Scott Cummings and Tim Gossage speak to some of the best footy journalists from Around the Country as they do every Monday for some insight interstate. They are joined by:
- Michael Whiting from AFL.com in Queensland
- Michelangelo Rucci - The Run Home with Kymbo and Rooch in SA
- Lachy McKirdy - CODE Sports NSW
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(upbeat music) Ah, let's go around the country because we love doing this. Fish Whiting is on a line. Of course, don't forget nutrient water, your destination for all things water. 20 sunny today, 19 showers, and then sunny, and mostly sunny, your irrigation pump and filtration product, especially since nutrient water. Visit nutrientwaterstore.com.au. - Are you happy up at the Queensland? - Oh, wow. - I mean, mixed bag around the grounds today. I hardly double up there. - I reckon fish, you're being in a good mood and everything sunny and rosy in Queensland. - Very good mood. It doesn't happen too often the year's both teams winning, so great win for the sun, particularly beating the frame ears and having the over turn calling would lead late in the match. It doesn't happen too often, so I'll take a ton of confidence out of that. Of course, they got the road worries coming up this weekend, but such a monumental swing for the sun, particularly. - Well, one thing they did do is they didn't go into game-saving mode. They said, "We're just going to play our footy the whole time." So many teams go into game-saving mode against the pies when they're on a run, but the sun showed enormous courage and I guess conviction of the game plan to say, "No, keep playing the way we play." - Yeah, they did, and some of their leaders, the midfield leaders were very important and no random, particularly to Miller. But what I liked was that the role players stood up when it counted. Bo de Ulland won a big one-on-one contest on the wing and it led to a bend-long goal, a couple of role players standing up when the team really needed them. So they'll take a ton of confidence out of that. They got North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium this weekend. Can they break their duck on the road? Surely. - Surely they do, should they have to. Hey, Brisbane are back in the eight, unbelievably back in the eight, and they've got it all together. And great signs, too. They're getting a couple of players back, Ashcroft being the main one. - Absolutely. I think they showed us something that they haven't done too often in the last five or six years as well. For all the success they've had in all the wins, they haven't often had to overturn three and four goals deficits after half-time. They showed a little bit of maturity, and they weren't playing their best for me. And it was just great to see Will Ashcroft out there. He came on as the game progressed, and you can see what he adds to the team, clever around stoppages. Really good for you during the front half of the ground. So, yeah, everything's pointing up for the line. FL.com.au, Michael Whiting. Fish Whiting always joins us. So, good to this time from Queensland. Michael Angelo Ritchie, the run home with Kimbo and Rooch on SCN, of course. Well... - They're all happy there, too. - Oh, wow, they ever. They got the daily double as well. Adelaide was too good for GWS, and Port Adelaide in the worst game ever viewed in my human race. - The era, but that wins a win. - Yeah, that's it. They get the points, both of them. So, a bit of calmness now comes to Port. Matthew Nix gets another week where he's not in the headlines, perhaps. So, yeah, things are calmer in Adelaide. - What are they going to ride about? What are you going to speak about? - Most coaches get a week off. - Ah, look, there's always issues of who have played again. It gets not only as players, but also as coaches. So, it's a fair bit of speculation about just how much Matthew Nix is going to change his coaching panel next year. So, there's always an angle with Adelaide. I can assure you of that. - So, wow. - Hey, Kenny, these post-game interview was a beauty route to a real human side of it, and I don't think that all appears too many at Elwooden, but it was a good chat. - Yeah, I look at it as you see the toll that that week took over the extraordinary one, where you get a board member who won't trade a very interesting person at the moment, where it's been a week on radio and Adelaide, and then become a lightning rod for all the Port Adelaide fans who bent it. And then the famous good call controversy that came with one of those ring-ins. - Yeah. - Yeah, it was always going to take a toll on Kenny, clearly the speculation of just where he stands, and what sort of support he has at Port Adelaide. So, what you see is a coach who has, for all of his career, had a strong bond with his players, and a general reaction from his players in the year. And again, it wasn't great to watch, but it was great to see that they weren't going to just roll over. - Yeah, 100% true. It was a stinker to watch, but hats off. It just is the premiership points that Port Adelaide needed. Good on your reach, the run home with Kimbo and Rooch, love when he comes on and just snaps away, and gives us the what's been taking place over there in Adelaide. Let's head to Sydney now, a New South Wales, code sports, Locky McCurdy is on a line, mixed results, in fact, no. - No. - Bad day full stop. - Shocking news for a while. - Nothing going on up there. - The hell are going down there. - What a stink enjoyed for footy. Glad we got you on, my dirty. - Yeah, good morning, boys. Good to be here on a not quite as good circuit chances, but what have happened comes around eventually. - All righty, so no real heat on Sydney, but plenty of heat on GWS. That was pretty poor, and they ride in the mix to miss now, when many people had them top four Lock. - Yeah, I think that was a really disappointing result from the Giants, they would have got down there, expecting to be able to beat a crow's side who was in the bottom four before the game. So, yeah, just the way they lost, I think, was really disappointing. Their attack is just not functioning well at the moment, and the things that they did so well last year in the run to the pre-reliant final, just aren't happening at the moment. - So, and what about the Sydney swans? How do they dust themselves off? I mean, people expect them to, they're placed in Kilda who don't score, so Sydney are going to be pretty angry. - Yeah, I think you can take a look at that game two ways. You can only go, "Wow, Sydney weren't great, but still got within one point, but then finally those slow starts kind of came back to haunt them a little bit." So, it might be a little bit of a wake-up call that they needed to go, "Okay, we really need to sort that problem out before September gets here." But, yeah, I don't think there's too many warning signs considering they still had a chance to win the game. - Yeah, the loss that they had to have, apparently? - It's very hard to be up for 12, 13, 14 weeks and playing a lead. - You still want a lead, we don't know, yeah. - I absolutely do, but it's boarding on physically and mentally impossible. - All right, Lock. - I've done enough, though, I've done enough, so still be absolutely sitting on top of the tree. - We'll be riding and reading all that stuff on code sport. Of course, Mark Duffield is a WA correspondent along with Eliza Riley. Locky McCurdy does a great job in New South Wales.
