The Tackle: Mark Robinson’s likes and dislikes from the first week of finals
Jack Ginnivan isn’t the only big name guilty of trying to milk free kicks in finals. But Channel 7 commentator Luke Darcy crossed the line on Saturday, Robbo says.
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The first week of finals was one of the best in recent memory, packed with tight finishes, drama, inspiration and devastation.
Some players enhanced their reputations and others have a week, or a summer, to find improvement or redemption.
Here are Mark Robinson’s likes and dislikes from every game in week one.
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Brisbane v Richmond
DISLIKES
1. Jack and Dusty
Jack Riewoldt has been offered a contract that would see him be paid about $300,000 if all goes well, and the champion forward is likely to accept the offer. It’s a lowball offer, but that’s life for a veteran, even if you have been critical to three premierships. He’s been told it’s his decision, and he respects that, but even the most confident people like to be told they are wanted. Talks will be held in the coming days. The talk about Dustin Martin leaving the Tigers is, say the Tigers, the greatest media beat-up since, well, the last great media beat-up. More convincing is that Martin himself has told friends he is staying at Punt Rd. Anyway, which club could pick up a $1.3 million contract for a player who has, at the moment, lost his mojo? It’s not happening.
2. Shai Bolton
Lauded as the most exciting player in the competition and by some as the best player in completion, Bolton’s final contribution to the 2022 season was one of disappointment. His performance on Thursday night should sit with him for a while. He had only three disposals in the second half, and they were all kicks and none of them hit a target. In a game which was in constant flow, Bolton surprisingly couldn’t get into that flow. His opponent, Brandon Starcevich, arguably was Brisbane’s third-most influential person on Thursday night. For what it’s worth Lachie Neale, was first and the score reviewer, whoever he or she is, was second.
LIKES
1, Deven Robertson
You don’t have to be Norm Smith to know that Deven Robertson will go to Clayton Oliver this week. Oliver won’t lose sleep because he tends to get close attention most weeks, but this Robertson lad has a nose for tagging. He took Dion Pestia and then Trent Cotchin on Thursday night and coach Chris Fagan would’ve been thrilled with the result. In round 15, Robertson played on Oliver for about half a game and gave up 10 disposals and three clearances. It was a reasonable return from Robertson and one that Fagan probably put in his back pocket for another time. That time has arrived.
2. Daniel McStay
Word has it McStay was quite emotional in the rooms post-match on Thursday night, after playing his best game of his career in what was the best win he had played in at the Lions. The big fella is departing at season’s end – unless there’s an about-face from him – and he’s leaving not because he’s fallen out with the coach or club, but because the Collingwood offer is just too good to ignore. Yes, Toby Nankervis was monstrous, but McStay never gave up and won his share of the ball. Fagan asked him six weeks ago for his best footy, regardless of where his future would be, and McStay gave it to him on Thursday night. He was a feel-good story among many for the Lions.
Melbourne vs Sydney
DISLIKES
1. Playing hurt
Melbourne’s forward line formation needs to be addressed, and it won’t be fixed by the sudden return of Tom McDonald. The Tigers took a punt on Dustin Martin and it didn’t work, and no disrespect to McDonald, but if Dusty is going to struggle off his break, then so would McDonald off a much bigger break. The game is simply too hard. So, back to the forward line. Christian Petracca’s hairline fracture to his fibula bone won’t disappear within a week, so the question is: Where does Simon Goodwin play him? One answer is to play him as a permanent deep forward and make Ben Brown lure Harris Andrews away from the contest. It’s an adjustment, no doubt, but clearly Petracca has been playing more as a forward anyway. From rounds 1-19, Petracca’s midfield-forward split was 85-15. From round 20, it has been 60-40. The Demons need something different, but not something wholly different, and Petracca at full-forward has been tried before with success.
2. Because Luke Jackson can’t do it
He’s as frustrating to watch as Joe Daniher. One week he can dominate, a la against Brisbane in round 23, and the next he can’t touch it, like on Friday night when he had seven touches, one mark, one handball and 13 hitouts. Jackson is a young man with millions of dollars tempting him home – and he’s surely gone when he hasn’t re-signed by now – but that’s not the point right now. Right now, the Demons need him to take hold of the game, so Max Gawn can be used as a forward because the forward line has stalled. They need Jackson to use his body to jump, crash, bash, mark and be that animal ruckman that we’ve only seen sporadically. Go west young man and live life, but don’t leave the Demons with two poor finals appearances. If that happens, Demons fans will soon forget he was ever there.
