After an exciting week of football to the end of Saturday night, Sunday’s three games were shaping up as a bit of an anti-climax.
Only one team of the six playing on Sunday was a first week winner and that was Fremantle who only just snuck home ahead of Adelaide in Round 1, and their game was the last of the Round 2 games.
West Coast, playing North Melbourne in the first Sunday game were decimated by COVID-19 protocols and had named 13 changes in their team which included five new players. As luck would have it, Jackson Nelson was injured in the warm-up, so an extra inclusion (making 14) had to be made and that was another new player: Declan Mountford, who played 12 games for the Kangaroos in his only year of league football, 2017.
The almost total revamp of the Eagles compared with the three changes made by North Melbourne suggested it would be an easy victory for the Shinboners but it was not to be, with West Coast being only 15 points off the pace at the end of the game.
The main highlights from this game for me were Nick Larkey’s six goals, which moved him up the Kangaroos’ goal kicking list past the 74-year-old Mick Dowdle and the 75-year-old Garry Farrant – both good servants of North Melbourne in the 1960’s and 1970s.
For West Coast, Willie Rioli’s third goal was his 50th goal for the Eagles. Todd Goldstein – who played every game for North Melbourne last year and remained the 11th-greatest game player at the club – finally played his 275th game this weekend and now sits in equal ninth place with other elite players David Dench and Michael Firrito.
Dench won four best & fairest awards, played in a premiership side (1975) and captained a premiership side (1977). Firrito was a much less decorated player, but served the club with distinction from 2003 to 2016.
Richmond, without their two most senior players Jack Riewoldt and Dustin Martin, were convincing winners against the Giants without ringing any alarm bells at the other clubs. The 16,000th VFL/AFL game of all time was notable for the traditional milestones that took place.
Stephen Coniglio became the sixth Giant to kick 100 goals, while at Richmond, Tom Lynch continued his climb up the Tigers’ goal scoring list, passing Barry Richardson and Jack O’Rourke and drawing level with Ray Martin. Shane Edwards has now kicked the same number of goals as Jim ‘The Grey Ghost’ Jess.
The loss by Greater Western Sydney has left Leon Cameron still looking for his 100th win as coach.
A big third quarter from the Saints enabled them to beat Fremantle who up until that stage had looked in control. Nine goals by St Kilda for the game was by far the lowest winning score and was due in part to inaccurate kicking by the normally reliable Membrey, Jade Gresham, and Jack Higgins.
Six of those goals were scored in the third quarter (three by Max King and three by Jack Higgins). Max King was one goal outside the top 100 goal kickers at St Kilda prior to the game, but his four goals saw his rise rapidly up through the ranks, passing nine players and now lying 95th on the list. At only 21 years of age, we can expect him to continue his rapid rise up the ranks.
Two debutants played in this game. Nathan O’Driscoll started as medical sub but got on to the field and kicked a nice goal. Jarrod Lienart put in a good game for the Saints with 18 possessions.
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