Category: AFL – Australian Rules

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Brad Scott’s exit from North Melbourne in 2019 was very different from his sacking at Essendon this week. “Brad’s offer to step aside is nothing short of selfless and honourable – terms befitting his character,” Kangaroos president Ben Buckley said at the time. “There’s nothing but blue sky for North,” Scott said. He said it three times. He thanked the individual board members, the coterie groups and even the media. But many thought he had left North’s list in tatters. David King called him “a visitor”. Certainly the backside completely fell out of the Roos in the years after he left.

Scott wasn’t at the press conference announcing his departure from the Bombers on Tuesday. Most agree that he wasn’t the right fit, and probably never had been. He’d never been fully embraced by Essendon people, or the senior players. There was always a lingering doubt over the state he left North Melbourne in. There was always the sense that he was an outsider.

This is an extract from Guardian Australia’s free weekly AFL email, From the Pocket. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions

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• Scott leaves after run of just one win in 11 games in 2026

• Dean Solomon looms as a potential interim boss at Bombers

Essendon are not ruling out a return of James Hird as head coach, despite president Andrew Welsh insisting he’s not just bringing back an old Essendon boys’ club.

Welsh, who stood by the call to block Zach Merrett’s trade request last year, is adamant the Bombers “won’t be pushed around” even as they have sunk further into the doldrums.

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• Former player and coach was diagnosed with MND in 2013

• Family confirm Daniher died at home

The former AFL player and coach Neale Daniher has died, 13 years after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease.

The 65-year-old’s family issued a statement on Monday confirming Daniher had died at home.

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A record third quarter at Engie Stadium was akin to a flawless training session for the Giants while the signs are there that all is not well at the Lions

Few AFL coaches go the full Krakatoa quite like Adam Kingsley. The Giants uploaded footage of him going off his rocker at the main break of the Sydney derby last year, a game where they’d been largely uncompetitive in the opening half. Sunday’s first half against Brisbane didn’t warrant that kind of outburst. They’d been playing well against the reigning premiers, a team that always seems to bring out the best in them. But they need a follow up documentary on what was said at half-time, or what changed. They unleashed the kind of artillery barrage we rarely see in the modern game, and the kind we never see against the team that has won the past two premierships.

Their semi-final clash in 2024 was one of the more remarkable games of the modern era. This one didn’t have any of the wild swings, just half an hour of one-way, downhill, all-out attack, like one of those country footy games where a bunch of former AFL players feast on a team of 45-year-old farmers. With very little resistance, they strolled into goal in the first 20 seconds. They then unleashed the kind of football we saw from the Giants in 2016 and 2017 – long, sweeping waves emanating from half back. It resembled a flawless training session.

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• Collingwood veteran sets new VFL/AFL benchmark in 433rd match

• Pies teammates wear gold numbers in clash with West Coast Eagles

After an intense build-up, Collingwood veteran Scott Pendlebury has run on to the MCG to break North Melbourne legend Brent Harvey’s AFL/VFL games record.

Scott Pendlebury has run out alongside his children Jax and Darcy for his AFL/VFL record-breaking 433rd game for Collingwood in front of a huge MCG crowd.

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Even his most ardent admirers may admit to a case of Scott Pendlebury fatigue right now. So let’s begin by getting a few words out of the way. Time. Space. Basketball. Saunas. Ice baths. Let’s also put aside some of the more tedious elements of the buildup to his record-breaking game – the gold-plated number, the multiple and lucrative costume changes, the signature wine range, the standing ovation at the 10-minute mark, and the discussion over whether he should have been rested or not.

Emotionally, technically and physically, Pendlebury has much in common with his fellow 400-gamers who gathered at the MCG this week. All of them were wily enough to avoid grievous harm on the field. All of them were temperamentally sound, and weren’t the type of personalities to let the outside noise seep in. And all of them avoided the kind of vices and distractions that can curtail sporting longevity.

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This isn’t the dead cat bounce of a new coach. They smashed Hawthorn in every facet of the game to show they are a serious AFL team

“Do you know what you need in a new coach?” interim president Brad Green was asked at the press conference announcing Simon Goodwin’s sacking last year.

“No,” he said.

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• Round 17 fixture to instead feature Western Bulldogs against Sydney

• Saints player Collard banned for use of homophobic slur

The fallout continues from the Lance Collard AFL tribunal case, with St Kilda cut from the annual Pride Game against Sydney.

The fixture, which celebrates LGBTIQA+ inclusivity, was supposed to take place when the Swans were hosting the Saints in round 13 at the SCG. Instead, the fixture has been switched to the Swans’ match against the Western Bulldogs in round 17.

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When John Elliott died in 2021, the old, dark, imperial Carlton was dead. The new Carlton was grounded on “respect, humility and integrity”. The new president was a master networker. The new chief executive was the best administrator in football. The new coach had been one of the great players of his generation.

