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And we are back! 2017 is here, my friends, and if you’re anything like me you are already brimming with excitement for a new AFL season.
Just in case you enjoyed a few too many beverages over the holiday period, here to refresh your memory on what’s happening the game right now are my six big questions for the AFL in 2017.
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» Don’t miss any action with the 2017 Women’s AFL fixture list
1. Are we in any danger of signing a new CBA?
Given Gillon McLachlan’s usually prodigious ability to dot the Is and cross the Ts well ahead of schedule, the fact that we are two weeks into 2017 already and still don’t have a new Collective Bargaining Agreement to govern the game this year and in the future is truly baffling.
In fact, probably the only thing more surprising is how little coverage in the mainstream media this has inspired – while the AFL often leaks stories like a sieve, the particulars of this one have been kept well suppressed, and it has been little more than radio silence from the league.
The league and its players are quibbling over money, we know that much, but there must surely be more to it, otherwise it would’ve been resolved by now. So what is really going on here, and what does it mean for season 2017? Watch this space.
2. Just how big can AFLW be?
In years to come when we look back on season 2017, what will we remember it for? Well, no one knows for certain just yet of course, but the leading contender at this early stage has to be the establishment of AFL Women’s.
Let me make my feelings on this very clear: Women’s AFL, and women’s sport as a whole, is inevitably going to be a success. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not even ten or twenty years from now, but in time, I am as certain as I am on anything that it will be big. Those who deride it now will only find themselves on the wrong side of history.
In the shorter term, however, the success of the AFLW depends on how much the AFL is willing to invest – not just in terms of the bottom line, but also the quality of the people they employ towards making it happen. I for one can’t wait to see it get started.
3. Nat Fyfe – will he stay or will he go?
If he goes there will be trouble… and if he stays it will be double. While Fyfe came out last year and said in a presser that he intends to strike a new deal with the Dockers in 2017, I’m not believing a word until he signs the dotted line.
Rumours continue to abound about Fyfe’s popularity, or lack thereof, at Fremantle – just ask Shane Yarran (or whoever was behind that rant). It’s the kind of lie that everyone wants to believe so I’m not giving it much credence personally, but one can only see so much smoke before it becomes necessary to infer the presence of fire.
We do seem to be living in a time where the majority of truly stellar players eventually get made an offer too good to refuse – Chris Judd, Gary Ablett junior, Lance Franklin, Patrick Dangerfield. Of course, there are those like Joel Selwood and Scott Pendlebury who have stayed loyal, but they’ve both a) won a flag or three and b) become captain of the club.
Where does that leave Fyfe? He is neither a flag player nor captain, and my early tip is that he will not be wearing purple come season 2018.
4. Can Jaeger O’Meara repay Hawthorn’s faith?
For the next few years, the fate of the Hawthorn football club rests heavily upon Jaeger O’Meara’s shoulders – or, perhaps it would be more accurate to say it rests upon his knees.
The deal that got O’Meara – once the most exciting young player in the competition – to Hawthorn is already one that will make the history books. The trade period saw the Hawks and the Suns in a media war, while Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis moved to new clubs, and the deal only got done when the AFL bent the rules just enough for it to fit through.
The Hawks are certainly in a position where they can afford to take risks, given their recent success. Even if Jaeger never plays a game, no one is taking away the four flags they’ve won in the last decade. But there’s no doubt that he is the lynchpin of their future – if this roll of the dice proves an unfortunate one, there’ll be hell to pay.
5. How far can Essendon’s comeback story go?
You’d be hard pressed to find a club more confounding to footy fans in 2017 than the Essendon Bombers. Some have them pegged as a bottom team regardless of the personnel available, others – like myself – are much more optimistic.
Something that didn’t get said enough in 2016 is how impressive John Worsfold’s coaching was. He took a list that had no business being competitive and kept them regularly so throughout the year. More importantly, they were never mentally broken, which was last year’s biggest risk.
Maybe it will take the team some time to gel. Maybe it will take the banned players some time to get to back to their best form. Or maybe things will just fall into place nicely, that does happen sometimes and I really feel like it could here. If they do, the sky is the limit.
6. Who’s going to win the thing?
The most important question of all, and one that can’t be answered without much more time than I will give it right now, but it’s hard to argue with the popular pick, and that is the GWS Giants.
The Giants played finals for just the first time last season, but they blew the Swans away in their first September appearance and then came within heartbreaking inches of a grand final appearance. Add into the mix another year of experience, the hunger that only comes from the pain of loss, and a handy new recruit named Brett Deledio, and there can be no doubt they deserve favouritism.
But, well, the thing I love more than anything else about footy is that it never ceases to amaze. To paraphrase Tolkien, you can learn all there is to know about the game in a month, and yet after a lifetime of following the sport, it can still surprise you. Right now all I will tell you is that the Giants, currently, are not my tip to win the flag…
But more on that next week.