A fan video has exposed an ongoing AFL issue involving the game’s biggest names that needs to be solved.
Plus why we have to see through Alastair Clarkson’s tricky ploy, and the ever-growing trade value of a Swans star.
Catch up on the weekend’s big headlines in foxfooty.com.au’s Round 8 Talking Points.
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STAR SWAN’S SCARY NEW TRADE VALUE
If Pick 9 couldn’t get a deal done for Tom Papley last year, it’s scary to think what the Swan’s trade value could be in 2020.
Papley in October requested a move to Carlton. The Blues’ Pick 9 would’ve likely changed hands — but the Swans and Blues weren’t able to strike a deal due to the Swans-Bombers stalemate over the possible Joe Daniher move.
At the time, Papley had just come off a 2019 campaign where he was the No.1 ranked Swans for goals and goal assists, as well as second for score involvements.
Eight rounds into the home and away season and Papley sits on top of the Coleman Medal table, while he’s ranked in the AFL’s top 10 for score involvements and marks inside 50.
Papley’s four-goal haul against Hawthorn saw him take his 2020 tally to 19 and extend his lead on the top Coleman Medal table. The 178cm forward has stepped up in superstar teammate Lance Franklin’s absence, to the point where he’s remarkably been the most targeted AFL player inside 50 this season.
12-point play ignites SCG
1:22
Four-time premiership Hawk Jordan Lewis told Fox Footy’s Saturday Stretch that he could “understand why Carlton were aggressive in going after him” during last year’s trade period.
Speaking on AFL Media’s The Round So Far, Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes said Papley was “clearly the hottest footballer in the game right now”, claiming the Swans would be a realistic finals threat in 2021 – but only if Papley remains at the club.
While the breaking of contracts has become more common in recent years, the 24-year-old has a long-term deal at the Swans that runs until the end of 2023.
Carlton’s Pick 9 couldn’t get it done for Papley last year, so what’s he worth now?
“He’s worth more (than Pick 9),” Cornes said but he’s contracted to the Swans. So I don’t see there’s really anything that they would give up to let him go.”
“Under, really, not much circumstances – unless it’s a ridiculous offer coming from Carlton – would I be letting him go if I was the Swans.”
Horse filthy on Clarko bake
1:09
Bulldogs legend Brad Johnson said Papley’s workrate had “gone through the roof”, allowing him to have more impact on games.
“The last 12 months, he is contest to contest, inside 50 and out, he’s working hard and that’s why he’s starting to get the rewards,” Johnson told Saturday Stretch.
“The defenders are finding it very hard to match up on him.”
Papley is 24, a lock for the All-Australian small forward spot, arguably Sydney’s most important player with three years left on his current deal and the game’s most watchable star as an electric goalkicker that can also have an impact at centre bounce clearances.
Last year, he was reportedly looking at a five-year deal worth around $600,000 to $700,000 per season, with Pick 9 said to be Carlton’s main carrot for the Swans.
With the future salary cap situation still unclear, it’s harder to put a dollar amount on Papley. But he’s certainly worth more than Pick 9. Two Pick 9s?
As of Monday afternoon with most of Round 8 completed, the Blues hold Pick 8, but perhaps North Melbourne could get in on the action.
The Kangaroos right now hold Pick 2 (their natural pick) as well as Melbourne’s first-round selection, currently Pick 6.
Bombers hold off Crows
1:33
DO WE REALLY KNOW HOW GOOD THE BOMBERS ARE?
If you look at Essendon’s 2020 campaign to date on win-loss alone, you’d be thrilled as Bombers fan with a 5-2 record sitting just outside the top four with a game in hand.
Scratch the surface a little more, though, and you could understand why some are still sceptical about the Bombers.
Essendon was lucky to escape Adelaide on Sunday with a three-point win after the winless Crows threw everything at the Bombers in the last quarter, only for inaccuracy in front of goal to come back to bite them.
Ultimately, it was the Bombers’ work without the ball that won them the game, laying 76 tackles for the match – the most by any team so far this season.
Yet it was also another close win over another bottom-10 side.
