The Buck Stops Here.
Nathan Buckley has explained his five key takeaways from the weekend of footy.
Bucks talks up a club going under the radar and heaps praise on Geelong star Tom Hawkins.
Rioli’s big impact in Eagles win
“I’m going to start with low possession, high impact players and I saw one on the weekend: Willie Rioli when West Coast took on Collingwood.”
“I watched this game with interest and was reminded about you don’t need to get 35 touches in the middle of the field to be a match-winner.
“He had 13 touches and kicked three goals, but more importantly when the game was there to be won, he stood up and made things happen.
“He put teammates into space, he took contested marks, and finished when he needed to finish. It was great to see the enjoyment on his face after the journey that he’s gone through.
“I saw the steely resolve of a competitor.”
Hawkins keeps on keeping on
“Big forwards have been the flavour of the month, always have been. Tom Hawkins has been huge and had another big game on the weekend.”
“This bloke just keeps going – he’s equal leader of the Coleman Medal with Max King … but this bloke just keeps keeping on.
“There’s an argument for me to say that he’s become a better player year on year throughout his long and storied career and that is fair achievement in itself.
“His forward 50 work as a ruckman, I know that’s been thrown up a few times, but as an opposition coach, he’s the only player that we’ve looked at in that situation and had to create specific plans around because he’s almost impossible to stop.
“He realises that if you give a free kick away, you can’t afford to give a free kick away. He’s so aggressive that it’s really hard to stop him doing what he does, and he creates so much.
“He’s been an amazing, amazing player. He’s such a smart footballer.”
Too early to write Richmond off
“Rumours of their demise are greatly exaggerated. We want do go early, don’t we?”
“They’re 2-2 and they’ve actually played a lot of good footy and just a couple of quiet quarters as ‘Dimma’ (Damien Hardwick) was talking about after the game.
“They gave up eight goals in the last quarter of the first round against Carlton and then they gave up that 10-goal burst in the last 40 minutes against St Kilda.
“They’re the two times they haven’t been able to arrest the momentum. If we’re judging them on who they were in the past, they’re not going to reach that.
“They’re not going to be the team that they were, they’ve got players that are coming through now … they have to remake their next challenging side.
“(Nick) Vlastuin, (Dylan) Grimes, (Kane) Lambert – three gun players that aren’t there at the moment, but Shai Bolton’s coming through further, the absolute want and competitiveness of a (Liam) Baker and a (Jack) Graham … and Baker’s in a different role to what was he in last year, when you see that hunger and you see that fight, that’s when you know the club and the team is still in good shape.
“They’re not going to do it the same way they did it before, they’ll do it with new names, they’ll do it with new players. They’ve still got some parts of their game they need to fix, but I had them as a lock for finals and I think the basis of their game has been really solid.”
Evenness of the competition
“I love the evenness of the competition.”
“When you look at the rounds, it’s bloody hard to tip because you don’t know exactly how players are going to roll out, you don’t know exactly how the teams are going to come together.
“The different motivations at different times, I think it’s so marginal that the footy that we’re witnessing at the moment, even four rounds in, is very exciting.
“The evenness of the competition has been great.”
Upside for Fremantle
“I’ll finish with the quiet achievers of the competition.”
“A rider on this is they haven’t played much, but I reckon they could be the most balanced transition team in the competition. Offence and defence really closely aligned and effectively coached and executed, and that’s Freo.
“They’re going under the radar a little bit and I think that happens when you’re over the other side of the country and the other team from there has been a story with the COVID and injury situation.
“Fremantle have only given 90 points up from turnover in their first four games, the next closest side is 25 points away and that’s Melbourne, the next closest side after that is another 30 points away and that’s the Brisbane Lions.
“And then on the flipside, only three teams have kicked 35 goals or more from turnover – St Kilda have kicked 36, Brisbane have kicked 36 goals from turnover also, and then Fremantle have kicked 35.
“The differential in their turnover goals is 23 in the positive - which is nearly double the next team.
“They’ve played the Giants, the Eagles and the Crows who are bottom transition turnover teams and they’ve played St Kilda who are a top three team.
“The top six teams in transition at the moment are Fremantle, Melbourne, St Kilda, Brisbane, Geelong and Collingwood, all six of those teams are in the eight at the moment.
“This stat stacks up. Because it’s two thirds of scores, if you stack up there, you’ll always be in the game.
“Their stoppage game will improve, (Sean) Darcy’s only played two out of the four, (Nat) Fyfe hasn’t played any yet. (David) Mundy, (Caleb) Serong and (Matt) Taberner have only played two of the four games, so there’s plenty of upside for Freo.”