Okay, Legends, without further ado, we're gonna get straight into the podcast. Love to cover here, Brandon, Welcome to the.
Pod, Mace.
I got to say I was out. It was my birthday this week, and it's your birthday this week, so I hope you have a very happy birthday this week. Everyone jump into his DMS and kind of even it out a bit. But I was out to dinner and I missed the start of the game. You know, all that preamble, all that stuff that happened pre game, and I was like, nothing will happened pre game?
It's fine.
I just fucked, wow, did something happen pre game? And we're going to talk about that later in the episode. But yeah, what do we I reckon, Let's jump into the games, because last week we had a monster episode and we need to just start ticking them over. But we had some actual footy, even though it was round zero, it was real stuff for real points.
It's actually it's not very tel stuff anymore, Braiden. This is real stuff. We're getting into the real thick it now and footy seasons final upon us and Round zero. We're gonna chest this out. Round zero. It's gonna do my head in doing Round zero Run one, trying to figure this out for the next couple weeks. But Round zero and the first game that was up was Sydney versus Melbourne The Rockman's Dream.
Wait before we get into it, I want to issue a please explain to the AFL. Seems we're just handing them out. I don't know if you saw this, but a graphic the AFL put out with Christian Petrarca and Errol Golden mooning down the Sydney Harbor on a couple of seeds to launch the season.
Do they get approval before they go live for these things? They just put their slap their face on whatever they want.
I don't even know what the hell they're doing. How's that relevant in any way, shape or form? Why seedews?
There is a Sydney you know, bridge in the background. I'll give them that, but I'm not really sure who's in the background of the seeds and the choice of that, I don't really Yeah, it was an interesting decision if that went.
Through layers of approval and they like love the jet skis, love everything about this. Actually, can we put some fire works and some helicopters in the sky and then it's it's good to go. But I just want to issuate, please explain for that one. But let's jump into it because there was a nice touch off the top Vegus Brayshaw, unfortunately retiring through concussion only recently doesn't get to play
on from here. But Melbourne and Max Gorn, they had the helmet up as the players ran out and they each touched the helmet, which I thought was a touching tribute to Angus. But that wasn't the only thing that Max Gorn was involved in because it was all about the rock battle. Max Gorn, Brody Grundy head to head. Brody obviously playing at Melbourne last year playing he hardly got a game so to go up there and you know, be unveiled as Sydney's ruckman.
What did you make of that matchup.
We talked about last week on the Pot. I loved it. It was so good. It was just a one on one battle. They were just duking it out the whole day, like just just wrestling in the middle of the ground like sooner bouts. Brody was coming across really hard, getting into a space and as a ruckman who sees all the little kind of things, of what they do against each other to try to kind of one up each other. It was awesome viewing. I absolutely loved it, and like
we talked about who was going to win. I said, like, you know, I think Max get around the ground a bit better, but Brody win the hitouts. It was pretty even, though I think Brody probably you know, was a bit you know, I had a few more stats than the MAXI, but like, over the whole game, it was pretty even. I think anyone that's a fan of the rock craft that goes into this kind of stuff would have just absolutely loved that game.
Yeah, it was interesting.
I watched the commentary around it on Fox Footy and it was a rollercoaster, to say the least. At halftime they were given it to Max Gone. Such a one sided affair, really, that horse put on Hayden MacLean onto Max Gone because Grundy just couldn't go with him. It was one sided and it was all over from there. At the end of the game they were saying, Brody Grundy dismantled Max Gone, he was cooked, he was out
of his feet. Now it's going to be the blueprint for all rucks going forward and all hail Brody Grundy. It was very interesting commentary on it. But yeah, I did think that maybe Brody in the whole, over the whole course of the game got him. But there were some moments where you could see both rucks just getting through the middle of the ground.
They were both exhausted.
They did a lot of running, a lot of pack to pack stuff, and yeah, they were literally walking through the middle of the ground. But then, as we always see with Max Gorn, you see him walking in the middle of the ground and then he's in the pack in the goal square.
He just gets there.
