The Early Tackle: All the major talking points in AFL Round 22
This Demon stole the spotlight earlier in the year after an infamous fight with a teammate. Now, he is making headlines for all the right reasons.
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There is plenty at stake in the penultimate round of the season.
Glenn McFarlane outlines the big talking points from the weekend so far.
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BLUE HEARTACHE
Footy can be a bloody cruel game sometimes.
Carlton was so close to locking in its first finals berth since 2013 that it could almost taste it.
When Charlie Curnow nailed a goal with three minutes left on the clock, it seemed as if the long September drought – which stretches back more than 3200 days – was all but over.
But after the Demons somehow stole the game with a Kozzie Pickett goal with 11 seconds to spare, the Blues fans are now back in a nervous, sickening waiting game.
If the Pickett kick had gone through for a behind, it would have been a draw, which would have been enough for the Blues to lock in a finals spot.
Instead, a loss means Carlton must now take on old rivals Collingwood in what could be a make-or-break final round clash at the MCG next Sunday, depending on other results.
In a season of amazing swings and roundabouts, it was a cruel end to what was one of the Blues’ gutsiest performances of the season.
The heartache was etched on the faces of Carlton players when the siren sounded, leaving Michael Voss’ team an agonising five points adrift of an elated Melbourne.
Now they have to dust themselves off and go again in what looms as one of the best finishes to a home-and-away season for years.
DISLIKES
DOGS ALIVE … JUST!!!
Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge might have to channel his best ‘Lloyd Christmas’ impersonation with the line - ‘So You’re Telling Me There’s A Chance’ - when he dissects the club’s stuttering win over Greater Western Sydney.
The famous expression of hope against the odds in the movie Dumb and Dumber sums up how the Dogs are still a fluker’s chance of playing in September, despite winning ugly against the Giants.
The Dogs held on … just.
Last year’s grand finalists are a long way short of their best. They take on Hawthorn next week in Tassie and will have to rely on other results, but at least there is a pulse, even if the Giants did their best to try and end the season of their bitter rivals.
In a game that never reached any great heights, the Bulldogs kicked the only goal of the final term, via Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, and they live to fight another day - for the moment.
As Bailey Smith said after the game: “The season is on the line now, each game we play from here is a final basically. It is out of our control … but what we can do (at our best) is very powerful and all we can do is try and tap into that and take advantage of that.”
SOMETHING’S GOTTA CHANGE FOR MAX
YOU have to admire St Kilda coach Brett Ratten’s defence of young gun Max King after his 0.5 went a long way to all but closing the door on the club’s finals hopes.
He wasn’t the only Saint to spray the Sherrin, but he was the worst offender.
King will be a star, but he has a flaw that if he can’t fix soon, could slow his development from talented young player into a bonafide superstar.
The 22-year-old’s goal kicking technique at times is a massive concern. He gets away with it on occasions, but on nights like Friday, it is painful to watch, especially for Saints fans.
According to a former member of the “Yips Are Getting Bigger Club” in Cam Mooney, King must confront those demons sooner rather than later.
“He (King) should be an 800-goal-kicker before the end of his career … but he is going to leave 300 goals on the table if he doesn’t get it right,” Mooney said on Fox Footy.
“I can see it in his eyes and in his face. You can see it in his action when he is walking in. You can see his face is almost drained. He was nervous, throwing the ball around.”
Ratten said King worked tirelessly on his craft, with Saints assistant coach and former Hawk great Jarryd Roughead giving him great assistance.
In May last year King asked the club if he could have a private goal-kicking session with his former Haileybury coach and ex-Essendon sharpshooter Matthew Lloyd.
The club told him they wanted him to keep it in-house, which Ratten said post-game on Friday night wouldn’t change.
But as much belief as the Saints have in their internal teachings, what’s the harm in King speaking to a few other former stars outside the club over the summer months to learn from their experiences.
A chat with Lloyd is an obvious one. Mooney says King could benefit from a postseason coffee with Tom Hawkins, who cured his yips. Or maybe a catch-up with that other Saints’ No. 12, Nick Riewoldt.
Or perhaps even a discussion with one of the most accurate kicks in the history of the game, former Saint/Swan Tony Lockett.
Where’s the harm in that?
Wayne Carey was even more brutal on Triple M: “All these guys are willing to help out. If Nick Riewoldt (or) Matty Lloyd’s coming to Max King and the club’s saying ‘No, we don’t want your help’, that’s bordering on stupidity.”
SECOND-HALF SUNS STRUGGLES
It’s hard to be too damning of the Gold Coast Suns after they suffered their biggest loss of the season to the 2022 juggernaut that is the Geelong Football Club.
But like they have for so much of their short existence the Suns have staggered to the line in the second half of a season.
