AFL 2021: The 21 biggest moments of the season
The Pies went to war with themselves, Clarko was cut and Melbourne broke a 57-year flag drought. We rate the biggest shocks and flops of a crazy 2021 in footy.
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We’ve been blessed with some remarkable drought-breaking, fairytale flags so far this century and Melbourne’s spectacular 2021 triumph rightfully sits alongside the best of them.
It was a bolt from the Red and Blue after 57 years.
Even though the Grand Final ended up in Perth – not the club’s MCG home – it proved to be a lockdown tonic long-suffering Melbourne fans desperately needed.
They started the season under serious heat. Simon Goodwin was clinging onto his job, Max Gawn was challenged to assert his leadership, and the talented, underperforming group needed to be more selfless.
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They ended the season with a 13th VFL-AFL premiership cup, the biggest Grand Final victory in the club’s history (74 points) and the prospect of more flags.
Having trailed the Bulldogs in the Grand Final by 19 points at the 12-minute-mark of the third term, Melbourne produced an avalanche of 12 consecutive goals – and 16 of the last 17.
Gawn said it perfectly when he said: “After 57 years of pain, it’s coming home”.
So far this century, we’ve seen the Swans (72 years), the Cats (44 years), the Bulldogs (62 years) and the Tigers (37 years) break their long droughts.
Over to you, St Kilda, whose drought extends to 56 years in 2022.
PIES AT WAR
Michael Warner’s exclusive leaking of Collingwood’s Do Better report into racism was the start of seismic change at the Collingwood Football Club.
Long-term president Eddie McGuire stepped down after more than 20 years, a week after a press conference where he described the report as “a proud and historic day”.
Mark Korda and Peter Murphy shared the role for six weeks before Korda took over.
If the Magpies’ on field woes were disastrous, the off-field boardroom issues were every bit as bad, stumbling from one controversy to the next.
There was a petition for members seeking an EGM, the question marks on the eligibility of two new board appointments (one who was subsequently resigned) proved an embarrassment and the emergence of Jeff Browne as a presidential alternative created countless headlines.
There have been calls for Korda to stand down ahead of his anticipated retirement next year before a potential showdown between the board and the Browne camp in December.
Watch this space!
CUTTING CLARKO
Hawthorn’s decision to move the most successful coach of the modern era proved one of the stories of the year.
When assistant coach Sam Mitchell loomed as a candidate for the vacant Collingwood coaching role, Alastair Clarkson sought assurances from Jeff Kennett and the board about his own future.
The four-time premiership coach didn’t get the answer he was seeking.
The Hawks wanted Clarkson to see out his contract until the end of 2022, with Mitchell taking over after that.
But the angst and confusion surrounding this succession plan meant it was never going to work.
In the end, Clarkson chose to walk away from the last year of his contract, fast-tracking Mitchell’s elevation.
That led to Carlton courting Clarko, but he will take a year off before a certain return to coaching in 2023.
BLUES AT WAR
No one could have foreseen what was to come next when Carlton announced it was launching a football department review during the season.
The domino effect was enormous.
It led to a new broom sweeping through Carlton with senior coach David Teague sacked at the end of the season along with most of his support staff as well as CEO Cain Liddle dumped in favour of Brian Cook.
New president Luke Sayers tried to convince Clarkson and Ross Lyon to take over, but missed out, before Michael Voss was appointed senior coach, which at least ended a period of uncertainty and chaos at the club.
The pressure remains as Sayers has all but demanded a finals berth next season.
RACISM ROW
The spectre of racism in AFL football continues to raise its ugly head, but no one could have imagined Taylor Walker would be at the centre of it in 2021.
In a SANFL game that Walker was watching, he made a racist comment about former St Kilda player Robbie Young. If it hadn’t been for the bravery of a Crows staffer, who had overheard the comments, this might have slipped under the radar. Thankfully, it didn’t, and he reported the comments to the Crows.
The storm reduced coach Matthew Nicks to tears in a press conference and it shattered Walker’s former teammate Eddie Betts as he was again forced to call out racism in an emotional Fox Footy appearance.
Walker was suspended for six weeks and had to make a donation of $20,000 to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander program in SA. Now he must regain the trust of the football world.
COVID CHAOS, PERTH GF
This was meant to be the year when things got back to normal.
But it proved to be anything but, as the AFL, its players and staff were forced to once more remain flexible and agile, often living out of suitcases and being on call to move at a moment’s notice.