He's a guy that has a tank right Like. I wouldn't say Max Gon are many ruckmen in general, right like, have a max speed that's like a flat out sprint that's going to rival anyone else on the team. But his contest to contest work is what's so impressive. He's got that I guess that speed to get from one
to another. It's not lightning fast, but it's enough to be able to make sure that every contest downline he's there, to be able to make a presence, and he takes clanks down line like that's one of his big kind of you know, things he's added to his game, had in his game for a long time is his ability with his hands just take massive, like massive massive, I guess momentum shifters whenever you have a big man down the line, take a mark and he essentially lose one
hundred meters of territory whenever that happens, getting him a kick knacks. So he's an incredible rockman, both of them are. It was a great watch over the weekend. Brody very close with them. It was I loved it and I actually I actually ran into Max after the game. He was at the hotel and just chatting to him like and he's just like, man, it was so humid, like it was insane, and you know, they just duked it out for four for two hours straight.
It was a very ugly game, wasn't it.
And they threw down to Jude Bolton on the bench and they said, Jude, is it wet down there? Because it's like a bar of soape. They can't handle it. And he said, no, it's fine, it's fine down here. Within five minutes he was like Jesus Jewy down here, boys, But yeah, I want to get your thoughts on a tactic that I got Brody Grundy implemented, and it was very obvious from the opening bounce he was waiting.
As soon as it was bounced, he sprinted.
Across the center line and kind of took away Maxcorn's space straight away. And then I was wondering if that's something that he learned at his time at Melbourne or if it's just something more broad that Ruckman have been looking at with Maxcorn's game.
Well, I think it's probably the change in the ruling of being able to come across and use your arms and kind of stiff arm stuff, and like, as long as he gets back to the ball, there's no issue with it. But with Max can he's a good jumper. I know Brody like he essentially made it a ball up And we've talked about this of like what the center bounds will eventually become right and the center bounce we think in five to ten years will end up
just being a ball up. They won't want as many injuries if someone sticking knees into each other and no shin guards needed in games and stuff like that, right where Brody essentially just took that to the next level where he's like, I'm going to force this into a ball up. I'm going to sprint across and then just body you and then we can just duke it out
from there and figure out where the ball lands. Different look to what I've probably seen in the past of what Brody do or what Brodie's done, but it was it was an interesting tacting. It worked like it wasn't like, you know, Max was getting on top and being able to get these like incredible hits that were outside of the circle and being able to kind of get space for his midfielders. It just became essentially a ball up in the center of the ground for every single center bounds.
It seemed like, yeah, it seemed like it took a while for Max to you know, counter that come up with something to be like what it was.
Just it was very out of the box.
But it was great by Brodie to, you know, at least try something to negate his influence. Now, I want to say something that I thought things that we look at for that we just enjoy Nick Blakey running through the middle of.
The roa lizard and he's just got his.
Thing going and he gets around multiple players. He always does the fake kick and then he gets around him. He did that like three times on the wing and then he's kicking inside fifty is insane. He just always hits the target and it's just something that always brings a smile to my face. And I'm watching Sydney games and he's and lizard in full flight running through the middle. It's just something that I love to watch.
It's such an important rule for teams. I think if it's someone to break that lines from like you know, defense to midfield to forwards, and he just like floors through all three lines essentially, like is able to get from one one end to the other. I mean those people like it. It really kind of you know, I guess kickstarts your offense, especially on turnover if he can get the ball and just kind of drive legs and be able to get it all the way out to
the to the deepest forwards. Like that's an invaluable role that every single club kind of has someone that does that, Like we we have like Q like dark people drivers legs every once in a while and try to break lines. Like there's people even O Lag, Like there's people with every club that kind of does that. But Nick the way he does it, like he's Oh, it's so good. I just it just kind of how unique it looks
is what I think I love the most about it. Yeah, Like it's just there's something about him and the fact that he's named lizard. It is perfect, like that is the greatest, like just deductive reasoning of exactly what he looks like whenever he runs.
There's a few of them when the crowd slowly starts to build up. It's always awesome to see something that was, you know, courageous and you'll love to see it. But unfortunately I had a negative result was Jake Bowie putting himself in kind of the hole against Justin mcinnernie to get hurt, but to you know, stop an easy mark inside fifty for Sydney.
