JLT 1, 2019
North Melbourne 4.1, 6.1, 9.7, 11.11 (77)
St Kilda 2.2, 10.4, 11.8, 15.12 (102)
Crowd: 1,596 at Chirnside Park, Saturday, March 2nd at 1.10pm
I’ve become increasingly wary of the start of the pre-season, let alone the footy season proper. “Footy’s back” isn’t quite true right at this moment, but footy is kind of, sort of back, and after one pre-season game I would still take a year of recess if offered.
The information we have and recent history tell us it’s more likely that this club is back in its usual pit of incompetence, with visions of crushed dreams the closest we have to visions of the promised land that inspires any sort of hope among the beaten-down supporter base. It’s somewhere in between Nick Riewoldt’s “Take the emotional risk to be great” and Robert Browning’s well-worn “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?”, but with more debt and poorer disposal.
I associate the pre-season with tentatively turning on the TV (now Foxtel-via-Mac-into-monitor-or-TV) and being reminded that Huddo and Dwayne Russell and Gerard Healy and Cam Mooney still exist, as they call players’ names I’ve slightly forgotten and in jumpers that may or may not be flagrant marketing exercises.
For those mourning the passing of footy and hating the faux-rugby league code it had been replaced with, the first 15 seconds of the pre-season opener on Thursday night would have been one of the better things you’ve seen in years. Essendon’s clean midfield clearance and Heppell’s perfect hit-up of Joe Daniher leading out from the goal square would have told you footy’s back in a more holistic, nostalgic sense.
But there’s nothing that screams footy’s back like a trip out to Chirnside Park in Werribee in 37-degree heat. The coffee on the way there was good, the air-conditioning in the car held up, and the chatter between Rich and Matt and I wasn’t jaded because we haven’t actually lived the season falling apart yet. Anything could still happen for Parker or Paddy or Billings or Blacres.
***
We got there right on the first bounce. Was I really doing this? Is this my life again? Apparently so, because during the week I was silly enough to take out my membership card and punch in the barcode for the Just-$5-plus-handling-fee ticket as if it was the cream on the wonderful cake that is experiencing the St Kilda Football Club.
There’s a lot to be said for the AFL scheduling games at grounds like this. There’s also a lot (or a lot less?) to be said for the AFL deciding to build a Concrete Dome with a ticketing system that far too heavily favours corporates and rarely encourages crowds of more than 48,000 despite its central location, and when presented with the chance of full ownership and rectifying the situation or bringing some sort of life to the place, turning it into a Disney store. At the very least, this was the chance to get in all the natural light and sunshine we’d could before heading into the entertainment giant’s new Docklands outlet for the winter. Congratulations to the AFL, Marvel and Disney’s multi-millionaire senior executives on the deal.
The luxury of free movement around Chirnside Park naturally meant following Paddy and Matthew Parker from end-to-end all day. It was an absurdly and wonderfully intimate way to watch two AFL teams playing: standing against the fence behind the goals, the small older grandstand at one end, the shorter goalposts putting a lot more pressure on the goal umpires’ judgement, and the players reacting to Matt’s wind-ups over the fence made for a the kind of footy experience that people seem to enjoy, even without the fireworks and Optus Stadium’s RAWK SHOW lighting. But for all the times the AFL and sycophantic journos would talk the community experience up, they’ll take the MAJOR LEAGUE SPORTS and faux-celebrity experience every time when push comes to an actual shove in the back.
Quick question for future traffic-on-the-way-back purposes: Did anyone at AFL House think about checking to see if there may or may not have been any international events on in the area for the very, very specific day of the year they were looking to schedule a match at a ground that due to sponsorship rights is named Avalon Airport Oval?
***
No premierships are won in March (nor are they won early in time-on of a Grand Final). But the St Kilda team I watched yesterday was inherently different to the one I saw play at any time last year. Yes, it’s the JLT, and yes, the AFL has again been successful in finding a sponsor whose name can easily become synonymous with a “Series”. I watched with a sinking feeling last year in the stands at Princes Park a team that looked lost and bored, and lose comfortably to the eventual wooden spooners. The following match against Melbourne was slightly more encouraging, but fuck me, when I think about that Wednesday night I really felt something was up.
Fast forward through torrid 12 months, right up the past week in which it was revealed arguably our best player might be out for the season, and arguably our best leader is slightly injured all the time, and the other guy who is arguably our best player is in a difficult mental space. I hope Jack is able to get through it and have access to any support he needs. This is a human issue, regardless of what club he plays for, and we should show care and empathy to anyone and everyone around us when it comes to this.
The first thing that was apparent in the game style was that there were options ahead of the ball at just about every juncture. How many times last year was the ball kicked to nothing, or to a negated option (often down the line), or were we held up waiting for said non-option? We were an Australian Rules football team that was quite bad at playing Australian Rules.
It took a quarter or two to get warmed up (pun not intended because it was hot as fuck to begin with), but that’s to be expected, and once things got going in the second quarter with some wind assistance that turn into 8.2 to 2.0, including a run of six goals between the 16 and 29-minute marks of the quarter. The ground’s scoreboard was struggling to keep up with the lift in intensity at AFL level, ticking up at two and three-second intervals until the 14.01-mark of the second quarter when it decided to take a breather for a bit.
