Early Tackle: All the likes and dislikes from Round 13 of the AFL Season
The AFL’s crackdown on dangerous tackle is admirable but it could lead to an embarrassing situation on Brownlow night. Is it time to tweak the best and fairest criteria?
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Port Adelaide has won 10 on the trot, Hawthorn’s rebuild continues to gather serious steam ahead of schedule and St Kilda has found an 18-game star.
Meanwhile the Texan starred in his 250th and the Tigers headed west to pick up a huge win.
Glenn McFarlane names his likes and dislikes from round 13.
LIKES
OWENS, THE SAINT GOES MARCHING IN
How is it that a kid who is 19 and who has played only 18 games is almost your team’s most influential barometer?
St Kilda has a handful of top-end talents including rising 23-year-old Max King, but what Mitch Owens is doing right now must be warming the hearts of long-suffering Saints fans.
Drafting hasn’t always been the club’s strong suit across the past decade, but the first three picks of the 2021 national draft might be some of the Saints’ best work for quite some time.
They took Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera at pick 11, then had the luxury of taking Next Generation Academy kids and close mates Owens (pick 33) and Marcus Windhager (pick 47).
All three are showing big potential, but Owens’ X-factor, his ability to make something out of nothing and to win one-on-one contests is making him a go-to player for his team.
He showed that on Thursday night in his first game back after a few weeks off with concussion, having 21 disposals, eight marks (three of them contested), three tackles and 2.2.
Champion Data guru Daniel Hoyne was talking him up as a serious Rising Star contender almost two months ago. We should have listened!
He has now firmed into $7, behind Will Ashcroft ($2) and Harry Sheezel ($2.80), with Gold Coast’s Bailey Humphrey rated as a $15 chance.
Owens was nominated in round 4, but his performances have elevated even more since then and he is gaining on Ashcroft and Sheezel.
COTCHIN EYES 300, TIGER STAY ALIVE
So you’re telling me there’s a chance …
Richmond breathed renewed life into its faint finals hope with a gritty on-the-road victory over Fremantle in Perth in yet another hard-fought finish between these two sides.
Having led by six goals during the third term, the Tigers saw their lead diminish to just over a goal in the last term before Shai Bolton kicked the sealer before the final siren – one of 14 possessions he had in the last term.
It came as Tim Taranto (35 disposals) turned in another slashing performance, two veterans in Trent Cotchin and Jack Riewoldt turned back the clock and caretaker coach Andrew McQualter further staked his claim for the permanent gig with a second successive win – a day after his 37th birthday.
The victory takes the Tigers to five wins and a draw, with a big clash with St Kilda before the mid-year bye.
Riewoldt kicked two goals for the game, to take him level with legend Kevin Bartlett (778 goals) on the Richmond career goalkicking tally.
He is now only 22 short of Matthew Richardson (800), who is second on the Tigers’ tally behind Jack ‘Skinny’ Titus (970).
Trent Cotchin had his season-best possession tally of 28 and will go into next week’s 300th game full of confidence. He will become the sixth Tiger to reach 300 games.
Incredibly, at three-quarter-time, the Tigers only had three free kicks to the Dockers’ 16, before the final ledger ended up 7-18 in Freo’s favour.
Jayden Short kicked three goals for the game as milestone men Liam Baker (100 games) and Dan Rioli (150) got to celebrate in style with the 15-point win.
THEY’RE A HANDBALL HAPPY TEAM AT HAWTHORN
Sam Mitchell was one of football’s greatest handballers, so it almost seemed appropriate that his team’s fourth win of the season came off the back of a daring, risk-taking brand complete with plenty of swift movement by hand.
It was the Hawks’ first win against a serious premiership contender and the manner of it makes you think Mitchell’s team is closer to future success than a few other mid-table teams stuck in no man’s land.
So much for the chatter that they might have been prepared to ‘tank’; they are going to be a dangerous team to meet in the second half of 2023.
Yes, they will still have to ride “the bumps with a grin” on occasions (as we saw in the first half against Port Adelaide last week), but the Hawks are building a profile and a list that would be the envy of some other sides.
Mitchell’s team had almost 100 more handballs (211 in total) than their opponents on Saturday as well as 101 more uncontested possessions.
It was good to watch, and the investment in the future that the Hawks have made in their list changes, might end up silencing some of the critics.
James Sicily was outstanding in his return from suspension, but Hawks fans will be sweating on how the match review officer assesses his tackle on Hugh McCluggage, who saw the Lion taken from the ground.
Jai Newcombe played a key role, James Worpel and Jarman Impey played big parts in the win, Connor McDonald had his game, while Mitch Lewis and Jacob Koschitzke combined for seven goals between them.
And the kids are looking good. More please after next week’s bye.
TEN FOR TEX
Taylor Walker kicked a career-best 10 goals in his 250th game on Saturday – the perfect way to head to the bye break where he and the Crows will surely look to extend his AFL career for another season into 2024.
Pre-game, his son Hugo predicted his dad would kick “five”, but he had that tally by the two-minute-mark of the second term. By halftime he had kicked seven as the Adelaide Oval crowd went into raptures over his performance, giving him a standing ovation when he kicked his 10th major.
