The Tackle: Mark Robinson’s likes and dislikes from round 10
The Saints have fallen well short of expectation the last two week, and it’s on Ross the Boss to fix. MARK ROBINSON writes on how the Saints are praying free agency can fix their woes.
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10 rounds in and we now have a definitive premiership favourite, but given how this season’s gone already is it even a title you want?
Mark Robinson names his likes and dislikes from round 10 of the AFL season.
LIKES
1. HURRICANE HARLEY
If there was still any doubt, Harley Reid ended it on Sunday night - He’s the best performing first-year player of the modern era. That’s better anyone you can name, be it Carey, Franklin, Ablett Jnr, Judd and Martin. It’s astonishing what he’s able to do. In one play on Sunday night, he won the clearance, took three bounces and with Christian Petracca chasing him, he kicked the goal. In the third quarter, he won the clearance, fended Clayton Oliver with his left hand, then transferred the ball into his left arm and fended Petracca with his right hand. It was a ‘Double Dusty’.
His clearance kick was rebounded, where Reid won it again and his kick to Jack Darling led to an Eagles goal. The teen phenom was the second highest rated player in a magnificent West Coast win. Magnificent because the Eagles opened up Melbourne’s renowned defence and posted the highest score against the Demons this season. It was all happening. Jake Waterman kicked five goals and Liam Ryan almost held the greatest mark of all time. Oh, and Melbourne’s stocks took a hit. What a stunning Sunday evening.
2. FOOTBALL IS AMAZING
In 33 seconds, Port Adelaide went from ninth on the ladder to fourth, but the trust in them wavers from quarter to quarter, not just week to week. They are head cases. Yes, they rarely fail to entertain but they have to find consistency. Take their past eight quarters. In the first half against Geelong in Round nine, they kicked 12.5 to 5.6. In the second half, the Cats kicked 9.5 to 3.6. On Sunday, Hawthorn led by 41 points at the 22nd minute of the third quarter.
From that point, Port kicked 6.7 to 0.1. The inside 50 count was 28-6. It appeared Hawthorn went into survival mode and Port went hell for leather. Footy is truly unbelievable. A goal to Willie Rioli with 33 seconds to play made it fun and because of the 6-6-6 set up at the centre bounce, Port had one last opportunity. They took it. From the bounce, Drew gave it to Butters, who kicked long inside, D’Ambrosio mopped it up, gave a hurried handball to Amon, he was tackled by McEntee, and Byrne-Jones picked up the spillage and goaled. And it happened as quickly as you just read it. Last week they won by six points. This week was by one point. But I still don’t know if Port is a great team or a lucky team.
3. ELECTRIC AVENUE
The original song hit the market in 1983 and 40 years later, Essendon is trying to piece together its own electric avenue. Its forward 50m group has Langford and Stringer as the dynamic pair, Guelfi as the tagging goalkicker, Gresham as the high half-forward/creator, Peter Wright as the No. 1 key target, Harrison Jones as the No. 2 key target and Alwyn Davey as the small forward. It’s a tremendously good spread of talent. Wright kicked four goals against North Melbourne on Sunday and spent roughly a quarter as the relief ruckman, which puts Sam Draper’s role in jeopardy.
Do the Bombers need a second ruck with Wright there? The answer is no. Davey’s spot is a discussion, although Scott has played him in the past six matches. He’s still 20, and the Bombers have hopes he could mature into a Bobby Hill-type player. On Sunday, Essendon kicked 8.2 to 2.0 in the third quarter with six different goalkickers. Overall, 10 goalkickers kicked 16 goals, which included Guelfi’s three goals. Essendon’s improvement stems from having a stable and professional environment off the ground, players playing their role on the ground and forward line gradually becoming more unselfish. It’s got them to second on the ladder at Round 10.
4, SHOUT-OUT TO ADAM TRELOAR
Only one Bulldogs player put his head up and spoke to the media after the terrible Hawthorn loss – Adam Treloar. He said what you’d expect, that it wasn’t Luke Beveridge’s fault, that the players had to take responsibility, and blah, blah, blah. But Treloar showed he could talk the talk and walk the walk. The next match he had 41 against Richmond and on Saturday in the heavy going against the Giants, he was best afield with 35 disposals. Queries about whether he gets down and dirty were also allayed because he had a game high 23 contested possessions. It was a match played in contest and on the deck, and Treloar and new midfield mate Ed Richards beat the much-heralded Giants midfield. Treloar is 31, is at his third club and is playing the best footy of his career. His ambition, of course, is to win a premiership. Personally, he would love to be an All Australian. He’s behind others for a starting spot in this year’s team but he should be in the mix to be in the AA squad. He deserves it.
