Richmond don’t have Rhyan Mansell for three matches because he bumped a player high and left him concussed.
Richmond don’t have Noah Balta for four matches because he put a bloke on his backside outside a pub then whaled into him with his fists while he was on the ground. The man went to hospital, albeit briefly.
Noah Balta’s four-match ban is now complete and there’s a couple of weeks before he gets sentenced in court.Credit: Getty Images
Balta has already pleaded guilty to the assault and is awaiting sentencing on April 22. He would hope the magistrate is as lenient as the AFL and Richmond.
The AFL agreed with Richmond’s immediate decision after the assault to suspend Balta for the first four matches of the season. And the league threw in the club’s two practice matches of course, but forget those; it was a four-match ban not a six-game ban. Not playing those practice matches is not going to stop Balta being automatically selected in the team this week now that his four-game suspension is over.
The AFL and clubs are almost always in communication over club-based sanctions, so it was no surprise that the league ratified Richmond’s four-match ban.
But we have all seen the video now. We have all seen Balta come racing out of the pub, barrel into the man sending him flying, then start belting him repeatedly in the head.
We can only assume the AFL hadn’t seen the CCTV of the incident when they agreed with the four-match ban.
Had Balta committed the same act against someone on a football field instead of outside a pub, the tribunal would have banned him for half a season. The fact this assault happened outside a pub on a concrete driveway should be an aggravating factor not a mitigating one.
“Your Honour can see he (the victim) becomes fully airborne and travels a metre or a metre-and-a-half,” prosecutor Sergeant Jason Tozer told the court.
“It is only sheer luck that his head did not make contact with that concrete.”
Last week AFL chief Andrew Dillon said the AFL would not step in before Balta’s sentencing. “We have worked with Richmond and we’re comfortable with the suspension and the suspension that Noah has served … we’re comfortable with where Richmond landed on that one,” Dillon said.
Maybe it’s only players’ heads the AFL worries about.
Forget what penalty the courts eventually impose, the AFL had the chance to show leadership here and it failed dismally. Balta’s suspension should have been extended.
Rankine error not the difference
Izaak Rankine should have been paid a mark in the last minute of Adelaide’s game against Gold Coast, or a free kick for being tackled before as he marked the ball. It was one or the other. The AFL admitted the ump made a mistake.
Rankine would most likely have scored something from a kick from that spot close to the boundary. Given his skill set and knowledge of the ground (as a former Sun), it would probably have been a goal, but even a point would have levelled he scores with a minute to go.
Of course, memories will immediately fall back on the scoring stuff-up two years ago that the AFL also admitted afterwards was a mistake that cost Adelaide a win against Sydney, which, in turn, cost them a place in the finals.
But before anyone gets too conspiratorial about the great Adelaide injustice, consider the moment in the second quarter when a free kick should have absolutely been paid against Adelaide’s Mark Keane for throwing the ball to Jake Soligo at the top of the Gold Coast Suns’ goal square. It was a clearer mistake than the Rankine moment. The Suns would have certainly kicked a goal.
Gold Coast clearly did have the better of the umpiring calls on the day, but to dwell on this or the Rankine decision misses the point.
Gold Coast had six more shots at goal, and seven more inside-50s in what was not only the best game of the year so far, it was a window on two teams that, even this early in the season, look highly likely to be playing finals. It’s tempting to say they will certainly play finals, but this is Gold Coast so let’s cool our jets.
This game was the Suns’ first taste of finals intensity. There was a period in the third quarter when the pressure rating for both teams was in the red zone, well above 220 (and no, don’t ask for a definition of the rating, but the rankings have for some time now been accurate to what the naked eye tells you is happening in games).
It’s rare that both teams are going at that level. There was just no time or space in this game.
Gold Coast was able to win despite losing the clearance count, which is rare for them. In large part, they could do that because the arrival of Dan Rioli and John Noble has given them run and creativity that has provided different ways for them to win games.
Adelaide was excellent around the ball. Rankine had 10 clearances alone, which was more than Rowell and Noah Anderson combined, as he continues his development from a small forward and pinch-hitting midfielder to a mid who sometimes rolls forward.
Jed Walter soars over teammate Ben Long and Crow James Borlase.Credit: AFL Photos
The Crows are vastly improved for the inclusions of Isaac Cumming, James Peatling and Alex Neal-Bullen, but their greatest change from last year is the return of Riley Thilthorpe. Injured last year, he has returned bigger stronger and better. His return makes the Crows forward line the best in the AFL.
His verbal confrontation with Mac Andrew, which began in the last minute or so and continued after the siren, made for theatre and will add spice in round 19 when these teams next play each other.
Thilthorpe had the better of the day, but Andrew won the most critical last-minute marking contest and his side won the day. And Andrew let him know about it.
The siren should have been the full stop on the trash talk, but it seems that’s no longer the case in football these days, as Ken Hinkley showed in last year’s finals series.
These two combatants will play on one another for the next decade. There will be time enough for Thilthorpe to have his reply.
In some ways, even though Gold Coast won, the Crows forwards gave a pointer of where Suns forwards Jed Walter and Ethan Read will be in two more years.
This was Walter’s best game, more so for the five marks and the presence he had than the three goals he kicked. But he is still only hinting at the player he could be. While Read has enormous potential, he is further back than Walter.
Thilthorpe, in contrast, is proving by the week to be among the most dominant big forwards in the game, even if Jesse Hogan offered a little reminder on Sunday afternoon that there is still a pecking order among full-forwards.
Saints impress, Port alarm
The significance of Sunday’s win over Port Adelaide can’t be overstated for St Kilda.
St Kilda playmaker Bradley Hill enjoys a rare win for his club in Adelaide.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
Belted in Adelaide in the opening round, they have now won three games in a row. Beforehand, they had only won three of their past 19 games at Adelaide Oval, where their average losing margin was 45 points.
And Port had won 14 of their past 15 against the Saints.
Port Adelaide’s Mitch Geogiades flies high for a screamer against St Kilda.Credit: Getty Images
They booted nine goals in the first half and led by five goals when Port came at them. Suddenly, it seemed the Saints had lost their ability to score, and it would have been unsurprising if momentum got them in that last quarter. But the Saints showed maturity to shut out the demons of history.
Without Max King they got an honest contest from Mason Wood. Mitch Owens was clever and Jack Higgins is just a smart footballer who always seems to find the right spots.
As significant as the win was for the Saints, the significance of defeat was alarming for Port. They were second at the end of the last home-and-away season, but are now utterly adrift.
Just two months ago, they belted St Kilda in the pre-season. How is their succession plan looking now?
Tough love for Eagles debutant
It felt like the moment, back in 2006, when Alastair Clarkson, then coaching Hawthorn, left inexperienced defender Zac Dawson on Collingwood’s Anthony Rocca and the big Magpie pushed him around and booted eight goals.
Jesse Hogan had a day out against West Coast.Credit: via Getty Images
On Sunday, GWS Coleman medallist Jesse Hogan kicked nine … on a debutant.
“I thought Sandy Brock actually defended quite well, but their class, supply and his talent was just a bit too much for us at times,” West Coast coach Andrew McQualter said.
“You could put stephen Silvagni on him in the backline, and he still would have kicked a few today.“
It was a hell of a debut.
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