You won’t find many games of footy more exciting and more memorable than last night’s Friday thriller. Check out our talking points from the match.
Ding dong, the Hawks are dead
Can you believe it? While I’ve had my doubts about Hawthorn regularly in the second half of the year I was never willing to write them off until they were confirmedly out of it. And now that time is here.
No Hawthorn in the grand final. No brown and gold confetti this year. Sorry Hawks fans, but everyone else who follows the game is loving hearing those words.
They’ve been arguably the best team we’ve ever seen over the last few years, and for what it’s worth, I reckon if they had Jarryd Roughead this year they’d have made it four in a row.
It was not to be. You’ll just have to content yourself with three straight flags, Hawthorn.
Can the Dogs win it all?
So with the reigning three-time champs out of the running, who are the favourites now? You’d have to at least consider the team who knocked them out as a strong contender.
This is a side who just two week ago we thought would be belted out of the competition in week one of finals. But their efforts so far have been simply incredible and if they keep them up they could win the most remarkable premiership in the history of the AFL.
We go together like Liam Picken and finals footy
Sometimes finals just brings incredible performances out of the league’s more anonymous players – Nick Davis, Nick Davis, Leo Barry you star! – and while there’s no doubting Liam Picken has always been a good contributor, he is playing out of his skin right now.
The bloke has kicked five goals in the past two weeks, three of them last night. To put that in context, he kicked just seven during the entire home-and-away season.
If Bonti’s not the best, he’s close
I’ve often said in the past that Marcus Bontempelli will some day be the best player in the AFL, and after last night’s game I’m wondering if that time might already have arrived.
Patrick Dangerfield is probably still deserving of that number one spot but I’d find it hard to say the Bont is not top two.
While he arguably didn’t have as strong a home-and-away season as say Rory Sloane or Dustin Martin, the way he has lifted in finals, especially for a young player, is simply incredible.
Regardless of where you rank him right now, there can be no doubt we are watching the birth of a legend.
Maybe the Hawks should ‘give a toss’ about contested possession
Alastair Clarkson’s comments from earlier in the season are going to come back to haunt him this week – he claimed earlier in the year that the Hawks don’t ‘give a toss’ about contested possession.
They lost that count 161-111 last night, a -50 differential. Oh, and they got drummed out of finals. While contested ball has never been the bedrock of the Hawks’ game, they can’t deny it has become a problem.
The Swans missed a good one in Josh Dunkley
The Sydney Swans looked set to reap two excellent talents from last year’s draft in Callum Mills through their academy and Josh Dunkley as a father-son – Mills is a Rising Star winner now for the Swans, but Dunkley is a Bulldog.
How did it happen? The young man did ultimately nominate to be picked up by the Swans but they passed on the chance to match the Bulldogs’ bid for him on draft night.
Maybe they just didn’t think he was good enough to be worth paying the price. Maybe, as some have speculated, they had agreed to let him go to a Victorian club if one bid, and were only ever going to match the bid if it came from interstate.
Regardless of the reasons for why it didn’t happen, the Swans fans and list managers must be kicking themselves for not getting it done now. He’s got huge talent.
Clay Smith might be the year’s best story
This has been a year full of great footy stories, and Clay Smith’s is one of the best – after multiple ACL injuries, to see him not just playing footy again, but putting in big performances on the finals stage, is as good as it gets.
From hero to zero – the Luke Hodge story
At the end of 2014, Luke Hodge was one of footy’s most respected players – he had just finished leading the Hawks to back-to-back flags and we all loved his cheeky but hard-edged style of play.
Flash forward to last night and the public perception of Hodge has changed, a lot. Playing close to the line is what has made Hodge and the Hawks great, but he and they have probably crossed the line a bit too often over the past two years – and the drink-driving incident, for which he was given just a slap on the wrist, doesn’t help either.
To be entirely fair, there’s a sprinkle of tall poppy syndrome in there too.
A Giants vs Bulldogs prelim promises plenty
Callan Ward and Ryan Griffen on the side of the Giants. Tom Boyd on the side of the Bulldogs. A team that hasn’t made the grand final in more than 50 years, up against a team who has never made one. And they’re arguably the two most promising young teams in the land.
One of them will make it through, and it will be the biggest story of the year. The other will suffer a crushing defeat. Either way, it’s going to be an epic.
Hawthorn will return
Much like James Bond, Hawthorn always crop up again, in new places and maybe looking a bit different, but Hawthorn all the same.
The additions of Jaeger O’Meara and Tom Mitchell over the off-season – assuming they do come to pass – will refresh this team and go a long way towards solving that contested possession concern. Tyrone Vickery is a bit less promising but might fill some of the gap left by Roughead.
They may still enter 2017 as premiership favourites.
Cat
Roar Guru
No one gives a toss ... like you who have taken the time to repeatedly come back read and comment about them?
steveng
Roar Rookie
That's putting it abit harsh, as no one in nsw gives a toss about the afl. Go the swans or gws!
