The Tackle: Mark Robinson’s likes and dislikes from Round 16
Eddie Betts might be footy’s most loved player, but his form has come under the microscope this year. Mark Robinson questions whether we are seeing a slump or the end of Adelaide’s human highlights reel? THE TACKLE
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With North Melbourne and Carlton enjoying success under caretaker coaches, the heat is on St Kilda mentor Alan Richardson.
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Big questions are being asked of the lacklustre Pies and coach Nathan Buckley, while time is fast catching up on freakish Adelaide forward Eddie Betts.
The Doggies midfield made mincemeat out of the Cats and is it time to fear the sleeping giants in premiers West Coast?
SEE ALL ROBBO’S LIKES AND DISLIKES FOR ROUND 16
WHAT I DISLIKE
1. Where does this leave Richo?
Football boss Simon Lethlean was perched next to him in the coach’s box and at quarter-time Lethlean, chief executive Matt Finnis and whoever else is going to decide Alan Richardson’s future must have had their heads in their hands. Down by 40 points, this Saints display loomed as a coach killer. But these players have fight. They kicked 10.6 to 10.5 in the next three quarters, showing some terrific attitude before the contest petered out in the final quarter. They were the third-youngest team this round and up against a pretty tough unit, but that first quarter was meek. The Saints have two wins and eight losses in their past 10 matches. Their percentage since Round 6 is 69. Only Gold Coast has been worse.
2. Frozen Pies
It’s been shades of 2017 in the past six weeks, and the Magpies’ past fortnight has been alarmingly bad. Simply, they are a broken team. The problems first. The Pies have key injuries, scoring is well down and they are struggling to move the ball fluently. Their past six scores are 63, 37, 82, 98, 75 and 80. From Rounds 1-9 they averaged 94.6 points a game (ranked third). From Rounds 10-16 they averaged 72.5 points (ranked 15th). In Rounds 10-16 they averaged 33.5 points from intercepts (ranked 17th). They had just 35 inside-50s against the Hawks and 36 against North Melbourne the week before. That combined 71 entries is the second-fewest in a two-week period since 2015, yet the Pies had 386 disposals and 393 disposals in those matches. They are generating an entry just once every 11 disposals — the 10th-worst rate Champion Data has recorded over a two-week period.
3. What about solutions?
Commentator Danny Frawley put it squarely on coach Nathan Buckley. “Buckley got his pants pulled down big time,’’ he said on SEN Radio on Saturday. He cited the flooding of the defence that allowed Isaac Smith so much freedom as an example of poor coaching. The Pies have injuries, but when Adam Treloar (31 disposals), Tom Phillips (31), Steele Sidebottom (28) and Scott Pendlebury (25) are winning so much ball, there’s surely a problem with the system. Are they being tactically over-coached? Former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas thinks so. “One team stacking 18 players behind ball, the other eking (sic) it around the boundary,’’ he tweeted. “Result of coaches squeezing every last drop of risk and instinct out of players.’’ You can’t disagree. Maybe Buckley parks the laptop and instead injects some excitement, instinct and boldness.
4. Legends have a point
Leigh Matthews and Dermott Brereton seemed bewildered by events on Friday night, and probably felt the same about Saturday night’s clash between the Bulldogs and Cats. Matthews wants extra incentives for scoring to stop the defensive lockdowns. It’s a fine idea but impractical. His push — and KB’s — to reduce interchange rotations, however, is gathering support. It should be the next big agenda item on Steve Hocking’s fix-the-game whiteboard. The theory is to tire players so defensive mechanisms can’t strangle the game. Cats great Matty Scarlett is one who disagrees. He wants unlimited rotations, which he says will increase risky ball movement. Brereton likened today’s football to a bicycle track sprint in which the two riders cycle slowly and tactically until the final lap then make a mad dash for the finish. Again, you can’t disagree. We all like close games, but gee they can be boring until the last quarter.
5. Look at the picture above
There are 14 people in the Essendon coach’s box and 16 laptops — and coach John Worsfold is sitting on the bench. That’s football in a nutshell. Even North Melbourne stalwart Darren Crocker conceded yesterday on 3AW the game was over-coached. But the comment of the weekend about the state of today’s football goes to Scarlett. He said teams defended with the footy in hand. Football once was about attacking with the ball in hand. Now the team without the ball is defending and the team with the ball is also defending. Hence low scores and a decided lack of highlights.
