Early Tackle: Glenn McFarlane’s likes and dislikes from round 22
A season that promised so much for Essendon has become a familiar nightmare, writes GLENN MCFARLANE. Mac Andrew might’ve kicked the winner, but whatever way you dissect it, it’s clear where the blame lies.
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Sydney is the first confirmed finalist after a stirring comeback win which all but ended Collingwood’s premiership defence.
As the finals draw closer, the jostling for spots in the top four and top eight intensifies by the week.
GLENN MCFARLANE names his likes and dislikes from a crucial round 22.
DISLIKES
BOMBERS BLOW IT ... AGAIN
Fox Footy’s David King called it the worst “capitulation” he had seen in footy. Jason Dunstall said it was akin to “highway robbery”.
But whatever way you dissect it, Essendon squandered a gilt-edged chance to bury some demons and keep their finals hopes burning.
Instead, the one-point loss to the Suns will sting for a long, long time as for the third time in as many years, the Bombers lost a game in heartbreaking after-the-siren circumstances. It was Collingwood’s Jamie Elliott in 2022 and Port Adelaide’ Dan Houston last year.
On Saturday night, it was Gold Coast’s Mac Andrew, who dragged down a late mark and slotted through the match-winning goal with a clutch precision that the Bombers could not replicate.
Essendon coughed up a woefully inaccurate 1.9 in the last term – from 19 inside 50s – as Andrew joined Karmichael Hunt and Noah Anderson as Gold Coast’s after-the-siren heroes.
The look of disbelief on Scott’s face in the coaches’ box said it all. His players too looked crestfallen at letting such an opportunity slip.
When Archie Roberts kicked the first goal of the last term at the three-minute-mark, the Bombers not only regained the lead, but also the momentum.
But a litany of inexplicable and unacceptable misses mounted for the remainder of the game, tightening the mental squeeze on the players. Sam Draper missed one he should have kicked, then Jake Stringer sprayed three shots before a Jade Gresham ‘goal that wasn’t’ was brought back after a free kick was paid against him.
It’s hard to see how the Bombers can bounce back from this, with the remaining two games coming against Sydney and Brisbane.
A season that promised so much has become a familiar nightmare.
HOUDINI PIES OUT OF GAS
Collingwood’s season is alive only in a minuscule mathematical sense, but the cold, hard reality is that the Magpies’ premiership defence was over weeks ago.
A season of injury, inconsistent form and some alarming late-game fadeouts will leave a clearly frustrated Craig McRae and his lieutenants with some soul searching and list assessment across the summer.
A 16th premiership cup sitting in the foyer will ease some of that pain, but the Magpies have plenty of work ahead if they want to put themselves back in a position to chase that 17th VFL-AFL flag.
The team’s ‘Houdini-like’ capacity under McRae to drag itself out of tight last-term situations at the death knell was their superpower.
Now it’s looking more like their kryptonite.
The Magpies haven’t won a last quarter since round 18, and their past five encounters have yielded an alarming -91 points differential in final terms.
That’s -9 v Geelong, -21 v Hawthorn, -15 v Richmond, -22 v Carlton and -24 v Sydney.
Yes, they did beat the Tigers and the Blues in those games, but the trend of giving up ground to teams late in games was also a costly issue earlier in the season against Hawthorn the first time around and then Fremantle when the game ended in a draw.
Is it hunger? We won’t know that until next season.
Is it personnel? That’s possible, given not only the injury list this season, but also the fact some of the premiership heroes of last year have had to play hurt for much of it.
But the late drop offs will be an internal focus ahead of the last two games against Brisbane Lions and Melbourne – and into next season.
IS IT TIME FOR AN UMP SUMMIT?
Six weeks ago AFL CEO Andrew Dillon launched into a public defence of umpiring this season, saying it was at the best standard it had been.
Speak privately to most of the clubs, and they’ll tell you a different story. The divide is stark.
This isn’t an umpiring bashing point, far from it. Umpires have the hardest job in footy, and in many ways, it is getting harder not easier.
