Even for the most sceptical, there was never any question that the quality of skill in the State of Origin’s return game would be exceptional. There were three Brownlow medallists, two Coleman medallists, 29 All-Australians and 19 premiership players. Patrick Dangerfield and Max Gawn had 16 All-Australian blazers between them, more than the entire Western Australian squad combined.
The doubt lay in how hard the players would go, and how seriously they would take it. How much would they be willing to risk? And how far down the well – in the middle of a Perth summer and with no serious game time in the legs for nearly five months – were they prepared to go?
The game was heavily marketed, and backed with a lot of money from the WA government. Indeed, Channel 7 did a preview show on Thursday night, which was basically an infomercial spruiking the majesty and magnificence of all things Western Australia. The only thing missing was Basil Zempilas shucking an oyster.
It’s important that sceptics like myself acknowledge what a success this game was. I thought it would be an exhibition game. But this was no kick and giggle. The players asked for it. They said all the right words. And they backed it up.
The evidence was in all the little things you look for in a normal home and away season. It was the way defenders hurled themselves back into packs. It was the ferocity in which midfielders attacked contests. It was the way exhausted and cramping players were still mowing down their opponents in the final term.
Nick Daicos was booed every time he touched the ball, which was a bit rough for a bloke who’d been shilling for Tourism WA for the past three days. But Lachie Ash, probably the most anonymous of the Victorian players, was a good choice as the EJ Whitten medallist.
The announcement of Ash’s honour was met with bewilderment online and inside Optus Stadium, but his long kicks opened up the Sandgropers all night. Besides, the voting panel of Chris Scott, Sam Mitchell and Garry Lyon was reasonably well placed to determine who their most influential player was. And it was good, for a change, that the player with the most touches didn’t automatically win a medal.
It was a terrific contest. But the game was always going to be loaded with risk. The vision of a chalk-white Mark Keane slapping his leg back together would have been in the back of every player’s mind. Even worse was the serious knee injury to GWS midfielder Tom Green just 24 hours earlier. Lyon, in his ambassadorial role, said injuries can happen anywhere, at any time. Look at Will Day, he said. But the Hawthorn star injured himself in a club program, with a long-term goal in mind, and every Hawks supporter understood that.
Carlton fans probably took a little more convincing when Jacob Weitering was in a neck brace. He injured himself in an act that personified the intensity of Saturday’s game, lunging a little bit more desperately than he would have in an intraclub game, and feeling the full tonnage of two large men. “That’ll squeeze the juice out of you,” commentator Brian Taylor squawked.
Taylor has considerable history when it comes to misdiagnosis and every time he said “it’s just precautionary”, I added another month to the amount of time Weitering would be missing. Indeed, there was plenty to be precautionary about – the neck, the brain, the spine, the shoulder, the ribs.
There was a lot of footballing flash on display on Saturday night but there’s nothing flashy about Weitering. In terms of structure and basic competence, he’s just about the Blues’ most important player. And there’s not a lot of Geoff Southbys, Bruce Doulls and Stephen Silvagnis waiting to replace him.
The question now is what the AFL will do with this format. South Australians will certainly embrace it. Perth deserves another crack as soon as possible. The locals came out in droves, the same way they packed the stadium for the Big Bash League final, and the same way they provided the best atmosphere of the season in last year’s elimination final.
But the spectre of injury will always hang over the fixture. It’s a game that supporters, coaches and high performance managers will watch with their hearts in their mouths. Weitering has been cleared of any neck, spinal or major internal injuries, with further investigations required to assess soreness he is still experiencing in his chest. Like 49 other players, he knew the stakes and he rolled the dice. But when things go wrong, it’s his club that pays the price.