As Gillon McLachlan said, the league had to deal with state lockdowns, border closures, crowd caps, empty stadiums, a floating fixture and the uncertainty that anything could – and would – happen.
Brisbane and Gold Coast had to get out of Queensland at one stage, Sydney and Greater Western Sydney spent months on the road, and as the year wore on, Victorian teams were also forced to farewell loved ones.
It culminated with all nine finals played outside Victoria and New South Wales, including the Grand Final in Perth, which at least provided a $40 million much-needed windfall.
DUSTY DOWN; TIGERS OUT
In hindsight, Richmond’s quest for a fourth flag in five seasons ended long before Dustin Martin crashed into Mitch Robinson in Round 18.
The telltale signs had been coming for weeks.
But after Martin suffered a lacerated kidney – losing more than 10 kilos in recovery – the Tigers won only one of their last five matches.
In a year in which Richmond created more than its fair share of headlines – Shai Bolton and Daniel Rioli’s nightclub incident, Damien Hardwick’s Marvel Stadium disdain and injuries to key players – they fell to 11th.
Dusty will be back next year, the Tigers have a good draft hand, and Hardwick is convinced the hunger is still there. Can they have one last shot at it in 2022?
TOBY’S BUMP
It was the tribunal case of the season – GWS star Toby Greene’s bump on umpire Matt Stevic in the Giants’ elimination final victory over Sydney.
Greene’s frustration boiled as he was headed towards the huddle and he turned his body towards Stevic.
In a long hearing, he was found guilty and suspended for three weeks – a penalty that the AFL has appealed.
There were other noteworthy tribunal cases this season, including Adelaide’s David Mackay’s bump on Hunter Clark and Sydney’s Lance Franklin’s elbow on Luke Ryan.
FAREWELL BUCKS
While the Blues kept Teague waiting all season to get an answer on his future, Collingwood made an earlier call on favourite son Nathan Buckley.
Buckley was told by Graham Wright mid-season that the club was going to go in a different direction for 2022.
The man who had cruelly came within two minutes of winning a premiership as coach in 2018 had one last farewell game against Melbourne on Queen’s Birthday – at the SCG.
It proved to be Collingwood’s best on field moment. They defeated the eventual premiers as Bucks got an emotional farewell after 10 seasons.
CRUEL FOR CATS
Geelong started the season flag favourites having picked up Jeremy Cameron, Isaac Smith and Shaun Higgins.
The Cats ended it with massive question marks on their future, with an ageing list and a changing support staff around Chris Scott.
The manner of the club’s loss to Melbourne – an 83-point preliminary final annihilation highlighted by five Max Gawn goals – means there will be more change in the playing group. Can the Cats have another crack at it next season?
DOGS ON THE MOVE
If frequent flyer points were handed out for 2021, the Dogs would be leading the way after a gruelling finals schedule.
Coach Luke Beveridge wasn’t sure if those September travels – they went from Victoria to Tasmania to Queensland to Western Australia to South Australia and back again to Western Australia in the finals – resulted in their Grand Final mauling.
They knocked off Essendon, Brisbane and Port Adelaide before hitting the brick wall that was Melbourne.
ROUND 23 RIPPER
It was the final round that had everything – an after-the-siren goal from an unlikely source, the AFL’s oldest coach jumping about like a spring chicken, and double heartache for the Bulldogs.
It started on Friday night with the Bulldogs clinging to a top four berth, opening up a 19 point lead. But the Power stormed home to win by two points after a Bailey Smith shot fell short.
That meant the Lions needed to beat West Coast by more than six goals to push them above the Bulldogs.
It went down to the wire before a late shot put the Lions over the line, leaving Chris Fagan jumping for joy.
A few hours later Melbourne was staring down the barrel of a 44-point halftime deficit against Geelong.
A stunning comeback saw Max Gawn mark just before the final siren and his kick after the siren saw the Demons steal the game and the minor premiership for the first time since 1964.
CLUTCH KICKS
Gawn’s after-the-siren clutch kick wasn’t the only one in 2021.
Lion Zac Bailey buried the Magpies in Round 3 when he took a mark and coolly slotted the goal after the siren.
Gary Rohan won a match after the siren for the second time in his career when he nailed a spectacular shot.
against the Bulldogs in Round 14. He had previously done it for Sydney in the corresponding round of 2017.
