Explaining the second third of the AFL season through Godfather Trilogy Quotes

At about the one third mark of this AFL season I wrote up an article where my gimmick was that I would try to explain the first third of the AFL season and the stories that have defined it through quotes from Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. I had fun writing it so I thought that I would do it again with my favourite two movies ever and then a shoddy third film that still has some great quotes, but a little too much incest for my liking.

The Godfather 1 and 2 are my two favourite movies of all time. I truly believe The Godfather 2 is the best movie ever put on film. Al Pacino’s performance in 2, reprising his role as newly minted patriarch of the Corleone family, is the greatest on screen performance ever in my estimation. Other contenders for the throne are Daniel Day Lewis in There Will be Blood, De Niro in Raging Bull and Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct.

None, however, match the intensity and subtlety that marked Pacino’s performances in the early to mid 70s. Subtlety that he had well and truly squashed by the time he was yelling about Hank Azaria’s face being all the way up in Ashley Judd’s ass in Heat.

Despite this, The Godfather 1 is my favourite movie of all time. I watch it and at this point it’s like a greatest hits album. Every scene I tell myself ‘I love this scene’ and I truly do. It is lighter and more triumphant than 2 and honestly just a little more fun. The stakes are simply not as high. For instance, in the first two movies there are two scenes with the two generations of Don Corleone’s dealing with other powerful men at big tables. Don Vito is dealing with other east coast mafia bosses, trying to negotiate to bring his son Michael home ‘cleared of all these false (true) charges’. Don Michael, on the other hand, is in Cuba trying to broker a deal with government officials across the world.

The stakes are higher in 2 and the film is darker as a result.

The Godfather 3 is one of the great disappointments, like how Jordan De Goey’s career is looking like it is going to play out. Expensive but will ultimately let you down at every opportunity. 3 was unsalvageable from the jump but the gnocchi scene is truly repulsive, not dissimilar to the myriad allegations levelled against De Goey.

Beyond that, neither De Goey nor The Godfather 3 make any sense. You’re in a contract year, your offseason has been spent trying to bat away allegations and charges of violence in the United States, and your career has been marked by off field indiscretions. Beyond any of the much more serious issues at play with De Goey, what are you doing going to Bali? Stay home for one bye week, get in the gym, get your big contract, then do what you want.

Similarly, why is Michael Corleone, an arch criminal, trying to buy into the Vatican Bank? And as if he is getting outthought by an old man? Two movies ago he was outmanoeuvring the entire New York and Las Vegas organised crime establishment after having been in the mafia for 5 minutes. How much could possibly have come off his fastball? And why do Andy Garcia and Sofia Coppola need to be cousins? My biggest question though is about Michael’s son, Anthony. We do not see him talk in The Godfather 2 much at all. In the seminal abortion scene, Michael and Kay are arguing, in part, about their son and presumably his being something of a mute. How is he a prominent opera singer one movie later? Contemptuous.

Also not enough eating scenes in 3.

With that little preamble done, let’s get to the quotes.

1. “Our true enemy has not yet shown his face”

In spite of my hating The Godfather 3, it does have some banger quotes. In this one, Michael is speaking at Connie and Al Neri and yelling at Vincent who is channelling his inner Sonny, trying to go to war. It takes place just after he is shot at ostensibly by an enraged Joey Zasa, a thinly veiled John Gotti impression, at a meeting with all of the mafia heads in a meeting that is a thinly veiled Apalachin facsimile. Like in The Godfather 1, Michael knows that Zasa could never have outthought him so effectively and he realises that he does not yet know who the person that is moving against him truly is.

The same is true of Jack Ginnivan. He and Cody Weightman have become lightning rods this season because of their continued ability to draw head high free kicks. Ginnivan especially somehow leads talk shows because he drops his knees and plays for free kicks.

