The Tackle: Mark Robinson’s likes and dislikes from round 19
Ben King hasn’t kicked a goal for four weeks. He is so out of sorts, it’s impossible not to believe rival clubs are inquiring about his future. Is it getting too much for him?
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The race for the eight is as tight as ever with five rounds to play and the Pies-Power clash lived up to the hype.
And there is plenty of off-field intrigue among the teams at the other end of the ladder.
Chief footy writer Mark Robinson names his likes and dislikes from round 19.
DISLIKES
1. GO AFTER DIMMA?
Footy clubs make snap decisions all the time. Sack Brett Ratten. Hire Ross Lyon. Sack Stuart Dew. Sack Mick Malthouse. Hire Michael Voss. Sack Nathan Buckley. Hire Craig McRae. The low-flying Dockers have a question to ask themselves: Is 2023 like the 2019 and 2020 seasons for Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin – an aberration? The Demons won 16 games in 2018 and were seemingly on the rise, and then only five and nine wins across the next two seasons, before winning the premiership in 2021. Justin Longmuir was appointed in 2019. He’s won nine, seven, 10 and 16 games – and the Dockers were seemingly on the rise – but this year, just seven games and his team is in the bottom four. An aberration? It depends on how much faith the Dockers have in Longmuir. In the wings is Damien Hardwick. The Tigers premiership coach is destined for the Suns but destiny has a habit of changing its travel plans. Put it this way: If you have Longmuir and Hardwick against the wall, who would you choose to coach? This is Longmuir’s fifth season and a bottom-four finish is diabolical for a team which won a final last season. Again, is it aberration or after five seasons is it time to make a statement?
2. ALMOST FOR RATTS
For three quarters, the Kangaroos scrapped and harassed and save for a bit of luck could’ve been four or five goals ahead at three-quarter time. They weren’t. The Saints got rolling. Against the tiring Kangaroos, St Kilda was +13 contested ball and +22 uncontested possession, suffice to say the Kangaroos weren’t tough for long enough. Brett Ratten would be desperately disappointed. He wanted this game for personal pride and the build-up involving the howdy-do with Nick Riewoldt made it even an more emotional encounter. Fairytales are hard to come by in footy, but this was oh, so close. What we do know is Luke Davies-Uniacke is the best dancer in traffic in the game and when he has the ball, the Kangaroos light up. Sheezel, Goater, Phillips, Thomas, Scott, Wardlaw are the future and Archer’s boy Jackson is a robust player for his size and when he gains more confidence with ball in hand, and actually finds more ball, could become a permanent.
3. IT’S A CRUEL GAME
A hamstring injury for Adelaide’s Izak Rankine in the final minutes on Sunday was, outside the loss for the Crows, the dampener on another stoic performance on the road. Rankine’s a jet, and with Kozzie Pickett up one end and Rankine at the other, the match was dotted with brilliance. The skill and excitement from the sport’s Indigenous players continues to enthral because they make the most difficult scenario seem so natural to compute. Still, a hamstring injury is three or four-weeker. The ACL injury to Brisbane’s Will Ashcroft was a devastating blow for the young man. He will miss most of next season and clearly will be missed as the Lions strive to win the flag. He’ll be back. It might not be with the Rising Star award, but that’s OK. He doesn’t need a medal to know he has the respect of the whole competition.
4. KING DETHRONED
Ben King hasn’t kicked a goal for four weeks and has kicked three goals in his past six games. On Sunday, he was eclipsed by Sam Taylor and finished with four touches and a single behind. Taylor might be the best defender in the game, but the talented King shouldn’t be a four-touch player. He is so out of sorts, it’s impossible not to believe rival clubs are inquiring about his future. Is he happy? Is it getting too much for him? Don’t worry about the media looking for a low-hanging fruit in regards to the Suns, clubs are more ruthless than anyone when it comes to sniffing an opportunity. King has 33 goals from 18 games, but in the past month his season has collapsed. We can give him an excuse, coming off a whole missed 2022 season, but not sure King is into excuses. Taylor, meanwhile, is a phenom. He had 15 disposals, nine intercept possessions, six intercept marks and 14 spoils, and didn’t lose one contest to King.
