This should have been Hawthorn’s best win under Sam Mitchell, taking on the hottest team fresh off a win against Geelong in Geelong. Instead, it was one of the great fumbles.
Hawthorn challenged Port Adelaide to come at them, and Port did. As much as Port Adelaide didn’t give up and scrapped for a win, this was a loss of Hawthorn’s making.
Darcy Byrne-Jones delivered the goal that clinched a win for the ages for the Power.Credit: Getty
Playing without James Sicily, Jack Scrimshaw, Mitchell Lewis and with Luke Breust only coming on as a sub, they had still got out to a 41-point lead. They were playing good, sharp attacking football and had closed out the home team. They were in complete control of the match, right up to the point they relinquished control and gave it to Port Adelaide.
Hawthorn thought they could sit in defence and guard a lead for more than 20 minutes in the last quarter. They are not good enough yet to do that. Not many teams are.
Collingwood did it in the qualifying final against Melbourne last year, but they were two top-four teams. Hawthorn is a bottom-four team, and it was playing a finalist from last year.
The whole last quarter was played in Port’s half of the ground. The Hawks put two players behind the ball, Blake Hardwick and Will Day. Hardwick had kicked five goals to three-quarter-time and was the most influential player on the ground. Sending him behind the ball plainly reinforced the message to Hawthorn’s players that kicking a score was less consequential this quarter than stopping a score. They did neither.
They signalled to their own team that they wanted to play for time, conceded ground position, and challenged Port Adelaide to kick a score. They conceded 23 inside-50s to four for the quarter.
It wasn’t all about what Hawthorn didn’t do – it was also about what Port did do. Ken Hinkley moved Charlie Dixon, who had done nothing as a forward, into the ruck to replace Dante Visentini, who will be very good player but was being muscled around by the bigger Lloyd Meek. Dixon was helpful in Port controlling clearances.
Asking a young side to defend all day and asking the higher-ranked home team to come at you invites a momentum swing, and when it came Hawthorn fumbled.
Even given the misstep of going defensive too early in that last quarter, the Hawks still should have been able to hold on for 10 more seconds and keep Port out in that desperate final play. But inviting pressure can have a price, and Hawthorn paid it.
Young sides will have heartbreaking losses, but abandoning the method that got you into a commanding position and attempting to save the game, not win it, from so far out was tempting fate.
Don’t blame Max King
Max and Ben King look the same, but they are not the same. They play the same position and play it in a very similar way that reflects the fact they are identical twins.
Presently, Ben is flying. Max isn’t. Presently, Ben’s team is in the eight and rising, and Max’s team is St Kilda (Euro-Yroke this round).
The King twins – St Kilda’s Max and Gold Coast’s Ben (right) – face mixed prospects this season.Credit: AFL Photos
Ben is playing in front of Matt Rowell, Noah Anderson and Touk Miller at Gold Coast. And who is Max playing in front of? This is St Kilda’s problem in a nutshell. The problem is not Max King.
One of the unique things about these identical twins in this sporting sense, playing identical positions on the field, is that it creates almost a control group. They are as close as you get to a football science experiment.
How would Max King fare if the twins switched teams for a week? Ben King and the Suns illustrate St Kilda’s problems better than St Kilda does. The Suns have a good midfield, St Kilda doesn’t.
St Kilda is trying to be a top-eight side while playing with a bottom-four midfield. They have recruited to introduce good runners and, by extension, add more run to their game. But after what has turned out to be a misleading opening couple of games, the run has not been seen.
They were certainly extremely fit at the start of the year, and perhaps the early victories were a product of getting a jump on teams.
To the eye, it looked like they began the season with more run, but the numbers don’t support that contention.
In the first three rounds of the year they ranked 16th for generating inside-50s from rebound-50 chains, and since round four they are last. So, ball movement has, by the numbers at least, been slow and stagnant all year.
The idea that they wanted to add runners spoke to an intention to move the ball more quickly, but, still, they play with little dare.
Playing Fremantle (Walyalup) – a team younger than the Saints in average age and average games played – they were exposed on Saturday. The Dockers dominated the midfield but couldn’t convert their chances. St Kilda is, in some ways, a peer of Freo for development, but they don’t have any midfielders in the same class as Caleb Serong or Andrew Brayshaw.
The Saints have been open about needing to introduce A-grade talent (as well as speed) to a B-grade midfield (that’s our grading not theirs).
Of their younger mids, Marcus Windhager looks a capable player and Mattaes Phillipou has strong potential. Darcy Wilson looks promising, but more as a small forward/mid than a full-time onballer.
Max King (centre) walks off with dejected Saints teammates after their loss to the Dockers.Credit: AFL Photos
To find the class they need, they will need to look to the draft because, typically, they have not been able to attract quality players through trades. Liam Henry was a tasty pick-up last off-season, but as an outside runner he is a complementary player, not a game-changer.
The danger when you struggle to land high-quality players in trades is that you become so determined to land a player you end up spending A-plus money on B-grade talent. That is the pitfall they need to avoid now.
St Kilda’s problem then becomes one of timing. Max King will be a far better player if he ever gets to receive the ball from a midfield of equivalent quality ton that which is presently supplying his brother at the Suns. But how long might it take for that quality to arrive at Moorabbin?
How the Tigers picked themselves
Richmond’s side when they won three flags always used to basically pick itself. It did again on the weekend.
The Tigers fell to a new low on Saturday night against Brisbane Lions.Credit: AFL Photos
Richmond had 26 players to choose from, and an injury list of 15. They were never going to win in Brisbane against last year’s runners-up. But they could have given a yelp.
Among the 26 they had to choose from, half their team were premiership players. Unfortunately, along with injuries, this is an equally accurate picture of where they are at. Of the 11 premiership players who played, some were role players when they won the flags, and so not likely to move the dial greatly in a diminished team, and the careers of some of the other premiership players are now close to done.
Marlion Pickett had five touches for the game. Five. Jayden Short has had a good career, but has struggled of late. Maybe he is carrying an injury because he has dropped away quickly.
The broad idea of how bad Richmond actually is cannot accurately be measured at the moment, given the injuries. They remain the only team this year to beat Sydney, which they managed when their list was much healthier. Or put another way; when Tom Lynch played.
Put Lynch, Tim Taranto, Jacob Hopper and Josh Gibcus back in Saturday’s team and Richmond might win. They certainly would not be in North Melbourne territory on the ladder, as they now find themselves.
In a range of 12 critical statistics, the Tigers rank bottom two. They have kicked 622 points in their first 10 games. It is the least they have managed in the first 10 games of a season since 1964.
Losing is expected given the key personnel they are missing, but what is unexpected is the magnitude of the losses – nine goals a fortnight ago, 15 goals last week, 20 goals this week.
Richmond has always played an effort-based game, high on pressure to create turnovers. But the energy and pressure has been missing.
The injuries account for the loss, not the size of the loss. Yes Brisbane kicked accurately, but the Tigers gave up 26 goals.
There is so little to fairly judge Richmond on this year but effort and pressure is one of them and they are failing at that.
Take the kick in, and just keep running
Izak Rankine didn’t look like he ran too far. But apparently GPS or satellite tracking confirmed he did.
What made the Rankine decision so surprising is the licence that is given to other players. And for that, read players kicking in from full-back. Routinely players run to 30 to 35 metres out from goal without penalty.
It is doubtful umpires are directed to be more lenient with defenders playing on at a kick-in, but they are routinely given more licence than others.
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