The Field - with JJ & DangerJosh Jenkins gives you his take on the 2024 AFL Grand Final that was won by the Brisbane Lions over the Sydney Swans.
Plus, JJ looks ahead to trade period and gives his thoughts on Joe Daniher's potential retirement.
All this and more on The Field AFL.
00:00 - Brisbane Lions are Premiers for 2024
01:31 – How Brisbane won the Grand Final
10:01 – Has Joe Daniher played his last game?
14:27 – What next for Sydney?
20:51 – AFL Trade Period
If you're on thin ice, you may as well dance. That was the catch cry from Chris Fagan back when the Brisbane Lions were struggling, when they were zip and three, when there were three wins, five losses and a draw, when things did not look great for them. He uttered the slogan, they're saying, if you're on thin ice, you may as well dance. And fast forward three or four months, and what do we have here. The Brisbane Lions are premiers for season twenty twenty four.
And what about the way they.
Got it done, not only across the finals, but on the last day in September they dismantled, They dismembered, they disembowel. They have it the Sydney Swans who simply did not come to play. Now, saying a team didn't come to play in a Grand Final is a strange thing. In fact, it's probably a silly thing, but how else do you describe what happened on Saturday afternoon at the MCG. The Sydney Swans were completely and utterly run off the MCG for the second time in three years. We'll get to them shortly, but we're going to get to the Brisbane lines first and foremost because they are the champs after a sustained run at it under Chris Fagan. They are finally premiers. They're a team who have been there or thereabout for a handful of years, but they finally get that crowning moment. They finally get the job done and they finally get to hold aloft the Premiership Cup. My name is Josh Jenkins. Thanks for joining me on the field. This will be the last recap of any games because the games are done.
But I'll tell you what.
We're not going anywhere because the AFL trade period is about to explode. I'm literally just home from a first shift with Damian Barrett and Brad Johnson on the late trade three till six pm week days.
You can hear it on the AFL APP and it's going to be busy.
So I'll get to that later as well, and hopefully when it comes to the Brisbane.
Lions teams can learn a thing or two because what they have achieved across.
The past five or six years from a trading, from a drafting and from a free agency point of view has to be seen and read and consumed to be believed. They have not missed a beat in all three phases of improving your list, whether it be the draft getting guys like Wilmot and Loman. We know Ashcroft was a bit of a free kick, but they've nailed their draft picks, they've nailed their free agency selections, and they've been able to lure and invite and add elite top end talent via the trade periods. Are looking forward to the trade period, staying with the Brisbane Lions and back to the thin ice the Brisbane Lions. If you're going to have players dancing on thin ice with sharp skates, then you want Kyle Lohman. You want Kala Archie, you want Charlie Cameron, you want Will Ashcroft, Darcy Wilmot, Cam Rainer the least does go on and on and on, and make no mistake, the AFL is a copycat league. Teams wanted to copy what Mick Moltouse brought to the table with that front half press to use your forwards as your first line of defense. Teams then wanted to kick the ball like the Hawks. Like Clarko's Hawks, who could zip the ball around the ground with their elite left footers. Teams wanted to replicate their cluster that Harko Clarko had in place. It is a copycat league and hopefully that's a good thing because the Brisbane Lions play the game the right way. They want to attack, they want to get downhill, and they want to play with flair and freedom and boldness and bravery and they are the premiers. So let's hope the rest of the competition tries to instill some of what the Brisbane lines bring to the table because when they get going, and they got going for the past three months of the season, they're the best in the competition and that is now proof. That is now proof because they've got that Premiership Cup to add to the trophy cabinet, their fourth overall. Of course, Srina Row two thousand and one, two thousand and two, two thousand and three, and it was fortunate enough last week to spend a little bit of time with some of those Premiership stars. Of course, Nigel Lappin is a good friend, but I met and spoke to Jason Akamanus last week crosspars with a few other guys. So even those guys having won three, we're all desperate for this team to add a fourth to the mix.
So it's all happening.
We've got the footy on the field in the rearview mirror, and we've got the trade period the free agency period about to kick start. So the free agency period, for those who don't follow it super closely, the free agency window opens October four, on Friday, October four and closes on October eleven, whilst the actual trade period itself opens on October the seventh and closes during the primetime TV hours on October sixteen. So it's a couple of weeks of helter skelter when it comes to improving your list and trying to get it done. But before we get onto the trading and the free agency, I want to go back to Grand Final Day because.
