The Tackle: Jay Clark’s likes and dislikes from round 20
This could be the most haunting loss of Simon Goodwin’s nine-year coaching career, writes Jay Clark. And if the damage hasn’t been done already, all eyes are on next weekend.
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Round 20 has come and gone in the AFL, and we’re not sure it’ll go down in history as a weekend to remember.
You’d hope so if you supported the Kangaroos.
Jay Clark gives his likes and dislikes from round 20 of the AFL season.
DISLIKES
1. THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING FOR THE ROOS
This might have been North Melbourne’s most demoralising loss.
Three years ago when the club appointed Alastair Clarkson it was meant to be the start of a beautiful new dawn for the football club.
But fans would have walked away from one of the worst defensive performances in recent times in the loss to Geelong on Saturday night wondering if the sun will ever rise on this rebuild.
Quite clearly, if Charlie Comben, who is the club’s best defender, ever starts a game forwards of the centre square again there should be a revolt.
But he won’t save this club on his own and it was the complete lack of any defensive system, cohesion or brand which would worry fans the most, not only from Saturday night, but across the entire season.
The turnovers were horrendous from a group which could be more broken than we know but it’s the repeated defensive failures which are, by far, the biggest worry for the Kangas.
They have conceded more than 100 points 10 times this year, a bewildering amount, and have built its team on young offensively-talented playmakers which looked horribly imbalanced in its sixth year of a rebuild.
North Melbourne didn’t think it would be in this position in 2025 because the club already told us that.
They declared they were headed up the ladder when the Roos handed over their first-round pick (currently number two) to Richmond last year in the belief they were on the up.
But one of the biggest list management gambles in recent times has backfired.
Geelong scored so easily through the North Melbourne defence at Marvel Stadium it was one of the biggest white flags the game has seen from the opening bounce in recent years.
The Roos outscored the Cats in the last quarter but it simply doesn’t count.
Dangerfield was already eating souvlaki on the bench, Jack Martin and Mark Blicavs had been effectively soft subbed out of the game, and the Cats were focused only on how many goals Jeremy Cameron was going to bag in his attempt to nail the century.
He’s a chance to top 100 for the first time since Lance Franklin in 2008 as the Cats toyed with the Roos in public view.
So, perhaps it is a fortunate thing Luke Davies-Uniacke has already signed at Arden St because if had held off on his signature to this point, would there be any doubts in the club’s direction?
There would have to be.
It’s high stakes for a club which fought against relocation and a shift to Tasmania and has to stand on its own two feet on and off the field and those who continue to support the club are the most patient fans in the game.
And that is why the club will steadfastly attempt to stay the course in the face of yet another shellacking.
Off the field, it will be intensely aware that it must not wobble.
North will back in Clarkson for next year regardless, confident that in the minutes after the shattering loss he showed he was still an elite coach in the way he sensitively handled his players, trying to pick up the pieces as they reset for St Kilda.
Rather than label the performance unacceptable or insipid, Clarkson went into protection mode of a group it still considers youngish.
But it is a big off-season for the club.
The reality is Clarkson can’t do this on his own, and the $750,000 uplift in the soft cap will allow the club to go and hunt the acumen required to support Clarkson, bolster the skill and development programs, and give the football department a face lift.
But the four-time premiership coach will remain for next year when the Roos will be on the clock to show some genuinely meaningful improvement.
They signed the senior coach on a five-year deal, and have had three different senior coaches (minus the two interims) in the past six years, so they will preach stability as they hit another low point.
But how can they bolster the team?
The genuinely big fish have said no for years, and recent attempts to bolster the back half with Collingwood’s Brayden Maynard and Gold Coast’s Sam Collins have failed, among others.
So perhaps their best chance is to pick over the sinking ship at clubs such as Carlton, or perhaps even Essendon and Melbourne, to land the strong bodies they need.
Could Steven May be enticed out of Melbourne age 33? Jordan Ridley from Essendon? Liam Jones’ cards seem marked at the Kennel.
The veterans such as May are short-term options, and they were missing Tristan Xerri, Nick Larkey, George Wardlaw and Luke McDonald against the Cats.
The club will be at pains this week to say Geelong is a much more advanced football team than North this year, so there may have been a sense of dread coming into the match.
But against St Kilda on Sunday – a team also in a clear rebuild phase – that same excuse won’t be available to the Roos.
And another flogging or non-competitive defensive effort could not be tolerated.
2. A THIRD STRIKE AND YOU’RE OUT?
Melbourne has lost finals by the barest of margins and wasted shots and forward entries like few other teams.
But this could be the most haunting loss of Simon Goodwin’s nine-year coaching career after surrendering a 46-point three-quarter time lead.
