Taking the lead
IT’S been a hit and miss week in football, and it’s only Thursday.
On Friday night, Patrick Dangerfield watched forlornly from the stands, head in his hands as Mitch Duncan brushed some dirt off an opponent’s jumper.
Danger had been suspended for tackling Matthew Kreuzer in the Carlton game. The irony was that Kreuzer was fine to play the next week, so he wasn’t badly concussed by the tackle. The Danger tackle had been textbook. Pin the arms and bring the man to the ground.
Not like the Rory Sloane tackle the week before. Sloane tackled Mark Blicavs in the centre of the Adelaide Oval. The Blitz was shepherding, he didn’t have the ball.
But Sloane jumped on and dragged Blitz down and the force and motion fractured his leg. Blitz missed the rest of the night, but Rory is still in contention for the Brownlow. Blicavs is not available for the rest of the season, but Rory is still picking up votes.
But back to the Mitch Duncan push on Papley.
Yes, it was undisciplined. But the suspension is everything that is wrong with the game.
The incident came in the fourth quarter when the Cats needed to steady. There was no malice, just frustration. The Swans player happily threw himself to the ground, milked a 50 metre penalty and a shot on goal. This sealed the fate of the Cats. The resulting loss brought a miserable feeling in the outer, eerily reminiscent of the reality check that was the 2016 Preliminary Final.
At the time, Duncan did not know that his lack of cool in a crisis would cost him a week on the sidelines. But this is the reality of the game in 2017.
The Papely push was professional pantomime. The bloke even went on TV and admitted that he had played it up to get a shot from the goal square. But his honesty doesn’t bring justice, it didn’t change the view of the Match Review Panel. The MRP gave Duncan a week for not much.
Using this current MRP equation of force plus high contact plus intent plus previous record, imagine how many weeks Barry Hall would get now for that whack on Brent Staker. Hall would be suspended for life if he was playing this season.
The good news for Mitch is that he won’t be alone when he’s watching Dustin Martin run around KP.
He’s going to be sharing the view with his mate from the leadership group, Tom Hawkins.
Our full forward got another two weeks for another moment of madness.
In my view, Tomahawk was equally unlucky. I know, I know, but honestly. He wears two opponents every week, they get in his face and harass.
Hawkins is guilty of standing up for himself, that is all. He grabbed a jumper; yes. He pushed back when he was being pushed; yes. But what was the damage done? He didn’t knock out any teeth, he didn’t make contact with the face.
He didn’t kiss anybody and he didn’t leave any bruises.
Compared to the full forward and full back full body contact contests of Ablett Sr and Craig Kelly back in the day, the Hawkins incident is a laughable murmur on the MRP Richter scale.
Sitting next to Tom will be captain courageous, Joel Selwood. Recovering from surgery after an awkward Buddy Franklin tackle.
Don’t get me started on why Buddy seems to be able to throw his arms around Luke Hodge’s neck just for old time sake.
Don’t ask me why he seems to be permitted to drop himself into packs and forget where his knees are landing.
But with this kind of bad luck and self-inflicted list damage, it is fair to think it is almost time to say goodbye to 2017 ambitions. Or is it? Up in Queensland, Rodney Eade has been given his marching orders with three matches to go. He was never going to be the long-term solution for the Suns, but why do you sack him with three games left?
What does that say about the culture of the franchise?
What does that tell you about the state of the game in the sunshine state? Character emerges through crisis. This week there will be opportunities for good drivers in heavy traffic.
A home game against Richmond has been a huge discussion point for some weeks. Geelong cannot afford to kiss the game farewell just because they are a few leaders short.
This week the fate is in their own young hands. Ross Mueller is a freelance writer and director.