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‘Made for finals’: The interstate gun with the AFL’s No.1 ranking

By Michael Gleeson

Isaac Heeney thought he had space. He turned to goal and took a step. Braeden Campbell had dinked a loopy handball to him over a Crows player just as he was about to be tackled and Heeney was clear.

He was inside 50, tight to the boundary on his left and caught Izak Rankine in his peripheral vision closing fast from the right. You could almost hear Heeney thinking, “I can get through him. I can shrug him.”

It was late in the last quarter, with about seven minutes to go, on a wet SCG in round 19 and the home team was surging.

Rankine slammed into Heeney and wrapped his arms around him. Heeney, comfortably 15 kilograms heavier and stronger than Rankine, stood in the tackle. It looked like David Attenborough footage from a savannah. Heeney wriggled an arm free to try to handball. Rankine lunged and surprisingly managed to spin Heeney as they cuddled, and the pair tumbled to the ground. The ball spilt free. The Crows cleared it, and they hung on to win the game.

The significance of the tackle in that moment in the game, and in the context of Rankine’s season and career, cannot be underestimated.

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