Marc Murphy is jubilant after kicking the winning goal for the Blues with just 30 seconds left on the clock. Photo: AFL MEDIA
Hope. It’s a seductive mix of aspiration and desire that drives even the most downtrodden of football fans.
Sometimes when they least expect it, the faithful get rewarded.
And who could begrudge those in navy blue from walking a little taller as they stride into work on Monday after witnessing their team deliver one of the most incredible upsets of the season?
In a round teeming with shock results, Carlton saved the best for last, fighting back from five goals down at quarter-time against finals contender (or is that pretender?) Fremantle in Perth to lift itself off the bottom of the ladder.
Marc Murphy’s match-winning goal in a frantic final minute came after the Blues – already without injured duo Patrick Cripps and Harry McKay, who were ruled out mid-week – lost key forward Charlie Curnow to a serious knee injury in the opening term.
The best win of David Teague’s short coaching career doubled as arguably one of the worst losses in Ross Lyon’s tenure at the port as his Dockers were left feeling blue.
If the theme of round 15 was boilovers, then Essendon was the trendsetter with a thrilling come-from-behind triumph over Greater Western Sydney way back on Thursday night.
Not even another score review howler and subsequent denials from Gillon McLachlan and Steve Hocking, who said footage of Shaun McKernan’s late shot at goal was “inconclusive”, could tarnish a stirring Bombers win.
Missing a key man after mountainous ruckman Tom Bellchambers hobbled off, John Worsfold’s side clawed its way back from 19 points down in the final term to topple a genuine flag fancy.
And the coach lived to fight another day, much to the relief of some old media friends back in his home state, who seem to believe the external heat on Worsfold is some kind of anti-WA conspiracy and have taken offence to the commentary surrounding the West Coast legend’s performance in charge of Essendon.
On this occasion, Worsfold deserves credit. Often accused of lacking a ‘Plan B’ – rightly or wrongly, depending on your personal view – he flicked the magnets around and got the result he desired.
Orazio Fantasia went into the midfield and Cale Hooker moved forward, kicking two vital goals in the final term. The swingman’s second was the go-ahead major for Essendon, which had trailed throughout the entire second half but hit the front in the last quarter with 31:59 gone on the clock.
Shaun McKernan was another big contributor, kicking two goals and clunking a career-high five contested marks.
We told you during the build-up that footy fans and media might need to pump the brakes a little bit when it came to Worsfold’s position. The result means the pressure must subside at least a little bit this week.
However, it might be a different story with Alan Richardson, whose Saints were right in the hunt at three-quarter time against Richmond before conceding seven goals in the final quarter of a 33-point defeat.
The Marcus Bontempelli-inspired Western Bulldogs kept their faint finals hopes alive and dented Port Adelaide’s in the process, while North Melbourne continued its revival under caretaker coach Rhyce Shaw, who is compiling a strong case to continue in the role next year and beyond.
The Kangaroos’ surprise win over Collingwood could have huge ramifications at the top of the ladder, with the second-placed Magpies leaving the door ajar for their rivals in the top-two race.
Collingwood kicked its lowest score – 5.7 (37) – since registering the same tally in round five, 1995 (when Nathan Buckley was in his second season as a Pies player). And the embarrassing result came about in perfect conditions under the Marvel Stadium roof, not on a cold day at Waverley Park.
Speaking of that roof, both Luke Davies-Uniacke and Sydney Stack tried to jump through it. LDU dropped the proverbial car and Stack might be the beneficiary when the “Mark of the Year” votes are tallied up at the end of the season.
The indigenous livewire is also in the running for the Rising Star award. He kicked four goals in his first game as a forward for the Tigers and has lit up the competition since making his debut in round three.
Stack’s rise to prominence has been nothing short of remarkable, given off-field issues meant he was initially overlooked in the national and rookie drafts before being handed a late lifeline via the pre-season supplementary selection period.
Huge bumps, booming torpedoes, a bit of swagger, and now high-flying marks and goals – Stack boasts a perfect mix of attributes to be a cult hero for years to come.
West Coast is no stranger to cult heroes after last year’s against-the-odds grand final triumph, and ushered in the return of arguably the biggest of them all when Nic Naitanui got through his comeback from a second knee reconstruction.
The Eagles are charging hardest at Collingwood’s top-two spot after a gritty win over Hawthorn at the MCG, where they have now won on their past five visits.
The current streak has equalled the record of consecutive wins for a non-Victorian club at the MCG, matching Mick Malthouse’s West Coast of 1992, Leigh Matthews’ Brisbane (2001-03) and Paul Roos’ Sydney (2005-06).
Naitanui had an instant impact and Norm Smith medallist Luke Shuey underlined his status as a genuine A-grader with a dominant showing when the game was on the line in the final term.
But the biggest star on the day was Jack Darling, who erased some personal demons that emanated from a horror 2015 grand final performance against the same opponent. Josh Kennedy was held goalless, but Darling stepped up with five majors in difficult conditions for the big forwards.
Young Eagle Oscar Allen’s courageous mark going back with the flight might be remembered for as long as Darling’s dropped chest mark four years ago.
And as West Coast zeroes in on the top two, so does Brisbane on the top four. A regulation win over Melbourne saw the Lions draw level with GWS on nine wins. Who would have thought we’d be publishing that sentence before the season started?
In case you’ve been living under a rock and missed the latest contender for “most overused stat in football”, here it is: Geelong is 0-8 the week after a mid-season bye and now 8-0 in its second game back.
Quirky and unusual, indeed, but no longer a ground-breaking revelation. Despite that, there’s no surer thing than Cats players and coaches being peppered with questions about the record again in about 11-and-a-half months’ time.
Geelong superstar Patrick Dangerfield was hurt in a heavy mid-air collision with former teammate Daniel Talia during the second quarter of the Cats’ win over Adelaide and wasn’t himself, committing a handful of uncharacteristic clangers.
He spent the match stationed in attack but was still an influential figure with 24 disposals in a match that the Cats dominated from midway through the second term. But Dangerfield arguably garnered more attention for a cheeky ‘low-five’ with former-player-turned-goal-umpire David Rodan late in the match.
Just like the embrace between Stack and fellow indigenous star Eddie Betts 15 days earlier, it was a light-hearted moment of appreciation between two men, and shouldn’t be seen as anything but that.
Of course, there were some fans who thought it went beyond the acceptable level of interaction between a player and umpire. Wet blankets, the lot of them. But successful entities like Geelong (and Dangerfield) tend to bring out the worst in some observers.
We would all do well to take footy a little less seriously sometimes – especially when that uplifting victory could be just around the corner.
