Mick McGuane: Burning questions three rounds into 2024 season
Injury-ravaged Richmond is enduring a tough start to life under new coach Adem Yze. But as MICK MCGUANE writes, the Tigers only have themselves to blame for an “unacceptable” issue which has reared its head.
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It’s still early in the season, but some things are quickly becoming clear.
AFL analyst Mick McGuane answers all the big burning questions ahead of a bumper round 3.
Plus, Mick gives his latest hot takes on some of the game’s big issues.
Should more be expected from North Melbourne this year?
Everyone knows the Kangaroos are going to take some time, but there are areas of their game that can — and should — be fixed quickly.
We can’t expect this young side to challenge for a top-eight spot this year, but we can expect them to pressure the opposition more than they are.
In our 1990 premiership campaign at Collingwood, we adopted an ‘Operation Pressure and Tackle’ mantra.
It’s an easy sell for a coach and something that Alastair Clarkson and the Kangaroos should be looking to implement.
The opposition can stop you doing a lot of things, but they can’t stop you bringing intense pressure and an intent to tackle.
Across the first two rounds, North Melbourne laid a total of just 89 tackles.
Ruckman Tristan Xerri laid 15 of those, with no other player in double figures.
That’s an indictment on the midfield group.
Dylan Stephens — who has laid six tackles — was recruited from Sydney and should be communicating the importance of bringing strong, defensive pressure.
Across their first three games, the Swans have logged 191 tackles, with 29 of them coming from James Rowbottom.
Who is North Melbourne’s Rowbottom?
The Roos have plenty of emerging talent, but being a good AFL footballer is about more than just winning the ball yourself. You have to work both sides of the ball.
We can see the way North Melbourne is trying to play, with quick ball movement from the back half.
However, their ability to stop the opposition from moving the ball the other way is highly concerning.
Did Adelaide jump too early on Matthew Nicks’ contract extension?
Having stability at a football club is important and if you think you have the right coach you should absolutely keep them.
However, there didn’t appear to be a need for the Crows to lock in Nicks so soon.
Like many, I expected Adelaide to be a top-eight team this year after narrowly missing September last season.
But it has been a bad start to the new campaign.
The Crows were very clunky with their fundamentals in their first two games, lacking composure with the ball and not executing well entering their forward line.
Good teams take their chances when opportunities present and that’s something else which Adelaide isn’t doing well.
The players need to take responsibility for that — that’s not on Nicks.
After a bumper pre-season, the injury to emerging key forward Riley Thilthorpe has been a blow, Darcy Fogarty needs to continue to elevate his game (can he?) and Taylor Walker looked old and robotic in his return from a back injury last week.
Walker has long been a star but at 33 years old he desperately needs someone else to step up and take the mantle as the No. 1 forward.
The midfield isn’t firing on all cylinders either — offensively or defensively.
Rory Laird and Matt Crouch are great extractors of the footy, but they are too reluctant to drive their legs forward into space when they do win the ball. They lack penetration.
Coughing up five centre-bounce clearance goals against Geelong last week was also a worry.
This week’s game against an improved Fremantle was a must-win on the road.
After dropping that, Nicks’ side could quickly find itself 0-5 given there are games against Melbourne and Carlton to come.
Has anything changed at Essendon amid a focus on defence?
The Bombers will be judged this year on what they do as a team when they’re not in possession of the footy.
Right now, that isn’t remotely up to scratch and Essendon has in fact gone backwards when it comes to defending opposition ball movement.
Last year, Essendon had an opposition defensive 50 to inside-50 rate of 25 per cent — ranked 15th in the competition.
This year that rate has risen to 37 per cent, meaning teams are finding it even easier to move the ball from end-to-end against the Bombers.
The Bombers gave up 28 scoring shots to Hawthorn in round 1 and 36 scoring shots to Sydney in round 2.
The Swans’ score of 19.17 (131) last week was the highest kicked by any team so far this year.
Sydney scored a whopping 37 points from chains originating in its defensive 50.
Coach Brad Scott talks about the ‘Essendon Edge’.
Where is it?
Playing angry isn’t controlled aggression.
Too much continues to be left to too few.
There are four players — Will Setterfield, Archie Perkins, Zach Merrett and Jye Caldwell — who have laid 52 tackles between them across the first two rounds.
That has made up almost 48 per cent of the team’s total of 109 tackles.
Team defence is something that is in your control, but you have got to bring an intent and want to do buy into it each week.
Essendon will remain a September spectator until it learns that.
How can Richmond rediscover its mojo?
I wrote it during pre-season and I’ll write it again.
