The primary of the bye rounds is completed and dusted, and we’re again to the ladder being correctly skewed by all groups having a non-equal quantity of video games below their belt.
It was a nightmare weekend for us tipsters, with a string of favourites going below, most clearly Melbourne’s outstanding Sunday afternoon capitulation by the hands of Fremantle.
St Kilda and Carlton likewise got here away with wonderful wins on the highway, whereas it was a darkish weekend for South Australian soccer as each the Energy and Crows bought performed in regarding style.
However the greatest loser of all this weekend was most likely the Rising Star Award, with its two greatest frontrunners – Harley Reid and Sam Darcy – each copping suspensions to throw betting for the gong into disarray and leaving it as open a race as we’ve seen in years.
There might need solely been seven video games, however there’s simply as a lot to speak about as ever. Let’s start.
1. Unbelievable Freo silence the doubters
I wasn’t fairly as bullish about Fremantle’s prospects this 12 months as Dem Panopoulos was when he wrote on Friday about giving the Dockers extra respect.
After which they went and completely towelled up Melbourne in Alice Springs for his or her most emphatic – and doubtless greatest – win below Justin Longmuir, that leaves them with the second-best proportion within the competitors and abruptly entrenched contained in the eight.
The Dockers have been a sufferer within the final 18 months of turning into a finals crew – and a finals winner – a 12 months sooner than many anticipated in 2022, which made a disappointing hunch in 2023 all of the extra disheartening.
Up to now this 12 months, although, they’ve had one correct shocker, the Derby in opposition to West Coast, whereas dropping two video games in Adelaide by 10 factors or much less – one in every of them THAT controversial one in opposition to Carlton – and been crushed by Sydney in a sport you possibly can mainly write off as irrelevant given it occurred simply hours after the tragic demise of Cam McCarthy.
The Dockers had been sensational in opposition to the Demons. Their ball motion was brisk with out being kamikaze, their expertise by foot beautiful, and the midfield totally dominant in blowing a star-studded Melbourne on-ball brigade to kingdom include 48 clearances to 23.
Typically Freo’s endurance with ball in hand can result in criticism of being over-cautious, particularly when Luke Ryan and Jordan Clark rack up the uncontested marks – however nobody’s dismissing their 33 mixed grabs when the crew kicks 22 targets.
That is nonetheless one of many AFL’s youngest groups, and one solely going in a single route – up. No matter what the remainder of the season brings, and at this level a house last is a massively attainable objective, it’s price protecting in thoughts that 2026 and even 2027 is probably going when the crew as a complete will hit its peak.
They couldn’t have dominated so comprehensively with out the Demons having an absolute howler of a day on the workplace, which is price taking into consideration while you assess the 92-point victory margin for each groups. Melbourne are unlikely to be that dangerous once more anytime quickly.
However given how shortly everybody appears to be to stay the boots into Freo when it goes incorrect, it’s price noting this: Longmuir has responded to what wasn’t working to begin 2023, modified their type, coached boldly, and returned this crew again to in regards to the degree it was at once they broke out in 2022. Not a number of coaches have the gumption to do what he’s performed.
The Dockers nonetheless have 5 matches in opposition to the present high eight, plus the Demons once more, and a troublesome match following subsequent week’s bye in opposition to the Western Bulldogs. It’s a troublesome run residence – but when what they confirmed on Sunday is any indication, they’re greater than as much as the problem.
2. Sam Darcy’s canine act deserved extra weeks
Given Brayden Maynard’s historical past, it shouldn’t have come as a shock that the response to him getting poleaxed by Sam Darcy on Friday evening was extra vindictive than it will have been had actually every other participant within the AFL been the one to cop it.
I can perceive a few of that response: Maynard is a broadly disliked footballer outdoors Collingwood supporters for his uncompromising, aggressive type of play, and the double hit of him ending Angus Brayshaw’s profession and struggling no penalties for his or her notorious collision in final 12 months’s finals collection, regardless of the legality of that incident on the time, means any harm barring a serious one he sustains on the sector goes to trigger celebration in some corners.
