My Weekly Footy Meanderings

(Published in The Roar)

            As quick hitting as a Bulldog end-to-end, here’s our weekly look at the ins and outs, ups and downs, backs and forths, and highs (no lows) of the AFL’s “Gender Pivot” weekend:

            …The AFLW final did not disappoint. Adelaide absolutely deserved the victory (35-29), but the Lions didn’t take their first defeat easily. Erin Phillips was her usual amazing self, and the 15,000+ in attendance helped make it feel like a men’s final out there. (An interesting note: the men's Q-Clash that followed had fewer in attendance!) It was the first footy game my ladyfriend Dana had ever seen in its entirety, and she’s hooked on the athleticism (women and men both). Well done to all involved.

…By the way, it’s not a coincidence that the two most physically fit teams met in the grand final. Play your league in eight consecutive weeks of daytime games in an Australian summer and you’ll treasure fitness too. (And it’s been beaten like a dead horse, but when your team’s split between Adelaide and Darwin all year, coaching them to a title is nearly miraculous. That's right - ten of Adelaide's players are based a thousand miles north of Adelaide during the week!)

            …But it was a sobering reminder that the women are second class citizens in sport. “We can’t get the field ready for a Grand Final, AFL – after all, it’s only been three weeks since Adele – but don’t worry, mate: the boys will have their field ready to go.” Contrary to opinion, I don’t blame the league on this. The Brisbane men all sang the same tune in their analysis: footy in Q is an afterthought, women’s even more so.

            …So, Hawthorn’s toast, Port and the Dees are finals bound, the Giants are headed for the wooden spoon, and Chris Fagan is the next Luke Beveridge. Or, it’s only round one and everyone just needs to simmer down a bit. But I loved seeing that beautiful red on the Melbourne men’s unis that the women sported. It’s an exquisite rebranding that doesn’t actually change the Demon look.

            …I know it’s hard not to tap the brakes on the Saints right now, less because of the 120-90 loss to the Demons but because their touchstone, the ageless Jack Riewoldt, went down with what thankfully was not an ACL but nevertheless looks rather serious. I’d like to remind you of R3 last year, however, when another up-and-coming team lost its captain in a loss to the defenders, and all looked lost for them. In the end, I think the Bulldogs will take what they got.

… Alex Rance worried me Thursday night. It’s one thing to have an off-night, and certainly he’s had enough great nights to be forgiven a bad one, but he just looked a step behind all night long against an undermanned Carlton team (Richmond won easily, 132-89) who really had nobody up front worthy of being feared. Four-time all-Australian defenseman Rance is only 27 but he looked old, and if I were a Tiger supporter, that would worry the shorts off me.

            …Warning: American bias approaching. There are plenty of athletes in my home country who were shuttled into basketball when their shoe size exceeded what was available in the box stores, but whose engines and footwork might make them better suited for the footy pitch. I don’t know for sure if Magpie Mason Cox is a project or a pipe dream, but I’m obviously rooting for the man. Friday’s performance against an excellent Doggie defense provided evidence both ways – moments of promise, moments of despair. (There are four or five Americans playing footy at the level right below the AFL, learning and waiting their turn to play at the highest tier.)

            …Unless you wear Pie stripes, you had to feel good for Travis Cloke. The early opportunity to put one through the big sticks against his former team in the first quarter from fifty was tailor-made for drama, and Cloke didn’t disappoint, slamming it through the pipes thirty meters up. I’m one who views free agency as a necessary evil, a freedom the players deserve but one that risks us being forced to root for laundry instead of our boys. But one of the huge upsides are moments like that one – 66,000 black and white faithful booing their former star and being silenced by a champion’s goal. That’s what makes sport emotionally fulfilling.

            …A side note about the booing. Booing in that situation is part of the game. But every time I hear it, I hope and pray that it’s being done as professional gamesmanship and not as personal vindictiveness. Cloke would have been a fool to have stayed in an environment where his skills were obviously no longer valued, and to latch on with the reigning premiers was a bonus. Be upset with Magpie management if you’d like, but boo Cloke for entertainment purposes only. Any situation that even remotely smells of the criminal treatment Adam Goodes got during his final year, regardless of your opinion of the man, is reprehensible.

            …Dustin Martin lo-oo-oves his new teammates. More than anything else, having Dion Prestia in the mid opened up Martin to roam around and do what Gazza Ablett did for so long, and what Lance Franklin and Patrick Dangerfield are now doing more and more – play the position of “star”, wherever on the field that entailed him being. Can’t wait to watch him this season.

            …I’ve no problem with the no third-man up rule on bounces (or “fake” bounces). But when the ball’s being thrown in from the side, over the umpire’s head, just let anyone get the ball. Time after time, I saw rucks frantically running to reach the wildly mis-thrown ball. I can’t even blame the thrower – it’s got to be near impossible to gauge an over-the-head backwards chuck within a few feet. Just let whomever it comes to go after it, save yourselves the five seconds of figuring out who’s “nominated” to ruck, and move on.

            …Adelaide’s resounding victory reminds us that you can’t anoint any team in March. GWS should still be the league favorite (losing to a finalist on the road isn’t a huge black mark), but the Crows are one of six or more teams that should be aiming for a cup ceremony on the last day of September.

            …Feel good stories abounded. After the gloom and doom around the Lions the last couple of years, the women’s success may have rubbed off on the men, whose first half may be the best they’ve played in years. Great to see Jarryd Roughhead play well after a brave year away fighting cancer. Sam Reid’s comeback in Sydney after injury was superb. Debutants like Sam Petrevski-Seton, Sam Powell-Pepper and Ben Ainsworth excelled. Carlton’s hoping to clone Jake Weitering seventeen times. And if you don’t want to feel good about the return of Essendon’s WADA “victims/criminals”, feel good for the guys like Zach Merrett, David Zaharakis, Brendan Goddard, Joe Daniher, and all the other Dons who had literally four years of their careers wasted without any chance at finals until now. They may not get this year either, but now they can dream again.

            …Love the attendance throughout the weekend – all ten games. I suspect having the AFLW this summer has whetted the appetite for the men’s game. 15K for the ladies at Metricon let to 33K at Sydney; 36K and 22K at Etihad; 44K at Adelaide, 34K at Domain, and 73K, 66K, and 78K at the MCG. Four hundred thousand patrons watched the men’s debut weekend. It should remind all of us what we love about this game – the balletic athleticism, the strength and skill on display in all ten games that made me anxious and excited to watch the next 198.

          Scores this weekend: Richmond d. Carlton 132-89. Western d. Collingwood 100-86. Melbourne d. St. Kilda 120-90, a mild upset and breaking a 14-game streak. Port Adelaide d. Sydney 110-82, a huge upset. Essendon d. Hawthorn 116-91, a big deal. Brisbane d. Gold Coast 98-96, another huge upset; Brisbane led 45-1 at one point in the first quarter. West Coast d. North Melbourne 136-93. Adelaide d. GWS Giants 147-91, surprising for the size of victory. And Geelong d. Fremantle 115-73.