Hawks bounce back, Tigers winning tough but what’s the go with Melbourne? Each week, the AFL throws up new talking points and issues, most of which would be discussed around the water cooler in the office or over a coffee at smoko.
Round 2 of the 2013 season is no exception with plenty of happenings, both positive and negative for all 18 clubs involved.
Below are three positives and a couple of negatives I feel became apparent from the fallout of the weekend’s games.
Optimism: Hawthorn’s win in Perth
Last season’s runners-up sent a massive warning to the rest of the league with their 50-point mauling of my preseason fancies West Coast.
The Hawks jumped out of the blocks with a six-goal-to-one first quarter and did not look back, adding a further five in the second, four in the third and a massive eight in the last to end up with 23.10 in a clinical display.
Lance Franklin bounced back from a rare down day in the narrow loss to Geelong by snagging five goals whilst Cyril Rioli was almost as productive with four goals of his own along with Luke Bruest who threw off his round 1 yips to add four to his tally.
Sam Mitchell was arguably best on the field, producing another 30-plus possession game, and returning skipper Luke Hodge didn’t miss a beat with 25 touches.
Alastair Clarkson was delighted with his players, who led by just 19 points at the last break, and rightly so as the optimism of last year is back after succumbing for a tenth straight time to the Cats last week.
Hawthorn play Collingwood at the MCG on Sunday, which is another big test, and should tell us a lot more about the resolve of Clarkson’s men, especially after the Pies held off arch rivals Carlton to record their second win of the season.
Richmond’s newfound ability to win the close ones
Richmond made it two from two with a hard-fought 17-point triumph over a dogged St Kilda on Friday night.
Jack Riewoldt again haunted the Saints with a seven-goal haul to lead the Tigers to a victory which came after they were tested at various stages by Scott Watters’ side.
Last year, Richmond lost a handful of close matches which cost them a spot in the finals but so far in 2013 they have held off a fast-finishing Carlton by five points and controlled the game when they needed to in order to get the points over the Saints.
It appears to be a new era under Damien Hardwick with the way his charges go about it, implementing a different type of resolve that we are not used to when mentioning the Tigers, and it could get even better when they meet the Western Bulldogs on Sunday.
However, their steadfastness will genuinely be tested in the next three rounds as they prepare to take on Collingwood, Fremantle away and Geelong.
The improvement of Gold Coast and GWS
Already we have seen this year that expansion clubs Gold Coast Suns and GWS Giants have improved dramatically.
Sure, there are still going to be some blowouts as the Giants experienced when they eventually lost by 56 points to Port Adelaide on Saturday after only trailing by 16 at the major break but that is to be expected from such inexperienced players.
The Giants made reigning Premiers Sydney work for their Round 1 win and again made their opponents in the Power toil early after kicking four goals to two in the first quarter before they succumbed to Ken Hinkley’s side.
There is plenty to like about Kevin Sheedy’s outfit and their early-season form suggests they will only continue to develop at a rapid rate.
The Suns backed up their Round 1 triumph over the Saints by getting within seven goals of the Swans in the day they unfurled their 2012 flag at the SCG.
With superstar Gary Ablett well down on his usual output, it was refreshing to see the likes of Jaeger O’Meara (in just his second game), Charlie Dixon (three goals) and Dion Prestia (22 disposals) lead the way as the Suns trailed by just 22 points at the final break before the Swans quality got them over the line with six final-quarter goals.
Both of the new clubs are showing that they are really not that far off it now and will only continue to get better as each week passes.
Pessimism: Melbourne Football Club
An unbelievably insipid effort from the Demons led to their 148-point thrashing at the hands of Essendon.
It appeared that a high percentage of Mark Neeld’s players did not even want to have a crack for the club when the going got tough when the Dons started to get on top.
It is hard to pinpoint why exactly they have been smashed so badly by Port then the Bombers, kicking just 13 goals in two games, but surely they aren’t actually this bad?
Are they?
Devoid of foot skills that resemble anything near an AFL team, the Demons completely capitulated on Saturday night – so much so that some Essendon supporters actually began to leave the MCG during the third quarter in embarrassment.
At times, it was hard to watch and I hope for the sake of the fans that Neeld and the playing group can start afresh this week and put in something of a contest when the Eagles come to town next weekend.
Malthouse and Carlton lose to Collingwood and Buckley
Only from a arch-nemesis perspective is this a slight negative for Carlton.
The Blues performed admirably and certainly had their chances to win it but were overrun by a Pies side which is still yet to fully click.
Carlton could not make Collingwood pay after Darren Jolly left the field with a rib/lung injury, leaving Quinten Lynch, and even Nick Maxwell, to go up against the dominant Matthew Kreuzer and Sam Rowe, however, the Blues only shaded the Pies 40-37 in clearances.
Mick Malthouse would have absolutely loved to have gotten one over Collingwood but Nathan Buckley’s selfless side got the job done with unlikely heroes Jamie Elliott (five goals) and Sam Dwyer (23 touches) stepping up when Dane Swan and Scott Pendlebury were not at their usual damaging best.
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