The Jordan Lewis/Jarrod Harbrow collision

We all rant about how the cheap possessions mount up in the modern game, and the way the ball is moved around like basketball. But every so often, we still see the essence of Australian football: two players committing in a split-second to inevitable contact, to win the ball that will be between them. The unwillingness to pull out still takes the breath away.

Milnegate

Even at the time, it looked bizarre. Yes, football is an emotional game, and at times it is great to see the rawness of that. We observers can really only guess at the level of intensity in the coaching box. Clearly, it is not a normal working environment.

When my son met Rodney Eade recently he was surprised at how nice he was, because he thought he was "always angry at his players." I had to tell him that Eade's job requires him occasionally to speak very frankly to his players about what they are and are not doing.

Yes, Stephen Milne polarises people like virtually no other player; and it obviously pumps him up to be as antagonistic and irritating a presence as he can be (on top of his sublime skills as a goalsneak.) But what struck me as incongruous at the time was why the Collingwood coaching staff got into the verbal melee so quickly, when clearly they should have been spending their limited time more productively.

It smacked of desperation and the realisation that they don't have the cattle.

The Melbourne gang-tackle that drove Patrick Dangerfield into the turf and sent him to hospital with suspected neck and spinal injuries.

It was not a good look for the sport, I'm afraid.

The rugby codes have a much worse problem trying to eradicate the spear tackle and the dangerous throw - watch this shocker that recently earned two New Zealand Warriors reserves a six-week holiday each, and there was also a nasty example in the Brumbies/Cheetahs Super 14 game in Canberra on Saturday night - but the sight of a pinned and defenceless AFL player being driven into the ground was not good.

It's hard to stop, because it all happens so quickly, and the tacklers do not realise that the tacklee is pinned, but it's got to be stamped out.

Quade Cooper

Problem child, loose cannon, liability, whatever words you want to use, he is also a brilliant and instinctive rugby player. Apart from one brain-snap in Bloemfontein, Cooper lit up Queensland's Super 14 South African tour with consistent brilliance, and the points (and wins) flowed. Clearly new coach Ewen McKenzie is working wonders in the man-management of Cooper: or maybe the penny has dropped for the player.

When they see South African newspaper websites extolling the skill of the Reds, Bananabenders must be wondering if it's (mostly) the same players they watched being haplessly belted for the past few years. Although a court appearance on burglary charges still awaits, Cooper's year on the field looks like getting ever-better, and his form augurs well for the Wallabies.

The Plunge that failed.

It's always good to see the informed money go down the gurgler. So When Toorak Toff was backed in from $26 to $4.80 in the biggest betting plunge bookmakers had seen on a Group 1 race in at least two decades, in the AJC Sires Produce Stakes at Randwick on Saturday, the average punter could be forgiven a smirk when the Victorian colt faded to run fourth....unless they joined in, of course.

Lastly, congratulations to my cousin Chris Dunn, for his feat of two holes-in-one in the same round at Melbourne's Kew Golf Club on Saturday. Luckily for Chris, it wasn't a practice round on his own, but Monthly Medal play, so there was no shortage of witnesses for his two aces, which included a spectacular slam-dunk on the 18th. Apparently the odds of two holes-in-one in the same round are one in 67 million.

But golf is a great leveller: playing pennant yesterday, Chris reports that he "got flogged."