Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley and star ruckman Brodie Grundy share a joke during training. Photo: GETTY IMAGES
Football these days is full of opinions. Almost certainly too many of them, in fact.
Especially in an age when churning out “content” for consumption by the masses is so prevalent. Then there’s the social media minefield.
But when it comes to assessing players’ seasons, debating their value at the trade table or in contract discussions, we outside the proverbial “four walls of the club” should consider that we are perhaps more clueless than ever before on the back of undoubtedly the most difficult AFL season on record.
What you see isn’t always what you get, and we are rarely clued into exactly what’s going on behind the scenes. This year, we have the added factor of players being stuck in hubs for months on end, operating under the most unusual of circumstances.
The creatures of habit haven’t had enough time to sink into new habits amid incessant shifts of the goalposts, the cause of which can almost always be traced back to that damned coronavirus.
What effect or level of impact it has all had on teams and individual players is anyone’s guess.
Take, for example, the curious case of Brodie Grundy.
By his own lofty standards, the two-time All-Australian’s output had been below-par for a large part of the season before it was brought to an abrupt end at the Gabba last Saturday night.
The media and fan spotlight on Grundy is more intense than on most players after he inked a massive seven-year, multi-million dollar contract earlier this year.
As Collingwood attacked the finals series, there were loads of questions about whether Grundy was playing injured, with countless commentators and fans seeking answers.
After the semi-final thumping from Geelong, Pies coach Nathan Buckley gave a small insight into the struggles certain players have faced throughout 2020 when he was quizzed on his star ruckman’s ability to bounce back next year.
“You won’t fully get open dialogue or conversations about how people have travelled or how groups have travelled through this period,” Buckley said, seeming like he could be speaking on behalf of all AFL football departments.
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“We all sweep it a little bit under the rug and some of our rugs are up here (high) at the moment. That’s a reality of the environment that we’re in.
“Brodes is a guy who loves the game and loves footy, but he also loves to get away from it, and when you’re in a hub it’s been a little bit more difficult for him to do that. He’s one of plenty of blokes across the competition that will have struggled at times through this. He’s not on his own, I want to make that clear … it’s not just Brodie Grundy.”
Buckley rattled off a few names – Jordan Roughead, Darcy Moore, John Noble and Tom Langdon – as others among those at his club who had found elements of hub life difficult.
No doubt, as Buckley noted, there have been many more across the entire competition. Coaches and staff would have felt it, too.
“All of us in some shape or form have had to find a new normal, and I think it’s been less than optimal,” Buckley added.
Go back to his first comment. To paraphrase, we on the outside won’t ever be privy to full details about how people within their clubs’ restricted bubbles have coped with the trials and tribulations of the 2020 season.
That doesn’t mean we can’t have any opinions on performances, and it doesn’t mean players’ output this year can’t be scrutinised.
And, yes, before you say it, we know the majority of players are (very) well remunerated compared to regular Janes and Joes like you and I.
But the crazy circumstances in which they have been trying to execute in a professional competition is something we should still take into consideration.
They say after losses it’s how you bounce back that matters most.
If we get back to something approaching “normal” next season – and it’s still a big “if” – then there’s a genuine opportunity for players who performed below their best on the field while spending months away from home to prove that was an aberration, not the new norm.
The exposed form of 2020 is laced with factors of unknown significance, and likely significant factors that remain unknown.
So good luck with next year’s pre-season predictions. We might all end up looking like fools.
