The Tassie boos AFL can’t ignore; another trade exodus looms; Blues face ‘delicate’ call: AFL Talking Points

When it comes to a 19th team, the AFL can’t ignore the sights and sounds in Launceston on Sunday

Plus why the Suns could lose another string of players and the “delicate” call facing Carlton.

Catch up on the big stories out of the weekend in Foxfooty.com.au’s Round 14 Talking Points.

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THE TASSIE ‘BOOS’ THE AFL CAN’T IGNORE

It was the sound stunned Hawthorn players had rarely, perhaps never, heard before in Tasmania.

And for Tassie stand-alone team doubters, it would’ve left them caught in two minds.

Since the mid-2000s, the Hawks have been playing regular games in Launceston and developed a strong following as part of a long-running deal with the Tasmanian state government.

On Sunday, they faced Essendon. And it felt and looked like the Bombers were the ‘home’ team.

Every Hawks clanger was greeted with Bronx cheers. Every touchy umpire call drew jeers.

“You can hear the boos,” triple premiership Lion Alastair Lynch told Fox Footy. There’s great support for Essendon here in Launceston, which is normally the stronghold of Hawthorn.

“The highway from Hobart was full of Essendon supporters coming up today.”

There was a terrific crowd at University of Tasmania Stadium. Picture: Matt KingSource: Getty Images

Veteran sports broadcaster and Tassie team advocate Tim Lane was moved by the sights and sounds.

“Gill (McLachlan), Tony Cochrane, Jeff Kennett and all others who have denied Tassie: are you listening and watching? It’s the sound of Tassie footy fans when they’re offered the next best thing to genuine engagement. Just imagine them roaring for their own team!” Lane wrote on Twitter.

Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale added on Twitter: “Great scenes out of @UTAS_ Stadium, in Launceston Tasmania. Full house, great atmosphere. People who know and love their footy!”

At the same time, the crowd came 24 hours after North Melbourne and Brisbane attracted just 5060 fans for a Saturday twilight game at Hobart’s Blundstone Arena. Six days earlier, only 3462 attended the Kangaroos-Giants match.

So anti-Tassie team people could look at the attendances for those two games and use it as an argument against.

“We’ve seen the way Hobartians have voted with their feet the last two weeks,” veteran AFL journalist Caroline Wilson said on ABC’s Offsiders.

Sam Draper and Dyson Heppell celebrate Essendon’s victory. Picture: Matt KingSource: Getty Images

“They have been insulted by North Melbourne telling them: ‘Turn up or you don’t even deserve to get a team.’ They don’t want North Melbourne, and nor should they. They deserve a 19th team.”

But the fact the Bombers got over the line in front of a (Covid-safe) sold-out crowd of 14,834 at UTAS Stadium proved Tassie’s heart pumps for footy when the state is offered an engrossing clash.

Sunday’s occasion came as the debate around a Tasmanian-based team continued to heat up.

As former Cats president and ex-AFL commissioner Colin Carter prepares his review of the business case for a 19th licence in Tasmania, Suns president Tony Cochrane declared the AFL “can’t afford a 19th franchise under any circumstances”.

“The money is not there, the depths of playing group is not there and at the end of the day, thank God, that decision has to go to the 18 existing presidents,” Cochrane told SEN SA.

“I’m here to tell you I doubt there would be anybody who would move a motion. At best there might be somebody who moves a motion and seconds it. It will not get more than three votes out of 18. It will not get up.”

But ABC broadcaster Alister Nicholson, who grew up on the north-west coast of Tasmania, accused Cochrane of showing “breathtaking arrogance”.

Suns chairman Tony Cochrane. Picture: Chris HydeSource: Getty Images

“The president of the Gold Coast Suns suggesting that the entry of a 19th team would put a drain on resources when the Gold Coast Suns, 10 years into their existence, was still getting $27 million in distribution from the AFL and has had hundreds of millions of dollars poured into it,” Nicholson told ABC’s Offsiders.

“It should be assessed on its merits with due consideration given to the rich history and heritage of Tasmania in the game the champions produced, look at the business case, approach it objectively.