Suppose Matthew Scarlett placing one on Hayden Ballantyne’s chin in that 2012 sport, when the response amongst most footy followers was that he had it coming.
All the identical, a few of the response to the Darcy incident has been ridiculous: no matter you make of Maynard as a footballer and as an individual, on this case he was the sufferer of a canine act. And a horrendous one at that.
Comparisons to Maynard’s personal hit on Brayshaw are hilariously off the mark: even if you happen to consider, like I do, that the Magpie ought to have been suspended for his careless conduct in that incident, there must be an apparent distinction between a split-second resolution to brace for contact halfway via the soccer motion of trying to smother, and sucker-punching a bloke from behind to try to make him earn a mark.
I’ve little question that was what was going via Darcy’s head when he clattered into Maynard’s again, having made not even a token try to mark or spoil the footy. This was a snipe, and had he hit anybody else the social media response would have been one in every of common disdain and condemnation.
In all honesty, the incident deserved a month-long sanction: Darcy’s act was simply as harmful as Peter Wright’s collision with Harry Cunningham with way more culpability and fewer mitigating circumstances, and that he didn’t fairly hit the again of Maynard’s head onerous sufficient to concuss him is extra success than the rest.
Our sport is lots onerous sufficient with out petty thuggery like this, and whereas I can broadly perceive Luke Hodge’s level on SEN on Saturday in regards to the want for key forwards like Darcy to indicate aggression, there’s a distinction between throwing one’s weight round and crossing the road so utterly.
Darcy will serve his two weeks, come again, and proceed to excel as he builds what is going to seemingly be an extended and excellent profession. As for the remainder of us, it’s price taking a second to contemplate whether or not our response to what he did is fuelled by a professional perspective of the ugliness of the act, or extra by the actual fact we don’t just like the bloke he did it to.
Sam Darcy crashes into Brayden Maynard. (Photograph by Michael Willson/AFL Pictures by way of Getty Photographs)
3. The holding the ball crackdown is a wholly predictable farce
It was forecast in the course of the week, and the umpires didn’t disappoint this weekend when it got here to cracking down on holding the ball.
Particularly on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, gamers had been repeatedly pinged with zero prior alternative, with some penalised for attempting to interrupt via tackles and others made to pay for having arms pinned with no escape.
It’s such a seismic change that there was all the time going to be inconsistency, and for what it’s price, the umpires, for probably the most half, judged the brand new interpretation nicely.
Nevertheless it’s each ridiculous that the AFL requested them to do that to ‘repair’ a regulation that merely wasn’t damaged, and it’s to the detriment of the sport that it’s now borderline higher to be the tackler than the ball-winner in any given state of affairs.
Worst nonetheless has been the best way the footy media, particularly its TV broadcasters, have had nothing however reward for the brand new interpretation, with pleasant speaking heads repeatedly discussing the way it’s truly nice for the sport regardless of a mountain of proof in entrance of their eyes that it’s something however.
Alarmingly on Saturday evening, Geelong, the masters at utilizing the legal guidelines to their benefit for greater than a decade now, appeared to collectively maintain off repeatedly on going after the ball, as an alternative ready for his or her Richmond opponents to take it earlier than wrapping them up, and frequently benefitting from it.
If different groups make the same remark, then we’ve bought a major problem, and that may after all require one other large overcorrection from the AFL, the league that may by no means go away nicely sufficient alone.
I believed it was a fairly customary view that the elevated give attention to tackling and strain from golf equipment has straight contributed to the sport turning into slower, extra congested, and fewer high-scoring. So why on earth would we be making any change to the principles, not to mention mid-season, to permit them to be extra rewarded?
The reward for many tackles must be a stoppage and the lack of possession for the opposition – holding the balls ought to solely be awarded as a punishment for poor play or incorrect disposal with prior alternative for the particular person being tackled.
That onus of accountability has now completely flipped, and farcically so.
Holding the ball has all the time been probably the most vibes-based of AFL guidelines, as a result of each umpire’s – and fan’s – judgement of what consists ‘prior alternative’ and a ‘real try’ are totally different.
