Fox Footy Jury: Carlton’s ‘dubious’ frees, was Elijah Taylor hard done by, and what’s Essendon’s problem?
Essendon’s year is freefalling fast after a flying to start to the season had fans thinking about finals. Two footy greats pinpoint why the Bombers are underperforming.
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Round 12 action threw up plenty of drama both on and off the field.
From Elijah Taylor’s season-long suspension for breaching quarantine rules by sneaking his girlfriend into his Perth hotel, to Carlton receiving a series of dubious free kicks to beat Fremantle after the siren and Kade Simpson’s “best-ever” falcon, the weekend had it all.
Plus, what’s wrong with Essendon, after it flopped again on Sunday?
We asked two footy greats and Fox Footy commentators with seven premierships between them for their takes.
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Was a suspension for the rest of the season too harsh on 19-year-old Swan Elijah Taylor, after Collingwood’s Steele Sidebottom received only a four-game ban for his COVID protocols breach earlier in the year?
David King
Two-time North Melbourne premiership player
I don’t know, but I think that we’ve had quite a few warnings and there’s a difference between breaching the AFL code and breaching State Government rules. So this was at the serious end. I feel for him as a young kid that’s made a mistake. It’s going to rock his 2020 and ruin the whole thing for him personally, but this kid’s got an amazing career ahead of him and he’s shown some promising signs in his last few weeks. All energies go to 2021 and beyond, but the Swans have certainly got an AFL player who will do some growing up in the next six months.
Dermott Brereton
Five-time Hawthorn premiership player
Definitely not, given this young man thought this through and how to circumnavigate the rules that were put in. There was a direct initiative to circumnavigate the rules. He threatened to put at risk a billion-dollar industry which supplies thousands of people jobs.
Was Matt Taberner’s deliberate out of bounds fair and should the Blues have received a down-the-field free kick after Sam Docherty was bumped?
DK: The deliberate was probably there. We knew what Taberner was trying to do, but the importance of these free kicks is clearly elevated late in games. If he had done that in the second quarter we wouldn’t have been talking about it, but he probably needed to disguise it better. The down-field, it’s a split-second decision that I can understand the umpire making. At the end of the day they’re 30-70 calls that have gone against Fremantle, but Carlton have been on the end of a few bad decisions lately so it’s probably good for them to get a result go their way.
DB: I thought Taberner, given the way we judge the game at the moment, had every reason for a free kick to be called against him. The late contact on Docherty that was awarded a down-the-field free kick was dubious and suspect at best.
Was it cruel for commentators to laugh at Kade Simpson’s falcon, and would his face still be numb?
DK: I played football with a bloke who ended up playing 400-plus AFL games (Brent Harvey) and I do remember him one day telling a story where he kicked a waterlogged footy into the man on the mark on purpose, an intentional falcon. It was in junior days when he was getting picked on as a little fella. But they happen all the time. If you don’t laugh, you cry. I think we’ve all had those moments and he’ll have a little stitch stamp on his face for about a week, Kade. Six little lines.
DB: No. I would encourage Kade to go out there and try and smother the ball with his face again this week, just so that we can all see the lighter side of this incredibly difficult sport. But, yes, he’ll probably take a while to recover from that. In fact, both nostrils and two eye balls will be on one half of his head at this point in time.
What is wrong with Essendon and what do they need to do over the off-season to improve next year?
DK: I don’t think there’s a lot wrong. If you mark the ball inside-50 you don’t have to worry about doing as much defending as what the Bombers have been doing. Their forward half has been cruelled through injury. McKernan and Stringer have held up their end of the bargain for the past 18 months or so. Stewart’s come back in and looked quite good in patches, but he’s still gathering his match fitness. But a fully-fit Joe Daniher just changes everything.
DB: Simplistically, whatever it takes, they need to get the ball through the goals. They need to put scoreboard pressure on the opposition a little bit more, in whatever fashion it takes. Whether they think they need a new key forward, whether they think they can get Joe Daniher up to speed. They just need a functioning forward line so at least they put scoreboard pressure up against the opposition. Every team knows they can defend against them and do so for a fair period of time.
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