himself at halfback.
He played mostly on Jason Castagna and continually broke lines, but his defensive work would also please coach Brett Ratten.
You can gallop off all day long, but it means little if you can’t actually defend.
Originally published as The Tackle: Mark Robinson’s likes and dislikes from Round 4 of the AFL season