The Tackle round 5: Mark Robinson’s likes and dislikes from round 5
Zak Butters escaped a suspension for his high hit on Freo’s Bailey Banfield, but a critical question is yet to be asked, why didn’t Freo get a free kick late? LIKES and DISLIKES from round 5.
Footy served up some thrilling games in Round 5, with plenty of storylines coming out of the week.
Mark Robinson runs through his likes and dislikes from the weekend that was.
DISLIKES
1. What was that, Hawks?
Generally, there’s no shame if you lose to the Suns on the Gold Coast. But there is when you lose like that.
The Hawks surrendered before a ball had been bounced. We can go through numbers – and they are damning – but there’s a number which best describes the plight of Sam Mitchell’s team and overall rebuild: The last time the Hawks were winless after the first five rounds was 1970. The respect they earned by running last year’s premiers, Collingwood, to five points the week before was tossed out when they chose to play touch footy on the Gold Coast. Sometimes, it’s about personnel and the Hawks had several influential players missing, but there is also an expectation that a team of 18 players will graft and fight.
The Hawks didn’t. Proof is the fact Suns were +96 disposals, +3 uncontested possessions and +17 tackles.
It’s worth repeating that Suns midfielder, 18-year-old Will Graham, laid 14 tackles and the four main centre-bounce attendees for Hawthorn – Nash (4), Newcombe (3), Worpel (3) and Hustwaite (0) – laid 10 tackles between them. A kid embarrassed all of Hawthorn.
2. So, where are the Hawks?
Sam Mitchell is not going to lose his job, he’s not even close to that scenario, but knockdown rebuilds generally don’t have a long-service component to the contract.
In Mitchell’s first year, 2022, the Hawks went 8-14 and finished 13th.
In 2023, they were 7-16 and finished 16th and beat finalists St Kilda, Brisbane and Collingwood and also beat the Bulldogs. This year, they have lost to Essendon, Melbourne, Geelong, the Pies and the Suns.
They weren’t expected to win any of those games, but at the same time, the days of meek surrender were not expected.
A rebuild is a grind and right now, the Hawks are in their worst position since the 2015 premiership.
Arguably, the rebuild under coach Alastair Clarkson should’ve started in 2017 and 2018 the latest, and not when Mitchell replaced Clarkson at the end of 2021.
Instead, the Hawks tried to patch up with O’Meara, Mitchell, Vickery, Wingard, Patton and Scully. It didn’t work. The once mighty Hawks are at ground zero for effort and self respect.
3. Which brings us to the Bulldogs
Coach Luke Beveridge is not as safe as Mitchell. That’s not death-riding the coach but the facts are facts, the Bulldogs retooled this year and lay-down final quarters were not in the plans. It was a bad loss because when the game was there to be won the Bulldogs went missing. The Bulldogs are a fortnightly discussion.
They are LWWLL after five weeks and the finger is pointed at all of them. Tim English wants $1 million a year and was beaten by a 50-year-old on Friday night.
Whatever is said about Aaron Naughton, whether he plays deep forward or high forward, he’s not productive enough. Is it Beveridge’s fault that English is struggling or Naughton can’t be a major influence?
Beveridge despises the external discussion about Naughton going back, and it will be a discussion again. Because the current set-up is not working. There’s no issue with the non selection of seasoned players because Beveridge and his coaching group decided in the off-season that change was needed, and they are being true to their plan.
They’d like their other leaders to stand up, though. In the final quarter on Friday, English (one possession), Weightman (zero), Bontempelli (one), Naughton (two) and Richards (three) disappeared.
Young fella, Ryley Sanders, is being portrayed as the poster boy for selfishness for spitting the dummy after being subbed – AFL great Mick Malthouse said Sanders should be axed this week – but that’s unfair on the kid. Sanders was disappointed.
The team was disappointing. And the fans are beyond disappointed. It’s a club on watch.
4. Bottom-out is a nasty word
We watched Hawthorn succumb meekly on Saturday night and North Melbourne, as expected, were outclassed on Sunday. Former AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan hated teams bottoming out.
It wasn’t good for the club or the competition, he believed. It’s just too difficult to rebuild. It feels like North Melbourne have been rebuilding since the end of 2016. They’ve either had a couple of goes at it or it’s been one long, arduous slog.
