Almanac Footy: The AFL’s Ginger Wildcats

My youngest daughter Mia has a cat named George who has three legs and a serious attitude. It’s front right leg had to be amputated when he was a kitten, having fallen from a first floor window when they were living in Sydney about five years ago.

 

Of course the cost of the operation fell to me given Mia wasn’t overly flush at the time so you’d think George would be somewhat grateful to me for saving his life.

 

Well no. Mia lives on a beach not far from Geelong these days so whenever I get to see her I remind George of my overwhelming compassion and ultimate contribution to his existence.

 

After explaining to him that I am in fact the benefactor, I go to pat him gently and he suddenly strikes with the speed of a Thomas Hearns jab. It’s quick and delivered with menacing intent, leaving track marks on my wrist.

 

Little does he know it could have been all over for $50. A quick jab and he was an ex-Tomcat. :)

 

 

 

 

I was watching the two Saturday games of ‘round zero’ of the AFL and there are two ‘Georges’ running around for the Gold Coast and GWS.

 

Fortunately they have all their limbs and whenever they get near a contest you know there’s a high percentage chance they’ll leave that contest ball in hand.

 

Twenty three year old Tom Greene from GWS averaged fifteen contested possessions in 2023. He’s that new evolution of midfielder like Bontempelli, 191 cm and 93 kg and he uses that frame wisely, drawing tacklers and feeding intelligently to his team mates.

 

Twenty two year old Matt Rowell from the Gold Coast burst onto the scene as #1 pick in 2019 but unfortunately sustained some nasty injuries in his first few years. From what we saw last night he’s back and has filled out his 1.80 cm and 78 kg frame over the summer. He had twenty contested possessions last night as well as a dozen clearances.

 

Both Rowell and Green are natural leaders and utterly professional. It’s said that both of them have to be restrained from doing too much training much like Robert Harvey when he played at St Kilda.

 

The final ‘Ginger Wildcat’ is Melbourne’s Clayton Oliver. I’m not privy to his mental health issues but I can only observe like everyone else that he’s not the same player from a few years ago.

 

He is a four time B&F winner and still only twenty six years old so fingers crossed he can return to the indefatigable gut runner we are used to.

 

In Melbourne’s premiership year of 2021 he averaged almost eighteen contested possessions a game and coupled with Christian Petracca, became

 

the deadliest midfield duo in the game.

 

That year, Oliver consistently exceeded forty possessions a game but there was one match at the Adelaide Oval that year that he went ‘ballistic’.

 

I honestly can’t remember the opponent, reason being I was laughing hysterically at how brilliant Oliver was that day racking up around forty eight possessions and virtually every one of them hitting a team mate. It was extraordinary.

 

I’ve heard so called commentators on Channel 7 that have had a knock on these three gentlemen for their kicking. Goodness me. These comments can only come from former key forwards or those that haven’t played the game.

 

What they typically choose to overlook, is the effort these guys put into winning a contested ball then having to deliver it, then repeat cycle. Watch them for long enough and you’ll understand how fatigue can force the odd ill directed kick.

 

There’s something all powerful underneath a mop of red hair. It’s not always easy for them to contain the rage but when they do use the power for good and not evil, they can be an unstoppable force of nature.

 

I can’t wait to see what the future holds for these three guns of the game.

 

 

More from Ian Wilson can be read Here.

 

 

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