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We had kicks after the siren, massive crowds, plenty of statements made and enough highlights (and lowlights) to fill the reel – and Round 4 isn’t done yet!
Geelong and Hawthorn still have to play the battle of the cellar dwellers (*chuckles*) to finish off the round, but there has already been enough action to more than fill these pages.
Brisbane and Melbourne reaffirmed their premiership credentials with impressive wins, Adelaide proved they’re ready for finals action with another stirring performance, and Port Adelaide continued the trend of teams responding after a week in the hot seat with a remarkable triumph over Sydney in a thriller – extending their seven-year stranglehold on the Swans.
The Bulldogs pipped Richmond in the wet, the Saints thumped the Suns in the dry, and Carlton were too strong for North Melbourne in the fry…day match. Okay, let’s dive in before I make any more torturous puns like that.
Jeremy Finlayson should have been on top of the world.
He’d just kicked the winning goal for Port Adelaide to cap off a superb, best-afield performance, and been the decisive factor in his under-pressure team’s thrilling upset win over Sydney.
The elation and pride were clear in his voice to begin his post-match interview with Channel 7‘s Jude Bolton, as palpable as a beaming Ken Hinkley hugging his players in the background.
And then Bolton asked him about his wife Kellie.
For those unaware, Kellie Finlayson was diagnosed during the off-season with stage four lung cancer, just months after believing she had won a years-long fight against bowel cancer. While she has defied the odds time and time again, it is expected to be terminal.
In an instant, you could hear and see Finlayson’s heart sink when Kellie was brought up, the thrill of victory replaced by grief.
“I hope she’s watching, I love her so much. This is just the reward of sticking tough, and doing it for Kell and Soph [daughter Sophie] back home. I’m just happy to be out here playing footy and doing what I love,” he said.
Finlayson could not have done himself any prouder, with his reaction and tribute quickly shared on social media to an outpouring of love and support.
Jeremy Finlayson celebrates kicking the winning goal against Sydney. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
But he should never have been asked to do so.
The Finlayson family have been incredibly open about their story, speaking to the Life Uncut podcast on season’s eve to help raise awareness for bowel cancer in particular. I wouldn’t be writing this if they hadn’t.
No doubt Bolton meant no harm with his question, but it felt tremendously exploitative nonetheless.
The Finlayson family are going through a tragedy which few of us can even comprehend; that Jeremy is able to play football at all, let alone star, is an extraordinary show of character strength.
He should have been given the right to pay tribute to them off his own bat, or do it privately, not be confronted by it after his finest hour on a footy field.
I’m aware I’ve got a quite substantial dog in this fight as a Bulldogs fan, but some of the commentary around this year’s Good Friday fixture has felt quite disrespectful.
A whopping 49,062 supporters descended on Marvel Stadium on Friday for Carlton’s win over North Melbourne, and it seemed everyone went nuts.
Tony Jones on the Sunday Footy Show said the match, for the first time, felt ‘alive’; while countless others have advocated to make a Roos-Blues Good Friday clash a permanent fixture. No doubt the AFL will make it happen – those crowd numbers can’t be sniffed at.
But if you’re going to judge a team’s right to play a marquee match, it has to mean more than just crowd numbers. Otherwise, you might as well have Carlton play Essendon or Collingwood on Good Friday and throw North off it, never mind their efforts in promoting the fixture and calling for it in the first place.
Of course the Blues drew a bigger crowd than the Bulldogs would have; they’re a bigger club with a bigger supporter base. On Saturday evening, in driving rain and freezing cold at the MCG, Richmond got 56,449 people to the MCG to face the Dogs: when you’re pushing 100,000 members, you get those sort of attendance numbers at a minimum.
There’s been a sense of entitlement around some of the reaction to this year’s Good Friday – not all, but definitely some, from Blues fans chuffed that a ‘proper’ team was finally getting a run on the day.
I’d argue, though, that there were a number of reasons the Bulldogs never drew a similar crowd in the last two years; the now-receded COVID concerns that saw gate attendances capped, making a 28,483-strong figure in 2021 quite reasonable, and the fact that North absolutely sucked in ’21 and 2022.
On a Friday night in 2016, North played the Bulldogs in front of 47,622 at Marvel Stadium, with North 5-0 and the Bulldogs 4-1. I’m aware that’s a best-case scenario, but it should be enough to end any claims that it’s impossible for that match to have a substantial attendance.
Rich and powerful Victorian clubs have had more or less exclusive rights to every marquee match for years; Geelong and Hawthorn have taken over Easter Monday, Richmond and Essendon have Dreamtime at the ‘G, and the Tigers and Blues now have the season opener in most years. It means the big clubs just keep getting bigger, while the little guys – the Bulldogs, St Kilda and North – have to fight for whatever table scraps remain.
