The primary of the bye rounds is finished and dusted, and we’re again to the ladder being correctly skewed by all groups having a non-equal quantity of video games beneath their belt.
It was a nightmare weekend for us tipsters, with a string of favourites going beneath, most clearly Melbourne’s exceptional Sunday afternoon capitulation by the hands of Fremantle.
St Kilda and Carlton likewise got here away with glorious wins on the street, whereas it was a darkish weekend for South Australian soccer as each the Energy and Crows bought carried out in regarding vogue.
However the largest loser of all this weekend was most likely the Rising Star Award, with its two largest 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 may need solely been seven video games, however there’s simply as a lot to speak about as ever. Let’s start.
1. Incredible 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 possibly greatest – win beneath Justin Longmuir, that leaves them with the second-best share within the competitors and all of a sudden entrenched contained in the eight.
The Dockers have been a sufferer within the final 18 months of changing into a finals workforce – and a finals winner – a 12 months sooner than many anticipated in 2022, which made a disappointing droop in 2023 all of the extra disheartening.
To date 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 among them THAT controversial one in opposition to Carlton – and been crushed by Sydney in a recreation you possibly can mainly write off as irrelevant given it occurred simply hours after the tragic loss of life of Cam McCarthy.
The Dockers have been sensational in opposition to the Demons. Their ball motion was brisk with out being kamikaze, their abilities by foot beautiful, and the midfield completely dominant in blowing a star-studded Melbourne on-ball brigade to kingdom include 48 clearances to 23.
Generally Freo’s persistence 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 workforce kicks 22 objectives.
That is nonetheless one of many AFL’s youngest groups, and one solely going in a single course – up. No matter what the remainder of the season brings, and at this level a house remaining is a vastly attainable objective, it’s value conserving in thoughts that 2026 and even 2027 is probably going when the workforce 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 value bearing in mind whenever you assess the 92-point victory margin for each groups. Melbourne are unlikely to be that unhealthy once more anytime quickly.
However given how shortly everybody appears to be to stay the boots into Freo when it goes fallacious, it’s value noting this: Longmuir has responded to what wasn’t working to start out 2023, modified their type, coached boldly, and returned this workforce again to concerning the degree it was at once they broke out in 2022. Not a number of coaches have the gumption to do what he’s carried out.
The Dockers nonetheless have 5 matches in opposition to the present prime 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 house – 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 night time was extra vindictive than it could have been had actually another 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 sequence, no matter the legality of that incident on the time, means any harm barring a serious one he sustains on the sphere goes to trigger celebration in some corners.
Assume Matthew Scarlett placing one on Hayden Ballantyne’s chin in that 2012 recreation, when the response amongst most footy followers was that he had it coming.
All the identical, a number 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 imagine, like I do, that the Magpie ought to have been suspended for his careless conduct in that incident, there needs to be an apparent distinction between a split-second choice to brace for contact halfway by means of the soccer motion of making an attempt to smother, and sucker-punching a bloke from behind to attempt to make him earn a mark.
I’ve little question that was what was going by means of 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 among 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 much more culpability and fewer mitigating circumstances, and that he didn’t fairly hit the again of Maynard’s head arduous sufficient to concuss him is extra success than anything.
Our recreation is lots arduous sufficient with out petty thuggery like this, and whereas I can broadly perceive Luke Hodge’s level on SEN on Saturday concerning 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 probably be a protracted and excellent profession. As for the remainder of us, it’s value 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 very fact we don’t just like the bloke he did it to.
Sam Darcy crashes into Brayden Maynard. (Photograph by Michael Willson/AFL Images through Getty Photographs)
3. The holding the ball crackdown is a wholly predictable farce
It was forecast throughout the week, and the umpires didn’t disappoint this weekend when it got here to cracking down on holding the ball.
Particularly on Friday night time and Saturday afternoon, gamers have been repeatedly pinged with zero prior alternative, with some penalised for attempting to interrupt by means of 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 value, the umpires, for probably the most half, judged the brand new interpretation properly.