Now, we’ve bought an much more advanced algorithm that invitations much more inconsistency – and ones you’d suppose are apparent holding the balls, like Nick Daicos’ on Friday evening, are nonetheless slipping via the cracks whereas fifteen or extra far much less egregious examples are getting punished. It’s maddening.
We’ve now bought a state of affairs the place gamers are actively discouraged from attempting to do what Harley Reid has captivated us all by doing to begin his profession – busting tackles.
If the AFL truly needed to crack down on one thing that’s truly having a adverse affect on the sport, quite than listening to coaches who’ve persistently proved their precedence is making the sport simpler to handle quite than bettering it aesthetically, then why not begin punishing gamers who maintain or impede opposition midfielders, particularly the superstars, at centre bounces? Nick Daicos, Marcus Bontempelli and Christian Petracca, amongst others, cop this remedy each week, nevertheless it appears no person cares sufficient to do something about this blight on the sport.
The AFL’s holding the ball crackdown has turned an already messy however essentially sound rule into an inconsistent, overly officious mess wherein gamers are punished for doing issues we enourage schoolkids to do from their first video games.
Even for a league who’ve made a behavior of tweaking the sport with out desirous about the results, this can be a horrific misstep – and I can’t wait to see it blow up of their faces huge time when one thing notably controversial occurs on an enormous stage.
4. The Crows – and Matthew Nicks – have reached breaking level
You possibly can inform from the response on social media after their loss to Hawthorn on Saturday that Adelaide followers’ endurance with their sluggish and regular rebuild below Matthew Nicks is starting to put on skinny.
On the midpoint of the season the Crows sit 14th, entrenched within the backside six regardless of a helpful proportion with simply 4 wins and a draw – with so many groups competing for finals, it’s all however not possible to see them recovering to make it to September.
The optimistic for Nicks is that ought to the season proceed on this trajectory, it will likely be the primary time the Crows haven’t improved 12 months on 12 months in his tenure. The adverse is that the good points have been, for probably the most half, so incremental that this step again fills so seismic by comparability.
It’s onerous to place a timeframe on rebuilds, particularly ones as complete because the one Nicks initiated when he arrived at West Lakes on the finish of 2019, however my private rule of thumb is that this: I’m but to see a membership for which finals of their third season below a brand new coach isn’t an achievable objective.
Name it the ‘Clarkson metric’, as a result of that’s how lengthy it took Alastair Clarkson to take Hawthorn from all-time low on the finish of 2004 again to September in 2007.
That is Nicks’ fifth season on the helm, and it appears sure it will likely be 5 from 5 finals misses. Of coaches within the final 15 years, solely Alan Richardson at St Kilda made it to a sixth 12 months with a report like that, and he was axed halfway via it.
There are literally a number of comparisons between Nicks’ Crows and Richardson’s Saints: each took over with the membership nicely and actually on the best way down after a interval of success, started a sluggish and regular rebuild, and simply when it appeared like they had been on the verge of turning into an influence once more, collapsed abruptly and dishearteningly to erode years of endurance in a matter of weeks.
It must be unacceptable for a footy membership as highly effective because the Crows, one which from 2005 to 2017 made 9 of 13 finals collection, to be mired in mediocrity the best way they’re now. Bear in mind, this can be a membership that sacked Brenton Sanderson for 2 ho-hum seasons in lacking the eight in 2013 and 2014, and went on to be vindicated with three consecutive finals collection and a grand last run in 2017 earlier than a well-known capitulation.
There’s expertise on the Crows, and loads of it – they usually’ve had greater than their justifiable share of misfortune during the last two seasons. However even with out Izak Rankine, dropping so comprehensively to a Hawthorn crew that began their very own ground-up rebuild two seasons after theirs and already are each likelihood of fulfilling that ‘Clarkson metric’ in Sam Mitchell’s third season is a damning indictment on a crew that extra have to be anticipated of.
Nicks is contracted till the top of 2026. He received’t make it that far until his crew begins successful, quick.
Izak Rankine and the Crows stroll off after their loss to Collingwood in 2023. (Photograph by Quinn Rooney/Getty Photographs)
5. It’s time to ditch the ‘fairest’ clause in Rising Star Award – and the Brownlow
Inside 24 hours, the 2024 Rising Star Award was turned on its head this weekend.