All are great, and every team has put in tireless work off-field to promote those fixtures. But the Bulldogs in particular, having been shunted off Good Friday first in 2018 and then again now, have never been given the chance to build a tradition and a rivalry on the day like every other marquee match has.
Would the Bulldogs have got 49,000 to Marvel on Friday? Not a chance. But like I said, if the only consideration is crowd numbers, then just give another prime time match to the Blues and Magpies, or the Tigers, get 90,000 to the ‘G, and be done with it.
Harry McKay of the Blues celebrates a goal. (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
Over the last few years the AFL have chosen to play two games on Good Friday: one in Victoria at twilight, the other in another state that evening. In 2021, Adelaide knocked over Gold Coast in the latter fixture; last season, West Coast were smacked by Sydney.
Both had excellent crowds and, I can only assume, good TV numbers considering they were standalone games on the weekend of a public holiday; which made it all the more surprising the league opted against another double-header this time around.
Not only would this be a ratings winner, but it would be a great chance to get the Good Friday spirit going elsewhere; Victoria aren’t the only state with an appeal to generate money for.
With this in mind, and what I said last week about some games deserving a greater spotlight, here’s my solution: Good Friday evening should become ‘Showdown night’.
Why not? Adelaide and Port Adelaide’s intense rivalry and tradition of thrilling games deserves the centre spotlight, and Good Friday evening allows TV executives to give them that spotlight while still having a big Melbourne game for the Victorian audience. Everyone’s a winner.
If not them, then why not a Western Derby? That would make even more sense from a timeslot perspective: the two-hour Western Australian time difference to the eastern state allows two twilight games in a row, making it more palatable for families with young children to attend than a later-night fixture (though you probably don’t need to worry about filling Optus Stadium when the Derby is in town).
Quite literally, anything would be better than ceding the evening to the NRL, Super Rugby and even A-League codes: and if the argument against that is to give all the attention to North Melbourne’s ‘SuperClash’, I’ll point out that that hasn’t been a consideration for the last two years.
A Good Friday Showdown. 7pm start local time. Bulk viewers for the biggest game in South Australia.
Make it happen.
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Apparently one single clip out of a 38-possession, two-goal performance from a 20-year old was enough to turn some people against Nick Daicos.
The moment against Brisbane where Daicos takes his eyes off the ball a fraction of a second too early was duly used to further the narrative his detractors love to push: he’s a cheap-ball merchant, he doesn’t like the hard stuff, he’s soft.
It would be pretty low to do this for any 20-year old kid, just as it’s pretty low of those people to watch Port Adelaide games with eyes fixed on Jason Horne-Francis for any sign of less than 110 per cent effort in a chase. But it’s particularly galling when it happens to Daicos after the night he had.
Daicos was Collingwood’s best player by the length of the straight on Thursday night. His move into the midfield in the third quarter, where he gathered 16 disposals (yet the most shown clip was him hitting the post from 20 metres out) and turned the match on a dime.
For another thing, the above clip isn’t even that damning: you’re pushing a narrative if you think Daicos heard footsteps there, or was unwilling to put his head over the ball. He messed up by looking up for a handball target before the ball was in his keeping, and paid for it with a turnover. You could pick out 100 examples of the same thing happening all weekend.
I get that some people might be sick of the constant praise handed Daicos’s way – I had a go at it myself midway through last year. But guess what, he’s earned every bit of it in 2023.
Daicos is one of the best ball-users in the game, he wins plenty of it, and as he proved on Thursday night, he can go into the midfield and win his own ball just as easily as he can distribute off half-back. You could probably throw him in the ruck and he’d go alright, the way he’s going.
His influence on the way the Magpies play is every bit as profound as Marcus Bontempelli’s on the Western Bulldogs, or Christian Petracca’s on Melbourne, or Luke Davies-Uniacke’s on North Melbourne. The Pies, one of the premiership favourites, mould their game to a 20-year old’s benefit.
Daicos is doing things no second-year player has done since Chris Judd; and even he averaged ‘only’ 18 disposals and 1.26 goals a game in his outstanding 2003. Daicos is averaging 34.5 this year, and a goal a game too.
He’s deservedly a Brownlow favourite, and he’s a lock in about three different positions in the All-Australian team. If you’re trying to downplay his form by pointing to the one mistake he made in a sea of brilliance, you’re fighting a losing battle.
Nick Larkey of the Kangaroos is tackled by Nick Daicos of the Magpies. (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
Five years ago, the AFL’s messaging, however harsh, was clear: don’t touch the umpires.
Ed Curnow, Tom Hawkins and Steven May all copped one-week bans for slight, undemonstrative contact with umpires; it was bemoaned as being overly harsh at the time, but it was consistent.
