Australian rules football is replete with buzz phrases. “The AFL can send a major message here,” is one. “It’s a bad look for the AFL,” is another. With apologies to their cricketing counterparts, it has been the most rotten fortnight imaginable for Australia’s number one sporting organisation, with three senior officials shown the door, one for a running roundhouse “king-hit” in a local game, and two for “love rat” scandals that came to a head on Friday. Throw into the mix overruling its own tribunal, former teammates being arrested over extortion claims, the elevation of Barry Hall to the Hall of Fame, and the announcement that James Hird will present this year’s Norm Smith Medal, and there’s plenty of messages being sent. Many, as always, are of the mixed variety.
The whys and wherefores of the latest scandal are best left to the curtain-peeking set. The fact is that any organisation that posits itself as a social leader had little choice. Lethlean and Simkiss had to go. Not even Waleed Aly could have saved them. “Our industry is on a journey of change,” outgoing commercial boss Simkiss said in a statement. If that journey continues on its current trajectory, there’ll be no-one left at league headquarters to answer the phones.
It’s a shame, really, because all these trifles distract from and diminish what has been one of the more compelling seasons in recent memory. Often, at this time of year, when the wind whips a little harder, when the players are itching for a break and the eight is more or less settled, footy can seem a little ho-hum. Not so season 2017. None of the 70,000 odd fans at a sun-kissed MCG on Saturday were discussing champions or journeys of change. They instead paid tribute to one of the finest captains the game has seen and witnessed, and one of the more extraordinary individual performances of the year. When Patrick Dangerfield was felled, the part-time physicians quickly had Geelong preparing for a rebuild, whilst drafting Dustin Martin’s Brownlow speech. A few Ray Chamberlin atrocities later and Dangerfield was hobbling back on. His performance was in many ways a throwback, a masterclass of guile and grit, the sort of thing you see in local footy and Geelong fans came to expect a quarter of a century ago from a man far less comfortable in the spotlight.
No-one left the MCG with anything but admiration for Clarkson’s Hawthorn. In the corresponding fixture on Easter Monday, they looked gone for all money, a rare blowout in a rivalry that has now seen 12 out of the last 20 games decided by less than 10 points. If not for Dangerfield and a mad final rush on goal that just went astray, they’d be in finals contention and striking fear into all and sundry.
Speaking of buzz phrases, “they’ve got ahead of themselves,” is getting a good run lately. Essendon apparently got ahead of themselves against Brisbane. Melbourne got ahead of themselves against Sydney. Richmond against St Kilda. And on Friday it was the turn of a sluggish St Kilda, who were dismantled by an Essendon side that had lost its past ten Friday night matches. The Bombers are irresistible when they’re in full flight, so much so that Bruce Mcavaney suggested they could become everyone’s second team. That’s a bit of a stretch, but if they hadn’t thrown two games away, they’d be ripe for a double chance. Next week they face North Melbourne, exactly the sort of game they’re inclined to stuff up, whereupon of course they’ll have got ahead of themselves.
And so, as the AFL CEO jets off to the Tour de France, we ponder a Round 18 that pits the top-placed Crows against the 2nd placed Cats, a team they’ve been unable to get a handle on in recent years. Elsewhere, the 3rd placed Giants take on the 5th placed Tigers, 4th placed Port meet the 7th placed Demons, and Sydney (6th) host St Kilda (9th). It is, despite all the tumult, the most tantalising of fixtures. It brings to mind a conversation The Age sportswriter Greg Baum once had with Brownlow medallist Neil Roberts. “Lucky bastards, the AFL,” Roberts said as he surveyed a heaving MCG on Grand Final Day, “they could screw up everything and they would still have this.”
