Dimma’s secret bird flip, Horse’s missing SD card and everything you missed on Monday night’s AFL TV shows
Damien Hardwick has been stitched up for his mid-game reaction against the Giants, while John Longmire has shocked IT departments. See what you missed on Monday’s AFL TV shows.
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It was wall-to-wall viewing on Monday night on the silver screen, and we put some popcorn on and settled down to watch as much as we could.
Here’s what you missed across the footy shows last night.
AFL 360
Carlton was in the gun on the 360 agenda on Monday, but first to the coaches and a certain middle finger.
Damien Hardwick, Zooming in from his bedroom, came with numbers to explain his side’s loss to GWS on Sunday, reeling off how his side dominated the final quarter against the Giants on the stat sheet.
He also came with a single finger salute, revealed by the Fox Footy cameras after a last quarter non-call.
"It was a curious day of umpiring..." "OH WAS IT, GERARD? WAS IT?!" 😆@hardwick_damien was NOT happy with this call late in the Suns' thriller against GWS...
— Fox Footy (@FOXFOOTY) June 23, 2025
Be careful Dimma, we saw with Bailey Smith that the AFL doesn't like it when you do this 😉 #AFL360pic.twitter.com/tCW41TL46T
Hardwick couldn’t believe a late deliberate wasn’t paid against Jake Stringer in the loss and was caught by the Fox Footy cameras giving the bird.
“Oh you blokes, you have killed me,” he said through giggles.
“The finger salute might get me in a bit of trouble, you blokes.”
Hardwick had his side winning inside-50s, contested ball, clearance, pressure, time in front half.
As ex-Memphis Grizzlies coach David Fizdale would say, “How’s that for data”.
“The reality is for three quarters we were pretty bloody good,” the man they call ‘Dimma’ said.
Garry Lyon asked the obvious, and good, question: are we going to see another Suns late-season collapse?
“It’s the new Suns for us, I know that has been the narrative of the past,” Hardwick said.
“Our leaders are really positive with what we can achieve this year.”
When questioned about how his young forwards Ethan Read and Jed Walter were going, Hardwick said he had compared numbers with Sam Darcy in his first two seasons.
Presumably, the Suns coach explained Darcy had foot, lung and jaw injuries that severely limited his first two seasons of senior footy.
Richmond coach Adem Yze watched Hardwick on the giant Zoom screen from the desk before being questioned why his side was so lifeless in the second quarter of a thrashing against the Western Bulldogs.
“I felt like here was a little bit of a miscommunication in that second quarter between what we wanted and what I was seeing in that quarter,” he said.
Yze said he then went to the bench to get closer to his troops.
Coming up against the might of Dogs goal kicker Darcy, Yze admitted he “felt sorry for” defender Noah Balta as he tried to hold a dam wall back, with Darcy bagging five goals.
The coaches talked the tag next, and Hardwick suggested a new job for the umpires.
He said they should consider an “opposition scout” type job, where the umpires watch each game and go to the coaches to warn them during the week a tagger or defender is overstepping the line, to avoid hanging on after Marcus Windhager’s Nick Daicos tag hit the headlines.
Before the coaches of course was the Carlton autopsy.
It’s a really bad situation when the games’ best montagers at AFL 360 turn to Linkin Park to back track imagery of your team sucking.
That’s where Blues fans were to start the show, and Garry Lyon labelled Carlton’s effort against North Melbourne as “shocking”.
“Who in that side worries me as an opposition?,” Lyon opined.
AGENDA SETTERS
Put the Carlton worries on pause for a moment, the wide desk, with new panel member Mitch Cleary is here to talk SD cards.
Cleary had a surprising yarn – ex-Swans coach John Longmire was recorded in the coaches box on grand final day but pinched the SD card of the audio recordings and has never passed it on to the AFL to publish.
Was he too sheepish about the grand collapse on the field and potentially in the box in the loss to the Lions for it to get out?
Did he sit there and abuse the Swans players?
We may never know.
"I think there was things said in that coaches' box on the day that shouldn't see the light of day."
— 7AFL (@7AFL) June 23, 2025
John Longmire did not return the SD card to the AFL after being mic'd up on grand final day. pic.twitter.com/9EOD7u6oEA
Longmire was to be given payment for being mic’d up, but he has declined that fee now the audio is seemingly lost to the sands of time.
Special guest Chris Fagan said he wouldn’t know how to get the SD card out if he had the equipment but he understood why a coach would listen back to the audio.
Fingers crossed we hear some of it, Rodney Eade style, down the track.
Setters headliner Caroline Wilson suggested the Swans have loved Longmire’s work in a non-footy capacity this year – although we’re hoping it’s not near the IT department – but he is not seen as a CEO replacement for Tom Harley in her eyes.
She raised 2005 premiership defender Craig Bolton, GWS footy boss Jason McCartney.
Keeping on about CEO’s, Wilson pegged Fremantle legend and ex-AFL Player’s Association president Matthew Pavlich and North Melbourne legal eagle James Gallagher as frontrunners.
The universally respected Pavlich would likely have to leave Perth for the post.