But half a decade on, the AFL’s messaging since has been anything but. Just weeks after that spate of incidents in 2018, Willie Rioli escaped with a fine for similar umpire contact. Ditto Lachie Neale in 2021, who tapped an umpire to inform him of blood streaming from his face. And now Adelaide’s Jake Soligo, who went too far in his attempt to convince a goal umpire to review a major that was going upstairs anyway.
Soligo has since been hit with a $2500 fine, which is going to do about as much as a deterrent as literally hitting him with a wet lettuce leaf. It’s pocket change for modern AFL footballers, and has time and time again proved to not be a deterrent.
The AFL has become militant on treating umpires with respect, paying 50m penalties and free kicks for the most minor shows of disrespect, ostensibly for the betterment of umpires at lower levels.
This is far more of an issue – violence against umpires is a rare but real thing that happens in grassroots footy, and seeing an AFL player push an umpire – and yes, Soligo pushed him – sets a terrible example.
Back in 1997, Greg Williams copped nine weeks for forcefully shoving umpire Andrew Coates. Just two years ago, Toby Greene got six for barging past Matt Stevic.
Soligo’s was far from as bad as those two incidents, but the AFL still needed to make a stand. One week, possibly two, would have rammed the message home for another generation: deliberately touch an umpire, and you’ll pay a hefty price.
Of all the mistakes Sydney made on the final siren at the SCG, Callum Mills’ has received the most attention.
Parked on the goal line as Ollie Florent took his kick, Mills went the early crow and started celebrating, realising too late that the ball would drop short, and watching as Aliir Aliir made the game-saving spoil right where he’d been standing.
Mills stuffed up – but he wasn’t on an island there. The Swans couldn’t have played those final seconds any worse.
For starters, Port had four talls parked on the goal line or thereabouts. Aliir, Charlie Dixon, Tom Jonas and Todd Marshall were all in the vicinity, while Scott Lycett was on the bench. They had representation where it mattered most.
Sydney… didn’t. Even if Mills hadn’t taken himself out of the contest, the crucial ball in the goalsquare would have been a four on three situations, with one of those Swans the smaller frame of Mills. Whichever way you slice it, Port had the advantage.
Where was Logan McDonald? Why was Isaac Heeney standing at the top of the goalsquare, instead of putting a body on Aliir and shepherding him away? Why was Peter Ladhams starting his run at the ball from in front of the behinds, when the only thing that mattered was the goal line? Why was Will Hayward a metre behind the line, far enough back that he had no chance of getting there either?
The Swans didn’t need to clog it up in that spot; if only one or two of those four were there alongside Franklin and Ladhams, it would have been an even contest, and they’d have given themselves a chance of getting the ball the extra 15 centimetres it needed to travel.
In the end, the only one who did anything right was Lance Franklin (who did plenty wrong himself). He picked up quicker than anyone that the ball was falling short, made a beeline for the Power player in the hotspot, Miles Bergman, and poleaxed him.
That it wasn’t a free kick should tell you a bit about what the Swans could have got away with had they tried – earlier that day, I saw Tom Lynch basically body-slam Liam Jones in the square to let a Richmond goal through.
Buddy’s mistake was going for Bergman: you can’t blame him, but Ladhams would probably have got there to compete with the Port small, and his movement freed space for Aliir to run and jump. His ungainly shove of Bergman was clumsy, sure, and it would have been funny to see the ball go through only for a free against to be paid; but he was far from the most culpable Swan. He at least was in the right spot.
As an aside – the sheer amount of Swans that went the early crow on Florent’s kick will never not be funny.
Random thoughts
– The NRL’s commemorative jumper fiasco nicely making my point about commercialising ANZAC Day, I see.
– Max Michalanney is going to be a star. Not sure I’ve ever seen a fourth-gamer read the ball as well in the air as he does.
– Nice to see Channel 7 learning from the Buddy Franklin 100 goal camera debacle by getting the EXACT SAME THING WRONG for Ollie Florent’s kick.
– If Damien Hardwick didn’t want speculation about Trent Cotchin being dropped, surely he could have just done what Essendon did with Dyson Heppell and made him the last-minute sub?
– Tim Kelly quietly having a superb season. Good on him.
– We’ll all be shamelessly barracking for Hawthorn on Easter Monday, right?
– It’s been five years since I’ve seen Dustin Martin play live. I’d forgotten how clean he is.
– Harry McKay is going to get off at the Tribunal for that Harry Sheezel clash, and when he does we’ll officially be back to not knowing what’s legal and what’s not. The system is broken.
– Trying to work out the funniest club to end up with pick 1 and Harley Reid. It’s Melbourne from Freo finishing last, yes?
– Trust Jake Stringer to miss the side of a barn all day and then send a torpedo on the run straight through the middle.
– That Paddy McCartin incident is just so depressing. So innocuous, which is the scariest thing.
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