Early Tackle: Sam Landsberger’s likes and dislikes from round 19
It seems the WA teams aren’t the only ones that should be asking the AFL about fixture integrity, with a glaring issue present in Victoria for the non-powerhouses in football heartland.
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The finals picture took another twist on Friday night when the Crows upset the Bombers at Marvel Stadium.
So are the Bombers doomed to fade away into the late-season abyss again.
Sam Landsberger gives his likes and dislikes to start the round.
DISLIKES
AS ROBBO SAID, ONE (FLAG) AND DONE
You can put a line through Collingwood’s premiership defence. Coach Craig McRae said last week that time was running out. Well, time has not yet expired … but the Magpies have. They have now lost four games in a row under McRae for the first time. They have all been to teams in the same bracket of the ladder – Geelong, Essendon, Gold Coast and Hawthorn. On Saturday they fielded six players aged 30 or older plus a 29-year-old returning off an ACL in Dan McStay and they do not have the same hunt or desire as 12 months ago. They started the season 0-3, steadied, landed a few punches as they went almost all of April and May without a loss … but have since been picked apart. The one thing in their favour was their competitiveness. In the McRae era that is now up to 69 games they had lost just one game by more than 33 points. But on Saturday they trailed by 57 points midway through the third quarter. That is un-Collingwood-like for this team.
Jack Ginnivan says goodnight to the Magpies 👀#AFLHawksPiespic.twitter.com/h2OUFlpWNY
— AFL (@AFL) July 20, 2024
SAME OLDS
Essendon’s nickname ‘Same Olds’ from 1889 feels appropriate. The Bombers are so often kings of October (last year they signed Goldstein, Gresham, Duursma and McKay), ladder leapers in June-July (they have spent the past 13 rounds in the top eight including nine in the top four and three in second place) and nowhere to be seen come September. Friday night was unforgivable. No Izak Rankine, no Tex Walker, no Jordan Butts or Nick Murray for most of the match, no captain Jordan Dawson for the last quarter and a 15-point lead entering time-on in the last quarter. Coach Brad Scott was prickly, captain Zach Merrett was lost for words and the supporters are feeling jaded again. They’ve been let down more than a rentable jumping castle. That is four losses in six games after losing three of the final four games in 2022 and seven of the final 10 games last year. Matthew Lloyd said pre-season they would ‘burn down Windy Hill’ if they miss finals this year. That seemed rich at the time, given not many predicted the Bombers would play finals. But if they bomb out despite sitting third after round 16, and after missing last year despite sitting fifth after round 17, it would be a wasted season.
FIXTURE INTEG-CAT-RY
Exclude 2020 (Covid) and look at the Victorian teams who play in Geelong. Western Bulldogs have now played there in nine out of the past 10 seasons, North Melbourne in six out of the past six seasons, St Kilda in five out of the past six seasons and Melbourne in seven out of eight seasons before this year. Hawthorn played its first game down the highway since 2006 this year and Richmond also made a rare appearance this season. Demons president Kate Roffey explained why. “People continue to ask me why do we have to go and play in Geelong every year? And I say big clubs don’t go to play in Geelong. When you’ve got 75,000-85,000 members, you don’t have to go down and play there.” It’s impossible to argue with Roffey and the decline of the Hawks and Tigers validates her theory. But is that right? For all of the complaining from non-Victorian clubs about travel inequities there is also a fixture integrity issue in football heartland. Just as the WA clubs should receive a fairer load, perhaps the Dogs, Saints, Roos and Dees could have a year off from Geelong and be replaced by Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon from time to time.
SAM DRAPER
The ruckman is on the nose with the supporter base. Earlier this year Draper cheekily celebrated on Adelaide Oval by mimicking the laying motion he did on the ball in the final seconds when he should have been penalised for holding the ball. Adelaide showed that footage to its players this week to fire them up and it wouldn’t surprise if Western Bulldogs used Draper’s foolish podcast comments about Luke Beveridge’s relationship with players to get a rouse when they next meet. Draper had kicked two goals in his past 12 games and hardly has Matthew Lloyd’s routine. So when he marked 10m from goal you would think he would take a deep breath, go back and simply slot the goal. Instead, with a rush of blood, he tried to slam it into the third tier and instead slammed it into the post. The Bombers kicked a deadly 11.3 from set-shots, but it simply should have been 12.2, which would have been enough to bank the four points. The Bombers have issues everywhere. Since round 13 they concede 94.7pts (ranked bottom four), score from about 40 per cent of inside 50s (ranked 17th) and are 1-5 when they take fewer than 80 uncontested marks. So it wasn’t all Draper’s fault. But this bloke is about to turn 26 and might need to take the game a touch more seriously. Does it mean as much to him as it does to Merrett?
