Andrew Dillon’s decision to drive to the Surf Coast last Thursday afternoon to meet with Bailey Smith in person appears to be part of a broader attempt to de-escalate the punitive nature of the relationship between players and the league and, further, to better define his understated style of leadership.
When Smith blundered into his latest social media stink, the AFL chose not to fine him, again, for his stupidity. This time it was an ill-considered reply on Instagram about getting on the nose beers (cocaine) if the Cats won the flag. He deleted the comment soon afterwards once his brain had time to catch up with his thumbs on his phone, but the AFL PR damage had been done in those minutes.
Bailey Smith is one of the competition’s biggest stars.Credit: Getty Images
Dillon and his former colleague at AFL House, Geelong CEO Steve Hocking, had lengthy discussions about it at the time. Dillon said then he’d like to sit down with Smith and talk. The pair knew one another through their schooling at Xavier College, while Dillon is mates with Bailey’s dad, Nick, also an old Xav.
Geelong coach Chris Scott.Credit: AFL Photos
It wasn’t through Nick that Dillon organised to meet Bailey. Hocking took Dillon up on his comment that there might be value in the pair talking and offered to come to Melbourne to meet, but Dillon said he’d rather it were more low-key, and he’d drive down. They decided Smith’s Surf Coast property was more casual again than the club. Last Thursday afternoon he met there along with Hocking, Chris Scott and Cats GM of football Andrew Mackie.
It sounds like an intervention. It wasn’t. Dillon regularly talks with Patty Dangerfield and other senior players. Last week he met with Gold Coast Suns leaders Noah Anderson, Matt Rowell and Jarrod Witts, figuring personal conversations give him a better feel for the players’ views than formal meetings with the players’ association, and wants to make himself more accessible to the players. The same goes for the umpires (he apologised in a phone hook-up to the umps who’d been wrongly and unfairly thrown under the bus by the AFL) and coaches and their representative bodies.
Smith is a different case. He is, at the moment, the biggest name in the game. The most marketable player and one of the most talented, he is a complex character whose profile and provocative behaviour on the field and in social media belie a shyness. He has long spoken of mental health trouble.
Steve Hocking in his time at AFL House.Credit: AFL Photos
Dillon wanted to reinforce to Smith how important he was to the game – and how important the game was, and could be, for him, but the seemingly escalating number of dumb moments this year could threaten to unwind that for all. Smith, according to those there, appreciated the meeting. So too did Dillon.
The appointment of Greg Swann last week as the league’s new football operations boss – splitting the football role on the executive with Laura Kane – was part of an intent to be more accessible to clubs and keen on more open dialogue. They want to be less tsk tsk with fines liberally handed out as the way to change player behaviours.
Ironically, one of the high-profile cases that legal counsel Stephen Meade handled, and perhaps contributed to his demotion from the executive and removal from the AFL school principal role in handing out punishments for misbehaviour, was the Willie Rioli case, in which he and the AFL had sought to be more subjective in how they handled players.
The Rioli penalty missed the mark with the initial decision not to impose any suspension, but the motivation by Meade – and agreed to by Dillon and the executive – was to be more nuanced with the penalty for Rioli, a player who had been sanctioned more often than others for minor off-field offences.
They misread the room on Rioli initially because no suspension at all was so out-of-kilter with other punishments. But the intent was, like the response to Smith, to be bigger-picture in thinking. Regular fines and suspensions had not worked with Rioli, so do we really want to drive a player of limited education out of the game by constant punishment? They got the penalty wrong, but the motivation was understandable.
Just punishing Smith wasn’t doing much to pull him into line, so maybe a fireside chat with the boss would.
The afternoon chat around the fire pit at Smith’s place was part of that broader signal to clubs and players from Dillon – like the Swann appointment – that he and the league wanted to be better-connected to its clubs and players. This all sounds worthy and Kumbaya, but has to be met by consistency in handling the next – lesser – player who is indiscreet about a nose beers comment or other nonsense.