While they appear to be on the right track under re-contracted coach Stuart Dew with a host of young stars on the rise, it is impossible to escape the fact that the Suns have won two of their past eight games.
It’s a familiar tale that needs a different narrative in 2023.
The Suns have won nine games this season and can equal their best return from a season - 10 wins in 2014 - if they can beat North Melbourne next weekend.
They may not have Izak Rankine available for the game after he was injured in the 60-point loss to the Cats.
Does that mean he has played his game in Gold Coast colours?
Rankine, who had his family at the game, is weighing up a massive offer from Adelaide to make him the Crows’ highest-paid player.
The Suns can’t match that offer, but are trying to convince him they are closer to success than Adelaide, while also suggesting that such a huge contract could bring unwanted pressure on the freakish talent.
Maybe Rankine’s newly-bleached blonde locks indicate he isn’t worried about the attention. We’ll know soon enough.
AFL MUST TIGHTEN HEAD-HIGH RULES IN ‘23
BRAD Crouch can be thankful Darcy Gardiner wasn’t concussed in the incident on Friday night after his late bump.
It came less than 24 hours after a marathon appeals board hearing overturned Patrick Cripps’ two-game ban.
The two incidents were vastly different given the ball was still in the contest when Callum Ah Chee was impacted by Cripps, while Gardiner had already disposed of it when Crouch cannoned into him.
But even though Gardiner played out the game - unlike Ah Chee - it wasn’t the look the AFL wanted after a tough and confusing week.
David King called the AFL “lost” on the head-high contact controversy while Garry Lyon said the issue had become “a farce”.
Greater clarity is needed for 2023 to protect the heads of players.
While the AFL has forecast changes to its match review guidelines for next season, it must clear up the mess by hardening the rules around collisions and head high contact - or it runs the risk of again being accused of “rhetoric” in its health and safety concerns.
LIKES
KOZZIE CAN!
Enterprising small forward Kysaiah Pickett might well have saved Melbourne’s premiership defence - and just in the nick of it.
In a thrilling game that had 10 lead changes, the pressure of a final, and so many pendulum-swinging moments, the Demons were looking down the barrel of being dumped out of a top four position when they trailed by eight points with three minutes left.
As the seconds ticked down, and with a road trip to the inhospitable Gabba to take on Brisbane on Friday night ahead of them, Melbourne’s season was well and truly on the line.
Enter a veteran who wound back the clock and a young gun who embodies the meaning of ‘clutch’.
It started with Jake Melksham, who made headlines for the wrong reasons midseason, but who has turned his career around in the past five weeks.
Melksham kicked his fourth goal to bring the margin back to a point with less than two minutes left.
Then, just when all seemed lost, a long kick into the Demons’ attack in the dying seconds saw a contest where Melksham shovelled out a handball to Pickett.
Pickett’s snap went through with 11 seconds left to produce the most remarkable of wins.
Pickett told Channel 7: “I just want to celebrate and sing the song, I am so happy to win.”
His skipper Max Gawn said it was just another chapter in “a crazy season … every game has been a final since we went to Geelong about five weeks ago.”
CUNNERS JOINS THE COMEBACK CREW
It isn’t always about the result; sometimes it’s purely about the story.
In a season of fairytale footy comebacks, North Melbourne veteran Ben Cunnington added a very special chapter of his own at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.
We’ve already seen Sam Docherty bravely fight back from testicular cancer, as Cunnington now has.
Paddy McCartin has won a second chance after his concussion hell, Ben McEvoy returned from a fractured neck and Michael Hurley was back in the VFL after a debilitating hip injury almost cost him his career.
They’ve all faced their own personal demons yet none of them ever gave up on their dreams, as Cunnington articulated so well this week.
His return meant so much to the 31-year-old that he turned up the ground early and soaked up the atmosphere all by himself in the middle of what was then an empty Adelaide Oval.
And when he ran out with the team and was greeted by his wife Belinda and three kids, it was one of the moments of the season.
He finished with 17 disposals in his first game since round 19, 2021.
The banged-up Kangaroos fought so hard to try and secure a win for Cunnington, led by another great display from Luke Davies-Uniacke (37 disposals) and Jy Simpkin (30), but it wasn’t to be.
They simply ran out of manpower and couldn’t hold on against the Crows after injuries to Jack Ziebell, Jed Anderson, Paul Curtis and Jaidyn Stephenson.
Cunnington gave all credit to his wife after the game, telling Fox Footy: “Belinda has been right there from the start. We had three little kids … we just had a newborn and then about a week later I started chemo. She has been a rock. I couldn’t have got back without her.”
“Even though we lost, I can’t stop smiling and appreciating the ride.”
TRIPLE THREAT MAKES CATS TOP SEED
Geelong locked in the 2022 ‘minor premiership’ by guaranteeing itself top spot, but only the real flag will sate the clinical Cats’ hunger.