LIKES
FOUR SAMS NOT THE SAME IN 2024
Supporters spend months drooling over fringe players their club might be able to poach and when trade period starts sometimes VFL regulars are raved about as though they are future Hall of Famers. Without being disrespectful, how many of Esava Ratugolea, Dylan Stephens, Jack Billings, Shane McAdam, Jacob Koschitzke or Paddy Dow have improved their new clubs? The growth from positional moves – rather than club moves – orchestrated by clever coaches has been far more impactful for so many emerging stars this year. Think Sam Durham, Sam Flanders, Sam De Koning, Ed Richards and Rory Lobb to name a few. Durham’s opening 25 minutes on Friday night as a ferocious onballer blasting forward from stoppages was enormous. Flanders spent 76 per cent of gametime in the defensive half in the first 14 rounds and since then has played 60 per cent in the midfield and averaged more than 30 disposals (43 against GWS on Saturday). De Koning looks Geelong’s ruckman of the future while Richards has sparkled as a centre bounce midfielder and Lobb blanketed champion Cat Jeremy Cameron to frank his star status as a defender on Saturday night. Sam Frost, who turns 31 next month, has enjoyed his best season yet albeit in the same old spot as a key defender.
HAWKS FANS DELIGHT WITH FINALS IN SIGHT
For Hawthorn supporters who braved the wild weather this must have been the most fun they have had at the footy since the 2015 grand final.
Jack Ginnivan’s goal celebration included CJ mimicking a photographer papping the premiership Pie during the premiership quarter. Ginnivan played more like Gary Ablett Jr on Saturday than the unwanted goalsneak who spent eight games in the VFL for Collingwood last year. If this juggernaut that has now won nine out of its past 11 matches falls short of finals then it will serve as the strongest endorsement of a wildcard weekend that football has seen.
Make no mistake, the Hawks are a top-eight team. Hindsight might be 20-20, but how the bookies could not split this match-up was bizarre. On form it was about the third seed against the 12th seed. It is hard to think of a team the Hawks should not start favourite against next week. Lloyd Meek has owned the ruck position, Will Day’s record is 9-3 this year and Collingwood’s halftime score of 17 points was its lowest against Hawthorn since 1986.
DOG-HUNGRY DOGS HAVE BEVO SAFE
Premiership coach Luke Beveridge should be safe. Beveridge’s future was a hot topic after a Friday night loss to Essendon and talk was at fever pitch after a loss to Hawthorn left the Dogs 3-5. Since then they have beaten the Giants in a slog in Sydney, Collingwood, Fremantle by 67 points, Carlton and Geelong in 1980s-like muddy conditions down the highway. The Western Bulldogs are still not inside the top eight, but that should not matter and Jobe Watson predicted on Channel 7 it would be another Dogs-Sydney decider this season. The Cats have long been Beveridge’s kryptonite (they had won 22 out of previous 26 games) and coach Chris Scott said they entered in their best form for the year. But Saturday night’s win was a demolition job in every facet of the game, even if it took the scoreboard three quarters to reflect that dominance. They won inside 50s 18-3 in the second quarter, they won uncontested ball 215-145 in the wet and registered 30 scoring shots to just 13. It was the first time the Cats had been kept goalless at home in the first quarter under Scott and also Scott’s biggest loss at home. For a Marvel Stadium tenant, they appear to be at their ferocious best in the wet. It was foggy in the coaches’ box on Saturday night and the critics have lined up to argue Beveridge cannot see what is in front of him. But Rory lobbing at centre half-back and Ed Richards (28 goals and two goals) shifting to the midfield have been two of the coaching moves of the season. Who would have thought Lobb and Buku Khamis could hold firm against some of the most potent forwards in the AFL? Adam Treloar (31 disposals and three goals) deserves a maiden All-Australian blazar, and the return of Liam Jones will leave this team wanting for nothing. Admittedly, the only talk about Beveridge had been external, with club chiefs continually backing their man. It seems simply foolish to think that they would be better served by replacing Beveridge with a rookie coach in 2025.
BIG BUNNIES
Collingwood wouldn’t have loved hearing this comment from Jack Ginnivan post-match: “That’s why I love this club because you can be yourself and carry on”. Ginnivan probably polled his second lot of three Brownlow Medal votes (after kicking five goals on Anzac Day in 2022) and gestured to put the Magpies’ cheer squad to sleep in the fourth quarter. You have to love Jack, and you get the feeling Sam Mitchell loves coaching against some of the big boys. Mitchell is undefeated against long-time premiership contender Brisbane Lions (3-0) and has won two of his past three against the reigning premiers. The loss – in Gather Round this year – was by just five points after Mitchell threw Blake Hardwick forward in the second half when they trailed by 38 points. Connor Macdonald had a shot to win that game and so it could well be three on the trot against Collingwood, too. On Saturday the Hawks kicked 20 goals in the wet, kept 14 Pies to 10 disposals or fewer and gained an extra 1.1km by handball.
ANY GIVEN SUNDAY
Adelaide’s rooms were abuzz on Friday night with the talk of finals remaining a possibility. A quick play on ladder predictor had the Crows scraping into eighth should they win their final seven games (there are five to go). That faint hope would mean last week’s clash against St Kilda was effectively an elimination final, and so after round 17 there were 15 teams in contention. And yet the story of the year has been clubs whining about equalisation.
I asked Laura Kane whether the competitive balance review, when completed, would provide more hope for all fans. Kane said: “I think we’re almost there. We’re seeing these amazingly contested games, except for a couple of teams, and we’ll always have teams 16th, 17th and 18th on the ladder. But our desire is that everybody has hope and that they can spike back up and we can see different clubs competing in any given year. That is our hope.” That was before North Melbourne’s return to competitiveness, too. The competition has arguably never been healthier.
Originally published as Early Tackle: Sam Landsberger’s likes and dislikes from round 19
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