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Opinion
Although the results in the first three games went with the favourites, they were not without their moments of excitement.
When the dust settled, Geelong was at least temporarily on top of the ladder and Tigers fans were getting smug about their chances of making it two out of three. Meanwhile, the Bombers gave their fans plenty to be excited about.
In those three games top 100 goal scorers, at either AFL level or club level, created a lot of interest. The biggest news of the round was the return of key forward Joe Daniher to the Bombers for their game against Hawthorn late Thursday afternoon at Adelaide Oval.
Despite having played very little football in the past three seasons and being rushed back into the team, Daniher showed enough to suggest he will be a key player in Essendon’s attempt to make the finals and then make some inroads in them. Big Joe kicked three goals in the Dons’ 16-point win over the Hawks, who they trailed by six goals at halftime.
Daniher’s career goals now total 191, and during the game he passed Rushworth left-footer Greg Stockdale, who started with the Bombers 100 years ago in 1920. Stockdale won the league goal-kicking in 1923 with a record 68 goals and was a dual premiership player, winning the club best and fairest in 1926.
Daniher’s return overshadowed the performance of Jack Darling in the later Thursday game, who also kicked three goals and brought up a career total of 400 in his 209th game. That he did so after the loss of fellow key forward Josh Kennedy early in the game makes it more meritorious. Depending who you believe, Darling was either the 98th or 99th league player to achieve 400 goals and has pushed former Swan Tony Morwood down into the ‘death seat’ – that is, No. 100 on the AFL top 100 goal scorers list.
(Photo by Daniel Carson/AFL Media/Getty Images)
Unfortunately for Darling, his three goals were matched by Tiger Tom Lynch, and Lynch had another ten teammates hit the scoreboard as well, telling the story of Richmond’s superior scoring options.
Among those Tiger teammates were AFL top 100 goal scorer Jack Riewoldt (1) and club top 100 goal scorers Dustin Martin, Jason Castagna and list newcomer Daniel Rioli. Fellow list member Trent Cotchin did not score, while Shane Edwards and Josh Caddy did not play, further underscoring the amount of talent in this champion team.
In the earlier Essendon-Hawthorn game Dylan Clarke, after breaking his goal-kicking duck last week, added two more goals, as did Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, who continued his ride up his club’s top 100 goal-kickers in a fashion similar to Richmond’s Tom Lynch.
In the Friday game Mitch Wallis, the leading goal scorer of the previous round, failed to salute the judges and therefore did not achieve his best goal scoring season yet.
For the Bulldogs, the only club top 100 player to score a goal was captain Marcus Bontempelli, while at Geelong AFL top 100 goal scorer Tom Hawkins moved one more position up the list by passing former Adelaide and Fremantle star Tony Modra’s 588 goals. Mr Reliable Mitch Duncan also kicked one, giving him 12 goals for the year and taking him to within two of captain Joel Selwood on Geelong’s all-time goal kicking chart.
Despite having kicked only two goals this year, Selwood has played enough games now to pass Jimmy Bartel to be the third greatest game player at the Cats, and he’s joined the coalition of champions camped in 66th place on the AFL top 100 game player’s list with Wayne Schimmelbusch, Gordon Coventry, Adam Simpson, David Neitz, Paul Williams and Alistair Lynch.
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