Geelong may have been the biggest winner of Round 5, but they beat Hawthorn who didn’t lose much at all. Richmond mostly lost despite a win, Essendon purely lost, while Carlton won and lost at the same time.
Confused? Me too. Don’t worry, we’ll battle through.
Geelong stormed to the top of the table with a 19-point win over the Hawks, leaving themselves as 2014’s only unbeaten team. Happy days at Catland.
Hawthorn, though, aren’t bothered. Said coach Alastair Clarkson after the game, “we’ve won a lot of games of footy and it’s not too horrific to get a wake-up call every now and again.” The Hawks know they’re good enough to make the top four, and challenge for a premiership from there.
In a season where Cats once more look like their closest rivals, a loss keeps Hawthorn cards close to brown-and-gold chests. Geelong may have won 13 of 15 games between the sides since 2008, but the two they’ve lost were a grand final and a prelim.
With a Round 22 meeting and a possible finals contest to come, letting your rival think they have your measure early in the season could be shrewd. Front-running Cats will attract more media attention while the Hawks drop into in the slipstream.
Richmond’s win on Thursday summed up all that is wrong with their season. No one should be that relieved at beating a winless bottom-of-the-ladder side whose playing group has spent so much time in hospital that they’re all now qualified doctors by osmosis.
Richmond sprayed their shots and looked ragged much of the night. Brisbane hit the front in the third quarter and hung around into the last. The Tigers face Hawthorn and Geelong in the next fortnight. If they lose five from seven, two limping wins over the league’s biggest strugglers will be more insult than solace.
Port Adelaide earned the bauble of second spot with a routine win, but the more significant results went to Collingwood, Gold Coast and St Kilda. The former two boosted themselves into the top eight, while the Saints sit ninth on points.
Like a teenage mafia thug growing a beard, North Melbourne have looked patchy but dangerous. The Pies beat them comfortably, with the bonus of Travis Cloke firing up, and now face a huge Anzac Day match against Essendon. Gold Coast will play tougher teams than Melbourne, but scored a rare MCG win and kept their season ledger in the black.
St Kilda were the most surprising, taking care of the far more highly rated Bombers by a couple of goals. Nick Riewoldt has made a habit this year of getting his team in a headlock, applying a vicious noogie, then dragging them bodily over the line. Three from five is a great start from a team we all wrote off.
Sydney’s win against Fremantle was also important, not just for the sake of beating a quality side, but the way they kept resisting each Docker surge. The Swans still sit in the unfamiliar environs of 13th, but at least found their tenacity and have given themselves a base from which to start climbing.
Carlton broke their 2014 duck, leaving Brisbane as the only winless side, but it will cost them the services of Chris Judd, Ed Curnow and Tom Bell for several weeks after two broken bones and a badly damaged hamstring. The year doesn’t get any prettier for the Blues.
As for the losers, Essendon crashed from seventh to tenth, and will find themselves well off the pace if they fail on Anzac Day. The most disappointed team this round though would be North Melbourne, who last week blew Sydney off the SCG, and should have more than matched Collingwood in Melbourne. The Roos just can’t find consistency.
West Coast and Fremantle managed to hang onto fourth and fifth spots without doing anything to deserve it, but while the Eagles may cop a win next up against Carlton, expect to see them slip in weeks to come.
Greater Western Sydney headed back to a more familiar end of the ladder, dropping half a dozen spots to wind up 14th, just ahead of the Western Bulldogs who fell nearly as many places. Melbourne dropped a spot to settle at second last.
None of this will be of huge concern, as these teams simply go about the business of learning to play football, and as they have each enjoyed some measure of success in the early weeks.
When times are tough, the odd win can be enough to land a smile on faces for weeks to come. As this week has shown, some wins and some losses are worth far more than others.
Col in paradise
Guest
Like it..!!!........backs are the salt of the earth....
TomC
Roar Guru
Rampe's positioning and defensive awareness were first class against the Dockers. He is becoming one of those players who can impact the game without getting a lot of it. I wouldn't give up on the Swans for top four just yet. They've been inconsistent, but their best has been very good. They have two very winnable games coming up and then they get a crack at some of the better sides.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
Port's win in Perth wasn't a bad effort. That said I find praising Port is akin to driving an ice pick slowly through my brain.....
Geoff Lemon
Expert
Heh. Well, when either of them get a win that's more than routine, they'll have my full attention. Port got plenty last week...
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
You're overly verbose about the state of the South Australian sides there, Geoff. Perhaps a little less about them next time!
