AFL
5 months ago
The Buck Stops Here: Dominant Swans, Geelong & Stewart’s struggles, go easy on Kenny & more
By SEN
Round 15 saw six games as six more teams had the bye.
Former Collingwood coach and superstar Nathan Buckley has put together his takeaways in The Buck Stops Here on SEN Breakfast.
On his mind this week was the form of Carlton’s Tom De Koning, the Steven May debate, why the Swans' brand will be hard to beat as the year progresses and more.
Read and listen to his thoughts below:
The form of Carlton’s Tom De Koning
__Stylish Sydney spreading the load __
“The type of footy they’re playing, the spread of contribution in all three phases and divisions of the game from all of their players has been huge.
“Sydney are building a type of football that is going to be very hard to beat.
“‘Horse’ (John Longmire) talks about different methods and different ways of winning, and that is what is going to continue to happen for Sydney, because they’re going to have teams throw plenty of different things at them. Whatever has been thrown to date has not been good enough.
“You can try to match the football that they play, which is a hard, contested brand of footy, high work rate and then a system that they then can either defend or attack with really well.
“They’re the number one offence by 89 points - which is nearly a full game of scoring. They’re the number one defence by 40 points - which is around three quarters or might be a full game of a really good defensive effort.
“It’s talent, it’s system, it’s work rate, there’s competition for spots. If Joel Amartey is kicking nine goals one week and the not hitting the scoreboard the next and you’re still kicking 100 points, that’s what Sydney are doing.”
Should May cop a week for staging?
Geelong’s shortcomings and the Tom Stewart downturn
“The Cats are in dire straits at the moment.
“We’ve had plenty of conversations about Geelong from pre-season predictions, their early-season form which was brilliant…
“I didn’t see this coming either. Who saw it coming? Which is why predictions and conversations are folly in many ways.
“We can see trends occurring, but they can be changed. Geelong are having a downward trend which is closer to last year than it has been with the last decade.
“One particular player going through his challenges with being tagged is Tom Stewart. His concern and his situation is not dissimilar to the rest of the team.
“With Stewart it just shows you how we should never take for granted the elite performers in our competition because it’s difficult when you’re that good at what you do. Clubs will throw different things at you.
“Clubs have decided to dedicate a person to him, and add to that the fact that Geelong are allowing the ball to travel freely through their midfield, unlike they have in Tom Stewart’s time before. He is now having to change the way he defends, how he positions, he’s handling more ball coming quickly into an even-numbered backline. A position he’s never really been in.
“So there are some things out of his control, all while he’s been dagged and tagged. He can’t take a step without being bumped.
“All-Australian five times, we were talking about him at the beginning of the year when he continued on his merry way, but that’s all stopped and it’s not going to go anywhere in a hurry.”
__Pump the brakes on Kenny and Port __
“Seven weeks ago Chris Fagan and the Lions lost to GWS and we didn’t like his press conference, he sounded like he wasn’t sure about where it was going, he was supporting his players, there didn’t seem to be a really strong line on where he was going. He was open-minded and speaking openly.
“A couple of weeks after that they lost to Hawthorn and David King suggested that Chris Fagan had run his race and the maybe they should get ruthless and look for Chris Scott. How has that aged?
“Now Brisbane are humming and Fagan seems to be doing as good a job as any. We get caught up in moments, we get caught up in what we think are trends. The competition is so tight and fierce that you can be off a couple of per cent and you come up against a better team and you’ll get smacked.
“Brisbane have clearly turned their form around, Geelong have gone the other way.
“Port Adelaide have bumped through this year but they’ve still got a winning record, which not many clubs have. They’re in the mix of about six or seven teams that are going to be vying for spots in the eight. There’s one game between sixth and 13th.
“Why don’t we just pump the brakes a little bit. Kenny just got booed, which is a talking point. Port Adelaide’s form is not great and they have a lot of players who like they’re out of form, similar to what Brisbane looked like seven or so weeks ago.
“Let’s have a look at in a month or six weeks. Then we’ll have more of an idea to where Port Adelaide are at in 2024. Then we’ll have more of an idea on what Ken Hinkley and the leadership of the club might be considering.
“Yes, he has been there for 12 years, yes, he has been there for a long time and done a pretty good job. No, he hasn’t been to a Grand Final, no, he doesn’t have a premiership under his belt.
“Is he still a good coach? He’s been a good coach. Can he be a coach who takes the next step? The next four or five weeks might give us that evidence that we don’t already have.”
