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"Most insipid performance." | Your calls on Hawthorn vs Adelaide (22.05.26)
21 May 2026
Chapter 1: What were the highlights of the Hawthorn vs Adelaide game?
Opens it up for the lead of Harwick, missed him. Ball hits the deck though, Cook dropped it and Choll picked it up. He needs a good bounce here, needs a little skip roll and a turn late and he got up there. Merry old Choll, pretty happy with that roll.
That was Duano on fire last night. The replay for Harvey Norman bonus gift cards with selected Australian-made furniture and bedding ends Monday at Harvey Norman. Time to whip through a number of your calls. So let's go to Essendon and speak to Albert. You want to speak about the footy last night, Albert? Welcome.
Hey, good morning, boys. I might echo the sentiments from David. I think four minutes is far too long given the climate we've got to get somebody off the ground with it. And he's right. It's a brain injury. So... My question to you guys is, did Hawthorne win it or did Adelaide lose it? If you look at the top five rate of players, they're all Adelaide Crows players.
And one question for both of you blokes, how many kicks is acceptable as a pass mark in a game of footy? How many kicks?
For a midfielder?
Yeah, I'd say for a midfielder. Let's go to the midfield then. What would be a pass mark if someone was playing well? Or disposals, perhaps? Possessions, maybe? What is a pass mark? There seems to be a great range of possessions in the stats sheet.
This is a great chat, Albert. I've had this chat with Glenn Luff and with Daniel Hoyne. If you were starting statistical analysis today, you wouldn't do disposals. It's like soccer. They don't do every kick in soccer. You just do the ones that matter. So if you just did score involvements, that's a greater measure of influence than disposals.
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Chapter 2: What are listeners' opinions on the performance of specific players?
But what if it wasn't your... You can still have a dangerous disposal that didn't lead to a score. Say, like last night, say if you kicked it to Fogarty, who drops an uncontested mark inside Ford 50, then it goes to a ball up... The ball up. So it's still a very dangerous disposal. You've laced out Fogarty. He's dropped it.
Not going to lead to a score involvement, but should still count as a disposal. So what you're saying, I get. So how many then? But it's not as simple as that. You give your answer. How many? Oh, well, I think it's different for different players. We're not expecting Connor Nash to get 30 because he plays a very, very different role to a McKenzie from Hawthorne or a John Newcomb.
So I just don't think you can blanketly say this midfielder needs to get 25 disposals. Otherwise, it's a fail. So Newcombe's 18 versus Watson's 12. Exactly. Different position, though. So he's asking midfielders. Dawson's 28 versus Newcombe's 18. That's the sort of discussion, isn't it? Yeah, exactly. Dawson's first quarter was as good as you were going to see.
It's a longer discussion that is worth having, I think. Maybe not for this morning. But look, most midfielders need to be getting between 20 and 25, I would think. But Bontempele's 20 is going to be...
probably more damaging than other players 20 so it does depend and it's not just a blank an answer for everyone albert but uh it's a good thought appreciate you um starting that discussion pete is on the line what's happened to riley feel thought pete okay boys uh quite timely i've come after that last caller because this bloke had zero dangerous possessions last night it was a pretty uh run-of-the-mill game with not much happening and obviously
there wasn't much delivery into the forward line. So you've got one of the biggest, most dangerous, scary bloody blokes in the forward line. You bring him forward, he has zero impact, played zero tackles, five hit-outs, the most insipid performance by him I've seen for a long time.
To be outdone by Fogarty, who stood up to probably half his size and really needs to have a good log and look at himself. Obviously, it wasn't the best... conditions for him, but lay a tackle, crunch some bones, do something. He did nothing wrong. I think that's strong and fair. I think the lack of physicality was the issue, and it has been all year.
I mean, King and I discussed this, what, three weeks ago about... How timid he is playing. Even the wrestle that he was having with, I think it was Newcombe on the ground. Like, get him off you. Like, show something. Insert yourself into the game. Like, Mitch Lewis was able to take a couple of pack marks. Lloyd Meek took a pack mark. We're just getting nothing. It needs to be studied, Riley.
