The Tackle: Mark Robinson names his likes and dislikes from round 8
The AFL will always maximise crowds ahead of anything else, but both Adelaide teams have every right to cry foul over this glaring integrity issue, writes Mark Robinson.
Richmond finally has a second win for the season after five straight losses, but the headlines were about Damien Hardwick’s swipe at former teammate Kane Cornes.
Meanwhile, another player who was the subject of a high-profile trade answered his media critics, the Blues are battling, the Pies did it again and the Swans look a mile off the team that made the grand final last year.
Chief football writer Mark Robinson names his likes and dislikes from round 8.
LIKES
1. Tim Taranto fan club
Commentator Kane Cornes has wound up Richmond with his provocative commentary on midfield recruit Tim Taranto. Coach Damien Hardwick basically called Cornes a clickbait specialist, while former Tigers great Matthew Richardson said on Twitter: “Tim Taranto not a 150 player (three laughing emojis). I’ve heard some nonsense in my time but this has gone straight to number 1.’’ The highly respected Tony Shaw added on 3AW: “If you want to go out there on a limb and you want to be controversial, make sure that you do homework.’’ And Dale Thomas didn’t miss either. “That is a headline for clicks,’’ he said on Triple M. Cornes would relish the commentary, and won’t be offended by the feedback, but not sure the AFL would be pleased with the shenanigans. Last year, the outspoken Cornes was added to the selection panel for the All-Australian team and, judging by his position on Taranto, the Tigers midfielder won’t be a consideration for selection this year despite his football being of a high standard in five of the eight games.
That he plays for struggling Richmond will count against him. That he has Cornes being critical of him, doubly so. While there’s a market for his direct commentary, you suspect the AFL would prefer an AA selector to be less critical of the players. And is the criticism warranted? Yes, Taranto is only average by foot, but over the past month he has averaged 32 disposals, 15 contested possessions, seven clearances and eight score involvements. In that time his competition ranking for disposals is fifth, he’s sixth for contested possessions and top 15 for clearance and score involvements. His average SuperCoach points in that period is 130, which places him third in the competition.
2. Pies again
What else is left to talk about with Collingwood? Another challenge, another fourth-quarter domination, tremendous team effort, Pendlebury and Moore influential again and the footballer’s footballer, Brody Mihocek, kicks a career-high five goals. What we mean by the Mihocek praise is that he’s a player that you’d love to play with because you get every ounce of his energy in every contest. Indeed, Collingwood has a bunch of players who are the footballer’s footballer. There’s All-Australian captain type in Darcy, the veteran Pendlebury, Maynard, the Daicos boys for their brilliance, De Goey too, and the teamsters union types like McCreery and Murphy. The treatment dished out on Nick Daicos on Sunday was interesting. No one was critical of Sydney attacking the youngster, yet when Fremantle decided to try to get in Rory Lobb’s head, they were heavily criticised for taking their concentration off the ball. Go figure.
3. Port in the close ones
That’s four wins by 14 points or fewer in their past five games, but they’re playing better than what the scoreboard says. Eclipsed at centre bounce by Essendon in the first quarter on Sunday – they lost clearance 8-1 – Port Adelaide wrestled back control in the second quarter and were the better team over the final three quarters. But there’s an issue. Port has ticker and defends soundly, but the issue is goalkicking. In the second quarter on Sunday, for example, Port kicked 2.7 to Essendon’s three goals. Port sits fifth on the ladder despite having the fifth worst goalkicking percentage in the competition. In order from the bottom are Gold Coast, Richmond, West Coast and Hawthorn. The worst culprits this season are Junior Rioli’s 10.11 from 24 shots, including 2.3 on Sunday, Sam Powell-Pepper’s 10 goals from 22 shots, the injured Mitch Georgiades’ two goals from nine shots and Jeremy Finlayson’s 11 goals from 22 shots. Their best kick for goal is Todd Marshall, who has kicked 11 goals from 18 shots. On Sunday, Port had 34 shots at goal to Essendon’s 22 and won by five points. If the inaccuracy continues, those small-margin victories could easily turn into small margin defeats. And the best goalkicking teams? Melbourne, Geelong and Brisbane.
