If there is one thing our game lacks, it is a decent curse – the invocation of an otherworldly power to punish a club or player.
For the AFL, there is nothing as quixotic as the Curse of the Bambino, the “Original Sin” in Boston Red Sox folklore, when then owner Harry Frazee traded Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees after the 1918 season to finance a Broadway musical. Nor is there anything as exotic as the curse placed on the Socceroos after they failed to pay an African witch doctor for services rendered during the 1970 World Cup qualifiers.
The closest the AFL comes is the Norm Smith Curse, originating from when Smith was sacked in 1965, a year after Melbourne won their 12th (and last) VFL flag. Ron Barassi, who defected from Melbourne to Carlton in 1964, is in the minutes as saying that the Demons have never fully recovered from it. Although we did briefly enjoy the Kennett Curse, which lasted a mere five years after the Hawthorn president went on the ABC’s Offsiders after the Hawks upset win in the 2008 grand final and said: “What they don’t have, I think, is the quality of some of our players; they don’t have the psychological drive we have. We’ve beaten Geelong when it matters.”
But the Kennett Curse is something of a misnomer, when you consider the context of “when it matters”, with the only game of consequence in the Hawks’ 11-game losing streak being the 2011 qualifying final, before the “curse” ended with a win in the 2013 preliminary final.
But is a sporting curse nothing more than post hoc ergo propter hoc – an excuse pulled from the figment of our collective imagination to reconcile an intolerable truth? In his essay “Of Superstition and Enthusiasm” the 18th century philosopher David Hume suggests superstitious beliefs are the manifestation of feeble-minded people.
In a world where Channel 7’s Roaming Brian is celebrated, where Fox Footy’s Bounce celebrates 350 episodes and in an intellectual climate that rewards “satirist” Titus O’Reily a comparison with the late John Clarke, you suspect Hume would hardly be surprised that the Curse of the Bye is a thing, following Geelong’s upset loss to Port Adelaide on Saturday night, having lost the previous seven instalments of coming off the bye.
Geelong coach Chris Scott however, believes it is real. “What we have got is a problem in the moment, post-bye,” he said. “There are things we have looked at, it’s not as if we’re ignoring it - it’s a fact … How relevant it is to the rest of our season is another question (but) it won’t stop us being forensic in our analysis of it.”
In terms of forensics, Scott was probably closer to the mark when he said the Cats were “just beaten by a better team tonight”. And Port Adelaide – who doubled-down at the selection table (granted, not the best term to use in AFL circles at this time) and dropped Paddy Ryder, Justin Westhoff and Sam Powell-Pepper – were by far the better team, more than their 11-point win suggests.
Playing as a stand-alone ruckman, Scott Lycett played his best game for the Power, with 41 hit-outs to go alongside 24 possessions (18 of them contested).
“It was good to see Scotty play the way he played as a ruckman, but our plan all year was to have one ruckman and another one who can play forward and chop out in the ruck, and tonight that was Dougal (Howard),” said Port Adelaide coach, Ken Hinkley. Howard also “chopped out” with an off-the-ball right jab to the breadbasket of Cats veteran Harry Taylor.
But where Geelong really got cursed was winning the hard ball. Port Adelaide had 36 more contested possessions than their highly rated opponents and won the stoppage clearances 41-28 (and overall clearances 52-36). Between them, Robbie Gray, Travis Boak and Lycett combined for more than a quarter of the Power’s contested possessions and more than half of their clearances.
Tall shutdown defender and Alipate Carlile legatee Tom Clurey didn’t post big numbers but was every bit as impressive in keeping Geelong’s Tom Hawkins’ goalless.
Saturday night’s win at the Adelaide Oval – after a month that has seen them play in Launceston, China and Perth – moves Port Adelaide back into the top eight with a 7-6 record and the belief that they can match it with any team in the competition. They also have Charlie Dixon, who played his first game for the year after breaking his leg in last year’s round 21 loss to West Coast.
Cats fans will hardly be upset though, they’re still sitting a game (and significant percentage) clear at the top of the ladder. Besides, the only curse you need to worry about in today’s AFL is the imbecilic one that’ll have a behavioural awareness officer eject you from Marvel Stadium.
