The return of the Menz
Collingwood rediscovered their early season intensity and Geelong learned a lot more about which triple-premiership heroes will be pulling up stumps in coming weeks. But the most important story to emerge from the MCG on Friday night was the successful return of Daniel Menzel. It had been precisely 1,450 days since the prodigiously talented Cat first ruptured his ACL during the 2011 finals series. A further three knee reconstructions, countless complications and lingering soft tissue injuries later, Menzel finally returned to senior action a month shy of his 24th birthday with just 21 games under his belt.
Remarkably, he was comfortably his team’s best player in an otherwise dismal performance. The crafty half-forward – equal parts nous, skill and strength – finished with 20 touches (14 contested), 4.2 and a final quarter speccy that had his parents rising from their seats in unbridled joy.
This wasn’t the tentative return of a player unsure where he stands – it was a player desperate to make up for lost time. Menzel has a long road ahead of him to not only play but also contribute on a weekly basis, but he cleared the first hurdle with ease and will surely give hope to fellow multiple knee victims like Sydney’s Alex Johnson (whose last game was the 2012 grand final), Hawthorn’s Alex Woodward and Western Bulldog Clay Smith.
Football clubs sell new seasons to their supporters on the basis of hope. And if Menzel can carry Friday night’s form and confidence into the pre-season and beyond, the hope will be that his dazzling comeback was only a taste of what’s in store.
GWS must avoid a Suns-like drop in 2016
In many ways, the Giants’ 2015 campaign mirrors Gold Coast’s 2014. A list stacked with top-end talent, a couple of watershed victories over quality teams and a finals threat for much of the year, until the injuries mounted and young legs fatigued. What the Giants must focus on all summer is ensuring they continue to grow in 2016, and avoid the type of plummet experienced by the Suns this season.
The Giants’ eight-to-one-goal third quarter against the Blues on Saturday – the type of high-octane football we’ve rarely seen from them in recent months – was a reminder of how potent this team can be. With at least half a dozen first choice players on the sideline, the Giants got great drive from the classy Lachie Whitfield (22 touches, one goal) and Josh Kelly (18 touches, two goals) while highly rated defender Lachie Plowman starred in his first game of an injury-ravaged season.
In Jeremy Cameron (seven goals and surely a lock for his second All-Australian selection), Cam McCarthy, James Stewart and Adam Tomlinson, the Giants have an enviable array of tall talent and even if midfielder Adam Treloar departs for Victoria as expected, the Giants will likely have two top 10 draft picks to play with.
Despite missing the eight, GWS have taken some monumental strides forward this season. Sustaining it and then building on it next year poses just as a big a challenge.
The Kangaroos lost it in the middle
It’s hard to remember a finals-bound midfield being as comprehensively outplayed as North Melbourne were against the younger, hungrier Western Bulldogs on Saturday evening.
The Kangaroos loaded up on talls, clearly believing they could stretch the Dogs’ backline, and indeed when they got decent service, Drew Petrie and Jarrad Waite (three goals each) threatened to wrestle momentum.
But under the roof, on the fast deck at Etihad Stadium, North’s midfield was badly exposed for pace. The likes of Andrew Swallow, Jack Ziebell and Ben Cunnington aren’t explosive at the best of times, but they all saved their season-worst games for the weekend. The captain had 25 possessions but went at just 60% efficiency, while Ziebell and Cunnington could add just 28 between them.
They were no match for the Bulldogs, who had five players rack up 28 touches or more and whose half back line of Bob Murphy, Jason Johannisen and Easton Wood the Kangaroos struggled to get past.
Once North’s pressure dropped off after a scrappy first quarter, the Bulldogs did to them what they’ve done to almost every team they’ve faced at Etihad this year. To beat them on this ground, you need to either pressure them into mistakes as Fremantle did, or outrun and outspread them, as St Kilda did. The Kangaroos did neither. If they meet again in a fortnight’s time, the onus is on North Melbourne to respond.
It’s Ty time
Tyrone Vickery chalked up his 100th game on Saturday night; it’s possible the Richmond forward has been one of the game’s most maligned players for 95 of them. The 25-year-old has always tantalised – his 36-goal season in 2011 was his breakout year – but offered a brain fade or an ill-timed swinging fist for every highlight. The long-term loss of Ben Griffiths in July opened the door for Vickery to claim a permanent spot after a couple of relegations to the VFL, and he hasn’t looked back.
Coming off a career-best six goal haul against Collingwood last week, he was again the Tigers’ focal point against Essendon. Two goals made it 13 in three weeks, but his current contribution can’t be measured by scoreboard impact alone. Vickery set up scoring shots by leading up the ground and wheeling around to pinpoint passes inside 50 and competed strongly all night. Big men who can kick goals, set them up and support a ruckman are worth their weight in gold, and Richmond must be commended for sticking fat with Vickery when rival clubs came sniffing during last year’s trade period.
There are a number of reasons why Richmond have improved this season, and the effective one-two punch Vickery has formed with Jack Riewoldt in recent weeks is one of them. If they play deep into the finals, he will have a very important role to play.
The Crows don’t believe in dead rubbers
By rights, Adelaide could have treated Sunday’s date with West Coast as a dead rubber. Geelong’s loss to Collingwood had already assured the Crows a finals berth, and the only thing on the line was the perhaps unlikely goal of a home final.
It made the first quarter all the more astonishing. The Crows played their best quarter since the first two rounds of the season – when they blitzed North Melbourne and Collingwood to become an early-season premiership fancy – and the second-placed Eagles were simply stunned.
It was three goals to zip within five minutes; seven straight to no score halfway through the term. By the time the Adelaide faithful rose as one when the siren went, the scoreboard read 51 to 1. It was the biggest quarter-time lead in the Crows’ history, and around the country people did double takes as they checked the score on their phones.
West Coast’s backline, so resolute despite absent personnel all year, was completely at sea. The likes of Josh Jenkins (three first quarter goals), Eddie Betts and Tex Walker found space far too easily, while Patrick Dangerfield and Rory Sloane combined for 23 touches in just half an hour. West Coast put up a spirited fight in the second quarter, but the Crows were never truly threatened and the 57-point margin was about right.
The dominant display was enough to send fear into Adelaide’s week one finals opponents, most likely Richmond or the Western Bulldogs, and an incredibly impressive audition for the Crows’ 2016 coach.
Adelaide will make their first finals appearance for three years in a week that marks two months since Phil Walsh’s death. The way the club has rallied in the face of unprecedented tragedy has been wonderful, and you sense every neutral supporter in the competition will be on their bandwagon for as long as their post-season lasts.