Up those mighty lines I don't reckon.
Aside from having played in a Grand Final and participated in a Grand Final from a coaching perspective, I don't reckon.
I've wanted a.
Team to win a Grand Final as much as I wanted Brisbane to win the Grand Final for Chris Fagan, but for the players, for the way they go about it, and in the Chris Fagan era, these lines have gone from cellar dwellers to champs I mentioned their list management and their personnel decisions. David Noble deserves a lot of credit for that. They brought in stars from all across Australia, up many of them having had no real connection to the footy club.
They went and made Brisbane.
They turned it from a cellar dweller to a destination club and they continue to bring in players to this very day.
I mentioned their pick have been a one Wilmont Loman, Morris Coleman.
We know about Ashkoff, we know about Fletcher, the father son selections, the game style and the overall maturing and maturity of the group has been immense and I think the premiership could be among the best of all time, certainly one of the best in modern history. Some people online wanted to challenge that notion with the Bulldogs when they won it from eighth, but any position outside the top four makes it incredible. So, as I mentioned zip and three to start the season, off field dramas certainly circulating around the team on the back of whatever did or didn't happen overseas, they fell to three wins, five losses and a draw and in that period of time lost Kadeen Coleman, to an ACL, Lincoln McCarthy to an ACL, Darcy Gardner to an ACL, and Tom do Day as he was about to make his club debut to an ACL. Will Ashcroft was still out getting back from his own ACL injury. So they had so many things stacked against them, and I reckon it would have been not easy but more likely for them to roll over and say this is not our year. We've got injuries, we've got drama, we're not playing well, we're not winning at the Gabba. But they turned the corner at some point during the season, and I reckon it was on the back of they're loss in camera on ANZAC Knight against the Giants, where clearly they've come together and some players have spoken about this publicly, where they came together and said, no, we can be better. We are playing okay, and they were telling us they were playing okay, but we're not winning, but we can turn it around. And I always felt they could win the premiership from basically any position within the eight because of how far they would have come from and how much for Vos, how much ferocity and venom and power they'd have given where they'd come from, and they all had their moments my line players like Cam Rayner and hip Wood and Charlie Cameron, Dane z Orco, even Zach Bailey, they all had moments throughout September where they shone very, very brightly and now they're wearing premiership medallions and that's all that matters.
Congrats to the Lions. I'm almost calling them my lines.
I'm very glad to see them win a premiership metal.
They deserve it.
They've been there, They've been so close, They've had opportunities, and they took this opportunity like you wouldn't believe. A sixty point win in a Grand Final on the back of a road prelim final comeback, a road semi final comeback.
What a performance, What a premiership Congrats to the lines.
One of the big stories that dropped Friday night before the Grand Final, so Joe dana Hurst story about him potentially playing his last game in that Grand Final.
It's still bubbling away to this moment.
I'm sitting down on a Monday night at half past eight and we've still got no real answer from him one way or the other. Some of his family members have been saying, no, he's got a year to run on his contract. He's going to honor that, but almost everyone in the press seems to think he's done. So I'm not sure which way it goes, but whatever happens, I made a bit of a not a passionate plea, but I had a few thoughts on the situation on Sunday on Radio and Melbourne, and my view is I just hope he's not walking away from the game because of the external noise and some of the criticism and perhaps people maligning him and calling him polarizing, because I think that is just inaccurate lazy slack commentary. Joe Danaher has been for some time and he is right now one of the elite key forwards in the competition. He's one of the key forwards who has massively bucked the trend in finals footy where key forwards have struggled to impact games consistently, and he has impact games, impacted games significantly in finals. So here are his numbers across the past two years of Finals footy. Sixteen disposal, six marks and five goals. That was the first final of twenty twenty three. Then fourteen disposal, three marks and a couple of goals in the Grand final.
I thought he was Brisbane's best player.
