The Tackle: Mark Robinson’s likes and dislikes after round 9
The loudest booing of the round came when the umpire didn’t pay a free kick to a Magpie. But as Mark Robinson explains, it was correct umpiring. See his likes and dislikes.
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The Tigers might be back in the hunt, St Kilda’s fairytale is fraying at the edges and Carlton was better but still lost.
Meanwhile, there was more umpiring controversy, a downright bizarre fixturing decision, and we might be witnessing the end of the incredible Buddy era.
Chief football writer Mark Robinson names his likes and dislikes from the weekend.
DISLIKES
1. The fall of the champ
At 35, it’s not a form slump, it’s the decline. And Lance Franklin, the most dynamic player this century, has hit the wall. He’s kicked seven goals from six games this season, and you have to go back to his first season, 2005, to find a season of such slim pickings for him. On Saturday, Franklin was outpointed by Dockers skipper Alex Pearce. He was beaten in the air and on the ground, and the frustration of not being the player he was has seemingly gripped him. “You turn into a grumpy old man,’’ Dermott Brereton said, describing the end days for a footballer, let alone a champion footballer. Brereton commentated Saturday’s match for Fox Footy and felt terribly for Franklin. “It’s a little sad,’’ Brereton said on Sunday. “You’ve got your weapons as a footballer. Your brain is fantastic, you know how to play. But his weapons have always been his incredible agility, his incredible pace for someone with incredible size. He’s never had overhead marking as a strength, so when you lose your weapons, what is your fallback position? Your fallback position is, he likes to play from behind, he likes to belly the opposition under the footy and then he will slap hand, second grab, third grab and mark the ball high off the ground. But not jumping. But when you have a bloke who is actually taller than you, is quicker than you and is more mobile than you, you have no weapons against him. Buddy had no weapons he could beat Pearce with. Every physical weapon Buddy has ever possessed, and they were phenomenal, were null and void against a 200cm, fast opponent.’’ The Swans are slumping, and Franklin is only a part of the problem, but you just hate it when the greats become mortals in football terms.
2. Who’s on him?
Ross Lyon has many Ross-isms, but he would’ve used an old-fashioned coaching question in the box on Sunday. Who’s on him? Because the Crows beat his Saints in every facet of the game. They beat them around the contest and smashed them on the spread, finishing the game with +94 uncontested possessions. Maybe it wasn’t who’s on him, rather where are they all? The Crows looked like they had 20 players on the ground, such was the outnumber at the source and the amount of times Adelaide players won easy ball. Team defence is king at St Kilda and because that broke down, the Saints played like paupers. It helped that the Crows finished the work – they kicked 19.7 overall and 14.1 off turnover – but accuracy was only part of the reason why they won the game. It was the highest score kicked against Lyon’s defensive mechanism this season. So, was it a hiccup or were the Saints exposed? You can’t answer that question after one game. They play the Giants, Hawthorn and Sydney in the next three weeks and we’ll know more by then. Max King will be back soon enough, which will clearly help, because on Sunday, they didn’t look threatening other than for a spell in the second quarter.
3. Don’t duck your head
Booing has been off the charts this round, but what do you expect when every man his dog tells crowds not to boo. The loudest booing of the round came at the MCG on Sunday, not because the umpire paid a free kick but because he didn’t. As Giants first gamer Cameron Fleeton attempted to tackle on Collingwood’s Bobby Hill, Hill buckled his knees and went low, and his actions meant Fleeton’s arm wrapped itself around Hill’s neck. It was similar to the situations Hill’s teammate Jack Ginnivan found himself in last year, and they caused great consternation. It was correct umpiring. The league is trying to stop players ducking their heads to avoid head contact and possible trauma. It’s about changing behaviors. It’s about saving players from themselves. You might argue it’s been a free kick for 150 years, but the game’s changed and will continue to change in a bid to lower concussion numbers. All we need is consistency.
4. Fine the actors
We can’t encourage what Mark Blicavs tried to do to win a free kick on Friday night. Early in the final quarter, Blicavs was tackled by Richmond’s Kamdyn McIntosh. It was “slingy” but not dangerous, but Blicavs appeared to try to win a free kick by banging his own head into the MCG turf. The action stood out because there was a slight delay from when his body stopped moving and the head made contact with the turf. If it was an attempt to win a free kick, and players will do anything to win a free kick, then we can’t have it in the game. Some players might call it a smart play at the moment, but with a sudden surge in capturing dangerous tackles, the last thing we need is players exaggerating the tackle. The same sentiment can be said of Clayton Oliver’s flop when Hawthorn’s Jai Newcombe landed a soft-ish blow to Oliver’s midriff. A smiling Oliver won the free kick for Melbourne. That also stood out because Oliver can stand up in a contest when three opposition players are trying to tackle him, yet he collapsed in an instance when Newcombe sapped him. Again, a smart ploy? Maybe, but it’s hardly what we want in the game.
