Wreck-It Ralph: Gather Round review, report card | What worked and what didn’t
Gather Round was a roarings success, but with teams making or missing finals by the bearest of margins in past years, does it give the Adelaide clubs an unfair advantage?
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It was a big weekend of footy in South Australia – here are Jon Ralph’s highs and lows from the inaugural Gather Round
1. What a smash hit across the park.
This was the best fixturing innovation in the men’s game since the AFL introduced the Dreamtime at the ‘G concept in 2005.
Thrillers, upsets, controversies.
The perfect way to exit Covid with a concept that can still improve with tweaking and more innovation.
But there is every chance the next version will be more picturesque and on a grander scale.
Gill McLachlan’s vision for the Barossa Valley game he loves so much taps into Peter Malinauskas’ desire to market the wine country across the country.
An early Saturday game at a revamped venue with brand new grandstands, a vast open-aired pavilion with dozens of wineries spruiking their wares in a day-long party.
It might not be South Australia’s version of Oktoberfest but it will be one heck of a celebration.
Then a street party around Norwood’s SANFL ground spread across several blocks as South Australia supercharges what was admittedly one heck of a show.
And everyone who had ‘FOMO’ from the first version, flooding across the border as the league separates what were five standalone games and two double-headers into what could be nine separate contests.
3. Of all the AFL’s skills, extracting money from state governments for vast stadiums, club headquarters and events like Gather Round is at the very top of the list.
As the AFL claimed the credit for its nation-building abilities and ongoing legacy of improvement at the ground..
Remarkable.
4. Adelaide Oval is the most picturesque Oval in Australia.
When the MCG hosts the Grand Final, Boxing Day Test and can put on a spectacle like Ed Sheeran in front of 109,000 fans, it is arguably the nation’s best.
But it’s an argument, not a lay down misere.
The MCG is a concrete colosseum.
Adelaide Oval’s beauty is the perfectly grassed hill at one end, the capacity for fans to walk out behind the stadium and kick the footy or enjoy a frothy on the lawn with mates.
As the MCG considers a refurbish after the Commonwealth Games and Rugby World Cup as early as 2027, how does it reclaim the mantle as the unquestioned leader as the best stadium in Australia?
What the Australian Open tennis precinct has created is a day-long entertainment opportunity where the tennis can even be secondary given the vast array of options – kids activities, bands, shopping, culinary delights.
The MCC will have to beg borrow and steal – and likely come up with $1.5 billion – before it is again the market leader.
5. Same goes for Marvel Stadium.
When was the last time you went to the Docklands Venue with a sense of anticipation at the stadium experience?
The league’s $200 million plus revamp has begun to turn it into a “365-day-a-year sport and entertainment hub”.
It is sadly short of that right now, so the AFL’s executives have got a first-hand glimpse at the type of experience it must become.
Put it this way – how often would you wander down to Marvel Stadium to enjoy a few Friday drinks watching two neutral sides as MCC members might at the MCG?
Never.
6.Adelaide produced the most compelling quarter of Gather Round.
In doing so, it gave pause to highlight Carlton’s weaknesses and ponder if they can minimise them by September.
In that brutal first quarter, the surprise wasn’t that Adelaide hunted with such ferocity, it was the sheer precision of their field kicking under extreme duress.
Carlton just dump-kicked the ball forward to be cut off by Adelaide’s interceptors.
The Blues rolled their sleeves up in the second half but as Ollie Hollands eases into his career they do lack pure speed and classy midfield kicks.
Adam Cerra is still rated an elite kick by Champion Data but Cripps is below average, Zac Fisher is officially below average, George Hewett above average (but poor in metres gained) and Matt Kennedy is considered average.
So it is time to go to work given Carlton’s platform of early wins gives them time to improve – and a template of what Adelaide is capable of.
7. Leigh Matthews is the ultimate pragmatist while he was accused of being a kill-joy over his Gather Round views he has a point.
Clubs will be happy to travel to Gather Round – unless they have to take on Adelaide or Port Adelaide.
Both clubs played like it was their Grand Final against Carlton and the Western Bulldogs, respectively, and will always play draw-cards given their pulling power.
In a league where Carlton lost a finals berth by 0.6 of a percentage point, the Power have a great chance to gain an advantage in the next three seasons.
8. The answer isn’t a Showdown contest in Gather Round.
The league cannot drag all its best home-and-away contests into Gather Round so keep the Showdown as a standalone game in a separate round.
9. Kylie Watson-Wheeler missed a chance for a bit of quality PR regardless of whether she eventually secures the AFL’s chief executive role.
The Dogs president seemed to have been summoned by the league to be part of their gala dinner as the Herald Sun revealed she was one of the favourites for the role.
But instead of taking it in her stride, she declined a series of requests from various forms of media, flying past the TV cameras while declining comment in one awkward moment.
Surely if she is AFL CEO material, she is capable of artfully dodging the serious questions – and her role in the process – while raving about Gather Round and her club.
Instead she appeared evasive.
On that front, the AFL’s competition manager Laura Kane was effortless in front of the camera in multiple opportunities as she is slated for a greater football role that would require a greater media profile.