Sixteen touches, eight mark, three goals, and then this year's finals series at eleven touches, took four marks, kicked a couple of goals in the elimination final, then thirteen touches, five marks, four go including two game winners and game sealers. Then in the prelim final, Oscar Macinneronni goes down, so he goes into the ruck and plays a vital role with thirteen disposals and six marks, and then in the Grand Final on the weekend, sixteen disposals, eight more marks, two goals four So sixteen goals from his past six finals, sorry, eighteen goals, eighteen goals from his past six finals. And that is leaving aside the game where he played largely in the ruck, so eighteen goals from the six finals where he primarily played as a forward. He's an elite player, he's an elite performer, and he's a big game performer. And if he's walking away because he just wants to do other things in his life, he's a thirty year old, he's had enough, then all power to him. But if he's walking away because of some of the commentary and some of the stigma around him and the good Joe bad Joe's stuff. That is absolute nonsense because people have gravitated to the miss from twenty meters out directly in front, or the shot from seventy five meters out when he perhaps had a teammate to pass the ball to.
They're the errors he makes in a game. Well, guess what.
Defenders make errors when they get out marked or they turn the ball over in the back half. Midfielders make errors when they fumble or they miss a tackle around the ball, but those errors aren't.
As easy or as obvious to pick up.
When Joe danaher or any forward for that matter, makes a blunder like that, a missed shot for goal from close in, or burns a teammate and has a shot that's obvious, it's easy for people to pick up. But at the end of each game, more often than not, the totality of Joe Dannahert's performance is elite. If he does depart the Brisbane lines, it's going to leave a massive hole. But I hope he does. I hope he doesn't. You're a long time retired. He's at the peak of his powers. He's got the respect of the people that I think matter in footy. Those who think he's still as much bad Joe as he is good Joe simply have no idea what they're watching, or don't take the time to watch the game and evalue it the game as they should. So hopefully Joe Danaher's not done. I hope he goes around at least one more season. Let's go onto the runners up, because well, this is a tough one. In twenty twenty two, Sydney were blown off the mcg Geelong hamm of them eighty one points.
But that was then. This was supposed to be different.
This was supposed to be Sidney's moment to avenge that eighty one point embarrassment. But they did no such thing, and in fact, in some ways this may have been worse. Not on the scoreboard, but the eye test told us this was at least as bad as the twenty two loss, because sixteen of the players who played in twenty two were the ones out here in twenty four desperate to atone for that performance and that loss, and maybe only three of them can say they went close.
To rectifying it, to performing to the level.
So what happened. The world knows the numbers. The only people who seemingly didn't know the key numbers were the Sydney Footy Club.
One hundred, one hundred marks.
When Brisbane take more than one hundred marks this season, they're fourteen wins and three losses, close enough to unbeatable. So to concede forty one in the first quarter, what's going on there? It's hard to wrap your head around it. Eighty odd marks conceded at halftime, one hundred and fifty eight marks overall, the second most of any team this season.
It truly is hard to get your head around. I think.
I think the Swan's need to consider all things. They don't need to throw the baby out with the bath water, but certainly freshen up the water. Certainly freshen up the water. They need to look for levels of improvement all over the place. They've got to give consideration to their structure ahead of the ball with their three tools. They need to give consideration to the mix of players they've got. Have they got too many skinny players, too many light framed players versus the power of a team like Brisbane. They've got a lot of decisions to make. And the coaches need to and will I'm sure hold themselves accountable too, because.
When you plan.
For a game and you plan to take something away from the opposition and you do no such thing. Yes, it falls on the players, but it falls on the coaches as well, because they're the ones preparing the players and arming the players with the information. You've got to wear that together. The other thing is the selection of Logan McDonald. In twenty twenty two, they played Sam Reid, who was not fit to play, was subbed out around halftime. Twenty twenty four, Logan McDonald rolls the ankle in the prelim, does some level of training, proves to them apparently that he can play the game in the Grand Final, doesn't make it past halftime, same position, same role. Not a surperstar by any stretch of the imagination, and they fall for the same trick. We're all focused on Callum Mills and they ruled him out, but they ruled Logan McDonald in. That's one that the coaches are going to have a hard time getting their head around.
That's one I reckon they're going to really struggle with.