4. Master and the apprentice
Giants coach Adam Kingsley had a problem at halftime. The problem was Marcus Bontempelli. Kingsley needed a solution. The solution was Tom Green. “We tried to nullify Bontempelli round the stoppage and we couldn’t do that in the first half ... 20 possessions and 10 clearances and kicks a goal,’’ Kingsley said post-match. “After halftime, we sent Tom to him … get that job done and see where it takes you. I thought we were able to minimise Bontempelli’s influence and he (Green) was able to impact the game, particularly in the last quarter, (he) kicked a couple of goals, and it ended up being a very special night for him.’’ Overall, Bontempelli had career-high 26 contested possessions and a career-high 14 clearances. Head-to-head after halftime, Bont had 13 disposals, four clearances and five score involvements opposed to Green’s 19 disposals, two goals, four tackles and seven involvements. Kingsley was thrilled for Green, but not with his team, who allowed the Bulldogs to separate the game in the third quarter before making a late charge in the final quarter. “The effort to get back in the game was great, it was pretty disappointing how we let the game slip away,’’ Kingsley lamented.
5. Noah Anderson
It was his best game for the Suns, up against one of the best groups of midfielders in the game. He had 37 disposals, 10 clearances and seven score involvements against the collection of Oliver, Petracca and Viney. The 22-year-old – what a player he is for his age – also broke through in an obscure stat line. This year, he’s had 29 kicks inside 50m and only one of those kicks has been marked by a forward. The one came on Saturday via a Levi Casboult mark. If Anderson can become a more threatening player forward of centre, he will become one of the most dangerous midfielders in the competition. That said, if the Suns forwards can be more threatening aerially, then that obscure stat wouldn’t be an issue. Still, Anderson is a hell of a player. His game awareness is elite, he impacts the game both on the inside and out, he’s going at a goal a game this year, and is a pretty good pressure player. Clearly, if the 2019 national draft is assessed Anderson (pick 2) and Sydney’s Chad Warner (pick 39) would be vying for the No.1 spot. That Warner is possibly the best performing player from the ’19 class makes him another draft diamond from Swans list boss Kinnear Beatson.
6. Action Jackson
The West Australian newspaper has been as controversial as Kane Cornes, with its most pointed back page this year criticising boom recruit Luke Jackson. With the headlines “No action Jackson’’ and with a kicker headline declaring he was earning $78,000 per mark, Jackson’s quiet start to his career at Fremantle certainly didn’t get missed by the local media. They weren’t alone, to be fair. So credit when credit is due. Yes, it was against the lowly Hawks who were very ordinary, but we saw what Jackson was capable of. His split was 55 per cent forward, 40 per cent ruck and there was a minor period of playing as a pure midfielder. He finished with 24 disposals, 16 contested, seven tackles, four tackles and kicked two goals. Now to follow up against Swans on the road next weekend. That’s when the respect levels will skyrocket.
DISLIKES
1. Sydney is on the nose
They went in with plans on Sunday. One was to get in the face of Nick Daicos, which kind of worked, and another plan was to try to control the ball via foot and hands. They took 120 uncontested marks to Collingwood’s 63 and uncontested possessions were 294-195. It worked for three quarters, but they were overrun. Who isn’t overrun by the Magpies? Still, there are some serious issues at the Swans. They have lost five of their past six matches, remembering that their first two wins came against Gold Coast and Hawthorn. Since round 2, they are 13th for points scored and 16th for points conceded, although injuries to defenders has played a role there, and they are a bottom-six team in points from turnover and stoppage differential. It all sounds a bit technical, so we’ll explain it the old fashioned way: they are not a good team. Inconsistency from their two X factor forwards, Tom Papley and Isaac Heeney, is stark. Papley has kicked 12 goals in his five matches, but six of those goals came against Richmond in round 5. Heeney is tantalising and an All-Australian, and he’s playing without impact. He’s had 21 shots at goal for 7.7 and seven shots didn’t score. This is not the grand final team of last year. This is a team in 11th spot on the ladder, equal in wins with Fremantle, which has been heavily criticised for its season.
2. It can’t always be scotch fillet
The Sunday night fare at Marvel Stadium wasn’t too tasty, but that happens in football. St Kilda strangled North Melbourne, and the Kangaroos didn’t have enough talent to trouble the Saints on the scoreboard. For Alastair Clarkson, it was an improvement on what the Kangas dished up last week, when they lost by 15 goals to Melbourne. They were young and they were at least competitive and, as Forrest Gump would often say, that’s all I have to say about that. As for the Saints, they were at their defensive best, keeping the opposition to 34 points, Callum Wilkie added to his AA credentials, Liam Stocker added to his reputation growing in the second-chance saloon, and Hunter Clark continues to impact ... and that’s all I have to say about that.
