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Opinion
Round 15 started with a minor upset with Adelaide eventually winning their first game for the season and finally bringing a smile to the face of rookie coach Matthew Nicks.
Hawthorn did not play well and Adelaide took their opportunities and ran out winners by nearly six goals. Hawthorn is currently in 15th on the ladder with only four wins and – with three games left against teams that will no doubt start favourite against them (St Kilda, Western Bulldogs and Gold Coast) – they are potentially looking at their worst year since 2004.
For Adelaide – regardless of what happens from here until the end of the season – it will be their worst year since joining the AFL in 1991 as the Crows have never won fewer than eight games in a season.
Interest in this game for me centred on the achievements of the AFL top 100 players. Amongst the goalkickers, Hawthorn’s Luke Breust, unfortunately, failed to score a goal and thus stayed in 97th place on the AFL’s top 100 goal scorers with 403 goals. The other top 100 goal scorer, Adelaide’s Taylor Walker, kicked two goals to finish just one goal short of Tony Modra’s record at the Crows of 440 goals. Modra went on and played another three years at the Dockers, scoring another 148 goals.
Jack Gunston’s effort of three goals was the best of the game and took his total to 370 club goals at Hawthorn. He had played two seasons at the Crows before joining the Hawks, and the 20 goals that he scored there means his AFL total is 390, just seven goals short of Sydney’s Tony Morwood who sits in the ‘hot spot’ (number 100) on the AFL’s all-time Top 100 goal kickers list. Will he get the seven goals needed to join the party this year, or will he have to wait until the 2021 season?
Although the game was robbed of one of its two AFL top 100 goal scorers due to the absence of the injured Josh Kennedy, the focus was not on the newly inducted Jack Darling but on Essendon’s spearhead Joe Daniher who returned to the fold last week after a long absence and kicked three goals in a stirring victory by the Bombers.
Unfortunately, Daniher did not trouble the scorers this week and it was left to Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti to create the excitement with four goals. After starting the year as the club’s equal 76th greatest goal scorer, “Tippy” has stormed up the list (including passing teammates Michael Hurley and Orazio Fantasia) to 56th place.
For the Eagles, who moved back into the top four as a result of their efficient victory, Liam Ryan also kicked four goals. Fellow Eagles top 100 goal scorer Oscar Allen kicked one goal and Jack Darling two to leave him still one goal short of Luke Breust on the AFL list. Tom Cole and Bailey Williams both scored their first goals for the club.
The oldest and most experienced player in the League, Hawthorn’s Shaun Burgoyne still remained in fifth place on the AFL top 100 game players after the first game of the Round, but on the club list at Hawthorn, he moved past 377-game AFL coach Rodney Eade to equal Chris Mew, who played in five premierships during his career from 1980 until 1992.
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