Walker has already penned an autobiography ready for when he retires, but surely there is another chapter to come in 2024.
“I’ve never kicked double figures, so that’s nice,” Walker said after the game.
Is he now a Coleman Medal chance?
WAS THAT THE TEAM GOAL OF THE SEASON?
It was the linking moment that says everything about the way Port Adelaide plays and it might have been the best ‘team goal of the season’.
As the Bulldogs sensed an opportunity midway through the last quarter after back-to-back goals, the Power flicked the switch with a moment of brilliance that had coach Ken Hinkley almost high-fiving and the footy public in raptures.
Absolutely elite pickup and goal from Jason Horne-Francis 🤩 #AFLDogsPowerpic.twitter.com/CXHSfpwBsL
— 7AFL (@7AFL) June 9, 2023
Willem Drew laid a tackle at halfback, which allowed Zac Butters to gather the ball and charge through the middle like he owned it. He took a bounce and handballed to Drew, who launched it long into attack where Junior Rioli and Taylor Duryea wrestled for the ball.
A tap out of congestion from Liam Jones put the ball back into open play. Then Jason Horne-Francis pounced like a cat with a one-handed scoop-up, brushed his way past no fewer than three Bulldogs players before straightening up and slamming home a goal. It was almost a coast-to-coast classic.
Horne-Francis’ balance was extraordinary, and his work with Butters and Connor Rozee will make for compelling viewing for years ahead.
Butters could be on his way towards a Brownlow Medal — he was $81 pre-season and now he’s $5 second favourite to Nick Daicos.
But Horne-Francis’ upside — at only 19 — shouldn’t be underestimated. The kid’s an absolute star. He’s Dangerfield Mark II.
TOUCHING MOMENTS
Footy can be a brutal business, with a flint-hard edge that cuts deep. But every now and then we get some reminders about how good this game is, and how it connects people.
This round has been filled with a few of those heartwarming and touching moments.
On Friday night, Essendon’s 1993 premiership side came together to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the Baby Bombers’ Mark II.
While James Hird could not be there as he was overseas for business, the team’s captain, Mark ‘Bomber’ Thompson was back in the fold again.
Thompson has had his personal challenges since the club’s supplements saga a decade ago, but he turned up and received a warm welcome from the Bombers’ faithful.
On the same day, on the other side of the country, Ben Cousins was back at Richmond’s training session at Perth Stadium, supporting the club that gave him a footy lifeline in 2009 when his battle with drugs ended his career at West Coast.
He linked up with former teammates Trent Cotchin and Jack Riewoldt, and posed for a photo with a posse of Tigers including Liam Baker.
On a different note, we saw a grateful Lance Franklin express what the game had done for him in the pre-game address to teammates ahead of his 350th match on Thursday. He almost choked back tears. It was almost certainly the last great milestone in a stunning career.
At Marvel Stadium on Friday night, Jeremy Finlayson, who is undergoing his own challenges with his wife’s cancer battle, spared a thought for his former Giants teammate and now Carlton player Zac Williams.
Finlayson pointed to the sky after kicking a goal against the Bulldogs in a tribute to Williams’ sister, Samantha, who died of cancer this week.
And the masters of the feel-good story so far this year, Collingwood, had a special banner made for its injury-prone defender Charlie Dean, as he returned to running sessions following another long injury lay-off.
Dean has yet to play a senior game, but the Pies formed a guard of honour to him on Saturday morning as he ran through a banner: “Welcome back. Back to Work.”
For all the angst and discord this game throws us, the power of connectivity is just as strong.
And Neale Daniher will show us that again on King’s Birthday!
DISLIKES
COULD ‘CHARLIE’ CRITERIA BE TWEAKED?
Neil Roberts famously threatened to hand back his 1958 Brownlow Medal (on numerous occasions) if the VFL/AFL ever considered changing the “fairest and best” aspect to the game’s highest individual honour.
Let’s hope the Saints great doesn’t have to do that, but there seems to be little doubt the AFL will have to give some consideration to changing the ‘Charlie’ criteria, given the strict crackdown on tackling this year to try and protect the heads of players.
Given we now know so much more about the effects of concussion on the human brain, the move to protect the head is admirable, but it might ultimately lead to an embarrassing situation on Brownlow Medal night.
Brownlow Medallists Jimmy Bartel and Gerard Healy have expressed their views that given the crackdown on dangerous tackles, there could be a differentiation from football acts and non football acts when determining if a player was eligible to win the Brownlow Medal or not.
It’s something the AFL will have to have a long think about at season’s end as in the future we could have a situation when more than a handful of contenders are ruled ineligible.
DOGS, ‘THE ALMOST TEAM’
Dermott Brereton was blunt in his assessment of the Western Bulldogs’ 2023 prospects when quizzed about Luke Beveridge’s team.
“They will beat the teams from 10th to 18th, but they ain’t beating anyone in the top six,” Brereton said on SEN.
