What a round of footy! While Round 3 of the AFL may have been a tipster’s dream, the action on the field was anything but predictable.
There were a couple of blow outs of course, but putting them aside, I can’t remember a weekend in recent times that has kept me so engrossed as the one just past.
It had everything: tight contests, plenty of aggression, a bit of spite, teams playing to the death, courage, big marks, spectacular goals, and enough crash and bash to get even the old-timers salivating.
Don’t let it be said that footy is no longer a tough game to play. Nor are its players soft. It takes courage just to take the field – as it always has – and the physical risk has never been greater.
Just take a look at the injury toll from last week if you don’t believe me. Plenty of big names there, with even bigger injuries.
It is surprising really that there aren’t more serious injuries. I’m talking impact injuries here, not the sprains and twisted knees which occur in most sports.
Things like concussions, punctured lungs, smashed ribs, kidney damage, fractured skulls, shattered spleens and gruesome breaks have all resulted in players being rushed to hospital over the years, but given the number of players on the field, the size of their bodies and the speed at which they collide, these really serious injuries are thankfully the exception, not the norm.
But gee, how often do we have our hearts in our mouths?
Take young Brisbane player Jaden McGrath for example. At 18 years old the boy is just a cub, and with his underdeveloped frame weighing in at 73 kilograms dripping wet, he could almost be riding winners at Flemington.
And yet two weeks ago, with his team being walloped by the Kangaroos, we find our undersized hero running fearlessly with the flight of the ball and flinging himself skyward in an outrageous attempt to mark. Approaching from the opposite direction like a runaway train was man mountain Drew Petrie.
Now Petrie stands almost 20cm taller than McGrath and weighs about 30 kilograms more. It was the biggest mismatch since Tony Lockett rearranged Peter Caven’s face at the SCG back in the winter of ’94.
Thankfully history didn’t repeat itself and our boy escaped unscathed.
McGrath ended up dropping the mark, but it was a remarkable effort which, after I finished choking on my pringles, got me all misty eyed and nostalgic about Gavin Wanganeen. The former Essendon and Port Adelaide player used to do exactly the same thing!
And what did McGrath himself have to say about it all? Simply that it was his time to go!
“That’s what you have to do,” he said after the game. “There’s nothing special about it, that’s just part of footy. When it is your turn to go, you have to go.”
(Follow the above link to watch his courageous act.)
It got me reminiscing about some other great examples of players ‘going’ when self preservation really should have had them thinking otherwise.
I still break out in a cold sweat recalling the day a few year’s back when Nick Riewoldt hurtled into the unknown like a meteor with a death wish against the Sydney Swans.
If you watch the footage you can see Riewoldt at the bottom of the screen as the ball is kicked. The ground he covers to even get to the contest is quite remarkable, and he is going absolutely flat knacker when he arrives on the scene.
It is no surprise that he finds himself upside down and inside out when the inevitable collision comes. Not once does he flinch though! Or drop the ball!
Just what are players thinking in moments like that?
McGrath, when speaking about his contest with Petrie, stated that he “wasn’t thinking too much” at the time and there has to be some truth in that. If every player had time to consider the potential ramifications to their personal health every time they backed into a pack or ran with the flight of the ball, footy would be a completely different game.
Of course, some players deal with these situations better than others and they tend to be the players who demand our respect and admiration. Players like Jonathan Brown or Mark Harvey were crazy brave, and we loved them for it.
In a way they have made it difficult for everyone else. We become so accustomed to seeing those players attack the disputed ball with such outrageous disregard for their own well being, that when we see a lesser mortal take measures to avoid such a contest, the word ‘squib’ comes to mind.
Whether that is fair or not is debatable. After all, who is the wiser? Is it the star key position player who is going to miss the next eight weeks due to a high impact injury? Or is it your club’s leading possession winner who shirked a contest but is fit to play on for the rest of the season?
There are arguments both ways, but I know which one is more inspiring – and you don’t have to look too deeply into Round 3’s matches to be suitably inspired.
The courage on display made for some great footy!
Ironically for McGrath though, having survived his brush with Petrie, he is now set to miss the next two or three months of action due to a stress reaction in the navicular bone in his foot.
This game can be so cruel.
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We’re taking a look at one player from each team that needs to make a difference this week, starting with the ANZAC Day games.
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