It's the biggest drop-off of any individual this year from what he was last year. He's banged up, right? So we've got to concede that he's playing nowhere near full fitness. So sometimes you ask that of a player of that caliber. We just need you out there because of the domino effect with matchups. But there are some things you just need. You need a contest.
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Chapter 3: How do injuries impact players' performances in football?
Why I did? It was three minutes at the end of the day. Well, do you not take concussions seriously, Ben? I do, but so do the doctors. So do you not think he should have come from the ground last night? They assessed him straight away. No, they said, are you okay? He said yes, and that was the end of it. Yeah, but then they checked the footage and took him off.
So why not just take him off at the start? Because he might not have been concussed. But they took him off in the end anyway, and we're going around in circles, but they took him off four minutes later. Why wouldn't you just do that when the incident occurred? That's my point, is to short-circuit it. Is the acceptable time frame instantly for you? Like, is there any grace period?
Is it a minute or two? Are they allowed to watch the vision on the bench, the docks, and then I don't know. We stop the game for players having a cramp. So as soon as there's an incident that looks as though there's a risk of concussion, stop the game from the arc and get them off. What's the guy in the arc watching? Four minutes. Yeah, no, but he doesn't quite have the power to stop the game.
Yes, he does. To stop the game. Absolutely, he does. No, he can send someone out to get him off. He can't blow a whistle and stop the game. If they have an interchange infringement, the umpire on the bench puts his hand up, the whole game stops. They can stop the game whenever they like. This guy's at Marvel Stadium. He can't blow a whistle and stop the game.
You don't reckon they can stop the game? I'll challenge you that I'm going to take 10 seconds for them to find a way to stop the game. 10 seconds. Well, we'll get Sammy Emberdon onto it. He can radio down his thoughts. I don't think he's quite got the power to blow a whistle and stop the game.
Mate, they can stop the game if they want to call back a point that has gone through at the next boundary throw-in.
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Chapter 4: What factors contribute to a player's effectiveness in a game?
Yeah, they signal to the umpire. How long does that take? Well, so you're saying that the guy in the arc needs a direct communication to the umpire. He would have it. And say, stop the game. He would have direct communication to the bench. He doesn't have the power to do this right now. How do you think he communicates with the doctor?
So you're saying that the arc's got the power to stop him straight away? How do you think right now they communicate with the doctor? Yeah, but that's different. Communicating versus stopping the game is different. If the doctor put his hand up and said, hey, we've got a player in trouble here or we're checking for concussion, that's enough for me. That's what I'm asking you.
He doesn't have that power right now. That's what I'm asking you. Give him that power, which he doesn't have right now. Yeah, I think they do have that power. I'll ask Sammy. There's people who don't like this, right? And I forget the caller's name who just rang in there. Was it Tom? Who just called.
I appreciate your point of view, but I just think when we've got litigation everywhere and we're trying to protect players from themselves… They always say they're fine. They always push on because they're competitors. This is why they're at AFL level. So you can't take the player's word at any point in this discussion. You have to assess them and you have to get them off the ground.
I think the ARC, I think the ARC do talk to the umpires.
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Chapter 5: What are the acceptable performance metrics for midfielders?
Yeah, I know they talk to the umpires. They absolutely talk to the umpires, but the ARC doesn't have the power to stop them game. The umpires have the power to stop the game, but It's going to be a long game if we stop the game for every incident that looks like a concussion.
Now, I know that one was violent, and I know that was more extreme than others, but it is going to be a lot of stoppages if we assess head knocks. No, there was like peatling last night, stopped the game for that, which they did. Your blood will really come off. Yeah. So if you're bleeding, you come off, but if you're not bleeding. So if there's no blood, we stop it for that.
I'm just telling you, there's going to be a lot of stoppages. We stop it for cramps. If there's stops for every looking like what is potentially a concussion. To me, there was a million viewers watching the TV last night that could see there was potentially an issue, yet nothing happened. All right, we'll get back to your call shortly, Chris, Matt, and Jed.
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