LIKES
1. The Fox and the Swans
After round 19, we wrote in The Tackle: “We’ve got to talk about Robbie Fox.’’ After the qualifying final on Friday night, everyone was talking about Robbie Fox. His extraordinary pressure efforts to stop a Melbourne goal were astonishing, but hardly unexpected. When you’re 29 and have played only 60-odd games of senior footy, you know your pressure is your one-wood. He kicks pretty good, can run and create from half-back, but what you get from Fox is 100 per cent effort for 100 per cent of the time, which was Grant Thomas’ mantra when at St Kilda. Fox’s teammates love him. “He’s been unbelievable since coming into the side. He just defends to the death every single week,” Swans midfielder James Rowbottom told Fox Footy. It’s yet another tick for Bloods culture, a huge tick for Fox, and it was brilliant recruiting from list manager Kinnear Beatson. Fox was drafted with their second selection and 34th overall in the 2017 rookie draft.
2. Buddy
This could be it for Lance Franklin, the champion and dazzling forward who you could, if you were asked to, make a case for being the best player of all time. Mick Malthouse wouldn’t like that assignment. Asked at Danielle Laidley’s book launch last Thursday to rank these three key forwards – Franklin, Jonathon Brown and Nick Riewoldt, Malthouse had Franklin third. He ranked the other two higher because, he said, they stood up in big finals more than Franklin. Observers say Buddy was a semi-decoy against Melbourne on Friday night, but I can’t agree. May beat him hands down. And talk of Franklin being a decoy in a fortnight also doesn’t sit right. There might be only four quarters remaining of Buddy, so let’s not waste them with negativity.
Collingwood v Geelong
DISLIKES
1. Diving/acting and scallywag behaviour
Jack Ginnivan has had more headlines for not winning the ball than he’s had for kicking goals, and the commentary about him is so out of whack. Channel 7’s Luke Darcy claimed there were different rules for Ginnivan, which was surely more theatre than fact, and what’s the bet the AFL rings Darcy and reminds him that no player has separate rules. Simply, Ginnivan took a dive forward. There was slight contact from behind, but not to the point which forced Ginnivan to fly to the moon and back. Whatever hope he had of getting the free kick was lost because he accentuated the contact so much that the umpire had no idea if it was a push or not. Lance Franklin was no better on Friday night. Play acting is so old-school, that it looks ridiculous when it happens in today’s games because there’s so many cameras to pick up the action. Play the ball, boys.
"They just don't pay free kicks to Ginnivan. There's a seperate set of rules for him." 😳 pic.twitter.com/FNvtvgMSOj
— 7AFL (@7AFL) September 3, 2022
2. Playing injured
Brody Mihocek is a lion-hearted forward who, throughout the season continually presented for teammates – and took marks and kicked goals. But he’s in a hole and he hinted last week that playing with injuries was part of football. Mihocek wasn’t complaining, he was referring to teammate Brayden Maynard and how tough Maynard was to compete in the circumstances. Mihocek, however, is struggling. Since round 20, he’s dropped in disposals, taken only two marks a game, kicked one goal per game, and score involvements have almost halved. Mihocek needs help. It will come via Daniel McStay in 2023, but he won’t help this week when they face Fremantle and Pearce, Young and Ryan, which is a formidable trio in defence.
LIKES
1. Role players are worth gold
Tom Atkins would be paid $300,000 (guessing) and Jordan De Goey is chasing a new deal worth close to $900,000, yet these two players supply for their team what many can’t – at far different prices. De Goey is the game-changer with his skill, and when he kicked the go-ahead goal late in the final quarter, in that moment he had all of Collingwood in the palm of his hand. He probably still does, and a contract offer will be in his hands as soon as the season is over. Atkins is a different beast. He shapes the game by sheer will. It was a bruising game and you will need to watch it again to fully appreciate the contest and the grunt work which Atkins supplies. His contribution to the game was equal to that of De Goey, so why wouldn’t he also get a pay rise? He’s contracted until the end of 2023, although it wouldn’t surprise if the Cats rolled his contract over to reward him for a remarkable second half this season.