5. The Blues were better … but
Coach Michael Voss was spot on, his team was competitive and gave themselves a chance at victory. They defended largely one v one, and the effort and application would have pleased him. The Blues wore down the Bulldogs to the point where offence opened up off the back of their defence. The last 12 minutes will need reviewing, but overall there were more positives than negatives. One of Carlton’s problems is their skills, in particular their kicking. Blake Acres wins plenty of the ball on the wing, but his past two weeks has seen his right leg crumble. He’s had 46 disposals and gone at 41 per cent by foot, when the league average is 66. Against the Dogs, Jacob Weitering went at 36 per cent, Patrick Cripps at 25 per cent, Adam Cerra at 43 per cent, Jack Silvagni at 33 per cent and Harry McKay kept missing goals. It was a rugged game, and space at times was not available, but good teams deal with that pressure and circumstance. The Blues kill themselves when they have the ball. Like, the first goal came via Jason Johannisen when Acres missed a kick coming out of the backline. Acres kicked it over the head of his teammate and Johannisen marked and goaled.
6. The Friday night fixture
We had Geelong v Richmond at 7.20pm and West Coast v Gold coast starting at 8.40pm. For footy lovers it’s unacceptable because, for example, we missed a half of Matt Rowell playing his best footy. It’s a good cause, because it’s Mother’s Day and mums get some clear air to enjoy it with their families. But it’s still not ideal because Sunday’s games started at 1.10pm and 4.40pm, which are the usual starting times anyway. All the league did was take away the 3.20pm game. A Thursday fixture on Mother’s Day round is the go, because we have enough games clashing on Saturdays to then add a Friday night crossover.
7. What to do with Chad?
A long, long, long time ago, a discussion was had with Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley about Chad Wingard. If the memory is right, Hinkley argued that Wingard should be a top five player in the Top 50 of that year, so highly did he rate his creative forward. An All-Australian player in his second year of football (2013), Hinkley wasn’t alone in believing Wingard’s career would be one to savour. It hasn’t turned out like that. Wingard was traded to Hawthorn ahead of the 2019 season. In his 64 games for the Hawks, he’s kicked 61 goals, although there has been time in the midfield. This year, he’s been a pure forward and has kicked two goals in seven games. It’s not easy in a team that’s losing every week, but if every player looked for an excuse, they’ll find one. When does selection integrity come into play for coach Sam Mitchell? It was reported the Hawks were open to Wingard leaving when the Giants were interested two years ago, but Wingard didn’t want to leave. At this rate, he’s going to finish his career in the VFL. Can he blossom somewhere else? Maybe, but who’s going to take a punt on a bloke turning 30 in July who has lost the magic we once were blinded by.
LIKES
1. Brodie Smith the evergreen
In Adelaide’s battling years – which from the 2017 grand final has been 12 wins, 10 wins, three wins, seven wins and eight wins across the five years – Brodie Smith missed most of 2018, and missed only three other games. He was a mainstay as the Crows rebuilt their list and in all likelihood rejected contract offers to join clubs competing for finals. This year, as the Crows continue to announce the legitimacy, 31-year-old Smith has flown under the radar. He shouldn’t be so invisible because he’s in the conversation for an All-Australian half-back position as we near the halfway mark of the season. He’s fighting to win one of three spots in the defensive six, and already two of those spots have been secured – at the moment – by Nick Daicos and Mason Redman. Smith is a 400 possession-a-season defender who won’t get as much ball as Daicos and Redman, but he clearly is an influence in the Crows resurgence. In the first quarter against the Saints on Sunday, when the game was being swayed, Smith had nine disposals, went at 100 per cent by foot, kicked a goal, and gained 220m, which is elite metres for a quarter.
2. De Goey De Great
It’s beyond argument that Jordan De Goey is one of the most damaging players in the game. Damaging is not high possessions, damaging is what you do with them. Of AFL midfielders, Melbourne’s Christian Petracca leads the league in score involvements with 8.7. Second is Clayton Oliver with 8.3. De Goey is third with 8.1. Stephen Coniglio is next with 8.0 and fifth is Rory Laird with 7.6. What’s impressive about De Goey is his average of 8.1 comes from far fewer disposals than Petracca and Oliver collect. The most frightening aspect of those stats is the midfield combo of Petracca and Oliver is at the one club. Which one of them do you tag? Anyway, St Kilda people will be cursing. Towards the end of last season, they offered De Goey a deal in the vicinity of $900,000 a year before De Goey committed to Collingwood. How much better would the Saints be with the Magpies playmaker? Any team would be better with De Goey in it, and Collingwood certainly is. He’d be a great book to read at the end of his career. The trials and tribulations, from New York to Bali to probable All-Australian, would scamper off the shelves.
