Category: AFL – Australian Rules

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In pissing rain on Saturday, the young Hawks, several of them shorter than the Auskickers, were gambolling about in the warmup – posing for selfies, piggybacking one another, practising their celebrations. This wasn’t the Hawthorn I grew up with. This wasn’t the Hawthorn of John Kennedy Sr, the Hawthorn that Alastair Clarkson tapped into – conservative, uncompromising, utterly contemptuous of mediocrity and individualism.

“Fit in or fuck off,” Clarkson told Josh Gibson, who was partial to the envelope openings and the Portsea Polo. “Leave the carry-on to clowns,” he told others.

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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• Lance Collard suspended for six matches for ‘highly offensive’ abuse
• Chief executive Andrew Dillon warns of more severe sanctions

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon is adamant the league doesn’t have a homophobia problem despite St Kilda teenager Lance Collard becoming the third player to be suspended over the issue this year.

Collard will serve a six-game ban after being investigated for directing “unprompted and highly offensive homophobic slurs” towards two Williamstown opponents in a VFL game. The 19-year-old forward directed the abuse when appearing for St Kilda’s VFL affiliate Sandringham on Saturday.

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Western Bulldogs currently sit 10th on the AFL ladder. That has been their lot for most of the year – teasing, tinkering, looming, ambushing, retreating, knocking on the door. Just when you think they’re out, they drag you back in. Their win over Carlton was full of merit. It was the win of a team capable of doing serious damage in September. And it was a typical Luke Beveridge win – a stake in the ground win.

If they’d lost, all the usual suspects would have been climbing out of trees to intensify pressure on the coach. They’d say he’s too weird, too stubborn, too off-message and that he’s stayed too long. They’d talk about the abundance of talent on his list. They’d talk about his bewildering selections. They’d do what they’ve been itching to do for years, and call for his head.

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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Prominent media figures and outlets kept the blowtorch on Adam Simpson even after West Coast had shown him the door

Adam Simpson tossed the coin, waved to the crowd and went on his way. “Let’s get on with it,” he said. West Coast gave them a scare but Brisbane were too good in the end. For Eagles fans, it was time to give thanks and move on. For others, it was a chance to reflect on how this sport is covered, and how its people are treated.

Whenever a coach loses his job, there’s usually a villain – the journo who breaches trust, the player who leaks, the board member who knifes. In this instance, it was The West Australian newspaper, which ran with a tasteless but hardly atypical front page – “See Ya Simmo”, with a conga line of ‘Ls’.

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There have been 675 AFL/VFL footballers to reach 200 games but few have been asked to do more or earned such universal admiration as Patrick Cripps. The remarkable thing is that he’s only played 200. It feels as if he’s been playing for ever. For those Carlton supporters who have been in the trenches with him from the beginning, who endured those turgid, post-Malthouse, pre-Covid games where he carried the entire midfield and club on his wallpapered shoulders, his milestone must feel like 400.

Players like Cripps always mean more to the supporter base. Matthew Richardson, Robbie Flower and Trevor Barker managed just half a dozen finals between them. But they were footballers who coaxed their fans off the ledge, who provided a glimmer of hope when things were dire, and who rank among the most beloved one-club players of all time.

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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