By Jon Pierik, Jake Niall and Peter Ryan
In today’s AFL Briefing, your wrap of footy news:
- Bulldogs star Adam Treloar says it would be a travesty if Marcus Bontempelli never wins a Brownlow.
- The AFL has hired former Eagles CEO Trevor Nisbett
- Double injury trouble for Bombers AFLW team.
- Tom Hawkins and Cam Guthrie to play VFL for Cats this weekend.
- Melbourne’s Alex Neal-Bullen requests trade to Adelaide.
No Brownlow for Bont would be a ‘travesty’: Treloar
Jon Pierik
Western Bulldogs star Adam Treloar says it would be a travesty if club great Marcus Bontempelli finishes his career without a Brownlow Medal.
Marcus Bontempelli was named AFLPA MVP for the third time last week.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
Bontempelli is one of the favourites to claim this year’s highest individual honour, having twice finished second and four times polled 20 or more votes.
The Bulldogs skipper and 2016 premiership player was runner-up to Brisbane’s Lachie Neale last year, but has arguably had an even better season this year, particularly as he has spent more time forward. Bontempelli has averaged more than 26 disposals per game and has 31 goals – a career-equalling return heading into Friday night’s elimination final against Hawthorn at the MCG.
Treloar, a first-time All-Australian, said Bontempelli, a six-time All-Australian and this year’s skipper, deserved to be officially recognised as the game’s best-and-fairest player.
Adam Treloar says Bontempelli is the best player he’s played with, alongside Collingwood’s Scott Pendlebury.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
“I was saying before that it would be a travesty if he retired not as a Brownlow medallist because he is probably our generation’s best player, and that’s saying something considering how many good players we have,” Treloar told this masthead. Bontempelli was named AFLPA MVP last week, the third time he has been voted the game’s best player by his peers.
“I hope so [that Bontempelli wins the Brownlow]. I feel like it is going to go down to the wire yet again, and his second half of the year was incredible. Fingers crossed. He has won literally everything else other than a Brownlow Medal.”
Treloar said Bontempelli had been the Bulldogs’ best player in their 14 wins.
“In our wins, he was probably our best player every time. So, hopefully, there are three votes in those games,” he said.
Treloar, who began his career alongside the likes of Toby Greene and Jeremy Cameron with Greater Western Sydney before shifting to Collingwood, said Bontempelli and Magpies great Scott Pendlebury were the two best players he had played with.
“That is a hard question. I have played with Scott Pendlebury and Toby Greene, Steele Sidebottom at his best. It’s hard to split him [Bontempelli] and ‘Pendles’. He and Pendles are right on par with each other, but polar opposite players,” Treloar said.
“Obviously, Pendles is a lot slower and doesn’t have the aerial game the way ‘Bont’ does, but I’ll definitely, when I retire, and years and years from now, I’ll be able to say that I was able to play with Bont and Pendles. The scary thing for the opposition is that Bont is [28], and he is not slowing down at all, and he still has many years of dominance left. It is a privilege to be able to play with him.”
Carlton captain Patrick Cripps, Collingwood star Nick Daicos and Neale are also among the Brownlow favourites this year.
Treloar, meanwhile, is confident a calf issue won’t prevent him from lining up in Friday night’s elimination final. He played with a tight calf against Greater Western Sydney in Ballarat before the pre-finals break, but scans cleared him of any major damage.
The clever midfielder will ramp up his training this week, and expects to play in the knockout clash.
“The week has been ideal – I will train fully on Wednesday and get up and play,” he said.
“No concerns. I have been around long enough to know it’s probably been a good de-load week for me. I am not concerned at all.”
Treloar played 22 of a possible 23 games this season, claiming his maiden All-Australian jacket. The only match he has missed was against Carlton in round 18, when he was a late withdrawal during the warm-ups because of calf tightness.
No one averaged more disposals than Treloar this season, the former Giant and Magpie averaging 31.7 disposals, 11.8 contested possessions and 5.8 clearances per game, but he faces another major challenge against a damaging Hawks’ midfield.
Forward Laitham Vandermeer faces a fitness test, having been substituted out of the clash against the Giants with hamstring tightness.