5. JACKSON VS. MARSHALL.
The two modern-day ruck types – athletic and can win the ball – went head to head and Marshall won narrowly. Jackson filled the stat sheet – 25 disposals, 21 contested, 10 clearances and eight score involvements – and Marshall had 31 disposals, 18 contested, eight clearances and four score involvements. Marshall won the hit outs 36 to 15 but clearances were in Fremantle’s favour, which is further evidence the Saints need better midfielders. Max Gawn remains the pick to be the All Australia ruckman, but Marshall is coming like a train. The Jackson conundrum – whether he should ruck and not Sean Darcy – is now as big as ever. When Darcy misses – he didn’t play on Saturday night – Jackson excels in the role. When Darcy plays, Jackson is a serviceable forward in a forward line led by 20-year-old Jye Amiss. Yes, he’s only 20 and against the Saints kicked 2.5.
6. DON’T FORGET JOSH
While Nick Daicos is charging up the ‘best player in the game’ category, brother Josh is quietly regaining his mantle as one of the most damaging wingmen in the game. After a three-week lean patch, Daicos has gone 28 and 30 disposals in the past two matches. On Saturday, he had 574m gained, which was No. 1 at the club and seven inside 50s which was also No. 1. He took one wing and Pat Lipinksi took the other wing, and it looks like Lipinski has tabs on that role, now that Steele Sidebottom has been sent to defence.
Sidebottom is a watch. He had 13 disposals and one tackle on Saturday, and while a defensive position is not always about winning the ball, you should expect ball winning. Fox Footy’s Leigh Montagna argued that it could be a brilliant move by coach Craig McRae. Others have doubts. But there’s no doubts about Scott Pendlebury. The 36-year-old was superb in the first quarter – he had 12 touches and two goals – which prompted Crows coach Matthew Nicks to send Ben Keays to him. Fancy getting tagged in your 393rd game. While others had Nick Daicos the best player on Saturday, Pendlebury will be in the coaches votes.
7. THE COOLERS
The tagger is slowly and surely returning to the game. Two of them in one team is even better. And no team does it better than Sydney. The Swans dropped the blueprint of how to stop Carlton. It’s not exactly splitting the atom to say that Cripps and Walsh have to be curtailed, but the proof is in the doing and not the planning. James Rowbotham went to Cripps and James Jordan went to Walsh. Cripps had 24 and five clearances and Rowbottom had 19 disposals, six clearances and 16 tackles. Walsh had 20 and four score involvements against Jordan’s 16 and six score involvements. The Sydney plan allowed Warner, Gulden and Heeney to play without really worrying about the opposition’s two best players. What we learnt was 1. the Swans have the perfect midfield balance and 2. any team which doesn’t try to cool Cripps and Walsh has rocks in their head.
DISLIKES
1. WHO’D WANT TO BE FLAG FAVOURITES?
Brisbane and Collingwood started the season as the TAB’s most favoured teams. They both stumbled. Then Geelong and the Giants were top of the pops and those two teams have crashed. Now Sydney has emerged as the team to team to beat. That’s four flag favourites in 10 rounds. Officially, the Pies opened $5 flag favourites with TAB. The Giants were clear $5 favourites after Round 5. And right now Swans are $4 favourites, which is the shortest price they or any other team has been since the TAB opened. Clearly, they deserve their standing, although declarations that the premiership is a one-horse race is ridiculous. The Swans are the best team in May, which is a long way away from being the best team on the last weekend of September. The Geelong vs. Giants match this weekend will be most intriguing. If the Cats lose, they will have lost four in a row in a season, which would be their worst streak under coach Chris Scott. And his first season was 2011. If the Giants lose, they will have lost four from their past five. Still, the Giants are $7.50 equal second favourites with Melbourne and a surging Collingwood. The Cats are $9 behind the slumping Blues who are $8.
