The Eade defence

I was taught to be gracious in victory and gracious in defeat.

I’m not sure I was always gracious in defeat.

– Ron Barassi

 

There’s a new AFL cliché.  Shallow analysis indicates diversion from reality, a neat excuse for inadequate performance.  The cliché is duplicitous.  It also creates headlines.

Before the season, most experts tipped Collingwood, St Kilda, Geelong and the Western Bulldogs to finish in the top four.  Following two rounds that anticipated list has expanded to six clubs.  Within a month, it’ll include eight teams.

Essendon defeated the Western Bulldogs by 55-points in round one.  After the game, stricken Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade appeared to write off the loss as prophecy. 

‘They’re a genuine top four contender,’ Eade said of the Bombers.  Eade is a good coach, but he’s hardly a philosopher in the ilk of Mick Malthouse or Kevin Sheedy.  Stung by a heavy defeat, Eade deflected blame by focusing on Essendon.  The media went mad for the Bombers.

At the weekend, Sydney came back from a three-goal deficit in the third quarter to beat the Bombers by five points.  Essendon mightn’t finish top four, afterall.

That same Sunday, Hawthorn hammered Melbourne by 45-points, a flattering margin.  The match stats point to annihilation.  Melbourne went inside 50 just 35 times for 17 scoring shots.  The Hawks went inside 75 times for 42 scoring shots.  On those numbers, the margin should’ve been about 100 points.

On Monday, Demons captain Green invoked the new Eade cliché and transferred blame from a poor performance to a team most likely. 

‘They’re a top-four team,’ Green said of Hawthorn.  A few moments later he admitted the Demons had problems.  ‘As a side we’re developing and trying to keep on improving.  We’ve got to stop sides from getting a momentum switch and getting control of the games.’

The admission, though, led to another diversionary tactic, Green suggesting Hawthorn was gunning for a premiership.  ‘They’re tough to beat, they’ve got superstars all over the board,’ he said.  ‘But we were there with them in the first half and that’s something we’ve got to take out of it.’

Journalists are predictable employees.  Not much gets past sensationalistic minds.  It’d be a poor journalist who didn’t report on the new Eade cliché, one so eloquently used by Green less than a week later.  Footballers are media trained, instructed before interviews what to say and what not to expand on.  They are predictable media performers, delivering honesty in bland clichés, fluff.

When facing a weak opponent, footballers and coaches tend to talk up the opposition, we’re not taking them lightly.  Up against the odds, those same men will laud the opposition, it’ll be a great challenge.  No one ever says we expect to win by 15 goals or we’ll be happy with a ten goal loss.

There is varying degrees of honesty in football.  To help differentiate, coaches and footballers use stats to back themselves up, we had more shots on goal, more inside 50s, we should’ve won, or we got smashed at the stoppages 30 to 17 and that’s an area we have to improve.  It is honesty, and while journalists and the industry can hardly expect to hear anything less or more, it is never the full story.

After two rounds, six clubs, according to industry experts will finish in the top four.  Mark Harvey at Fremantle must be aggrieved.  No one has nominated the Dockers to finish top four.  Brett Ratten at Carlton must be miffed too.  

Two rounds into the season, based on one win, is too early to be nominating the victors for the top four.  Eade must be aggrieved at his widely reported diversion, the Eade cliché, they’re a genuine top four contender.  Anything can happen through the remaining 20 rounds.  Injury and poor form will dictate the pace, not speculation.  Essendon hasn’t won a final since 2004.  They might not make the finals this season.  Hawthorn, since winning the 2008 grand final, hasn’t provided one moment of collective athletic brilliance in September.

Clearly, the Eade cliché was invoked to create inverse headlines, the reverse of honesty, pure supposition in defence of ineptitude.  It was a neat trick that worked.

Before the game against Collingwood, North Melbourne coach Brad Scott built up the clash as season defining, perhaps era defining.  After the game, Scott, by full definition, was devastated.  During the interview, he spoke in basic football terms and took the Eade cliché on the grounds that he didn’t incriminate himself, despite his blunt description of defeat.  It was an opportunity, he said, for North to stand up and be counted.

‘From the football club, players and coaches we failed dismally,’ Scott said.  ‘We’re trying to shed this image of a young developing football team and we did nothing today.  Our young players couldn’t handle that pressure.  We need to grow up quickly.’

Scott tried being honest, his men know they can play the game, that they’ve got ability, but he drifted back to reality.

‘We talked about bridging the gap between the top four sides from last year and Collingwood are the reigning premier,’ he said.  ‘There was a big gulf between us and them last year and clearly that gulf still exists.’

In offering an examination of the game plan, we chose to play Collingwood a certain way, Scott confirmed how ordinary North had been, criticised his own performance and offered proof as to how good the Magpies are.

‘I think its competition wide,’ Scott said.  ‘They’ve established a gap between everyone at the moment, they’re a cut above.  They are clearly the best team in the competition.  They appear to be a much better side than they were last year.  They are establishing some really good depth in their midfield.’

Sounds like trouble…

Scott was awestruck enough to use the Eade cliché, no doubt, but it was deployed with a difference.  Collingwood won the premiership last year.  Naturally they’re favoured to win again.  Through two rounds in 2011 they’ve not faltered.  Eade, following a bad loss in round one, championed Essendon, a club that finished fourteenth last year.  Green did the same for Hawthorn, who hasn’t won a final since 2008.

They’re a top four team… Saying it sounds good, because teams finishing in the top four have the best chance at winning premierships.  The beauty of the Eade cliché is the excuse it offers to clubs who lose.

Watch the press conferences at the end of round three.  Count the number of times the losers mention top four.  That’s the problem with clichés.  They catch on.  They’re a top four team is the new cliché in football.

Eade should be asked, late in the season, to evaluate his cliché.

Collingwood 1.25 v Carlton 4.00

Western Bulldogs 1.01 v Gold Coast 16.00

Adelaide 1.46 v Fremantle 2.73

Richmond 3.55 v Hawthorn 1.30

West Coast 1.90 v Sydney 1.90

Melbourne 1.17 v Brisbane 5.10

Geelong 1.09 v Port Adelaide 7.50

St Kilda 1.85 v Essendon 1.96

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