How often have you seen Barry Hall celebrated for punching Brent Staker?
Or how about some cheerleading for Andrew Gaff putting one on the chin of Andrew Brayshaw?
In the AFL, those who cross the line and start throwing fists are not revered. Not usually. They are chastised and condemned, and rightfully so. The sport has come a long way from the dark days when fixing someone up with a punch to the head and getting a week suspension, as a result, were deemed part of the game. Yet, in 2012, Matthew Scarlett landed a left hand to the chin of Hayden Ballantyne and the consensus outside Fremantle supporters seemed to be that it was completely deserved.
The circumstances around this incident are, as most involving incidents like this, a little more than meets the eye. Let’s explore, as we look at our next villain in the series.
Here, you had the reigning premiers coming up against a Fremantle team on the rise. It was Round One of the 2012 season, and the Dockers had just hit the front in the third quarter.
Ballantyne, being who he is, was letting Scarlett know all about it when the champion Geelong defender had heard about enough. After a feint, a clearly enraged Scarlett clipped Ballantyne across the jaw, and the little man went down.
And people celebrated.
That’s how well Hayden Ballantyne performed his role.
Mission accomplished.
As good a player as he was, one of his greatest assets was that he knew how to infuriate people. He was a master of the craft, and even when someone threw a punch, those who normally condemned all acts of violence turned a blind eye.
Because it happened to Hayden Ballantyne.
Although some would call him a “pest” and ignore his tactics, Ballantyne’s ability to prompt a reaction was a huge part of the aura of this Fremantle side that bullied their way into the Grand Final in 2013. I loved watching that team – they gave no shits about what people thought of them. They were the “anyone, anywhere, anytime” Dockers that stared down the best in the competition and almost created history. They had their stars and their enforcers, but Ballantyne was the hand that rocked the cradle. When he was up and about, Freo looked like a dangerous team.
He forced the AFL to address “sledging” after that Round One game and in the end, what could they really do about it? They weren’t going to ban players yapping… they might now, as people get their feelings hurt a little too often, but they couldn’t broach it back then. He was the antagonist, and when he copped a punch on the chin, many genuinely thought he copped his right whack.
The playing career of Hayden Ballantyne is littered with moments where he got under the skin of his opponents. Ever one to push the boundaries, his actions earlier in that season-opening game against the Cats lit a fuse that exploded when Scarlett punched him, and ended up costing him a couple of weeks on the sidelines, himself.
Captured by the AFL’s behind-the-goals cameras (the vision you basically never see because it is genuinely interesting, and allows you to see defensive structures – the clubs access it and use it), Ballantyne hit Paul Chapman with a cheap shot about 80 metres off the play, leaving the Cat on the turf, coughing and spitting up whatever he could as he tried to draw some air into his lungs. Chapman was being followed around by the Freo tagger, Ryan Crowley, but as he opened up a bit of space between himself and his direct opponent, Ballantyne opted to slow him down, and caught him unaware with a hip and shoulder that knocked the wind out of him.
He would later be charged with “rough conduct” for the incident.
Geelong players were quickly made aware of who dropped Chapman, and when the opportunity arose to even up, Scarlett took it, much to the pleasure of some other opposition players watching on at home, leaving Ballantyne on the turf, clutching his jaw.
Port Adelaide’s Alipate Carlisle tweeted “Matty Scarlett just done what a lot of other players would love to do #brilliant”
Alipate evidently didn’t go on to be an English teacher.
Gold Coast’s Trent McKenzie added “Matthew Scarlett did a favour for most people #lethimoff”
Oh, how they hated Hayden!
In his autobiography, Scarlett mentions that his phone had lit up when he returned to his hotel room, with many congratulating him for landing one on Ballantyne’s chin.
The incident is often brought up to Ballantyne, who revealed on the This Sporting Life podcast exactly what he said to set Scarlett off.
“He was the best defender at the time in the AFL, so I just went and gave him a few choice words saying, ‘Your six All-Australians count for not much at the moment’ … how do you feel? And he just laid one on my chin.”
Scarlett was suspended for three weeks for the hit, which is a bit ridiculous, given Ballantyne copped two. One, a body blow by Ballantyne, gets him two weeks. The other, a blatant punch to the chin, gets three? They talk about the Toby Tax? Maybe this was the Hayden Hike?
It’s fair to say that then-Freo coach, Ross Lyon, was happy to take the good with the bad when it came to his feisty small forward. Whilst having star players sitting in the grandstand is never something to get a coach excited, the enthusiasm and combative nature of the diminutive Docker’s style obviously sat well with Ross.
“At the end of the day, you win them and you wear them,” offered Lyon after the game that saw both Scarlett and Ballantyne suspended.
“He copped his fair share and sometimes you dish a bit out. He was a real team leader and I love the way he goes about it.”
Ballantyne’s reputation for the annoying probably overshadows what was a very good career for the Dockers. Taken at Pick 21 in the 2008 National Draft after winning the Sandover Medal, he would go on to secure an All-Australian selection in 2014. And with 254 goals from 171 games, he was one of the best small forwards of his era.
And just to show that not all players hold grudges, on Ballantyne’s birthday in 2019, he received a package from Scarlett. It contained a framed and signed Geelong jumper with the Geelong defender’s accomplishments listed on it. You know, the ones that didn’t matter in 2012.
At number one was punching Ballantyne in the face.
At the end of the listed accomplishments, Scarlett added “would have loved to play with you.”
And I reckon that best sums Ballantyne up, right there.
He was the type of player you hated playing against, and loved playing with. He bled purple for his Fremantle Dockers, and would have thrown himself in harm’s way if it meant his team gained an advantage. As hated as he was by everyone outside Fremantle, he was, and should be, adored by the Docker army as one who was all about that guernsey, wearing it with the utmost pride each and every time.
A villain by nature and a villain by his actions, Ballantyne earned his reputation as one of the league’s “bad guys”, yet I cannot help but love the way he played. If you could transplant his enthusiasm and passion into some of the stars of the game, you’d have close to a perfect player.
And, in hindsight, even those who punched him “right on your chin” seem to realise just what he brought to the table.
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