As far as other key goals in 2021, Harry McKay won the Coleman Medal, Caleb Serong won goal of the year, Josh Bruce kicked a bag of 10 against North Melbourne and Buddy Franklin returned to fitness and form.
SILK 400
Shaun Burgoyne hobbled into Hawthorn on crutches 12 years ago; he left the club at the end of 2021 one of the most admired footballers in the game.
What he achieved as a premiership player with Port Adelaide and a three-time premiership player with Hawthorn has been remarkable.
This year he became only the fifth player to reach 400 games – and the first Indigenous player – joining Brent Harvey, Michael Tuck, Kevin Bartlett and Dustin Fletcher as the only men to do it.
His farewell on the same day that Clarkson coached his last game for the Hawks seemed fitting.
BRAVO BETTS
Burgoyne and Eddie Betts headlined a stellar cast of stars to call it quits in 2021.
Betts kicked his 640th goal in his 350th game in the final round. The next phase of his career – fighting the scourge of racism – will be every bit as important.
Others to say goodbye in 2021 include Marc Murphy, Bachar Houli, Nathan Jones, David Astbury, Grant Birchall, Jarrod Harbrow, Chris Mayne, James Frawley, David Mackay, Cale Hooker, Levi Greenwood, Stephen Hill, Tom Rockliff, Jake Carlisle, Lachie Henderson, Neville Jetta, Zac Smith, Dylan Roberton, Josh Jenkins, Lin Jong and Nathan Vardy.
AWESOME OLLIE
It wasn’t the medal that Ollie Wines craved, but it will have to do – for now.
In a tight Brownlow Medal count, Wines stormed over the top of Bulldogs champion Marcus Bontempelli to become his club’s first Brownlow winner, with Melbourne’s Clayton Oliver and Carlton young gun Sam Walsh close behind.
The one-time kid from Echuca had a brilliant season.
Some other big individual winners included Luke Jackson (Rising Star), Marcus Bontempelli (AFLPA MVP), Clayton Oliver (AFLCA MVP) and Simon Goodwin (AFLCA Coach of the Year).
SKY-HIGH SHAI
It was the year of the big grab, and no one leapt higher than Richmond’s Shai Bolton.
He won the mark of the year narrowly from teammate, Jack Riewoldt, who almost challenged his cousin Nick with one of the most courageous marks in recent years.
Bolton used Mark Blicavs and Tom Lynch as his own personal step ladder. Riewoldt’s grab was different – a mad, courageous, instinctive moment when he backed into a pack, disregarding his own personal safety.
Hawthorn’s Tim O’Brien also provided a worthy nomination.
More, please!
HOCK SHOCK
AFL footy boss Steve Hocking was instrumental in bringing in two changes for the 2021 season – the ‘stand’ man on the mark rule as well as the medical sub rule which came in just before the start of the season.
But the biggest shock came when Hocking announced in July that he was quitting to become Geelong’s CEO.
It led to a reshuffling of roles, with the AFL splitting the role into two between Andrew Dillon and Brad Scott.
ANZAC DAY
In a season where crowd caps and empty stadiums were sadly a part of the AFL landscape, it’s worth remembering what happened at the MCG on Anzac Day.
The Collingwood-Essendon clash attracted a season-high 78,113 fans – more than 15,000 than any other match in 2021, even if the Grand Final in Perth (61,000 fans) was a spectacular event.
The Melbourne-Richmond Anzac Eve game also saw 56,418 fans attend the MCG that night.
Roll on 2022! We want to be back at the ‘G.
AFLW EXPANSION
The AFL’s decision to ensure all 18 clubs will have an AFLW team by 2022/23 was a massive winner.
In a year in which the Brisbane Lions won the AFLW flag, knocking off Adelaide at Adelaide Oval, the league’s decision to award Essendon, Hawthorn, Port Adelaide and Sydney new licences will provide more opportunities for fans and players.
The AFLW competition is going from strength to strength.
TASSIE’S TIME
If and when Tasmania gets its own stand-alone AFL team, we might look back on 2021 as the year that turbocharged debate.
Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein put the AFL on notice earlier in the year, which led to the Colin Carter report on Tasmania’s case for its own team.
That stimulated debate on what the future might look like for a potential 19th AFL franchise.
The 18 AFL clubs could be given the chance to vote on the establishment of a stand-alone Tassie team next year, with a growing number of clubs already expressing in-principle support.
Against that backdrop, Tassie provided a lifeline in the Covid chaos at the back end of the season, including hosting two finals.
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