AFL Early Tackle: Glenn McFarlane names his likes and dislikes from round 12
The last time Damien Hardwick came up against Essendon – he labelled the Bombers as ‘spuds’ in a post-game tirade, will it come back to haunt him and the Suns on Sunday?
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A logjam is brewing in the race for a double chance, with Carlton firmly in the mix after ending its Adelaide Oval hoodoo to open round 12.
Injury-ravaged Collingwood’s hopes took a hit when it went down against Western Bulldogs, who were inspired by a virtuoso last quarter from captain Marcus Bontempelli.
And that’s just the start of what promises to be another big round of football.
Glenn McFarlane names his round 12 likes and dislikes in the Early Tackle, including whether the 2021 draft might prove to be the best ever.
DISLIKES
BRAVE TIGERS RUN OUT OF GAS AS DUSTY IS SET TO BE RESTED
Adem Yze has every right to be proud and frustrated in the same breath.
His young Tigers – and some veterans including Dustin Martin – were brave for two and a half quarters of Saturday night’s GMHBA clash with Geelong, but were ultimately overpowered.
There is no shame in that.
It has been a tough initiation for Yze, with a huge injury list which grew even more with Marlion Pickett (calf soreness) and Mykelti Lefau (knee), and with a host of young players still coming to terms with the elite level.
Only one win has come in 12 matches, so the frustration continues.
They take on Adelaide across the border next week, but don’t expect Dusty to play.
He kicked two goals on Saturday, but will almost certainly be rested ahead against the Crows so he can play milestone 300th game the following week against Hawthorn.
It’s the right call. There are no finals on the line, so Tigers fans deserve to see Martin play his 300th at the MCG – the stadium he has lit on so many occasions.
IS IT BECOMING A BRIDGE TOO FAR FOR THE MAGPIES?
Collingwood assistant coach Justin Leppitsch was asked on radio on Friday night what was the breaking point for a club with an extensive injury list – he joked that it came when you couldn’t field a team of 23.
The Pies aren’t at that point yet.
But it is an ongoing battle as more than 15 players couldn’t be considered for the Bulldogs on Friday.
This was another brave effort by Craig McRae’s team, but ultimately it ended with an 18-point win as the patched-up Pies ran out of gas when it mattered most, despite a huge performance by Nick Daicos.
If they had been more accurate earlier, it might have been game over instead of their first defeat since late March.
Can the Magpies still win the flag? Of course, they can.
But they might have to do it the hard way as a berth in the top four is looking shaky.
McRae knows the Pies are just struggling to run out a full game right now, with young and inexperienced players.
King’s Birthday against Melbourne looms large now, then North Melbourne might offer some respite as the calvary starts to return.
But they need to keep a towrope between them and the top four.
HAVE THE SAINTS FOUND HARLEY’S KRYPTONITE?
Harley Reid donned his Superman cape in the first half of Saturday’s clash with West Coast, but rival clubs were left wondering by game’s end if Ross Lyon had unlocked his kryptonite.
Whatever the case, Reid has likely lost the Rising Star award, with Fox Footy’s David King expecting a one-week ban for his third-term sling tackle on Saint Darcy Wilson.
Reid went into the game as a $1.15 favourite to win the Rising Star with TAB – they have since suspended betting – after his main rival Sam Darcy was banned for his late bump on Brayden Maynard on Friday.
The 19-year-old was outstanding in the first half against the Saints, having a breathtaking 17 disposals and breaking countless tackles.
Then it changed with one move.
Lyon announced publicly at half-time he planned to send Marcus Windhager to him and almost immediately he got under Reid’s skin.
Reid managed only three more disposals for the game, which would have piqued the interest of opposition clubs. Does the hard tag work on him? Can you get him off his game with close attention?
That remains to be seen, but it will likely be costly either way.
Colleague Jon Ralph said a likely ban would cost Reid $40,000 – $20,000 as the winner’s prize and $20,000 into the winner’s base deal next year.
Given Joel Selwood reckons he will end up being footy’s first $2m per season man, the money won’t hurt long-term.
But the frustration he showed means he is about to get some attention when he returns next.