First, Sam Darcy made himself ineligible along with his hit on Brayden Maynard (see Level 2); then, lower than a day later, Harley Reid’s standing because the unbackable favorite noticed all betting for the award suspended when he slung Darcy Wilson to the bottom.
We’ve seen Rising Star frontrunners ineligible on account of suspension earlier than – probably the most well-known instance is Corey McKernan polling probably the most votes within the 1994 award whereas unable to win it, however Toby Greene would even have gone extraordinarily shut in 2012 however for the primary in a loooong line of bans – nevertheless it’s definitely distinctive to haven’t one however two frontrunners worn out of the race within the house of 1 spherical.
Naturally, the calls have begun to take away that eligibility standards – and it’s 100 per cent spot on.
Simply as with the Brownlow Medal, it’s time to take away the ‘fairest’ element from the medal, as a result of the fashionable sport is way harsher with suspensions than was meant when that standards was first added.
One ugly sort out doesn’t change the actual fact Reid is a star on the rise and a wholly honest participant, and the identical goes for Darcy: all their ineligibility does is guarantee whoever does find yourself successful the award now may have the largest asterisk in Rising Star historical past hooked up to it.
It’s sufficient of a punishment to be suspended, and make these awards that a lot more durable to win by advantage of lacking a sport or two, to not want the additional whack of being ineligible for the sport’s most prestigious awards for incidents that might have been high-quality and dandy again when the ‘fairest’ standards was first established. At the same time as little as 10 years in the past, neither Darcy nor Reid would have been suspended for what they did.
The race is run now, and it will be manifestly unfair to alter the standards mid-season; however what has occurred this weekend, and the affect it’ll have on how all of us understand the eventual winner of the award come 12 months’s finish, is a well timed reminder that ruling suspended gamers out of competition for awards has the potential to make the entire thing a farce.
Harley Reid chats with an umpire after giving freely a free kick. (Photograph by Paul Kane/Getty Photographs)
6. Calling out the AFLW’s embarrassing fixture
The AFLW’s newly launched fixture for the 2024 season has copped loads of criticism from followers already – and it’s simple to see why.
Among the scheduling choices the league has made are actually unbelievable, most clearly in 4 separate a lot of matches on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, together with a Hawthorn-Gold Coast sport in Frankston at 5:15pm on a Tuesday.
There’s merely no method the boys’s competitors would ever have a draw like this, and when mixed with the common four-day breaks such a schedule necessitates, the way it was ever ticked off is much more appalling.
To do one thing like this and ignore the precise request for a fuller season by the gamers concerned makes it doubly insulting, too.
It’s truthfully time for the league to resolve whether or not it needs to place up or shut up with the AFLW, as a result of for all their claims that they care about girls’s soccer and wish to see it develop, it looks as if they persistently deal with it as an afterthought with out giving it the house, time and assets it must correctly thrive.
It’s a fantastic boon to the AFL’s PR division to have a girls’s competitors up and working – however is that every one the AFL cares about? If it wasn’t, then perhaps we wouldn’t be seeing Tuesday even matches beginning on the cusp of working hours that the huge, overwhelming majority of followers received’t have a hope in hell of attending, and even watching all of it on TV.
Random ideas
– Nick Daicos’ 27 contested possessions is each unreal and an indication the Canine had been truly capable of clamp him extra successfully than most golf equipment. You’d 100 per cent want him getting most of his touches on the within quite than the surface.
– No matter Sam Switkowski had for breakfast Sunday morning, he ought to take into account making it a behavior.
– Harley Reid’s response to Marcus Windhager’s second-half tag ought to verify any severe groups ship somebody to him for the remainder of the season.
– If Rory Lobb does certainly desire a commerce, it’s most likely in his pursuits to be considerably extra aggressive than he was on Friday evening.
– If I’m Richmond I’m paying Liam Baker no matter he wants to remain at Punt Rd. The perfect participant on the membership and solely Shai Bolton comes shut.
