Richmond, Geelong and Melbourne played a practice game on the same team against Carlton in the Queensland hub
Things have been pretty strange in 2020 but you’d struggle to find something as bizarre as this hub practice game, where foes became teammates — with players from multiple clubs! And a Tiger starred.
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The Allies haven‘t been seen on the AFL landscape since 1998.
But they made a return in Queensland on Friday when the Melbourne Allies played Carlton in a practice match.
The Allies were made up of players from three clubs - Essendon, Richmond and Melbourne - and they took on the Blues in the 16-on-16 hitout at the South Pines Sports complex .
Given the Demons had the most players - nine in total - they were in charge of the Allies with Melbourne‘s new director of coaching Alan Richardson in the hot seat.
The game was split into three 20-minute quarters with Melbourne forward Tom McDonald kicking four goals while Richmond‘s Sydney Stack saw plenty of the ball.
More of these bizarre games are set to be played in the hubs as clubs try to keep players not in the senior team up to match standard.
The Allies contested State of Origin football between 1995 and 1998 and the team was made up of players from the Northern Territory, Queensland, Tasmania, NSW and the ACT.
The concept did make a comeback in the Under 18 championships where an Allies team has competed in Division 1 since 2016.
LETHAL GOING AGAINST THE CROWD
Talk about going from the penthouse to the doghouse. Or was it a significant overcorrection?
AFL great Leigh Matthews raised eyebrows when he gave Western Bulldogs midfielder Jack Macrae best-on-ground in Round 7 against Essendon ahead of ruckman Tim English.
Everyone else on the planet gave English the votes, including the two coaches, but as we know Lethal doesn‘t rate ruckmen as highly as others do.
Fast forward a week and Lethal was again in the chair for 3AW for the Dogs clash with the Gold Coast Suns.
And again his man Macrae was off the leash. The Dogs star had a team-high in ranking points (169), disposals (29) and contested possessions.
So did Lethal give him BOG again? Nope.
In fact he couldn‘t even find a spot for him in the top five players with Gold Coast fullback Sam Collins getting the five votes from Hayden Crozier, Bailey Smith, Jarrod Witts and Alex Sexton.
Dogs coach Luke Beveridge and his Suns counterpart Stuart Dew saw it differently, awarding Macrae best-on-ground honours with the maximum 10 votes in the AFL Coaches Association award.
They then had Witts and Dogs defender Alex Keath tied on four votes with Smith, Crozier and Touk Miller on three. Lethal‘s top pick Collins only got two votes from the coaches with Caleb Daniel scoring one.
For the record the Herald Sun‘s man on the ground, Adam Curley, went with Crozier as BOG from Daniel and Miller but Macrae was definitely his next pick.
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Originally published as Richmond, Geelong and Melbourne played a practice game on the same team against Carlton in the Queensland hub