CROWS, THE AFL’S FLAT TRACK BULLIES
When Matthew Nicks signed a new contract in March that stretches through to the end of 2026, the Adelaide coach urged his players to embrace the pressure of expectation.
So far, the only thing they have embraced is mediocrity.
Expectation has turned into a miserable four wins and a draw from 12 games, which leaves the Crows in the bottom segment of the ladder.
It isn’t good enough, even given the absence of an injured Izak Rankine and the in-game loss of Taylor Walker to a back injury.
Two of their four wins this year have come against West Coast (99 points) and North Melbourne (57), with the other two against Carlton and Port Adelaide.
Nicks was frustrated at half time when asked on Fox Footy about how they had managed two goals in the first two quarters.
Just as the Hawks took the game on with some exquisite ball movement and some dare, the Crows were static, slow and, at times, so disjointed that they never looked like being a hope.
They haven’t won at the MCG since round 15, 2017.
They were unlucky to miss finals last year given that goal-umpiring decision against the Swans; this year they won’t have anyone to blame but themselves.
‘THE OLD FAKE TOP FOUR TEAM’
Jason Dunstall was brutally honest when he dismissed Port Adelaide as “the old fake top four team” on Fox Footy after their meek submission to Carlton on Friday night.
The Power remained in the top four – with eight wins – but missed another gilt-edged opportunity to gain the respect of the footy world.
Dunstall lamented the Power’s lack of defence as Carlton stormed over the top of them, saying: “It leaked like a sieve when the ball started to go in there … As I said, the old fake top four team, Port Adelaide, (I) don’t know where they go from here.”
Port Adelaide loves nothing better than beating up on the sides they should knock over, but find it harder against the elite teams.
The break might have come at the right time for the Power, in order to get skipper Connor Rozee back, before a big clash with the Giants at Giants Stadium.
They will likely play finals, but can they win the flag? Until they can prove they can regularly beat the elite skills, it’s still no from us.
IS CHARLIE IN TROUBLE?
Even before this season started Port Adelaide’s Charlie Dixon was musing about this year potentially being his last.
At 33, and with a body that has let him down in recent seasons, that is hardly a surprise.
But halfway through 2024, the Power must start planning for life after Charlie.
Dixon had one disposal up until half time when coach Ken Hinkley subbed him out.
Hinkley has been honest about what the Power can expect from Dixon this season, saying he would be rested at several stages of the season – and he has been.
He has played nine games for 13 goals this season, including four against St Kilda.
But he hasn’t kicked a goal in his past three matches and the heart and soul forward needs a big turnaround in fortunes to play on next year.
WHY THE SYDNEY GAP?
The Sydney AFL market is a notoriously fickle one, even with the Swans drawing people to the SCG in recent numbers and the Giants in the eight.
So why has there been a recent gap in the Sydney games’ market?
The Swans and the Giants both had the bye this weekend, but the fact that both sides played outside of their state last week as well seems strange.
The last AFL game in Sydney was on May 18 when the Giants took on the Bulldogs, the day after the Swans beat Carlton at the SCG.
Then the week after, the Giants trekked to GMHBA Stadium, while the Swans took on the Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium.
Then nothing this week.
The gap in games extends to Sunday week, on June 9, when the Swans take on Geelong in what will go close to being a sellout at the SCG. Strange fixturing!
LIKES
BONT, BEST DOG IN SHOW
Sorry EJ, let’s end the debate now.
At 28, and with potentially six or more seasons ahead of him, Marcus Bontempelli is the best Bulldog to pull on the jumper.
It might seem like red, white and blue heresy to say so, but it’s true.
We don’t say that lightly for a footy club with a proud history of producing champions – Ted Whitten (the only Bulldog Australian Football Hall of Fame legend), Gary Dempsey, Chris Grant, Doug Hawkins, Brad Johnson, Scott West, Charlie Sutton, Allan Hopkins, John Schultz, Norm Ware, Arthur Olliver and co.
Recency bias often trumps the logic of history, but not in this case.
Whitten has always stood in rarefied air, just like his statue sits outside the ground named after him.
By the end of Bont’s career, there should be an accompanying sculpture of the man in No.4.
Bontempelli, who was born 100 days after Whitten died in 1995, has played 93 fewer games than ‘Mr Football’. But his leadership, his capacity to inspire, and his compelling and ever-expanding CV is nothing short of extraordinary.
