Cats’ premiership defence in trouble

Glenn McFarlane examines all the key early talking points of the weekend, ahead of Brett Ratten’s first game in charge of the Kangaroos and a bottom-of-the-table clash that has a lot riding on it.

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RED AND BLACK HOODOO BUSTERS

Essendon staged a thrilling last-minute heist to steal the Dreamtime crown off Richmond, ending a 13-game losing streak against their long-time nemesis.

It took a sterling captain’s game from Zach Merrett and a mark and clutch goal from 21-year-old Sam Durham in the dying moments to lift the Bombers over the line by the barest of margins.

Essendon had lost eight consecutive Dreamtime clashes – and 13 matches in a row – to Richmond, but that hoodoo was smashed to smithereens in a classic encounter at the MCG.

They hadn’t beat the Tigers since 2014. To put that into context, Tony Abbott was Prime Minister back then, the Hawks were reigning premiers, and Gill McLachlan had just been appointed AFL CEO.

But despite giving up a lead to Richmond for almost the last hour of this game, Merrett and his Bombers refused to give in.

Merrett had 39 disposals and seven tackles, including a late chasedown on a rampaging Dustin Martin which ended up being one of the most telling moments of the match.

Merrett had been to the MCG on Thursday to support his Indigenous teammates in a special photo shoot to promote Dreamtime.

On Saturday night, he led with extraordinary spirit and was a unanimous winner of the Yiooken Trophy.

The Bombers trailed by 18 points a minute into the last term but as coach Brad Scott said, they refused to give in.

They kept coming and when Jake Stinger launched a kick into attack in the dying seconds it landed into Durham’s arms. He was never going to miss.

It was a spectacular end to a magical night which started with a Dreamtime Dance, bringing together the Indigenous players from both teams – Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, Alwyn Davey Jr, Shai Bolton, Maurice Rioli Jr, Daniel Rioli and Rhyan Mansell.

WAS THAT THE INDIVIDUAL GAME OF THE YEAR?

It was the speculative phone call Melbourne made in an effort to prise a kid called Zak Butters off the Port Adelaide draft whiteboard and into a red and blue jumper.

It came on draft night 2018 as the Power were ready to launch into pick 12, seven picks after claiming Connor Rozee.

Port was on the clock; Melbourne was asking to trade up to pick 12 with the promise of a key first-round future draft selection offered up as a carrot.

The Demons seriously rated the skinny, footy-smart kid from the Western Jets, but the phone call turned out to be in vain. The Power rated him just as highly.

They said no without flinching, called out Butters name, and the rest is history.

Five years on, as the furnished product, you can see why both clubs rated him so highly.

On Friday night, the 22-year-old turned in what might end up being the best individual game of the season as Yartapuulti (Port Adelaide) overcame Narrm (Melbourne) in a classic.

We’ve had some cracking individual performances so far this season including Marcus Bontempelli’s 31 disposals (18 contested) and two goals against Fremantle and take your pick of Nick Daicos’ 40-plus disposals against Essendon and St Kilda.

Noah Anderson’s 37 touches and a goal against Melbourne, Jeremy Cameron’s six-goals and 25 disposals, Charlie Curnow’s nine goals against West Coast and Tom Hawkins’ eight goals against Essendon were other top shelf showings.

But given the high quality of Friday’s game, Butters’ midfield opponents, and the torrential conditions, his 41 touches (at 78% efficiency), 18 contested possessions, 10 clearances, 12 scoring involvements and two goals added up to a masterclass display.

He plays with more power than his 77kg frame suggests, befitting Ken Hinkley’s assessment of him as “a tough little prick”.

He combined perfectly with Rozee and Jason Horne-Francis and would have had AFL Coaches’ Association votes for the seventh week in chasing Daicos and Bontempelli.

All of a sudden Brownlow night has become a lot more interesting!

KENNY AND THE BENCH-WARMERS

Remember a time – not long ago – when AFL coaches were being smashed as little more than “cheerleaders” when coaching from the boundary line?

Not any more.

In this caring, sharing modern age, it’s where some of our best current coaches are doing their best work engaging with their players.

Craig McRae has made an art form with his connection with the Collingwood group; Simon Goodwin has long been a convert; and Chris Fagan has shut down criticism he originally copped for coaching down at ground level.

Now Ken Hinkley is getting the best out of the Power, with his decision to ditch the coaches’ box for the boundary line.

You only had to listen to Miles Bergman speak recently on Fox Footy to see what Kenny on the bench means to his players.

“We feel more connected, you can get more good chats with him and the players feel a lot better on the bench, connected to the field,” Bergman said.

Senior coaches at ground level have enough resources, technology and communications with the coaches’ box upstairs; but the in-game connection with players is often priceless.

