- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
It’s been another massive week of AFL footy – four AFLW games, and nine from the JLT Community Series. Here’s a dozen quick takes from the weekend past.
One spot left in the grand final
First off a quick hand to the Brisbane Lions – they’ve now won twice as many games as their men’s team did in 2016, and they’ve locked in a home grand final, regardless of their result next week.
What’s still very much up for grabs though is the right to face them in that match. It could be any one of four teams. In order of most likely to least likely, they are…
Adelaide Crows – Adelaide just need to win their match next week against Collingwood and they’ll be in the grand final, thanks to their excellent percentage. Even if they lose, Melbourne also losing would probably see them scrape in.
Melbourne Demons – If the Crows lose their match but Melbourne are able to get a win over Fremantle, then they will go through to the grand final. If they lose they are effectively out of the running.
Carlton Blues – The Blues need both Adelaide and Melbourne to lose, and then they need to become the first team to beat Brisbane, and they need to do so by enough to bridge a significant percentage gap. It’s not likely.
Collingwood Magpies – Collingwood need Melbourne to lose, and then need to beat Adelaide by enough to bridge an enormous percentage gap (92.7 per cent compared to 159 per cent). That makes their chances basically theoretical.
Everybody gets a win
Fremantle’s four-goal win over the Carlton Blues on Friday night took us to an important milestone for the AFLW competition, giving every team in the league a first win.
The Dockers came into the season as the premiership favourites, according to some at least, but despite playing fairly good footy just hadn’t been able to break through before now.
While Fremantle fans may be a little disappointed in the end with how the season panned out, it’s good to see them get some reward for their support, and to know that every side was able to get at least one win on the ledger.
Giants versus Bulldogs, the battle for the spoon
Fremantle’s win plus their draw earlier in the season has them almost entirely out of spoon contention unless these two sides draw.
If we get a winner and a loser in the match between the Dogs and the Giants, the winner will take home the wooden spoon.
The odds certainly seem in the Dogs’ favour – they’ve been the better peformed of the two sides, and while it’s a GWS home game, it’s in Canberra where neither side has played a match before.
Michael Barlow might be the best delisted free agent ever
Okay, delisted free agency is only half a decade old, and the bar isn’t exactly super high for quality recruits through it.
Daniel Cross was pretty OK at the Demons? Robin Nahas won a final against his old team for the Roos? And Tim Membrey is Tim Membrey, though he kind of doesn’t count.
Joel Hamling was a premiership player for the Dogs – and then left the club. All the same, he’s the clubhouse leader so far.
Michael Barlow might not win a flag with Gold Coast, but with 29 touches and a goal on Thursday night, he reminded us of his talent. He’s a real bargain for the Suns.
Max Gawn is a ruck star, so let him play a solo
Over their three pre-season games the Melbourne Demons have experimented pretty heavily with the idea of playing Max Gawn and Jake Spencer in tandem.
With all due respect to Spencer’s truly gargantuan ‘do, Gawn was the best in the league rucking solo last year and there’s no reason to fix what isn’t broke.
Spencer kicked three goals for the Demons in their loss to West Coast on Thursday. If he can have that impact regularly he’d be a worthy inclusion – but what are the odds of that?
Melbourne certainly have room to accommodate an extra tall in the team, with debate still raging over how best to support Jesse Hogan up forward, but regardless of that, a one-ruck set-up is still the way to go.
How many injuries can GWS afford?
The Giants had a good win over North Melbourne on Friday night, only really powering away after half-time but were still probably playing better in the first half.
It came at a cost though – Aidan Corr (hand), Stephen Coniglio (ankle) and Steve Johnson (concussion) all came out with injury concerns, and Jeremy Cameron was reported.
The Giants have the strongest 22 in the league most would say, but their depth is lacking. If they have a few pull up too sore, it might make life difficult.
In the mean time it means Tim Taranto should definitely start Round 1, and perhaps former Dockers Tendai Mzungu or Matt de Boer will get a chance.
Fremantle’s big ray of Sunshine
Few players have pre-season performances that go as well as Cam “Sunshine” McCarthy’s did for Fremantle on Friday night, with the big foward booting six goals.
He’s been out of the game for more than a year so you could have been forgiven for forgetting that this kid is seriously talented.
It’ll be interesting to see how well he does when the real thing starts and when it’s against a defence that isn’t Carlton.
Still, it’s all thumbs up right now, and good to see him back on the field.
Ben Reid is Collingwood’s most important player
A lot is said about how Collingwood’s midfield is their key to playing finals this year, but none of the individuals there rivals the importance of Ben Reid.
It’d be fair to say right now that he is the only elite key-position player that the Magpies have – maybe Darcy Moore joins that group soon, but not yet.
There’s no questions over his form. His 26 touches and 18 marks against Richmond silenced any doubters there.
Keeping him on the park is the issue. Collingwood need at least two of him, really, and given that they’ve only got one it is imperative that he can play every week.
The Crows are still the best forward line in the comp
Much has been made this pre-season of Adelaide’s thin midfield compared to some of the other top teams in the league, but their match this week was a reminder of just how strong they are as a forward unit.
They had four players kick at least three goals, and managed 21 goals across the team in their 39-point win over the Brisbane Lions.
Essentially they’ve got a forward line where a match-winning bag of goals could come from any of six or so players. That’s a nice position to be in.
There’s another Eddy in Adelaide
He might spell his name a little differently, but Port Adelaide will be hoping that rookie Brett Eddy will be just as wise a recruiting decision for them as Eddie Betts was for the Crows.
He proved a match-winner on Sunday, kicking five goals including four inside ten minutes against Hawthorn, and it could easily have been more than that given he also totalled four behinds.
He’ll play Round 1, surely, at this stage, and you’d think that Sam Powell-Pepper will be in line for a debut too.
Dangerwood is still pretty good
There are people who would question whether the Patrick Dangerfield and Joel Selwood combo is going to be enough to deliver another top-four finish for Geelong in 2017. I am one of those people.
Still, I feel a little less keen to ask the question looking over their collective performance against the Bombers on Sunday – 70 disposals, 17 clearances, 11 tackles, 17 inside 50s and two goals between the pair.
There’s legitimate questions still to be asked as to whether or not the rest of the Cats midfield will offer enough support – for example, only four other players in the Cats’ side had at least 20 touches.
But Dangerwood is as solid as you could want. If the Cats have problems, this isn’t one of them.
Hickey, Longer or both?
The Saints have tried three different ruck set-ups during the pre-season – Tom Hickey on his own, Billy Longer on his own, and then the two of them in tandem. They’ve all worked fairly well.
Neither of them had the impact when playing in tandem that they did when playing solo, and having both in the side arguably makes the Saints a bit too tall.
Can either of them become a legitimately useful player floating back or forward? There’s not been a lot to suggest that so far, and for mine that says this team needs a one-ruck set-up.
But then who do you pick, and how do you handle whoever you don’t? That’s a big question for the Saints ahead of 2017.