Unquestionably, the premiership coach will take the loss hard.
He will feel responsible the players weren’t armed with the information to know what to do in that hectic final minute at a time in the game when there has been so much talk about the two-minute game.
The confusion was clear on the faces of the senior core Melbourne players after that 6-6-6 infringement and these are experienced premiership stars.
They should have ran to the back of the square and at the very least covered Wanganeen-Milera.
So captain Max Gawn will jump on for his Triple M radio slot and say the capitulation was on them and not the coach, not only in the final minute but also across the last quarter as the Demons failed to shut the game down and the Saints ran rampant.
But now Melbourne has lost to Carlton, St Kilda from an unlosable position, and now take on West Coast.
A third strike would be devastating for the coach, and this week he must somehow pick the players and himself up.
The fall-out of it all comes into sharp view for a football club which talked about all summer how much they love each other and this week they will find out whether any of it was true.
Because when the acid was on Sunday the Demons fell apart, particularly in defence.
A third-straight loss to the last-placed Eagles at Marvel could be a mortal blow because the players themselves would be voting for change.
They will have thrown the arms up.
And that is if the damage hasn’t been done already.
3. FIXING THE FIXTURE WOES
The AFL’s fixture strategy needs to put the best teams, rather than just the biggest clubs on the pedestal they deserve.
This round has been a disaster with fans tiring of watching Essendon and Carlton being beaten in the prime time slots.
So instead of locking in the first 15 rounds of the fixture each year, the league could wind that in to the first 10, leaving it more flexibility in the back end of the year to reward the best teams with the best slots.
And that includes expansion clubs GWS Giants and Gold Coast who have been the elephant in the room in the fixture argument.
They don’t often get the big slots because they don’t have the big following. It’s risky to give them bulk marquee matches if there’s empty seats and no one watching.
But the Giants put forward a compelling argument on Friday night playing some of the most scintillating and electric football we have seen in the modern game in the third term to knock off the Swans.
The four-straight goals in a row which included freakish efforts from Jake Stringer and Lachie Ash, in particular, was the most exciting purple patch of the year, clearly.
It was box office footy.
So why doesn’t the league give them the respect they deserve if the AFL genuinely wants the club to grow?
Same can be said of Gold Coast who have the marquee superstars in Brownlow Medal fancies Noah Anderson and Matt Rowell to hold the fans’ attention.
Anderson was in full flex mode with his running goals out of the middle again on Saturday to pump the Lions while Rowell has shrugged off the umpire contact controversy to rack up 15 clearances.
It is superhero strength around the contest.
But they remain off Broadway more often than not.
The Suns and Giants continually miss out on the fixture love they deserve but unless the AFL makes its fixture more flexible its big club strategy may need a revamp.
LIKES
1. NAS’ FOREVER MOMENT(S)
It might be the most extraordinary one-man takeover in the game’s recent history.
What Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera produced over the final minute to crush Melbourne hearts on Sunday showed not only why he deserves a blank cheque from the Saints, but why his late heroics will go down as one of footy’s most remarkable finishes.
There was the Nicky Winmar or Brendon Goddard-style hanger from Wanganeen-Milera with one minute left, then some of the sharpest footy smarts we’ve seen amid the centre bounce mayhem.
Put aside Melbourne’s 46-point Melbourne meltdown for a moment which was as crushing as it gets.
When everyone else looked confused including stranded Melbourne wingman Jack Viney who was guarding green grass, Wanganeen-Milera took control with ruckman Rowan Marshall.
Wanganeen-Milera, aged just 22, appeared to say to Marshall and all of his teammates in the forward half, get out of the way and kick it to me.
Then the man with the hottest hand in footy produced calmness amid the craziness and charged forward into open space to mark the Marshall kick.
And for the second time in one minute, the clutch set shot split the middle.
The Saints knew he was a special player but this was an act of footy genius really for a man in only his fourth season.
But the Demons handed it to them and the communication over the last minute will cause heartache for years and keep Simon Goodwin up all week if not all summer.
And in the confusion the Demons should have either stuck with Wanganeen-Milera or flooded back earlier to at least the back of the square to guard the dangerous space.
Because Wanganeen-Milera knew what to do when others didn’t in a moment which will stay with him, and celebrate, forever.
What this performance has to do is move the needle once again on his price.
If the Saints were prepared to pay him $1.2- $1.4 million, perhaps it is time to match the Tom De Koning money of $1.7 million in recognition that Wanganeen-Milera is perhaps one of the top few players in the game.
Not many can do what he did at Marvel.
So maybe an extra $500,000 a year or so on top helps, but it’s the pull of home and family across the border, rather than more fat stacks, that is tempting the jet playmaker back to South Australia anyway.