This take isn’t isolated to the final moments of Collingwood’s loss to Sydney, where the Magpies were on the end of a few tough calls – two insufficient intent decisions as well as a contentious call not to pay Dan McStay a 50m penalty after Tom McCartin encroached over the mark.
Collingwood was stiff.
But footy fans will tell you that the Magpies were on the right side of the ledger when they got away with a missed 50m penalty against North Melbourne in round 15.
It is a matter of swings and roundabouts.
But the frustration of so many at club land was on display again when Craig McRae risked a ‘please explain’ from the AFL by publicly commenting on the decisions on Friday night.
The focus on umpiring this year has been intense.
We’ve got so many smart people in and around the game. We need to bring them all together at the end of the season to work out how, as an industry, we can make it easier for the umpires in the future.
Is it spending more money on development?
Is it giving the current group greater resources and support?
Is it seeking a core of umpires who might be willing to go full-time?
Is it just simplifying things and refraining from changes to interpretations on the run?
Let’s be proactive to make the game better. It’s in all of our interests.
DOCKED OF THE POINTS
Back to back heartbreaking close losses – by a solitary point and by 11 points – have Fremantle walking the finals tightrope again with a tough finish against Greater Western Sydney and Port Adelaide to determine their September destiny.
The Dockers were in the mix for a top four spot after successive wins over Melbourne and West Coast but the past two slip-ups against Essendon and Geelong means a finals spot is no longer guaranteed.
This clash with the Cats was a cracker.
But Justin Longmuir and his team were left lamenting a slow start that saw Geelong kick the opening four goals of the game.
It set them on the back foot and while they pushed hard throughout the game, including a final term goal from Caleb Serong that looked like being a team-lifter, the Cats had the composure and connection when it mattered most.
LIONS STREAK SMASHED
Will the real premiership favourite stand up please!
In this crazy, snakes and ladders season with more twists and turns than a Disneyland rollercoaster, Brisbane fell to its first defeat since late May.
Their nine-game winning streak is over.
In the process, the Lions left the top two door ajar for a host of their contenders, including the Giants who leapfrogged them with an extraordinary Gabba fightback victory.
We’ve already seen this season how hard it is to stay up for extended periods. But that will be no comfort for Lions coach Chris Fagan who would be lamenting the missed opportunity which could yet hurt last year’s runners-up in the rundown to September.
They looked intoxicatingly good in the first term, kicking four goals to nil. But one of their old bugbears emerged again – inaccuracy.
They kicked 4.7 in the opening term, and it was 8.16 by the end of the match, while the more efficient Giants closed out the game with 6.0 in the last term to win by 18 points.
They can ill afford that in September.
ROO’D OPPORTUNITY
How could you let that one slip, Kangas?
North Melbourne was 35 points up at one stage of the clash with West Coast in Hobart on Saturday, then 19 points up with less than seven minutes to play.
Alastair Clarkson’s stated aim of taking winning momentum in 2025 appeared on track … until it wasn’t.
Somehow, the Kangaroos lost their grasp on a game they should have closed out, and the manner of this loss will hurt for so many reasons.
They gave up the last four goals, the last three clearances and the last three inside 50s of the contest, with the Eagles veterans and young guns combining to do the damage.
This was a missed opportunity to record what should have been a fourth win this season, with tough games to come against Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn to come.
SAINTS’ HELLISH WEEK
What the hell was St Kilda thinking?
It wasn’t just the fact that the Saints head of talent and acquisition Graeme Allan met with sacked Kangaroo Tarryn Thomas for lunch and a chat in a public place last Tuesday.
That went down very poorly at AFL headquarters, given the league had exiled Thomas at least until the outcome of a court case in late November over charges of “using telecommunications to harass and breaching a court order.”
There were others closer to home at Moorabbin who were just as uncomfortable with the meeting, not to mention a backlash from some Saints members who expressed their disappointment.
To make matters worse the club failed to make an official statement on the issue until almost 48 hours after the meeting was made public.
