AFL TV shows recap: Clayton Oliver, stalled drug talks and brilliant Bulldogs on the agenda
A key reason for Clayton Oliver’s absence has been suggested while the AFL is getting nowhere addressing an off-field crisis. We watch all the football shows so you don’t have to.
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When it’s your turn to go back with the flight and put your body on the line (or stay chained to the desk to watch four consecutive football shows), you’ve just got to go (or remain seated).
It’s all part of playing your role in a cohesive team system, which Geelong’s forward line is not, according to a particularly hot take from one of our TV panellists.
Why Clayton Oliver might still feel unsettled at Melbourne was probed, while long-suffering Fremantle supporters who have spent years calling for more acknowledgment on national television had to swallow sweeping negative coverage on every channel they flicked to.
Here are the key takeaways from Monday night’s footy shows.
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AFL 360
They ran the rule over the controversial umpiring decisions that dominated the headlines, but Gerard Whateley and Garry Lyon opened 360 in a celebratory tone as they reflected on the theatre of Saturday night’s classic between Collingwood and Geelong.
Lyon gave Patrick Dangerfield the three votes in his weekly 3-2-1 most valuable player award, which sent the Cats skipper four votes clear of fellow veteran Steele Sidebottom (five) as the top two under the unconventional polling system.
The inconclusive review of Mark Blicavs’ effort to prevent a Lachie Schultz goal was lamented by Whateley, who does not like that “we search for a touched ball” rather than reward attempts at goal.
“You just have to live with one from time to time,” he said when Lyon asked if it was worth rewarding goals wrongly if the review system was overhauled.
Whateley believed the decision to penalise Bobby Hill for his chase-down tackle in the dying stages had also been incorrect.
“It looked like it was going to slip low … but it actually finished in the right spot. I think that’s holding the ball.”
Senior coaches Matthew Nicks and Chris Fagan were guests on the program, and timed their appearances well after Adelaide and Brisbane delivered impressive wins against Carlton and Gold Coast respectively.
Fagan offered the most interesting insight as he conceded he had expected a slower start to the season from the Lions after an interrupted pre-season following their flag triumph.
“I would’ve thought 5-3 would be somewhere acceptable. We’ve probably gone a little bit better than I thought we would,” he said as he flagged further improvement to come from his 7-1 side.
Whateley was shocked the AFL did not hand a suspension to Willie Rioli after his text message to Bailey Dale following Port Adelaide’s loss to the Western Bulldogs in Ballarat.
Lyon said Rioli had been “playing angry” and suggested the Power should consider giving him “a week or two away” from the game.
On the Couch
Collingwood great Nathan Buckley kicked off the show with a big call from the right-hand couch that will make Swans, Power and Blues fans nervous – the top eight is almost locked.
“I would be amazed if any of those (top) seven teams missed,” Buckley said, giving Gold Coast his tick of approval but leaving the door ajar for GWS to be replaced over the next four months.
Jack Riewoldt, of the left-hand couch, noted that typically six of the top eight sides on the ladder after eight rounds played finals football.
Buckley is close to Dockers coach Justin Longmuir, who was a key assistant for him at the Magpies, but gave an honest assessment of his performance after the Dockers’ nightmare loss to St Kilda.
“I thought (Longmuir) wasn’t strong enough on his players … sometimes it’s a responsibility and accountability that he feels, right or wrong,” Buckley said.
“The most successful coaches are the most combative … the ones that throw it back on their players when it should be thrown back on their players. Hardwick, Beveridge, Chris Scott
Sheedy, Leigh Matthews … I thought he missed that opportunity on the weekend to say ‘we set up the week well, we knew what the themes were coming in, and they weren’t executed at all’.”
Jonathan Brown applied the heat to Dockers stars Andrew Brayshaw and Caleb Serong for not setting enough of an example defensively for an inexperienced side, while Jordan Lewis urged the Dockers to handball and take more risks coming out of defence.
He pointed to Champion Data statistics which ranked the Dockers last for defensive half handball receives.
Lewis said the Western Bulldogs were the “hottest team in the competition”, praising coach Luke Beveridge for making hard decisions in the best interests of the club above all else.
After eight rounds, the Bulldogs are the best team between the arcs – Buckley revealed they were not only first for moving the ball from their defensive 50 to attacking 50 but also for preventing teams doing the same.
The only other recorded teams to have this statistical profile after eight rounds? Geelong from 2007-09, and Hawthorn in 2008 and 2015.