Test passed with flying colours.
10.Collingwood’s internal review into racism cost Eddie McGuire his job and Hawthorn’s attempt might have secured it years of legal action and a broken relationship with its winningest coach Alastair Clarkson.
So what a pity rival clubs will never sign up to those kinds of internal reviews again given Collingwood’s path on the other side is so constructive.
The Pies are committed to genuine change, have hired the likes of Andrew Krakouer and Leon Davis to help action it, and as a result could make a heartfelt and genuine apology to Nicky Winmar and Gilbert McAdam.
But rival clubs, especially those with skeletons in their closet, they know they would have to exhume, will have to dance around their pasts because no one is commissioning their own Do Better report in the near future.
11. Eddie Betts could have ended his relationship with his former club Adelaide after the fall-out of the Crows camp.
Instead, he bravely and forensically told his story in an attempt to force change and then forgave the club and moved on.
To see him on Thursday night agreeing to hundreds of selfies with Carlton AND Adelaide fans is to be reminded of his immense popularity and respect as footy’s most important spokesman on race issues.
12. What the hell is Gillon McLachlan going to do that will sate his desire to find a new role that combines his effortless blend of deal-making, schmoozing and negotiation for the common good?
Those who know him well believe he would go spare within months of moving on from the AFL and at only 50 he is so young he will need to find another challenge.
The Brisbane Olympics has already chosen ex-Deloitte boss Cindy Hook as its CEO.
Cricket Australia, perhaps?
Few other sports give him the thrill of commissioning an extra round then within five months unleashing his full team to deliver to such a grand scale.
Then, befriending a state premier and, amid four days of frantic negotiations, clinching a deal for an approximately $50 million deal over three seasons.
As one insider remarked, he has never been in better form as the league CEO and yet he will be gone within weeks.
13. If Port Adelaide didn’t win a final, and sacked Ken Hinkley this year as Gold Coast eventually sacked Stuart Dew, who would be the favourite to take on the Suns role?
Ken Hinkley.
It is another reminder of what Hinkley has achieved at Port Adelaide as a leader of men and a club despite his lack of outright premiership success.
His teams play a progressive modern game and Hinkley would be desperate to stay given his last quarter match-winners Zak Butters, Horne-Francis and Todd Marshall represent the future.
So Port Adelaide might eventually cut ties with him – and there are certainly some Power fans who are arguing for change – but if they sack him, it will not diminish his coaching currency.
14. Sydney is not as compact as Adelaide, it cannot access Giants Stadium across Easter given its annual show, it would be a disaster to schedule Gather Round games at the old Olympic Stadium given its unpopularity.
So how does it take its chance when it is invariably handed the 2027 version?
Or more to the point, how does it capture the hearts and minds of sporting fans when Peter V’landys is sure to put four NRL blockbusters and a cracking race card up against the weekend to rain on its parade?
One more question – if Sydney chairman Andrew Pridham is worried enough to tell the Herald Sun NSW footy needs help from the AFL, how urgent is the league’s intervention going to be?
15. Lock in Tasmania for a Gather Round concept in the first season its new stadium is built.
Gillon McLachlan had the perfect selling point for what Macquarie Point’s new precinct could be as he showcased Adelaide Oval and all that it has delivered for the state.
The league remains as bullish as ever that Anthony Albanese will deliver the funding to seal the deal.
It is hard to even quantify the damage to Tasmanian football and the deflating effect it would have on the state if it misses the opportunity for a 19th licence and the urban revamp that the Macquarie Point stadium would provide for Hobart.
16. Essendon is so honest, so consistent, its players clearly so thrilled to be getting reward for effort
It is remarkable to think that under the previous administration they still believed Ben Rutten was the answer.
Take these recent quotes from players as an example.
Darcy Parish to The Age on the club’s defence: “We have been atrocious in the last few years, and we have let ourselves down”.
Zach Merrett to Fox Footy: “ I think the frustrating part was probably that our defensive system was so bad that we weren‘t able to execute”.
Merrett again to AFL.com.au: “We’d come in after bad losses just searching and searching for answers and we’d have these meetings and there wasn’t really anything resolved out of them”.
It is for others at the club to wonder how many years they wasted on confused tactics and uninspiring coaches.
But we are seeing the benefits of a playing list that looks as if they have crystal clear instructions they can follow to the letter on the field.
17. Adelaide will come hard at Essendon free agent Mason Redman, but the Bombers couldn’t have timed their run better with Redman and Darcy Parish.
Both have big decisions ahead and yet at least the list management team has a compelling package to put in front of the pair.
For so long at Essendon players haven’t developed to their full capacity for a variety of reasons – coaching, development, culture.
Essendon will have to come close to matching any deal, but why would Redman want to go?
18. Add another $50,000 on Harry Himmelberg’s free agency contract after his remarkable match-winning (and saving) last two minutes against Hawthorn.
Sydney is keen, Adelaide is keen, GWS wants to keep him.
What better reminder that he can actually influence games for a club that might have to pay a total of $3.5 to $4 million for his services.
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Originally published as Wreck-It Ralph: Gather Round review, report card | What worked and what didn’t
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