6. Adelaide
Coach Don Pyke said it and so did football director Mark Ricciuto. The performance was embarrassing. When a team falls apart in the second half as the Crows did — and the numbers are frightening — there is zero belief that it is a finals team. For a Showdown it was shameful. Adelaide lost the inside-50 count 41-12 in the second half. Worst of all, the Crows applied fewer tackles than Port Adelaide. Time to put a line through the Crows.
7. Is Eddie cooked?
The most popular player in the competition is in a hell of a slump, and when you are 32 it’s difficult to determine if it’s a slump or the end. Betts is averaging his fewest disposals since 2006, his fewest ranking points and uncontested possessions since 2005 (his debut season), his fewest tackles since 2008, his fewest clearances since 2011, and his worst kicking efficiency. The numbers don’t lie. He’s kicked 26 goals in 15 games this year after kicking 29 in 18 matches last year. The highlights are still there, but the impact is not.
8. Fremantle
The Dockers were on the skids after losses to Melbourne and Carlton. On Saturday night against West Coast they hit the wall. If we’ve put a line through the Crows for the flag, we can safely put a line through the Dockers for the finals. The gap between their best and worst has been too big for too long and although they have injuries — so do other teams — they keep getting found out. What a disappointing three weeks since Jonathan Brown said Freo had jumped the Eagles in flag calculations.
9. Setting Suns
That’s 11 defeats in succession and easily the most uncompetitive effort of the season. What does the AFL do? 1) It can wind up the Suns, which it won’t do. 2) It can leave the Suns to work it out and slowly improve or 3) Give the club priority draft picks. Reckon scenario three will be strongly debated at headquarters. It might mean giving the Suns pick No. 2 to follow their likely No. 1 selection, or at least pick No. 20 after the No. 19 selection. But can you just hear the outrage if they are given pick two?
MORE ROBBO:
The Tackle: Mark Robinson’s likes and dislikes from Round 15, 2019
Robbo: Despite conspiracy theories, St Kilda coach Alan Richardson needs to win to save his job
Mark Robinson: Essendon must make the finals to save John Worsfold’s job
Jeff Kennett’s security staff comments were damaging to the game and he should be punished
WHAT I LIKE
1. Kanga Dilemma
The next North Melbourne coach is John Longmire or Rhyce Shaw. If Longmire says no, and reports at the weekend said the Swans had begun talks on a contract extension, the Kangaroos surely can’t overlook Shaw. But the longer Longmire doesn’t say no, the more complicated it gets for North Melbourne. Because the longer Shaw is in the chair, the more impressive he is to North Melbourne’s decision-makers. You have to wonder if the hasty Kangas are regretting making their initial offer to Longmire.
2. Top-four Lions
Not only Brisbane’s best win of the season, it might be Brisbane’s best win under Chris Fagan. But don’t expect Coach Cool to talk finals despite them being top four after Round 16. Played better footy than the Giants and more significantly matched the harder-edged Giants in tight on their home deck. There’s always questions about rising teams and about whether they have the brand to play finals football. That question is answered for the Lions. They led throughout and when the Giants came in the final quarter, the Lions didn’t yield. Won by 20 points and lost the inside 50 count by nine. A magical win by the Lions and a crushing loss at home for the Giants.
3. Return of the King
The Eagles loom large, as does ruckman Nic Naitanui. If the Eagles can hold on to second spot, they will play at least one and probably more home finals. It makes for a strong argument that they are the premiership favourites. To watch Naitanui on Saturday night was like watching a bolt of lighting — he simply energises his football team. In their two matches with Naitanui back in the team, the Eagles have won the clearances by 25 against the Hawks and 17 against the Dockers. That’s plus-42 in clearances — and Naitanui played just 50 per cent of the game. It remains to be seen if coach Adam Simpson will go with both Naitanui and Tom Hickey come September. Two ruckmen worked over the Pies in last year’s Grand Final. I reckon he will.