5. NEXT YEAR BOMBERS
It could be their new slogan – they are looking for a new one, after all – because every year for the past decade and a half, it’s always “next year for Essendon’’. Friday night’s loss to the Western Bulldogs was mind-numbing. Slow ball movement, slaughtered in contest and clearance, no shut-down players for Bontempelli and Libba, forwards non-functional and a game style which lacked excitement. The Bombers say they are building sustainability, but at the same time, they can run Port Adelaide to a kick (rounds 8 and 15) and Collingwood to two goals (Anzac Day). So, they can match it with the best two teams which excite the fans and then somehow rip the hearts out of the same fans with their efforts against Geelong and the Bulldogs. They probably will play finals and that’s a tick, but gee Friday was disappointing for a team trying to find sustainability for 15 long years and still counting.
6. SLAP DOWN
Nathan Murphy is one of the hardest and fearless footballers in the competition, so to see him collapse to the ground after being slapped by Willie Rioli was surprising, if not a little dramatic. Rioli got a two-game suspension, but shouldn’t have. Because if Richmond’s Dustin Martin can escape a suspension for a flailing elbow into an opponent, then Rioli should have only expected a fine for his powder-puff left-hander. Murphy acted. He was shocked by the slap, but it was hardly a Jack Dyer round-arm to the chops. He played a brilliant game, Murphy, and should receive coaches’ votes, and he proved once again that he is a player you want beside you in the trenches. But the dive? Hmmm, that’s not him. The postscript to a glorious night of football was more racist abuse from Collingwood fans directed at Rioli. Footy is a theatre, as coach Craig McRae said in the post-match, and the Rioli-Murphy tango and jibber-jabber between the pair afterwards was just that. The racism, however, is bloody disgraceful.
7. WHAT’S UP, UMPS?
Premiership coach Robert Walls sent a text message a week ago. “Umpires just aren’t paying in the back with tackles. Doesn’t reward ball winner and if they did tacklers would be more careful and less injuries would be result.’’ Walls is not wrong. Free kicks for in-the-back are disappearing. Jack Riewoldt was manhandled several times on Saturday and received no protection, and although well beaten by James Sicily, the Hawks champ was lucky in several marking contests, having pushed Riewoldt in the back. The umpires are far too lenient. And let’s talk about incorrect disposal. Does it even exist any more? And only god knows where insufficient intent lies. The sooner it’s last-touch, the better.
LIKES
1. FINAL QUARTERS
Collingwood has not won anything yet, other than the hearts and minds of football fans who admire Collingwood’s ability to lift its intensity when it is needed. There hasn’t been a team in my memory which has a spirit and/or tenacity to consistently come from behind to claim victory. Other teams have been more talented – Hawks of the ’80s, Brisbane three-peat, Geelong 2007-2011 and the Hawthorn three-peat – and even players from those eras would marvel at how Collngwood can “find’’ in finals quarters. Resilience and belief sell the Pies short because what they have been able to achieve in these past two home-and-away seasons is already folklore. The Pies can’t be killed. Coach Craig McRae spoke about the “eyes’’ of his players at three-quarter time, which is not a tactical assessment, but an emotional one. Tactically the Pies are strong. Emotionally, they are a freight train. What have they got? What exactly has turned a rabblish mob at the end of the 2021 season into an irrepressible unit? McRae – or someone close to him – needs to write a thesis about the sum of all parts of Collingwood’s performance. In final quarters this year, they have outscored their opponents 72.42 (474) to 36.61 (277). Last season, it was 83.59 (577) to 75.50 (500). If Collingwood doesn’t win the flag this year, it will be viewed as a failed season.
2. WINNING UGLY
And it was ugly for the Saints. Full of merit in the final quarter, mind you, but nothing on offer at Marvel on Sunday will threaten any team if they make September. They beat a North Melbourne team chasing its first win since round 2 and the result could’ve gone either way. Still, the Saints dug deep when they had to, winning ground balls, winning the contest and kicking goals when they needed to. That’s all you can ask for as a coach. They jumped from ninth at the start of the day to sixth at the end of it, and while it wasn’t overly impressive, it’s a badly needed four points. Asked if it was the great escape, Saints skipper Jack Steele told Fox Footy: “Absolutely … it wasn’t pretty but we fought (it out). It’s a testament to the effort we put in in the last quarter.’’
