The Tackle: Mark Robinson’s likes and dislikes from Round 17
What has happened to Devon Smith? His possession tallies have dropped, but that isn’t the biggest concern. See Mark Robinson’s Likes and Dislikes from Round 17.
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Is the Richmond dynasty over?
In this week’s The Tackle, Chief Football Writer Mark Robinson says the Tigers are cooked, while the battered Lions need to overcome their MCG hoodoo if they are to be flag challengers.
The pressure has been turned up on Joe Daniher and what about the Bulldogs’ front-half worries after the forwards fail to get the job done without Aaron Naughton?
He salutes the Young Bloods and asks what Collingwood’s form means for stand-in coach Robert Harvey.
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ROBBO’S ROUND 17 LIKES AND DISLIKES BELOW
DISLIKES
1. TWELVE STEPS OF PAIN
Unbelievably, the Tigers started the weekend in seventh spot and wake up on Monday in 12th, one game ahead of Carlton and Gold Coast — two teams who have been bashed mercilessly this year. The Tigers are cooked. They’ve lost the edge and their aura, and their game plan is kaput. The tackle count was six to Collingwood and three to Richmond in the final quarter. Just three tackles. It was circle work which the Tigers haven’t played for four years. It’s the second time in the past month they have been run down in the final quarter. West Coast did it in Round 13 and Collingwood on Sunday. The Tigers have issues everywhere. If you put up their playing profile over the past six weeks and didn’t attach a name to it, you’d be looking at a bottom four team. It’s staggering what’s happened and it’s staggering how quickly it has happened. To be frank, they lost their will, which was their one-wood in an era now confined to the history books.
2. BATTERED LIONS AT THE G
Michael Jordan famously said NBA teams had to “go through Chicago’’ if they wanted to win the championship, and Brisbane has the same menacing on-the-road trauma with the MCG. They will play Richmond in Jack Riewoldt’s 300th game on Friday night at a ground they have not won at since round 21, 2014. That’s nine consecutive losses. If the Lions are to win the flag this year, they will have to overcome their MCG hoodoo. After Saturday, the task is much greater. The knee injury to Eric Hipwood is seismic. Park the emotional tragedy for the 23-year-old for a moment, the pressure to perform is suddenly heaped on Joe Daniher. It’s his forward line now and, while he’s been solid this season, he is susceptible to having a ‘mare’, which he did against the Saints on Saturday night. The Lions will say the issue was further up the ground against the Saints, that their pressure was 165, and that the Saints were +95 disposals and +14 tackles. That’s all true. Also true is the responsibility which now falls on Daniher going forward. The question is: Is he good enough to deliver?
3. FRONT-HALF WORRY
No Aaron Naughton for the Western Bulldogs meant the focus turned to Josh Bruce and he couldn’t get it done. Bruce wasn’t alone. The Swans took seven intercept marks in the D50 when the Dogs won clearances 46-26 and had 52 inside 50s. In essence, the Dogs won the ball and then the Swans simply took it off them. It’s only one game, so let’s not jump to conclusion, but that outing is further evidence why Naughton is a forward and not a defender and why Jamarra Ugle-Hagan has been made to wait. The Dogs know best in his development and he looked every inch the rookie. That’s OK, it was his first game. And he was far from the main worry on Sunday, anyhow. The Dogs couldn’t keep up with the speedy Swans which is indicative of how Sydney plays in 2021.
4. BLUES ADD TO THEIR EXCUSES
There’s not a team in the competition that can lay claim to excuses when they lose like Carlton can. At various times this season, they’ve had an unfit Zac Williams fail to support Sam Walsh and Patrick Cripps in the middle; they’ve lacked midfield depth; they’ve been unable to defend turnover; their pressure has been horrid; they’ve lacked intensity and passion and, on Saturday, it was inaccuracy in front of goal. If there’s a way to lose a game, Carlton has found it. Plenty of players were to blame for poor kicking against the Cats, but the focus almost always turns to their big-money forward Harry McKay. He’s been Carlton’s major target this season – 124 times more than the next player – and has kicked 48.31, including 2.3 on Saturday. He’s a good player who needs goal kicking coaching to become a great player. “He’s got to kick through the footy, regardless of where he is kicking from. He’s got a bit of work to do on his run up,’’ AFL great Jason Dunstall said on Fox Footy. Might be a job for Matthew Lloyd if he and McKay are interested.