The only reason he is such a big story is because the eternal grifter Kane Cornes was looking for something to hate early in the season and he seized on Ginnivan playing with a GoPro. Then Ginnivan plays well on ANZAC day and Cornes’ unrivalled ability to make himself the story came into play again as he dyed his hair blonde as a tribute to Ginnivan.

After all of this Cornesian chicanery people actually start watching Ginnivan play, and they see that he drops his knees and plays for free kicks. You know who else does this? The rest of the AFL. You know why they do it? Either the rules, or the application of the rules allow it.

The enemy is not Selwood, or Ginnivan, or Weightman just like the enemy is not Joey Zasa. The enemy is either the rule or the application of the rule that allows gross football to prevail. And regardless, this is not a story if Kane Cornes, AFL media’s Solozzo, doesn’t decide to make Ginnivan and himself the focus of attention.

2. “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me BACK IN”

Immediately preceding Michael stating that his true enemy had yet to show his face, Pacino delivers the iconic line above. His delivery, his timing, everything about it is perfect as he continues to try and pull Godfather 3 from the brink, trying to ensure that it is not consigned to the bargain bin at JB Hi Fi alongside Jennifer’s Body and You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.

In much the same way, Melbourne is trying as hard as they can to not join the 2010 Pies and the 2018 Eagles as the greatest one-year dynasties in history. It seemed earlier in the season that this was a virtual impossibility. If you check my archives, I even wrote an article to that effect, saying that Melbourne had nothing to learn from the Phoenix Suns who got complacent and became characterised by unhappiness

Oops.

Even in the summer of 2020/21 they were a dysfunctional club, outing club President Glen Bartlett. After winning the flag in November of 2021, Bartlett was unceremoniously booted off the board. In mid-2022 this came to a head with Bartlett saying that he jumped. The board said that they unanimously agreed to push him.

However, in 2021 they started winning, kept winning, and eventually won the premiership so that crack was papered over. Then in the offseason, there were bullying, drinking and gambling complaints levelled against Simon Goodwin, a man who has struggled with excess in his life. Water off a duck’s back when the Dees started 10 – 0 in 2022, barely breaking a sweat in any of those games.

And then they started losing. First to Freo, then to Sydney and on the Queen’s Birthday to the Pies.

In the midst of this fighting, the king of the chirp Steven May got cracked by Jake Melksham, there was a leak of Gil McLachlan swearing at the recently ousted Glen Bartlett (hmm), and on the field Gawn is injured. Now all of a sudden, the bullying issues at the start of the year are back in the purview and Melbourne look beatable.

When Melbourne won the premiership, it looked as though they were in for a long reign given the strength of the list and the solid coaching staff. They looked as though they had left behind the treacherous game of thrones style board environment that so often threatened to derail the club.

Just when they thought they were out of that, the power of mediocrity pulled them back in.

3. “Good health is the most important thing. More than success, more than money, more than power”.

Finally we’re out of Godfather 3. I cannot believe I led with the first two quotes being from the clear worst movie of the three. In 2, Hyman Roth says this to Michael when Michael goes to visit Roth in his humble Miami home. This quote is true of almost every person and footballer in the world, but especially Roth who ‘has been dying of the same heart attack for 50 years.’

In the same way, it’s also particularly seminal for Charlie Curnow. In Curnow’s second and third seasons he played 21 and 20 games and his talent was obvious. He drifted in and out of games but he was a young, springy, superlative athlete with extreme coordination. In neither season did he exceed 35 goals but the talent was clear enough and the flashes were often enough to keep the footy public tantalised.

Then an issue befell his knee and it led to him playing 11 games in 2019, no games in 2020 and only 4 in 2021. He kicked 2 goals in 4 games in 2021 and I know that I thought his career was over.

Wrong.

This year he has bounced back extraordinarily. He has missed only one game and has kicked already a career high 40 goals and is leading the Coleman medal. He has also had a hand in 5 goals and already has 24 1 percenters. For context, next best in the Coleman medal Jeremy Cameron has 18 this year and he had 25 total for all of last year.

