Early Tackle: Jack Ginnivan’s parting gift to Ken Hinkley, Bulldogs’ finals hopes fade — again
Tensions were high at the Adelaide Oval in 2024 as Ken Hinkley and Jack Ginnivan went head-to-head. For Ken’s final game against the Hawks, the two of them came full circle.
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There’s plenty happening already in round 19 after just a few games.
Josh Barnes gives his likes and dislikes from the round so far in the Early Tackle.
DISLIKES
KEN’S POWER OUTAGE
For a club that has prided itself on toughness for more than 150 years, the Power didn’t put their heads over it enough on Saturday.
It was rotten conditions for footy in Launceston and the Hawks adapted and won the contested possession count by 29, a smashing.
It was a day for soccering the ball when in position, but far too many times a Port Adelaide player chose to shoe the ball instead of bending over to grab it.
Certainly, it wasn’t a fitting effort from a Ken Hinkley side in one of his final matches in charge.
Questions will no doubt begin now that finals are officially out of reach as to whether Josh Carr should formally take charge early, but surely Hinkley at least deserves to lead his side into one last Showdown next Saturday night.
As a positive, great to see the somewhat respectful theatre between Jack Ginnivan and Ken Hinkley late in the final term.
Ginnivan brought out a subdued aeroplane celebration for his goal, an obvious nod back to the semi-final gesture that cost Hinkley a $20,000 fine.
Hinkley took it well, having a little chuckle in the coaches box as he watched arms extend.
He then had to keep his head down as the Hawks fans waved those aeroplane arms as he left the field.
Despite the huge fine, last year’s incident has been good for the theatre of the game that we all love.
“Theatre is good, that’s what makes this game so special,” Hawk Jarman Impey, who played 75 games under Hinkley, told Fox Footy post-match.
NEAR BUT FAR DOGS
Once again the Dogs just came up short.
Sure, they got within a goal in the final minute on Friday, but that was the first time all night the Western Bulldogs really felt in the game against the Brisbane Lions and Luke Beveridge’s side failed the test yet again.
As they flew down from Brisbane, all the Dogs players and fans would be well aware they have now gone 1-8 against the finals contenders this year, and Friday followed a similar pattern.
Just like last week against Adelaide and the previous test against a top nine side in Hawthorn in round 14, the Dogs were outclassed and outmuscled, and flattered by the final margin.
As usual, the problems stemmed from the defensive work across the ground.
They lost the inside-50 count by 20 and should have been wiped off the park in the third term when they let a crazy 24 entries in.
The constant barrage left the Dogs defenders as exposed as a cheating CEO at a Coldplay concert, but the Lions squandered chances to end the contest.
In those eight losses to the top half teams, the Dogs have conceded an average of 26 scoring shots, which is just simply too many against the good teams.
Yet in those losses, the largest margin was 22 points to the Hawks, so Beveridge’s side has been within striking distance, even if those margins should have been bigger.
A poster boy of the Dogs being good not great was Ed Richards on Friday night.
The red-haired jet has had a phenomenal season but he wasn’t up to task against the Lions, he racked up nine turnovers and just made the wrong call with ball in hand too many times.
But they had to pinch one of these games against the good sides and haven’t, so they feel arms distance from the real contenders.
You can’t quite yet say they can’t win it all, but there is very little proof that the Dogs can salute in September.
REVIEW THE REVIEW
Wasn’t it apt the broadcast panned to Greg Swann during the final quarter as we all sat through another seemingly pointless and overlong score review.
There were too many of too little consequence in the Lions-Dogs battle.
It makes sense the umpires err towards caution given how mistakes under the sticks can shape a season, but at the same time the goal umpires are there to do a job.
The balance should win back a little to them doing that job, instead of deferring to someone watching 10 screens in a bunker.
Cutting the minutes we spend watching grainy footage is the easiest of many ways to trim down game lengths.
Swann steps into AFL House this week to essentially run the football product and has many, many, many things on his plate.
The reviews are down the list, but they are on the list.
THURSDAY RETHINK
Hard to blame any Essendon fan for not showing up on Thursday night against low-drawing GWS.
The game and the club had been talked down all week – mostly for good reason – so a crowd of 20,347 wasn’t that alarming.
Only in Covid and the dark days of 2016 have the Dons played in front of smaller crowds under the roof at Docklands.
But the shrinking Thursday attendances are part of a trend.
Last year an average of 46,146 fans went to Thursday game until the end of round 13.
The average this year thus far is 40,183.
At Marvel Stadium, the average crowd is 27,863.
We are all aware of the Thursday challenges around breaks between games, and we are all aware this year might be a particularly bad place to start with more games early in the week given the fixture bungle that was putting the Dons on seemingly every week.
And we just aren’t getting many good games – the last time two top nine teams faced off on Thursday was back in round 13 with the Dogs and Hawks.