Peppsy
Guest
That's not at all how I'd run into a wall. If you hit it with your shoulder it hurts your arm and jars your entire body. I raise my knee and raise my arms about 40cm in front of me, both bent to collapse under pressure. It slows down the impact, meaning I get out without even a bruise. Did you think I just jumped into the wall with my leg at 90 degrees to my body? That would be stupid. And if it's been happening that long, why was it never an issue before it happened to Fyfe? Never more than a passing comment about it from anyone. And if you do something instinctly, like say chew with your mouth open, will you go out of your way to change it if you don't even know it's an issue? No. So why would we expect anything else from Mitchell. (Also if it's targeted why griffen)
Penster
Guest
Rubbish comment. Careful who you're tarring with the booing brush. Nowhere near a stadium of Hawks supporters booing ANYONE. Goodes was soundly booed by every frigging team, racism or whatever it was transcends teams, it's an individual decision made by a certain element in society.
DingoGray
Roar Guru
This is one of the better Piss takes I've seen in a while.
DingoGray
Roar Guru
Disagree Dougie... However It's not just the Dogs that are implementing the throw. I went to the Swans v GWS game last week. (Lions supporter here) and if you look at the definition of what is considered a throw in the rule book there was at least 6 or 7 from GWS that weren't called and another 3 or 4 from the Swans. It's starting to become a blight on the game in the AFL's desire of just having continuous football. How about we umpire the rules of the game correctly.
paul
Guest
Ahahaha are you serious. When a collision is going to hurt you lead with your knee, that is the most stupid thing I have ever read. So lets take a ridiculous example of a dead sprint at a brick wall, you're telling me you are going to twist your upper body to hit with your shoulder but let your knees cop all the force lower down. You must have no feeling in your legs. Also Mitchell did it 3 times last year which culminated with the hit on Fyfe and then the uproar that finally got an apology out of it, the other 2 where Tex and Griffen. Previous to that he got Pavlich in 2014. There is also an article where he got cited for one in 2008 by the MRP. So it's been going on for ages.
Don Freo
Guest
He misused "cognitive dissonance". It says nothing in the context in which Pauly expressed it.
Pumping Dougie
Roar Guru
Gee Pauly, you really get off on being nasty and using such intelligent vocabulary, don't you. Good for you.
Don Freo
Guest
I think Freo CAN find a place for Hogan.?
mattyb
Guest
Don,I have also heard this Hamling story but it was also started by the WA media which can sometimes make one wonder. I have heard the rumour though. There was also a strong rumour coming out of the Casey game yesterday (they are Melbourne's affiliate team) that Hogans father is ill and on the weekend requested a trade back to Perth. Again only a rumour but interesting that it was coming out of Melbourne itself.
Don Freo
Guest
Don't want to understand...more like it. He did it again on the weekend. Should be cited. Dropped to knee into Libba on the ground. He picks targets to deliberately maim. A blight on footy, Sam Mitchell.
Nev
Guest
Carey was booed pretty much his whole career (before shagging Stevens missus). I hated him. Same with Voss. They were hard, tough players, who had an edge to their game. You're not meant to like them, but if you love footy you can't help appreciate their quality. Hodge is this type of player.
Nev
Guest
Should the free kicks be even over a game tho? We (hawthorn) were being smashed in that period, the free kick count may reflect this, rather than be the cause?
Nev
Guest
Poor culture too.
Nev
Guest
Ha ha. You think clarkson has created a poor culture.
Cam
Guest
I watched the Giants v Dogs game during the season and there were some very interesting takeaways: 1. The Dogs had a nightmare in front of goal that game. 2. Steve Johnson kicked 2 or 3 miraculous goals out of nothing. He's suspended this time round. 3. The dogs team is vastly different this time around with numerous key inclusions. 4. Whilst the Dogs were never able to generate any scoreboard pressure due to in accuracy, they only lost by 4 goals. It seems Bevo has his team trained and primed to the minute and I honestly can't see anyone beating them. They have all the players that could come back from injury back. I don't care who they are up against or where they play. This is your year Doggies supporters!
Peppsy
Roar Guru
Not saying it came down to umps, the dogs deserved to win the way they played, but something needs to be done about how much power they have over games. From Shiels' goal in the 2nd to the end of the 3rd (~45min) the score was Hawthorn 1.5.11 to Bulldogs 9.4.58 In the same period the free kick count was Hawthorn 3 to Buldogs 11. For the rest of the game it was Hawthorn 11.7.73 to Bulldogs 7.7.49, with the free kicks at Hawthorn 11 to Bulldogs 8. The team that won free kicks won that period of time, more convincingly if they won more frees. Hell even accuracy improved with free kicks. At the game I could almost see the umpires giving Hawthorn fees they wouldn't have gotten earlier in the game as they tried to even out the totals. Surprise surprise they started to come back, well before junk time as well. So the free kicks stopped coming again, ending the game at 14-19. If the free kicks had been even the whole way I have no doubt the margin bn ever would have got above 20 points, let alone to the 43 it did reach.
Peppsy
Roar Guru
Hero to zero is a terrible way to describe it but yes public perception has changed an unwarranted amount. He's made mistakes yes, but the way he was booed on Friday was worse than I've ever seen. And yes I did see Goodes. It seemed like Hodge had gone to every non Hawthorn supporters home and kicked their mothers teeth out, it was that loud.
Don Freo
Guest
He's in a win, win next year then.