A near-disastrous act by Essendon’s Nick Hind has drawn the ire of AFL 360 veteran Mark Robinson, who labelled the questionable incident “fake tough”.
In the waning stages of last Saturday night’s loss to Sydney, Hind appeared to swing an elbow at the head of star Swans midfielder Chad Warner.
While the speedy backman didn’t ultimately make contact with Warner’s face, the apparent intention behind the act has attracted scrutiny.
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It added another layer to the fiery and tense clash at the SCG between burgeoning rivals Sydney and Essendon, with Bombers forward Peter Wright preparing to face the AFL Tribunal on Tuesday after colliding with Swan Harry Cunningham.
On Monday night’s edition of AFL 360, Robinson said that while being ‘edgy’ was OK, the Bombers needed to back it up with their play.
Instead, while they kept pace offensively, the Dons conceded an AFL season-high 131 points and were trounced by the Swans in transition.
“You can have an Essendon edge, but you’ve got to be aggressively defending the game — that’s part of being an ‘edgy’ team,” Robinson started on Fox Footy.
“Essendon went after (the Swans), they stayed with them, but you still need to challenge, and you still need to defend, and they weren’t good enough.”
Asked by Gerard Whateley if being ‘edgy’ suited the Bombers, Robinson swiftly replied: “No, no, and you know that.
“Brad (Scott) says ‘we don’t want sugar hits’ — that was an aggressive sugar hit. Are we going to have more of the aggression (going forward)? We’ll see.”
Whateley noted the severe potential of Hind’s swing-and-miss.
“This (game) could’ve had a really nasty ending,” he began. “He comes through with a flying elbow, now, if that lands, tonight’s conversation is so different.”
Robinson didn’t believe there was any legitimacy behind Hind’s act, reverting to the discussion around false bravado.
“Yeah, but that’s fake tough as well, Gerard,” Robinson quipped. “It’s fake, he didn’t want to do it. If he wanted to do it, he would’ve.
“He had every opportunity to hit him … Look, he didn’t even raise it (his elbow).”
Asked if he thought Hind’s miss was deliberate, Robinson concluded: “Yeah, I think so … I think he kept it low.”
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It comes after Sydney’s Tom Papley wasn’t shy about his thoughts on Essendon’s approach.
“They’re trying to get after us, it’s all off the ball. We’re just worried about the ball,” he said at half-time on Saturday.
The livewire forward maintained his sentiment post-game, questioning the identity of the Essendon playing group.
“They were hitting us behind the play and things like that. They’re trying to do that stuff and I don’t know if it’s them or not,” Papley said.
“Brad Scott came out and said it’s the Essendon way, but … anyway, I won’t go into it. You can pretend to be tough, but you’ve still got to win the ball and win the game.
“It’s all a facade I think, but anyway.”
Teammate Isaac Heeney voiced his similar thoughts on Saturday night.
“We knew they were going to bring it – they mentioned midweek about their ‘Essendon way’, so we knew it was going to be tough and we had to match it and embrace it (but) not go over the top and do what they did, which was a bit unfair at times,” Heeney told Fox Footy.
“There’s not much love there at the moment. We ran over the top of them, which was nice.”
The Swans and Bombers are scheduled to meet again in Round 23.
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