Small forward Rhylee West has recovered from a broken jaw, while teammate Jason Johannisen had 18 possessions in his return from a calf injury. Athletic defender Buku Khamis is also pushing for a recall.
Amber Clarke receives medical attention after the clash.Credit: AFL Photos
There has been much talk that the Bulldogs’ tall forward line of Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, Aaron Naughton and Sam Darcy will stretch the Hawks. Ugle-Hagan, Naughton and Darcy have clicked as a trio over the past month, but Hawks defender and emerging cult hero Josh Weddle said his team had the personnel to disrupt the Bulldogs.
“They have got three talls, we have four tall {defenders]. I think we’ll do just what we did in the Carlton game – we’ll just roll through them, get your job done when you are on them and attack when we have the footy,” Weddle said.
Weddle said the training session under lights at Punt Rd last Friday night had been beneficial for the Hawks, as they had not had a Friday night game either this year or in 2023. The Bulldogs have had 17 through this period.
“I was getting used to being under the lights as well with the footy. It was a little bit different reading it in the air. It will definitely be a different game for us,” Weddle said.
Rebounding half-back Changkuoth Jiath (calf) is pushing for a recall, having played in the VFL on Saturday. He had eight disposals in the Box Hill Hawks’ 28-point loss to Williamstown.
Turning to the clubs: AFL hires former Eagles boss
Jake Niall
The AFL has hired highly experienced former West Coast chief executive Trevor Nisbett to help the league deal with clubs on key areas such as competitive balance and club funding.
AFL boss Andrew Dillon told the clubs that Nisbett – one of the game’s longest-serving and most successful CEOs at club level – would begin a new role as “executive manager clubs.”
Former West Coast Eagles boss Trevor Nisbett.
“Trevor will work closely with David (Grossman, general manager clubs and scheduling), myself and our executive team in that advisory capacity on the development of the future club funding model and related competitive balance policies,” Dillon said in a memo sent to the club bosses on Monday.
Nisbett was first head of football and then CEO at the Eagles for more than 30 years, stepping down only this January and handing the reins to former West Coast premiership player and ex-Adelaide coach Don Pyke. He is arguably the most influential official in West Coast’s history, given that he was either the head of football or CEO for all four premierships won by the club so far.
Former AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan is now heading up Tabcorp.Credit: Eamon Gallagher
Nisbett’s role is part-time, but his hiring appears to be a recognition that the AFL administration has lost decades of experience in its executive ranks, having lost CEO Gillon McLachlan and senior executives Travis Auld and Kylie Rogers, with the latter pair becoming CEOs of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation and the VRC respectively. Auld and Rogers were candidates for the CEO role at the AFL, competing with Dillon for the top job.
Dillon also announced a restructuring of part of the executive to assist the 18 clubs, creating a new, yet-to-be filled, position of general manager club finance, performance and growth, and appointing Grossman to the upgraded role of GM clubs and scheduling. Both executives will report to senior executive Matthew Chun.
The AFL’s need for experience at club level was also underscored by the hiring of veteran administrator Geoff Walsh last year to help the AFL in football operations, with Walsh having served at Collingwood, North Melbourne, Carlton, Fitzroy and (briefly) St Kilda.
“It is important that we have 18 financially strong clubs who compete on and off the field,” said Dillon in the memo announcing the changes. “It is also important that we are set up for the next collective bargaining agreement and the next broadcast agreement.
“I know both of those are some years away but what we do now and how we approach it, is important in getting us into the right position and attracting the best possible players and people to our game whilst building the strongest possible industry balance sheet.”
Two bad injury blows as Dons lose Toogood and Clarke
Hannah Hammoud
Essendon’s AFLW side will be without star forward Bonnie Toogood for six to eight weeks – the bulk of the season – after the captain suffered a ligament strain in her knee during the second quarter of Saturday’s game against Fremantle.
Toogood collided with fellow teammate Amber Clarke, who the club says has entered into concussion protocols after she was stretchered from the field following the incident. Clarke has been cleared of any neck injury or facial fractures.
