A week of wonders and blunders for a game full of rogues, blowhards and champions

Drug scandals, charity drives, ‘acts of bastardry’ and Hall of Fame acclaim… somewhere in all the madness, some exquisite football was played

The week in footy began, as these things do, with a Texan in protective goggles tearing the Queens Birthday game to shreds. It proved that people are still willing to go to the football in large numbers. It revealed all sorts of cracks in the reigning premiers. It saw a rollicking finish from Collingwood. It compressed the ladder, and threw the premiership race wide open. It raised millions more for Motor Neurone Disease research.

It then quickly moved, as the week in footy always does, to the negative. It zeroed in on an 18-year-old No 1 draft pick. It emphasised the industry’s obsession with bringing these young men to heel, with making sure they don’t get ahead of themselves, with sucking every morsel of individuality out of them. It prompted Nathan Buckley to ask: “what are we doing to this kid?”