Invisible man nearly wins game

Of course impressions gained from watching games of football are subjective. What stands out to one person can pass unnoticed by another. So I'm all for individuality in the coverage of the game: I enjoy reading and hearing different people's ‘take' from what they saw. The method of choosing the Norm Smith Medal winner, with five experts from the media deliberating on the award, generally distils the collected expertise into the standout choice. 2010 Grand Final Mark I was a tough choice, but I thought it could only have been Lenny Hayes or Brendon Goddard. I suppose cases could be made for Dale Thomas and Nick Maxwell, but I didn't envy the panel its decision. However I must admit to being astonished that one Norm Smith voter - Stephen Rielly of The Australian - left out Goddard altogether in his voting. Nada. I simply can't imagine seeing the game in the way that Rielly evidently did. How he could have missed Goddard simply being everywhere, defusing Magpie raids here, thrusting the Saints forward there, without seeming to have had the time to get from one contest to the other, stemming breaches, jumping over packs, exhorting team-mates to follow his lead, willing his side to the finish line - I admit that has got me beaten. Many independent judges rated Goddard as best-on-ground, including BPL's own Wayne Carey, but his heroics must not have been as apparent to all watchers. I guess Henry V didn't do much at Agincourt, either.

Demerit points downgraded, match review panel nobbled

Some very strange noises have been coming out of the AFL regarding the penalties that could ensue from Match Review Panel (MRP) scrutiny of Grand Final Mark I. The league went on the front foot on Friday, putting out a media release warning players to be on their best behaviour on Saturday, with reportable offences set to attract double the points penalties that would normally apply. That's standard these days: the AFL does not want the "no tomorrows" mentality to result in acts and infractions that it would not condone in a normal match. But with a drawn Grand Final, the AFL has now rescinded the "double jeopardy" clause. Mike Sheahan at the Herald-Sun is spot on the money in his column today: the AFL simply does not want anyone to miss Grand Final Mark II, so it has changed its own rule. As Sheahan points out, the players thought they were playing under double demerit points: yet the MRP is now looking at several incidents with an altered brief. It smacks of the league pre-judging and pre-empting the MRP process, because suspension - now that there is actually a tomorrow - would be too unfair. The AFL has been all at sea since the siren sounded on Saturday, making rules on the run while saying it is not. The frequency of draws in the AFL is not so minuscule that these instances should not have been foreseen, and their treatment codified.

Parochialism lives, but Titans lose golden opportunity

National expansion is seen as a positive for all the major football codes, with the National Rugby League (NRL) reportedly eager to look once more beyond its eastern seaboard homeland. But you would not know it reading the major Victorian and New South Welsh papers: the fact that both AFL and NRL Grand Finals are "all Victorian" and "all-Sydney" affairs (Illawarra fans are just loving the morphing of their joint venture into the pride of Kogarah. Not.) is front and centre of the coverage. The traditional nature of the AFL Grand Finals held nothing but upside for the AFL, even before the bonus of a replay; and you would think that the NRL would be similarly pleased, after long periods of Broncos and Storm ascendancy, to have two traditional nicknames playing off for its title. But not necessarily: NRL legend Roy Masters was heard to observe at the AFL Grand Final on Saturday that the NRL would have much preferred the Gold Coast Titans to have made it through their preliminary on Friday night, on the basis of the fillip it would give the code just six months before the rival Suns join the AFL.

All upside after Down side goes down

If the Collingwood match committee is thinking laterally, it may want to investigate the eligibility of Martin Clarke, who is at a loose end after his Down side lost the All-Ireland football final to Cork by a solitary point last weekend. Clarke has had an excellent year with Down after returning home in 2009, and was a major factor in the Ulster county's push to its first All-Ireland final in 16 years, with an aerial side to his game that he clearly honed in Australia. Clarke was closely marked by Cork in the final, with his three points probably not as many as his team had banked on from him. Clarke would be reasonably fit, but what his mental state is - after losing his own grand final by one point and then watching his former team-mates draw theirs - can only be guessed at.