However 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 night time, 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 a substitute ready for his or her Richmond opponents to take it earlier than wrapping them up, and usually benefitting from it.
If different groups make the same remark, then we’ve bought a major problem, and that can after all require one other huge overcorrection from the AFL, the league that may by no means depart properly sufficient alone.
I assumed it was a fairly commonplace view that the elevated give attention to tackling and stress from golf equipment has straight contributed to the sport changing into slower, extra congested, and fewer high-scoring. So why on earth would we be making any change to the foundations, not to mention mid-season, to permit them to be extra rewarded?
The reward for many tackles needs to 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 individual being tackled.
That onus of duty 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 complicated algorithm that invitations much more inconsistency – and ones you’d suppose are apparent holding the balls, like Nick Daicos’ on Friday night time, are nonetheless slipping by means of 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 start out his profession – busting tackles.
If the AFL truly needed to crack down on one thing that’s truly having a unfavourable impression on the sport, somewhat than listening to coaches who’ve persistently proved their precedence is making the sport simpler to handle somewhat than enhancing 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 therapy each week, however it appears no one cares sufficient to do something about this blight on the sport.
The AFL’s holding the ball crackdown has turned an already messy however basically 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 enthusiastic about the implications, this can be a horrific misstep – and I can’t wait to see it blow up of their faces massive time when one thing notably controversial occurs on a giant stage.
4. The Crows – and Matthew Nicks – have reached breaking level
You’ll be able to inform from the response on social media after their loss to Hawthorn on Saturday that Adelaide followers’ persistence with their sluggish and regular rebuild beneath 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 share with simply 4 wins and a draw – with so many groups competing for finals, it’s all however inconceivable to see them recovering to make it to September.
The constructive 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 unfavourable is that the features have been, for probably the most half, so incremental that this step again fills so seismic by comparability.
It’s arduous 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 beneath 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 by means of it.
There are literally a number of comparisons between Nicks’ Crows and Richardson’s Saints: each took over with the membership properly and really on the best way down after a interval of success, started a sluggish and regular rebuild, and simply when it appeared like they have been on the verge of changing into an influence once more, collapsed all of a sudden and dishearteningly to erode years of persistence in a matter of weeks.
It needs to be unacceptable for a footy membership as highly effective because the Crows, one which from 2005 to 2017 made 9 of 13 finals sequence, 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 sequence and a grand remaining 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 workforce 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 workforce that extra should be anticipated of.
Nicks is contracted till the tip of 2026. He received’t make it that far until his workforce 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 together 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 resulting from 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 – however it’s actually 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’ part from the medal, as a result of the fashionable recreation is much harsher with suspensions than was meant when that standards was first added.
One ugly deal with doesn’t change the very 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 could 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 recreation 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 could be manifestly unfair to alter the standards mid-season; however what has occurred this weekend, and the impression it can 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 freely giving 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 straightforward to see why.
Among the scheduling choices the league has made are really unimaginable, most clearly in 4 separate a lot of matches on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, together with a Hawthorn-Gold Coast recreation in Frankston at 5:15pm on a Tuesday.
There’s merely no method the lads’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 actually 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 need to see it develop, it looks like they persistently deal with it as an afterthought with out giving it the house, time and assets it must correctly thrive.
It’s an important boon to the AFL’s PR division to have a girls’s competitors up and operating – 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 have been truly in a position to clamp him extra successfully than most golf equipment. You’d 100 per cent favor him getting most of his touches on the within somewhat than the surface.
– No matter Sam Switkowski had for breakfast Sunday morning, he ought to think about making it a behavior.
– Harley Reid’s response to Marcus Windhager’s second-half tag ought to verify any critical groups ship somebody to him for the remainder of the season.
– If Rory Lobb does certainly need a commerce, it’s most likely in his pursuits to be considerably extra aggressive than he was on Friday night time.
– If I’m Richmond I’m paying Liam Baker no matter he wants to remain at Punt Rd. One of the best participant on the membership and solely Shai Bolton comes shut.
