Rule change resurrects Hawthorn ruckman and delivers tactical advantage
Updated ,first published
Scott’s reverse psychology
Essendon coach Brad Scott caught up with Isaac Kako before Saturday’s game and gave him some advice that, even to the player, seemed odd from his coach at first glance.
“’Scotty’ told me before the game, ‘If you don’t get caught, you’re not trying hard enough.’ So I got caught by Kozzie. [Pickett]Kako said with a laugh after his team’s win over Melbourne.
The fact that Kako looked at Pickett, one of the fastest players in the game, and at least dared to move away from him was instructive about the change in Essendon’s mentality.
“I thought, ‘Maybe I can shrug it off here,'” he said. And that’s probably not the risk many players should be encouraged to take against Pickett.
“Scotty has been telling me to take on the game and he has a lot of trust in me, so I really appreciate that,” he added.
“I was trying to challenge them [Melbourne] a little more to get up and [hope I could] He defeated them on the way back. My role has changed a little bit in the last few weeks, but today they told me: ‘This is your role today, stick to it and see what happens. ‘Take them.’
“If I was going to get run over by anyone, it might be Kozzie Pickett. But he just went the other way and scored and I was like ‘f—‘. He’s a great player.”
Not many coaches would insist on interference with their players, but Kako needed to be told. He doesn’t immediately sound like an insecure player – his haircut suggests he’s got a lot of swagger about him – but that’s what Kako needed to hear after a questionable first season.
At the start of the season, Kako and Nate Caddy were forced to ignore their age and experience and become the leaders of the Bombers’ forward line.
Saturday’s win over Melbourne was the day the connection was made. Peter Wright was playing ruck, Kyle Langford was in defence, and the young players took control of the game.
Scott may have underestimated the importance of his team breaking the losing streak, but after Saturday’s game it was clear in the halls how much of a relief this victory had. It wasn’t based on alternative thinking.
A week ago, the narrative following Essendon’s 17th consecutive defeat was mostly about Zach Merrett’s TikTok post about his wife and his preference for dinner at Gimlet over a night at the football, and what this implied about the couple’s ongoing acrimony with the club. But the difference this week between Merrett scoring a stunning left-footed goal and diving into the arms of his team-mates could not have been starker.
As media, we second-guess the players’ thoughts and plans and draw springy conclusions, but the joy seemed genuine, the love for their team-mate was unadulterated.
Hawks missed out on trade but still got a secret weapon
Last week, Jack Gunston’s second-best ever toe kick at the MCG won the match for Hawthorn. Sort of. There’s an argument to be made that Ned Reeves did more than Gunston by caressing the ball with a long arm to Jai Newcombe at the final Easter Monday ball.
When looking for where to improve at Hawthorn this year, it made sense to consider what they were missing (Will Day and Zach Merrett at length) rather than what they actually added.
Reeves made them significantly better. Just as the first-round rule nearly killed his career and sparked Lloyd Meek’s, this year’s rule change has resurrected Reeves and given Hawthorn an advantage, not coincidentally, that they are equal top of the standings.
Reeves has a jumper and soft hands to touch the ball. Meek is now the powerful yang to Reeves’ yin.
Hawthorn improved their midfield without adding midfielders.
After five rounds they have entered the club more than any other team, to the advantage of the midfielders.
They are top-ranked in giving their central players first chances, which has helped them become the third side to receive the ball first.
Reeves wins nearly two-thirds (62.4 percent) of his throws; That’s more than any other punk in the competition.
Of course, his dominance increased further on Saturday night as Tim English came on against the Western Bulldogs and 19-year-old raw Louis Emmett made his debut. But Reeves had already helped the Hawks gain a new advantage.
This is a player who was doubtful about staying at Hawthorn six months ago after playing just one game last year and four the year before.
Greg Swann’s rule change saved Reeves’ career and gave the Hawks a significant tactical advantage to close the gap on the top four at a time when they were wondering where the improvement would come from.
Pause to think
On Friday night, three players stood on the boundary line and waited to see if the ball would go out as it swung over the boundary line. Nobody was ready to tackle this. Eventually the ball helped them and he did what needed to be done and crossed the line.
For every rule change that tells players they must keep the ball in play, there is no rule (yet) that says they must touch the ball if it is with them.
Despite the AFL’s best intentions, an unintended consequence of the league’s move to a final out-of-bounds rule has been that players are now very hesitant in certain circumstances to touch a ball bobbled towards the boundary for fear of penalty.
The new rule was largely received positively, but it also created moments where players did not want to receive the ball, which was against the spirit of the game.
It also seems counterintuitive that the game would be stopped for a triple video check to see if the ball goes into the obstruction before going out of bounds so that a rule introduced to speed up the game and keep the ball in play can be enforced.
Carlton defender Nick Haynes took a particularly fierce free-kick on Thursday night as he took possession on the byline rather than returning the ball, which would have been to his team’s detriment.
Like Friday night, seeing two players stop and stand up, afraid to leave the five-metre protected area because they didn’t know which one the referee wanted to stop, also seemed like a moment when the cure was worse than the disease.
As with many 50-metre penalties, there will inevitably be a relaxation of the crowd rule. Two years ago, dozens of people were fined 50 million for dissent. Now the players are flapping their arms in terror again with impunity.
Previously, players who touched their opponents after receiving a signal were given a 50-meter penalty. Those who did not throw the ball directly to the opponent who was given a free kick and threw it into the air also won 50 meters.
Eventually the overcorrections are corrected. This will be the same.
shooting game
These are issues with the rules, not the referees, but while we’re discussing officiating: Crow tosses are also back on Thursday night. Josh Rachele’s rugby shot wasn’t the only one, but it was the most prominent. He didn’t even try to hide the fact that he was throwing the ball around like he did at Twickenham.
And, not to spoil Essendon’s parade, but how Xavier Duursma took six steps, was tackled in the goal square, cleared the ball and failed to catch it as his teammate went into goal remains as perplexing as North Melbourne opting to wear some sort of black-and-blue Qantas advert for his shot.
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Michael Gleeson is an award-winning senior sports writer specializing in AFL and athletics.Connect with: X or email.
