All-in Tigers facing ‘end of an era’ reality; coach’s ‘shivers down spine’ act: Talking Pts

They weren’t Gather Round’s biggest losers on the scoreboard, but another defeat saw Richmond’s brutal reality come into clearer view.

Plus Ken Hinkley’s “shivers down your spine” act, the brilliant Crows and much more.

The big issues from Round 5 of the 2023 AFL season analysed in Talking Points!

Watch every match of every round of the 2023 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE on Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >

TRUE COST OF BOLD TIGERS TRADES BEGIN TO EMERGE AMID ‘END OF ERA’ FEARS

When Richmond traded away three first-round draft picks to acquire Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper on seven-year contracts at decent coin, the club’s message to fans seemed clear: We’re still in the premiership race.

Five rounds into the 2023 season and the Tigers’ win-loss record (1-3-1), on top of a lengthy injury list, suggest making finals this year might be a stretch. And the impact of the ex-Giants duo – despite their impressive numbers – continues to be heavily scrutinised.

Inside midfielders Hopper and Taranto were brought to the Tigers to address the club’s contested ball and clearance issues. While the duo are among Richmond’s top four players in both categories after five games, the Tigers remain a bottom-eight club for both contested possession and clearance differential.

Taranto (34 disposals) and Hopper (32) were among the Tigers’ top ball-winners on Friday night, but the Sydney Swans won the contested possession and clearance counts handsomely in their 44-point win.

“I just don’t feel that they hurt the opposition enough,” dual premiership Crow Mark Bickley declared on SEN’s Crunch Time.

“You pick up the stats sheet … I just don’t feel like you’re sitting there thinking ‘these guys are cutting apart them apart through the midfield. When (Swans star) Chad Warner gets it and he bursts away and he breaks lines, you feel like he’s hurting the opposition. I don’t say that about those other two.”

Coach Damien Hardwick suggested post-game he had bigger issues than Taranto and Hopper’s outputs.

“They’re going well, they’re using the ball well, gaining possession and winning contested ball like we want them to. But all the pieces are not quite gelling at the moment,” Hardwick told reporters.

“Some of that is selection-based, injury-based. But the fact of matter is we need to be playing better than what we are at the moment, so we’ll get to work on it and make sure we see a better result next week.”

To acquire Hopper and Taranto from the Giants, though, the Tigers had to give up significant draft capital.

They gave away Picks 12 and 19 – the former selection was ultimately part of the four-team mega trade that helped the Giants selected Aaron Cadman at Pick 1, while Pick 19 was essentially used to draft exciting utility Max Gruzewski – for Taranto, while they parted with their own 2023 first-round selection and Pick 31 of the 2022 draft for Hopper.

After one Richmond win from five rounds, that 2023 first-rounder is Pick 4. Whether Hopper, in particular, was worth such a high draft pick, as well as a mid-second-round selection, is up for debate – especially because the top-end of this year’s talent crop is rated higher by recruiters compared to recent past draft classes.

Yes the Tigers could still flip their fortunes over their remaining 18 home and away matches. But if they don’t, they could fall victim to the risks of playing the futures market.

“There’s a reason the Giants kept Tom Green and let these two go,” five-time premiership Hawk Dermott Brereton told Crunch Time.

“I think they’re tremendous players … but neither of them truly run the lines.

“The Giants viewed their pecking order as Tom Green No. 1 – and he’s the last on the scene – then Hopper then Taranto. That’s no slight on them … they just thought: ‘We’ve got three blokes to do the one job. Let’s keep the one we think is the best and he’s the youngest.’”

Port Adelaide premiership player Kane Cornes declared on Friday night the loss to the Swans “felt like the end of an era” for the Tigers.

“I was really perplexed by the moves that they made in the off-season. It was a significant risk and a risk I think is really going to damage the future of the football club,” Cornes told AFL Nation.

“It’s not going to be Damien Hardwick’s problem – because the likelihood of him being there for over 20 years is unlikely when these Hopper and Taranto deals expire (in seven years’ time) – but right now with Richmond’s ladder position, the pick for Jacob Hopper is well inside the top five or six. So that’s going to hurt.

“You’ve also given away three other first-round draft picks, you’ve got some ageing players … They’ve got real concerns.”

While Brereton said he would judge the Tigers with more certainty once some of their better players returned from injury, he suggested their recent list decisions – considering their age profile – were akin to the moves Hawthorn made after their three-peat.