That statement came three hours after an extremely awkward Ross Lyon media call on Friday where he refused to comment on Allan’s meeting with Thomas, insisting he was just a “servant” of the club.
Part of St Kilda CEO Carl Dilena’s statement read: “the football department pursues a number of players, as it is our job to find the best talent to fit our team and our club.”
Historically, that job of chasing talent has got the Saints into trouble on occasions in the past.
In this case, failing to follow the AFL protocols of waiting until Thomas’ court case is over before a determination could be made on his future led to an embarrassing week for the Saints, who in the end, had no choice but to rule themselves out of recruiting him.
LIKES
MAC TIME
Maybe Damien Hardwick doesn’t hate Marvel Stadium anymore.
On a night when 20-year-old Mac Andrew, in only his 39th AFL game, coolly slotted through the match-winning goal after the final siren, the Suns coach finally had something nice to say about the venue.
This was Hardwick’s first win at Docklands from his last 10 attempts, from his time as Tigers coach when he famously said he hated the place to his frustrating attempts to win on the road for the Suns this season.
Andrew’s four-goal performance both on the night – and with his final kick – will now go down in Suns’ history.
He was playing in defence earlier this year when he was on the end of an incorrect free kick awarded against him late in the St Kilda game, gifting Max King and the Saints the win.
The AFL later ruled it an error.
But on Saturday night, as a forward, Andrew showed what a star of the future he is, getting in the face of the Bombers and backing it up with his deeds.
“I was a bit nervous,” Andrew said on Fox Footy after the game.
But he didn’t look like he was as went back and nailed the kick, in complete contrast to the Bombers who wasted so many chances.
Andrew has one more year of a contract to run with the Suns.
Is it any wonder Gold Coast is getting its finances in order, as Andrew is on the way to being one of the best paid players in the game.
WAS THIS THE QUARTER THAT WOKE SYDNEY FROM ITS SLUMBER?
When Collingwood led Sydney by 27 points during the last term on Friday night, bookmakers were preparing to turn the Swans out to double figures for the 2024 flag. And for good reason!
They looked a shadow of the side once sitting three games clear on the ladder.
Enter Isaac Heeney. And, for good measure, Chad Warner.
Heeney went into beast mode after his early season Brownlow favourite form dipped badly following his one game suspension which blunted his confidence.
On Friday night, he and Warner shared 28 disposals, two critical goals and eight clearances in a last-term that kept Sydney on top of the ladder, reshaping their season after their recent alarming drop off.
Heeney’s 32 disposals was an equal season-high for him, his seven clearances were the most he had in seven weeks and his nine inside 50s was the best return of his career.
Warner was almost as important in the final term.
This was also an important match for Luke Parker, who has had a challenging season mixed with injury, VFL time and a lengthy suspension.
Longmire chose to play Parker forward, where he was needed, before being propelled into the midfield at times.
He kicked two goals and played a good role for his team.
As David King said on SEN: “I don’t think he (Parker) was meant to be a centrepiece in this forward line, he was just another body, another soldier.
“That’s why this was a big night for the Sydney Swans, to get the real Luke Parker back.”
This collective final term effort might just be the spark that ignites the Swans’ machine again, and it might have come just in time.
GIANT WARNING
Adam Kingsley’s Giants, take a bow.
This was one of the wins of the season, against the odds, against the pro-Lions Gabba crowd, and off the back of a slow start to the game, but it has enhanced Greater Western Sydney’s flag credentials.
The Giants couldn’t kick a goal in the first term as a wasteful Brisbane kicked four majors but left plenty on the table with inaccurate kicking.
But a little reality check from Kingsley at quarter-time helped to instil the belief back into the visitors as they not only got themselves back in the run of play, they started changing the scoreboard narrative.
In the end, a six-goal to one final term brought about their sixth win in a row after a mid-season slump and it was the near perfect mix of youth and experience that made the difference.
This might end up being the game that announces one-time No.1 draft pick Aaron Cadman as a serious player of the present as much as the future.