Curnow is having a massive year.

What exactly is wrong with his knee is a mystery, like what exactly happened with the drapes. Did Fredo open them? How did Kay fall asleep with the drapes open? What exactly was wrong with Curnow’s knee and what took it so long to heal? What did Fredo actually give to Roth?

These are all big questions for us to ponder, but while we do, let’s enjoy a superior athlete’s dominance while he can still produce it.

4. “Never let anybody outside the family know what you’re thinking again”

I am happy with this joke, and I came up with it before they relaxed the rules on dissent 50’s so I am keeping it.

The rise of the dissent 50 is, like I said in the first column, probably a good thing normatively for grassroots football. You notice in American sport that so much commentary on the broadcast and on social media centres around poor umpiring. This is true both in the NFL and NBA. The same is true of the AFL but I do wonder if these rule changes might, at the very least, stem the vitriol that is sometimes associated with umpiring for people required to talk about the game professionally.

However, forcing players to suppress the human urge to raise one’s hands when annoyed is, as a man of European descent, a bridge too far. When Don Vito says this quote to Sonny, Sonny knows that the old man is right and Sollozzo seized on Sonny’s being hot for the idea and tried to have the old Don whacked.

The stakes of lifting one’s arms are not as high in the AFL and frankly players should be allowed to react humanly. Even if they can’t yell and spit bile, they should be able to let people outside the family know what they’re thinking by simply raising their arms.

5. “Only don’t tell me you’re innocent. Because it insults my intelligence. And makes me very angry”.

Michael says this to the loathsome Carlo just before Carlo is garrotted by Clemenza as the final killing on the day of the baptism, one of the great scenes in the history of cinema. The context of the scene is not that relevant except that I wanted a chance to talk about how great the baptism scene is. I know I am not breaking news, but my goodness is it powerful.

Anyway, really what I want to talk about here is Bailey Smith and Jordan De Goey. Let’s start with Smith who was photographed and videoed using cocaine. Young, rich, handsome professional athlete uses cocaine is not a massive surprise. Normally footy deals with this issue with the old condemn and move on, if it deals with it at all. But Smith tackled it head on, saying ‘yes I used the drugs’. Here is why. He provided a plausible mental health reason for looking to escape and the footy world embraced a rare sort of honesty from a professional footballer about their private life away from footy.

Now let’s get to De Goey, who did insult our collective intelligence and made us all very angry. He is unlikely to be garrotted by a portly Italian American sitting behind him in the Uber Black (he is definitely the type to pay for Uber black) for his behaviour, instead he is likely to punished by being handed an inexplicably big contract by a desperate and morally bankrupt club.

The issue is not really the borderline sexual assault for De Goey, given the lady involved has come out and said there is nothing to see here. The issue is also not really the non-punishment that Collingwood has slapped him with.

Instead, the issue is twofold. Firstly, it’s the pattern of physical and sexual violence that has followed De Goey since he was drafted. This issue I touched upon earlier.

The second issue, and the one that has insulted the footy public is the statement. His statement is basically, and I am paraphrasing here, lucky I have so many awesome friends and family. This media pile on me is absurd. I am being persecuted (my favourite part.) If you’re not lucky someone will kill themselves #enoughisenough.

What don’t you see? Contrition. What do you see? Continued defiance by one of the players who exemplifies the AFL’s issues with player conduct. Using the word ‘persecution’ is absurd in the context of a well remunerated professional footballer with a litany of proven off-field lies, mistakes, and criminal misdeeds. And finishing it with the #enoughisenough, which is a hashtag that accompanied an anti violence against a women movement at the height of #metoo is an extraordinarily tone deaf move by a player who has consistently failed to read the room.

I also just want to note that he used the word bias incorrectly. His incoherent statement should have used the word ‘biased’ instead of ‘bias’ to talk about media coverage that, while at times outlandish, has been drawn from entirely factual and usually videoed accounts of De Goey’s repugnant behaviour.

