“We’re on top, top, top”. Robbie Gray points out Port’s ladder position after a goal on Saturday. Photo: GETTY IMAGES
The key talking points from the AFL week – a mish mash of rounds 10 and 11 during a compressed stage of the 2020 fixture – centred on subjects few in football could or would have predicted.
First, there was the gruesome damage caused by a relatively unknown Sydney debutant’s hybrid plastic and aluminium Nike boots.
Then there was the furore around players touching teammates “below the belt” during their post-match victory songs.
And, finally, there was a huge backlash to the death threats sent by keyboard cowards to a well-respected veteran member of the playing fraternity.
As if 2020 hadn’t thrown up enough bizarre, unprecedented and wildly inappropriate situations already, right?
Fortunately, amid avoidable accidents and some abhorrent behaviour inside and on the periphery of the national competition, we were treated to some pretty bloody good football, exhibit A being Port Adelaide’s thrilling win over Richmond.
The ladder leaders broke clear from the reigning premiers three times and survived a gritty fightback on each occasion before sealing the deal with a dominant final term.
Superstar Robbie Gray stood up, Travis Boak continued his stellar season and Charlie Dixon threatened to tear the game apart. Even Peter Ladhams, the ungainly back-up ruckman, got in on the act with a left-foot checkside from the boundary line serving as an unlikely goal of the year contender.
Richmond wasn’t without chances, but couldn’t go with the Power in the final quarter. The extremely short break and travel from Queensland offered some sort of mitigation, but take nothing away from Ken Hinkley’s team.
If these two meet again in the finals, expect another classic. They’re quite possibly the best sides in it, though West Coast, Brisbane and Geelong are thereabouts. St Kilda could yet be a fairytale.
Adding salt to Richmond’s wounds, the Adelaide Oval defeat came with fines for Jack Riewoldt, Dustin Martin and Marlion Pickett for four separate incidents picked up by the Match Review Officer.
Riewoldt’s swinging backhand to Tom Jonas’ groin region was an unfortunate follow-up to the well-publicised incidents involving Nick Vlastuin and Jayden Short with teammate Mabior Chol.
Those, and the similar Dan Butler-Jade Gresham incident, which were all caught on camera during their respective teams’ post-match celebrations, probably don’t need much more commentary.
But the sooner the AFL is rid of that sort of schoolboy rubbish, the better – because, whether they like it or not, the players on large salaries being pumped up by the league and their clubs as heroes are setting examples for hundreds of thousands of kids.
They need to do the right thing, especially on national television.
So, too, should those keyboard cowards. Unfortunately, the faceless trolls will always be there. Kudos to Greater Western Sydney and Callan Ward for calling them out.
One of the joys of 2020 has been witnessing new players kick their first goals in senior football. The moments seem to be being celebrated more than ever before.
Collingwood’s Trey Ruscoe and Sydney’s Sam Wicks enjoyed that feeling within minutes of each other at the Gabba on Thursday night.
But Swans youngster Wicks will remember the game for entirely different reasons after his boot accidentally sliced open Magpies defender Isaac Quaynor’s shin.
The horrific injury – a deep 20 centimetre gash most of the way down the lower leg – sparked a post-match frenzy as the clubs and AFL tried to establish how and why it had happened.
It turns out players around the competition have been wearing similar Nike boots for some time.
The AFL’s reminder of the rules and warning about the possibility of $40,000 fines for clubs whose players wear the non-compliant footwear was fair enough. But the fact the league put it back on clubs and players to effectively police themselves when it comes to using the right equipment, including boots was a little off.
What’s wrong with an under-12s style check of players’ boots, nails and jewellery by the AFL umpires before a match, just to make sure?
The Richmond and St Kilda groping incidents are an example that maybe some players need to be treated like school kids at times.
Finally, if you don’t know what round it is, don’t worry. You’re not alone. This compressed fixture and the “festival of footy”’ has thrown us all in a spin.
But at least we’ve got footy. It’s a welcome distraction as the global pandemic continues to cast a shadow over Australian life.
