BIGGEST MOMENTS OF 2021
GRAND NEW FLAG
WE’VE been blessed with some remarkable drought-breaking, fairytale flags so far this century and Melbourne’s spectacular 2021 triumph rightfully sits alongside the best of them.
It was a bolt from the Red and Blue after 57 years.
Even though the grand final ended up in Perth – not the club’s MCG home – it proved to be a lockdown tonic long-suffering Melbourne fans desperately needed.
They started the season under serious heat. Simon Goodwin was clinging on to his job, Max Gawn was challenged to assert his leadership, and the talented, under-performing group needed to be more selfless.
They ended the season with a 13th VFL-AFL premiership cup, the biggest grand final victory in the club’s history (74 points) and the prospect of more flags.
So far this century, we’ve seen the Swans (72 years), the Cats (44 years), the
Bulldogs (62 years) and the Tigers (37 years) break their long droughts.
Over to you, St Kilda, whose drought extends to 56 years in 2022.
PIES AT WAR
MICHAEL Warner’s exclusive leaking of Collingwood’s Do Better report into racism was the start of seismic change at the Collingwood Football Club.
President Eddie McGuire stepped down after more than 20 years, a week after a press conference where he described the report as “a proud and historic day”.
Mark Korda and Peter Murphy shared the role for six weeks before Korda took over.
HAWTHORN’S decision to move on the most successful coach of the modern era proved one of the stories of the year.
When assistant coach Sam Mitchell loomed as a candidate for the vacant Collingwood coaching role, Alastair Clarkson sought assurances from Jeff Kennett and the board about his own future.
The four-time premiership coach didn’t get the answer he was seeking.
In the end, Clarkson chose to walk away from the last year of his contract, fast-tracking Mitchell’s rise.
BLUES AT WAR
NO one could have foreseen what was to come next when Carlton announced it was launching a football department review in-season.
The domino effect was enormous. It led to a new broom sweeping through Carlton with senior coach David Teague sacked at the end of the season along with most of his support staff as well as CEO Cain Liddle dumped in favour of Brian Cook.
New president Luke Sayers tried to convince Clarkson and Ross Lyon to take over, but missed out, before Michael Voss was appointed senior coach, which at least ended a period of uncertainty and chaos at the club.
The pressure remains as Sayers has all but demanded a finals berth next season.
Richmond’s quest ... ended long before Dustin Martin crashed into Mitch Robinson
RACISM ROW
THE spectre of racism in AFL football continues to raise its ugly head, but no one could have imagined Taylor Walker would be at the centre of it in 2021.
In a SANFL game that Walker was watching, he made a racist comment about former St Kilda player Robbie Young.
The storm reduced coach Matthew Nicks to tears in a press conference and it shattered Walker’s former teammate Eddie Betts as he was again forced to call out racism in an emotional Fox Footy appearance.
Walker was suspended for six weeks and had to make a donation of $20,000 to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander program in SA.
COVID CHAOS, PERTH GF
THIS was meant to be the year when things got back to normal.
But it proved to be anything but, as the AFL, its players and staff were forced to once more remain flexible and agile, often living out of suitcases and being on call to move at a moment’s notice.
As Gillon McLachlan said, the league had to deal with state lockdowns, border closures, crowd caps, empty stadiums, a floating fixture and the uncertainty that anything could – and would – happen.
It culminated with all nine finals played outside Victoria and NSW, including the grand final in Perth, which at least provided a $40m much-needed windfall.
DUSTY DOWN; TIGERS OUT
IN hindsight, Richmond’s quest for a fourth flag in five seasons ended long before Dustin Martin crashed into Mitch Robinson in round 18.
The telltale signs had been coming for weeks. But after Martin suffered a lacerated kidney the Tigers won only one of their last five matches.
In a year in which Richmond created its fair share of headlines – Shai Bolton and Daniel Rioli’s nightclub incident, Damien Hardwick’s Marvel Stadium disdain and injuries to key players – they fell to 11th. Can they have one last shot at it in 2022?
TOBY’S BUMP
IT WAS the tribunal case of the season – GWS star Toby Greene’s bump on umpire Matt Stevic in the Giants’ elimination final victory over Sydney.
Greene’s frustration boiled as he was headed towards the huddle and he turned his body towards Stevic.
In a long hearing, he was found guilty and suspended for three weeks – a penalty that the AFL has appealed.
There were other noteworthy tribunal cases this season, including Adelaide’s David Mackay’s bump on Hunter Clark and Sydney’s Lance Franklin’s elbow on Luke Ryan.
FAREWELL BUCKS
WHILE the Blues kept Teague waiting all season to get an answer on his future, Collingwood made an earlier call on favourite son Nathan Buckley.
Buckley was told mid-season that the club was going to go in a different direction for 2022.