Thursday night footy is locked in forever more as a winning TV product but some kind of fixture rethink is needed.
Even though the footy is on, it’s not great to watch from the loungeroom when it feels like there are more people on your own couch that at the venue.
In the past interstate games had drawn well for Thursday nights, but just 30,381 watched Port Adelaide host Carlton in round 16 and a crowd of 37,570 for Fremantle hosting the Blues a week earlier was a rare attendance under 40,000 at home for the Dockers.
A common denominator in most of the low crowds is teams involved have been stinking it up but some Thursday tweaking is required in 2026.
LIKES
HUGE HAWKS
Most who watched it will gleefully forget Hawthorn’s rain soaked and wind blown win over Port Adelaide, but it will go down as one of Sam Mitchell’s best.
The conditions and the hatred from the Power made this a banana peel game for a team that faces a brutal final month to cling to a spot in the eight.
But Mitchell’s coaching crew planned the win in Arctic conditions - the ‘feels like’ temperature was a balmy 2.7 degrees at the start of the final term - to perfection, lining up the loose man when kicking into the breeze and working harder then the Power.
How about that for a throw in 😅#AFLHawksPortpic.twitter.com/ohikRGPjS6
— AFL (@AFL) July 19, 2025
Ginnivan pulls out the plane celebration and Ken Hinkley loves it 😂#AFLHawksPowerpic.twitter.com/4xjArmDSic
— AFL (@AFL) July 19, 2025
Where Port Adelaide decided the only way forward into the hurricane winds was the bang the ball long blindly, the Hawks ran to position and used the ball well to build attacks when they could.
Importantly, James Sicily may have played the best game of his season so far, working his way into loose positions and using the ball well.
Josh Ward has cemented a spot in the team, managing to move through traffic shrewdly on a day when others were gridlocked like they were going over the Westgate bridge.
Jarman Impey has had a superb season, and his swingman ability at half-forward is a under-the-radar weapon for the rest of the year given his three final term goals, and Jack Gunston was simply magnificent in the conditions.
Hawthorn is one of the sides most under pressure to finish an unlucky ninth this year, with Carlton, Adelaide (away), Collingwood, Melbourne and Brisbane (away) to come, so this was a massive four points.
Before we leave the Launceston conditions, the irony was almost as strong as the breeze that this was the weather for a Tasmanian game on the day those on the Apple Isle went to the polls in a state election.
That is the third time the Hawks have played there this year where the weather has been a major talking point, and only strengthened the case for a roofed stadium.
Yes, we know Launceston is not Hobart, but perhaps some of the soggy fans who were due to hit a polling booth on the way out after bravely sitting through the game might have steered the vote in favour of a dry stadium home for the Devils.
BRISSY BEAUTIES
They are the Brisbane backmen who wouldn’t get recognised on Queen St, Brisbane or Bourke St, Melbourne.
Ryan Lester (11 disposals), Darcy Gardiner (12), Brandon Starcevich (12), Harris Andrews (13) and Darcy Wilmot (17) wouldn’t be in many SuperCoach sides but every coach would be delighted to have them in their real life backline and they all stood tall against the Bulldogs on Friday night.
When the books are written about the Chris Fagan era of the Lions, most of the plaudits will come for the midfield stars or goal kickers like Charlie Cameron and Joe Daniher, or it might end up all about those Ashcroft brothers.
And chapters could be used to dissect the kick-and-catch style that rips opposition defences apart.
But none of it would work without those defenders who roll up their sleeves and get the jobs done over and over
They don’t fill the stat sheet or win many awards but they just win games.
The Lions have the toughest run home of any contending team with Gold Coast, Collingwood, Sydney, Fremantle and Hawthorn to come.
You can bet none of those teams are looking forward to scoring against the Brisbane backline.
GIANT WARNING
It’s not new to anybody that Tom Green and Finn Callaghan are very good players.
But the way the midfield duo stamped themselves on a weak Essendon has to bode well for a hopeful run in finals.
The league is littered with star onball pairings – ‘Dash Brothers’ Bailey Smith and Max Holmes at Geelong, reliable-as-ever Dogs Tom Liberatore and Marcus Bontempelli, the Anchormen Caleb Serong and Andy Brayshaw at Fremantle, best mates Noah Anderson and Matt Rowell on the Gold Coast, the rock-solid Lions Lachie Neale and Josh Dunkley just for starters.
And when Callaghan and Green get going they complement each other as well as any others.
It felt like Green saw off more Bombers than sit on the club’s injury list as Brad Scott tried to slow him down on the way to 16 clearances and Callaghan drove the ball forward all night with 33 disposals.
They haven’t quite got the runs on the board as Libba and the Bont, but they looked like them on Thursday.
Green and Callaghan can take the Giants somewhere special if they deliver that over the next 10 weeks.
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