Chris Scott’s team won its 12th consecutive match with consummate ease against Gold Coast and will now go into next week’s final round against West Coast the clear flag favourites.
The trip to the Gold Coast went off without incident, although Rhys Stanley was subbed out of the game during the third term, even if he didn’t look too inconvenienced by his issue.
Patrick Dangerfield got through without any further issues with his calf, Joel Selwood was back, Gary Rohan had a scare early but ran the game out and Mark Blicavs is in rare form with his versatility a massive concern for rival clubs heading into the finals.
Part of the Cats’ success this year has been the outstanding form of its forwards, in particular pillars in Jeremy Cameron, who is making one last play for the Coleman Medal, and Tom Hawkins, along with one of the recruits of the year in Tyson Stengle.
Cameron (59 goals), Hawkins (55) and Stengle (42) have combined to make the Cats the first team since Adelaide and Greater Western Sydney in 2017 to have three players kick more than 40 goals, according to stats guru @sirswampthing.
Geelong’s 12 straight wins have come by the following margins - 35, 42, 13, 18, 3, 112, 28, 30, 12, 28, 45 and 60 points.
For the coach, those might look like a beautiful set of numbers.
But Scott only cares about the No.10 - that’s a 10th flag for Geelong that might only be six weeks away.
RAYN-ING GOALS
FINALS are made for explosive mid-forwards as we’ve spectacularly seen from the likes of Dustin Martin and Christian Petracca.
And while we are not suggesting that Cam Rayner is going to reach those lofty heights, his growing presence looms as the Lions’ flag X-factor next month.
If Rayner can replicate his career-best four goals against the Saints next month, it might provide the Lions with the weapon they need to end their finals run of outs.
Jonathan Brown said on Fox Footy: “This is the potential this man has … he sensed his teammates were struggling – or his team was struggling – and he has taken over a game in 40 minutes of football.”
Rayner kicked the Lions’ only goal of the third quarter and then the first two of the last term as well as the last goal of the game.
The 22-year-old has played EVERY game in 2022 off the back of missing a season due to a knee reconstruction, and is growing in confidence by the week.
As St Kilda blazed away, Rayner owned the big moments. Now we need to see if he can back it up against the Demons on Friday.
ROAD TRIP
BRISBANE needed this win in Melbourne to validate in part its premiership aspirations, but the game-day road trip made by Hugh McCluggage deserves special recognition.
The star wingman arrived with his team on Thursday morning before heading down to Warrnambool to attend his grandmother’s funeral on Friday. He made the long road trip back in time for the game.
Even coach Chris Fagan wondered if it was the right preparation, but McCluggage starred early, in honour of his grandmother.
“I was a little bit worried he was risking a soft-tissue injury because it was not the ideal preparation for the game. But he desperately wanted to play and he put on a good show,” Fagan said.
McCluggage has been named three times in the All-Australian squad without winning a blazer, but surely this year he is a lock on the wing.
C’MON CLARKO
THIS reporter subscribes to footy romanticism so how big would it be if Alastair Clarkson commits to coach North Melbourne, where his extraordinary AFL journey started back in the late 1980s.
The Roos have offered the master coach a deal of at least five years.
If he takes it – as many believe he will – it would be one of the biggest coaching signings in the game’s history, not dissimilar to when a similarly combative, success-driven coach called Ron Barassi agreed to take on the struggling Kangaroos for the 1973 season.
Coaching ‘messiahs’ don’t always work.
Just look back at Mick Malthouse at Carlton and Malcolm Blight at St Kilda, or even Barassi at Melbourne in the early 1980s.
But Clarko at Arden St would give the North Melbourne Football Club the sort of publicity, relevance and cache it has been craving for years.
There won’t be the 10-year-rule that Barassi and the Kangaroos exploited in 1973 to help win a flag within three seasons, but there might be some AFL draft/trade assistance.
And it might also give the Kangaroos the best shot at coaxing the right trade/free agency targets to fast-track the rebuild, as well as convince players such as Cam Zurhaar and Jason Horne-Francis to stay.
It could be a big week ahead …
LET’S GET LENNY
ST KILDA is on the talent-acquisition hunt after another frustrating season, but their best potential target may not be a player.
The Saints are chasing former club favourite son and ex-Giants assistant coach Lenny Hayes to become a part of the coaching panel.
He stepped away from the Giants’ role at the end of 2020, in part frustrated by financial cuts endured by assistant coaches during the first season of the pandemic.
But Brett Ratten confirmed the speculation on 3AW that Hayes is on the radar for a return, potentially replacing the departing Ben McGlynn.
If they can make it happen, it would be a huge boost to Ratten’s coaching panel, along with the news David Rath seems certain to stay.
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