“When Colin Carter presents to those presidents, it is clear that Tony Cochrane should be asked to leave the room. He’s declared where he stands on the matter without even being prepared to listen to Colin Carter’s findings. And this needs to be based on the merits of the business case, not on the self-interest of club presidents.

“It is not right that a foundation football state does not have the chance to be in the national competition when there is a will for it, a business case, history and heritage on the basis that the AFL has haemorrhaged millions of dollars into growth markets at the expense of a foundation footy state.”

CARLTON FACING ‘DELICATE’ CALL ON VETERAN WARRIOR

David Teague is facing a litany of burning questions that could determine the club’s (and his) future, but the decision on how to handle Marc Murphy’s milestone bid is perhaps the most intriguing.

Murphy, who is stuck on 295 games for the club and is likely to retire at year’s end, was omitted once again this week with nine rounds remaining in the season and the Blues virtually resigned to not playing finals yet again.

Marc Murphy played in the VFL on the weekend. Picture: Michael WillsonSource: Getty Images

A two-time best and fairest winner and former captain, Murphy is bidding to become just the sixth player in Carlton history to reach the 300-game milestone.

While Teague has in the past been criticised for “gifting” veteran players games, the discussion appears to have shifted in regards to Murphy, with debate growing over what is the right course of action for the coach to take in regards to one of the club’s longest-serving players.

Western Bulldogs games record holder Brad Johnson said the meek performances of the Blues more than warranted a senior recall for the 33-year-old.

“I wouldn’t call it gifting him games. I think he‘s better than half the team that was out there tonight,” he said on Fox Footy’s Saturday Stretch.

“I think he’d offer still a little bit more than that. We’re not talking 100 games, we’re not talking 150 – we’re talking a 300-game milestone here to a guy that has served the club for a long period of time, a lot longer than some of the people that are involved at the moment.

“I’m big on that. Having lived it and what it did mean to me, I think for the Carlton faithful who have watched him for 295, I think they should watch him for 300 and I would be giving him 300 games for the history of that club.”

Hawthorn great Jordan Lewis, who had to notch up game 300 at Melbourne after being traded from the Hawks at the end of 2016, said Teague was facing a complex situation.

Giants mount more pressure on Blues | 02:03

“It’s a delicate one, it really is. The club that I played with in Hawthorn, that wasn’t the case, there were multiple players that missed milestone games because of that reason, you had to earn the right to play every single game,” he said.

“In this instance, I think because he’s given so much to that particular club and maybe as you get older you get a little bit more sentimental, I don’t think it would be a detriment to the club or to the coaching staff if they did play him for those last few games.

“He’s earned those games as well.”

The optics of Murphy’s race to 300 games will be crucial to manage for Teague and for Murphy, who finished with 26 touches in the VFL on the weekend.

“It just makes it more difficult in the build up now because the coach has come out and said we’re not going to gift him a game. So the ball is in Marc Murphy’s court now,” Johnson said.

“If he does get to 300, the celebration won’t be as large because people sort of go well, he’s just been given the games. So it becomes really fine line.

“It really is back in Marc’s court and I hope he gets back into the team because, for me personally watching him over basically his whole career and playing against him for a small part of it, he deserves to represent Carlton 300 times.”

FADING SUNS

It is a feeling of deja vu for the Gold Coast Suns, developing into another season of promise but with no results.

Saturday’s 50-point loss to Port Adelaide saw the Suns slide to 16th on the ladder with a 4-9 record, marking their fifth defeat from their last six games.

It effectively rules them out of finals and marking the 11th-straight season the Suns have missed the post-season. Furthermore, Gold Coast is now 3-40 in games after the halfway mark of the season in the last five years.

The Suns lost to the Port Adelaide Power at Metricon Stadium. Picture: Chris HydeSource: Getty Images

“The AFL has set it up in a really bad way,” veteran AFL journalist Caroline Wilson told ABC’s Offsiders. “But it continues to fail, continues to waste the football careers, some of the best years of the lives of brilliant young athletes.”

Speaking on Fox Footy during the Suns’ loss to Port, Brisbane Lions legend Jonathan Brown raised his concerns with the development of Stuart Dew’s team.