After claiming the club’s best-and-fairest award last year and being the Bombers’ leading goalkicker, the injury to Toogood’s medial collateral ligament is a significant loss for the Bombers. With just 10 rounds remaining following the weekend’s opener, she’s now expected to miss the majority of the home-and-away season.
Essendon’s head of medical services Megan Smith said Toogood would commence rehabilitation, and did have her sights on returning later in the year.
“The incident was a heavy clash between the two players, with both showing extreme commitment to the ball,” Smith said.
“While we are disappointed that Bonnie will be out for a significant part of the season, we are relieved that there is no damage to her ACL (anterior cruciate ligament).”
Hawkins and Guthrie to make VFL return as Cats debate ruck dilemma
Peter Ryan
Premiership pair Tom Hawkins and Cam Guthrie will play in the VFL semi-final this week as they attempt to make themselves available for selection during Geelong’s finals series.
Tom Hawkins announced in August this would be his last AFL season.Credit: Getty Images
Hawkins is returning from a foot injury suffered in round 17 against Carlton, while Guthrie has not played since round 12 as he battles an Achilles tendon injury.
Geelong’s VFL qualifying final loss to Werribee on Saturday means the Cats play Southport at home in the semi-final on Saturday, two days after the AFL team’s qualifying final on Thursday night against Port Adelaide. It will be the first time since 2011 Hawkins has played in the VFL and, possibly, his last game for the Cats.
Cats coach Chris Scott said it was important the pair played to give themselves any chance of being selected later in the finals series, but it was “far from a lay-down misere that if those guys got through we would play them in an AFL game the next week”.
Hawkins was below his best before he was injured, and the Cats have won seven of their past nine matches since he was sidelined, with Shannon Neale an impressive replacement alongside Jeremy Cameron in the forward line.
The champion forward announced in August this would be his final season in the blue and white hoops. Guthrie has played just 10 AFL games since winning the club best and fairest award in their premiership year of 2022.
“We are not in the position where we can get sidetracked by the quality of those names up on the magnet board,” Scott said. “Clearly, they have been two of our best players over a long period of time, [but] we have got to deal in the reality of the current situation.”
Scott said Lawson Humphries (calf) and Tom Stewart (hamstring) would play but was coy on Sam De Koning’s role. De Koning played in the ruck against Werribee on Saturday as he returned from the knee injury that forced him to miss the past three games. Scott said there was no guarantee, however, the premiership defender would ruck against Port Adelaide.
He said the decision on who would ruck was up for debate, with premiership ruckman Rhys Stanley, who has played the past four matches, the other candidate.
Stanley was subbed out at half-time the last time the Cats played Port, but Scott was emphatic after that match that the decision was related to the need for his team to try something radical to change the game’s direction rather than because he thought Stanley played badly.
The Power and Cats kick off the finals series on Thursday night at the Adelaide Oval. Ahead of that game, the AFL on Monday announced West Coast great Josh Kennedy would chaperone the premiership cup across the country for the next month as the official cup ambassador.
AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon also announced Steve Johnson would present this year’s Norm Smith Medal, alongside another former Cat, 1963 premiership captain Fred Wooller, who will anoint the captain of the premiership-winning team with the inaugural Ron Barassi Medal.
Josh Kennedy, who won a flag in 2018 with West Coast after famously being involved in a trade for Chris Judd, will be the premiership cup ambassador and will deliver the cup to the MCG on grand final day.
Hall of famer and four-time premiership coach David Parkin will present the Jock McHale Medal to the winning coach.
Premiership Demon Neal-Bullen wants to join the Crows
Peter Ryan
Melbourne utility Alex Neal-Bullen has nominated Adelaide as the club he would like to be traded to after choosing to return to South Australia for family reasons.
Alex Neal-Bullen has requested a trade to Adelaide.Credit: Getty Images
The 28-year-old premiership Demon played in the final two matches after The Age revealed that he had told the club he wanted to be traded. Senior coach Simon Goodwin has said the Demons would be happy to help Neal-Bullen facilitate a trade, given his circumstances and the contribution he had made to the club.
The Crows released a statement confirming Neal-Bullen wanted to join them, saying they would work to finalise a deal in this year’s trade period.
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