Darcy Moore after the match. Credit: AFL Photos
This is partly due to the fact that long-term players have returned from injury or desert. Will Hoskin-Elliott was a shadow of himself for two years, but has rediscovered his game. He has had a good year. Said Steele Sidebottom.
Jeremy Howe only played eight games last year, while Jamie Elliott lost nine. These are big ins this year.
Nathan Murphy started the year as a distinguished marginal player more for not finishing more games due to injury than for his actual game. Although he is only 192 centimeters tall, he has become a very good defender of interceptions and one of the discoveries of the year. It’s relatively small but it reads so well and it’s okay above that it plays loud. But so far Moore has been there as well.
Now Moore will disappear. For how long do we not know at the time of writing. It seems that the best of cases would be a matter of weeks and the worst of a year.
This is the time of Jacob Weitering of Collingwood. Moore is the player, like Weitering at the Carlton, that the lesser Magpies could afford to lose. They have no real coverage for him. The player who could have come for him and made his debut, Charlie Dean, came out limping in the VFL. Howe will come back and play high, but he doesn’t have the size of the key position. Jack Madgen lost his place on the team to Murphy and has been playing forward in the VFL. It is also smaller in size.
Will Kelly has played back and forth and fought for form in the VFL. Liam McMahon has also moved to the defense and has shown looks.
If Moore is out in the short term, Collingwood’s series of opponents would allow them to hold on until he returns. If it’s long-term, it’s tremendously damaging because while their defensive system is good, they don’t have the manpower to face McKay and Curnow or Cameron and Hawkins in the finals.
Collingwood has had a good streak with injuries this year, but the ones they have had, Brodie Grundy, have been in the only area of the field they have depth. They have no depth of key advocates.
The time Moore, more than any other Collingwood player, is out will report what they can do in September.
GREAT FORECAST
Last week, when Melbourne faced Brisbane, it was the clash at the top of the table that was a wrapper. Brisbane disappointed.
Paddy Dangerfield returned Saturday to Mitch Duncan’s No. 250 game. Credit: AFL Photos
On Thursday night, Melbourne plays with Geelong in what looks more like a top-tier clash that is worth considering a preview of the final.
Played on a Thursday night during the school holidays, Melbourne will be bothered to be at Geelong and not the MCG.
For Geelong, the home advantage will make up for the untimely loss of Tom Stewart.
It’s the only poorly timed player management the Cats have had. They have been well cared for and managed by Patrick Dangerfield. They took him back north in a game that basically became a VFL game and he got the career he needed. The mix of Jeremy Cameron and Tom Hawkins has looked better this year than last, as Cameron has become the dominant partner in the relationship.
HIPWOOD UMP HIT
Ryan Gardner’s Eric Hipwood push to referee Jacob Mollison referred directly to the court.
Technically, he could have qualified and a fine would have been issued, but the rules also provide for discretion in a direct referral and MRO Michael Christian was right to refer him directly. Hipwood seemed to be deliberately pushing a player towards the um, if not necessarily wanting to push him directly towards him.
Izak Rankine. Credit: Getty Images
He could have pushed the player knowing he was out of the referee’s view. Maybe he would have tried to use the um to keep the player away from him and get a break. But the consequence of his act was that the player fired at the referee and knocked him down.
This sounds like a player who decides to hit and then make contact with the boss: you are responsible for the foreseeable consequence of your action and being suspended.
RANKING RANKINE
Izak Rankine played one of the worst games of his career when Gold Coast lost to Collingwood at the MCG in the seventh round. Saturday at home was the best of his career. He’s a different-looking player.
His work ethic has changed on the pitch and it only helped him get more involved in throwing weird goals like his aspirant on Saturday’s goal of the year. He now plays the best football of his short career, plays with energy and commitment and gives the whole impression of being a happy player wherever he is.
The wrinkle of his stay at the Suns is that Essendon has made an approximation, which sources say is big enough, if not to completely turn his head, at least to pause him before he signs again.
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