6. “It’s not personal, it’s strictly business”

There is a potential competitive balance issue looming for the AFL. The issue isn’t personal. It’s strictly business. In much the same way that Michael murdering Sollozzo and McCluskey was strictly business, so too are the weekly demolitions of North Melbourne and West Coast.

The AFL is a fraternity and nobody wants to see anyone play this badly. But in a season where 2 wins separate first and ninth, percentage is going to come into play and whoever has the good fortune of playing North or West Coast twice have a significant in-built advantage.

We’ll start with North because, in my view, they are just a bit worse. Since the Sydney game where North gave the Swans a run for their money and they lost by 11 points in round 4, the next closest game was a 47 point loss to Melbourne. In that time their highest score was 71 points vs the Bulldogs. 6 out of the 9 games since the Sydney game have North Melbourne scored less than 60 points. They cannot score, cannot defend and frankly are just terrible. For the clubs in finals positions (Geelong, Sydney, Gold Coast) who get to play them twice, the domination that will come is not personal, it is strictly business. I also just want to flag that Gold Coast plays them in the last week of the season. If a finals berth is up for grabs, there will be questions asked about the integrity of the competition depending on if one of the other clubs vying for a spot in the finals has a stiffer test.

Now let’s move to West Coast, who have arguably tried less hard than North. This last game against Geelong was a marked improvement but forgive me if I’m not ready to drive a championship bus through the streets of Perth for giving Geelong a run before losing by 3 goals. West Coast have been more sporadically competitive than North but between rounds 5 and 11 their closes game was losing to GWS by 52 points. They also got smashed by Richmond and the Bulldogs by more than 100 points in that time. Their last two games have been a little closer, losing to Adelaide by 31 and Geelong by 18 but the issue is that it seems likely, given their spasmodic effort, they will wane as the season draws to a close and there is even less to play for. If ever there was a ‘3-2-1 Cancun’ team it’s West Coast. So for clubs like Richmond and Gold Coast who get to play West Coast down the stretch vying for a percentage booster, they will be looking at West Coast like Tom Hagen looked at Khartoum. Prey.

7. “Sleeps with the fishes”

Big crowds week after week have, in my view, gone the way of Luca Brasi.

Just quickly, incredible recognition from Tessio to know firstly that it was Luca’s bulletproof vest and also to know what the meaning of the fish wrapped in vest is. Bravo sir. No wonder Barzini picked Tessio to be the rat, Michael was right, he was smart.

Anyway, crowds, are well down this year. The average attendance is at a 26 year low with the average attendance being 30,517 as compared to a 2019 pre-pandemic average of 35,122. I think that there are a few reasons for this, some are within the AFL’s control like physical ticketing. Most, however, are outside of their control. As far as I know, Gil has no impact on the massive inflation that the world is experiencing, nor does he have any say in Eastern Victoria, the lifeblood of AFL football, experiencing the coldest start to winter since 1968. These are key macro factors in my view.

The key factor though, I think, is the AFL’s massive investment in and prioritisation of the TV product. This makes sense given TV money underpins the entire industry and frankly this is a time where it makes more sense to prioritise TV given a new TV deal is due soon and the AFL wants to drive the price as high as possible.

So how does this play out? I think that for Thursday night matches between Richmond and Port Adelaide, the reality is that crowds will stay low because it’s not a massive game, it’s a school night, and frankly it’s better enjoyed at home with a harissa felafel from Just Falafs.

However, if you look at the marquee games they are still drawing big numbers. Anzac day had 84,000, Anzac Eve had 70,000, Queen’s Birthday had 74,000 and the opening game between Carlton and Richmond at 72,000 in addition to 80,000 for Carlton and Collingwood for the first game between the traditional rivals were both sides have been good for quite some time. People still show up for the big games.

What is underwater with Luca Brasi and Sal Bonpenserio is the crowds for the run of the mill games which, truly, are better enjoyed at home. And this is by design.