The Tackle: Mark Robinson’s likes and dislikes from round 8
Not long ago, Darcy Parish was one of the worst-ranked midfielders in the AFL, now the ball magnet is well back to his best. Check out Robbo’s LIKES and DISLIKES from round 8.
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Eight rounds into the home and away season, and the AFL’s product has some issues that need to be resolved, but how can they do so?
Mark Robinson addresses that and more in his likes and dislikes from round 8.
DISLIKES
1. A TOUGH WATCH.
The AFL is wary – but not panicking – of player density once again invading the game. Outside of the 6-6-6 ruling, matches are living in a bubble, especially in the defensive 50m, where sometimes 30-plus players camp themselves. It makes scoring tough. It puts actual goalkickers under pressure, real and perceived. Key forwards marking the ball is a rarity as packs of six and eight congregate. Coaches talk about ‘territory’. It’s a key element because when the ball goes inside 50m, one team floods the area and the other team ‘sets up the wall’ defensively. It leads to mass stoppages, dump kicks out and repeat inside 50s – back to the mass of players. It’s why the inside 50 count in matches is not always a true indication of potency. The Pies won that stat 64-38 and won the game by six points. But the most important stat in that game, according to the coaches, was the tackle count which the Pies won 88-54. People confuse great games with tight games. True, there were some breathtaking individual brilliance, namely goals by Nick Daicos, Bayley Fritsch, Zach Merrett, Tyson Stengle, Izak Rankine and Max Gawn but overall brilliance is smothered by pressure, tackling and defensive mechanisms. Don’t get me wrong, pressure is vital to success, but the spectacle it brings is what is making the AFL wary. The positive is the ladder is tight and the season is tense and intense, which is what we all want.
2. SCORING IS THE ISSUE.
Across the first six games of the round, the average score was 76 points. In Round 2, it was 90 points. In between, it averaged 84 points. Scoring is getting harder. Leigh Matthews’ idea of reducing interchange rotations to tire out players so they can’t run so hard to defend grows in support. Former GWS captain Phil Davis said on SEN on Saturday he’d like 60 rotations and not the 75 we have currently. Melbourne’s Harrison Petty said after the Demons win, that “the game opens up and the boys tire out a bit more” when explaining the goal rush in the second half on Saturday night. The first half in that game was a slog. The score was 3.7 to 2.8. A goal wasn’t kicked for 40 minutes. On Thursday night, the score at half time was 7.2 to 3.7. The Coleman medal is led by Carlton’s Charlie Curnow who has 25 goals from eight matches. Last year, Jeremy Cameron led the Coleman at the same time with 33 goals and Curnow had 31. AFL great Dermott Brereton said on Saturday night that he felt for Tom Hawkins, who didn’t kick a goal for the fourth consecutive week. He said Hawkins’ issue was that he couldn’t jump anymore which was coupled with having little to no space to lead, which is the worrying issue for all key forwards.
3. FANS ARE BEWILDERED.
The issue is incorrect disposal. Because of the mass of players at stoppages, players are set upon when they take the ball. The players then ‘drop’ the ball when tackled, but because they had no prior opportunity, it’s not a free kick. It leads to even more stoppages. In the Showdown, there were 82 stoppages. In the Pies-Blues game, there were 77 stoppages. The league average is 65. The Melbourne v Geelong match was different. It had 45 stoppages which was one of the fewest in a match this season. That game was clamped by two very good defensive sides. In the end, that game opened up and led to, for example, some sizzling foot passes. Christian Petracca’s 45m pass to a marking Fritsch in the final quarter was quality football. More of that please.
4. THE UMPIRING AT THE MCG ON SUNDAY
Richmond supporters were livid. They had every right to be. The free kick count was 20-11, but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was the number of free kicks umpires didn’t pay when it appeared the Tigers had earnt them. Time and again, the Tigers would lay a tackle and not be rewarded for incorrect disposal. Salt was added to the wound when the Dockers, at times, received free kicks for incorrect disposal by the Tigers. Once again, confusion reigned about what exactly is prior opportunity. The more cynical Tigers supporter would say ‘what’s new’. Over the past five years, Richmond’s differential between free kicks for and free kicks against is -332. The next worst side is Hawthorn on -108. How can that properly be explained? Is there a vendetta? Or are the Tigers just sloppy or too aggressive with their tackling? If this was politics, a Royal Commission would be demanded. And if this was politics, we’d love Tigers officials to have parliamentary privilege so we could hear what they really think.