This might have started as a ‘break glass in time of emergency’ moment for Hinkley, but his move to the boundary has played a role in the Power’s seven consecutive wins.

It might have helped save his job too. The Power and Hinkley have maintained they won’t talk contracts until August, but that is starting to look like a formality right now.

DOGS GET THE JOB DONE, BUT LOSE JJ

Is it about time we started to give more credit to what Luke Beveridge and the Western Bulldogs are doing right now?

Too right it is.

It wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing way to beat up on an opponent and the 11.19 scoreline would have been a little too wayward for Bevo’s liking, but the reality is that the Dogs are just getting the job done at the moment with a minimum of fuss and farewell.

Having started the season with a pair of troubling losses, the Bulldogs have hit back strongly and their winning streak now stretches out to five in a row.

There was mixed news on the injury front. The bad was reborn defender Jason Johannisen’s hamstring injury which looks a bad one. The good news was that Marcus Bontempelli told Fox Footy after the game that his sore knee was OK and he would be right for next week.

The next three weeks won’t be easy with big games against Gold Coast, Geelong and Port Adelaide, but if Bevo’s boys can keep winning, we can add another team into the premiership mix.

WHEN HARRY MET GEORGE

Stand-in coach Brett Ratten assured Kangaroos fans pre-game that Alastair Clarkson would be watching, despite standing down this week owing to the on-going stresses of the Hawks independent racism investigation.

Even despite the heartbreaking way the club lost in the final minute, Clarko would have seen enough evidence that the Roos have plenty to look forward

to in the future.

It wasn’t just the fact the North Melbourne faithful applauded at the 23-minute-mark of the first term as a show of support to Clarkson, marking the No.23 he wore with the club during the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s.

It was the performance of the Roos’ young guns, including the first time Harry Sheezel got to play with debutant George Wardlaw.

Wardlaw showed plenty of spirit in his first game. He did it the hard way too, jumping back to his feet after being crunched by Will Hayward, and getting back to business with a minimum of fuss.

He combined perfectly at times with Sheezel, whom Ratten moved forward and into some midfield cameos after spending the early part of the season in defence.

Bailey Scott played his 65th game under his SIXTH coach (no, that’s not a misprint) and produced one of his most influential games; Tom Powell nailed a long goal to give the Roos the lead in the last term; and Paul Curtis filed away his nomination for goal of the year, breaking a tackle and offering a fend-off before nailing the kick from an acute angle.

As much as it hurts now Kangaroos fans, there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon.

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HOW DID THE TIGERS BLOW THAT?

You could see the anguish etched on Damien Hardwick’s face as this Dreamtime classic was ripped out of Richmond’s hands in the dying seconds.

The Tigers inexplicably lost another close game, which has become an alarming trend for Hardwick’s team in the post-premiership window.

And it has created a bit of unwanted history. As stats guru @sirswampthing tweeted after the one-point loss, Richmond now has the longest run of winless VFL/AFL games for teams in games decided by six points or fewer.

The Tigers have had 12 games decided by less than six points for three draws and nine losses since 2021.

Rhyan Mansell had the chance to lock away this game but failed to score late in the game, with his kick sailing out of bounds.

Richmond star Shai Bolton turned in a great game for his side, as he became the 100th Indigenous player to reach 100 games.

ROO’D OPPORTUNITY

Footy might be just a game, but sometimes it feels like it can rip your heart out.

One minute it looked as if North Melbourne’s rollercoaster season was set for its most soaring high, then an inexplicable interchange stuff-up sent the Roos crashing back down to earth with a thud.

It was almost the cruellest of ways for the young Kangaroos to lose, especially given how tenaciously they fought to try and end a two-month losing streak.

North Melbourne produced one of its best recent performances only to have it wrenched from their hands with under a minute to go in bizarre circumstances.

With the ball deep in the Swans forward line, and with the Kangaroos clinging to a slender lead, one of the umpires got a message in his ear piece that delayed play for a split second.

It was the worst possible delay for the Kangaroos with an even worse outcome. The umpire told shattered North Melbourne players that there had been an interchange infringement – two players had come off at the same time when only one rotation remained – which gifted Sydney a free kick, a 50m penalty and a goal to Hayden McLean.

The Kangaroos had used 76 interchange rotations – one more than the number allowed – and the mistake left players shattered and long-suffering fans heartbroken.

Sydney forward Buddy Franklin – who drew level with Doug Wade on 1057 career goals – said on Fox Footy: “Lucky us … it’s obviously a big price to pay (for North Melbourne) but they are the rules.”

As tough as it was, the Roos will bounce back. As a footy club, it’s in their DNA, as their president Dr Sonja Hood explained in a tweet: “Dear footy gods. I have enough character.”

