Ross Lyon was in the news last week. He had, at the prompting of Shane Kersten ending his tenure at Fremantle, been accused of “losing the players”, despite Kersten’s issue being more with the club’s injury prevention and rehabilitation program. The verdict on Lyon though was still not good – five losses in six weeks had the Dockers sitting in 12th position, a game out of the eight and questions as to whether they had the game plan (or the players) to prevent a fourth straight year with no finals.
There have been times this year when Lyon has looked more suited as the narrator of a Raymond Carver story than the coach of a football team – a middle-aged man, outwardly defiant in contrast to an interior monologue resigned to the hopelessness of his fate. “The noise will be the noise,” he says.
But on Saturday afternoon in Perth, there was something of a twist. The Dockers – without forwards Rory Lobb, Jesse Hogan and Matt Taberner (foot), along with hard-running defender Nathan Wilson – played with the ferocious pressure that once defined sides under Lyon and stifled a Geelong side whose signifying trait over the past two months can be best described as “subdued”.
Geelong’s hold on a home qualifying final is looking perilous, with West Coast and Brisbane both joining them on 14 wins. In the last three weeks, the Cats travel to Brisbane between hosting North Melbourne and Carlton at GMHBA Stadium. Given their current state of mind – and dare we say, lack of belief – it is feasible that they could drop all three.
In contrast, the Dockers now have some belief – although just don’t ask Lyon, whose notion of something as romantic as belief has been crushed by going to four grand finals and coming back with… well, not much.
“You don’t need confidence to be successful, there is only one thing that counts and that’s action. The feelings didn’t get it done out there today, no matter how much the players wanted to win for the club and themselves. The only thing that counts is action and that’s what people lose sight of,” he said.
Compare this with Port Adelaide’s Ken Hinkley: “We believe in this football team and in this football club.” Like Lyon, Hinkley hears the noise. “The noise has been there,” he said after the game, “[but] I – and the group – have never lost the belief in us as a football team. We haven’t quite played as well as we’d like consistently, but there’s never been a lack of belief from inside the club. That’s something I’m really strong on.”
“Belief” must be about the only constant in Port Adelaide’s season, who after struggling for the best part of a month, travelled to Marvel Stadium on Saturday afternoon and thumped an Essendon side with an eye on the top four by 59 points.
Guys like Connor Rozee and Xavier Duursma are among a group of young, thriving players who have made this season such a fun, albeit frustrating one for the Power (barracking for Port must often feel more like the expression of a fraught personality than a simple way to spend a weekend). While much of the credit for the weekend’s win should go to the 31-year-old veteran Robbie Gray, for unalloyed joy, it is hard to beat watching Port’s rookies, who in the case of Duursma are yet to master humility. Sure, they make mistakes, but they compensate for them with football that is fast, exciting and – importantly to those already looking at what rules to change in 2020 – unequivocally watchable.
Saturday’s win bumps Port Adelaide to ninth and with a real possibility of replacing Adelaide in eight next week when the Crows visit the West Coast in Perth and the Power host a Sydney team you could excuse for losing all belief for 2019, having lost their fifth game in a row – four of those defeats, including Saturday’s heartbreaker to the GWS Giants, coming by 10 points or less.
Just two points down with less than a minute to go, Sam Reid appeared to have dragged down a strong contested mark 20-metres from goal. but the umpire controversially called play on and the Giants held the ball in to force a ball-up and eventually hold on for an important win that keeps them within kicking distance of the double-chance. The Swans, meanwhile, are living proof of the adage that football is designed to break your heart.
We are now hitting the time of year where hearts are broken, but also the time when the weekend comes into your lungs with the smell of cut grass and belief is something you feel to be a tangible thing. You can be like Ross Lyon and choose to dismiss it – “take care of your actions, take care of your processes and the wins take care of themselves” – or you can embrace it like Ken Hinkley or the Bulldogs of 2016 and ride it all the way through September.
