Without wanting to oversimplify it, we appear to live in a time of diminishing returns. The media coverage of the AFL has never been more exhaustive, yet if you are to believe what you read and hear, the quality of our game has never been worse.
But the football media is so capacious, it often doubles back on itself. Seemingly unaware of the 3,000-feet of column inches dedicated to the dire state of the game, Melbourne’s Herald Sun covered Saturday’s clash between Richmond and Collingwood with the hype and fervour (and eight-page wraparound) reserved for a royal wedding. Thankfully, in front of more than 88,000 fanatics at the MCG, the Tigers and the Pies weren’t in the mood to prove them wrong.
Playing in front of the largest home and away crowd between these two clubs since Tommy Hafey coached the Pies against his old club for the first time, the game felt as though a 1970s September was hurled into the middle of a present-day winter and played at twice the speed.
When Darcy Moore’s knee had Jeremy Howe seeing stars around his head like a Saturday morning cartoon, you sensed Richmond would be the first to settle and expose a Collingwood already missing two of its best in Adam Treloar and Jordan De Goey. But over the next hour the Magpies whirred, and the Magpies stumbled, but the Magpies held. With less than ten minutes to play in the third quarter, the Pies were within four points of the reigning premiers and the air around the MCG was tightened like a held breath – before a moment that took everyone’s away.
Jack Higgins is a 19-year-old rookie who left school, joined Richmond and plays football like nobody taught him how. Gathering the ball just before the goal line, Higgins tapped the ball forward and demonstrated a childlike faith in his own ability by lacing around the goalpost with a fluid transfer of weight and throwing the ball on his boot with a flying scissor kick for a goal.
“If it happened another 100 times, I probably wouldn’t have thought of doing that again,” Higgins said after the match.
“I was sort of running out and I took the ball and nearly went into the post … because I was at the MCG, I saw the crowd, and I just thought ‘Screw it, I am going to do it’.”
The brilliance of this goal on the ground is only one part of the picture. The other part is the fabulism of football, and those moments of majesty that provide us with one of sport’s greatest parts – the shared experience. The virtuosity of Higgins’ goal, along with its controversy, ensures it will be a moment remembered and recalled long after the rookie’s career comes to an end, particularly by the 400,000 who will have claimed to have been at the game.
Matthew Scharenberg had a better view of Higgins’ theatrics than most. Scharenberg can be seen on his knees in the foreground of photographer Michael Willson’s shot of Higgins’ goal. Seconds before the goal, having stood up against the force of Dustin Martin’s stevedore arms, Scharenberg went to turn and his left knee crumbled. Hours later, an emotional Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley conceded the South Australian defender will likely to miss another year of football after suffering what is almost certainly an ACL injury, having already endured one on his left knee in 2014 and another on his right in 2015.
“He’s a young bloke who loves his footy and he’s been through his fair share with his feet and then his ACLs,” Buckley said. “For a young member of our club, of our playing group, who has had his fair share of setbacks and obstacles, his attitude is first class, his character is first class. We will put our arms around him, try and support him as best we can.”
The contrast between a poignant Buckley and the open-faced boyish grin of Higgins was greater than the 28-points that ultimately separated the final siren and was a timely reminder of the human drama that gives football much of its meaning – the constant, no-nonsense tug that maintains our emotional connection to a sport that is endlessly evolving. A 6-6-6 zone, 18-metre goal square or any other initiative seemingly floated to scare the shit out of those who love the game would’ve done nothing to elevate the great contest we witnessed on Saturday.
Without wanting to oversimplify it, the game – and a season where every spot in the eight is up for grabs with just four weeks to go – seems to be doing just fine.