5. THE HEAT IS ON THE DOGS.
There’s a debate in the NBA at the moment, particularly about the LA Lakers, about whether the manager/coach is to blame or is it the players. It’s a much trickier answer in the AFL. The Bulldogs lost to Hawthorn on Sunday which basically means at 3-5 the finals are out the equation. Please, now, can people accept the Bulldogs are not a great team. Luke Beveridge will feel the heat, but is it the coaches fault that Jason Johannisen missed targets by foot, why the key forwards flew against each other, why Ed Richards make mistakes, why Ugle-Hagan kicked 2.1 and a crucial kick out of bounds at the death, and why Riley Garcia dropped a simple ball in the third quarter when the Bulldogs were on the burst? And why Marcus Bontempelli sat on the bench for seven minutes late in the final quarter? The Bulldogs had 22 clanger kicks to Hawthorn’s 13, so that was nine direct turnovers to the Hawks. That’s all Beveridge’s fault? Perhaps the players can accept responsibility.
6. GREAT, AND NOT SO GREAT.
Jeremy Cameron was ordained as the best player in the game when he kicked five goals against Carlton a week ago. This week, he missed two goals in the final quarter against Melbourne which by his standards were easy. The first was at the 21st minute mark when the Demons led by 10 points and the second miss was with 90 seconds to play with the margin seven points. Strangely, he looked like he didn’t have confidence, jabbing at both kicks. His opponent Tom McDonald would’ve been relieved. He got the highly-anticipated match-up and was superb. Cameron had his worst-ranked game of the season, aided by those two missed goals. He still had 15 disposals, took seven marks and had six score involvements but his 27 per cent by foot was a bummer. McDonald had 12 touches, took seven marks and had five score involvements, which is a match-up win. In fact, you could argue Melbourne’s three most influential players on Saturday night were all defenders – May, Lever and McDonald.
7. ANYONE ELSE BUT TOM.
Giant Callum Brown was suspended for three weeks. It should’ve been longer. He ran at speed and instead of tackling Tom McCartin, he chose to bump. It was the flinch reaction from Brown which the AFL wanted out of the game. But Brown is only part of the story. How long McCartin will miss is anyone’s guess. He’s had concussions before so this new one could put his career at risk. That’s jumping the gun, but no one ever thought Angus Brayshaw or Nathan Murphy would retire, either. The footy world wishes McCartin well. A week ago, St Kilda’s Jack Higgins received a three-week suspension for a tackle dump that many thought was more awkward than menacing. Brown’s act was much more brutal than the Higgins one. It needed to go to the tribunal and be assessed with the same voracity as Jimmy Webster’s pre-season hit on Jy Simpkin was. Webster received six weeks. The three weeks for Brown is terribly inadequate.
LIKES
1. CAPTAIN FANTASTIC.
In one of the best games of the weekend, a battered and bruised James Sicily typified Hawthorn’s spirit on Sunday, as the Hawks outworked and out-toughed the Bulldogs. They were slicker, too, which is rarely said against the Bulldogs at Marvel. Sicily popped a shoulder in the first quarter, turned an ankle in the third quarter and kicked the matchwinning goal deep in the final quarter, when he was banished forward to avoid the Bulldogs tall timber in the forward line. He was heroic, just as his team was. The Hawks were +15 in ground balls and kicked 8.4 from forward-half turnovers, which means they intercepted the Bulldogs and scored from it. It’s performances such as this one, where the leaders including Impey, Moore, Hardwick and Newcombe led the way for the likes of Macdonald, Weddle, Ginnivan and Dear. Dear kicked two goals on debut, making his father-son story this week simply wonderful. Plaudits to all at Hawthorn, but where was this attitude last week against the Swans?
2. IT’S A FUN(NY) GAME.
Luke Ryan had 31 kicks, nine handballs and took 15 marks on Sunday. In another era, it would’ve been chartered as one of the greatest defensive games of all time. Against an underwhelming and rebuilding Richmond at the MCG on Sunday, it was a curious adjunct to a game which slogged through the first half, came alive somewhat in the third quarter, and petered dreadfully in the final quarter. It was fun for Ryan. He didn’t stand Richmond’s big boppers and instead had an eye for Pickett mainly, Mansell, McIntosh, Martin and Sonsie. It seemed none of them had a serious eye on Ryan. Not all of the kicks were kick-ins either, just nine of them in fact. The funny aspect is the Tigers only had 38 entries and Ryan had it in his hands 39 times. He led the general demolition in a Dockers team which is now ahead of Carlton and Port Adelaide on the ladder.