Devil of a question
Dillon was back at the AFL by 5.30pm on Thursday and in time to be at the Hawks v Dogs match for the first bounce. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was hosted at the game by Hawthorn president Andy Gowers, coincidentally (or unsurprisingly in the AFL) Dillon’s Old Xavs premiership teammate. Dillon was not hosting Albanese, but they planned to talk at least briefly. His trip to see Smith did not keep the PM waiting.
Australian Prime Minister, and Hawks fan, Anthony Albanese congratules Sam Mitchell in the Hawthorn rooms after the round 13 win over the Bulldogs.Credit: AFL Photos
Doubtless, when they did meet, the looming Tasmania state election and the impact on the Devils was discussed. Like the AFL’s insistence on there being a roofed stadium or there’d be no team, Albanese will have reaffirmed what senior members of his past government, and his new one, have privately stated – Brisbane 2032 will soak up any extra government sports cash (as if there is any), so don’t expect more government money for the Devils’ playground.
Who dares wins
Max Gawn is, by consensus the best ruck in the competition – an unofficial position he has held for the past decade. His presence is enough to re-direct how teams play. He drags other rucks to places they don’t want to go, just because he goes there and few dare to leave him alone.
The ruckman of a generation: Melbourne star Max Gawn.Credit: AFL Photos
Gawn puts himself behind the ball, where the opposition either kick it to him, or he forces them to go the long way home around him. Interestingly, so too does Collingwood’s Darcy Cameron.
“We’re coming up against a ruckman that’s better than me at doing that,” Gawn said ahead of the King’s Birthday game.
“He stands in the hole more times than not, and I think he’s taken the most intercept possessions for a ruckman this year… so I feel like the shoe’s on the other foot a little bit this week. I’ve got to tease Darcy away from the dangerous positions.”
Which ruckman wins the tease battle will help determine the outcome of the game in a contest that has been running against the Demons for nearly a decade – the Magpies have won 10 of the past 12 games.
The opponent, the size of the occasion, and the controversial history between these teams – the Brayshaw-Maynard collision, and the knee to Petracca’s ribs on this day last year that saw him in ICU – make this a big game for the Demons. Gawn was more matter-of-fact: When you start 0-5, they’re all big.
The move ‘Bevo’ has long resisted might need to happen
Luke Beveridge has long dismissed the idea of Aaron Naughton in defence. The past two years the question has been raised and resisted.
Beveridge is convinced Naughton is a key forward. Since the staggered arrival of Sam Darcy, Naughton is now not the best key forward they have, but Beveridge is insistent he is a forward.
But Naughton is a frustration to watch because he just should be better. He has all the tools and looks on the verge of something so often without actually ripping the game apart like he could.
Aaron Naughton’s versatility is one of his strengths.Credit: AFL Photos
Rory Lobb is having the season of his career as an intercept key defender, but the move of the versatile bluehead forward against Hawthorn did nothing to dull his confident form. He at least gave the Dogs hope in the second half.
With Darcy poised to return, Beveridge will no doubt give his preferred structure – Naughton and Darcy forward, and Lobb back – time find itself. But Darcy’s return also opens the idea of switching Lobb and Naughton around. Lobb, as good as he has been behind the ball, is also only ranked 18th for intercept marks, and the Dogs ranked eighth overall in the competition.
Naughton arrived at the club as a key back but has basically not played there for years. He can be an outrageously good mark, and his numbers are not off compared to other years, but he lacks impact with his touches for a player of his ability.
Beveridge will undoubtedly dead-bat the idea, at least for now, but it is also something he can have up his tight sleeves. His opponents the other night in Hawthorn have made a virtue of the versatility of James Sicily – until his slump this year. The Dogs, too, could have multiple multi-position keys if they have that scope to switch Lobb and Naughton around.
Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.