“It’s followed a similar path (as past seasons). They started well but gradually whether they lose energy, get tired, they’re young again – they seem to be perpetually young – I think they’ve certainly disappointed themselves today,” he told Fox Footy.

Brown also questioned if Gold Coast will continue to lose young guns to rival clubs. He contrasted it to the Giants largely being able to retain their core players given they’re regularly competing for finals.

“The question mark that always hovers above the Gold Coast Suns is can they retain and keep these players. Can they keep Ben King or will he be lured back to Melbourne to play with his brother?” Brown asked.

“That’s been the major difference between GWS and Gold Coast. GWS have lost players, but almost because of lack of opportunity. They’ve normally been able to keep who they want to keep because they’re contenting for finals every year.”

Adelaide Crows champion Mark Ricciuto then added: “They need to play finals footy to retain them. They’re certainly not going to keep them if they play like this.”

A reason for the Suns’ decline in recent weeks has been because their pressure has dropped off. From Rounds 1 to 6, they ranked fifth in the AFL for pressure ratings, while from Rounds 7 to 13 they’ve ranked 11th.

Bulldogs great Brad Johnson believes they have to pick up their pressure to be competitive again.

Gold Coast Suns press conference | 09:34

“It’s on the back of pressure. We spoke about it a little bit, they genuinely start the season well and the drop-off has been the last few years in the age demographic comes into it,” he said.

“But you don’t want to see it happen again. You want to see a grit and determination to see themselves in the contest.”

Four-time premiership Hawk Jordan Lewis called on the AFL to provide the Suns with more help. If not, he flagged the possibility of another wave of Suns players exiting the club.

“Gold Coast once again will need some help. The state of Queensland has really benefited from what happened last year, there has been a real injection of young kids taking up the game – both boys and girls,” he said.

“We need them to perform a lot better than what they’ve performing now, they’ve been in the system for 10 years (and) haven’t played finals. Something needs to happen, whether they need another injection from the AFL, whether it be a compensation pick, I don’t know what it is.

“In two or three years when they may not have had the success that they wanted to, then we might see another exit of players.”

The Suns are 4-9. Picture: Chris HydeSource: Getty Images

Johnson added: “That can’t happen. Participation is through the roof and people love their footy on the coast. They need now a team that is going to have the stability of the Lions up the road and that passion to perform so that they can turn things around to get people inside Metricon Stadium.”

Johnson said the Suns would have been premiership contenders by now if not for losing so much talent.

“They’d be a serious contender for flag after flag,” Johnson said.

IS GRAY PORT’S BEST EVER?

Robbie Gray’s 250th AFL game for Port Adelaide didn’t go as he would’ve liked from an individual standpoint despite the Power belting Gold Coast by 50 points.

After a strong start to the game, the star forward suffered a knee injury in the second quarter and didn’t return to sour the win.

It was a disappointing outcome as the Power couldn’t properly celebrate their champion, who has been labelled by some as the club’s best ever player during the AFL era.

Gray certainly has a case, boasting one of the most impressive football resumes since making his debut in 2007.

He has booted 348 goals from 250 matches and is a four-time All-Australian, three-time best and fairest winner, five-time Showdown medallist and led Port’s goalkicking twice.

Port Adelaide dominate weak Suns | 01:45

“Some people are saying he’s the best player to ever have represented Port Adelaide, there’s been some hall of famers in there so it’s a good topic,” dual premiership Kangaroo David King said on Fox Footy’s Saturday Countdown.

“(He was) Pick 55, it’s a really good pick isn’t it. He’s been everything for them. He’s had to go and sacrifice his game on occasion to go into the middle.”

Asked who Gray contending with for the title, King mentioned two of the club’s 2004 premiership stars in Warren Tredrea and Gavin Wanganeen.

Hawthorn legend Dermott Brereton believes a key part of Gray’s legacy is his capacity co come up big in “clutch moments.”

“His clutch moments where they turn to him in the last minute. They turn to him in those moments in need and he just invariably gets it done so many times,” he said.

“To be totally honest I don’t have a list of candidates (for Port’s best ever player) at hand. But he’d have to be up there.”