No William 'Braveheart' Wallace

Pyrrhic Victory for Terry Wallace

Is it a brave and creative coach who drills his team to play a possession game? Is such a strategy creating a new form of suspense? Yes, at times during Saturday's match between Richmond and the Adelaide Crows there was suspense. Sadly, the only question on everyone's lips was whether a Richmond player would kick long. It simply didn't compare with the drama of Essendon v the Eagles or Collingwood v Geelong. Nor could it hold a candle to the Bendigo Bombers v Tasmania ABC match of the round on Saturday.

Despite five consecutive losses the Bendigo Bombers played exciting, direct football to win a thriller at the romantic old Windy Hill. How uplifting were Jason Winderlich's breathtaking runs through the midfield and his five match winning goals? And what about the contested marking of Joel Reynolds and the grit of Simon Rosa (VFL) and Heath Hocking in heavy traffic? And yes, Bendigo coach Matty Knights' move of Andrew Lee onto the rampaging Jade Rawlings early in the game was another moment of drama. Given he'd made a crucial mistake in playing youngster Austin Lucy on Rawlings, Knights had to redeem himself. This time he got it right. But should he have left Jordan Doering on Cameron Thurley after the Devils goalsneak kicked three great goals in the third quarter? It's this drama and these hypotheticals that people, including the aficionados, go to the football to see.

It's this, not the nonsense we saw at the Dome from Richmond that makes for genuinely creative coaching. This doesn't mean a side should play into the hands of its opponent. In the late 70s Coburg's 1979 premiership coach Colin Kinnear told us not to kick the ball to any contest involving Port's towering ruckman, Vic Aanensen. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to stop Port defeating us four times (our only losses) in 1980, including in the grand final. In the late 80s I was lucky enough to have two of the VFA's most creative defenders, Brad Nimmo and Gary Sheldon. Our sideways possession game out of defence was not only the envy of other clubs but a key reason for us winning the 1888/89 premierships.

Terry Wallace is a fine coach and, like every other coach, needs to play to his strengths. Unfortunately, if this means turning the game into basketball, or soccer without the excitement, our game will be in deep strife. As Australians drool about soccer's World Cup, our football has never been subject to greater competition. VFA clubs disappeared because the market in a changing Australia couldn't sustain them, and only this week Channel Nine has been advertising a program that will explore the threat soccer poses to Aussie Rules. Would Nine have asked the same question if it hadn't lost the AFL TV rights? This is a question about survival.

Aussie Rules has withstood the pressure from global games because it is genuinely different. The possession game threatens to change that. If Terry Wallace's tactics spread and coaches bore us with soulless 'keepings off' we'll wake up one day and find it's all changed. It's just one more reason why the VFL should stake a claim as the place where experiments - such as the backwards kicking rule - are implemented. Those who know their history will remember that it was by being different that the old VFA flourished in the 60s and 70s.

A Rich Man's Game?

While Kevin Sheedy is to be applauded for giving Terry Wallace a touch up over his tactics on Saturday, his club gets no accolades for its catering performance at the Windy Hill VFL match. How can a club, proudly described by CEO Peter Jackson as being fabulously rich justify charging little kids $4.00 for a bucket of chips that cost $2.00 at any other VFL game, or $3.80 for a drink that sold for $2.50 at local EDFL club, Hadfield, the next day? With $4.50 for a hotdog, $6.00 for a hamburger, $1.20 for a donut and the same for a dim sim it was an appallingly expensive day for the kids who turned up. If the close to 100% mark-up wasn't sufficiently taxing, the wait for that $6.00 hamburger was anything between five and ten minutes.

'It was a rip-off. They must have made a killing,' remarked one young Essendon supporter. To rub salt into the wounds, there was only one commercial operator selling food. So much for free market competition policy! Let's hope that when Bendigo plays Williamstown at Windy Hill on Sunday 23 July they show a bit more generosity of spirit, throw the gates open and put on a free sausage sizzle for their supporters of tomorrow? The Bombers can afford it.