Category: AFL – Australian Rules

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The Age’s exclusive this week on a proposed mid-season competition was quickly torpedoed in the race for readership by the guilty verdict in the mushroom murder trial.

The AFL usually saves its strategic leaks and thought bubbles for the middle of summer. Several years ago, they dropped their fixture at 6am as the Socceroos prepared to take on Argentina. There’s nothing like a code war at the crack of dawn while Lionel Messi is slicing through your defence.

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The electric forward showcases his full suite of talents as the Crows keep clinging to a top-four spot after overrunning the Demons

A fine singer, Izak Rankine plays his football like he’s taking requests. Adelaide were nearly five goals down halfway through the second quarter against Melbourne. If they had lost, they would have coughed up third spot and been in the ruck of teams on 40 points including ninth-placed Fremantle. Rankine stepped up on stage, showcased his full suite of talents and tilted the game the Crows’ way.

Rankine got his five goals when Adelaide needed them most and he got them in so many different ways. He got them by floating through the middle, by ducking into space in the pocket, by getting front and square, by banana bending them from set shots and by sharking ruck contests. He nearly had a career-high sixth after a wonderful lunging spoil and a bit of jujitsu hustling forced a free kick.

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“If you start listening to the fans,” Wayne Bennett once said, “it won’t be long before you’re sitting next to them.” Indeed, if you’re running a high-profile sporting organisation, it usually pays to block out the noise. If Brendon Gale had heeded the advice of Richmond Twitter following their three elimination final losses, the club would be in ashes. There’s no way Chris Scott would be coaching Geelong today if the club had acted on the criticism of him following the 2019 and 2021 preliminary finals.

But there’s a fine line between not listening to the fans and playing them for mugs. So much of the messaging coming out of Carlton right now makes a mockery of what the supporters can clearly see and what the club continues to mask with corporate claptrap.

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When you’re bottoming out like the Tigers you need leaders who can resist the inevitable frustration and protect the young players

Whenever his great Richmond sides were struggling, Damien Hardwick would get his runner on the line. “Get them to raise the fight!” he would scream. Tom Lynch’s meltdown against Adelaide wasn’t a case of following the coach’s instructions. It was the act of a frustrated man. His team was totally outclassed. He hadn’t touched the ball. He was being held. He was being double-teamed. He couldn’t buy a free kick. He’d lead to the right spot and the ball would go sailing over his head. He was trying to be a leader, trying to be a physical presence, trying to bring life to a dull game, and hope to a lost cause.

The Tigers’ spearhead ended up taking out his frustrations on the closest bloke in the vicinity, Jordan Butts. If his roundhouse had connected, Butts would have been on his way to the Epworth hospital and Lynch wouldn’t have played again this year. “I didn’t want to cause harm or anything like that,” he told Seven afterwards, not entirely convincingly. As it stands, Lynch is still looking at a hefty suspension.

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• AFL star speaks about struggles for the first time since taking a leave of absence

• He says there were times he ‘didn’t want to leave the house’ but he wants to play football again

The Western Bulldogs forward Jamarra Ugle-Hagan has opened up about his mental health struggles for the first time since taking a leave of absence, saying there were times he “didn’t want to leave the house”.

The former No 1 draft pick is hoping to make his AFL comeback after recently visiting a health retreat in northern New South Wales.

In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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The Cats midfielder has starred since moving from the Bulldogs as his frantic, full pelt way suits the way his new team seeks to play

Bailey Smith could easily have coasted along against Essendon on the weekend. He could have racked up a few dozen disposals for Geelong and saved his hamstrings for the far more onerous challenge of Brisbane this Friday. But that’s not how he’s wired. Everything is at full throttle. There is not a lot of craft or guile to how he plays. He simply runs the opposition into the ground. With apologies to Shane Crawford and Robert Harvey, he runs harder than any footballer I can remember.

Prior to his knee injury at Western Bulldogs, Smith had been gradually squeezed out of favour. The coach Luke Beveridge didn’t quite know what to do with him. The fanbase was increasingly frustrated with him. He was a hard footballer to place. He was a subdued, resentful figure.

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The 30th Australian Football Hall of Fame was a reminder that there’s more to the sport than the AFL. It was a reminder that the talent in Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania was at various times every bit the equal of what was coming out of Victoria. Last night’s inductees included a five-time All Australian, a self-described “little fat kid from Colac”, and a man considered the best ever Tasmanian footballer never to play on the mainland. They included a man who took more marks than anyone else in the history of VFL/AFL football, a giant raconteur from South Australia who reflected that “football was simply something I did on a Saturday,” and a seven-time premiership player in the WAFL who later umpired five grand finals. A goalkicking machine from South Australia during the Depression years was also elevated to legend status.

But last night’s event did something very different to the preceding three decades – it inducted two AFLW players. Erin Phillips won two WNBA championships, a basketball world championship gold medal and represented Australia at two Olympics. But until just over a decade ago, the idea of playing Australian football professionally seemed fanciful. “I never wanted to be a boy,” she said last night, “I just wanted the opportunities they had and that was footy.” Her dad, Greg, a Hall of Famer himself, was a fine footballer for Port Adelaide and Collingwood. He had thighs like John Nicholls, the sort of legs that could prop up jetties. Last night he was a blubbering mess. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to tell your 13-year-old daughter that she can’t play the game she loves any more,” his daughter said. “Now she’s standing next to you in the Hall of Fame.”

