The Tackle: Mark Robinson’s likes and dislikes from round 4 of the 2022 AFL season
It feels like we’ve been talking about Collingwood’s forward woes for four years. But this stat truly is crazy. Read Robbo’s likes and dislikes.
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We’re only four rounds in but the haves and have-nots in the AFL world are already beginning to be separated.
The one unbeaten team is no shock but who had the Saints or Dockers in the top four, Port Adelaide winless or the Eagles somehow finding a way to claim their first victory of 2022?
Then there’s the rule the AFL has to throw in the bin ASAP.
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Herald Sun chief football writer Mark Robinson runs his expert eye over the weekend action and gives his takes on what he liked — and what he didn’t — in The Tackle.
DISLIKES
1. Fakeness
There’s rules and there’s spirit of the game, and the consequences of the AFL’s stand rule is mocking the spirit of the game.
Not the rule itself, but the growing blight of players faking the handball to get the player on the mark moving, which garners a 50m penalty.
It occurred on Saturday night between Richmond’s Dion Prestia and Bulldog Aaron Naughton. The rule is being exploited.
Mostly every other aspect of football requires the player to win their own ball and earn their team territory.
Faking the handball in a “stand’’ situation is garbage football and the AFL should immediately decree that a fake handball is play-on.
The stand rule has opened the game, the fake handball and 50m penalty has embarrassed the game.
The Tackle in round 1 put it on the agenda and it’s only getting worse.
Already, there are too many 50s in the game – this year it’s almost three a game compared to last year’s 1.6 per game.
2. Naughton’s goalkicking
Is Aaron Naughton a superstar?
No, he’s not.
How can he be when his No.1 role in football is to kick goals?
He has superstar traits, and they are why he is rated highly, but he can’t be the best in his position if he doesn’t kick goals.
Naughton had seven shots at goal on Saturday night for a return of 2.3.
This season, he’s had 19 shots at goal for a return of 8.8 and three complete misses.
That puts him at 42 per cent accuracy, which is the lowest percentage in his career.
Further, of the top 20 players for shots at goal this season, Naughton has the lowest percentage.
He is a hell of a footballer, but has a hell of a problem and until he can improve his goalkicking, he can’t be considered to be a competition superstar.
3. Naughton’s not alone
It feels like we’ve been talking about the Bulldogs forward line for four years, and that’s a long time in football.
Why so much inaccuracy?
It’s a rhetorical question because we’re not sure anyone at Bulldogs knows why.
Is it mental? Mechanical? Or where they take their shots?
Against Richmond, it was 2.7 from set shot, 2.2 from a snap and 3.6 on the run.
It’s got to be mental.
The pressure must eat at all of them.
And when the pressure to kick goals is too much, other pressures eventually bite.
Like, they conceded 37 points from back-half turnovers. That means poor ball use.
Put it another way, when they were shellacked by Melbourne in the grand final, they gave up 48 points from back-half turnovers.
Coach Luke Beveridge said there was plenty to like on Saturday night, but there was also plenty to dislike.
Poor ball use at both ends are Exhibits A and B.
4. Bubble’s burst
The Hawks were terrible.
They gave 105 points on turnover, which is off the charts in terms of not being competitive. In fact, it was the most of any team this year.
They had too many turnovers and then couldn’t defend the turnover.
When we assess the Hawks in the coming weeks, that number has to be looked at.
They were the youngest team at the weekend and when that happens, you see results like we saw at the MCG.
The road is long for the Hawks and that’s OK, because good days follow bad, even if its several years away.
5.Bubble’s burst
Carlton coach Michael Voss is a stone-cold killer.
The hype around his team across the first three round is mostly welcomed, but limping performances like Sunday night against the Suns will be ideal fodder for the coach.
They weren’t clean in the heavy wet, they lost the contested ball, and they couldn’t move the ball from their back half.
Worse still, they lost Patrick Cripps (hamstring) and lost clearance by 18.
Where were the media-hyped Carlton Crew?
Next Sunday the Blues face winless Port Adelaide. Suddenly that game is a danger with Cripps missing.
6. Talking about F50 problems …
We also feel like we’ve been talking about Collingwood’s forward woes for four years.
The blitz football the Pies are playing would be complemented by a functioning forward group.
But it ain’t happening.
They were +19 inside-50s against the Eagles and lost by 13 points.
That’s mind boggling.
Brody Mihocek is a lionheart and almost won the Pies the game in the final quarter, but he needs help.
Saturday’s forward group was largely Mihocek, Darcy Cameron, Oliver Henry, Jamie Elliott, Jack Ginnivan and Will Hoskin-Elliott.
Elliott is done for three months, two of them are kids, one is on the way out, and one (Cameron) is developing.
Dare we say it, but Mason Cox could get another opportunity, and Jordan De Goey will be required to play more minutes forward, because at the end on Saturday, it was Mihocek or nothing.
7. Where’s Rory Sloane at?
He’s a competitor in the Joel Selwood and Josh Kennedy mould and has been for a dozen years, but at 32, it seems he’s getting slower and the game’s getting quicker.
He continues to give his all, but what he generally offers offensively has dropped away.