4. Yeo v Fyfe
Few, if any, players are the tagged one week and the tagger the next. That’s what happened to Elliot Yeo. The Hawks last week assigned Daniel Howe to Yeo, and this week Adam Simpson sent Yeo to Nat Fyfe in what became a frightfully tough encounter. That two of the game’s best midfielders went head-to-head was a highlight in the blowout. Yeo arguably is the best two-way mid in the game and Simpson would be thrilled with the result of Saturday night’s match-up. They were opposed for 74 minutes and the numbers were Yeo 17 disposals, Fyfe 14. Contested possessions were 9-10, clearances were 7-6, and goals were 1-0. Body-on-body contests looked like they were 33-31, such was their ferocity.
5. Dramatic Sunday at the ‘G
This match had everything. The skills were poor early. Melbourne took control and Tom McDonald kicks six and hurts a knee. Marty Hore was gone early with a collarbone, Jacob Weitering broke his nose and Jordan Lewis will face MRP scrutiny. Clayton Oliver and Ed Curnow played war games in the middle. The Braydon Preuss and Matthew Kreuzer clash was a corker. Carlton was down 30 points at three-quarter time, but hit the lead with two minutes to play before Melbourne’s Jayden Hunt kicked the winner. Most of the most dramatic moments happened in the last minute. Jack Silvagni’s game was the most significant of his career. Talk of him needing to leave the Blues surely are put to bed.
6. Bulldogs mids
It’s got to be daunting coming up against Geelong’s treasure trove of midfielders, but not daunting enough for this brilliant young Bulldogs group. When they fire and kick goals, the Bulldogs are the giant-killers of the AFL. They have beaten Sydney, Hawthorn, Richmond, Brisbane, Port Adelaide and Geelong — four of them top-eight teams. They dominated the last quarter on Saturday. They do like to flip the ball around, and they beat Geelong on the spread. Marcus Bontempelli, Lachie Hunter, Jack Macrae and Josh Dunkley combined for 120 disposals, 49 contested possessions, 20 tackles, 16 clearances and 26 score involvements. Geelong’s Tim Kelly, Patrick Dangerfield, Joel Selwood and Mitch Duncan combined for 84 disposals, 37 contested possessions, 13 tackles, 15 clearances and 25 score involvements. Dogs win.
7. Fine Wines
Nick Riewoldt last week pondered whether Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley would make a statement at selection and if that could mean axing the skipper. It was a poser more than a statement from Riewoldt and, of course, it made its way to Ollie Wines. The Port sar wouldn’t be motivated by external noise, but he put a stop to any more talk about his position in the team. Port was brilliant as Wines led from the front. He had 34 disposals, 14 contested possessions, eight clearances and a match-high 12 score involvements. His 34 disposals was just one short of his career high.
8. Darcy Parish
Two weeks ago Essendon and John Worsfold were the rage. Could they fight out games? Was Worsfold’s job linked to playing finals? Now they have come from behind to win two games — against Greater Western Sydney and Sydney Swans — and finals is far from beyond them. What has emerged is a single matchwinning move, reminiscent of Worsfold moving Adam Hunter to the forward line at the Eagles in the mid 2000s. At Essendon, it is Cale Hooker to the forward line. In those two wins Hooker has been redeployed from defence and has galvanised Essendon’s attack. Another player has also emerged in Darcy Parish. Since Round 9 his midfield time has progressed to near 50 per cent. In that time he’s averaged 24 disposals, nine contested possessions, and has kicked six goals.
9. Jarman Impey
The Hawks’ colossal win on Friday night was dictated from the halfback line. James Sicily controlled the air and when he’s allowed to do that he is an All-Australian backman. The other star defender was Jarman Impey. Think most people would say Impey was not a bad footballer, but he has elevated himself in the past four weeks. He played the best game of his career last week against West Coast, having a career-high 16 intercept possessions, and he backed it up against the Pies with a career-high 25 disposals. Coach Alastair Clarkson likes his versatility and played Impey forward Rounds 8, 10 and 11, but since Round 13, Impey is rated the sixth-best general defender.
10. Jason Castagna
Finally a strong contribution to the scoreboard from the small forward. It was the first time Castagna has kicked five goals and his team-high 12 score involvements were a career best. He needed it. Heading into the match he was the lowest-rated general forward to play 10 or more games. It was only Gold Coast, but it was pleasing as the Tigers rejuvenated their premiership campaign through strong games from Castagna, Daniel Rioli, Sydney Stack, Jack Graham and Kane Lambert.