The Tackle: Mark Robinson reviews week two of the AFL finals
With their two best half-backs out of action, Port Adelaide had to get creative. Ken Hinkley turned to the son of a gun and an unknown mid-season rookie and was repaid in spades.
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After two classic finals this weekend, only four teams stand in the race for the 2024 premiership cup.
And what a weekend it was, headlined by some tension in Adelaide, and one of the best comebacks in finals history in Sydney.
Mark Robinson reviews the weekend in The Tackle.
LEGEND GROWS
JAMES SICILY
A goalpost denied him even greater recognition, but there’s no denying his leadership shone after the final siren. His response to Ken Hinkley’s shenanigans – and that’s all it was – was what a captain should do: If you have a go at him, you have a go at all of us. On the field, he was quelled in the first quarter, was solid in quarters two and three and then kicked a goal in the final quarter and was a whisker – and a winner – away from his second. His transformation from hothead youngster to inspiring captain has been a wonderful story.
JORDON SWEET
He cuts grass for the SACA as a side hustle and on Friday night cut down Lloyd Meek. Drafted in 2018, Sweet played just 11 games at the Western Bulldogs before he was traded this season to Port Adelaide for pick No. 50. Saturday night was his 16th game for Port and the best game of his career. Simply, Port couldn’t afford to have Meek control the stoppages and Sweet won hit outs 38-26 and hit outs to advantage were shared 7-7. Score involvements were 7-1 to Sweet. More damage was created on the deck with Sweet’s knocks-on and tackles, and his run down of Mabior Chol in the fourth quarter was huge.
JOE DANIHER
Big Joey is a must-watch because sometimes he plays like Wayne Carey and at other times he plays like Goofy. On Saturday he was Carey-like, not busting packs and taking grabs with the flight of the ball ala the famous No. 18, but taking care of the big moments when his team needed them. He kicked two goals in the final five minutes, one of them coming after a super mark 1v1 with Sam Taylor. It was an absorbing battle between those two and Daniher won. Overall, Daniher had nine 1v1 contests, he and Taylor were involved in nine of them and Daniher won four. Outside of coach Chris Fagan, he also had the biggest smile at the final siren.
THE COOLER
LOGAN EVANS
He might be the best story in the finals. Still 18, he was a mid-season draftee and hasn’t missed a game since his debut in Round 16. His job on Friday night was simple enough: stop the Hawks mosquito fleet. He mainly played on All Australian Dylan Moore for the first three quarters and rolled through the rest of the fleet. He had one goal kicked on him and that was by Nick Watson in the third quarter. In the last quarter, he had Luke Breust. Kenny’s faith in the kid was well rewarded, for Evans had 22 and a game-high 570m gained. The funny thing is if he knocked on your door today, you wouldn’t even know who he was.
DARCY WILMOT
Outside of the two major tags – Peatling on Zorko and Bedford on Neale – Wilmot had probably the next biggest job and that was to curtail Darcy Jones. Jones, remember, lit up the Gabba in Round 23, and with teammate Brent Daniels posed an enormous threat with their transition in the front half. In the 40 minutes Wilmot went with Jones, Jones had just two disposals. Take your pick who 20-year-old Wilmot will take this week: Mannagh, Miers, Close or Stengle. As for Neale, Mark O’Connor had the job last time and he’s done for the season with injury. So, could it be Tom Atkins or even Mark Blicavs this week?
HERE’S LOOKING AT YA, KID
JASE BURGOYNE
Two of Port Adelaide’s three most important players were an 18-year-old Logan Evans and 21-year-old Jase Burgoyne, the latter being probably best afield in his redeployed role to half-back. He’s a careful player. Have always thought he could be more aggressive with his kicking because he often prefers to go short to a teammate, yet it was that attribute that held him in good stead against the Hawks. He had 15 kicks, 11 were short and nine of them hit targets.
FINN MAGINNESS
By some reckoning, he is the fifth, sixth or even the seventh Beatle in Hawthorn’s gang of small and mid-sized ranks, but he played the quarter of his life in the fourth quarter on Friday night. His gut-running came to the fore on a wing, he had eight disposals and kicked a goal, and clocked 43 ranking points, which was his highest quarter of the year. And it was against the veteran Travis Boak.
