Lake holiday coming up

Brian Lake is culpable. The extent of his culpability will be determined in the next day but it is certain to be costly for his club.

Hawthorn has had a tough enough time defending its premiership as it is, with injuries and the illness that befell coach Al Clarkson. Hence Lake’s likely suspension for a choking action on North Melbourne’s Drew Petrie only exacerbates the problems of title defence.

It was a brain snap; not usually a malicious player, his compression of Petrie’s trachea warrants a suspension of at least three matches, and he has carry-over points and loading from an errant elbow in last year’s grand final to be concerned about as well. It is a terrible look for the game.

Drew Petrie (R) and Brent Harvey after the upset win over Hawthorn. Photo: Getty

Lake and Petrie tangled during the Kangaroos’ Friday-night win over the Hawks, with Petrie initially dishing out a backhander as they fell to ground, then grappling with his hands in Lake’s face as he felt the Hawthorn player’s hands around his throat.

Lake’s action will surely be referred to the tribunal since the match review panel’s points system will not have an answer to such an action, dangerous and nothing to do with the play.

The only redeeming point for Lake was that Petrie did not appear to be injured, and it is little wonder his coach and at least one teammate have not missed him in the aftermath. Always a distant and quirky character, this has come out of the area of Lake’s personality that the Bulldogs found so difficult for so long, notwithstanding his brilliance as a player.

As for Petrie, his hand action will be reviewed, too, but at least he has the defence that he was being choked.

He tried to play down the incident under the old players’ code. “Physical things happen on a footy field, we both got up and kept playing on, so I’m comfortable with how the events panned out,” Petrie told the Sunday Footy Show.

“I was engaged initially as well and then I just put my arms down, hoping that we’d both just stand up and run back to our positions. I’m sort of past wrestling on a footy field.”

Hawthorn lost top place on the ladder to the rampant Sydney Swans with the defeat, and North Melbourne reverted to type, having now logged wins over the full top four to show that their best is outstanding.

At least the Roos’ place in the top eight is looking secure; even the players appear to have given up working out their mercurial ways, and they might have Dermott Brereton to thank for Friday’s win, since his newspaper column was so strident in its criticism of the players.

The Hawks lost Brad Hill before the game and Brad Sewell a few minutes into the contest, so they had some sort of alibi for the defeat. But they continue to hit hurdles; if they win the flag from here, it will be one for the ages.

Medal mayhem

Gary Ablett’s left shoulder is the other talking point of the round. Brownlow Medal betting is on hold as Gold Coast Suns find themselves an open MRI clinic to assess the injury suffered in a tackle laid by his tagger, Brent Macaffer, on Saturday. It touched off a debate about whether Ablett, around a $1.60 favourite, already has enough votes to win a third Brownlow.

If he opts for surgery, his season will be done, and if he does not, he will be vulnerable to a second dislocation. At best-case, he is likely to miss a few weeks, so the likes of Scott Pendlebury and Sydney’s Josh Kennedy will have some friends in the betting over the next few days. By my reckoning, Ablett could already have 25 votes or so, but it will make for an interesting finish to that particular race.

Meanwhile, the Suns logged a groundbreaking win over Collingwood at home despite losing all four interchange players and having to play the final quarter with the bare 18. Sam Day (four goals), David Swallow and Jaeger O’Meara were among those who stepped up.

Collingwood was left to lament Clint Young’s dropped mark while unattended in the goal mouth late in the game, although Buckley insisted Young had “21 other mates” who were equally to blame.

“It’s an isolated incident (but) it’s a snapshot of what we missed tonight,” Buckley said. “He (Young) had some good moments, he had some poor moments. He happened to have a bad one in the last couple of minutes that might have got us over the line.”

Race for eight

Collingwood’s defeat exposes Nathan Buckley’s team to the prospect of missing the finals, although the Magpies have shown enough to suggest they can hold firm. The chasing pack includes ninth-placed Adelaide, which eclipsed Greater Western Sydney on the road, and Essendon, which squeaked home against Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval.

The Bombers after their remarkable win over Port Adelaide. Photo: Getty.

The Bombers are just a game out after the two-point win over Port. Coach Mark ‘Bomber’ Thompson went in with a plan of closing down the Power, giving them “something that made them uncomfortable”.

It worked superbly, and eight goals were enough to win a pivotal game, the second defeat in a row for the previously white hot Port.

Sixth-placed Collingwood, North (seventh) and Gold Coast (eighth) all remain vulnerable to a late charge by Adelaide and Essendon.

Swan flight

The top of the table assumed a different look with Port’s second defeat and Hawthorn’s loss leaving the way open for Sydney to reach the pinnacle for the first time this year. The Swans won their 11th game in a row against West Coast in Perth, just one short of the club record set in 1935 when Bob Pratt was playing at full-forward.

The triumph in the wet weather at Subiaco allowed for an appropriate celebration of Adam Goodes’ 341st game, the most by an indigenous player in league history. Unheralded Luke Parker benefited most from the slippery conditions.

The rest …

Richmond won a second consecutive game, this time over Brisbane Lions in a low-standard game, and Fremantle blanketed Melbourne in Darwin giving Anthony Morabito his first game in almost four years, while Carlton annihilated St Kilda at the Docklands to snap a five-game losing streak.

The Saints have lost 10 in a row and the only bright spot of a tough season is that they seem certain to secure the No. 1 draft selection, although the World Cup-worthy goal from Nick Riewoldt at least brought some temporary relief for fans.

At Geelong, the Cats beat Western Bulldogs in a slugfest, laying the second-most tackles in a game ever with 129. The only higher figure is Richmond’s 142 against Port Adelaide in 2010.