Brown added the departure of Bailey Smith and absence of Jamarra Ugle-Hagan for personal reasons might have left a more cohesive playing group.
“That locker room is running smoothly … to go all the way, you can’t have disruptions,” he said.
The Agenda Setters
Veteran journalist Caroline Wilson took the first ball and honed in on the stalled negotiations between the AFL and AFLPA over the league’s drug policy reforms.
Wilson said the “AFL had lost a lot of bargaining power” following this Herald Sun exclusive that revealed the league had given 51 names to Sport Integrity Australia to be target tested during the 2024 season.
As a result, Wilson said the mooted first-offence fines of $5k for men’s players and $900 for women’s players were off the table, but the AFL Commission still wanted a deal done before outgoing AFLPA boss Paul Marsh departs.
St Kilda great Nick Riewoldt said it was bad optics for the playing cohort.
“It’s a shocking look for the players. This reeks of players pushing back against a tougher drug code. Society has moved so far since this code was introduced,” he said.
“It reeks of ‘leave us alone, we want to take drugs’. That’s what it looks like.”
The panel went hard on Fremantle and listened to a compilation of Dockers detailing their lofty pre-season expectations in February, before a graphic flashed on screen reminding viewers that the club has only one finals appearance since topping the ladder in 2015.
“I think jumping to (talk of) premierships when you’ve achieved very little as a playing group is a big step,” Kane Cornes said.
Cornes took the opportunity to revisit his long-running struggle against Fremantle’s management of its two rucks, Sean Darcy and Luke Jackson.
And he beamed with joy when Wilson aligned with him by criticising Alastair Clarkson for donning a Hawthorn scarf during the club’s centenary celebration at the MCG on Sunday.
It took a couple of ad breaks for the show to address North Melbourne’s blanket ban of Cornes following his controversial segment on Harry Sheezel last week.
Craig Hutchison took umbrage with the “really embarrassing decision”, which he claimed was driven behind the scenes by Clarkson despite the club’s insistence it was not his call.
“(Todd) Viney is rowing the company boat on Alastair’s behalf too regularly,” he said.
Footy Classified
Clayton Oliver is expected to return to Melbourne training on Tuesday morning, but Sam McClure had a fresh angle on his ongoing troubles at the club on Monday night.
The Footy Classified host said the four-time best and fairest was “frustrated with the lack of game time he’s been afforded at Melbourne right here, right now”.
McClure said it was one of a “myriad of reasons” why Oliver chose to take a break from football last week and missed the trip to Perth to face West Coast.
“There’s frustration that he’s being held to his deal, but had his game time reduced,” he said.
That time on ground is sitting at 78.5 per cent – down significantly from the 88.9 per cent time he spent on field during the 2021 premiership year.
But Matthew Lloyd said Oliver only had himself to blame for his longer spells on the bench, and urged Demons coach Simon Goodwin to stick to his guns.
The Essendon great pointed to a perceived lack of versatility compared to Melbourne’s other midfielders who can either swing forward or back.
The panel debated whether Geelong would still be a potential “taker” for Oliver given his middling form so far this season, and whether Melbourne would even contemplate going back to the trade table with him given it might have to pay up to half his salary anyway.
Port Adelaide was next under the microscope after its second 90-plus point defeat of the season, under the banner “Carr Crash”.
McClure suggested the Power’s coach-in-waiting, who currently oversees their underperforming midfield, could be “tainting his reputation before he’s even coached a game”.
Building on comments made by Patrick Dangerfield’s former Adelaide and Geelong teammate Josh Jenkins on SEN this weekend, Lloyd posed that the Cats’ forward line was experiencing teething issues as a result of his permanent shift into attack.
“Is Patrick’s success putting other forwards in the danger zone?”
The panel discussed the reduced scoreboard output of Jeremy Cameron, Shannon Neale, Ollie Henry and Tyson Stengle so far this season, and whether it was Dangerfield or his teammates who had to adapt to a new system.
Jimmy Bartel gave St Kilda supporters their best nugget of the night despite a thumping win under lights on Friday, praising Cooper Sharman and Mitch Owens.
But Garry Lyon flagged early on 360 that he and Whateley would turn their attention to the in-form Saints later in the week, after unpacking what the match had meant for the Dockers.
Originally published as AFL TV shows recap: Clayton Oliver, stalled drug talks and brilliant Bulldogs on the agenda
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