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They’re all worth four premiership points, but some AFL home-and-away rounds are bigger than others. Few have been as massive as last weekend.
From the Mick Malthouse-Stephen Milne confrontation, to Nick Riewoldt’s hamstring injury, to the West Coast mobile phone mistake to Fremantle’s outstanding win over Geelong, this was a weekend where the big stories never stopped.
Round three was so big, it will have some ongoing ramifications for the rest of the season.
It will be interesting to see how many teams look back on April 9-11 as a defining period of 2010.
The two obvious cases in point are the hamstring injuries to Riewoldt and Hawthorn key defender Josh Gibson.
The Saints captain and the new Hawthorn backman will need surgery that will keep them out of action for at least half the season.
Regardless of when they return – and that’s assuming there are no complications with their recoveries – their injuries present major challenges for the Saints and Hawks.
Riewoldt was coming off a big summer and had started the season in outstanding form, prompting debate about whether the All-Australian captain or Brisbane skipper Jonathan Brown was the league’s pre-eminent centre half-forward.
The Saints must now campaign for a top-four spot through the meat of the season without their skipper and most dangerous forward.
Once Justin Koschitzke returns from suspension in a week, he and key defender Sam Fisher will become crucial, with coach Ross Lyon already saying Fisher will spend more time in attack.
Gibson does not have Riewoldt’s standing in the game, but he was an important recruit for the Hawks’ defence following the enforced retirements of Robert Campbell and Trent Croad.
Injuries cruelled Hawthorn last season and they are popular choices to return to the top four this year, but they are also short on ruckmen following Simon Taylor’s broken leg.
As big a star as Luke Hodge is, even he cannot play sweeper across half-back, help out in a key defensive role and pinch hit in the ruck, all at once.
It’s not quite crunch time for Hawthorn – they could easily be 2-1, not 1-2 – but for the next few weeks there will be an element of holding the fort and not letting the losses outnumber the wins.
Such concerns are a million miles away this week for the suddenly-mighty Dockers.
Let’s not become too excited – tipsters should remain wary – but Sunday’s effort at home over Geelong ought to give Fremantle massive self-belief and confidence.
It is the sort of win that can set up a season and the Dockers are well overdue to becoming a real football club.
While Fremantle gain momentum, their round-one victims Adelaide are suddenly in crisis.
The Crows finished Sunday’s loss to Melbourne with no fit players on the bench and at 0-3, nothing is going their way.
They badly needed a win over the spirited Demons and even though we are not a month into the season, Adelaide are at the crossroads.
Likewise, Carlton were terrible on Saturday night against Essendon, who are not exactly soaring right now either.
The Blues will regain captain Chris Judd from suspension this week, and not before time.
For all their finals aspirations this year, Adelaide and Carlton must now dig deep.
As for Collingwood – well, it was not a great Friday night, with Malthouse having to apologise to Milne, arguably the most annoying player in the game, for a comment that went too far.
And how exactly does a team kick 0.9 in a half at Etihad Stadium, with the roof shut – a question we also ask of flaky West Coast after their final-quarter inaccuracy at the same venue against North Melbourne.
But it is far, far too early to draw conclusions on the Magpies, who will continue to have their moments, great and grating.
The conclusion on Richmond is simple – they are as bad as any cellar dweller in this generation and things will probably become worse for their long-suffering fans before they improve.
Still, Daniel Connors’ club-imposed suspension after his Saturday night punch-on with team-mates was a strong message to the team that just because their form is rubbish, that doesn’t mean they can act like idiots.
It may take a long time to bear fruit, but the Tigers’ tough stance after round three, 2010 was a small step in the right direction.
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