Calling out the worst interview question ever, and the new crackdown you (probably) missed
The reigning premiers are on top of the ladder, the previous year’s champions sit second, and West Coast, North Melbourne and Richmond make up the bottom three.
Brisbane rule Queensland, Sydney are champions in New South Wales, Max Gawn is the world’s best ruckman, Fremantle are untrustworthy, Marcus Bontempelli is remarkable, and James Sicily got in a fight.
We’ve seen this movie before, haven’t we?
It’s that time of the year where the ladder properly starts to take shape, and looking at the current top eight, it’s pretty reflective of where everyone sits, and only the suddenly out of form GWS seem in danger of falling out anytime soon.
Let’s review the weekend that was.
1. Calling out the worst interview question ever
“Can you feel when the umpires are favouring you, when things are falling your way?”
I have plenty of feelings about the question David King asked Mark Blicavs on Fox Footy following Geelong’s thrilling win over Collingwood – and about his comments in general on Saturday night.
The Cats’ triumph over the Pies was not only the match of the season to date, it’s one of the great encounters in recent memory. That last quarter in particular, in which the Cats put on three goals in quick succession to seemingly seal the issue only to have the Magpies once again come home with a wet sail to finish within a Jack Crisp kick of their most miraculous victory of all, is worth watching again and again and again.
It had drama, it had epic moments, it had everything you could want from a football match.
King decided to make it all about the umpires – and specifically, the Cats winning 14 of the last 18 free kicks of the match without any semblance of context or analysis of any of those decisions.
The closest he got was in claiming Bobby Hill’s rundown tackle on Shaun Mannagh, for which he was rightly pinged for a trip, was a correct tackle by the ‘spirit’ of the law. Presumably he also thought England were moral victors in the 2023 Ashes with that kind of attitude.
King directly confronting Blicavs about it was the icing on the cake: I commend Blicavs for not telling him to get stuffed immediately, and engaging with the question in good faith.
But seriously, what was he expecting him to say? “Yeah, the umps gave us an armchair ride, get a big dog up ya Collingwood”?
It’s one thing to analyse individual umpiring mistakes that prove costly late in tight games; it’s quite another for your main criticism to be that one team had a few more frees than the other.
Worst of all is that it game from one of the few people in footy media that actually try and explain the modern game to the paying public: King is usually meticulous with his analysis, comes prepared with data to back up his statements, and isn’t afraid to put his head on the line with a bold call.
This was none of those things; and both Blicavs, and a fantastic game he was lucky enough to commentate on, deserved better.
Bobby Hill conceded a free kick for legging Geelong’s Shaun Mannagh in this chasedown tackle attempt. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
2. The game is just as good (and bad) as ever
It seems like everyone these days is determined to bemoan the death of Australian Rules football.
The umpiring is out of control. The skill level is awful. The rules are a mess. The Tribunal is a joke. The AFL is run by incompetent buffoons or DEI hires.
So I feel like it’s important to say this: football is as good as it has ever been … and as bad.
Oh, the umpires are consistently getting decisions wrong? That has been true every year since the addition of multiple cameras at every ground gave us the capacity to rigorously scrutinise every single call.
This time in 2022, for instance, the umps were being flamed for being precious and sensitive through the implementation of 50m penalties for umpire dissent.
In 2023, players en masse were being suspended for tackles where players’ heads were hitting the ground, whether or not they were concussed.
Last year, Andrew Dillon and Laura Kane were derided for ruining football and making the game impossible to follow. I’ve lost count of how many times over the years Andrew Demetriou, Gillon McLachlan and Steve Hocking were accused of the same.
Yet for something that everyone complains about, 2025 has the highest average AFL attendance in history; 2024 was a close second. Our unwatchable game has never in its history been more watched.
Perhaps that’s the reason we think the game is going badly – nowadays, we can watch all nine games of footy on a weekend if we’re so inclined, whereas in a bygone age slop fests like Melbourne-West Coast and Fremantle-St Kilda, or blowouts like the Bulldogs and Port Adelaide or Hawthorn and Richmond, would have only been witnessed by supporters who only really care about these games in the wheelhouse of whether their team won or lost.
But there is still great footy being played – Geelong and Collingwood was an obvious instant classic, and while the skill level between Essendon and North Melbourne was awful, the second half, in particular the final quarter, was captivating viewing as the Roos threw everything at trying for their second win of the year.
You know what missing all the good stuff and only focussing on the negatives makes you sound like? Like David King, who with so many topics to pick from out of the Magpies-Cats epic, decided his talking point immediately after the final siren was the sort of anti-umpiring nuffery you’d expect from your dumbest colleague on Monday morning in the office.
The umpiring has always been controversial. The rules have always been hard to enforce. The AFL have always been money-hungry autocrats who care only about wringing every last dollar out of the sport they’re meant to be custodians of.
None of this is new. None of this, to be honest, is worth complaining about if it means you can’t still appreciate when our game is properly great.
3. The Suns have some work to do yet
After a whirlwind start to season 2025, Sunday night was a reality check for Gold Coast.
No, they weren’t blown out of the water by a mighty opponent in Brisbane – but after being demolished in the midfield by a premiership-winning on-ball brigade, in particular the Ashcroft brothers and Josh Dunkley, safe to say Damien Hardwick has plenty of work to do to ensure his team becomes the finished article.
In wet, greasy conditions, this was a lesson in toughness for a team for which that didn’t always come easily to them either.
