Catch me if you can: Sydney's Nick Malceski runs up the field after kicking the winning goal in the Grand Final. Picture: Wayne Ludbey Source: Herald Sun
FOOTBALL writer Warwick Green charts a vintage year in the AFL will be remembered mostly as a year of consolidation for the league.
YEAR TO REMEMBER
GOLD Coast skipper Gary Ablett reinforced his status as the league's premier footballer, while Essendon skipper Jobe Watson had his own ripping season recognised on Brownlow night.
Others to have memorable years included Swan Ryan O'Keefe, who had a career highlight when handed a Norm Smith as well as a premiership medal, and veteran Saint Jason Blake, who finally cracked it for a Brownlow vote in his 210th AFL game.
But 2012 will be remembered as the year two footballers came of age.
Richmond star Trent Cotchin, long-touted as the next gun midfielder, arrived at that destination. The silky game-breaker won the AFL coaches award, was equal-second in the Brownlow and was Tigers club champion.
Down at Geelong, Tom Hawkins looked like his performance in the 2011 Grand Final was the catalyst for taking his game to another level. This season he has emerged as one of the best power forwards in the AFL, taking games by the scruff of the neck and performing under pressure.
He finished with more marks inside 50 than any other player and was second to Travis Cloke in contested marks. He won the Cats best-and-fairest and at 24 may look back on 2012 as the year he joined the elite bracket.
Richmond midfielder Dustin Martin had a difficult year on and off the field. Picture: Michael Klein Source: Herald Sun
YEAR TO FORGET
THE season was a shocker for players such as Luke Ball, Mark LeCras, Gary Rohan and Robbie Gray, who all missed a great chunk of games because of injury.
Then there were those whose form tapered. Brent Moloney went from winning Melbourne's best-and-fairest and polling 19 Brownlow votes last year to struggling to get a senior game and being traded to Brisbane.
Richmond midfielder Dustin Martin stalled in his development, was panned for his off-field behaviour, and had a club-imposed suspension for missing training.
But the standout in this category would have to be Carlton star Chris Judd. His output and influence was not at the stellar standards of previous seasons, and he played in just seven wins, the fewest of any season in his 11-year AFL career.
Judd was also heavily criticised and suspended for a month after his controversial "chicken-wing" tackle on North Melbourne's Leigh Adams in Round 16.
Since the Grand Final, he has had the AFL pull the plug on his third-party sponsorship deal with Visy, and has stepped away from the Blues captaincy.
GOOD WORK
IT was largely a year of consolidation for the AFL after a hectic 2011 in which the league introduced Gold Coast, negotiated a new broadcast rights deal, renewed its contract with major sponsor Toyota and finalised the collective bargaining agreement with the players.
No doubt 2012 will be remembered as the year Greater Western Sydney joined the competition. That process was handled relatively smoothly and successfully.
The Giants were at pains to state they should not be judged by the scoreboard alone, which is just as well, although the team did manage two wins and impressed with a hard-at-it brand of football.
Giants players train at team's new home ground of Skoda Stadium in Sydney. Picture: Stephen Cooper Source: Herald Sun
The quest for off-field success and credibility looms as a tougher task, though.
In October, the AFL Commission did well to resist pressure to further alter the interchange bench rules. The laws of the game committee recommended capping rotations at 80, but the AFL took a cautious approach, opting to have a look at an interchange cap in the NAB Cup only.
It suggests the AFL is consulting more with coaches and players, who were largely opposed to the cap.
One decision the AFL undeniably got right was its choice of acts for the Grand Final entertainment.
Admittedly, the league was coming from a low base after Meatloaf's diabolical performance last year, but the decision to engage proven Australian acts Paul Kelly (pre-match) and Temper Trap (halftime) made sense.
The concept of sending the musicians and players back on to the MCG turf after the match for a free "Premiership Party" looked an innovation with merit and worth repeating.
NOT SO GOOD
THE drawn-out investigation into Melbourne Football Club began in July after former Demon Brock McLean reignited the issue on Fox Footy's On The Couch. McLean suggested "you would have to be blind Freddy" not to realise that winning was a low priority for the Demons back in 2009.
