The Hawks have a star in Jai Newcombe, like the Crows have one in Jordan Dawson. But both their midfield brigades drop away compared to the other finalists.
Without Izak Rankine, the Crows have Josh Soligo, an honest B-grader, while James Peatling had three handballs to half-time on Thursday night. The Hawks, without Will Day, have a B-grader in James Worpel, and Conor Nash, who is imposingly athletic but benefits being given a job.
Outside of Newcombe, the Hawks have superior run to Adelaide, and this is where the damage will be done in their semi-final. It was Karl Amon, Impey, Josh Weddle and the ball use of Massimo D’Ambrosio that GWS found so difficult to combat, and will be problematic for the Crows.
Lachlan Murphy tagged Amon last time they played and did a good job on him. It would be as unsurprising for Murphy to come back into the Crows side as it was surprising that he was missing against Collingwood on Thursday.
Impey grapples GWS forward Jake Stringer.Credit: Getty Images
Three weeks ago when the Crows beat Collingwood, Murphy shut down Josh Daicos, the Magpies only running rebound defender. He didn’t play in the qualifying final, meaning Ben Keays got the job on Daicos. He had to be moved off him at half-time.
Mitchell could consider flipping Amon to a wing and throwing Weddle to half-back to play on Taylor Walker, and just let him run off him. While Jack Scrimshaw is another option for Walker – who had an excellent 300th game – he is not an aggressive rebound runner like Weddle, who could seek to exploit the veteran’s legs.
The run from defence meant Hawthorn always looked far more dangerous inside their forward 50m than the Giants did. The Hawks’ small forwards will worry the Crows more than their tall forwards will, despite the impressive games Jack Gunston and Mabior Chol had against GWS.
Against Collingwood, it was surprising that Crows coach Matthew Nicks didn’t send Max Michalanney, one of the AFL’s better small defenders, to play on the dangerous Jamie Elliott. (Incidentally the choice of Zac Bailey over Elliott in this year’s All-Australian team was poor at the time and made to look more ridiculous after the first week of finals).
Michalanney started at half-forward on Thursday then rolled into the midfield as an extra player, but his ball use is not up to playing that hybrid midfield role, and he gave the Crows little. Against Hawthorn, Nicks needs to send Michalanney back to shut down one of the Hawk’s phalanx of dangerous small forwards.
Provocateur Jack Ginnivan’s propensity to draw headlines and the ire of opposition fans has obscured how good his season has been playing a high half-forward role. Ginnivan makes up for his lack of speed with cleverness to be in the right place at the right time. He is a good kick for goal and finds forwards in space as easily as he finds head-high frees.
Mason Cox made an impact on his return to the Collingwood team.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
Right call to free Mason
Mason Cox looked done. He was done. And yet here we are. The 211cm Texan not only played, the Pies were right to play him, and he will now keep his spot. Collingwood looked better with him there.
This was bold and smart choice from coach Craig McRae. Dan McStay’s form, other than a late goal against Melbourne, made the decision a bit easier. He was poor in the final rounds, not just as a forward, but more importantly as second ruck.
Adelaide’s Riley Thilthorpe is an excellent second ruck. Cox provided a far more competitive option against him, and like Darcy Cameron, he did well dropping behind the ball to help the defence with intercept marks.
Cox’s forward role was simplified to bringing the ball to ground.
Against key defenders such as Nick Murray, who is a good spoiler, and potentially Harris Andrews – who spoils the ball 30-40 metres when he doesn’t mark – Cox is so much harder to get around or over to make effective spoils.
Mac the knife through Freo’s heart
“I spent the whole day defending Treacy, and I was like, ‘See how you go defending me this time’,” Gold Coast’s Mac Andrew said after Saturday’s elimination final in Perth.
Suffice to say, Fremantle’s Josh Treacy didn’t go well.
The decision to get Andrew to follow Treacy up the ground when the Dockers sent their forward to defence in those final minutes proved game-deciding. It also raised the question of why Andrew doesn’t go forward more often, or at least why he didn’t earlier in that game. He only went forward because Treacy went back, so in effect the Dockers created the winning move.
Mac Andrew went forward late in the game, where he took a decisive mark and kicked a goal that levelled the scores between Gold Coast and Fremantle.Credit: AFL Photos
Freo pushed numbers behind the ball by sending Treacy back, but there is a big difference between having a body filling a hole and having a player defend. Treacy played defence like he still thought Andrew was there to worry about him. Andrew worried about the ball. He took the critical mark unchallenged then coolly slotted the goal.
Asked in that same post-match interview whether he had nerves lining up to kick the goal to draw scores level, Andrew responded as if he had been asked if he had ever considered underwater knitting? No, he hadn’t been nervous.
The question seemed to raise in his mind for the first time that maybe he should be nervous. Do other people really get nervous doing such things?
Jeremy Cameron is another who seems bewildered by the question.
Rayner acts, Mullin plays a role
Brisbane Lions forward Cam Rayner should have been fined for staging for his flop that conned the umpire into error in giving him a free kick in the momentum-swinging moment of Friday night’s qualifying final against Geelong.
It didn’t warrant a suspension, but he deserves a heavy fine.
Tyson Stengle was kicking for goal from 40m out to put Geelong 33 points up when Rayner hit the dirt. The first goal he kicked should not have been a free kick, a point the AFL admitted at the weekend. The second free kick against Zach Guthrie was fair; that was stupid by Guthrie. It was not heavy contact either, but by then he should have understood that Rayner had milked one free, and was going to be more than happy to draw a second.
But the second free couldn’t happen without the first.
Cats teammates flock to Oisin Mullin after his breakthrough goal.Credit: Getty Images
OK, credit to the AFL for admitting the first free kick was an error, but without a sanction for Rayner what does that change? He got what he wanted in the game and suffered no consequence other than public ridicule after the game. He suckered the umpire into the error and not only got away with it, he was rewarded for it with a goal.
Interestingly, those two quickfire goals brought Brisbane back into the contest, but they didn’t really give them momentum because they were still losing across the field. The Cats might have been more troubled if the free wasn’t paid and Stengle had kicked the goal. In that scenario, the Lions might have decided to throw all plans on their head and play ultra-aggressively because suddenly they would have been five goals down with nothing to lose. Instead, they were 15 points down at half-time and able to kid themselves they were closer than they were.
Sadly, Rayner was the biggest talking point out of Friday night’s game, with good reason, but it overshadowed how brilliant Geelong was. And yes, I have fallen into it too.
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The bigger talking point should be how Geelong so completely took Hugh McCluggage out of the game.
Oisin Mullin has not played a better game nor a more consequential role than he did on Friday night. McCluggage is in the top 10 players in the league, but he finished with just 14 touches and absolutely no impact.
The Irishman, meanwhile, even kicked his first goal in 41 games for the Cats.
With Lachie Neale coming back from injury – and then injured again – stopping McCluggage was vital in stopping Brisbane. It will be the template for the Suns this week, and anyone else who might come up against the Lions in the finals.
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