Noah Balta is the Tigers’ best and most aggressive key defender and needs to return to what is a very unstable backline.
Injures to defenders Josh Gibcus, Tylar Young and Nathan Broad — along with a form drop-off from an ageing Dylan Grimes — have not helped Richmond’s cause across the first three rounds.
But it is all the more reason to end the experiment of playing Balta forward.
Without him, good luck on Sunday against an in-form Sydney forward line consisting of talls Logan McDonald, Hayden McLean and Joel Amartey.
Of course, even if you have the competition’s best backline you still need to bring pressure around the ground and the Tigers are not doing that.
Against Port Adelaide last week, they recorded their lowest pressure rating in nine years of just 150 and laid a measly 32 tackles. That’s unacceptable.
Applying such little pressure allows your opposition to control the game through uncontested marks and score with ease on turnover.
The Power posted 100 uncontested marks last week and put a punishing 11.7 (73) on the scoreboard from turnovers.
Along with the Balta move, Richmond should look to get more ball in the hands of halfbacks Jayden Short and Daniel Rioli.
Hitting targets off halfback is as important as ever in the modern game and the Tigers have been sloppy in that area to start the season.
Is 2022 premier Geelong back on track for one more crack at a flag?
The Cats won their premiership in 2022 on the back of a rock-solid team defence.
They conceded an average of just 35 points per game from turnovers in 2022, but slipped back to giving up 46 points per game from turnovers in 2023.
From two games so far in 2024, Chris Scott’s side has averaged only 34 points against from turnovers against two reasonable sides in St Kilda and Adelaide.
That’s ominous.
It’s all thanks to a top-notch defensive system along with quality personnel down back.
Tom Stewart, Sam De Koning, Jack Henry, Jake Kolodjashnij, Zach Guthrie, Max Holmes and Mitch Duncan have all started the season in good form and understand each other’s games exceptionally well.
However, conceding such few points from turnovers also takes significant effort from other players up the ground, pressuring and forcing the opposition to make quick and often poor decisions.
That starts with the forwards, with the likes of Tyson Stengle, Gryan Miers and Brad Close being quick to snap into a defensive mindset when their team is not in possession of the ball.
Those forwards — among others — get their rewards when the ball comes back the other way, on the back of the Cats’ defenders being able to aggressively press up the ground to lock the ball in their forward half.
Add in a powerful and efficient attack — spearheaded by Tom Hawkins and Jeremy Cameron — and Geelong remains a scary side.
If they can keep those defensive numbers up, they should go very deep again this year.
Who should be the early premiership favourite – GWS or Sydney?
The Swans have started the season on fire and are every chance to enter their round 8 clash against the Giants holding a 7-0 record.
Just take a look at their draw.
Sydney meets a battling Richmond at the MCG this Sunday, followed by West Coast (Adelaide Hills), Gold Coast (SCG) and Hawthorn (MCG).
Sydney’s ability and willingness to chase, harass and tackle over the opening three weeks has been most impressive, as has been their accountable back-shoulder style of defence.
The addition of ruckman Brodie Grundy has already proven a big win and he forms a strong combination with Hayden McLean.
Plus, don’t forget that Sydney’s 3-0 start to the season has come without prime movers Luke Parker and Callum Mills, who are sure to provide a further boost in the second half of the year.
As impressive as the Giants have been to date, they have beaten three sides who didn’t score a win between them in the first three weeks — Collingwood, North Melbourne and West Coast.
I suspect we’ll learn a lot more about GWS over the next month, with some tougher games on the horizon against Gold Coast (Adelaide Hills), St Kilda (Manuka Oval), Carlton (Marvel Stadium) and Brisbane Lions (Manuka Oval).
There’s a long way to go, but the Swans are the early top-seed for mine.
MICK’S HOT TAKES
GOOD
Jeremy Cameron. We need characters in the game and Cameron is one of those. I loved his cheeky umpire impersonation of ‘holding the ball’ when an oval invader was tackled to the ground by security staff in Adelaide last week.
BAD
The goal review system. The fact that Jack Higgins was awarded a goal last week when replays showed the ball was clearly over the boundary line was puzzling. Was the goal reviewed in the ARC? And why was the goal allowed to stand if it was? It mattered little to the result last week, but what if that happened in the last quarter of a Grand Final?
UGLY
The oval invader. What we saw in Adelaide last week was attention-seeking, stupid and potentially dangerous. It also came at a crucial stage of the game and such hold-ups in play have the potential to swing momentum. We don’t want to see more imbeciles like that. Slap them with a lengthy ban.
Originally published as Mick McGuane: Burning questions three rounds into 2024 season
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