For the best part of a decade the AFL had steadfastly maintained that tanking did not exist, despite a wide-held belief that clubs near the foot of the ladder each August engaged in a race to the wooden spoon.
Nevertheless at the start of the year the league decided to scrap the contentious priority pick system that many considered the main incentive to under-achieve.
Having weathered years of carping, it seemed extraordinary that in the very season it changed the system the AFL would choose to poke at an old wound by asking its integrity department to examine how Melbourne performed three years ago.
Five months later and there is still no resolution.
The suspicion is the AFL may have painted itself into a corner. Can it definitively prove Melbourne instructed players or coaches not to win? And if so, is it time to broaden the investigation?
You suspect the only way the AFL can extract itself is to say it thoroughly scrutinised the Demons and found no damning evidence. Then hope that football can put the word "tanking" behind it and never speak its name again.
Tom Hawkins celebrates with his teammates after kicking the winning goal after the siren to continue Hawthorn's run of outs against the Cats. Picture: George Salpigtidis Source: Herald Sun
THE MOMENT
AS always, a season of elite Australian football produces numerous spectacular goals and marks.
Consider these goals: Collingwood snatching a one-point win on Anzac Day after a late Jarryd Blair toe-poke; Tom Hawkins extending Geelong's winning streak against Hawthorn with a composed 55m effort on the siren; Brock McLean's long-range ping to give Carlton a late-season win against Richmond; and, Chris Yarran's running goal in the opening round against Richmond.
Then there was the added drama of league convert Karmichael Hunt marking a brilliant Brandon Matera pass with three seconds to play and coolly slotting home the post-siren shot to secure Gold Coast's first win of the season, against the Tigers.
When it came to exciting marks, Jeremy Howe's brilliant hanger against Sydney was the finest of about half a dozen the Demon pulled in this year.
For individual brilliance, it's also hard to go past Lance Franklin's 13.4 performance against North Melbourne in Launceston.
But the most significant moments of the season are usually found in the most significant match, the Grand Final, and two stand out from Sydney's triumph over Hawthorn.
The moment that set the tone for the day was a courageous act by Swans midfielder Dan Hannebery in the first term.
Hannebery found himself under a floating kick and, as he explained after the match, "I heard the call: 'You've got to go Hanners' and I went".
He hung on to the mark despite simultaneously being crunched by Hawk ruckman David Hale, who is 22kg heavier and 20cm taller.
The defining image of the premiership decider, however, came in the final minute.
Defender Nick Malceski had already snapped a ripper from the boundary in the opening quarter.
With 45 seconds remaining in the match and four points the difference Malceski was on the end of a short handball from Hannebery, and instinctively hooked a high left-foot snap from 30m.
It sailed through, prompting TV commentator Dennis Cometti to immediately declare: "Sydney are premiers!"
The sight of the bearded defender wheeling away at full pace and leaping into the arms of Ted Richards, where he was swamped by teammates, will endure for years to come.
PROJECT 2013
UNQUESTIONABLY, the AFL's highest priority will be to further consolidate its expanded competition.
The league has invested $220 million in its two new clubs to underwrite them for six years. The objective will be to emerge from that period with 18 profitable football clubs.
Equally, those clubs need to field teams that are at the very least competitive.
This year, there were 15 games in which the result was by 95 points or more, and six of those games did not involve the Giants or Suns. If that trend was to continue, there would be worries that the league had spread itself too thin.
Sisters Prue and Phoebe McCormack, of Bellerive, take their Kangaroos mascot to North Melbourne's first AFL game in Hobart. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones Source: The Mercury
The AFL will also closely watch what happens with North Melbourne in Tasmania - the Roos tried unsuccessfully for a seven-games-a-year deal in Hobart before settling on two home games - and the first overseas game for premiership points, when St Kilda hosts Sydney in New Zealand on Anzac Day.
But that's all big-picture, long-term stuff.
In the coming months, some pressing issues need resolving.
Clubs, players and administrators will be represented at a forum next month to discuss the illicit drugs policy. Some industry insiders believe the system needs to be tweaked to improve players' off-field behaviour.
The AFL is to be praised for being prepared to open up the conversation rather than close its ears to the possibility of an improved approach.
Also, expect there to be concerns raised during the season about whether the match review panel and the video score review system need fine tuning.
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