‘Soft footy club’: Great goes scorched earth on Roos; Pies put acid on star — AFL Daily

A great has gone scorched earth on North Melbourne after a horror loss.

Plus Collingwood has put the acid on Bobby Hill, and umpire contact is back on the agenda. Read on in AFL Daily.

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‘SOFT FOOTY CLUB’ GREAT SCORCHES ROOS

Melbourne champion Garry Lyon has labelled North Melbourne a “soft footy club” in a scathing assessment after the club’s ugly 124-point loss to Fremantle.

The Dockers stacked on 11 goals to none in the second half to record their biggest ever win in club history in Bunbury, 24.11 (155) to 4.7 (31).

The blowtorch has well and truly come on Alastair Clarkson’s Kangaroos in the aftermath, just a game on from arguably their best win under the veteran coach in an epic comeback over Gold Coast.

But the horror defeat to Freo felt like a big step backwards as the Roos fell to 5-7 on the season, with just one win from their last six games.

It led to Lyon’s brutal assessment of North that extended beyond the field with the way he saw players “laughing in the rooms” post-match.

“I think they’re a soft footy club,” Lyon said on Fox Footy’s AFL 360.

“The hardest bloke I ever played with was (North footy boss) Todd Viney. And the other mongrel I’ve met over the years is Alastair Clarkson. That’s not them.

“It’s these players who have got a capacity to turn up like that.

“And I know this is old fashioned stuff, I saw laughing in the changerooms and laughing after the game from Griffin Logue and a couple others.

“You can label anything on them, but I just thought it was a real soft effort. That’s pretty disparaging.

“So is ‘shameful’, so is ‘white flag’, so is ‘phoning it in’, all the things we’ve heard from various members of the commentarium in the last few days.

“I just get back to the fact that you don’t get results like that, 19 goals kicked on you, if you have a hardness and a pride.”

Lyon suggested hard-nosed young gun George Wardlaw is the type of player that would be particularly desperately to respond after such a heavy loss.

But the Demons champion questioned how many other North players would hold that same mentality.

“I’d be guaranteeing you George Wardlaw is champing at the bit to get at it again, he would play today. That’s what I think Wardlaw brings,” Lyon said.

“I don’t think there’s enough of them in that side. That’s where I’m at.

“I did turn it off, I just said: ‘I’ve got better things to do than watch that’.” Then I came back to it. But it was terrible.”

‘TIME TO CRACK IN’: PIES UP THE ANTE ON BOBBY

Collingwood has reportedly put the acid on Bobby Hill to “knuckle down” and “save our season” after the Norm Smith medallist returned to the club after a series of personal absences.

Hill was back at Magpies HQ last week after he travelled to Perth for the birth of he and his partner’s third child.

The forward has been on a modified training program and made three VFL appearances in 2026 — his last against Geelong on May 9 — having not played an AFL game since Round 21 last season.

Herald Sun reporter Jon Ralph said Collingwood has now urged the 26-year old to kick into gear with hopes of a return in the second half of the season as the 11th-placed club heads into its bye.

“A big decision ahead for Bobby Hill. This is one he has to own,” Ralph said on Fox Footy’s On the Couch.

“I think the club made it really clear to him that it’s time to crack in. You know, this could be the last chance you have this season to get it right.

“He’s on board with that message, it’s been made really strongly to him and his management group by the club and (head of footy) Charlie Gardiner: ‘Time is running out to knuckle down, to put a really strong block of training together and get in and help save our season.’

“It’s done from a place of love, but also an awareness that, let’s not let a second-straight season slip away.

“Strong words from Collingwood, he is on board with those words as well.”

Hill in April last year signed a four-year contract extension that ties him to the Pies until 2030.

‘THEY WERE WARNED’: UMP CONTACT BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Umpire contact is also back on the agenda.

There were several instances across Round 13 including Collingwood’s Ed Allan knocking over an official in the centre square during Monday’s King’s Birthday match against Melbourne.

Ralph reports it marked the Pies’ fourth offence in 2026 after they were “one of four or five cubs” recently issued a memo by the AFL that five incidents could result in a $50,000 fine.

“They were warned if there were five umpire contact incidents across the club in any season, it could be a $50,000 fine,” Ralph said on On the Couch.

“That was the fourth of them. If there’s one more, you’d imagine the AFL might be pretty strong with them.

“That’s one we need to get out of the game.”

Asked who’s most at fault in such instances, Hawks legend Jordan Lewis strongly responded: “The player who runs into the umpire… it’s wholly and solely on the player.”

Meanwhile, Collingwood champion Nathan Buckley questioned why all umpires — not just field officials — weren’t given the same protection.

“Interesting to me, Mitch McGovern ran into (goal umpire) David Rodan in that goalline review and there was no sanction for that,” Buckley said.

“Are umpires seen as lesser citizens than their field mates? Because they’re not protected as much.”