Never mind that he has yet to win a Brownlow Medal (he has twice finished second, including last year’s heartbreaking near-miss). It was an award that eluded EJ as well.
Bont has won five best and fairests (the same as Whitten, and two fewer than West), but he could make it six later this year, with Adam Treloar his main danger.
Incredibly, the kid from Eltham has finished top four in the B&F every year since 2016 – the year of his dominant performance in the club’s drought-breaking premiership win.
He has also had five All Australian blazers (a sixth is looming), two Leigh Matthews Trophies and almost every other award on offer.
How he didn’t win the Rising Star in 2014 (Lewis Taylor beat him by a vote) still astounds!
Even Teddy would have been looking down on Bont’s final term heroics with a glint in his eye.
CATS BACK, BUT NEXT MONTH WILL TELL THE TALE
Chris Scott looked more relieved than satisfied after the Cats ended a winless month and set their sights on a monster next four matches.
The coach would have been delighted that some of the younger players or fresh faces performed as well as anyone.
We know Max Holmes is a star, but he keeps elevating, Ollie Dempsey had 27 disposals and kicked three goals, Jack Bowes and Tanner Bruhn had good nights, and the midfield had a fresh look to it as stages of this match.
The Cats needed that win to keep ahead of the pack in the race for the top four, but the next block of games will determine if they can stay there, with Patrick Dangerfield edging closer to a return.
Take a look at these match-ups … Sydney (SCG), the bye, Carlton (MCG), Essendon (MCG) and Hawthorn (GMHBA).
We’ll know a lot more about the Cats after that stretch.
RELIEF FOR ROSS, SAINTS
This wasn’t the way Ross Lyon - and St Kilda - wanted to win, but it was the four premiership points they desperately needed after two months of pain.
The Saints had to draw on almost every reserve they had – without Max King who was subbed out with a jarred knee – to win their first match in a month, and only their second win in the past eight weeks.
There was also a bizarre incident when Rowan Marshall copped a knee to the back of the head late in the game as the Saints’ doctor tried to stop play to assess him before being moved on.
The Saints had to do it the hard way, as West Coast threw everything into the contest, leading at every change, except the one that mattered.
It wasn’t pretty. Much of it was pretty ugly. And it won’t be the panacea for all of their ills, but it just might provide the breathing space required to reshape their disappointing season.
It came with a four-goal match-winning effort from Mason Wood, a strong tagging role on Harley Reid from Marcus Windhager and a reinvigorated midfield that went from awful in the first half to super competitive and tough in the second half.
The Saints trailed by 11 points when the Eagles kicked the first goal of the final term, but they kept fighting to execute the finish to record their fourth win of the season.
SAM’S FINALS BUSTERS DO IT FOR JACK
Hawthorn is unlikely to play finals this year, but Sam Mitchell’s watchable side is a dangerous floater capable of delivering mortal blows to finals aspirants in the second half of the season.
They effectively shut the door on a woefully disappointing Adelaide on Saturday, even leapfrogged them on the ladder.
Hawthorn is the sort of team no one will want to face in the back end of the season.
They play the Giants next week, then other finals hopefuls Geelong, Fremantle and Collingwood in the six weeks, and you can bet no one will treat them lightly.
Adelaide did, to its own detriment.
This was a dominant victory, the Hawks’ fifth of the season, and it said as much about the Crows’ lack of intensity and imagination as the home side’s growth as a football team of the future.
It was a one that meant plenty to the Hawks on a day when some of the 2014 premiership players combined a reunion with Jack Gunston’s 250th game.
Gunston didn’t let them down, kicking three goals, while Dylan Moore was a star with a career-best five goals.
Moore has been a revelation since being delisted at the end of 2020, and thankfully given a second chance. Now he’s one of the Hawks’ key leaders.
A lively Jack Ginnivan torched a few teammates with a late snap in the third term, but redeemed himself with a goal soon after, finishing with two goals.
The only negative might come with a MRO assessment of Changkuoth Jiath, whose head looked to make contact with Mitch Hinge.
How did this Hawks team go through the first five weeks of the season without a win? They’ve now won five of their last seven games, with a one-point loss to Port Adelaide to boot.