“It sounds like it’s almost a history of my team that I love, Hawthorn, with O’Meara and Tom Mitchell, Wingard, even Jarman Impey … getting players like that in,” Brereton said on Saturday morning.

“For what you give up, you want core players. Are they top-up players or will they be core to your survival and progression? I’m a hold and wait and see at the moment on this.”

Bickley pointed out West Coast made a similar call when it essentially parted with two first-round picks, as well as an early second, to acquire Tim Kelly from Geelong.

Co-host Gerard Whateley pondered: “I think the question that sits on Hopper and Taranto right now is are they Mitchell and O’Meara, who have come when you’re grasping at it one more time but it actually is gone?”

The Tigers’ decision in 2016 to give up Pick 6 for Dion Prestia from Gold Coast received heavy criticism at the time. Three flags and a best and fairest in a premiership year later, it’s fair to suggest the deal was worthwhile.

But the timing is important to remember, because the Prestia trade was struck before the Tigers were considered flag threats. The Hopper and Taranto deals came two years after Richmond had won in its third flag and four seasons.

While it’s early doors, a Hawthorn or West Coast-like fall after such bold trades will be heavily scrutinised.

‘SHIVERS DOWN YOUR SPINE’: THIS COULD BECOME AN ICONIC POWER IMAGE

It’s the image that could become iconic for Port Adelaide: Ken Hinkley in a passionate, intimate discussion with prized recruit Jason Horne-Francis – with torrential rain pouring down at Adelaide Oval – after the young star’s inspirational fourth quarter in a gritty, hard-fought Power victory in the inaugural Gather Round.

Hinkley and Horne-Francis are clearly the most pressing and intriguing Port storylines of the 2023 season. The coach is out of contract at the end of his 11th season in charge at Alberton, while Horne-Francis is the club’s prized recruit after he requested a trade home – which was ultimately struck in a mega four-club deal – one year after North Melbourne drafted him with Pick 1.

Throughout the Power’s win over the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night, Horne-Francis was booed by some sections of the crowd – at his home venue. The logical explanation behind the jeers would be that some rival club fans in town for Gather Round decided to let their feelings about the South Adelaide product known.

Horne-Francis let his footy do the talking on Saturday night, racking up 11 disposals, seven contested possessions, five inside 50s and four clearances in the fourth quarter alone to help the Power secure victory.

“If he doesn‘t play (on Saturday) night, Port Adelaide don’t win,” Power premiership player Kane Cornes told Channel 9’s The Sunday Footy Show. “For a 19-year-old to do that was a significant achievement.”

Cameras then captured Hinkley’s discussion with Horne-Francis after the final siren, which drew praise from Fremantle legend Matthew Pavlich.

“You talk about connection – and that word is bandied around almost every time a player speaks about their club – but that’s what true connection is. The coach is looking the player in the eye and there’s almost that father figure-like engagement with his player,” Pavlich told Fox Footy.

“You can see what happened at three quarter-time, he gets the response so Kenny goes and rewards him after the game. It’s great footage.”

Horne-Francis was interviewed by Fox Footy’s Brad Johnson in the rooms, with the young gun paying tribute to his coach.

“He (Hinkley) was supporting me throughout the whole game – I really needed that,” Horne-Francis told Fox Footy.

“He just told me to keep playing my game, hunting the footy – that’s what I do best. I thought that’s what I went back to in the last quarter.

“I appreciate him sticking by me and having the confidence to still chuck me in the midfield.”

Asked post-game what he said to Horne-Francis, Hinkley suggested it was an encouragement to a young player that he mightn’t have had a great night overall but could still have a great moment or two.

Hinkley then morphed his response in the press conference into a scathing attack on Horne-Francis’ critics – both commentators and jeering fans.

“He’s 19 years old. If you’re treating my 19-year-old son the way some people have treated him, I’d be embarrassed by my performance if I was those people,” the Power coach told reporters.

“I’m talking about people who write stories every week, talk stories every week and I’m talking about the treatment that they gave him, at times, tonight.

“And I tell you what, some people who put pressure on kids in this game need to have a good hard look at themselves.”

Cornes said the Power coach’s impassioned defence of Horne-Francis was “Ken Hinkley at his absolute best”.

“Those comments there, they almost give you shivers down your spine,” he said. “He’s a father figure. When the players are under pressure, when they need a support mechanism, Ken Hinkley has been there for Jason Horne-Francis.