It’s far from a sign that the Suns are overrated, or not as good as they’ve ever been, or not in fact well and truly on course for a first ever finals series. If anything, it proves they’re on the right track, and closer to those goals than I honestly thought they were.
Nevertheless, Brisbane remain Queensland’s standard-bearer – and as official top dogs on the ladder, the official team to beat once more.
And just a thought – it’s probably not a good idea to sledge Will Ashcroft about not being a worthy Norm Smith Medallist, unless you want to end up looking a bit silly.
4. An apology to Tim English
The last time the Western Bulldogs played Port Adelaide, my main takeaway, as I wrote in that week’s Six Points, was that Tim English was not a real ruckman.
In that match, English was monstered by a former teammate in Jordon Sweet, whose hitout supremacy played a big part in a dominant midfield display and resounding Power win.
Less than 12 months on, my criticism has continued, with English unable to impose himself on any contest in the early rounds, with his trademark around the ground marking also dwindling.
It’s only therefore, that I give him credit when it’s undoubtedly due, and admit I may have been wrong about my favourite whipping boy.
Coming up against Sweet again in Ballarat on Saturday, English was a clear best afield, putting in a performance even the great Max Gawn would have been proud of (though still not as good as Gawn’s masterclass against West Coast that evening).
English’s ruckwork, and his bullocking craft, have improved considerably this year; he’s no longer getting steamrolled by opposing ruckmen as he was repeatedly in 2024, including by Lloyd Meek in the Dogs’ elimination final loss.
His work away from stoppages has always been his strength, and it was back with a vengeance against the Power as he comprehensively ran Sweet off his legs, finishing with 27 disposals, a series of pack-crashing marks, and most importantly of all, three goals.
If English plays like this, he looks every inch the All-Australian ruckman he was in 2023, and is a crucial cog in a Bulldogs midfield that right now is the most dominant in the league.
I’d like to officially retract my view, thankfully not ever put into print, that the Dogs should take Brayden Crossley from the VFL in the mid-season rookie draft, and turn English into a key defender. That’s just idiocy.
Tim English marks over Lance Franklin during his All-Australian 2023 season. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
5. The crackdown you (probably) missed this weekend
I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t notice – but there was a spate of unusual holding the ball decisions throughout the weekend that makes me think a crackdown is imminent.
The most obvious was Connor Rozee being inexplicably pinged after winning the ball, lifting his arms and attempting to kick, a motion that nearly always leads to a play on call given the player is making an attempt to legally dispose.
Kysaiah Pickett was likewise penalise in near-identical circumstances on Saturday night, while there were a few others I noticed in passing throughout the weekend, though I can’t recall which players.
It seems like, perhaps in line with public demand for players who don’t correctly dispose of the ball to be penalise, the holding the ball rule has become even more harsh than it already was.
Mark my words, I’ll be paying close attention next week to see whether this is indeed a growing trend.
6. The trick North missed in Kane Cornes boycott
Credit to North Melbourne for standing up to Kane Cornes’ latest round of over-the-top, bad faith criticism.
Most clubs are happy to turn the other cheek when it comes to Cornes attacking their players, or only respond when things are on the up; so to guarantee the limelight by announcing they’d be boycotting him on all his media channels was a brave move for a team that has been under the gun this season.
All the same, the decision to only black-ban Cornes, and not either of the networks, Channel 7 or SEN, which employ him, reduced the impact of such a move to being essentially irrelevant.
Cornes is like a demon in a Ghostbusters movie: hate only makes him stronger. And the attention he received for North coming back at him, and the opportunity therefore afforded to him to double down on his criticism by accusing the club and Alastair Clarkson of being cowardly by avoiding him, is far more meaningful for him and Seven than any pre-match interview between he and Clarko could ever have been.
I can’t be the only one who tuned into Seven on Thursday night, including the pre-game, because of the lure of further drama. It was manna from heaven for the network, turning an otherwise nightmarish prime time fixture between the Kangaroos and Essendon into something with a bit of spice attached, however manufactured.
No, if the Roos really wanted to send a statement and hit Cornes where it hurts, then they shouldn’t have just let Luke Hodge conduct the interview with Clarkson by himself.
They should have actively boycotted both networks Cornes represents for the evening.
I understand the relationship between media and football clubs is a vital one; but North Melbourne have no further Thursday night matches scheduled for the season, and it’s unlikely they’ll get more once the rolling fixture comes in.
There was no real risk to them in either denying Seven access to any of their players or coaches on Thursday night, or even going full radical and inviting Cornes to interview Clarkson and then just blanking all of his questions.
Or alternatively, announce a boycott of Seven unless Cornes issues an apology, as Novak Djokovic did with Channel 9 and Tony Jones at the summer’s Australian Open. I’m willing to bet a conciliatory message would have been in the offing, and not the further criticism that Cornes offered in response to the boycott instead.
All North achieved with their stand was to give Cornes, and the network that pays him a bucketload for him to be who he is, exactly what they want: the spotlight.
Random thoughts
– Jack Gunston’s one-season stint in Brisbane will never not feel like a fever dream to me.
– It’s no longer just Bulldogs bias to think Ed Richards is an All-Australian frontrunner … right?
– Rowan Marshall should have been suspended for tripping Murphy Reid. As dangerous as any tackle.
– Levi Ashcroft is awfully good for being the second-best player in his family.
– Sydney kicking a winning score with Aaron Francis and Joel Hamling against Sam Taylor and Jack Buckley was … quite something.
– I’ve never seen a player run faster on the footy field than Bobby Hill chasing after Shaun Mannagh. Terrifying.