You can go to the football with hopeful expectations but never assumptions. The most predictable thing about footy is that it is so unpredictable, for me that is what I love the most.
I was among the 90,000-odd at the MCG last Friday night waiting with great anticipation for the top-of-the-table showdown between Geelong and Collingwood.
Right up until the first bounce you could feel the hype in the air, yet the match turned out to be a low-scoring, mundane affair. Both sides put in average performances and Geelong won by six goals.
That’s about right because Geelong’s average is currently about six scoring shots better than the rest.
On Saturday afternoon I went to the North Melbourne-Western Bulldogs game at Etihad Stadium. No real expectations for this match to be particularly exceptional but for several reasons it turned out to be quite memorable.
At half time the Bulldogs had scored 11 goals from 21 inside 50 entries. On the basis that a one-in-three ratio of goals from entries is very good, a better than one-in-two result was extraordinary.
The Kangaroos had their defenders pushing up to set up a half-back/midfield zone and the ball wasn’t getting past all that often. Certainly, 21 entries for a half is well down on the norm of 25-30.
But just about every time the Dogs managed to break through the midfield they were able to spot a free forward deep in their attacking 50 arc who took an uncontested mark and converted. The result was a remarkable goal efficiency from entries of over 50 per cent.
Late in that game I glanced at the stats sheet and noticed Dogs full-back Brian Lake had had 35 kicks which was one of those 'that can’t be right' moments.
While we occasionally see 40+ possessions in these days of high handball footy, any player, let alone a full-back, getting 35 kicks is amazing and scored him a massive 192 Dream Team points which is the most ever recorded.
In fact, as I learned later, since 1984 only three players have had 35 kicks - Mick McGuane and Nathan Buckley at Collingwood and Travis Johnstone at Melbourne.
And yet, despite Lake’s incredibly high kick tally, I rated Adam Cooney and Matthew Boyd as clearly the two best players on the field.
Lake's performance and the goal effiency of the Bulldogs were statistical curiosities but were mere sub-plots to the main story of the day - North’s apparent campaign to probe the temperament of Barry Hall and the events that followed.
It wasn’t anything new. There have been plenty of times when a team has used as a bonding mechanism a special focus on an opposition player, bumping into him, pushing him and generally annoying him, and it will happen again.
It is a legitimate ploy which can be aimed at anyone from a tagger to the opposition’s best ball-winner. On Saturday it just happened to be Hall, who has failed the composure under pressure test a few times in the past.
Like pain killing injections, the tactic of attacking a specific opposition player is secret men’s business never to be discussed outside the confines of the locker room.
But it does happen.
It raises an interesting debate. In 2010 what should be legitimate off-the-ball contact.
The current rules allow a defender to touch, feel and push into his opponent for the entire game if he chooses. Above the shoulder contact will always be penalised.
Some I’ve coached did exactly that. Like Collingwood's Mick Gayfer and Brisbane’s Robert Copeland. They made a career out of having the courage to maintain close contact with their opponent from the first bounce to the last kick.
But there are so many grey areas.
I think you can lean on your opponent legitimately. I think you can push or bump into him but not too hard. And I think you can push your forearm into his back but not too hard. But if the force is excessive the umpire may pay a free kick.
The umpire has to make the call of where this fine line is crossed.
While the game is supposed to be a test of both mind and body, frankly the time has come for the rules to be made much more stringent on the initiator of off-the-ball contact and anything more than touch and feel contact should not be allowed.
North’s Scott Thompson plays full-back in the Gayfer and Copeland style. He was relentless in his hassling of Hall on Saturday as he is with all his other opponents.
It’s a bit like death by 1000 cuts.
There wasn’t one incident which in isolation was too serious, but the relentless campaign to continually lay contact on the Dogs full-forward was plain for all to see.
It began at the opening bounce and continued with Brady Rawlings, Daniel Pratt and Michael Firrito as the main support act. It seemed like the whole North Melbourne team was bumping into Hall at every opportunity and it climaxed when Thompson knocked Hall off balance as he was bending over, doing up his bootlace and minding his own business.
I’m sure there’s nothing in the AFL rules which specifically prohibits this exact thing, maybe a free kick for unnecessary contact at best.
What Thompson and his North teammates did may have been mostly legal under existing rules, but we can’t condemn Hall for his eventual reaction of aggressively wrestling his opponent to the ground. While grabbing him in a headlock was a bit excessive it was better than the more brutal alternatives.
It wasn’t as if he came out swinging wildly. And it was most noticeable that he received much less niggling from the North players in the second half after he eventually made a stand and reacted as he did.
Sometimes the victim, or better still his teammates on his behalf, have to fight back, albeit in a controlled manner. Otherwise the targeted player is just going to become more and more of a powerless punching bag to be continually buffeted.
While provocation has not normally been an accepted defence by the game's judiciary, it should be before any penalty is imposed.
When the umpires failed to intervene, Hall’s reaction became fair and reasonable. And I’m pleased he escaped with a fine because, given all the circumstances involved, a suspension would have been a denial of natural justice.
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
