Dejected St Kilda players Justin Koschitzke (L) and Lenny Hayes leave the ground after the AFL Round 08 match between the St Kilda Saints and the Essendon Bombers at Etihad Stadium, Melbourne.
With just one win in a month of football, the big questions have to start being asked at St Kilda. We’ve known for some time the Saints are struggling without Nick Riewoldt, but most believed the club still had the talent and options up forward to find an avenue to goal.
Unfortunately, they’ve hit a road block and clearly this has not been the case, last year’s grand finalists now desperately need to find a way to kick a winning score, otherwise it won’t matter if Riewoldt comes back or not, the team might not even make the finals.
Hawthorn’s great escape against Richmond might have kept the Hawks slim finals hopes alive, but the win was far from convincing and raised another alarming question mark over Alastair Clarkson’s team.
Has the Hawks lack of personnel overshadowed the fact the team is actually playing without any confidence and is lacking in self-belief?
Despite finally fielding a close to full strength side, the turnovers, skill errors and poor decision making suggested this Hawthorn team right now belongs in the bottom four, not the top.
If they were playing a decent team yesterday they would have lost by 10 goals!
Carlton has jumped into fifth place on the AFL ladder and the Blues win in enemy territory against an in form Port Adelaide suggests a top four finish isn’t out of the question.
Many queried the Carlton attack without Brendan Fevola, but in his absence the Blues diversity up forward has in fact become one of its biggest strengths. While the small forwards had been doing all the damage, this week it was the big men providing the headaches.
Jarrad Waite is finding his feet again, Ryan Houlihan is often underrated, Matthew Kreuzer grows in stature with every game he plays and the continuing emergence of Irishman Setanta O’hAilpin is engrossing to watch. Between them they booted 10 goals.
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs and Barry Hall finally provided some much needed answers on whether the new game plan can work with the former Swan up forward. Many questioned if it could after such an indifferent start to the season, but Barry’s five-goal haul sunk the Swans and ended that debate.
Helping Hall dramatically, the Dogs midfield also found the hunger around the stoppages and was able to win the contested ball. Slick, effective ball movement and pin point foot skills also a feature of a win that has restored my faith in the Bulldogs as a genuine premiership contender.
The game at the MCG on Saturday was officially Melbourne against West Coast, but it quickly became a case of comparing Jack Watts to Nic Natanui.
And while the highlights reel would predominantly showcase the high flying Natanui, for my mind Watts did more than enough to answer his critics. In fact, his 15 disposals and impressive contested marks as a lead up forward were far more influential than anything Natanui did.
Watts may end up a better player, or at the very least a more important one at centre half forward.
The Cats and the Pies both lifted another gear away from home and now the script for Friday night simply couldn’t be written any better.
An expected 90,000 fans to watch the two best performed sides of the first 8 rounds going head to head on the big stage at the MCG.
The excitement and build up to this match is going to be like a final, and hopefully the contest will be equally as absorbing.
A Collingwood win means much more than a Geelong loss in the context of the season, but either way whoever wins will become this year’s premiership favorite.
Extraordinarily for those who can’t get a ticket to the game, common sense has prevailed with Channel 7 showing the match live on TV.
Perhaps this answers another question about the future of live broadcasts on the eve of the next rights negotiations.
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