There are promising signs at present – yes, we know they’re young and we know their names – but how long is the wait?
Their problem, other than lacking skill and experience, is the competition is not getting worse around them. And it feels like North Melbourne’s improvement is running slower than the competition’s improvement. And teams are bouncing quickly.
Look at Geelong and Sydney. The popular – and wrong – theory was that the era of Cats and Swans was over. But those teams are once again playing for the premierships.
Collingwood played in a Grand Final in 2018, won six games in 2021, and then won the flag in 2023. North Melbourne has won 12 matches since 2020. Does any other club need more evidence that a complete list wipe out is not the way to go.
5. We’re missing the point.
The discussion about whether Zak Butters should be suspended or not for collecting Bailey Banfield in the head, when he aggressively swooped for the ball, ignores a basic question: Why didn’t Banfield get a free kick for high contact? Even though Butters made a play for the ground ball, he‘s still not allowed to hit an opponent in the head. A free kick would’ve given Fremantle the ball at centre half-forward, and trailing by four points and with two and a half minutes to play, the match result could’ve been different. The Dockers robbed again? The fans have every right to think so. The Dockers were stiffed against Carlton the week before and were unlucky against Port Adelaide on Saturday night. They are 3-2 when 5-0 was within their grasp. They are a team to be reckoned with.
6. Don’t fret about the goal review
It was probably a mistake when Adelaide was awarded a goal in the third quarter, but that mistake didn’t lose Carlton the game. Carlton lost the game because of their own mistakes. In an amazing finish, which saw Carlton cough up a two-goal plus lead, Harry McKay missed a goal with nine minutes, Zac Williams and Brodie Kemp mucked up at half-forward which handed the Crows a goal, Izak Rankine marked unopposed near the goals square and kicked a goal and the Blues didn’t take advantage of a two-on-one marking contest in their forward 50m. Inside two mutes to play, McKay dropped a mark, Matthew Owies stubbed his toe kicking for goal, Sam Berry was unattended at the stoppage and kicked the winning goal, and in the final thrust for victory, Charlie Curnow got both hands to the ball in a marking contest and dropped it. Don’t blame the goal umpire for this result.
LIKES
1. Eagles break drought
West Coast’s Jake Waterman considered retirement last year. Struck down by what he thought was a stomach bug, he was eventually diagnosed with an ulcerative colitis, an auto-immune condition which causes inflammation of the lower parts of the digestive system. He didn’t play after Round 12. Fixed, he threw himself into his footy. In five games this year, he’s kicked 12 goals, including six yesterday on a dishevelled Richmond defence. His eight contested marks is the most by any player this year. Elliot Yeo’s 14 clearances, and Harley Reid’s 27 touches and seven clearances, were also the standouts for the Eagles who won their sixth game from their past 54 outings. One win doesn’t make a winter, but it does bring smiles to a beaten down footy club. And the Tigers? Gee, they were disappointing despite the injuries. Praised for their pluckiness over the first five weeks, the Tigers were out-toughed by the Eagles, losing the contested ball by a whopping 38 and clearances by 23.
2. Jezza, you beauty
Remember this time last year? Jeremy Cameron was the best player in the competition. He started the season with two, six, three, seven, four, five, three and three goals before injuries and form played a role. This year, he’s started two, two, two, two and six goals on Saturday. He has fewer goals than at this point in 2023, but he’s playing a slightly different role. On Sunday, he was deep forward because Tom Hawkins was ‘managed’, but across the first four rounds, he has played higher and sometimes on the wing. He’s averaging 19 disposals, which was the same number across the first five rounds last year. They are MVP numbers. He was the standout on Sunday in a total team domination from Geelong. The Cats had nine goalkickers in their 21.13 score line, which included three goals from 21-year-old Shannon Neale in his sixth game. Certainly, they gave him a shot. The Cats targeted him seven times inside 50, which was two more than Cameron. Hawkins, of course, gets his spot back. Neale, of course, will get first tabs on his replacement.
3. Alastair Clarkson
He wears some heat, Clarkson, because wears his heart on his sleeve and it gets the better of him every now and then. But on Sunday, the veteran coach and father of three spoke passionately on behalf of all the football community. Choked up as he spoke, he struggled to comprehend the mindless murders in Sydney, one of them being the daughter of North Melbourne stalwart Kerry Good, and then playing a game of footy the next day. It was difficult not to get emotional with him. North Melbourne players wore black armbands as a mark of respect and loss.