WILL ASHCROFT
If any player is a kid who plays like a seasoned pro, it’s Will Ashcroft. Yes, he was to be the No. 1 pick in the 2022 draft – he was taken at No. 2 after the Kangas bid on him – but you still have to get it done. And after missing a tear with an ACL. With Lachie Neale clamped, Ashcroft went to work. His overall numbers were stacked with season-high rankings, but his prominence from when his team was down by 44 points until the final siren helped change momentum. He had 13 disposals, three clearances and four score involvements. It wasn’t a performance with any standout brilliance, he just does everything with assuredness. “He so clean,” Chris Fagan said. “He’s probably the cleanest kid I’ve seen come through the system. He’s built for finals footy.”
This goal is insane. Will Ashcroft fights off seven players all by himself and sets up a goal. Where’s his cape?
— Mark Gottlieb (@MarkGottlieb) September 15, 2024
Joe Daniher will get the headlines but I’ll remember that game as the day Ashcroft announced himself as a superstar. #AFL#AFLfinalspic.twitter.com/RteaeUpClehttps://t.co/X2GwAYVnvi
REALLY, COACH?
SAM MITCHELL
He is a warrior from way back when and he was right when he said post-match that Australian Rules is a brutal sport. And few players and coaches are not guilty of allowing their emotions to get the better of themselves, Mitchell included. A couple of weeks back, I called an Essendon man and asked him to comment on the Hawks and Mitchell’s brilliant coaching. He elected to pass because he hadn’t forgiven Mitchell for his injection gibe towards the Bombers players in 2015. “That was disgusting,” he said. “A s--- act.”
A clearly seething Mitchell spoke calmly in the post-match and at the same time left no one in doubt he was disgusted with Ken Hinkley. He stressed that Jack Ginnivan – perhaps emotionally vulnerable in the moment – was a young man and was being targeted by an old man. Bombers folk would argue that the young Bombers were also emotionally vulnerable when the experienced Mitchell went for the jugular.
READ MORE: The Sam Mitchell evolution: How ‘acquired taste’ changed his ways
The point is mostly everyone having a crack at Hinkley has had moments of emotional overload which they’d like again. People might say there were no winners from the verbal scrap, but I disagree. Footy won. It underscored the tribal nature of our sport, how all combatants play for keeps and how footy is the ultimate theatre. It’s why we love it.
KEN HINKLEY
It was captivating repartee between Ken Hinkley and Dermott Brereton on SEN radio on Saturday. Brereton was respectfully critical from a club official perspective and Hinkley was emotionally honest from a personal point of view. Hinkley apologised again for his outburst and said he needed to be better, and Derm didn’t disagree. And that’s where it should end. The AFL can’t be seen to green light what potentially could’ve led to a physical stoush, but neither should they punish Hinkley for a verbal taunt at a man – yes, Ginnivan is an adult – who naively fired a shot first.
A $20,000 fine is a joke. Hinkley, who was desperate for anything to motivate his team, latched on to Ginnivan’s comment and it clearly was a significant element in an anxious week at Alberton. Suck it up and put it in the back pocket, Hawks, and look to 2025. As for Jack, he’s great for the game and he’s a damned good player, but he foolishly invited in karma this week. And it was costly.
CHRIS FAGAN
At quarter-time as the Giants clamped key Brisbane playmakers, Fox Footy’s David King said: “They’re (Giants) smashing them in the coaches box, it’s a standing eight count.” At half-time, with the score 55-34, King said: “They are being brained in the coaching box.” Lions coach Chris Fagan cops plenty because there’s a belief that he – and his comrades – are out-coached on the biggest stages and the Lions have missed a flag because of it. Fagan is a different kind of coach. The impression you get is he’s a people’s coach rather than a coach who pores over numbers and game-day strategies.
That might sell him short, but there’s no denying his coaching revolves around faith and positivity and more often than not his team endures because of it. Basically, he coaches to believe in oneself which is one art of coaching. A powerful one at that. “I am a coach who trusts my players,” he said in the post-match. From 44 points down, that trust was rewarded. They did it, not with controlled ball use – they had 60 uncontested marks which was the second lowest number of the year – but through collective grit, will and belief. How is that not great coaching?