The man who cruelly came within two minutes of winning a premiership as coach in 2018 had one last farewell game against Melbourne on Queen’s Birthday – at the SCG. It proved to be Collingwood’s best onfield moment. They defeated the eventual premiers as Bucks got an emotional farewell after 10 seasons.
CRUEL FOR CATS
GEELONG started the season flag favourites having picked up Jeremy Cameron, Isaac Smith and Shaun Higgins.
The Cats ended it with massive question marks on their future, with an ageing list and a changing support staff around Chris Scott.
The manner of the club’s loss to Melbourne – an 83-point preliminary final annihilation – means there will be more change in the playing group.
DOGS ON THE MOVE
IF frequent flyer points were handed out for 2021, the Dogs would be leading the way after a gruelling finals schedule.
Coach Luke Beveridge wasn’t sure if those September travels – they went from Victoria to Tasmania to Queensland to WA to SA and back again to WA in the finals – resulted in their grand final mauling.
They knocked off Essendon, Brisbane and Port Adelaide before hitting the brick wall that was Melbourne.
ROUND 23 RIPPER
IT WAS the final round that had everything – an after-the-siren goal from an unlikely source, the AFL’s oldest coach jumping about like a spring chicken, and double heartache for the Bulldogs.
It started on Friday night with the Bulldogs clinging to a top four berth, opening up a 19-point lead. But the Power stormed home to win by two points.
That meant the Lions needed to beat West Coast by more than six goals to jump above the Bulldogs.
It went down to the wire before a late shot put the Lions over the line, leaving Chris Fagan jumping for joy.
A few hours later Melbourne fought from a 44-point deficit against Geelong to seal the minor premiership for the first time since 1964.
CLUTCH KICKS
GAWN’S after-the-siren clutch kick wasn’t the only one in 2021.
Lion Zac Bailey buried the Magpies in round 3 when he took a mark and slotted the goal after the siren.
Gary Rohan won a match after the siren for the second time in his career when he nailed a spectacular shot against the Bulldogs in round 14. He had previously done it for Sydney in the corresponding round of 2017.
SILK 400
SHAUN Burgoyne hobbled into Hawthorn on crutches 12 years ago; he left the club at the end of 2021 one of the most admired footballers in the game.
What he achieved as a premiership player with Port Adelaide and a three-time premiership player with Hawthorn has been remarkable.
This year he became only the fifth player to reach 400 games – and the first Indigenous player – joining Brent Harvey, Michael Tuck, Kevin Bartlett and Dustin Fletcher as the only men to do it.
BRAVO BETTS
BURGOYNE and Eddie Betts headlined a stellar cast of stars to call it quits. Betts kicked his 640th goal in his 350th game in the final round.
Others to say goodbye in 2021 include Marc Murphy, Bachar Houli, Nathan Jones, David Astbury, Grant Birchall, Jarrod Harbrow, Chris Mayne, James Frawley, David Mackay, Cale Hooker, Levi Greenwood, Stephen Hill, Tom Rockliff, Jake Carlisle, Lachie Henderson, Neville Jetta, Zac Smith, Dylan Roberton, Josh Jenkins, Lin Jong and Nathan Vardy.
AWESOME OLLIE
IT wasn’t the medal that Ollie Wines craved, but it will have to do – for now.
In a tight Brownlow Medal count, Wines stormed over the top of Bulldogs champion Marcus Bontempelli to become his club’s first Brownlow winner.
SKY-HIGH SHAI
IT was the year of the big grab, and no one leapt higher than Richmond’s Shai Bolton.
He won the mark of the year narrowly from teammate, Jack Riewoldt.
Riewoldt almost challenged his cousin Nick with one of the most courageous marks in recent years.
HOCK SHOCK
AFL footy boss Steve Hocking was instrumental in bringing in two changes for the 2021 season – the ‘stand’ man on the mark rule as well as the medical sub rule which came in just before the start of the season.
But the biggest shock came when Hocking announced in July that he was quitting to become Geelong CEO.
ANZAC DAY
IN A season where crowd caps and empty stadiums were sadly a part of the AFL landscape, it’s worth remembering what happened at the MCG on Anzac Day. The Collingwood-Essendon clash attracted a season-high 78,113 fans – more than 15,000 than any other match in 2021, even if the grand final in Perth (61,000 fans) was a spectacular event.
AFLW EXPANSION
THE AFL’s decision to ensure all 18 clubs will have an AFLW team by 2022-23 was a massive winner.
In a year in which the Brisbane Lions won the AFLW flag, the league’s decision to award Essendon, Hawthorn, Port Adelaide and Sydney new licences will provide more opportunities for fans and players.
TASSIE’S TIME
IF and when Tasmania gets its own stand-alone AFL team, we might look back on 2021 as the year that turbocharged debate. Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein put the AFL on notice earlier in the year, which led to the Colin Carter report on Tasmania’s case for its own team.