He kicked three goals in the final term, while energising small forward Darcy Jones managed to score two in that same quarter.
Jesse Hogan kept his firm grasp on Coleman Medal favouritism with three goals, including one in the final term, as the Orange Tsunami swept over the top of the Lions.
Next stop for the wave will come against Fremantle and the Bulldogs, as the Giants eye off a top two spot.
‘SCHO’ IS IN WITH A SHOW
Stand-in West Coast coach Jarrad Schofield can now take back to back wins – including the Eagles’ first interstate victory in a year – to his job interview for the vacant role at the end of the season.
This was one of West Coast’s best wins across the past few seasons, coming back from 35 points down against the Kangaroos to win with a stunning Oscar Allen snap over the shoulder goal putting his team in front with only seconds left on the clock.
That kick into the Eagles forward line came from Andrew Gaff, who announced his retirement this week. He will play his last game next week.
Harley Reid took a ripping mark and got into a tangle with Cam Zurhaar, Jeremy McGovern played through pain to be a West Coast brick wall he has been so often and Allen’s last goal was the fourth in succession from the Roos.
Allen said of McGovern, in his second game back from injury: “I got on the end of a couple of goals, but he probably saved 10 the other way.”
This was Schofield’s fifth game as the caretaker coach since Adam Simpson’s departure, and with several high profile candidates pulling out, his 2-3 record isn’t looking too bad.
Watch this space.
JEZ WHAT THE CATS ORDERED
Geelong is back in the top four, a dominant Patrick Dangerfield is breathing a sigh of relief after two late misses and Jeremy Cameron had the perfect 250-game celebrations.
It was a big day for the Cats out west.
When the final siren sounded with Geelong 11 points clear of Fremantle at Perth Stadium, Cameron roared: “Let’s go!”
And you could understand why as the chessboard manoeuvres inside the top eight launched Geelong back into double chance contention again with two very winnable games to come against St Kilda and West Coast in the last fortnight.
This was a game that had a finals feel about it, and the Cats relished the temperature rising from the moment Cameron kicked the opening goal of the contest.
Dangerfield had an enormous final term, having seven of his 20 touches in that time, and kicking a monster goal.
He had an equal game high 11 clearance and eight scoring involvements.
He also had two other chances late in the goal which could have guaranteed victory, but a missed kick off the ground went through the wrong side of the post, then a long bomb late just missed scoring.
“We knew what was at stake,” Dangerfield said on Fox Footy after the game.
“We’ve got to be good enough in the next two games … it’s the top four carrot.”
WHY SIDEY DESERVES A NEW DEAL
Collingwood is now having weekly list management meetings as it deals with the future of some club greats with an eye on what happens next year.
That’s likely to be ramped up even further now that the finals’ dream is all but gone.
Scott Pendlebury, 36, will play on in 2025 and Jeremy Howe, 34, has hit a trigger to go around for at least another season.
Steele Sidebottom, 33, has expressed a desire to play on next year, but the club says it still has some work to do to finalise how many of their veterans will play on next year.
This column reckons Sidebottom, who kicked the match-winning goal in last year’s grand final, has done enough to go again in 2025.
He was outstanding in his role on Errol Gulden on Friday night and but for some missed communication between him and Isaac Quaynor late in the game, it was almost a match-winning performance.
Sidebottom had 21 disposals, 51 pressure acts and six clearances on a night in which he kept Gulden to his lowest tally (14) since the 2022 grand final, even if the Swan’s late goal hurt.
The Magpies have nine players who are 30 or over, and most of them are already locked away until the end of 2025, with a new Will Hoskin-Elliott deal coming soon.
If the 22-and-under Collingwood players had been pushing harder to displace the older Magpies, it might have been a different story.
Nick Daicos might be the best young player in the country but some of the Magpies’ ‘generation next’ have been consigned to long stretches in the VFL and haven’t yet grasped the opportunity presented to them.
That means Sidebottom, one of the great Magpies, should play on.
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