Now on to the on-field.
Nick Riewoldt’s mic was turned up again on Monday, and he couldn’t believe Port Adelaide’s Miles Bergman admitted to Swans star Isaac Heeney he wasn’t feeling well when they played on each other on Saturday.
Too much honest on field, according to Riewoldt.
“I think it’s a learning experience that you never want to give a sucker an even break. You never want to give an inch or show any kind of vulnerability,” he said.
"My personal view is that he'll go either back to coaching or running a footy department or as a senior list manager."
— 7AFL (@7AFL) June 23, 2025
Caroline Wilson on John Longmire's name being floated as Sydney CEO. pic.twitter.com/6NPnGqmWuv
A whole 10 minutes in, the Setters went to the Blues and listed off all the many things that have gone wrong.
Cleary hypothethised that the AFL’s soft cap boost starting next year meant the Blues had more room to move, in terms of cash, to boot Michael Voss out of Ikon Park.
Riewoldt has put his superglue on only four players as untouchable at Carlton – Patrick Cripps, Jacob Weitering, Charlie Curnow and uncapped Jagga Smith.
Hopefully Sam Walsh and Harry McKay weren’t watching.
Sent to sit right in the middle of the big desk, special guest Fagan admitted he has been sounded out about Fagan revealed the chat between himself, midfield coach Cameron Bruce and Cam Rayner midway through last year to help Rayner develop into the mid-forward role that has him flourishing now.
“He has a licence and it’s really helped him from that day forward,” he said.
He then batted away a question about whether Oscar Allen would be a Lion next year: “I’m not the list manager”.
FOOTY CLASSIFIEDS
No surprise Carlton was at the top of the Footy Class agenda.
It was Charlie Curnow and the Carlton leadership group most under siege from the dark studio in Channel 9 HQ.
Let’s do Curnow first.
All 926 goals of Matthew Lloyd was unimpressed with his efforts in the loss to North Melbourne.
“I was his greatest admirer, or one of, when he was at his best and winning Coleman medals. What I have noticed with him is the difference between his best and worst is pretty stark for a player who is one of the best forwards in the competition,” Lloyd said.
The Essendon great said Curnow simply “doesn’t work hard enough” when he doesn’t have the ball in hand.
Lloyd said the Blues leadership group had to take some brunt for Saturday’s dispiriting loss.
“I think it is on the senior players, a lot of talk about Michael Voss but no doubt they need to lift to support their coach,” he said.
Veteran journo Damian Barrett again said the Blues would listen to a trade offer for Curnow if it came this off-season.
“A year ago I would have said not in my wildest dreams would I (trade Curnow) but the Curnow that is playing now, I would consider it,” Lloyd said.
Over to Jamarra Ugle-Hagan and his podcast discussion, in which he said he was keen to get back and play for the Dogs this year.
And again, Lloyd was having none of it.
He said Ugle-Hagan needed at least six weeks of training to get back close to football fitness and his stated desire to play for the Bulldogs didn’t mean he would be there next year.
“I like that he had a smile on his face … I think this is all a play to get him to another club next year,” Lloyd said.
After the break, the panel squashed its own straw-man argument that Collingwood doesn’t need Jordan De Goey.
“The only thing is, Jordan has that many credits in the bank in big game,” Jimmy Bartel said.
One of our favourite footy show segments, the Closing Cook, rounded out another long night of talking heads.
Trent Cotchin, who is deep in the Dancing With the Stars press tour, was caught out shoving his kid away during a televised Zoom meeting, 2020 style.
Then it was reversed on the cooker Lloyd, who relived his time slipping into the background during crosses from Williamstown back in the day.
Good times, and definitely a big enough fill of footy shows for me.
WHY FAGAN TURNED DOWN PLUM TASSIE ROLE
Premiership coach Chris Fagan says he has been sounded out to coach the Tasmania Devils but has no interest in a senior job once he finishes with the Brisbane Lions.
Fagan is contracted with the Lions until the end of 2027, which would make it 11 years in charge, spearheaded by the 2024 premiership.
A proud Tasmanian, Fagan has always been at the top of a wishlist to coach the Devils, should they enter the competition in 2028.
But he said he would likely move to Melbourne to be closer to his daughters and grandchildren once he finishes at the Lions and wouldn’t be tempted to coach another AFL team.
“I’ve been sounded out a little bit about coaching the team but I don’t really want to coach after I’m finished at Brisbane,” he told Channel 7’s Agenda Setters.
"If there was a role there (Tasmania) that I could do from [Melbourne] and then go down there occassionally then I'd be interested."
— 7AFL (@7AFL) June 23, 2025
Chris Fagan on being involved with the Tasmania Devils 👇 pic.twitter.com/LUyZBbmEkl
“I’d rather help someone else out. I have always thought that was my best role in footy: helping somebody else out.
“If an opportunity came up there that fitted in with my lifestyle and I could do it properly, then I would consider it but that may or may not happen.”
Originally published as Dimma’s secret bird flip, Horse’s missing SD card and everything you missed on Monday night’s AFL TV shows
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