LIFE IN THE OLD DOGS (AND YOUNG ONES)
Four weeks ago, the Bulldogs looked in freefall, Luke Beveridge’s tenure was shaky and the media camped outside Whitten Oval with a scent of blood.
But after three wins from the past four games – and an honourable loss to Sydney – the Dogs are back in the finals hunt.
Two Marvel Stadium games against Brisbane and Fremantle, followed by a welcome bye, then a free hit against North Melbourne forms a gettable month.
Bevo might have been right all along – this list, as good as it appears on paper, needed a bit of generation change.
Sam Darcy will be a star, Ryley Sanders’ standing is growing, Harvey Gallagher, Riley Garcia and James O’Donnell are performing well, and Joel Freijah is getting a nice look-in.
Yes, the injuries are biting, with two more hamstrings on Friday night, as well as Darcy’s MRO woes, but Tom Liberatore and Ed Richards are set to return against the Dogs.
There is still plenty of life in their season and in Bevo as coach!
COULD TOP FIVE OF THE 2021 DRAFT COLLECTIVELY BE ONE OF THE BEST?
Early assessments of drafts are like choosing Melbourne Cup winners in February, but let’s just say it now.
Collectively, the top five draft picks from 2021 look to be a cracker.
Jason Horne-Francis was selected pick one (sorry for the reminder Roos fans).
Sam Darcy was the father-son pick two and looks a generational player, with his effort on Friday night franking that.
The Giants nabbed Finn Callaghan at three, and he is getting better and better.
Nick Daicos (pick four father-son) is a freak. He almost won a Brownlow in year two and has firmed into $3.50 favourite with TAB for the medal off the back of his herculean effort on Friday night. He was $15 after round 7.
By the end of his career, Daicos might be challenging Scott Pendlebury and Nathan Buckley as Collingwood’s greatest.
And Mac Andrew looks like being one of the best defensive players for the next decade.
An analysis of the top five players as a collective since the start of the draft almost 40 years ago makes for fascinating reading.
There is generally a weaker link or two.
The Super Draft of 2001 was outstanding. Luke Hodge and Chris Judd are Hall of Famers who might be Legends one day, Luke Ball was a star, while Graham Polak and Xavier Clarke rounded out the top five.
2005 was another big year where the five made impacts – Marc Murphy, Dale Thomas, Xavier Ellis, Josh Kennedy and a kid called Pendlebury.
We’re going to be talking about the 2021 alumni for some time to come.
ALEX CINCOTTA, TAKE A BOW
Sometimes we get blurred by greatness, and team-first performances slip under the radar.
Hopefully that doesn’t happen with the role that Alex Cincotta has played for Carlton in recent weeks, in the wake of Patrick Cripps and Sam Walsh masterclasses.
Cincotta used to be a chippie who was on a worksite when the Blues called him at the start of last season, asking if he wanted to be a train-on player given Zac Williams’ injury.
He played 19 games last season, but has elevated his role to new levels this year.
In the past five weeks he has taken on – and most beaten – some serious players.
He kept Bobby Hill, Kozzie Pickett and Tom Papley to one goal each, then played a role on Touk Miller last week before shutting out Zak Butters in the second half on Thursday night.
The stars are doing the job for the Blues, but so too are the role players!
DIMMA V THE DONS
The last time Damien Hardwick came up against his old mob Essendon – in last year’s Dreamtime clash – he labelled the Bombers as ‘spuds’ in a post-game tirade, as revealed in Trent Cotchin’s autobiography.
“To be honest with you, I reckon this team (Essendon) is a bunch of spuds, and you aren’t even as good as they are,” Hardwick told his Richmond players just before quitting as coach.
So will the Essendon players use that as extra motivation before Sunday’s clash with Gold Coast, now coached by Hardwick?
Could that ‘spuds’ sledge add a bit of extra spice to the match with the Bombers now sitting second on the ladder?
Bomber Nick Hind heard about the comments, but stressed they haven’t been mentioned inside The Hanger: “Yeah, I heard them. He’s a great coach, but we haven’t spoken about it.”
Watch this space!
Originally published as AFL Early Tackle: Glenn McFarlane names his likes and dislikes from round 12
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