2. Joel Selwood
The “Joel Plan” is working a treat. The veteran skipper can’t play four quarters, and really can’t play out of the centre square, so the Cats and Selwood clearly had their finals plan in place. He started the first three quarters on the bench and the fourth quarter in the middle. He came off the bench in the first three quarters at the fifth, sixth and seventh minute, each time for Tom Atkins. He returned to the bench in those three quarters at the 15th, 17th and 17th minute mark and was activated again at the 19th, 21st and 22nd minutes and remained on the ground until the end of the quarter. In the fourth quarter, he started in the centre square, came off at the fourth minute, was back on at the 11th minute, was off again at the 20th minute and back on at the 24th. Outside of Jake Kolodjashnij and Mark O’ Connor, who each played a half, Selwood played the fewest minutes of any Geelong player, yet was ranked fourth-best at the club. At times this season, you looked at Selwood and thought he’s got one foot in retirement, and then you watch him perform against the Pies, and you think he has one hand on the premiership cup. Maybe a flag will see him out, but after Saturday night, maybe 2023 will see him out. Selwood and Pendlebury are a joy to watch.
Fremantle v Western Bulldogs
DISLIKES
1. Soft Dogs
Their pressure numbers through the four quarters were 201, 205, 177 and 149. Yes, 149. When the game was there to be won at the start of the final quarter, the Dogs put up the flag. Their pressure rating of 149 was their second-lowest in a quarter this year. How can that possibly happen in an elimination final? How can the first and second quarter efforts be replaced by the patheticness of the final quarter? It’s a really a question of character because that’s twice in Perth inside 12 months where the Dogs have held a good lead, and given it up. Badly. Not having Tom Liberatore is not an excuse either, because they went at 200-plus in the first half without him. No, this group needs changing, needs improvement, needs a harder edge, and with Josh Dunkley practically out the door, and others likely to look elsewhere for opportunity, like a Rhylee West, the Dogs will need groundball help.
2. A nothing kind of year
A mid-table finish and an embarrassing capitulation in the elimination final leaves you wondering whether the Dogs are coming or going or treading water. They are vulnerable defensively and it’s why no one can have them as serious contenders. This year, they were 11th for points against, 14th for opposition scores per inside-50 entry and 12th for points conceded on turnover. Offensively, it’s been a mishmash all year and, indeed, they went into the final with Naughton, Darcy and Ugle-Hagan when the three of them had played an hour of football together inside 50m. Talk about a lack of synergy. Naughton was poor on Saturday, beaten badly by Alex Pearce. He had 11 disposals, no goals, and five marks, which capped a poor final third of the season. From rounds 1-15 he was third in the Coleman Medal. From Rounds 16-23, he was 30th in the medal, and then didn’t kick a goal in the final. He’s got to be better than that.
LIKES
1. Built for finals
Just 21, and playing his first final against the supposed midfield might of the Bulldogs, Caleb Serong played with a veteran’s poise and hard edge. Don’t you love the saying that he’s as hard as cat’s head, and that’s Serong, and similar to Geelong’s Tom Atkins, Serong is a heart and soul player. And, like Atkins, Serong could one day captain his club. The Dockers took Hayden Young (pick No.7), Serong (No.8) and Liam Henry (No.9) with their three consecutive first-round picks in the 2019 national draft, and although Henry is a work in progress, they would be delighted with the young careers of Young and Serong. A boy from Inverloch in South Gippsland, Serong came to Fremantle via the trading out of Brad Hill, which right now would make St Kilda fans cry. On Saturday night, he had a team-high 33 possessions and team-high 10 clearances. While everything points to Andrew Brayshaw being Fremantle’s next captain, Serong is certainly mounting a case.
2. Run-down tackles
The noise and reaction at the MCG on Saturday when Jordan de Goey kicked the go-ahead goal in the final quarter was pure craziness. Can only imagine the reaction when Michael Frederick chased down Ed Richards in the final quarter, and for Michael Walters to kick the goal. That was special, A) Because he started the chase from 35m away and, B) Because he never gave up. There are players with special skills and Fredericks’ skill, among many, is his ability to gather the groundball at near top-speed running. The Dockers’ speed got the Bulldogs, and Frederick was part of that. His challenge is to bring his game to the MCG, which is not beyond him.
Originally published as The Tackle: Mark Robinson’s likes and dislikes from the first week of finals
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