Because they knew they made a mistake last time and they made the same mistake once again, didn't decide the outcome of the game. But gee, it's a difficult decision to make because you think to yourself, well, what other things did I make up? What other things did I stuff up? What other decisions did I make that we're wrong or that set us off on the wrong foot. They are all the things that go through your mind when you lose a Grand Final, particularly in that manner talk about the need for more combative players in their team. That's not me saying players like mcenernie and Goulden and Campbell and Roberts and Floren aren't really good players, because they all are. Some of them are elite players. But there's a little bit of a lopsidedness to this team, and it's it's me speaking in hindsight, of course, but that's how you need to judge these types of things. You've got an opinion on the runway, on the way, on the way through, but it's not until you see the totality of the season and where they finish in what happens that you can probably form a judgment. So can Roberts, Can Campbell, Ken Goulden, can mcinernie, can Florent, Can Blakey, can Lloyd. Can those guys stand shoulder to shoulder with Josh Dunkley or Jared Berry or Cam Rainer or Brandon Stacevich and win contests and tackle them and fight the tackle and break tackles. They certainly couldn't on Grand Final Day. But can they do it moving forward? That's the question for John Lhmeier and his crew, and it's going to be a very difficult path forward because for them, having had the embarrassment of twenty twenty two and the embarrassment of twenty twenty four, now the whole world's going to say, we don't care what you do in the regular season or even the finals. We care what you do on Grand Final Day. But it's no given, no guarantee they're going to get back there, and leaving back on Grand Final Day their next final day is a dangerous place to live and it's a tough place to live. It's a really tough existence because you've got to honor the steps to get there. You've got to be able to enjoy winning in round two and round six. You've got to find a way to enjoy winning on the road at Marvel Stadium, in front of a small crowd in an ugly manner when you've kicked seven goals twelve but you've won the game. You've got to find a way to enjoy that and celebrate that and not think, well, yeah, that's great, we should do that because we're on our way to a Grand Final and that's when we can enjoy playing footy because hey, I don't think you'll get their living like that, but b it's so tough on the individual with that type of attitude, So a lot to be worked through. For the Sydney Swans are a fantastic footy club. I'm sure they'll be able to do it and bounce back. Now let's get onto the trade period because people absolutely go sick for this stuff.
And we've got big names in the mix.
Bailey Smith, Dan Houston, Jack Martin, Jake Stringer, Shay Bolton, Liam Baker, Jack McCrae, Jack Lakosias, Sam Frost, Tom Barris, Cosey Pickett's name is in the mix of an soldo. No you're not watching the twenty twenty three version. He wants to be traded again. Luke Parker, Caleb Daniel Clayton. Oliver's name arose again today, some big names on the trade table. Some will move, some will be stuck, some will have to go back to the club that they.
Wanted to leave.
But I'll tell you what, moving into twenty twenty five, this is a busy, busy time of the year because all eight En clubs will be of the opinion and certainly their fans will be of the opinion. Of the opinion they can get better and they can climb up the ladder.
Here's a quick lest for you.
So my top five names to follow through trade period. At five Liam Baker, as always, he's going under the radar a little bit. But whichever West Australian team gets him, and it sounds like it'll be the Eagles, I think they're also getting a future captain at for Tom Barras in my humble as a want to be lest manager sitting in my garage. If on West Coast, I reckon I hold him to his deal unless the Hawks pay up deluxe, I'd hold Tom Barras to his deal. A local guy with family ties, a Premiership player under contract.
If you don't get what you want, keep him.
Add three Causey Pike at this name keeps coming up People in Perth think he's coming their way, people in Adelaide.
Think he's coming their way. And if he leaves Melbourne it is a hammer blow at two Bailey Smith. It does seem a foregone conclusion. Will the Cats get him for a pinch? Will the Dogs get massive unders for him?
If they do, it'll upset the entirety of the AFL community outside those who barrow or associated with the Cats and number one Shay Bolton. I think he's the most talented player in the trade period who's on the table, and that's saying something when you've got Dan Houston and Bailey Smith and Jack Lacosis and these types available. But he's a Premiership tiger, he's a superstar tiger and he wants to get out West. But he just signed two years ago a five year deal for a fortune.
Does he get home or does Adam Mouse and the.
Richmond Football Club hold firm and say bad luck, Shay, you're playing for us.
So that's what the trade period looks like.
It's going to be an absolutely royal wild ride once again. So make sure you're checking out AFL Trade Radio on the AFL app. Myself, Damian Barrett and Brad Johnson from three pm every single week day across the next two and a half weeks. Congrats to Brisbane again, much deserved love, Harris Andrews. Love what they've been able to build as a team. Hopefully they can turn up again next year and give it a red hot crack.
Thanks to those who have been watching. I'm not done yet.
A couple more trade updates along the way, because you people love the AFL trade period. I loved what Brisbane were able to do. Congrats to them and thanks to everyone for watching. I'll see you next week.
