Category: AFL – Australian Rules

In revealing why it took him so long to come out as bisexual, the former West Coast Eagle highlights just how far the sport has to go

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As a footy writer, I keep a rather shambolic database of current and former footballers. It’s kind of a buoy I can grab on to when I’m up against a nasty deadline. Sometimes it’s four of five paragraphs; sometimes it’s a sentence on so-and-so’s inability to kick on his left, or his poor record against a certain player, or something vaguely interesting he said on a podcast. When Mitch Brown became the first man in VFL/AFL history to come out as gay or bisexual, I was curious to see what I had written on him. Here’s my Pulitzer worthy offering: “Nathan’s twin. Married to a netballer. Unlucky with injuries. Went and played in the Ammos.” If ever there was evidence that we’re just scratching the surface when it comes to this sport and the people who play it, it was there.

We learned a lot more about Brown on Wednesday. When he was drafted to West Coast, he was 18 and living in a two-team town, a town where footballers were worshipped and indulged more than any other, a club coming off a controversial premiership where the partying was completely out of control. During his time at the club, they resolved to instil a different culture. They drafted cleanskins. But it was still a football club. It was still pre same-sex marriage Australia. It was still what he called a “hypermasculine environment,” he told The Daily Aus.

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• Rankine makes 44-player list as he serves ban for homophobic slur

• Final team to be announced at Thursday’s awards function

Izak Rankine will be a hot topic of discussion at the AFL awards, even though he is on the other side of the world. The star onballer is among five Adelaide players named in the 44-player squad, with the final team to be unveiled at Thursday night’s awards function in Melbourne.

A homophobic slur cost him a four-week ban last week and he is now holidaying and training in Europe, his season potentially over.

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Is it any wonder that a young LGBTQ+ footballer would follow this story and question whether there is a place for them in the sport

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The flinch response to Izak Rankine’s homophonic slur was the sheer stupidity of it. Perhaps more than any other section of society, footballers are educated, counselled and warned. And it still didn’t get through. The laws of the game, particularly around ruck contests and holding the ball, are increasingly incomprehensible. But the rules in this instance couldn’t be clearer.

What’s more contested is landing on an appropriate penalty. It’s easy cracking down on players who transgress in scratch matches, lower tier competitions and struggling teams. It’s more fraught when it’s a superstar. For this player, for this club, and at this stage of a long, grinding and finally fruitful rebuild, four weeks may as well be four years.

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• Crows star avoids five-match ban and could play in grand final

• ‘Compelling medical submissions’ considered by integrity unit

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The AFL says Izak Rankine is paying a “significant price” for using a homophobic slur during the weekend’s game against Collingwood, after the Adelaide star’s season was potentially ended by a four-match ban.

“Compelling medical submissions” were considered in reaching the verdict, which fell short of a possible five games and keeps the door open for Rankine to feature again this season, but the AFL CEO Andrew Dillon would not elaborate on what those medical considerations were.

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• Midfielder rejects interest from both Adelaide clubs to stay with Saints

• Two-year deal secures 22-year-old’s immediate future at Moorabbin

Breakout star Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera will stay at St Kilda on a bumper two-year deal after rejecting huge interest from Adelaide and Port Adelaide. Wanganeen-Milera has become the AFL’s first player to earn $2m per season in signing through to the end of 2027, in a huge boost to the Saints.

The 22-year-old had been cagey on his future, the most hotly-anticipated contract call this year, amid his breakout season, but has ultimately turned his back on monster long-term offers from both Adelaide clubs.

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Adelaide prove they’re worthy flag favourites in a game that made no sense on the stat sheet – and demands a finals rematch

“The lid is obviously not on, is it?” Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks said late on Saturday night. He was talking about the town, not the team. It was the third-biggest crowd at the redeveloped Adelaide Oval, topped only by the opening day of an Ashes Test match and an Adele concert. It was the most important game Adelaide has played since the 2017 grand final. It was a game that mirrored the respective seasons of the two teams – Collingwood flew the gates, and the Crows overhauled them. It was a strange game that went into neutral for about an hour, and then into overdrive in the final 10 minutes.

It was a game that made no sense on the stat sheet; a game that demanded a rematch – most likely again in Adelaide, hopefully in better conditions, and maybe even at the MCG on the final Saturday in September.

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“An old man’s dream ended, a young man’s vision of the future opened wide,” the American sportswriter Red Smith wrote when 37-year-old Joe Louis was knocked out by Rocky Marciano. “Young men have visions, old men have dreams. But the place for old men to dream is beside the fire.”

It’s tempting to analogise this current Collingwood side, to pension them off, to declare them too old and too slow. When they lost to GWS in the opening game, the Age’s Jake Niall said they were shuffling around like Joe Biden. It’s tempting, when they field 11 players who are 30 or older, when a 35-year-old is knocked senseless in the opening seconds and when they’re run ragged by a comparatively young and superbly conditioned team, to say that the team is out of time.