4. Jake Soligo
His name sounds like a character in a mafia movie. So does Josh Rachele. And Izak Rankine is a flat out game killer. Two weeks back, we asked who were the players aged between 21 and 25 who would stand up for this footy club, just who would accept the responsibility to help Crouch, Laird, Smith and Dawson. Rachelle and Soligo are 21 and Rankine is 23. Mitch Hinge is 25 and he was another who helped thwart the Blues on Saturday. As did Sam Berry, who is just 22, who swung the game after being the sub. But it’s that first trio which tantalises. Rachele had 15 and kicked two goals. Rankine had 23, nine score involvements and three goals and Soligo had 27, a career-high 15 contested possessions and six clearances. There’s the future. Soligo is a brave, smart, trenches-type midfielder. Taken at No. 36 in the 2021 draft from the Eastern Ranges, the Crows awarded him a six-year deal in June last year, which at the time, was the longest contract of any current Crows player.
5. Harry Jones
It’s only one game, but it’s interesting to note that Harry Jones, on a one-year deal, had 13 disposals, took six marks and kicked two goals. Bulldog Aaron Naughton, who is on an eight-year deal, had 11 disposals, took seven marks and kicked two goals. And Jones’ teammate, Jake Stringer, is in his first year of exploring Islam and in his final year of his contract, and like Jones is playing some terrific football. It’s not a Naughton bashing session, but it’s interesting to compare playing for your life and already being paid for your life. “In the age of free agency these days, it’s interesting how much better some players play as pre-agents and free agents,” Essendon coach Brad Scott told 3AW on Saturday. “I don’t think he’s (Stringer) alone in that. This is the intangible thing about effort, sometimes you can think you’re giving great effort, but sometimes it can take something extrinsic to motivate you. When you see your football mortality flash before your eyes it can certainly spark your effort.” It poses the question: Can holders of long-term contracts get too comfortable? There’s a poultice of examples of that not being the case: Heeney, Petracca, Blakey, the McKays, Nick Daicos and Luke Jackson. But Jones and Stringer, for example, could be evidence that having your ‘football mortality’ in front of you can be an extra motivator.
6. Marshalling the troops
There were queries when Tim English missed the pre-season Top 50, being the reigning All Australian ruckman and all that, and St Kilda’s Rowan Marshall made the list. After five rounds, Marshall and Gawn are battling each other to be the No. 1-ranked ruckman in the game. The pair are dining out on the rule change which allows the ruckman to take the ball out of the ruck contest and not be penalised if they are tackled. If they are not tackled and move the ball, they are credited with a clearance. Marshall had 16 clearances against the Giants, which is four behind the record held by Gold Coast’s Matt Rowell. Champion Data gives ruckmen grabbing the ball out of the ruck as ‘ruck hard-ball gets’. Gawn leads with 30 this year, while Marshall did it seven times on Saturday. As he only did five times in the previous four matches, you suspect it was a specific tactic employed against Kieren Briggs. It was a monster game from Marshall. He had 28 disposals, 16 clearances and 25 hit outs. Still, his teammate Brad Hill probably was best afield.
7. Good news all-round
A day of potential carnage on Saturday became a night of relief after Stephen Coniglio and Max King were initially cleared of ACL damage, and Sam Taylor was released from hospital after a frightening head clash. Not much relief though for teams with soft tissue injuries. Essendon is in that bracket. And so is Carlton after hamstring injuries to Adam Saad and Mitch McGovern on Saturday, and to Adam Cerra at training on Thursday. Three ‘strings in three days is beyond unlucky and in a business which spends tens of millions of dollars on high performance preparation, questions surely will be asked of the program.
8. Football’s fundamentals
Players are taught to protect themselves when going for the ground ball, mainly by putting their body between the opponent and the ball. It can’t always happen because the game moves quickly, but at the same time, players should not go for the ball head first. Carlton’s Jack Carroll turned into a contest on the wing, so instead of being a hip on hip collision with Adelaide’s Matt Crouch, he made it a hip on head collision. Crouch was suspended for front-on contact when all he tried to do was prepare to bump the body and try to win the ball. Carroll forced this issue, not Crouch.
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