3. Compare the pair
Junior Rioli tried to block Essendon’s Jordan Ridley on Sunday and seemingly clipped Ridley across the head. The Crichton Medallist defender, Ridley was forced from the game with concussion. A block is a football act, but you can’t block them to the head when the ball is 40m away. In that moment, Ridley is there to chase his man and is not there to get concussed. It was much worse than what Jacob Van Rooyen did in the spoil attempt on Charlie Ballard. One was in play, the other was behind the play. It was a disappointing result for the Bombers: They blew a first-quarter centre-square domination, lost the game by a kick and will now face Brisbane at the Gabba without their most experienced defender. The positives are the form of Kyle Langford, Darcy Parish’s high-level consistency and Jake Stringer’s increasing contribution to the cause.
4. Dirty football
But not sure Jacob Van Rooyen’s spoiling attempt on Charlie Ballard means he should be suspended. If Melbourne challenges Van Rooyen’s two-match ban the case will be heard at the tribunal, where it will be judged as either an unlucky football act or a clumsy attempt to spoil causing injury. Yes, he has a duty of care to his opponents, but if Ballard didn’t suffer an injury, the spoil would’ve been deemed high and a free kick paid. Van Rooyen had every right to contest the ball and while it’s been said he didn’t have eyes for the ball, there isn’t a rule that says your eyes have to be on the ball when contesting it. Note that Van Rooyen didn’t strike Ballard with a round arm swipe to Ballard’s head. Instead, he collected Ballard’s neck area with the inside of his bicep as he ran back and jumped to spoil. That sort of contact happens frequently when defenders try to spoil forwards on lead. The duty of care aspect is prevalent in the game and it will be a major talking point at Tuesday’s tribunal hearing. As will the fact Ballard took a knock to the head earlier in the game, after which he passed a concussion test. Did that make him more susceptible to the second knock? The fact is players competing under a high ball like these two did are in the lap of the gods when it comes to injury. Ballard was unlucky. Van Rooyen wasn’t malicious. Accidents do happen in footy. The same argument was presented to this writer when queries about duty of care were written in relation to Jeremy Howe’s mid-air collision with Geelong’s Tyson Stengle. Both of those players were contesting the ball, just as Ballard and Van Rooyen were.
5. Oh, Newman
Footy’s funny because we always believe the team will reflect the coach and in terms of how Michael Voss played the game, we think the Blues would be unrelenting with their attack on the ball and the man. The Blues like the contest, but Voss would be disappointed with some individual acts on Friday night. Nic Newman is a combative bugger and he’s been among Carlton’s better players this year. But there’s one play that both Voss and Newman would like again. In the third quarter, the ball was kicked into Brisbane’s forward 50m and while Newman ran at the bouncing ball, Lions forward Jack Gunston chased the bouncing ball. Newman had the choice to bodyline the ball, and either win it or take the tackle, but instead chose to swipe one-handed at it. He missed the gather and momentum took him out of play. His opponent Charlie Cameron ran on to the ball and kicked the goal. It was an unusual baulk of responsibility on Newman’s behalf, but that said, Carlton baulked at a lot of its responsibilities on Friday night.
6. Blues under the pump
Nine games ago, Carlton lost to Collingwood by a point. Ten games ago, the Blues lost to Melbourne by five points. Now they’ve lost three of their past four games and the scrutiny on coach Michael Voss and his players is as intense as it’s been since Voss returned to coaching. The Blues are boring. They look slow because they can’t move the ball, the forward line is not working, sloppy skills kill them and if Patrick Cripps is curtailed, the feeling is Carlton can be curtailed. On Friday night, Cripps probably needed to be moved forward to break the Dunkley tag and the big-bodied Matthew Kennedy activated earlier to replace Cripps in the middle. At least try something to throw Brisbane’s plan for Cripps awry. The numbers reveal where Carlton is failing – in their past three losses they have kicked 62, 60 and 74 points and conceded 118, 82 and 100 points – but Voss’s issue is to find solutions. He could focus on playing high-end defence and let the offence grow from there. Because in their three defeats, they are getting smacked on turnover. In other words, when they give up the ball, they can’t stop the opposition moving it. Against Adelaide they were -47 points on turnover, against St Kilda it was -34 and against the Lions it was -37.
7. Integrity of the draw
The AFL will always maximise crowds ahead of anything else, and it’s starting to grate on the South Australians. The 5AA crew in Adelaide, led by the one-eyed Croweater Stephen Rowe, highlighted perhaps the most glaring integrity issue in the AFL draw. A social media post noted that from the 1990s, Adelaide had played 22 games and Port Adelaide 15 times at Geelong’s home ground. In the same period, Collingwood has played three games and Essendon just one. With Geelong being consistent winners at their home ground, both Adelaide teams – or at least Rowey – have every right to cry foul. Can’t think of any other major national sport where gate sizes dictate who plays where.
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