“And he’s right. The treatment from some of the North Melbourne supporters towards Horne- Francis has been disgraceful and continues to be disgraceful and they‘ve got to look at themselves as well. He has left the footy club now, the North Melbourne fans can let it go and focus on what is there now. All the clips on social media that people keep clipping up to highlight some deficiencies in his game needs to stop.

“It was a line in the sand moment. The club is sick of it, not necessarily the booing, but they’ve had enough.”

Four-time premiership Hawk Jordan Lewis said he loved Hinkley’s comments.

“I’m in the Ken Hinkley camp. It (booing) irks me, I think it‘s uneducated and people just do it because someone else is doing it,” Lewis told Fox Footy.

“I don’t necessarily know about the stories that have been written, but being here tonight and just listening to the crowd – when an 18 or 19-year-old kid gets the ball – for no reason whatsoever, maybe because he wanted to come home you hear the boos around the ground – I thought it was disgraceful.”

Five-time premiership Hawk Dermott Brereton said it was “wonderful (Hinkley) is sticking up for his man”, but also defended fans’ right to jeer – within reason – at games.

“People pay their money – and it might be uneducated – but they pay their money, they are allowed to scream and shout,” Brereton told Fox Footy.

“It might be uneducated the way they are doing it … But come to the footy, it’s a release for them.

“He‘s a 19-year-old, he’s a grown man.

“I‘m from an era when it happened to all of us so you sort of get on with it.”

HOW SHREWD COACH ADDED ‘LAYERS’ TO HELP CROWS BECOME ‘REAL DEAL’

Gather Round began with an explosive statement from the Adelaide Crows, who proved they have all the traits to be a genuine finals contender.

And dual All-Australian Leigh Montagna believes coach Matthew Nicks’ shrewd and patient approach with his playing group is the prime reason behind the team’s early surge in 2023

The Crows on Thursday night pulled off their third win on the trot, setting up a 56-point victory over Carlton with an emphatic eight-goal first quarter. They’re inside the top eight with a 3-2 record and a healthy percentage of 118.

After finishing among the bottom five clubs in the previous three consecutive seasons, few would’ve predicted the Crows to make this year’s finals series. In fact no Fox Footy pundits tipped the Crows would feature in September.

But even before their blitz of the Blues, the evidence was there Adelaide had a profile and style that could match it with the AFL’s best teams.

“We didn’t necessarily expect this from Adelaide – especially the start – but it doesn‘t surprise us when you look at their last three weeks,” Montagna told Fox Footy.

“The fact they’ve been able to back it up, it shows us they’re the real deal.”

Triple Coleman Medallist Jason Dunstall said the Crows’ improvement had “snuck under our guard”.

“If it was Carlton that had done what Adelaide had done in this first term, we’d say: ‘Gee that was good, but we probably knew they had it in their arsenal.’ But I didn’t know Adelaide had this – at least not yet,” he told Fox Footy.

“Now we’re seeing glimpses of what this group is capable of achieving and it’s pretty scary – and pretty exciting if you’re an Adelaide Crows fan.”

Montagna pointed out Adelaide’s improvement this year was a result of Nicks gradually adding “layers” to his side’s game plan over recent years.

“Last year they were a strong contest and pressure side, so they built the fundamentals and foundation,” he said.

“This year they’ve added the layers on: The better ball use from stoppage, the run and spread and the class. It’s continuing to add layers to what they’ve been working on.”

Dual premiership Kangaroo David King added: “It’s all system. I keep coming back to what Matthew Nicks is trying to get them to do: Shut down the opposition when they’ve got the ball, make the game small, get inside, pressure.

“They’ve got all components covered at the moment and the leadership are playing great football.”

The Crows’ credentials will again be tested over the next month. After a trip to Tasmania to take on wooden spoon favourites Hawthorn, Nicks’ troops will host Collingwood in Round 7, followed by a trip to Geelong to face the Cats before returning to Adelaide for a clash with the much-improved Saints.

“I reckon Matthew Nicks would be really excited by those three games,” Dunstall said. “I think he wants to test these blokes because they’ve done a lot of work, they’ve come a long way but now they need to start matching it with the big boys.

“They’ve done it (on Thursday night), they need to do it another three or four times in the space of three weeks to really lift this club up to the upper echelon.”

HOW ‘ABSOLUTE ENERGY MACHINE’ PULLED OFF 2023’S BEST AFL GAME YET

The small forward role is one of the hardest to play in the AFL.

