Eight hot takes from AFL Round 22

On Friday night Bachar Houli and Adam Saad joined their captains in the centre circle for the coin toss in a demonstration of unity and solidarity after senator Fraser Anning made a public attack on the value of diversity and multiculturalism in Australia – particularly with regards to Muslim people – during the week.

I was happy to see that, from my vandtage point at least, most of the reaction was support if not celebration of Houli and Saad’s display of fraternity – of course, I have no doubt that there would have been a significant negative response, as there typically is following a demonstration such as this, if one might look for it (and one would not have to look too hard).

Sometimes this negative response takes the form of obvious prejudice, other times it is more cunningly disguised as reasonable opinion. One that you often see in a scenario such as this is ‘I don’t have a problem with Muslims, but please keep politics out of sport’.

3AW’s Tom Elliott made comments about Houli and Saad’s demonstration to this effect, saying: “It’s ridiculous. It is virtue-signalling. It’s not what people go to the football for. They just want their team to win. That’s all it should be about.”

On the surface, ‘no politics in sport’ seems like a reasonable enough request. And if ever we see AFL clubs endorsing specific political candidates on their banners or have senior coaches debate the merits of tariffs in their post-game pressers, I will be the first to ask the league to cut it out.

However when it comes to a demonstration like that of Houli and Saad’s, the ‘no politics in sport’ refrain is wide of the mark because it misreads the demonstration as being a purely political stunt, when instead it was display fundamentally of social unity and humanity.

There’s plenty of holes that could be poked in senator Anning’s speech for those who wish to do so. The one thing I will say is that despite his attempts to hearken back to the past, Anning showed a complete lack of historical awareness.

Anning could do with a reminder that particularly during the 19th century there was a strong anti-Irish sentiment when it came to immigration – ‘Hibernophobia’ – present not just here but in many English-dominated parts of the world.

The then mostly English settler population of Australia feared that their burgeoning culture and society would be corrupted by the increasing introduction of what they believed to be the racially inferior Irish.

Sections of Anning’s speech could well have been virtually lifted word-for-word from what was said by politicians regarding the Irish in those days, albeit updated to today’s target of choice.

More than a century on, we’re still waiting for the presence of Irish immigrants to destabilise our culture and see the country collapse into chaos – I have a feeling we’ll be waiting a while yet.

Anning’s speech was one utterly lacking in empathy; ascribing no agency to anyone he feels differs from himself.

I’m a lucky man however. Because I happen to be a white bloke living in a country run mostly by white blokes, I had the privilege of being able to quickly dismiss Anning’s drivel and carry on with life as normal.

Tom Elliott has the very same privilege, and so too, I suspect, do many of you who will read this. We’ve never had to listen to an elected politician say people like us shouldn’t be allowed in this country and never will have to.

We have the privilege of being able to think of this a ‘political’ issue rather than one that attacks and undermines our humanity and social value – because we’re not the people being targetted.

Things are different for Bachar Houli and Adam Saad. This week they listened to a member of their nation’s government attack the rights of people like themselves to live their lives the way they choose to.

And that is not just a political thing – it is a social thing, it is a human thing. Politics and football may well not belong together, but football is an undeniably social and human activity.

Would Tom Elliott, I wonder, dismiss Nicky Winmar’s iconic raising of his guernsey as ‘ridiculous’?

Was it unnecessarily political of Jason McCartney to commemorate the victims of the Bali bombings on his guernsey when he returned to the AFL?

Or was it ‘virtue-signalling’ when opposing teams gathered together as one, linking arms in post-siren embrace following the tragic passing of Phil Walsh?

Of course bloody not.

Bachar, Adam, I have nothing but respect for what you did on Friday night. You will always be welcome in my Australia, and my AFL.

(Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Media/Getty Images)

Melbourne’s Dee-lightful win locks the top eight in
Disclaimer: it’s still hypothetically possible for the top eight to change, with the defining matches being Geelong vs Gold Coast and Port Adelaide vs Essendon.

But, so long as Cats manage to find their way past the Suns – and it’s hard to see anything else happening – then it’s locked in.

And that’s all thanks to the Melbourne Demons who after nearly two years of being so very close but not quite, have finally locked in a return to finals.

It will be the first time that the Dees have played finals since 2006, when a young Nathan Jones with a single-digit games tally for his career was the only player from the current list to feature.

He had hair and everything. What a time it has been.

Of course, with it being a nine-man race at the start of the week, someone had to miss out. And that unlucky team is…

Port Adelaide the odd man out
The Power hit a form trough at the worst possible time this year. After being touted as a top-four candidate and one of the competition’s most reliable teams mid-season, they’ve lost five of their last six.

Certainly, injuries have made things worse – but any Port Adelaide person who wants to rubber-stamp this week’s 51-point loss on the basis of personnel problems should look first at the injury list of the team on the other side of the field.

We’ll talk more about Port when during my list breakdown series (starting on the Monday following Round 23), but for now suffice to say that their 2017 recruiting spree has led only to the club’s performance stagnating, if not going backwards.

What else do you expect when you take a mediocre list and try to improve it by adding mediocre players? You are what you eat.

(Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)

Swans and Hawks to battle for top-four berth
It was only three weeks ago that I wondered aloud if perhaps Sydney had already sung the song for the last time in 2018.

Of course, being Sydney, they’ve gone on to win three consecutive matches, all of them against the odds, and are now just one win away from taking a top four berth.