So the Saints could now give him whatever he wants if this is a view to his ceiling as a player, knowing the best is yet to come.
In any case, holding out on a contract call has helped increase his value and the talk about it has not affected him at all.
St Kilda has lacked marquee stars, but this man can do it all.
And if he does want a trade, the Saints will now ask for three first-round draft picks on that basis if it gets to that.
2. IN BROWNLOW NICK
Twice Nick Daicos has encountered some Brownlow Medal misfortunate.
There was the late leg injury in 2023 when he missed the last few games, and then last season when he ran second to a record-breaking Patrick Cripps despite polling a remarkable 38 votes.
But this will be his year – in season number four – if he keeps this late-season purple patch rolling.
The Magpies’ little master ran rampant without a tag to bury Richmond in the wet at the MCG on Sunday with 42 touches and three goals in his best game for the season.
Causing maximum damage on the scoreboard, it was his third goal sweeping around from 30m out on his golden left boot which would have locked in a certain three votes.
With one month remaining in the season, Daicos should have his nose ahead of challengers Noah Anderson (Gold Coast) and Jordan Dawson (Adelaide), while Jeremy Cameron’s 11 goals will have denied Geelong teammate Bailey Smith the three despite 43 touches.
While Smith has cooled over the past month, Daicos, 22, has come alive after a slower start to the season following a foot complaint over summer.
At the business end of the season, the father-son gem is peaking as the Magpies prepare for a clash against the 2023 Grand Finalists Brisbane.
And it wasn’t just his sweet finishing, precision kicking and ridiculous clean ball-handling in the rain that was on show.
Daicos largely did his damage on the outside with the bulk of his possessions uncontested, but there was a moment in the second term when he put his head over a hard ball to show his toughness and cleanness in tough conditions.
Ripping out the footy from the Tigers’ grasp, he fed a handpass out to Lachie Schultz who setup a Dan McStay goal.
But teammates celebrated the tough effort from Daicos who has brushed off any suggestions he wins easy ball.
And then there was the one-on-one mark on the boundary line late when he was switched forward, playing tag team in the middle with his brother Josh.
Overall, Daicos made a statement he remains one of the top-two players in the competition alongside re-signed Western Bulldogs’ skipper Marcus Bontempelli after an interrupted pre-season.
It’s why the new Brownlow Medal favourite is surely going to win more than one over his already glittering career having enjoyed one of the best starts to his AFL journey in recent times.
But a second flag in three years remains the ultimate focus and the Magpies face a tough run against Brisbane, Hawthorn and Adelaide.
So tougher tests await after happily banking the four points against the Tigers, knowing the reinforcements are coming.
Collingwood has some massive inclusions with Bobby Hill (personal), Jordan De Goey (Achilles) and Scott Pendlebury (corked leg) all to return, although De Goey maybe still a few weeks away after returning through the VFL.
But what a September wildcard De Goey looms as in a largely forward role.
3. RIOLI DOES IT AGAIN
Maurice Rioli has become a lethal tackling force in Richmond’s forward 50m.
After the flying lunging effort last week, Rioli was again a constant threat catching out Tom Mitchell in the first term and then Steele Sidebottom in the second in the loss to the Magpies.
There was an unrewarded 50m sprint on the wing in the third which went unrewarded but the exciting small forward is building the tank to remain in games longer.
He 22-year-old has been a long-term project but Rioli is someone who makes forwards nervous.
And on a tough day for the Tigers, Rioli was the highlight.
4. FREO’S FINALS X-FACTOR
It is the most important hamstring muscle in the competition.
Fremantle’s Hayden Young might be considered the third Beatle behind Caleb Serong but Andrew Brayshaw but in the Derby win over West Coast it is clear the Dockers’ rankings are in for a reshuffle.
In his second game back Young, who has had hamstring surgery in May after three separate soft tissue setbacks, showed his left leg is in fact the number one weapon to stop out west.
It is not to deride his two midfield mates, or Shai Bolton and Luke Jackson, but Young can cause the scoreboard damage that elevates the Dockers from a good side to a premiership contender and one of the most potent trump cards in the game.
But his hamstring is the also biggest asterisk in the caper and would keep the high performance awake at night.
Smartly, the versatile matchwinner was subbed out of the Derby win, but still claimed the best-on-ground medal, slotting three goals the week after slicing up Collingwood in the thrilling fourth-term comeback.
Fremantle copped heat for his monster contract extension until the end of 2033 but for coach Justin Longmuir he has become the most important chess piece on the board.
Originally published as The Tackle: Jay Clark’s likes and dislikes from round 20
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