5. JAEGER BOMBS
Jaeger O’Meara is in a slump after a ripping first half of the season and his past two weeks have been well below expectation. We seem to discuss the inconsistent Hawks midfield every third week and it was poor again against the Dockers on Saturday. O’Meara is struggling. Two weeks ago he had 17 disposals at 42 per cent by foot against Port Adelaide. Against the Dockers, it was 14 disposals at 40 per cent by foot. They are wretched numbers. The problem is Hawthorn’s best three mids don’t stack up against the productivity of the best three mids at other clubs. Compare them to Petracca-Oliver-Viney, Fyfe-Mundy-Brayshaw, Merrett-Parish-McGrath and Selwood-Guthrie-Dangerfield, for example. The Hawks trio doesn’t damage the opposition nearly enough. O’Meara is an inside midfielder, so some of his disposals are won under pressure, but 17 and 14 disposals is way too low for a midfielder. Is he an A grader?
6. BAROMETER FOR FAKING
Brisbane’s Rhys Mathieson plays the game well and plays for free kicks better and it’s the latter that is identifying him as a footballer. There’s a genuineness about playing footy, about earning your kicks and Mathieson is not genuine enough. He’s popular with his teammates and everyone loved when he christened himself the barometer, but he can do without throwing his head back and playing for free kicks. He’s a good enough footballer without the theatrics.
7. WHAT’S HAPPENED TO DEVON SMITH?
He’s angry, too reactive with his tongue and he costs the Bombers. He had the most free kicks against on Friday night (three) and he’s given away four 50m penalties in 13 games, the most at the club and equal second most in the competition with North Melbourne’s Josh Walker and Sydney’s Dane Rampe and behind Geelong’s Tom Hawkins (five). Smith won the Bombers’ best-and-fairest in 2018, he was injured in 2019 and played all but one game in 2020, only to finish eighth in the best-and-fairest ahead of Will Snelling. This year, he’s been pushed out of the midfield to play forward, so his possessions have dropped, but that can’t be the excuse for his lack of discipline.
8. LACKING FLAIR
Reckon Adelaide’s Mathew Nicks over coached on Friday night that robbed the team of instinct and flair. In a club-low scoring game, it appeared the Crows had a plan to keep control in the back half and to defend with ball in hand that could allow them to set up behind the ball to curb Essendon’s run and gun game. For one of the few times this season, the Crows lacked excitement and instinct. It was a season high number of marks (108) and a season-high uncontested marks (101), which was 15 more than their highest tally in a game. The ball movement was stagnant and slow and the young Crows didn’t give themselves a chance to win the game.
LIKES
1. YOUNG BLOODS
They’re not as young as they were across the first month of the season, but they are as formidable. They have secured a finals spot and as much the footy world says you wouldn’t want to play Richmond in September, the same can be said of the Swans. Defensively they are strong, led by the progressive Tom McCartin, and across the ground they rarely allow the opposition to have an easy ball. They’re a menacing team in terms of competing at every contest. They strangled the Dogs’ ball movement and when they won the turnover, they scooted with the ball into a forward group which, again, competes with everything it’s got. The Swans scored 62 points off turnover to the Bulldogs 23, which highlights their ability to defend and ability to move the ball. They are a premiership threat.
2. DEJA VU FOR THE MAGPIES
It was a carbon copy to last week – they soared in the final quarter – but this week the result was different. Last week, they almost ran down St Kilda and, on Sunday, they ran down and trampled Richmond. The ball movement was scintillating in the final quarter. Five of their seven goals came from clearances and they dominated possession 114-57. Everyone will ask where this has been but the fact is it has been building. It started with them beating Adelaide in Adelaide and then Melbourne at the SCG. They had stars everywhere – Grundy, Adams, Pendlebury, De Goey and Brayden Maynard on Jack Riewoldt was a standout. It’s wonderful for stand-in coach Rob Harvey, but will it mean he is a serious contender for the role. The next six weeks will decide that and Sunday certainly will help him.