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• Two-time Brownlow medallist to retire at end of season

• ‘It just feels like it’s the right time,’ says 33-year-old midfielder

Fremantle great Nat Fyfe is satisfied he has made the right decision, calling time on his glittering AFL career after a gruelling run with injury. The two-time Brownlow medallist will retire at the end of the season, ideally after helping to steer the fourth-placed Dockers deep into September.

Monday’s announcement came two days after Fyfe played just his fifth game of the season, returning from injury as Fremantle claimed a last-gasp six-point win over Port Adelaide.

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Sunday’s crackerjack contest at the MCG against the equally superb Demons was a most welcome heartstopper after weeks of blowouts

With 10 minutes to go until the opening bounce of the Bulldogs’ game against Melbourne, Luke Beveridge stalked the MCG boundary line, a man careful not to slip on a banana peel. He was more clenched and coiled than usual. He looked like he’d spent the last six months deadlifting trucks and moving magnets. He knew better than anyone how dangerous this game was. He’d seen Brisbane slip up the previous day. He’d seen Fremantle nearly throw away their season. He knew his own team’s history of self-sabotaging in games like this.

When Aaron Naughton kicked his fourth goal and his second in as many minutes in the third term, his coach was entitled to loosen up a little. The first half had been a dozy affair, with both sides just trundling along. But now Naughton was marking everything, Bailey Dale and Marcus Bontempelli had about a thousand touches between them and the Dogs had their foot on the throat.

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At their very best, Simon Goodwin’s Demons would fight hand to hand, square metre by square metre. Their midfielders were like snorting bulls. Their ruckman was peerless. Their key defenders would patrol and gobble, deny and thwart. In just under an hour, it all came together in a flawless, torrential, still scarcely believable flood of goals.

At their very worst, Goodwin’s Demons were rigid, predictable, boring. They would blast and hope. They’d win the inside 50s and contested possession count and lose the match. While the rest of us stifled yawns, Goodwin would shrug his shoulders, shuffle his papers and talk about “learnings” and “contest and defence” and “honest conversations”. A week later, they’d be losing the same way and he’d be saying the same things.

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The reigning premiers click into gear at the right time of year as they break another hoodoo with an ominous victory over Collingwood at the MCG

The last time Brisbane beat Collingwood at the MCG, Logan Morris was in year 3, Jack Crisp was a Lions player and Justin Leppitsch was his coach, and Tony Armstrong was the Magpies’ leading possession winner. Current Lions coach Chris Fagan has placed a great emphasis on breaking horror streaks – an 11-game run of outs at the MCG, 15 in a row against Richmond, and two decades of losses at Kardinia Park. Their away record against Collingwood probably didn’t constitute a hoodoo, but it was something that needed to be addressed, and the perfect way to right the previous week’s wrongs.

Brisbane were as bad as they’ve been for years in their defeat to Gold Coast last week. The heavy conditions disrupted their normal rhythms. They were bogged and bullied. They were Rowelled. “It better be a one week thing,” Fagan said.

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Before her responsibilities were effectively cut in half, Laura Kane was burdened with the most challenging role in football, spanning everything that was hard and controversial about managing the game. Much of the criticism she copped should have been directed at the people she was directly managing, as well as the people who hired her.

Greg Swann’s arrival at AFL House last Monday came with a sigh of relief. “Swanny’s a ripper” and “Swanny understands clubland” must have been uttered dozens of times on radio, on podcasts and TV this past week. But even with a fraction of Kane’s responsibilities, it remains one of the most demanding jobs in football. Swann is phlegmatic, he’s a pragmatist and (so far) he’s refreshingly free of weasel corporate-speak. Here are a few areas where he can make his mark.

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Former St Kilda star remains on bail after facing court charged with three offences allegedly committed in July

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AFL great Nicky Winmar has been accused of two assaults and of intentionally choking a person, court documents reveal.

The former St Kilda star, 59, had been listed for an application to revoke bail at Melbourne magistrates court on Tuesday, which could have seen him jailed.

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The irrepressible Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson inspired victory against Brisbane and with a bit of mongrel about them now, this team doesn’t roll over any more

Temperamentally, it’s hard to imagine two more different footballers than Jeremy Cameron and Matt Rowell. Cameron kicked 11 goals on the weekend, and slotted each one with the same laconic air as when he’s whacking golf balls into the lake on his farm. Rowell had 37 possessions, most of which were earned in a footballing form of hand-to-hand-combat.

Rowell met considerably stiffer opposition than Cameron, whose bag came against a lamentable North Melbourne, a team that is driving its fans to despair. Rowell’s 37 came against a crack midfield, with one of the sport’s best two-way runners in his back pocket all afternoon.

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• Saints recover from 46 points down at three-quarter-time

• Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera slots two late goals in frantic finish

St Kilda pulled off the greatest three-quarter-time comeback in VFL/AFL history, storming home from 46 points down to stun Melbourne in a crazy finish at Marvel Stadium.

Off-contract star Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera was the hero, slotting two goals in a frantic climax to pinch a miracle six-point victory. The Saints slotted nine unanswered goals in the final term to win 15.6 (96) to Melbourne’s 13.12 (90).

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