I was very courageous of him.
He seemed to have hurt his shoulder in some way and has come from the ground. But I just wanted to flag that as something that was it was he knew, I think the commentator said it. He it looked like he knew that he was going to get hurt.
But he just had the feelings too.
It's like you gotta stick yourhead in the hole. You got to go back with a fly or something like that. You know, it's not going to be a good feeling. You're gonna get freaking smacked. Yeah, but it's just part of the game. You got to do it, and it's like it's never it's an uneasy feeling just being out there and having to do it. Yeah, unfortunate to come up with a bit of a you know, I guess a bit of not necessarily a big injury. We haven't really got the details to it, but yeah, for that
to have and is never ideal. Whenever it's part of the game you kind of have to commit to.
It's always extra courageous when it's a little feller putting himself in there. But yeah, we hope all the best, all the best with whatever injury comes out of it. Something that we don't like to see and something that you know it was bound to come up straight away because there's been a tribunal rule change. But George Hewitt has got a fine for his punch on Lucky. Now.
Now, this was an interesting one because it looks like.
It glances his shoulder and then punches him square in the face. Really not with a tremendous amount of force, but that's okay for me. To say because I didn't get punched in the face. But the new AFL Tribunal guideline says that those types of shots can be classified as intentional in twenty twenty four and could carry a one match ban. Now it won't I can tell you it won't for the rest of the season because this set the precedent. He punched him in the face, intentional
or not. It's class as intentional because you shouldn't be punching. And whether you like it or you don't, whether you think it should be a week or not, the one way to stamp it out is to make it a week. Yeah, Like players haven't clearly haven't changed their behavior off fines, so we might not like to see this be given
a week, But now it sets the precedent. None moving forward from here will get a week because they'll just show this vision and they'll go, well, he didn't get a week, why should I.
Yeah, well, there's the weather adjudicated kind of the MRO stuff, and like you know, whether you're fined or suspended, there's like a chart and he goes, you know, heart contact, you know, is it you know, did he mean to do it? Did he not mean to do it. There's like a whole kind of dissection of how it's all
kind of determined. And yeah, I mean you look at this and it's as one as I think you kind of like hit him the chest and kind of like went up from there, and like, yeah, that sometimes does happen. Like someone's like, you know, sweaty, and you sit there and you go to like hit him with the palm of your hand in the chest and then they like move or something at the same time you're like hand
just kind of slips up. You know. It's I don't know much forces in that or them to know how much forces into it, but that does kind of happen in games whenever you kind of get a bit of a scuffle, it can happen. But yeah, it's it's it's I don't know. I think it's one of those things that AFL is going to crack down on, like all the kind of pushing and shoving off ball, all the kind of stuff that you know, you see and a lot of people enjoy, to be honest with you.
But when because I know, because now one thing like an accidental it would never slip up if you didn't throw a punch and he had a clenched fist punched him in the shoulder and it slipped up and hit him in the face. And the rule change is meant to be there to stop this, to stop that punch being thrown in the first place, because accidents do happen, is it.
The biggest thing is well, not your closed fists to open first? Is that the biggest well.
To punch Well, if your karate chopped them hit him in the face. I think the underlying rule is stop trying to like this fake bravado anyway, stop punching or like karate chopping.
Just stop.
But in general, don't throw a punch and you accidentally won't hit someone in the face.
Pretty simple.
Nothing should be close first that you're hitting anyone worth. To be honest, we've seen people, you know, take all the cheap shots here and there, and I think the open palm is the way to go about it. You're going to hit someone, your open palm use kind of like the base of your wrist, right and you kind of hit someone in the chest. That's kind of like almost like pushing off someone to go lead. And I think that's you know, that's what's acceptable. But anything that's
like close fist like that. You know there's going to be ramifications for.
It, and it could spark a malle Now we don't want to be sparking.
We're really teasing into the next little bit of.
This to a game that was an absolute car crash if you're a Brisbane supporter.
Brisbane v.