3. BEERS FOR THE DEFENDERS
Gold Coast were presented with conditions rare for them: Cold and windy. And they left Ballarat with one of their more meritorious wins under Stuart Dew. With four minutes to play, they were down by two goals. Matt Rowell snapped out of congestion for one of them and David Swallow kicked the go ahead goal. Numbers wise, the Suns capitalised on GWS turnovers, kicking nine goals five. Dew, though, should’ve shouted beers for his defenders on the bus ride back to Melbourne. The Suns were -28 contested possessions and -15 clearances, which is backfoot footy, and the Suns defensive group – Powell, Ballard, Collins, Lukosius, Bowes and Lemmens – were resolute. In the last two minutes, they were under siege but stood tall. Your shout, Stu.
4. SAINTER HELD IN HIGH REGARD
Tom Highmore played Rounds 1 and 2 and was then dropped, presumably so could work on a better balance between marking the ball and defending the ball in the air. He returned in Round 9 and, other than one game as the medical sub, he has secured a role in the back half. In his past four games he has averaged four intercept marks and nine intercept possessions. They are elite numbers. A cool head, he plays on tall and small. On Saturday night, he played on Linc McCarthy. In other matches, it’s been Darcy Fogarty, Tom McDonald and Jake Aarts. Highmore, 23, is a late to the party, but shapes as key cog in St Kilda’s improving defence.
5. SERONG STRONG IN FYFE’S 200TH
Dockers coach Justin Longmuir released the shackles on his young star and, in doing so, found a ready-made midfielder. This year, Serong has had roles on the sport’s best midfielders – Sam Walsh, Tom Liberatore, Zach Merrett and Christian Petracca – but against the Hawks, Longmuir didn’t believe the Hawks had a matchwinner who needed attention. The outcome was a Dockers win, a comprehensive win in the midfield and Serong had 30 disposals and 10 clearances. If Adam Cerra departs, and as the season stretches without a signature it looks more and more likely, the Dockers have Serong as his replacement. That leaves Longmuir with the task of finding another shut down player. Serong will get that role again, at times, but his value going forward could be as a freewheeling midfielder.
6. A CAT RESPONDS
Shaun Higgins has been fairly scrutinised in recent weeks and doubters were lining up on the 33-year-old and perhaps for the first time in his career. He looked fidgety and lacked polish which was unlike Higgins. But good players respond and he needed to with Joel Selwood out of the team for a week and Mitch Duncan for longer than that because of injury. Against the Blues, he had the most disposals of the season (25) and his efficiency was at 77 per cent. That’s the polish we’re talking about. Clearly, he’s focused on that aspect of his game and playing as a high half-forward, some of his kicking inside 50m was near perfect.
7. BOMBER HAVE FOUND TWO DEFENDERS
One is Jayden Laverde and the other is Mason Redman. Redman was dropped three times last year and his career seemingly was at the crossroads, but this season he’s only missed the one game, Round 4, because of injury. It’s been a hell of a turnaround. He’s a running defender, who can mark and who can negate. He took 11 marks against the Crows on Friday night, three of them were contested, and overall has improved his defensive capabilities. His lockdown roles this year have included keeping Gryan Miers to one goal. Kossie Pickett goalless and Jason Castagna goalless. Laverde and Redman have become key components in Essendon’s defensive group.
8. DEMON-ISED DEFENCE
Is it possible, for the first time, to have three defenders from the one team to be named in the All-Australian starting back six? Steven May is in and Jake Lever is in. That leaves the selectors to decide on Christian Salem. I’d have him in, but I also accept he is borderline. With Lever as the interceptor, the second key defensive position is between Carlton’s Jacob Weitering and Brisbane’s Harris Andrews and Weitering probably has grabbed that spot in recent weeks. Geelong’s Tom Stewart might as well gets his jacket measured now, so that leaves one last spot for a mid-sized defender. You’d think Daniel Rich is probably the favourite over teammate Brandon Starcevich, Bulldog Bailey Dale and Essendon’s surprise stand out Nick Hind.
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