In both literary and popular entertainment, the element of surprise is a useful tool for anyone who wants to create a compelling story.
Vera Tobin, a cognitive scientist who studies connections between cognition, language and narrative, opens her book The Element of Surprise by noting different kinds of surprise – events we didn’t anticipate, mismatches between our perceptual expectations and experience, and astonishing revelations that undermine deeply-held beliefs.
If you asked a hundred people to ascribe three adjectives to the first seven weeks of AFL season 2018, “compelling” would be nowhere to be seen. Like Helena Bonham Carter in a Tim Burton film, the season appeared trapped; unchanging to the point where we had to stifle our yawns.
While Friday night’s game between Hawthorn and Sydney at the MCG promised more than the D-Grade detritus dished up over the past two weeks, then, nobody anticipated a seven-goal best-afield performance from third-gamer Ben Ronke, who was barely able to find his way onto the ground.
“I walked out of the coaches’ room and he [Ronke] was just about to walk in and I asked him where he was going, and he said, ‘I don’t know how to get out on the ground,’” said Sydney coach John Longmire.
Ronke’s feat is made even more remarkable in that he was the second-last pick in the first round of the 2017 rookie draft, and his primary task appeared to be a defensive one – to shut down the classy Hawthorn half-back, Sean Burgoyne.
“He’s a smart footy player,” said Ronke of Burgoyne, dabbling in understatement. “He took me to the ball a couple of times and I tried to utilise that to my favour as much as I could.”
Ronke found the ball more than a few times and was deep in Sydney’s forward line as the Swans clung to a two-point lead with less than two minutes to go in the last quarter. Gary Rohan kicked long from just inside the centre square, to the top of the goal square where the 182-centimetre Ronke outpointed two Hawthorn opponents to take the mark and seal the game.
“Not Ben Ronke, Buddy Ronke,” gasped Seven’s commentator Bruce McAvaney in a half-lidded tone usually reserved for Hawthorn’s Cyril Rioli.
The following day, as the clouds overhead conspired to shut out the sun, the only thing that lit up the MCG was the Essendon fan who burnt his merchandise on the concourse after his team slumped to its sixth defeat in seven weeks.
Essendon’s season has quickly dissolved into a mismatch between expectations and experience. Despite not winning a final for 13 years, many experts had Essendon pegged for a top-four spot after the Bombers recruited Devon Smith, Adam Saad and Jake Stringer. Only Smith can be deemed a triumph of that triumvirate, on determination if nothing else – on Saturday he laid a game high 15 tackles. In contrast, from the stands Stringer’s effort looked like that of a guy who got laid off from the warehouse a couple of weeks ago and hasn’t gotten off the couch since.
“This is a group that have created something [so] that people look at this Essendon group and say: ‘This is who they are,’” said Essendon coach John Worsfold. About the only thing Essendon is responsible for this year is group therapy.
Instead of laying a foundation for a tilt at a finals series, Worsfold now finds himself in charge of a team that has two wins and six losses at the time of year when rumours of coaching careers are dumped on a ravenous football media like burley to sharks.
Had you tipped North Melbourne to be on four wins and four losses after two months of football, you’d have been within the margin of error for optimistic. The Kangaroos have been one of the revelations of the season, and while they eventually went down to the reigning premiers on Sunday, their play has undermined the deeply held belief that their year would be one defined not by hope, but by despair.
The Kangaroos’ effort and desire for the contest is perhaps best embodied by Ben Cunnington. The 26-year-old midfielder is a footballer who tears every last shred of meat from the bone, and on Sunday he had a career-best 38 possessions. While that may sound more impressive than remarkable in this era of disposable disposals, 32 of these were contested – something that nobody else in the game has achieved. The previous best was 29 by Patrick Dangerfield in 2015.
While the Kangaroos sit in tenth spot on the ladder, the fright they gave Richmond – a week after upsetting Sydney at the SCG – suggests they are a genuine challenger for the final eight. If you saw that coming, you’re a liar.
In a season that has been described in terms more effluent than effulgent, it is nice to be reminded that the game can still delight (Friday night’s game at the MCG and Saturday night’s ‘Showdown’ were two of the best games of the year) and surprise us. Things are about to get a lot more compelling.
