Mark Robinson on the glorious 2022 AFL season and who saved footy
Mick Malthouse hates the stand rule. Sorry Mick, it is one of several changes from AFL House that have made footy fun to watch again, writes Mark Robinson.
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It’s undeniable Australian Rules has been saved from a wretched, boring, dull death spiral.
Defensive minded coaches had hijacked the game to the point where strategies overwhelmed instinct, numbers flooded contests, teams kicked to the boundary line or pockets to force a stoppage and teams “defended with the ball”.
And there’s many more tactics – some major and some minor – which we don’t even know about, such is the protection of intellectual property.
AFL great Dermott Brereton is a deep thinker and he was first alarmed about how the game was being played when Geelong’s premier defender-turned assistant coach, Matthew Scarlett, about five years ago spoke about the Cats “defending with the ball’’.
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Fast forward to 2019, and Brereton said watching a game of AFL was like observing cyclists riding around the velodrome for three laps before “making a break in the final lap’’.
He remembered what Scarlett said those years earlier.
“For the first time in 120 years of football, a coach of a team, albeit a line coach, talks about, ‘We are more hellbent on defending while we have the football then we are on attacking’,’’ Brereton said.
Fast forward to 2020 and the pandemic and the game and its players were laid bare: Too much defence and too few moments of greatness.
Fast forward again, to the end of the 2022 home-and-away season, and football is being celebrated for being its best version in a decade.
Thankfully, footy has been saved.
By who and by exactly what is a matter of opinion, but there’s no mistake, football has shed the defensive density which in turn has opened the game for the players to display their incredible athleticism and pure football talents.
Fans begrudge rule changes, yet it is those rule changes – introduced by Steve Hocking and his team at the AFL – which are the single most important reason why footy is so appealing.
Coaches closed the game. Hocking opened it.
He deserves widespread praise, although the kick-in rule, which allows players to run 30m with the ball and kick it to the wing, is a work in progress.
The 6-6-6 rule gives forwards space to act, and mostly in a 1v1 contest. For years they constantly competed in the air against two and three opponents. In this regard, Tex Walker couldn’t compete. But the faster, cleaner ball movement has allowed Tex to use his smarts and be dangerous. It’s not a coincidence.
The stand rule is a major success.
AFL great Mick Malthouse despises it.
“Speaking of ridiculous rules, the stand-on-the-mark rule is right up there,’’ Malthouse wrote in the Sunday Herald Sun.
Can’t agree. It looks silly at times, but the advantages far outweigh the silliness.
One of the most underrated rule tweaks is “dragging the ball in’’. By penalising a player for doing exactly that, players are trying to push the ball out of the contest. It further creates ball movement.
That’s all we want: ball movement.
Rule changes have created opportunity.
But before the rule changes – mainly 6-6-6 and the stand rule – there was Richmond. What an unbelievably breathtaking team the Tigers have been.
Their brand is described as chaos. It’s chaotically beautiful. Win it, move it forward, run, share it, repeat.
Melbourne followed suit, and this year at least, Geelong has added more chaos to its game style. Unquestionably, the faster style Chris Scott forecast in the pre-season evolved into the best brand of the season.
It also propelled Jeremy Cameron into the discussion of who is the most valuable player in the competition. With space, he flourishes.
Collingwood coach Craig McRae is the coach of the home-and-away season. A wooden spoon contender for most pundits, the Pies finished fourth and are the most exhilarating team to watch.
It’s as though McRae banned backwards kicks. His mantra is to go forward at all costs and, when in any doubt, or trailing on the scoreboard, or running out of time, the mantra is to go forward.
The Pies are watchable, successful and Jamie Elliott is Clutch City. His goal against Essendon after the siren, and his goal that killed Carlton in round 23, will long be remembered.
That win over the Blues will be a marker in history.
So, too, is Nick Daicos.
The son of you know who lived up to the hype in his first year of footy. It might be easier to rack up possessions in the modern game, but one fundamental has lived through the ages. That’s the ability to kick the ball from Point A to Point B.
And no first-year player in the history of the game has been able to deliver the pill like Nick Daicos.
The “comeback’’ has come back.
So many teams this season were behind by four, five and six goals and conjured momentum to claim remarkable victories. There’s one standout: Sydney over Richmond, when Chad Warner booted the ball into the stands and Jack Riewoldt made a mockery of the dissent rule, a rule which had made, for a brief period, a mockery of the game.
Arguably, the two proudest players at the All-Australian dinner were Shai Bolton and Tyson Stengle. Bolton oozes talent, and probably is the most watchable player in the game, and Stengle turned his life around. Doesn’t he have a nose for goals.
The freshness of Sydney has swamped the competition. The so-called young blokes aren’t young any more, led by Warner and Gulden. Warner’s a star and he could be a best-and-fairest winner in a couple of weeks.
Stengle is a wonderful story, but so, too, is Paddy McCartin, and Sam Docherty, and Ben Cunnington and Charlie Curnow for all different reasons.
The Demons are the survivors. They won 10 in a row and most people had given them the cup. They then lost six of their 10 matches, had a punch-up at French restaurants, and then somehow finished second on the ladder.
Oliver, Petracca and Gawn were dominant, but the best individual game was via Kozzie Pickett in Alice Springs. It had to be seen to be believed because four of six goals should be contenders for goal of the year.
Excitement defined footy in 20202.
In no order of importance or performance, the likes of Adam Saad, Connor Rozee and Zak Butters, Izak Rakine, Mason Redman, Charlie Cameron, Zac Bailey, Luke Davies-Uniacke and Bailey Smith had fans on their feet.
And Adelaide just might have a sensation in Darcy Fogarty.
Lance Franklin’s 1000th goal was historic, and the people who had a picnic at the SCG in the postscript thought they had won the night until it was learnt that fans Joel Brown and sister Krystal Clayton got to the centre circle, and scattered some of the ashes of their beloved nan Edna Dixon.
What a night it was.
What a season we have had.
What a finals series awaits us.
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