REPUTATION ENHANCED
LACHIE JONES
He’s a scrapper in true Port Adelaide mode and one incident on Friday night was as important as any others. Just before half-time, he body-lined the oncoming ball through two Hawks players and got a clip to the head. He dished a handball off, clutched his head with one hand because of the pain, realised he would be needed for the one-two back, received the ball and galloped towards goal. His long kick spilt out the back where Willie Rioli kicked the goal. Opposed to Jack Gunston before Gunston was subbed, Jones had only 11 touches and five of them were inside 50, and he was credited with only three tackles. He played a bigger game than his numbers suggest.
CALLUM AH CHEE
He’s played nine seasons, 141 games and kicked 68 goals and I’m not sure if he’s a good player, a role player or the ultimate survivor. This has been his best season and Saturday was probably his best game. His task was to limit the capabilities of All Australian Lachie Whitfield and try to cause some offensive damage. He did both. He kicked 1.3, had 17 and led the game with 11 score involvements. Whitfield’s last 10 weeks were 24, 42, 27, 25, 37, 35, 45, 35, 30 and 41 disposals. On Saturday night, he was Redgum: Only 19. Asked about Will Ashcroft after the game, Fagan said: “I thought he was awesome … and I thought Cal Ah Chee was as well, I thought he played a great game on Whitfield and contributed a lot to our scoring.”
REPUTATION DENTED
JOSH WEDDLE
The exuberance of youth got the better of him a couple of times and, still aged 20, he got a lesson in the fundamentals of finals football. That’s to give it to a teammate in a better position (Connor Nash) and to not try to do too much, especially run too far with the ball (third quarter). He’s versatile – he played defence, forward and ruck against Port – and will become a Hawks great. But not so great on Friday night.
BRENT DANIELS
Two 50m penalties against and an advantage play gone wrong hurt him. The 50s were yeah, nah, but the advantage misadventure was pure selfishness. And match-defining. The Giants were leading by 20 points, Jesse Hogan won the free kick 15m from goal, and yet Daniels decided to throw a cavalier left foot at a bouncing ball and registered a behind. The Lions kicked the next goal via Zorko, and the one after that via Fetcher and the margin was eight points. The momentum could not be stopped.
Brent Daniels kicking the ball off the ground to take advantage instead of a free kick directly in front is the sort of footballing nightmare teenage kids have. I don’t know how you mentally recover from that. #AFL#AFLFinalspic.twitter.com/0G3OyfrrYR
— Mark Gottlieb (@MarkGottlieb) September 14, 2024
ERIC HIPWOOD
There’s not a player in a slump like this bloke, but Fagan will still keep playing him. Of course, the Lions will say he’s structurally important, but come on man, let’s get going. He kicked a goal and helped Fletcher kick his goal, but there was just seven touches overall. Signed until 2029, he looks lost at the moment. He’s kicked three goals in six weeks. He needs to find a way to contribute more.
THE VANQUISHED
HAWTHORN
The Hawks changed footy for the better this season. They changed it not so much because of how they played, but how they expressed themselves. It was performance art in a way. It was exciting, sometimes breathtaking football by a ragtag of trade ins, second-chance footballers and brilliant youngsters, and coached by a man, Sam Mitchell, who had a plan three years ago which bucked convention. ‘Hok Ball’ was born and it’s here to stay. And the Hawks will be better again with the experience and with Barrass and Battle.
GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY
Have lost their last three finals by one point, six points and five points. That’s two premierships left on the table and their last two games especially will sit in their guts all summer. They did so much right, except they couldn’t stop momentum in consecutive games. You have to wonder if the physical brand they play is sustainable for four quarters against the best opposition. It’s maybe too simple, but do they run out of puff? Maybe it’s more complicated than that, that it’s mental brittleness. Whatever it is, coach Adam Kinsley has to find answers. You suspect they will be thereabouts again next year and Cadman, Jones, McMullin, Callaghan and Thomas will be better and wiser for the experience. They need Callum Brown fit to help Jesse Hogan.
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