Hawthorn Hawks captain James Sicily

So Hawthorn were still in it and found a way to win through a Jack Gunston reprise and James Worpel’s industry.

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Worpel – the out-of-contract midfielder – played a game against Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver that will have list managers wondering which one of that trio of potentially gettable midfielders would you fancy for the price at the end of this season.

Sicily, endearingly, was quick to smile at his own improved kicking after it had been patchy – OK, clunky – in recent games for a player who is normally exceptional by foot.

The draw has fallen nicely for Hawthorn in this period of clunk, with games against West Coast, Richmond and Melbourne.

The month ahead, starting on Thursday in Darwin against Gold Coast, presents a sterner change. The best that can be said for this week is that their opponents are also playing off a five day break.

Is there a non-clunky team in it after nine games?

Collingwood? They got smashed by GWS in opening round, so they clunk a bit.

Geelong would be considered clunky, losing a home game to struggling GWS – their fifth loss in a row at their home venue to the Giants, so that is a model of consistency. For two successive games, the Cats have clunked in the closing minutes. Last week they were in command but gave up three late goals and were lucky Jack Crisp missed his after-the-siren shot. On Sunday, they failed to convert when they owned territory and had the shots – Mark Blicavs, Tyson Stengle and Shannon Neale – as well as Patrick Dangerfield passing not shooting for goal.

Gold Coast are in the top four, but let’s give them time. They have already lost to Richmond.

The Swans are the definition of clunky. Last year’s grand finalists are in freefall (not withstanding a stirring win over GWS last week), but they have a better alibi than any other team for poor performance – the absences of Errol Gulden, Tom Papley, Callum Mills, Logan McDonald and Joel Amartey.

Port? Seriously? From prelim’ finalists to this without a Sydney-like alibi. Clunk.

Fremantle? They are clunksters – able to beat Adelaide and the Bulldogs at home but then belted by Geelong away and lose to Melbourne and Sydney who have struggled against everyone. Then they comfortably lose to Collingwood at home despite having 62 inside-50s to 34 but never looking threatening.

Essendon has won a couple in a row. Don’t ask how they won them, but they did. They have had injured players in a young team.

Carlton. Well, there’s a team that clunks. They ground the similarly clunky St Kilda into a win through dominant mids and forwards.

So Sicily, an unexpected sage, is correct.

No one is flying, there is no one dominant team. But more immediately his side needs to remove any hint of clunkiness in Darwin.

Mark of the man

The mark of the year is invariably glorious. It is normally breathtaking and, by definition, rare and exceptional. It can be courageous – Jonathan Brown (2002). Sometimes, it isn’t even really a mark, but you’d have to be churlish to deny Gary Ablett senior (1994).

Normally, it is the manner of the mark, not the situation it occurs in, that distinguishes it. Sometimes it can be both. Leo Barry, you star (should’ve been the winner in 2005). But seldom is consequence sufficient to elevate a mark to universal acclaim.

Mark Keane’s mark in the last moments against Port was extremely consequential.

The Showdown tally was locked at 28 apiece and the game was on the line when the Crows defender – by way of Ireland and Collingwood – back-pedalled with the flight of the ball.

He had to know a pack was coming, but his eyes didn’t deviate. His body didn’t flinch. He marked the ball and safeguarded the game.

In terms of valour, it was as courageous as you will find, not only for the bravery to ignore the oncoming players, but to have the guts to attempt the mark and not spoil, which would have returned the ball to chaos, or worse, into the arms of a Power forward.

It’s unlikely to be the best mark of the year by season’s end, but it was plainly the most consequential and meritorious of the round.

Tackle of the year

Keane at least can be in contention for an award recognising his effort. Tom Brown will get nothing for delivering the tackle of the year to date to save the game for Richmond.

With Tom Gross running to 50 metres out and shaping for a goal that would potentially deliver the Eagles’ first win of the year, Brown mowed him down. He’d given Gross a 20-metre headstart, but managed to catch and roll him without slamming him into the ground and giving away a free kick.

The result of this game will not shape much more than draft positions, but the tackle was, potentially at least, game-deciding.

Tripped up

An umpire 10 metres away somehow didn’t see Melbourne’s Kysaiah Pickett get deliberately tripped at the top of the goal square as he ran towards a loose ball and probable goal.

The nearby umpire also didn’t see James Sicily then grab the ball and throw it to himself around the goal post. Jack Higgins won goal of the year in 2018 doing something similar – tossing the ball around the goal post and kicking it out of the air. The umpire allowed Higgins innovative goal to stand, even though it was technically a throw. Sicily’s should have been called a throw.

There should have been no debate about the trip. It was clear. There should be no debate about the throw – you can’t throw the ball even to yourself.

A Melbourne team that finds innovative ways not to score doesn’t need more help to not kick goals. They had scoring had two goals denied within seconds.

Melbourne should have been five or six goals up at half-time if – and this is a tired refrain – they had an even partly functional forward line. They don’t.

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Without dredging over old ground, Jacob van Rooyen’s youthfulness and leap compel you to believe he will be better some day. But he has to mark it for that to happen, and on Saturday he had just two marks. The game slows unhelpfully for Melbourne when he gets the ball.

Matthew Jefferson was brought in as a project, but he is a battler. He had four touches, just two marks and is struggling at the level. Charlie Spargo’s return has added some welcome bite, but he missed his chances. Bayley Fritsch is an enormous frustration. And Pickett, is their best forward but it is a lot to ask of a small forward to weekly kick the team’s score.

As for the denied goals, there is an argument for video to be used in periods of play leading to a goal. It seems odd that inconclusive video is used to try to determine if fingernails might have brushed a ball when it came off a player’s boot up to 50 metres from goal, but very clear evidence of an offence can be wilfully ignored.

Let’s not forget the time in 2023 Jeremy Cameron hilariously accepted a handball from Geelong teammate Brad Close, who played on from a free kick while out of bounds, gave the ball to Cameron, who was also out of bounds. Neither out-of-bounds calls were made and Cameron ran around to kick a goal.

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