AFL Early Tackle: Scott Gullan’s likes and dislikes from round 13

Three years ago, Adelaide and Hawthorn landed two key pieces of their premiership puzzle — with a little help from each other. Scott Gullan says it might be the greatest win-win trade ever.

Eight games spread across five days meant round 13 was always going to deliver plenty of talking points.

It started with the Hawks snapping their losing streak and then Brisbane blowing 10 chances to beat Adelaide in a Friday night nailbiter.

The Swans might be back too.

Scott Gullan names his likes and dislikes in the Early Tackle.

LIKES

GREATEST WIN-WIN TRADE EVER?

It could be one of the fairest trades in draft history.

Adelaide going big to get Jordan Dawson back home from Sydney is right up there with the best moves of recent times.

Another matchwinning performance in the Crows biggest game of the season on Friday night has Dawson at the pointy end of Brownlow Medal betting.

After arriving at Adelaide in 2022, he was elevated to captain in his second season, won two best-and-fairests (tied in 2024) and earned All-Australian selection.

The Crows traded a future first-round selection in the 2022 draft to get Dawson but how they got that pick, and where it eventually ended up, is a long and winding tale.

Initially the pick was Melbourne’s but then it made its way to Adelaide as part of a four-club picks trade. The Crows then off-loaded it to Sydney for Dawson but the Swans never used it in the 2022 draft.

Instead Hawthorn went big to get their hands on it, giving Sydney pick No. 27 and two future picks (Rd 2 and Rd 3) in the 2023 draft.

Drum roll please. Who did the Hawks use the pick, which turned out to be No. 18, on?

Josh Weddle.

Josh Weddle goal vs Bulldogs

While he’s obviously still got a little way to go to catch up to Dawson’s CV – he’s only played 55 games compared to the Crows captain’s 144 games – there is a big bullet next to his name as illustrated with his performance on Thursday night.

Weddle set up Hawthorn’s victory over the Western Bulldogs with a brilliant first quarter, which included a memorable running goal from 50m.

He played mainly across halfback but his coach Sam Mitchell knows he has an Anthony Koutoufides-type physical specimen on his hands who in time will be able to play anywhere.

You get the feeling the 21-year-old will have a major bearing on how far the Hawks go in September and if they cross paths with the Crows, he would be a perfect match-up for … another drum roll please … Jordan Dawson.

Dion Prestia slots a goal

NEON DION

There wasn’t a lot to warm Richmond fans hearts at the MCG.

But for the second week the sight of Dion Prestia winding back the clock would have at least given Tigers fans a reason to smile briefly.

Last week he continued his impressive first-up record – to be fair he has had plenty of practice given his injury history – with 31 possessions against the GWS Giants.

This time it was a blistering first quarter against Sydney with 13 possessions and a piece of magic which was worthy of making the game’s highlight reel.

After Swans fullback Lewis Melican was pinged for a deliberate out-of-bounds, Presita took the free-kick near the point post.

With no Sydney player on the mark, he played on and then produced two stunning baulks to avoid two defenders before kicking a clever banana goal.

Its significance grew as the day went on given Richmond didn’t score their next goal until three minutes remaining in the game.

MANY WAYS TO WIN A CAT

Jeremy Cameron and Patrick Dangerfield touched the ball 13 times between them and contributed one behind. Yet Geelong won by 24 points.

Throw in the fact their best player for the year so far Bailey Smith had pulled out in the pre-game and this gutsy win on a wet and soggy night against the Gold Coast Suns wasn’t off the back of their usual A-graders.

While Max Holmes was outstanding - he is A+ - there were a lot of the Cats foot soldiers who combined to ensure the Suns ordinary record at GMHBA Stadium continued.

Take Mark O’Connor as Exhibit A.

It wasn’t that long ago that there were questions being asked about how the Irishman fitted into this line-up but Chris Scott wound back the clock and gave him the biggest job of the night.

O’Connor was told to blanket Suns captain Noah Anderson and did it brilliantly, keeping the Gold Coast star to nine touches in the first half and really minimal influence across the whole night.

Mark O’Connor was one of the unheralded Cats who stood up against the Suns.