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• Pair join trailblazer Debbie Lee in Australian Football Hall Of Fame

• Nick Riewoldt, Luke Hodge and Garry Lyon also inducted

Erin Phillips paid an emotional tribute to her father Greg as she joined him in the Australian Football Hall Of Fame. Phillips and Daisy Pearce are the first AFLW players to be inducted, joining trailblazer Debbie Lee as female inductees.

South Australian goalkicking machine Ken Farmer was elevated to legend status at Tuesday night’s annual dinner in Melbourne.

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No team is better than Collingwood at adapting to the needs of the moment – and the ladder leaders keep on winning

With a point in it and half a minute to go in the King’s birthday clash, Scott Pendlebury stood at centre half forward, pointing like Babe Ruth. He had no intention of taking the shot of course. He dinked it sideways, and bought a little bit more time. A few precious seconds later, Max Gawn completely shanked his kick and Melbourne’s final chance had been extinguished.

The final moments, and indeed the entire game, was an example of quality over quantity. The Pies managed their moments, they kept their heads, and they deserved their 11.6 (72) to 10.11 (71) win. Melbourne tried their hearts out but will rue several moments in the final term. Kozzie Pickett plonked the ball on the ground, handing a needless 50-metre penalty to Nick Daicos, not the sort of man you want to give an inch, let alone 50 metres. Bayley Fritsch ran into an open goal but sprayed it. Clayton Oliver sent a 9-iron sailing out on the full. There were countless other moments throughout the game, moments where they failed to lower their eyes, moments where they bombed on the heads of their forwards, moments where they failed to man the mark properly.

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It starts with a sore toe, difficulty tying a shoelace, a tingle in a finger. Author Joe Hammond found himself “like a passenger in the aisle of a plane going through gentle turbulence”. For Ross Lyon’s mum, Louise, it started with a twitch in her calf muscle. Within a few months, she couldn’t move her arms or legs. Within a year, it was in her throat, and she was unable to breathe.

For Don Pyke’s father, Frank, it started with difficulty swallowing. He was a professor and a sports scientist and a member of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. In the early 1970s, he played a key role in rehabilitating Dennis Lillee’s back. Motor neurone disease (MND) killed him in 16 weeks.

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GWS Giants veteran sustaining a potentially career-ending knee injury delivers a tender, human moment that shines a light on the player and his club

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon would have to rank among the most wooden media performers I have seen or heard. Many in the industry speak highly of him and his ability to distil and diffuse, the sort of operator every leader wants by their side. But he is no frontman. Last week, he did the radio rounds justifying the latest executive shakeup. As always, it sounded like he was reading off well-thumbed, suggested speaking notes. Look, he droned; crowds, ratings and revenue are all up – we’re doing so much right!

It was an AI response to a very human sport. The best of Australian rules football can’t be explained in media releases, or in org charts, or in SEN Fireball Friday hot takes. The best of this sport can be found at the grassroots level, or on hall of fame night, or in thousands of little moments around the country each weekend.

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• Laura Kane demoted and Tanya Hosch to depart organisation

• Movements are ‘the right thing for the AFL’, says Dillon

AFL chief Andrew Dillon insists there’s nothing personal in the demotion of Laura Kane while brushing off fierce criticism of the umpiring standard.

Dillon has gone on the Friday hustings after his reshuffle of the AFL executive cost Indigenous identity Tanya Hosch her role and pushed Kane down the pecking order.

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Three of the best marks I’ve ever seen on a footy field were from players sprinting back with the flight of the ball. If I was trying to explain the appeal of the sport to someone who’d never seen it, I’d show them the marks of Mark Harvey, Nick Riewoldt and Jonathan Brown. But why? I’d probably mumble something about courage and commitment and any of the other cliches peddled by coaches and commentators. The truth is there is something visceral about an act like that, a sort of car crash fascination that gets us out of our seats even more than a screamer or a close game.

It’s a young man’s act. Young men will do silly things under orders and out of fear of embarrassment. One of the first things you notice about older footballers, at least when the prefrontal cortex fully develops, is the different way they assess risk. Even Harvey, as reckless and as fearless a footballer to play the game, had a measure of restraint and self-preservation in his later years.

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A stellar performance at the MCG that included five goals – and much more – helped put the Dees’ early-season rut in the rear-view mirror

Kozzie Pickett’s dad Kevin is an artist, a sculptor and perhaps incongruously, a stand-up comedian. He also designed the Demons’ Indigenous guernsey. His son sculpted the game to his will on Sunday, booting five goals, having a hand in many more and playing a major role in a 53-point trouncing of Sydney.

The little missile of muscle began to impose himself on the game at the MCG early in the second term – a burst out of a stoppage here, a rundown tackle there. Alan Jeans once said that Gary Ayres was “a good driver in heavy traffic” and the same could be said of Pickett, albeit in a completely different way. Ayres navigated traffic with minimum fuss, eyes in the back of his head and an imperious air. Pickett is more like a dragster in the way he explodes out of heavy congestion.

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It was all trundling along nicely for Essendon. The club spent the past month gently tempering expectations, reminding everyone that this is a long-term project, that there will be bad losses and barren patches, but to stay the course. On field, they weren’t beating much, but they were winning, they were defending, and they were having a crack. Coach Brad Scott was getting the most out of a limited but willing team.

That all came unglued on Saturday night, when they were trounced by a red-hot Western Bulldogs. Essendon reverted to type and sank back into the pack. Almost immediately, the club was batting away suggestions that Scott’s coaching tenure was under threat, and that Bombers great James Hird was the man to replace him.

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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