The AFL season has now drawn to a close with the most unlikely-but-not-that-unlikely premiership to the Dogs.
Let’s be fair, many people tipped them to make top eight at the start of the season, but that’s all.
Let’s have a brief look at the thumbs up and the thumbs down, along with the bests and the worsts of season 2016.
Thumbs up
Rule changes. It’s rare that you’d find rule changes in any thumbs up category, but the AFL need to be commended on a few rule changes. The stricter interpretation of deliberate out of bounds has been fantastic, clearing the space for someone with a free kick/mark has led to significantly less congestion on the park.
The result? Higher scoring. In the first six rounds of the season there were more games where both teams scored 100 points than the entirety of season 2015.
Thumbs down
Inconsistent interpretation of rule changes. It hasn’t been a game killer, but some of the inconsistencies in applying deliberate out of bounds needs to be looked at (especially deliberate behinds).
Thumbs up
The rise of GWS. Before people say this was obviously going to happen because of ridiculously favourable draft concessions, just remember that the Gold Coast had the same benefits and look where they are now?
Drafts don’t just create a winning team. You need that perfect balance of drafts, experience, culture, and good coaching. GWS should be applauded for their season.
Thumbs down
Queensland. The Gold Coast have literally been handed everything on a platter and have squandered it all. And Brisbane turned into a complete shambles. Here’s hoping that another graduate of the school of Clarkson can turn things around for 2017.
Thumbs up
Patrick Dangerfield. The man is a freak and put in one of the most comprehensive seasons seen in years, better even than Ablett’s 2013 magnum opus. The ‘Dangerwood’ combination was a real joy in Geelong’s season and for anyone watching them combine their immense talents.
Thumbs down
The Brownlow. Yes, there is no doubt that Dangerfield was the deserving winner, but the extraordinary dominance of midfielders swallowing up votes has gone too far. Nick Riewoldt in equal ninth was the first non-midfielder in the list of highest vote getters for this season.
Greater recognition of key position players is overdue. Take the votes away from the umpires who are clearly just looking at stats sheets when they make their decisions these days.
Thumbs up
Equality in the top eight. A ridiculous top eight this year. Before the freefall of North Melbourne really accelerated there were times this year that first to eighth was separated by a game, second to seventh were on the same points for months.
Numerous clubs spent a bit of time at the top, a couple of clubs by multiple games. No one was prepared to make a call on what the top four would look like. At the end of Round 23 it was Sydney, Geelong, Hawthorn and GWS. If there was Round 24 you could guarantee that two of those four teams would have slipped out of it, there would be someone else on top spot and seventh place would have suddenly moved to second.
It was that chaotic. The value of the victory was more crucial this year than others.
Thumbs down
Inequality on the ladder. For all the talk of how exciting the top eight formation was, the teams in the top eight on Round 6 stayed in the top eight for every week after.
There was even talk of eighth finishing the season on 60 points (I, for one, always thought that to be objectively ludicrous) such was the gap between eighth and the rest. Only a spirited run by St Kilda and the Demons coupled with a disastrous second half of the season by the Kangaroos generated a bit of interest.
While the top eight battle was exciting, no one likes a two tiered comp. Let’s hope the gap is bridged in 2017.
Thumbs up
Players in milestone matches! This year was mental. Corey Enright becomes the club record holder for Geelong, Matthew Pavlich notches 350, Jimmy Bartel, Scott Thompson, Drew Petrie, Sam Mitchell, Shaun Burgoyne, Nick Riewoldt all passing 300. And of course Boomer breaking the all time record.
Thumbs down
The treatment of some of these players. Boomer’s delisting was poorly done, and genuinely baffling. He was clearly in the best 22 (best ten actually) and would have been a fantastic influence on the younger generation. Channel Seven’s cut and run broadcast of Pavlich’s 350 was in poor taste too. Scott Thompson raised his 300 in near anonymity.
Best home and away game
In a year of some great games, it’s hard to go past the very last. Hawthorn and Collingwood was exceptional. High scoring, fast and tense to the final siren. The profound influence that result had on the finals series as well can’t be understated.
From a promotional aspect Hawthorn’s victory sealed an all Sydney qualifying final and a Geelong versus Hawthorn face off. It consigned Adelaide to fifth, and meant the Bulldogs were going to Perth, kickstarting the great run.
Best final
Bulldogs v Giants. It will be a prelim that will be talked about for years, maybe even in the same breath as the 1999 Carlton vs Essendon classic.
Worst game
Carlton versus Collingwood, Round 17. That was just dour. Possibly the worst Saturday night game ever. Richmond versus St Kilda was a close run second by the way.
Biggest choke
Adelaide v West Coast, Round 23. Adelaide were in the box seat on Friday night. Win, and they would guarantee top 2. They didn’t. They lost, at home, and lost badly. They never showed up. The cost of the loss was felt for the rest of the weekend. Other results ensured they would finish fifth and lose the double chance.
Biggest upset
St Kilda v Geelong. Carlton v Geelong. Collingwood v Geelong. It’s a tie. All these teams that don’t have the name ‘Geelong’ in them were fairly ordinary this year. Yet all of them notched up wins against the high flying cats.
Biggest improver
GWS. From outside the eight to top four and within a kick of a grand final. Huge improvement. Well done.
Most improved player
Eddie Betts. He was already supremely talented. We all knew this. His move to Adelaide three seasons ago have seen his stocks rise to another level. He’s gone from supremely talented to all time small forward great.
He’s been the leading goal kicker at Adelaide since he moved there and now has back to back all Australian honours. 65 goals as a small forward is just remarkable.
Biggest disappointment(s)
Fremantle and the Gold Coast. It’s a tie again. The Gold Coast are disappointing when they are directly compared to GWS. Fremantle are disappointing for many, many more reasons. For a team that made the preliminary finals in 2015 and kept a largely similar squad they had a shocker of a season.
Losing Nat Fyfe was a big blow but when you are routinely fielding 15 players who were in the 2015 prelim, you should need to be waiting until you play Brisbane to chalk up a victory.
This was a season that started to really expose the divide between the Ross Lyon fan club and his detractors. The rule changes have thoroughly defeated Lyon this year and he really needs to put in a redeeming 2017 to preserve his reputation as a leading coach. The Rodney Eade hall of underachievement looms otherwise.
Least improved – in fact gone backwards – player
Travis Cloke. He’s a dead star now. It is telling that his best game of the season was the one he played with an illegal glove. Dropped to the VFL three times, and comprehensively useless in the AFL this year, there is no player who can claim to have gone backwards as quickly as him. Gosh knows why the Bulldogs would want him?
Special honours go to Steven Motlop, whose inconsistent season between genuinely abysmal to merely mediocre were frustrating for any Geelong fan and neutral observer.
What did I miss Roarers?
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