3. Arty Jones
Good bloodlines? Well, he’s Krakouer related and calls Jimmy and Phil “Pops’’, so the bloodlines run deep. So does the talent. He’s 19 and played seven games and his trajectory already is significant. And he is exactly what the Bulldogs have been searching for: a smart, high speed and high-pressure small forward. Ahead of the 2019 national draft, The Bulldogs had Kozzie Pickett on the drafting board, but the Demons took him three picks before the Dogs had their first pick. The Dogs settled on Cody Weightman, another small forward, but he was more a Jamie Elliott-type, a marking threat. Jones is a swooper. His final 12 minutes against the Blues on Saturday night won the game. With momentum against them, the Dogs kicked 4.2 and Jones was involved in four of those scores, which included a goal, a gather then curler on his right foot from the right-hand pocket. It was 12 minutes of Arty Jones mayhem. He had five touches and 41 SuperCoach points. In comparison, Carlton’s highest ranked player in that period was Adam Saad with 11. Soon enough, TV commentators will call him the X-factor and a cult figure, as happens with most Indigenous players with blinding speed, but he’s much more than a stereotype. He’s a 71kg kid in his seventh game who ripped the momentum from the opposition and turned the result. That’s rare. Not even Kozzie, Charlie Cameron or Tom Papley were able to do that so early in their careers.
4. Can Ryan Lester hold his spot?
About four years ago I wrote a piece wondering where Ryan Lester’s career was headed. He was an OK player with a big heart in a struggling Lions team. He’s kept at it without much reward, especially at selection. Last year he played just three games. Last week was the first game of the year. But on Saturday night, he played one of the best games of his career. He’s the ultimate club man, Lester having played 164 games in 13 seasons. “Five out of the past six years I’ve been out of contract,’’ he said last week. “I think I’ve been dropped as many times as any AFL player currently on the list, so if I went back to the VFL and spat the dummy, I’d probably have been out of the club three or four years ago.’’ He won’t worry about being dropped this week because he was among Brisbane’s best players against the Bombers. With Darcy Gardiner and Daniel Rich out of the team because of injury, Lester has certainly taken his opportunity in defence. With every defender available, the starting six will likely be Andrews, Payne, Starcevich, Coleman, McKenna and Rich, meaning Lester’s fighting for a spot on the bench with Darcy Wilmot, who can also play wing, and Noah Answerth who was the sub against the Bombers and who can also play several positions. It will be a battle for Lester, but right now, he’s putting his flag in the ground.
5. Who is the best ruckman in the AFL?
Fremantle’s Sean Darcy, when he plays at his best, could well hold the mantle. How often do we see his best is another question, yet when he performs as he did on Saturday against Sydney, he’s prominent in the discussion. He had 18 disposals, 14 contested, nine clearances and eight inside-50s, the sort of numbers any midfielder would relish. He also had more hitouts to advantage (17) than Sydney’s ruckmen combined. Darcy and Luke Jackson have found form and sync, and it’s no coincidence the Dockers have marked wins on the back of their dominance. So who’s the best? There’s Darcy, Gawn, Grundy, English, Witts, McInerney, Draper, Nankervis, O’Brien, Marshall, Pittonet and pinch-hitters like Blicavs and Finlayson, and Jackson’s numbers when take the ruck are through the roof in recent weeks. “We have got the best array of ruckmen at or close to the top of their game I think I’ve seen since the 1970s,’’ Dermott Brereton said. “It’s fantastic to watch.’’
6. The larrikins
Steven May played his 200th game on Saturday night and, when asked if he would celebrate the milestone with his teammates, May said he had already been presented with a bottle of wine. A player who has previously found himself in unacceptable situations when on the turps, the bottle of wine was an interesting presentation. In a post-game interview on Fox Footy, May was also curious about the wine. He said: “I don’t know how that got past the keeper.’’ Only he knows which keeper he was talking about. As for his footy, May is approaching his best form as the season approaches the midway part of the season.
7. When will the CBA be completed?
Player managers are waiting for the final numbers in terms of player payments, so they can then go to clubs and demand what they think their players deserve. The Bombers are waiting on Mason Redman and Darcy Parish, but they’re not waiting with any anxiety. They are confident both Redman and Parish will elect to stay despite being free agents. The only issue would be an incredibly high asking price from either of the pair. They are not $850,000 footballers, but anywhere between $700,00 and $750,000 is not off the charts. Parish has become more damaging with his possessions and Redman could be an All-Australian by season’s end. Once again, he was close to Essendon’s best player – with Andy McGrath. Redman is a gun rebounder, while McGrath kept Charlie Cameron to nine disposals and one point.
Originally published as The Tackle: Mark Robinson’s likes and dislikes after round 9
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