The Blues were a terrific team to watch in Michael Voss’s first year as coach. He had a lot to work with in 2022 – a pair of No 1 draft picks, two Coleman medallists, a captain who would win two Brownlow medals and a list that had been built from the spine since Brendon Bolton’s first year in charge. They spent almost the entire season in the top eight, and most of it on the cusp of a double chance.

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• Blues confirm departure and appoint Josh Fraser as interim coach

• ‘We have not seen the intended evolution in our game,’ club says

Michael Voss has quit as Carlton coach following a disastrous start to the AFL season, the Blues admitting the club is in “genuine transition”.

Out-of-contract at season’s end, Voss decided to move on with the Blues 1-8 and effectively already out of finals contention.

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What stood out in both the AFL and Carlton’s statements regarding what happened to Elijah Hollands at the MCG three weeks ago were the things that weren’t and couldn’t be said. There were legal restrictions. There was medical confidentiality. There was a WorkSafe investigation. There was a universal acceptance that the privacy and wellbeing of the young man at the centre of all this was the most important thing.

The AFL did what they usually do in matters of the utmost complexity – they issued a fine. In fact, it was more of a donation. How much of a dent $75,000 makes in Carlton’s hip pocket is not for me to say, though a club whose four pokie venues raked in nearly $20m in the last financial year can probably afford it. The AFL also announced a series of measures to ensure this never happens again – mandated club phycologists, stronger industry healthcare governance standards, and a “mental health media roundtable”, which itself probably warrants a separate column.

This is an extract from Guardian Australia’s free weekly AFL email, From the Pocket. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions

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With seven goals, Malcolm Rosas Jr propelled Sydney to the top of the ladder in a helter-skelter win over Melbourne

Malcolm Rosas Jr is the grandson of Bill Dempsey, who passed away in March. Dempsey was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2022, and should have been elevated to legend status on the strength of his speech alone. Dempsey was one of the greatest ruckmen to come out of the WAFL. His grandson is a completely different footballer – slighter, slippery around the packs and a superb user of the ball. His seven goals on Sunday propelled his team to the top of the AFL ladder, more than 30% clear of the second placed Fremantle.

In a brief, jam-packed and much-needed vent this week, Luke Beveridge lamented the high scores that the AFL and its broadcasters have contrived. But that sort of football has its place, especially on grounds like the SCG. Sunday’s game was a helter-skelter affair, with both sides blazing through the middle of the ground. At times it resembled one of those mid-1980s games in Sydney. It was a good era to be a forward then, and it was a good day to be a forward on Sunday.

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When Greg Swann was appointed executive general manager of football performance at the AFL, many saw him as the man to cure all the sport’s ills. He was one of those footy people known primarily by his nickname, a man who projected an air of knockabout affability, a man renowned for getting things done. He would apply “the pub test” to many of football’s most pressing issues: the draft, the rules, the umpiring, the AFL review centre (ARC). “Swanny”, we were assured, was the man who would make footy’s trains run on time.

One of the first things Swann’s predecessor, Laura Kane, did in the role was embark on an overseas study tour. Certain sports, she found, lent themselves to technological intervention. The geometry of tennis and baseball made it far easier to implement. She fast-tracked the trial of ball-tracking technology. But Australian football, she stressed, was an incredibly difficult sport to properly utilise technology. The shape of the grounds, the oval ball, the way goals often come down to the length of a player’s fingernail, all made it tough to land on a definitive decision.

This is an extract from Guardian Australia’s free weekly AFL email, From the Pocket. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions

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At times during the Pies’ big win at the MCG the 38-year-old appeared to be playing 10 simultaneous games of chess – and Essendon had no answer

The week in football was characterised in many ways by the absence of competence. There wasn’t much competence over at Kayo, which had more crashes than Leslie Nielsen. There wasn’t much competence in the umpiring on Friday night. There wasn’t much competence at the AFL tribunal, with its barking dogs and house inspections. There wasn’t much competence, or basic decency, at its appeals board.

“Competence porn” is a term we hear a lot these days, mainly in relation to television and film. In a world run by people who temperamentally and intellectually aren’t far from the sandpit, it’s the craving for content that showcases craft and care. It’s there in shows like The Pitt where doctors and nurses under incredible strain maintain both their excellence and (mostly) their sanity. The AFL should poach primary charge nurse Dana Evans from Pittsburgh to run their score review system, or their tribunal, or the whole competition. She’d ship it into shape in half a shift.

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• Tribunal verdict upheld that St Kilda player guilty of conduct unbecoming

• Reduced four-week suspension comes with two weeks suspended

St Kilda forward Lance Collard will serve a two-week suspension over his latest homophobic slur after having his ban reduced by the AFL appeal board.

Collard was initially banned for seven weeks, with a further two weeks suspended, after being found guilty of calling a VFL opponent a “fucking faggot” last month. He denied the allegation.

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