If you looked at the ladder positions after Sunday’s win against the Crows, the Bombers had beaten Fremantle (16th), Sydney (14th), North Melbourne (17th) and Adelaide (18th). The other win came against sixth-placed Collingwood in Round 5 – arguably the best and most impressive win by an Essendon outfit in years.
But overall, their percentage is entirely unimpressive. In fact Essendon’s percentage of 100.23% is the third lowest in the last 20 years for a team with a 5-2 record, and the 12th lowest ever.
Still, a 5-2 record is strong. And, ultimately, you can only play who you’re scheduled against.
But now the Bombers’ schedule looks like this over the next month: Brisbane (in Queensland), Giants, Gold Coast (in Queensland) and St Kilda – all top-nine teams.
Come late August, we’ll truly know where the Bombers sit.
One of the plays of the year!
0:35
VIDEO EXPOSES AFL STARS BEING ‘ASSAULTED’
The AFL has already had to make an in-season tweak to holding the ball; now they might need to worry about the other side of the coin.
A fan video which went viral after Carlton’s win against North Melbourne is drawing attention to the holding the man rule, and the lack of enforcement in contested situations.
The video in question involved Blues midfield bull Patrick Cripps, who wasn’t awarded a free kick after being tackled without being anywhere close to possessing the footy.
While Cripps appears to grab Jed Anderson’s guernsey, he is then dragged to the ground by his Kangaroos opponent and loses any opportunity to impact the contest.
Uproar over Cripps treatment
0:16
AFL 360 host and Herald Sun chief footy writer Mark Robinson put it simply in his column this weekend, saying “Cripps is being assaulted at stoppages and is not being looked after”.
“Come on, umpires, don’t worry about holding the ball all the time, what about holding the man,” he implored.
But it’s not just about that incident – which, to be fair, could have seen Anderson paid a free kick too – but about how many incidents like it there are in every game.
And as Blues coach David Teague explained on Sunday morning, this isn’t a new problem.
“You want your ball-winners to be able to go out and hunt the ball, and the opposition are coming out and trying to stop him,” Teague told Nine’s Sunday Footy Show.
“It’s a challenge. It’s not new to this year, Patrick’s been facing that a while, and I love the way he approaches it. He keeps hunting the ball and attacking and taking the game on, so to his credit, he keeps competing for us and that’s what we need.”
Cripps downed by Roo’s studs
1:02
That was probably the nicest thing anyone associated with Carlton said about the incident all weekend; former player Nick Graham’s tweet of “this is a joke” was more in line with the fan response.
Cripps was in fact charged for wrestling Anderson during the match, with a $750 fine on offer for the Blues star.
Teague was right, this isn’t a new problem. But it is almost certainly a factor in the concerns many AFL analysts and viewers have about the state of the game.
It’s not just about fairness – if players deserve free kicks and they’re not getting them, that’s an issue with the enforcement of the rules – but also about the flow-on effects.
Players tackling opponents who don’t have full possession of the ball, or have it at all, help create the rolling mauls which are plaguing the game.
People talk about skills being worse in modern footy, and how the game doesn’t look like it used to; but that’s because defence has improved more than the skills have, and because coaches are now much more focused on implementing defensive strategies.
In a sense, it’s harder to play high-skill footy than high-pressure footy – one requires players to kick precisely, the other requires them to just run and tackle hard. More players can do the latter, because it’s as much about giving effort as anything else.
Cracking down on holding the man, and allowing our best players to run free, would surely improve the game.
Swans add to Hawks’ woes
2:18
DON’T LET CLARKO HIDE HAWKS’ PROBLEMS
Hawthorn’s poor form continued on Saturday as Alastair Clarkson’s side made it four losses on the trot.
The Hawks kicked at just 44 per cent efficiency, their worst-ever under Clarkson, with the figure being the fourth-worst recorded by Champion Data in the last 15 years.
It’s a remarkable turnaround from their premiership years last decade when they were known for their incredible play by foot.
But the master coach made an effort at deflecting the attention onto him when he called out Sydney’s Tom Papley for milking free kicks.
