Melbourne’s Max Gawn expresses concerns about ruck rules, Magpies’ premiership stars Darcy Moore and Jeremy Howe in race against time to face St Kilda in opening round

“Which is a challenge when you don’t like yourself, or when you know you’re not the best version of yourself, and you are not making the right decisions or don’t have the best habits it is tough for someone to go, ‘Yeah OK I need a change’.”

The AFL integrity unit found Rankine guilty of conduct unbecoming in that he had used “a highly offensive homophobic slur – language that demeans and denigrates people regardless of their sexuality”.

Rankine was initially offered a five-match ban for calling a Collingwood player a f—-t during a Saturday night match at Adelaide Oval on August 16. However, the Crows challenged the proposed penalty, arguing for a three-game ban.

As part of their appeal, the club submitted expert medical evidence concerning Rankine’s mental health.

The AFL ultimately settled on a four-game suspension, citing the “compelling medical submissions” as a key factor in reducing the ban from five games.

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“You want to give up, you want to retire, you know depression and the thing is that I was already dealing with that stuff already through my family and the circumstances which I was given,” Rankine said.

“So that was tough having to deal with family issues, being one of the leaders in my community and being looked on for things and expected to be in places and show your face and just look after everyone in the community.

“It was tough and then to be put on your arse like that… and you start to question who you are, and you start to question what you’ve been doing and how you’ve been acting and who you’ve been hanging around with and what has been really going on.”

Rankine was the sixth AFL-listed player to be suspended for an on-field homophobic comment in the past two seasons.
– Scott Spits

What the captains talked about at pub meal with AFL heavies

Jon Pierik and Sam McClure

Melbourne captain Max Gawn passionately expressed his concerns about the new ruck rule to AFL commission chairman Richard Goyder and his successor Craig Drummond in an intimate annual dinner with club captains.

As the club leaders sat down for a choice of chicken, beef or duck breast at the Graham Hotel in Port Melbourne on Sunday evening, discussion turned to the seven rule changes for season 2026.

This included the last disposal rule between the two arcs, stronger enforcement of players standing in the protected area and new centre ball-up contest rules. The latter sparked Gawn, the 2021 premiership skipper and ruckman, into gear.

Gawn said the new rule designed to encourage rucks to jump at the contest, rather than wrestle, was questionable. The two rucks are now unable to cross the centre line before engaging with their opponent.

“I am well and truly on board now, but I have to be, I have to make sure my mindset is like that because if you are not, you will get found out. The rule is there now,” Gawn said.

“I am a big fan of football being for all shapes and sizes. I think that is one of our strengths as a sport. If we start saying we don’t love people who can’t jump in the ruck, and we only want people who can jump, I feel like that rule might go down that path.

“I don’t feel we have the final product with the rule. I get what they are doing. I am excited. I love jumping, I am a jumper… I am 34, so my jump has got a little bit worse, but I do love jumping.

“With the line, is there a world where I can beat Tom De Koning in a ruck contest without just trying to out-jump him? I think that is stuff we can maybe tease out at some point. Right now, I am watching as much vision as I can.”

Gawn said it was a period of adjustment for all ruckmen, as it also coincided with the axing of the centre bounce, which is now a ball up.

“I got pinned a few times with my foot being a centimetre over the line at training. That’s one we can probably get rid of. You will see there are, believe it or not, some smart ruckmen in the comp, and they will work out a way to get around it, and we will follow them,” he said.

The AFL has said its research found that only 21 per cent of centre bounce ruck contests had at least one ruck jumping last season. In 2023, that number was at 63 per cent.

Gawn said Goyder and Drummond had been “fine” to deal with.

Collingwood captain Darcy Moore, who is also AFL Players Association president, said rule changes had been the dominant discussion over dinner.

“Putting those in a little bit of context, it was good to hear that from the AFL. We just gave a bit of early feedback and then had a bit of discussion about that,” Moore said.

Moore, who enjoyed the duck breast, said he was in favour of speeding up the game and improving the spectacle.

“It’s obviously pretty early, we have had only match practice, match simulation, so it’s hard to tell. Early feedback, pretty positive,” he said.

“Big Max [Gawn] had a bit to say about the ruck rule – no-one else had much interest. We are pretty optimistic about it.

“The justification for a lot of the rule changes is really sound coming from the AFL. Hopefully, it makes the game easier to umpire, that is slightly shorter, the ball is live for a bit longer, and is a bit smoother for the fans to watch.”

While there has been anecdotal chat among players that the last-touch rule between the two arcs could make the game too quick, Moore said that was unlikely to be the case.

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He said it was estimated that rule would result in two extra decisions per game.

“It’s not like the ball is going to be live and moving like crazy. But, again, football is often chaos,” he said.

Magpies’ premiership stars in race against time to face Saints

Jon Pierik
Collingwood captain Darcy Moore is on the mend, but remains touch and go to line up in the Magpies’ blockbuster season opener against St Kilda next month.