Let’s put the better movement down to a much better structure and understanding between the players. It wasn’t reliant on guys working overtime, and dare I say it that the Ratten Effect has already arrived (Lade’s influence too perhaps, but that’s less of a hook than anything Ratten or Billy Slater would do).
North had the top eight ball winners outright, and finished with 461 disposals to 338. The purpose and outcome across the ground widely shared. Far more often than we’re used to did players knowingly turn to the middle going forward, and if not, the awareness was heightened and a switch was orchestrated with welcome haste, in contrasted to the long, bored kicks up the line that dominated 2018. In either scenario yesterday, far more often was someone actually in a productive position to receive the ball. There was more speed and intelligence off half-back – having Roberton back and Hind (already our quickest player?) introduced made an instant difference – and having Kent, Membrey, Billings, Newnes and later in the game Paddy providing able options high up and then deeper forward had a lot more purpose behind it.
Fatigue looked like it might have been setting in when North rallied in the third quarter, and the kicks up the line that dominated were back, but I don’t sit in on any team meetings and so there was every chance this was used deliberately to deflate the game a little, rather than out of boredom or confusion. The publicly stated aim to be the hardest running team in the competition held for one hot afternoon. North often looked a little cleaner coming out of traffic but the defensive pressure was enough to meet that, and while first options in close simply weren’t taken at times (right across the ground) Richo went out of his way post-match to say they didn’t want to rely purely on pressure so much. There was some tangible improvement.
***
After nearly ruining Aaron Hall’s knee, Pierce himself was out of the game early with a concussion. Sandy appears to have replaced #feelthezeal full-time with #daretodazzle, and Marshall was ordered to ruck for four quarters at Moorabbin so both big guys could get a full game in the role, and Marshall did very nicely. Pierce’s exit meant Bruce and Callum Wilkie (wtf) had to ruck for most of the day and so we played with a somewhat compromised structure all day, and we’re no nearer to knowing how Bruce fits in with Paddy and Membrey, or how Marshall would, or Battle even, or Carlisle as well as Brown but Carlisle possibly until next decade.
The spotlight is typically on the new guys at this time of year and fuck everyone, Matthew Parker was hot shit. Seven disposals and an equal team-high seven tackles is a severe underrepresentation of what his two goals and overall pressure brought to the team. “X-factor” usually describes what a player can bring to the game itself; Parker’s chasing and tackling and body hits – particularly in the second half – is the kind of stuff that lifts teammates, and is something that pleasingly un-St Kilda. Teammates made sure they got to him when he kicked his first goal, as well as following the chasedown and heavy tackle on Pittard in the final term that ended up with a Membrey goal.
Dean Kent, whose name was literally the most pronounced thing I knew about him, brought a more consistent, workmanlike presence to the forward line, but with the speed and goal sense too. He doesn’t necessarily have the X-factor that Billings, Gresham and Long (and, well, Parker) have, but he offered a quick and slick option up forward.
Hind also brought something not typically associated with St Kilda recently, which was genuine speed and an ability to break the lines coming off half-back. Special mention has to go to Wilkie, who in his first AFL game and at 191cm was asked to ruck for much more of the day then he thought he would in his entire career. Not sure if “Jason Blake” was on the list of the list management team’s needs but in a practice match we had a modern-day echo (plus an excellent high mark to go with it in lieu of Parker’s dropped chance).
***
Easy to get carried away at this time of year, more difficult to keep in mind that those newer and younger guys are playing for their spots. Gresham phoned this one in but he’s probably the only one we have that could do that and no one would particularly care. Billings for once looked like he utilised the pressure on him to perform for good instead of anxiety and brought a physical edge to his game, as well as goal kicking accuracy. Paddy worked hard until the end and spent much of the final term roaming high up the ground and looked at his most comfortable (even in the heat). Lonie was very busy but will have to keep up an incredible workrate to offset his still slight physique.
Gatorade Gamechanger® Tim Membrey dropped a couple of easy marks in the first quarter, replacing Bruce’s role in the forward line neatly after Bruce was moved, and then punched a couple of close set shots at goal wide in the third, but managed to run onto a few in the last quarter. Battle was kept in defence despite Bruce being moved out of the forward half. A leaner Nathan Brown was very impressive quelling Ben Brown and might yet be in for another season of being underrated. The match-up of Bailey Rice for Josh Battle in the intra-club match might not have been the most solid preparation, but Richo suggested Battle would stay there, as well as highlighted Darragh Joyce. I would hope the coaches remember that Josh Battle was one of the most promising things that happened in 2018, specifically when he was playing as a forward.
***
Yes, it’s the JLT Community Series for the players, although that didn’t stop Richo from asking Finnis to address the players following the tough week, and the players sang the song. The post-match interviews on the club site with Parker and Hind might have gone a bit too hard on the “first game” for St Kilda aspect.
It’s the JLT Community Series for supporters, too. The heat seems to prolong the length of the game as we get used to two hours; goals to the opposition in the final quarter set off that familiar feeling that a tight finish might be looming and all you can do is watch; the club is still running with the AFL-directed “updated” version of the club song that no-one asked for and weren’t consulted about; everyone’s perked up in the car trip there, but when combined with the traffic from the airshow on the way back you only hope the next time you’re met with a delay on the way home St Kilda has had a win. The time and effort it takes not just to watch these fairly wealthy guys run around, but to get there and to get back home is all of a sudden very, very real again. We need these days to steel ourselves for another fraught year. Or what’s a pre-season for?