Tom Papley on Friday night made it look easy with a virtuoso performance that he celebrated with more gusto than usual – if that’s possible.

In fact it might’ve been the best individual outing by any player so far this season.

With his Swans decimated by injury and the Tigers mounting a serious fightback in the third term, All-Australian Papley produced his finest hour.

The Sydney star kicked a career-best 6.2 from 25 disposals, 12 contested possessions, six inside 50s, five clearances and 686m gained. His touches were invaluable, punctuated by the fact 13 of his 25 disposals ended up in a Swans score; two of them direct goal assists to Justin McInerney and Corey Warner in the second term.

It was the highest-rating game any player has produced so far in 2023, according to Champion Data.

All six of Papley’s goals came in the second half. One came from an exquisite crumb, one from a thumping drop punt on the run and then a couple after outsmarting his Tigers opponent to allow him to pounce on a loose ball.

“I always though Luke Breust was the best front and centre player I’d ever seen. This bloke is now challenging – and he goes into the middle of the ground and gets involved,” five-time All-Australian Garry Lyon told Fox Footy.

Lyon added that he loved the way Papley celebrates his goals and “gets under the skin of the opposition”.

Papley is surely the most flamboyant goal celebrator in the AFL – and he has every right to, because he truly walks the talk.

“He’s just an absolute energy machine,” Swans teammate Will Gould told foxfooty.com.au of Papley. “He’s a special player.

“Just around the club, he’s the same as what you see on TV: A funny energy ball. He gets annoying at times, but he’s a pleasure to play with.”

Asked how motivating his goal celebrations were, Gould said with a laugh: “Absolutely. Running around, arms in the air, waving his fingers – it’s awesome. It gets us up, that’s for sure.”

But as animated and showy as Papley is, he’s a very shrewd player.

Four-time premiership Hawk Jordan Lewis added said an underrated aspect to Papley’s game is he “understands his strengths”.

“He doesn’t try to be that high flyer when there’s a pack there,” Lewis told Fox Footy. “He uses his body really well when there’s a one-on-one position because he knows where the dangerous space is where he can really maximise his talent. He plays his role so well and to a really high level.

“He is the player that ignites, but also off the ball he just controls the ground really well.”

The usually straight-shooting John Longmire couldn’t help but have a chuckle post-game when he was asked about Papley’s performance.

“It’s not always about the goals with Tom – although it was tonight,” Longmire told reporters with a wry smile.

“His ability to hit the scoreboard at important times was crucial, but also his ability to win important one-on-ones up the ground then get back inside 50, keep his feet and hit the scoreboard was outstanding.”

EAGLES’ OBVIOUS ISSUE EXPOSED AGAIN

While a second half fightback ensured West Coast’s Gather Round loss to Geelong wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been, the clear flaws of the list were on display once again.

Adam Simpson’s club has gone to the draft over the last couple of years but attempts to remain in the premiership hunt following the 2018 Grand Final, which were fruitless, have cost them dearly.

And while they were one of the younger teams of Round 5, their list remains a doughnut, with a big hole in the prime-aged middle but plenty of older and younger players.

Shannon Hurn, Nic Naitanui, Luke Shuey, Jeremy McGovern, Jamie Cripps, Jack Darling and Andrew Gaff are all 30 or older, while Elliot Yeo (29) and Tim Kelly (29 in July) are also closer to the end than the start.

“That’s the issue with the list,” Hawthorn great Dermott Brereton said on Fox Footy during the coverage of Eagles-Cats.

After a Darling goal, Brereton praised the veteran forward, stating: “Jack Darling, he’ll get to 500 goals this year, and that is some sort of feat.”

But Adelaide legend Mark Ricciuto responded: “He’s 31 in June. To accelerate their rebuild, the West Coast Eagles, do they trade away players that could go to clubs in the window and make them better to accelerate, and to get more draft picks?

“To get more good players in and make them better quicker, that’s the decision they have to make. Or do they keep them around?”

And after a discussion about Yeo, Ricciuto added: “He’s one of those guys that they need to work out is he the right guy to take him through the rebuild or can they trade him out and get some stock for him?”

It’s unclear how much the Eagles would get for a couple of years of these champion players, and there’s an argument to be made they can help guide the younger members of the squad.

But it’s not as if they’re winning many games with the core of the 2018 premiership side still at the club, so ‘being competitive’ is hardly a reason to keep them.