But gee, that one hurt!

THE STATS HURTING THE CATS

Geelong is being scored against too easily and unless Chris Scott and co start doing something about it soon, their premiership defence is in trouble.

The Cats have conceded more than 100 points in four of the first 10 rounds of this season. That’s an alarming trend for a club that has long prided itself on its ability to keep the opposition muzzled.

To put that into context, the previous four times Geelong had conceded four 100-plus scores came across three seasons – once in 2022, twice in 2021 and once in 2020.

Admittedly, the Cats are missing some of their best players, including skipper Patrick Dangerfield, but the manner in which they gave up space and scores to Walyalup (Fremantle) would have had Scott more than a little concerned.

In contrast, the Dockers have kick-started their season with a trio of important wins over Hawthorn Sydney and now Geelong, with a finals berth now back on the agenda again.

The Dockers had six fewer inside 50s, but dominated the stats sheet with 109 more uncontested possessions and 60 more handballs as they played space invaders with a Geelong team desperately needing a lift after back to back losses to the Tigers and Dockers.

CROWS BACK TO EARTH

Taylor Walker has already finished work on the autobiography he will release after his career is over, but Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks must be hoping he has another chapter left to add.

Based on what the Crows dished up against the Bulldogs in Ballarat, Nicks and his young team still need the 33-year-old to play on again next season.

Walker was “managed” for this game to prepare his body for a tough block of games in the next month against Brisbane, Gold Coast, West Coast and Collingwood.

But he was sorely missed with the Crows kicking only five goals, their lowest tally since 2021.

Walker is still their most targeted player, and in his absence, the Crows went to Darcy Fogarty on nine occasions, but he could only manage a behind.

It’s not a disaster for Nicks, as the Crows are building a seriously competitive list and their young players were probably ripe for the picking against the more seasoned, gritty Bulldogs.

But after dropping three of their past four games – albeit against good sides – banking some wins across the next month will be critical if they want to join Port Adelaide in the finals.

TARGET MAXY

Narrm (Melbourne) didn’t come home with the points, but Simon Goodwin’s team lost no admirers with the four-point loss to the Power.

But the one thing that Goodwin will want to address is the physical and tactical pressure put on skipper Max Gawn by the Power.

Ken Hinkley told his players pre-game to get in Gawn’s face whenever they could but strategically urged them to keep the ball away from him.’

When asked by Eddie Betts on Fox Footy whether there was an “X” on Gawn’s back, Connor Rozee reluctantly explained: “A little bit … yeah … he (Hinkley) focused on that a little bit during the week.”

“He (Gawn) is a great player, it is hard not to do anything about him when he has been so dominant. Kenny spoke about it a little bit, but I feel like we were able to take away his impact by getting the ball away from him a bit.”

Gawn might be 31, but he is still the heartbeat of the Demons, as Hinkley maintained after the game.

Luke Hodge said on SEN the Demons’ players need to start getting in and helping Gawn out when the pressure is applied.

Dermott Brereton said he felt the skipper also needed to “put the crash helmet on” himself and give some physicality back the other way.

Will this be a template for opposition teams going forward, and if so, will the Demons fight back?

Whatever the case, it will make for fascinating viewing if the teams meet in the finals.

NO LOTTERY … AND THE THREE GAMES THAT WILL DETERMINE HARLEY REID’S NEXT HOME

Lotteries by their very definition are a gamble, and that’s the key reason why we don’t need to change the AFL draft system.

As bottom side Hawthorn prepares to take on second-placed West Coast in Launceston on Sunday, the talk has centred on whether the AFL should introduce an NBA-style lottery to determine which club gets the No.1 pick.

It’s especially newsworthy with Bendigo Pioneers teenager Harley Reid – touted as a generational player in the mould of Dustin Martin – considered the clear top No.1 hope.

Last week’s NBA lottery gave the 14 franchises who missed out on the playoffs the chance to be in a draw for the top draft pick on a sliding scale of probabilities ranging from 14 per cent right down to 0.5 per cent.

Thankfully, San Antonio, the team with the third worst record, was the franchise who won out.

But just imagine for a moment if we had introduced a lottery and a team like Carlton – who missed out on the finals last year by 0.55% – defied the odds and was the team picked out.

Hawthorn, West Coast and North Melbourne are clearly the three teams most in need of the No.1 pick and they will fight it out for the rest of the season.

Three games will likely determine who gets the No.1 pick – Sunday’s Hawks-Eagles game, North Melbourne’s round 18 clash with Hawthorn and West Coast’s round 20 contest with North Melbourne.

Yes, it could go down to the wire. But we don’t want, and we don’t need, a draft lottery.