3. BACK IN TOWN.
Darcy Parish’s form was in the spotlight. A couple of weeks back, he was ranked among the worst performing midfielders in the competition. But those rankings don’t take in the fact he missed a large chunk of training because of a hamstring complaint. He looked like he had heavy legs when he played his first game in Round 3, such was his lack of mobility, and punch with the ball in hand. From rounds 3-6, he averaged 23 disposals. That number has elevated to 31 in the past two weeks. And he is far more damaging with the ball in hand. It means the Bombers have currently settled on a centre-square group of Parish, Merrett and Durham, with occasional occupation from Stringer and Perkins. Jye Caldwell, who impressed while Parish and Perkins were injured, has moved forward. It’s all praise for Parish, but he won’t get the votes on Saturday night. Zach Merrett kicked three goals and when you consider that he kicked eight goals all up last year and just six goals in 2022, it’s close to Merrett’s most complete performance.
4. THE DISCUSSION.
The united stance against violence against women was meritorious, but not sure the knuckleheads out there will take heed. Let’s hope they do. Clearly, it leaves the AFL with a complicated issue about behaviours. It will be a bold step for the AFL to allow Tarryn Thomas to return and a bolder step for a club to take him on. And after the AFL stepped in and stopped Wayne Carey’s elevation to legend status in NSW, it now raises questions about several AFL identities. Ben Cousins went to jail for stalking, and Danielle Laidley was charged with stalking, yet both of them are praised for their redemptive stories and are welcome at AFL events. Thomas, meanwhile, sent inappropriate and threatening text messages and was suspended for 18 weeks, albeit probably because he had priors. Laidley wants to coach in the AFLW, but how can that be ever approved? The Eagles said on Saturday night they wanted Cousins in the Australian Football Hall of Fame, but how can that be now managed? The AFL is on watch.
5. MAKE HAY WHILE THE SUN SHINES.
The best way to advertise your impending free agency is to kick goals. Sydney’s Will Hayward kicked four of them in the wet against the Giants on Saturday, which in this crazy world of player payments probably meant his worth grew. The price tag on Hayward is the vicinity of $800,000. Yep, 800 large for a player who has kicked 174 goals in 145 games. But he is in demand. Colleague Jon Ralph told us last week Adelaide is in the hunt with Port Adelaide, plus a couple of Victorian teams. The Swans can match any offer, but you suspect they won’t be flush with too much spare cash, which is both good news and bad news for Hayward. It’s bad news if he wants to stay, it’s terrific news if he wants the big payday and is happy to leave. He was the highest ranked player on the ground on Saturday which his manager no doubt will use as a bargaining chip.
6. THE BOY IS BECOMING A MAN.
Dustin Martin joked last week to Bayley Fritsch that Caleb Windsor looked like “he was 12-years-old”. He is young, but he plays beyond his years. Right now, Harley Reid is unbackable for the Rising Star, according to the TAB. When ‘Hurricane Harley’ kicked three goals and had 19 touches against Fremantle in Round 7, a public holiday was declared in Western Australia. St Kilda’s Darcy Wilson kicked three and had 21 disposals on Saturday and colleague Sam Landsberger gave us a family history lesson in the Early Tackle, which was welcomed. Windsor just does his job without too much fanfare. He is $26 for the Rising Star and is worth a tenner. Against the premiership favourites, Windsor had a season-high 18 disposals and eight intercepts, six tackles and nine score involvements. His goal in the fourth quarter, when the margin was four points, said plenty about his poise under pressure.
7. THE MOMENTS.
Different sizes, different scenarios, same impact. Nick Daicos’ goal on Friday night separated Collingwood and Carlton and in that moment Daicos looked every inch the players that Chris Judd and Gary Ablett Jnr were. Just the speed and balance, and the nobility accompanying the occasion. It was a wow moment. On Saturday night, Melbourne skipper Max Gawn kicked a 55m drop punt in the final quarter with the game in the balance. It helped separate the Demons and Geelong and while it won’t be on frequent re-run like the Daicos goal, it added to the Gawn legend. He can miss from 20m but he is mighty beyond 50m.
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