They’ll get that chance when they play Hawthorn on Saturday, with the winner certain to make top four, and the loser almost certain not too.

The only scenario by which they could both make top four is if Sydney beats Hawthorn but Collingwood lose to Fremantle by more than the Hawks lose to the Swans. Unlikely.

Unfortunately the dice haven’t landed in the AFL’s favour on the Round 23 fixture – Port Adelaide vs Essendon no doubt seemed like a great Friday night choice, but now has become a bit of a dead rubber.

The Hawks and the Swans on Saturday promises to be match of the round now.

Unfortunately for Sydney’s opponents this week, GWS, the loss likely spells the end of their top-four ambitions.

To have a chance they’ll need either Collingwood to lose to Fremantle, or the Swans and Hawks to play out a draw – and of course, they’ll still need to get over the Demons on Sunday.

Ross the boss cops his biggest loss
When the Dockers kicked three early goals and took a good lead against Geelong on Saturday I remember thinkng to myself “ooh, it could be on here.”

It was not on. Fremantle failed to fire another shot for the entire match, while Geelong kicked 23 consecutive goals and romped to a 133-point victory.

At the start of 2017 Ross Lyon had never lost a match by 100 points or more, but in the past two seasons he’s now lost four in that manner.

This was the biggest margin a side coached by Ross Lyon has ever been defeated by, and also the worst margin Fremantle has ever lost by in club history.

Those with good memories will no doubt be willing to remind me that I tipped Fremantle to be 2018’s surprise finalists. To those who point that out, I have this to say: shush.

This will be the 12th year of Ross Lyon’s coaching career, the longest uninterrupted active senior coach barring Alastair Clarkson.

After so much time – and without achieving the ultimate success – is he over the hill? It’d probably be a bit rash to make that call right now, but it’s fair to say I’m losing confidence.

Sometimes coaches do get it right
One of the many things we footy fans love to do is have a crack at our coach’s selection decisions.

Not that long ago for example, Aaron Francis was in good form in the VFL, but found himself unable to get an opportunity at senior level.

Essendon fans were chomping at the bit for John Worsfold to put him in the team… but it didn’t happen. Francis was left to grow hungry.

When he finally did come in three weeks ago against the Swans, Francis played well and hasn’t missed a beat since. Then on Friday night he was excellent, finishing the game with a team-high eight intercept possessions.

Having the chance to build strong form, confidence and of course fitness at VFL level before his promotion is no doubt at least partly responsible for Francis being able to get some continuity now that he has been promoted – and that in turn is allowing him to develop those things at AFL level also.

There was similar criticism of Alan Richardson this week when he made the decision to drop Nathan Freeman from his side, despite Freeman having only just recently made his debut after years of waiting.

Richardson admitted Freeman was pretty stiff, but said it the decision had been made to make the side as competitive as possible on the weekend.

Some might argue that at this stage of the year getting games into Freeman would be more valuable than competitiveness – or whether the result would’ve been different with Freeman in the side – but one can’t deny the Saints, as a team, performed significantly better than expected this week.

Do they get it right every time? Probably not. Will we stop having a crack at them? Definitely no! But, every now and then, the coach knows best.

Robertson’s sledge fires up a fantastic QClash
I personally was a fan of Nick Robertson’s willingness to have a crack at his upcoming opponents this week.

For those who missed it, it was pretty tame: “I reckon they’re soft to be completely honest, so I’m looking forward to getting into them,” said Robertson.

It was clear that the Suns took it to heart however, and the contest turned into quite a fiery one – but without anyone really stepping over the line. Footy the way it should be – hard, heated, but mostly honest.

Despite this, Brisbane coach Chris Fagan said after the match that Robertson’s comments had taken some of the ‘gloss’ off the win.

I’ve got a lot of respect for Fagan and obviously he’s looking at it from a different angle, but personally as a neutral fan I couldn’t disagree more.

On a night where Queenslander AFL had to compete on the telly with the Bledisloe Cup, Robertson’s sledge was no doubt partly responsible for a game that proved to be a much more competitive and entertaining spectacle than the Wallabies’ annual capitulation against the All Blacks.

The intrastate rivalries in Western and South Australia are the most enduring and engaging in footy and they were hardly built on mutual professional respect.

The Queenslanders have played two thrillers this year, and best of all they’ve had some bite in them. Here’s hoping no one feels the need to fiddle with that too much.

(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Roos’ quest for runners a step in the right direction
As the season draws to a close, trade talk is rapidly ramping up, and once again North Melbourne have been in the discussion plenty.

It’s been clear for a while that the ‘Roos need to add some outside midfield talent to complete their strength inside the contest, and it appears they’ll land at least some this year.

Jared Polec seems to be all but a done deal with negotiations already going on behind the scenes – Port Adelaide are reportedly demanding North’s first pick, and they just might get it.

Aaron Hall also seems a strong chance to be at Arden St next year, but the big news is that Andrew Gaff has reportedly narrowed his decision down to West Coast or North.

It’s been a disappointing fortnight for North, but their almost-comeback against the Crows was a reminder how much firepower the side has there to be utilised.

And speaking of such, a quick shout out to what was a beautiful mark and match-winning goal from Eddie Betts.

The ‘Roos are offering Gaff something in the realm of an extra $2 million across the length of the contract than West Coast – of course, it’s about the same amount Dustin Martin said no to last year.

Time will tell what happens, but it’s great to see the club is clearly aware of and actively trying to address their greatest weakness – and they might just have some success with it, too.