“Alastair Clarkson has almost been the master of deflection,” Port Adelaide champion Kane Cornes told AFL Media.
“Since he made those ridiculous comments that the state of the game was in a ‘dreadful’ space, how has his side gone? Well, it’s been deplorable.
“Alastair Clarkson has a lot more issues on his plate than Tom Papley getting knocked over by a much bigger man after a goal was kicked.
“I would’ve thought the frustration would have been directed and his experienced player in Frawley and not at the hottest player in the competition right now, Tom Papley.”
Saints great Nick Riewoldt believes the real problems at the Hawks stem from their midfield group, with Clarkson stuck with a similar trio on the inside.
“They’ve got a midfield problem for a start. I think the blokes who they’ve got, all highly regarded ball winners, tough players. We know they find the footy really well,” Riewoldt said on Fox Footy.
“O’Meara, Worpel, Mitchell, Shiels – they don’t hurt you with the footy. So I think there is a serious personnel issue. That is a part of the ground they have really invested heavily in going and targeting Tom Mitchell, Jaeger O’Meara.
“Worpel won the best and fairest last year, they’ve got some serious questions to answer. They’ve got the ageing stars.
“I think the players you get excited about from a Hawthorn point of view are Sicily, Frost, Wingard, Lewis, but it is Worpel, Mitchell, O’Meara they’re the ones you think they can build something around.”
Garry Lyon praised youngster Will Day’s composure in the back-half, adding that Clarkson has had similar problems of three alike players in the same role.
“Mitchell, Lewis, Hodge. The three greats, they can’t play in the middle at the same time,” he said of Clarkson’s coaching in the past.
“Mitchell transitions out, Hodge goes half back and these guys haven’t got the same CV. But he will look at them. They just accumulate, they don’t create.”
Hawks press conference
11:48
Clarkson is adamant he is in it for the long haul, but former Hawk Ben Dixon is unsure he will want to rebuild the club after claiming four premierships during his coaching stint.
“There’s three certainties in life, death, taxes and Clarko isn’t going to do a rebuild,” Dixon said on Fox Footy.
“They’ve got a lot to think about in terms of the way they are going about it. They’ve got a lot of players north of 25.
“I’m just worried they haven’t been to the draft table since Jason Dunstall had hair, they’ve got some things to think about in terms of the way they want to play and how their list will look like going forward.
“It has been such a long stint for hawthorn at the top and now they are in the middle run and it’s about the Swannies now.
“They’ve got some young kids coming through, that’s the difference between the Swans and the Hawks. They’ve got some young kids that are going to celebrate and Hawthorn have to find that. The balance is going to be difficult.”
Swans add to Hawks’ woes
2:18
THE TIGER THAT GOT AWAY
Richmond fans would be thrilled to see Dan Butler thriving at the Saints, but no doubt it’d be hurting them at the same time.
If someone had told you pre-season that Butler — the inconsistent small forward that fell out of favour at the Tigers — would be sitting outright third on the Coleman Medal, you would’ve had every right to laugh in their face.
But eight games in to St Kilda’s promising 2020 campaign and Butler has booted 15 goals and averaged a career-high 11.6 disposals from seven outings.
Just as importantly, Butler is also among the top forward pressure players in the competition, averaging two tackles inside 50 per week. Overall, he’s the fifth-ranked general forward in the league, according to the Official AFL Player Ratings.
And he only cost the Saints Pick 56.
Saints surprise Power
3:00
Ultimately, Butler fell out of favour at the Tigers, playing just 22 of a possible 49 games in 2018 and 2019. The acquisition of Tom Lynch and Jason Castagna’s improvement made it hard for the Tigers to fit another goalkicker in there, so you can understand why Butler was let go.
But surely not even the Tigers could imagine their former small forward could have such dramatic impact after being let go for a draft pick Richmond didn’t even use last year.
Mind you, it’s not the worst list call the Tigers have made over the past 20 years. Tambling over Buddy, Fiora over Pavlich – too soon? Too far?