He was talking about the Bulldogs’ inability to beat the competition’s elite teams.
They are always competitive, as they were against Port Adelaide on Friday, but what the past season and a half has shown is that they struggle too often to close the deal against the best.
Since the start of 2022, the Bulldogs have won four and lost 12 of their matches against top eight sides.
As good as their best is at times, and as talented as their top end players can be, they need to change that ledger.
Bevo all but conceded that in his press conference, lamenting that their skill errors at crucial times.
“Even the last few weeks, the games have probably swung on decision and skill at times and ours has been marginal and it’s hurt us,” Beveridge said.
“It just means that we’re below the upper rung at the moment and we’ve got to keep pursuing trying to get up there.”
Port Adelaide scored 9.8 (62) from turnovers.
Unless the Dogs can clean up that area of the game, they will continue to be one of the “almost teams of the competition.”
LIONS TAMED AT THE ‘G AGAIN
Brisbane’s ‘Nightmare on Brunton Avenue’ had another horror re-run on Saturday after the sluggish Lions were outrun and outworked by a younger, hungrier Hawthorn at the MCG.
Leaving aside the semi-final win over a banged up Melbourne in last year’s semi-final, the Lions have now won only one of their past 14 matches at the home of football.
Their ledger at the ground since July 2014 reads like this: L/L/L/L/L/L/L/L/L/L/L/W/L/L and with only a round 18 clash with Melbourne to come at the ‘G before the finals, Chris Fagan’s men have to find a way to break the shackles or run the risk of again being a finals also-ran.
The Lions looked to have the game in their keepings when kicking the last three goals of the first half to lead by 17 points at halftime, but they were overwhelmed when the Hawks dared to win and kicked eight of the last nine goals to secure the win.
Was it any wonder that Fagan was pacing back and forth near the back of the coaches’ box almost as if he knew the ending that was coming?
The wide open spaces of the MCG, and the fleet of foot Hawks, made the Lions look slow and their lot wasn’t helped when they lost Hugh McCluggage in the final term.
As Hawks skipper James Sicily said on Fox Footy: “We knew we had plenty of run in the legs … we had serious belief we could run over the top of them in the second half.”
MIKE OPENS UP
One of the most respected voices in the game, former Herald Sun chief football writer Mike Sheahan, fears the crackdown on tackles might one day lead to the game applying basketball-like “tech fouls”.
Sheahan took to Twitter to express his frustration after there had been speculation that Bulldog Marcus Bontempelli could be looked at for his collision with Dan Houston.
The Bulldogs were breathing a sigh of relief on Saturday after the Bont was cleared of any wrongdoing, but Sheahan urged the AFL to not overcorrect.
We will be applying tech fouls soon. The authorities need to remember it’s a body contact sport. We were 100 years addressing gratuitous violence, now we are over-correcting. Bumps and tackles as “football actions†must be preserved ..or it won’t be the game that won our hearts.
— Mike Sheahan (@MichaelSheaha18) June 10, 2023
It followed on from St Kilda’s Dan Butler receiving a one-game ban from the match review officer for his tackle on Sydney’s Nick Blakey, which the Saints will almost certainly take to the tribunal on Tuesday night.
The Butler incident has divided the football world.
Sheahan said on Twitter: “We will be applying tech fouls soon. The authorities need to remember it’s a body contact sport.”
“We were 100 years addressing gratuitous violence, now we are overcorrecting. Bumps and tackles as “football actions” must be preserved. or it won’t be the game that won our hearts.”
DOCKERS MISS BIG CHANCE
The curse of the bye strikes again … as Fremantle joined Brisbane and Sydney as three of the four teams to lose the week after having the first bye of the 2023 season.
The Dockers missed the chance to consolidate their position within the top eight, leaving them on six wins and six losses.
Coach Justin Longmuir will be lamenting a lapse in concentration through the early to mid part of the game that saw the Dockers trailing by 36 points early in the third quarter.
A comeback always seemed possible as they clawed their way back to within 19 points at the last change as the home crowd urged them on.
They drew back to within seven points early in the last term before a stalemate ensued that saw the Tigers hold on when it mattered most.
THE PAIN OF 122 POINTS
It’s messy and getting messier.
West Coast is again running out of players as Adam Simpson’s team limps to its much-needed bye off the back of a 122-point mauling from Adelaide, with the Crows kicking the biggest score of the season so far.
The Eagles lost Jake Waterman (illness) before the game and Luke Foley (hamstring) during the Adelaide Oval thrashing.
Despite being sorely undermanned, coach Adam Simpson was frustrated by the manner in which his team was systematically outplayed in the first half.
Simpson told Fox Footy at the time: “I know we’re a bit undermanned, but we’re better than that,”
One of the few highlights came three minutes into the game when 18-year-old debutant Ryan Maric – drafted as pick 1 in the mid-season draft last week – kicked a goal with his first touch in AFL football.
Maric finished with two goals, as David King joked on Fox Footy: “He’s done well, Maric, let’s see if he has got any friends from Drouin to bring in next week.”
Given the Eagles’ plight at the moment, they might take anything they can get.
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