2. GIANT WORRIES
The tsunami is a trickle. Against the Bulldogs on Saturday, they scored 19 points from the back half, which means they have averaged 23 points from that score source over the past three weeks. From Rounds Zero to Round Seven, they averaged 43 points, which was the competition leader. They were without Josh Kelly or Lachie Ash on Saturday, and they are talented players, but the Giants still had plenty of talent on the park. Their past three scores have been 69 points against Sydney (in the wet), 62 against Essendon (in the dry) and 43 points against the Bulldogs (in the wet). In the same game, the opposition scored 98, 82 and 70 points. The Bulldogs kicked 8.22 from 62 entries, and while the margin was 27 points, the expected margin was 41 points. Is it a lull from the one-time flag favourites or is there real concern? We’ll know more after they play the Cats who will be restocked in the forward line.
3. THE HAWKS BLEW IT
They got beaten by a miracle. Six goals up in slippery conditions and it’s probably fair to tell your players to be careful with the ball. In hindsight, maybe they were too careful and defending a lead for 40 minutes might’ve been asking too much. It’s a mindset thing. Coach Sam Mitchell would like his time again. So would Jai Newcombe and Connor Nash who were responsible for Zak Butters. Butters had 17 disposals and five clearances in the final quarter alone, while small defenders Karl Amon and Seamus Mitchell had four goals kicked on them in the final quarter. Add to that Mitchell, Weddle, Moore and Watson didn’t touch the ball in the final quarter. The fault lies with many. They’re close, the Hawks. They were a clearance and a bit of luck away from winning four from their past five outings. Instead, they went to sleep thinking: How did we lose that game?
4 FREE AGENCY PERFORMERS
Cameron Zurhaar has not publicly said he will exercise his free agency and leave North Melbourne, but he’s not the player he was. We might be jumping at shadows, but he simply isn’t playing with his customary bounce and zest and certainly not playing with the same impact. Although that might be a form issue, and the Kangaroos are a team beaten every week, the fact is clubs believe he is wanting out of Arden St. It was reported North had offered him a five-year-deal and he hasn’t committed to staying. His best goalkicking season was 2022 with 34 goals in 19 matches. Last year it was 20 goals in 16 games. This year, he has 12 goals in nine games. His 62 ranking points are a career-low if you disregard the four games he played in 2017 and five games in 2018. Talk of him being worth $800,000 per year seems overstated, even in this world of expanding salaries. Maybe he needs a new club to get the best out of himself. And maybe he already knows he won’t be at North Melbourne next year.
5. TOOTHLESS TIGERS.
After a week of introspection and external examination, you’d think Richmond would have given a sliver of response. No, they were pathetic. Beaten by 119 points by Brisbane, it was their worst loss since the final round of 2016. The Tigers would begin a dynasty after that game, but that ain’t happening now. Either the injuries are too many, the kids aren’t ready or there’s something amiss between the coaching staff and the players. It was the kind of loss which prompts the question: Are the players playing for the coach? That’s unfair on Adem Yze, but what clearly is unfair on the coach is the lack of care shown by his players. They gave up 152 uncontested marks and 111 points off turnover, which was their worst result since 2007. Yze was a dejected man post-match. He spoke about the impact of injuries and the silver lining which is the youngsters getting a taste of senior footy. “Our last two weeks are the lowest hopefully we’re going to get,” Yze said. “I want our supporters to know we’re not happy with where we sit. There’s some hard times we have to deal with and right now we’re going through them, but we’re going to work hard to get back where we should be.” He really can’t say anything else. Well, he could, but bashing the players publicly is not his go.
6. MY KINGDOM FOR A MIDFIELDER.
It was another tough watch with the Saints kicking 55 points which followed last weekend’s 53 points. They fight, but nothing is coming easy. And there continues to be a breakdown between what the coach wants and what the players can deliver. And that’s on the coach to fix. Mostly, it’s called synergy and connection and when any team lacks those two components, you get the clunky performances which the Saints are offering. Talent is also the issue. If any free agent midfielder wants a payday, then St Kilda is your team. They have millions to spend and every player manager knows they are ready to spend it. They also need a second key defender and a couple of mid-sized goalkickers. But it always starts and ends in the middle. It’s why one opposition recruiter believes the Saints have offered a monster contract to Brisbane’s Hugh McCluggage. They probably won’t get him, but they’re swinging away. They lost by 17 points on Saturday night, but it felt like it was 47 points. They had a hold on Serong, Brayshaw and Young in the first half, but those three got busy in the second half. The Dockers won clearance 42-24. Rising star Mattaes Phillipou had one touch to half-time and four for the match, and that’s with him spending time in the middle. His manager pounded Ross Lyon when Phillipou was dropped two weeks ago, and maybe this time the manager could put the same heat on his player.
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