Carlton up at the GABATOI now they can't win at the Gabba or at the MCG which is kind of sad for Brisbane fans. Eighty five to eighty six, Carlton getting the victory after Brisbane held a demanding commanding leader forty seven points up.
They were mace.
I went to bed. This was this was a day before a game, right of the night before a game. I got to halftime. I was like, you know, that's just the Gabba and it's the Fortress, and yeah, just expect this to kind of be what the you know, what the outcome was going to be. And I go to breakfast the next morning and everyone's like, you did you watch the game? Yeah? I watched half the game.
They got the gym. How crazy was it? And I was like, yeah, they really went out to a big lead early, and you know, and They're like yeah, and then Carlton came back and was able to win by Sorry what I was like, what happened? They're like, yeah, Carlton won by point. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm sorry. I got so much to catch up on what the when the world was going on. So I came on to a bit of walk up to a bit of a shock, to be honest, But yeah, it's
a credit Tom. Like, it's not an easy place to go up there, and when we talked about the fortresses and the reason it's named the Fortress and for them to be able to the gab Its Fortress, but it's it's a tough place to win. Them to come back, like we talked about last week, like in the pre land that they played at the Carlton was able to kick a good score early and like this is kind of reversed. They essentially kicked a really good score late. So Carlton has a bit of a history of being
able to play well up there. Well, it's been a full game, like hasn't happened yet, but like they've definitely shown that they can win a game up there and be able to show their best at the Gabba.
It was a massive win by them because saying that what we said last week, going in there was a lot of pressure to perform and it was definitely put on them by purpose. But they delivered and it didn't look like they were going to deliver to come back from forty seven points down away from.
Home on the road.
Massive, massive win. Sad stories to come out of this, though. Kiddeon Coleman ACL now he's one of Brisbane's, if not the most important player on the team coming off half backs, the ball user, amazing skills by foot, was great in the finals last year, great in the Grand Final. Shocking to see him go down. He was kind of tackled and he leg hyper extended.
It's right at the half like kind of one of those yeah tackle getting kicked at the same time, and it's not easy to see because it's one of those that's you know, it's just kind of kind of happens, and you go, okay, well he's gone down. They're taking them down to the rooms and then whenever you see kind of like the knee thing, you always you jump straight to like worst case right, yeah ACL, and you're like,
oh my gosh, I hope this isn't it. And then you get the news yeah, day or so later that that's the case, and you know that that means essentially the season's over. It's a gut punch to Bill's to know. I mean, like even like myself, like to see another person who's in the league, who's another player, to see that happen to him. It's it's not easy, like you just you want the best people playing. You want the best people playing at their best to give the best
kind of entertainment. And whenever people go down with a major injury like that, you know they're going to be out for a significant amount of time. It's never fun to see. It's just it kind of hits you hard because you see, you know people have done it, you know, and then you know people have gone through the same circumstance and had to go through the hard yards to come back, and it's it's not an easy feet to do.
And speaking of Sam Dougherty went down ACL as well, two acls in.
The one game. This was on his good knee.
Yeah, and he's yeah knee issues in the past. He's obviously had a rough road and it was a bit more innocuous, like kind of grabbed that had it played out the quarter and then got subbed out.
Were talked about like last week we had I think it was like the top five most hated people in the AFL. I reckon he's on the opposite of the spectrum. I reckon he's the most loved person in the AFL because he's such a nice guy. Like I've met a few times and done some stuff with him. He's the most just humble, like just amazing person you'll ever meet. And it's yeah, it was. It was tough to see him kind of go down. He strapped it up, and I was kind of like, oh, maybe it's not as
bad as you know, you kind of thought. And whenever the news kind of was made public, you're just kind of like, oh my gosh, Like, dude, this guy he has just been through the ringer and back and you just kind of see this next you know, six months to a year having to go through it again just sucks. It sucks to see. You want to see people like that, who you know, haven't you know, I had an easy
road to with injuries and everything else. Like you want to see them be successful, like you want to see them, you know, be able to you know, continue to reach their goals and everything else. Whenever you have a set back like that, it's always tough to see. We wish as we stay on this podcast, prayers up.