Scott now has two stoppers at his disposal which is a luxury moving forward. The quicker Oisin Mullin has been given the job on more fleet-footed opponents recently, such as Collingwood superstar Nick Daicos, but with Anderson the Cats coach needed the bigger body of O’Connor.

While Hawthorn’s fleet of half-forwards have been getting talked up, Geelong still clearly has the best quartet in the competition. Gryan Miers, Tyson Stengle, Brad Close and Shaun Mannagh do so much more than just loiter around trying to sniff out a goal.

They all run up and down the ground, giving cover to their defence or midfielders by blocking space or being that emergency quick exit option from deep in defence.

In many ways they have changed the way the position is played and there are many clubs - notably Carlton - who are envious of what Scott has at his disposal.

They also like to share the scoreboard duties and on Saturday night it was Stengle who stepped up with his brilliant set-shot kicking from long range, a stand-out in his four-goal haul.

DISLIKES

OLD ADAGE

We’re actually not sure which coach, and from what sport, the quote initially came from but once again it came to the fore at the MCG on Saturday.

“Don’t get beaten by what you know”.

It sounds obvious but so many teams get caught up in worrying about themselves or tinkering with game plans and styles that they forget to address the core principle in getting success.

Sydney have been rubbish for weeks and it’s no shock that Nick Blakey has been down on form through that period. Only once in the past six games has he had over 20 disposals.

During the Swans march to the Grand Final last year, Blakey’s run and carry from halfback was a key factor as the legend of the ‘The Lizard’ grew and grew.

The Tigers paid the price for letting Nick Blakey off the chain.

So you don’t have to be a genius to figure out the correlation between Sydney’s return to form against Richmond and Blakey’s output.

He collected a career-best 31 kicks in his 34 disposals, took 10 marks and covered an incredible 886 metres gained.

Tyler Sonsie and Jack Ross seemed to be in his vicinity at some stages but Tigers coach Adem Yze will be shaking his head about letting the Swans rediscover their most powerful weapon.

CONFUSED SUNS

The excuses were valid and many. Cold, wet and windy at a ground where most teams don’t win has to be acknowledged.

But despite the conditions, what can’t be glossed over is that the Gold Coast Suns have again come up short against a premiership contender.

While sitting fifth on the ladder at the mid-season bye is a position coach Damien Hardwick would have taken at the start of the season there is still a niggle in the back of the mind about their credentials.

Getting beaten by the Cats at GMHBA Stadium is not the end of the world but when you put it next the Suns three other losses and an asterix is appearing.

Are the Suns the real deal or not? It might be months before we know.

Losing to Richmond at Marvel Stadium was unforgivable but since then they’ve been flogged by reigning premier Brisbane again and then let another finals aspirant in Fremantle beat them on their home deck.

Talking about asterix’s, the two wins in Darwin against contenders Hawthorn and the Western Bulldogs have to have one next to them because of the clear home advantage they have playing in the Top End.

Other than those, beating Adelaide by one point at home is their only other real victory of significance.

The reality is we might not get a real read on the Suns until the end of July where they have a three-match spread from Round 18 to 20 against Collingwood, Adelaide and Brisbane.

Come out of those with a couple of wins at least and then the hype can be considered legit.

WHERE’S LIAM?

The sight of Ryan Gardner getting a recall by Luke Beveridge on Thursday night raised eyebrows for many Western Bulldogs fans.

Gardner hadn’t been seen since Round 20, 2023 with it seemingly clear the Dogs had moved on to better options.

The main one had been Liam Jones but the former Blue has strangely fallen out of favour with the coach this season.

Liam Jones has been stuck in the VFL. Picture: Michael Klein

He was dropped for the Round 7 clash with the GWS Giants after struggling in Beveridge’s eyes since returning from a hamstring injury which saw him miss the start of the season.

Jones then hurt his calf at training but returned to the Dogs VFL team two weeks ago and picked up 17 disposals and 12 marks against Geelong.

The club then had a bye last week but rather than look to the experienced Jones – or the youngster who replaced him in Rd 7 first-round pick Jedd Busslinger – Beveridge resurrected Gardner with what would be described as mixed results against Hawthorn.

Sending messages to experienced players isn’t foreign for Beveridge who does it more than most coaches but if Jones can get a sniff against Coburg this weekend, surely his hiatus will end.