3. BOLD COACHING
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin axed Brodie Grundy and put Ben Brown and Jacob van Rooyen beside each other in the F50 in a bid to correct a dysfunctional scoring unit. He also needed to find more from Kozzie Pickett. In the past two weeks, Kozzie has been briefly re-deployed as a centre bounce midfielder after he was being suffocated in the weeks previous as an inconsistent small forward. It worked. He kicked three goals last week against Brisbane and two goals on Sunday against Adelaide and it’s clear he has regained some confidence. He was blindingly good against the Crows. His 11 score involvements were a game-high and an equal season-high for him, and although Viney, Brayshaw, Gawn and Petracca were huge throughout the game, Kozzie’s impact separated these two teams. They have some pluck, these Demons. Twice they were challenged in successive weeks and twice they came up trumps. A Collingwood-Melbourne first final looms large, and Clayton Oliver will be back by then.
4. JACK THE GIANT-KILLER
How much would Harris Andrews love Jack Payne as a teammate this season? Payne took Tom Hawkins on Saturday afternoon and Ryan Lester played on Jeremy Cameron, leaving Andrews to play on Ollie Henry, which allowed him to be more of an all-encompassing presence and not a lockdown. He is the best spoiler in the game. Payne is the most improved key defender in the game. He kept Hawkins goalless which followed games against Ben Brown (one goal), Oscar Allen (one goal), Jack Riewoldt (goalless) and Max King (goalless). In the finals, he will be required to stand Mihocek or McStay from Collingwood, Dixon or Marshall from Port Adelaide, Naughton or Jamarra Ugle-Hagan at the Dogs and an array of Melbourne forwards, from Brown to Petracca. It was workmanlike from the Lions on Saturday on the back of the contest – which they won 140-104 – and clearance (49-22). The clearance differential was staggeringly inept from the Cats and to play catch-up from that basis and fail by only 11 points was a miracle of sorts. But fail they did. They aren’t winning it this year, not with issues in their game at round 19.
5. CAPTAIN JAMES
The Hawks skipper, James Sicily, is fighting for a spot in the All-Australian team against key defenders in Sam Taylor, Harris Andrews, Darcy Moore, Charlie Ballard, Aliir Aliir and Steven May. Three of them get in: Moore, Taylor and Sicily would be at the front of that impressive pack. Sicily is a phenomenal player. He’s a brilliant mark, he often gets the best forward and he patrols the back half like he’s a rebounding defender. He was tagged last week by North Melbourne’s Eddie Ford, much to his amusement, and this week, he took 13 marks playing mainly against Jack Riewoldt. But not even Sicily could stop the rage in the last quarter, nor even stop his direct opponent Liam Baker – which was a winning coaching move by Andrew McQualter – from kicking the game-winner. McQualter has now won six of eight games since being installed as interim coach and interim coaches have been previously installed with far less successful records.
6. ... AND THE FORMER CAPTAIN
Somewhere along the way Stephen Coniglio’s career derailed, which coincided with him signing a new long-term deal and being given the GWS captaincy. Last year he was much more consistent and has been better again this year, having given up the co-captaincy, so captain fantastic Toby Greene could go it alone. Coniglio is averaging a career-high 29 disposals and a career-high 430m gained and is involved in seven scores per week, which is an extremely good return for a midfielder. He can’t do what he’s done without having a great character. He was mentally shot two years ago and, under coach Adam Kingsley, is playing career-best football. He will probably miss the All-Australian team, being behind Bontempelli, Petracca, teammate Josh Kelly, Rozee, Butters, Libba, De Goey, Gulden, Merrett, Neale and Dawson. But that’s not the point. Coniglio is five games away from playing his 200th game which, going to plan, could mean his celebration will be a final. From starting the season 1-3, that would be an incredible turnaround.
7. GRAHAM’S GAME
Sometimes it feels like Richmond’s Jack Graham is just another body on the park, coming off the bench, playing mainly forward, sometimes wing and very occasionally in the middle. In his 15 games this year, he’s had more than 20 possessions just four times. On Saturday, it was a season-high 21 disposals, five clearances, five score assists and 10 score involvements. His 132 ranking points was easily his best of the season and Richmond’s best on Saturday. Where is Graham’s best position or is he always going be a floater? If Trent Cotchin retires at the end of the season, he’ll probably get more midfield minutes. But he’s still behind Taranto, Prestia, Martin, Hopper and Bolton in the pecking order.
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