Prayers up.
We're all the best for both Gideon and Sam in their recoveries. Another road to redemption. Someone that's copped a
lot of criticism, oh yeah over the years. But Harry McKay came out kicked the match winner shield the game went back, kick three to one for the game in the end, but you know, just heaped it all up on his shoulders, kicked it through Charlie Kerner obviously you know a jet as well, kicked four and after the game was like, oh well that'll be good now the media, can you give poor Harry a break for a week? So it's good to see the big fellows up kick and go.
I think like there was there was a lot of questions by them going into finals and the pressure and all this kind of stuff that comes with the media that people always talk about. And they're two freak athletes, you know, like they're both won calm and medals, like they're impressive. You know AFL footballers that are some of the best forwards in the league, and you know, there's always going to be questions around whether or not they gel together and how it would work and all this
kind of stuff. But like I know, like I'm calling with so I'm suposed to hate Carleton. Don't get me wrong, I understand it. I understand this works. But you know, for all the criticism they've had and for all the crap they've had to endure, I actually I am kind of happy for them to be successful and kick seven goals in that game and bring him back to you know
what was probably they weren't favored in that game. To win that game by one point in a very hostile atmosphere, that would be a pretty damn good feeling to have for both of them. I can imagine they'd be on you know, cloud nine for this week, and I don't know, I know it's just to hate them, but I'm kind of happy for him at the same time.
Well, yeah, it's something that I think most footballers can relate to, whether they're under that scrutiny or there's a teammate that he's under that scrutiny. And finally there's a little pressure valve release because they have a big game or whatever. All the boys get around them. It's a great feeling. Charlie Cameron kicked two goals, three behind and one out in the fall, So he's a bit all over the place, but always looked ominous.
It's always dangerous.
Yeah, it took a few good one on one marks, and yeah it looked like he could have taken the game away from him. He did have another incident we only spoke about this last week where in the Grand Final Jeremy how kicked long down the line and Charlie came in, got him underneath and got him in the ribs, got him good. Well, he had another incident pretty much the same thing where he got Mitch McGovern. Now.
I don't know.
If this will ever be looked at as something more serious, and I'm not calling on it to be. I'm just saying that if we're looking at players getting hit in the head and saying we need to protect players in that way, there's got to be something that you know, players vulnerable as they're kicking or after they're kicking the ball, you can't really come up and just give them internal like damage.
Yeah, it's one of those things where I think like you're obviously not trying to tackle them, no, bomp them off the ball. I guess you could consider that, but it's not a tackling motion, right, Like, so it's a it's just a thing. And for some reason, it seems like it's always shorter players that do it. I don't know why, but but yeah, I think that's one thing that AFO probably look at and maybe change the next
maybe a year or so. I think they'll look at that and see kind of the injuries that I've come from it, and see the little change and the rules that they could do to kind of mitigate that, and it'll be a thing They'll probably be taken out of the game, i'd say, But as of right now, it's still legal. So you know, what can we say, according to the laws of the game, you can do it.
I don't know, it's just not sitting right with me at the moment, just seeing where the game has evolved too, just having vulnerable players just give it.
No I mean, like not a single like this is just singling out the action, I guess. But you know, I'm sure we'll have players do it. I'm sure other the teams will have players do it. Trolie is not the only one in the league that does this, you know, So I think we're just taking a broader perspective on the ruling that is about whenever that happens. And you know, it just came to light over the weekend that we saw it again.
Yeah, that is a good and smart thing to say, Mason, because that's exactly the point, was the action, not the person. As we jump into the Suns v. Richmond, your boys, the.
Gold Coast sides, Brandon, you were having a lot of faith in them, were you, Well, how'd it go? Well?
It was fast, score was it was a big final score, thirty nine points, ninety nine to sixty. And it was an interesting game, to say the least, because they almost said, Carlton, how much to come back from forty seven points?
All right? Hold my beer?
Because Richmond looked like they were on the comeback because at one stage Gold Coast had kicked eleven goals straight wild and they were killing them.
It looked like, you know, doom and gloom. It was I.