True, he returned from an adductor injury and he might need the run.
But a game like Sunday’s against Essendon, where it was high-octane footy, is usually when Sloane creates the most havoc.
He had 17 possessions and just seven contested possessions which is unusual for one of the competition’s more brutal players.
LIKES
1. Al who?
Alastair Clarkson’s name will be mentioned every week until he coaches again, but three people who aren’t even thinking about Clarkson are Suns president Tony Cochrane, Suns chief executive Mark Evans and Suns coach Stuart Dew – and that’s Stuart and Stewart, hey AFL.
Actually, the players aren’t thinking about the coaching great, either.
When you beat up Carlton, who were the most hyped team this year, the Suns organisation is heads down and bum up and on their way to forging their own identity.
The Suns Coliseum will take many prisoners this season and, yes, they are 2-2 and start most seasons well, but this time it seems real.
And they’re doing it without their No.1 asset in Ben King.
Well played, Suns.
2. Goals galore at St Kilda
Twice St Kilda kicked more than 100 points last season.
It was once in the Covid-savaged 2020 season. And twice in the 2019 season.
After four rounds, this year the Saints have twice cracked the ton.
They are dangerous.
Max King has shot past a poultice of key forwards and is the most exciting big man in the game.
Not the best – Tom Hawkins still has that title – but King is coming with a rocket.
It was scintillating football from the Saints, although it has to be tempered somewhat because the Hawks were largely non-competitive after quarter-time.
And they are fit.
In final quarters the past two weeks, they have kicked 14.3 to 4.2.
Since that round 15 summit in Sydney in June last year, the Saints are 8-5.
It’s not premiership-contending footy just yet, but before the summit, they were 5-8 and spiralling.
King is a gun, but the harder work is being done further up the field.
3. Devon Smith
Where’s that been?
The former best-and-fairest winner made a statement on Sunday after plenty of others made statements about him after the loss to the Lions at Marvel in round 2.
He was axed for the next game and returned as the sub.
Activated at halftime, he recharged the Bombers when playing high half-forward.
In a stunning half, he had 96 SuperCoach points, the most of any player on the ground.
He had 12 possessions, a team-high eight contested possessions, a team-high five score involvements and kicked a goal.
In a tiring game for the combatants, Smith was electric when he came on, and gives further bite to the discussion about coaches having the ability to activate the sub without there being an injury.
The Bombers won by four points and Smith’s efforts saved teammate Dylan Shiel from scrutiny.
His turnover by foot with three minutes to play, which led to an Adelaide goal, could’ve been fatal.
4. The Fantastic Four
Richmond’s Indigenous quartet – Shai Bolton, Daniel Rioli, Marlion Pickett and Matt Parker – are playing the lights out.
Bolton should be leading the best-and-fairest and if coach Damien Hardwick was asked who should be All-Australian after a month of football, he’d likely say Pickett, who attacks and defends with the same attitude, which is full-on.
He’s playing wing, Bolton is mid-forward, Rioli a back flank and Parker is half-forward. Having Bolton eases the Dustin Martin pain and clearly Shai has rediscovered his freakiness.
As Richmond’s season tumbled last year, so did Bolton.
His last five games last year averaged 15 disposals, 179m gained, one clearance and five score involvements.
This year it is 17 disposals, 356m gained, four clearance, eight score involvements.
Suspect our All-Australian expert at the Herald Sun, Lauren Wood, will find room for Bolton in her rolling AA team this week.
5. West Coast
Stories galore at the Eagles, not least being the coaching performance of Adam Simpson. There’s tactics in footy and there’s attitude, and Simpson was able to bring the collective together, and individuals were able to influence.
Willie Rioli is a better player than I thought and his recent story would be unmissable if he ever spoke.
Another is Patrick Naish.
He was initially drafted to Richmond under the father-son rule, was delisted, trained with St Kilda over the summer and then West Coast jagged him for their final list spot.
He’s played all four games for the under-siege Eagles and on Saturday had 23 disposals on a wing and 458m gained.
Simpson was right, this Covid nightmare could prove to the making for some players.
6. Sleepers in the west
The Dockers aren’t box office, but they are 3-1 after four.
Nathan Fyfe is yet to play and their best player, Andrew Brayshaw, has been fighting a tagger for periods of the past two games.
They’ll take that because their footy will get better.
They led the Giants by one point at 11th minute of the last quarter and then kicked 36-3 to close the game.
In that period, their pressure was rated an incredible 232, which is insane at that time of the game.
This week, they play the Bombers at Marvel, and a win would likely end Essendon’s finals hopes and propel their own considerably forward.
7. AFLW set for change
Firstly, loved the pomp of Saturday and women’s footy – if we can still call it that? – is only going to get bigger and better.
The players will get more money because it will be more professional, which means the support staff also need a pay rise.
The senior coach works for nine months and is grossly underpaid for the role they play.
As for it being called AFLW, there are at least two players who don’t identify as women, so what about we call it AFLE for Everyone.
If the AFL wants to recognise inclusion – which they say they do – AFLW as a name is on notice.
Originally published as The Tackle: Mark Robinson’s likes and dislikes from round 4 of the 2022 AFL season
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