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What we learnt from Round 4 of the AFL season

Roar Guru
13th April, 2014
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Roar Guru
13th April, 2014
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1237 Reads

Four rounds of the AFL season have passed and there are some huge talking points to come out of the weekend’s matches.

We start with Geelong and Hawthorn, who both warmed up for their blockbuster Easter Monday showdown with crushing victories over the West Coast Eagles and Gold Coast Suns respectively.

A lot was spoken about the showdown between the Cats and the Adam Simpson-coached Eagles, both of whom entered Round 4 on the back of three consecutive victories.

However it was the Cats who would eventually extend their unbeaten start to the season to 4-0, thrashing the Eagles by 75 points and keeping them goalless after quarter-time.

The Cats’ 4-0 start to this season marks the fifth time in the last seven seasons in which they have won as many matches to start the season. With the notable exception of last season, the Cats have gone on to reach the grand final on each occurrence.

Many have predicted that the Cats will suffer a decline on the field this year, but as they have done each and every season since Mark Thompson and Gary Ablett Jr left the club at the end of 2010, the Cats just continue to prove everyone wrong.

Chris Scott’s men will next face Hawthorn in a blockbuster Easter Monday showdown, by the end of which only one team will remain undefeated and perhaps obtain the tag of premiership favouritism.

The only other team to finish this round undefeated, the Hawks, continued their premiership defence flawlessly by thrashing the Gold Coast Suns by 99 points on the Gold Coast. In doing so, they further exposed the gulf between the AFL’s second-youngest side and the powerhouse team of the last twelve months.

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The Suns entered their showdown against the defending premiers having won ten of their last fifteen matches at their Metricon Stadium fortress and started well by kicking the first goal of the match.

However, from there the Hawks would work their way into the match and their class would tell in the second half as they kicked the last eleven majors to leave the Gold Coast crowd stunned and take the lead at the top of the ladder.

And so the stage is set for a blockbuster showdown between the two old rivals on Easter Monday, with the Round 5 concluder to decide not only who remains undefeated to start the 2014 season, but also the premiership favouritism.

Another favourite for this year’s premiership, and last year’s losing grand finalists, Fremantle, rebounded from their disastrous loss to the Hawks by thrashing Essendon by 53 points to conclude Round 4.

After a close first half, the Dockers kicked away in the second half, kicking twelve goals to five as they demonstrated why they are one of the biggest threats to the Hawks’ premiership crown this year.

The Bombers looked nothing like the side that thrashed the old enemy Carlton by 81 points last week, with veterans Dustin Fletcher and Paul Chapman left behind in Melbourne. If that wasn’t enough, Brendon Goddard was subbed out in the second quarter after struggling with a groin injury he aggravated during the warm-up.

After such a promising start to the season, which included victories over North Melbourne and Carlton either side of a heartbreaking four-point loss to Hawthorn, Bombers fans will be hoping that this is not the start of a form slump from their beloved team.

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A decade after denying the Brisbane Lions a record-equalling fourth consecutive AFL flag, Port Adelaide served up more pain towards their fallen rivals, falling just short of what would have been their biggest victory in the AFL by crushing the Lions by 113 points on a bright Saturday afternoon at the Adelaide Oval.

Prior to the match, the 2004 premiership cup landed on the turf via parachute, the premiership heroes from that year were honoured and the flag was raised at the northern end of the stadium.

To celebrate the occasion, the players donned a replica of their main guernseys from that year, and played like the team that were a force in the AFL for the early part of the noughties.

Port Adelaide’s resurgence has impressed me the most. More than twelve months ago the club was at its lowest ebb, losing matches by record margins in consecutive weeks and also being beaten by the Gold Coast Suns and the GWS Giants on the first attempt.

But flash forward to now and a major overhaul of the club, which included the appointment of Ken Hinkley as the head coach and Sunrise host David Koch as the club’s president, has seen the club enjoy its best on-field results in a decade.

Despite the Power making the semi-finals last year, many have predicted that the club will actually decline and miss the finals altogether in 2014, but after three victories from four matches they have been sadly proven wrong.

As for the Brisbane Lions, the tough initiation continues for Justin Leppitsch. Just a week after losing Daniel Rich for the season with a shocking knee injury, ruckman Matthew Leuenberger could be headed down the same path.

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The Lions have yet to even win a quarter of football this season and now find themselves on the bottom of the ladder after Round 4, ahead of its pre-Good Friday showdown against Richmond this Thursday night.

The Tigers’ status as finals pretenders was once again severely exposed on Friday night as they slumped to a 38-point loss at the hands of Collingwood, with the heat now on coach Damien Hardwick as they attempt to climb out of such a big hole.

Tigers captain Trent Cotchin endured his worst individual game for four years, as he was restricted to only 13 possessions by Brent Macaffer, while Jack Riewoldt could only manage two goals up front.

Riewoldt’s opposite number Travis Cloke endured a third goalless performance from four matches this season, while captain Scott Pendlebury was best for the Pies.

Carlton entered this round on the back of its horror 81-point loss to Essendon which saw the club savaged severely by the media ahead of its crunch match against Melbourne, which also entered this showdown without a victory.