Moore has less than a fortnight to prove his fitness, having strained a calf at training last month.

He trained well on Friday at Bundoora, but did not take part in the club’s match simulation against Greater Western Sydney.

Moore said he was progressing well, yet could not guarantee he would be ready to face the new-look Saints on March 8 in a Sunday night clash at the MCG.

“[I’m] going really well – had a minor calf niggle in January, so I have been on a bit of a modified training program building up. I have had a big last couple of weeks with training loads, so [I’m] feeling really great, and the body feels ready to go,” Moore said.

Although the 2023 premiership skipper expressed doubt at playing in the community series match against North Melbourne in Ballarat on Sunday, he insisted his recovery “looks pretty good”.

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“[There are] still a couple of weeks to go and [I] have got to map out loads and that sort of stuff with the high-performance staff, but it’s looking pretty good,” he said.

The Pies are also sweating over the fitness of fellow key defender Jeremy Howe, who is also on the mend having re-aggravated a calf complaint that has hampered him through the pre-season.

“I think he is in a similar position, potentially touch and go for the first game, but, again, not exactly sure what the timeline is,” Moore said.

The absence of Moore and Howe was noticeable against the Giants, for the Magpies were exploited in the air in their defensive 50-metre arc.

Moore said the Magpies continued to rally around Norm Smith medallist Bobby Hill, who has been granted personal leave. Hill was also absent from the club for periods through 2025, and there is a possibility he may not play this season.

“The focus for him, and us, is his wellbeing. We are not putting any timelines or pressure on that. We are respecting Bobby’s space,” Moore said.

Meanwhile, Geelong captain Patrick Dangerfield said Jeremy Cameron was recovering well from a quad strain, which contributed to the premiership star missing this month’s State of Origin clash and last week’s match simulation against Hawthorn.

“He is on track. Obviously, he had a hiccup with that quad, otherwise he would have played [against Hawthorn]. But all signs, at the moment – he’s in full training today – point towards there being no issue around opening round. I would say he will be ready to go,” Dangerfield said.

The Blues host the Cats in a community series clash at Ikon Park on Wednesday. The Cats open their home-and-away campaign with a trip to the Gold Coast to face the Suns.

AFL coaches’ union pushes for better dialogue with league

Peter Ryan

Former Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson says more club experience on the AFL executive should help the voice of coaches to be heard at league HQ after he was appointed as the new chair of the AFL Coaches Association on Monday.

His appointment, replacing Greg Nichols, comes at a critical juncture for coaches who are concerned that the soft cap restricting payment to coaches, short termination clauses and relentless media scrutiny is making the profession less attractive and harder for quality coaches to remain involved.

Having worked at the AFL after close to 25 years as a player and coach Sanderson said the understanding experienced club administrators Tom Harley and Greg Swann will bring to their new roles at the AFL will help find solutions to the issues confronting the coaching profession.

“They understand the challenges that are presented to our coaches and that is not just our senior coaches but our assistant and development coaches, our AFLW coaches,” Sanderson said.

Coaches are being offered three to six month termination clauses in a profession where two-year contracts are the norm for assistant coaches. The soft cap has not recovered since COVID and although recent increases have been welcomed, coaches do not believe they are adequately compensated for their contribution to a club’s success.

They also feel their experience, knowledge and input into decisions relating to the game are too often easily dismissed and painted as being driven by self-interest while the constant speculation about their tenure and the associated performance pressure puts pressure on their mental health.

Sanderson and AFLCA chief executive Alistair Nicholson intend to change that. They would also like a more consistent forum for coaches’ views to be canvassed.

Dual premiership coach Chris Fagan said coaches have been frustrated since the pandemic at many AFL decisions which seem to be made without consideration of their perspective.

He said the years of experience, deep knowledge and passion for the game should make them a valuable resource for the league to tap into.

“I know the AFL’s view is if you put the 18 coaches in a room they will all come up with a different opinion. That’s how you work out solutions isn’t it?,” Fagan said. “Not everyone is going to sit in the room and agree but with all the ideas that you get you might come up with a better solution so if there was a forum to do that it would be good.”

Sanderson said he and Nicholson could be a conduit between the coaches and the AFL to present a unified position where possible address challenges shared among coaches.

The new chair, who coached at the Crows, Geelong and Collingwood and the AIS-AFL Academy, said coaches added enormous value to the competition in the game but recently that value had been under-recognised.

Fagan, who began his career as a school teacher, used the classroom as an analogy when describing the importance of coaches within the game and football clubs.

“When I was a classroom teacher I thought the kids were the most important people in the school and then when I became a principal for a little while I realised the most important people in the school were the teachers because they provided the program the kids did and they set the culture of the school. And it is very much the same in a football club,” Fagan said.

“The most important people in the football department are the coaches because they are responsible for the product you see every week.”

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