Felt real bad for Richmond. It was like, what is happening here? No Dimmer, No Richmond. People were saying, I don't know if people were saying that but sounds good. And then all of a sudden, Richmond kicked the next seven and you're like, where is this going? What's with footy this year?
Already around zero or the other but no Gold Coast. They prevailed.
They kind of held it to there and it just peed it out. But there were some big, big performances. Ben King, we were talking about him, he had like one kick last week?
Did he have a bag?
Well, yeah, he was just stuffing around in the preseason. Because he came out and kicked five five goals. We've got we do on this podcast. We need to figure out what the sound is for him.
Yeah, we did the crown.
Did the crime. We'll do the crown the crime for King kicking a bag an absolute bag and you know, we talked about a preseason people were questioned mirks around him and stuff like that, and there goes we're into the real shit. Here's five for you. Let me give you a bag of him and he's got that go tea. Yeah, I love it, oh man, gotta love a bit of character.
People could pull off the go to I reckon it's stone Cold, Steve Austin.
Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ben King, Ben King, two people in this world.
We got Lukashia's yeah, kick three goals. He looks good. He's just a fort h he's a Ford.
And we got Maddy cow Oh he was he was out there. I'll tell you what he was eating. He was eating Richmond up for King dinner, Mace because he had thirty three Toucheseah twenty clearances, twenty.
Clearance, twenty clearances.
He gets twenty clearances. He's out.
That's insane, Like he's we all know he's a good player. There's no question like around that. And he's It's good to see him because obviously, like I said, a big Gold Coast fan. So if we can get him too, Owen, get Witzy in there, just feeding it. Torm oh my signs top eight saying top eight this year.
You know who else was up there and the full Gold Coast kit was Dustin Martin sitting in crowd, dust in full gold Coast Yeah, head to toes, hanging out in the crowd.
Yeah. Someone what do you mean?
Someone brought a cutout of dust and fully decked out in the Gold Coast suns.
Kid.
Very good. See that's playful, it's good.
That's that's pretty funny.
That's some playful banter that we can all get around. But yeah, massive, now it's it's set up for storylines coming out of this. Dimmer can get anyone playing well. He deserves all the praise. Three time Premiership coach, back to back to back, you stop the four peet. But now he goes up there and he's just he just gets them firing. I'll tell you one person that's going to be pissed off. It's Chewy jew Oh my god. He couldn't get him cranking at all, and then they
come out and absolutely ragged Old Richmond. You'd be like, I tried everything, I tried, yelling at your, abusing your and do.
It like a bike up to Mount Everest. Matt he could have done. We'll give him that.
He gave it one hundred and ten percent. They just couldn't get them firing for whatever reason. But you know, Dimmer goes up there. It might be that sugar hit that they're all was talking about. I don't know, I don't know.
If you I.
Wouldn't be more scared of Dimmer than I am of of Stewart, Jo, You couldn't be more scared.
I'd be. Yeah, I'd be more scared of Steward deal. I think, yeah, yeah, was like he's just a people's person. I feel like a little bit, you know, like he's one of the people you look at and he's.
Like dim sells some of this stuff. I reckon, he's on the same stuff that Russ Lion's.
Onst He's invested.
He's invested in some of the CBS. He's in the reefer. He's interesting, he's in the reef. McGinnis up there and yeah, so he had a big win and then it flips on Adam muse new coach. I did love one time when they were trying to find an excuse for Richmond. They're trying to find can't you got to give them something? This is when they were down. It was like one point to eighty and they're like, oh, well, to be fair, you know, Richmond, they got to adapt to the new
game plan, new coach. Like it can't be can't be easy, it's always difficult, Like what's dimmer?
What's dimmer? Is he not a new coach, new game plan?
They're both new coaches, new game plan and one team's out there kicking ass and the other team just trying to stay positive, right positive. On the broadcast regions, sometimes they just say things Mace. Now, we'll get up to that. But that was that's the first half. Yeah a podcast.
I think there's one more game we might go into, yeah, yeah, yeah, and then we've got also the preview to round one. We're over round zero, we're into round one. We've got the preview of that and much much more on the other side of this