Despite coach Mick Malthouse promising that the Blues would show more fight, the side fell to their worst start to a season in a quarter of a century as Paul Roos’ men deservedly cruised to their first victory since June last year.

The victory by the Demons ended somewhat of a hoodoo for the former Sydney Swans premiership coach – it was his first win over a Malthouse-coached side since Sydney pipped Collingwood by one point in Round 13, 2005, the Swans’ premiership season.

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While the Dees revel in a well-deserved victory which followed on from their brave effort against GWS in Sydney, the Blues will embrace themselves for another week of criticism from the media as they attempt to revive their season before it gets too late.

Speaking of hoodoos, North Melbourne ended a decade-long curse at the SCG and a seven-match losing streak against the Sydney Swans. They put in a classy performance to notch up their third victory of the season and leave the Swans searching for answers as to whether they are genuine premiership contenders or not in 2014.

The Roos entered the match as heavy underdogs, having not beaten the Swans since Round 6, 2007 and having not won at the SCG since coming back from 40 points down at three-quarter-time to win in round 19, 2004.

But Brad Scott’s men employed a game plan that would frustrate the Swans and their home fans – and yes, you guessed it, it centred around shutting down Lance “Buddy” Franklin, who famously terrorised them with 13 goals while playing for Hawthorn back in Round 10, 2012.

Fullback Scott Thompson was the clear best-on-ground as the Roos scored a 43-point victory which has them on track to reach the finals for only the second time in the Scott tenure and leave the Swans with only one victory from four starts.

Buddy, for his part, endured his first goalless match since Round 6 last season and to make matters worse, he was booked in the final quarter for striking on what was a dirty day for the red and white.

Swans fans should not give up hope just yet – the last time they were 1-3 to start a season was back in 2006. That year, the Swans reached the grand final only to narrowly give up their premiership defence to West Coast.

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And in another omen – the last team to lose three of their first four matches of a season and go on to win the premiership were the Kangaroos in 1999. Ironically, that third loss from four games was against the Sydney Swans in Round 4.

While there is still hope, the Swans’ task will only get tougher with the visit of Fremantle to the SCG this Saturday, the team that dismantled their premiership defence in last September’s preliminary final.

Their visit to Sydney has come at the worst possible time with the Swans desperately needing to revive their season before doubts start to built as to whether all the money invested in luring Buddy up north was worth it.

Their western neighbours, the GWS Giants, blew their biggest chance to notch up consecutive victories for the first time when they let slip a 26-point quarter-time lead to lose out to the Western Bulldogs by 27 points in Canberra.

It appeared as though the Giants’ twin pairing of Jeremy Cameron and Jonathan Patton would be in for a field day up front, having kicked four goals between them in the first half, but after half-time neither would score a major again as Brendan McCartney’s men made their move.

Once again, the Giants fell away in the final quarter after leading by only eight points at the final change, and unlike last week when they converted a seven-point three-quarter-time lead over Melbourne into a 32-point victory, Leon Cameron’s squad ran out of fuel and fell by 27 points.

Final-quarter fadeouts were big issues for the Giants in their second year last season. Notably, they lost to Melbourne by 41 points after leading by 19 points at the final change in Round 4 last season.

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The Giants entered the match without few of their best players, with Devon Smith, Lachie Whitfield and Rhys Palmer on the sidelines, and were joined by Shane Mumford when the Sydney premiership ruckman ruled himself out of the match late.

Nevertheless, the Giants continue to prove that they are no longer the easybeats of the competition, having arrived in Canberra on the back of 32-point victories over the Sydney Swans and Melbourne on either side of a narrow seven-point loss to St Kilda at Etihad Stadium in Round 2.

Their hunt for a third victory continues when they travel to Adelaide Oval next Sunday to meet the Crows, who registered their first victory of season 2014 by thrashing St Kilda by 86 points under the roof at Docklands.

After three embarrassing losses to Geelong, Port Adelaide and Sydney to start the season, the Crows strangled the life out of the Saints, whose promising start to the Alan Richardson era is now threatening to amount to nothing.

After victories over the only two sides to finish below them on the ladder last year, the Saints have now lost to the Eagles in Perth and were never in the contest against the Crows, with Nick Riewoldt’s two majors their only highlight.

So, after four rounds, Geelong and Hawthorn are the only two teams yet to lose this season. But by next Monday night, one of their dressing rooms will fall silent after a match as they continue their rivalry in a blockbuster Easter Monday showdown.

At the wrong end of the ladder, Carlton and the Brisbane Lions still remain without a victory; the Lions’ catastrophic loss to Port Adelaide seeing them occupy the foot of the ladder ahead of its Thursday night showdown against Richmond, whom they haven’t beaten at the Gabba since 2004.

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Carlton’s search for a maiden victory, on the other hand, continues against the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium next Sunday; the Bulldogs’ two straight victories and a win in their most recent meeting not helping the Blues’ cause.

The stage is now all set for what should be a big next two rounds coming up, with the Easter Monday showdown between the Cats and Hawks and the historic ANZAC Day triple-header to be played across three different time zones to look forward to.

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