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AFL: The Big Sticks from Round 8

Jarryd Roughead marks in the VFL match against Footscray  a game where he tutored his younger opponent.

Jarryd Roughead marks in the VFL match against Footscray a game where he tutored his younger opponent. Photo: Getty

Rough day turns decidedly smooth

Jarryd Roughead has often been hailed as a quality footballer and bloke and he proved it again on the weekend with his efforts in the warm-up game at the MCG.

Having been dropped to the VFL after a run of poor form – not to mention less-than-enthusiastic comments from his coach Alastair Clarkson about his AFL future – Roughead still rocked up on Sunday with a spring in his step.

By the end of the day he’d taken seven marks and booted five goals in the Box Hill Hawks’ tough draw against Footscray.

Not only that, the 281-gamer offered a hint of what may lie beyond the white line when he appeared to offer genuine coaching advice to his direct opponent, Footscray youngster Reuben William.

After his day out Roughead showed he still had plenty of that … let’s say, Hawthorn self-belief, when the four-time flag winner spoke to Channel Seven after the match.

“The fact I was able to contribute with the boys today was obviously a positive,” he said, before perhaps offering a cheeky message to Clarkson.

“No one else has kicked five at the MCG this weekend, have they?”

Keath keeps bowling over forwards

State cricketer turned Crows backman Alex Keath has continued his reinvention and is now being talked about as a possible All-Australian if his form holds up.

Keath’s 26-disposal game against Port Adelaide on Saturday night saw him snare the coveted Showdown Medal in only his 20th game for the Crows.

Formerly a Victorian from Shepparton, Keath played with Murray Bushrangers as a junior and attracted the attention of Gold Coast Suns before abandoning football to pursue a cricket career with Victoria, where he played seven first-class matches.

In 2015 he ended up at the Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League but again failed to win a full-time state contract.

Reborn a defender in the Crows reserves in the SANFL, Keath made his debut for the Crows in 2017 and says his fellow Adelaide talls Daniel Talia and Kyle Hartigan have helped build his confidence.

“We’re working really well together and that chemistry is building now,” he said. “As a back six, we’re pretty adaptable and able to play different roles at different times, so I think that’s been key to our form in recent weeks.”

Rule changes see goals dry up

Adelaide has cracked the 100-point barrier in just one game this season and it looks like a league-wide trend where scoring has become harder.

“There’s always a ripple for every rule change,” Crows coach Don Pyke said after Adelaide’s 13.10 (88) to 9.14 (68) win over Port.

“Sometimes you can predict it and sometimes you can’t.

“That (lower scoring) is just what the game is throwing up at the moment. I don’t know what the AFL is going to do about it.”

Pyke said his Crows had to cast aside their reputation as an attacking powerhouse to become more miserly defensively – in eight games this season, they’re conceding an average of just 67 points.

“The game has changed … there’s not many scores over 100 (points),” he said.

Sides’ defensive actions have become really strong and scoring is difficult. That is the reality of the game we’re playing in.”

Pyke said Adelaide simply had to adapt to the new trend and cast aside its reputation, forged in its losing grand final year of 2017, for attack before defence.

On the flipside, Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson on Sunday made the most of an ultra-defensive strategy to grind out a 10.11 (71) to 5.8 (38) win over Greater Western Sydney.

The Giants were the highest-scoring team of the competition going into the match but Clarkson’s men shut them down.

“The game was really based around the spirit and endeavour of our players just hanging in and denying them the space they usually utilise so well,” Clarkson said. “It was a really pleasing performance.”

GWS players leave the MCG after yet another loss at the venue. Photo: Getty 

Coleman Medal leader Jeremy Cameron was held goalless by James Frawley and added another layer to the Giants’ struggles at the MCG, where they have notched just two wins out of 16 games.

“Until we actually win, the story of us struggling on the MCG (will continue),” GWS coach Leon Cameron said.

“I can’t deny that at the moment because we were so poor.

“I don’t think the ground got us. Today, I think our effort got us and our effort wasn’t up to AFL standard.”

-with AAP 

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