AR
Guest
Yep. The Aints were my "lock" for the spoon. Riewoldt has been incredible. Happy to admit my wrong on account of his amazing start to the season...much like last year I should add.
AR
Guest
Sorry Axle. I just thought it was a silly comment made worse with poor spelling.
Bogga
Guest
Brian Lake is 32 years old. 4 months younger than Jonathan Brown who everyone says is too old. If Hawthorn are relying on a 32 year old with a disrupted pre-season to be their saviour, then they're taking a big gamble. It might work one year, but how many times can you roll the dice like that. Hawthorn lost a few things out of the game, more than the writer has alluded to. 1. Kyle Cheney can't be picked as an option to play on Hawkins, he's not big enough. This rules him out as a backup option too, so even if Lake's in, they'd still need Stratton or Shoenmakers as a backup in the side. 2. Geelong's new young players were key, in a game where Selwood was kept quiet and Mitchell was racking them up at will. Clearly Geelong's young mids are better than Hawthorn's. Games like this take a few cards out of the coach's decks. It might not mean much on the ladder, but who cares how far St Kilda have gone up or down, the real action is between the teams actually competing for the top 4 spots. Geelong taking a few tricks from the Hawks might mean a lot when each coach sits down to pick a team for the Prelim or GF.
Jsib
Guest
I am a bit dizzy after reading that spin on the hawks loss. The last 2 out of 15 times hawks have won have been flukes. Going by the last encounter, Geelong controlled the majority of play and hawthorn are lucky this was not a blowout.
Macca
Guest
Given the blues are unlikely to make finals and Judd will miss almost the whole first half of the season why not quit as of right now?
Olivia
Guest
There were some great stories out of this round but, for my biased self, seeing the Swans put in a solid team performance against quality opposition, with some fresh faces given a chance and some big names ready or close to returning is the one which cheers me the most. I still don't think top four is realistic for us anymore but I now feel much more optimistic that we can comfortably make the eight. Once we are there we have the talent and experience to trouble anyone on our day. One good game doesn't make a season but it is encouraging. If we play that well for the rest of the year very few teams will beat us. As for Brownlow votes, if Dane Rampe doesn't get at least one, there's no justice in football. That was by far the best game I have ever seen him play - his game was in the same calibre of Hodge or Harry Taylor and I cannot think of higher praise than that. The way the season is going though, the powers that be can engrave Junior's name on Charlie right now. He is the best I have ever seen play the game, period, with apologies to my revered Bobby Skilton and the great Leigh Matthews, Tony Lockett, Greg Williams and Adam Goodes. When he retires, GCS should permanently retire his no. 9 in recognition of the best player they may ever have.
Whitestar
Guest
I heard the back line described as 'the salt mines' while I was playing. Very apt I thought.
alicesprings
Guest
Geelong had to let hawthorn win one premiership in there somewhere..would have taken all the fun out of it otherwise. Either way everyone nows that over the last 6yrs Geelong has been the far superior team. Hawthorn….charity premiers of '08 and very lucky winners of '13. Wouldn't have been very good for the competition if Geelong had of won 5 out of the last 6 grand finals.
Axle an the guru
Guest
Bad kicking cost Geelong the 08 flag. But i spose bad kicking is bad footy. BTW im not the only person that gets the wording or spelling wrong AR. Do you correct everybody on roar?
Monopoly Man
Guest
Yes I am aware the game gets played once, and Hawthorn won it. My point was that if that game was played 10 times I'd back Geelong to win 9. They were far and away the best team that year. Hawthorn won on the day and kudos to them, Sydney did something similar to them in 2012. My point is that this whole 'Hawthorn beats Geelong when it matters' line is just crap. Hawthorn won the '08 GF and scraped in against a tired and wounded Geelong team last year. That's it. Geelong beat them in the 2011 Qualifying final and ever home and away game since 08.
Shouts Chen
Guest
The Hawks have never won an Easter Monday Game over the Cats before at the MCG. This is no excuses for Hawthorn. The Cats and The Hawks are the biggest rivalries in the AFL League.
AR
Guest
"That game gets played 10 times the Cats win 9". Huh? That game gets played once. That's the point. And Axle, "threw"...but Geelong didn't. In 2008, the Cats were the best team in the regular season. The Hawks were the best team *through* September.
Axle an the guru
Guest
I dont think there would be a coach in the AFL that would leave Chris Judd alone in the forward line full stop. If you got 4 to 6 goals out of it you win the game. Besides if the player left Judd on his own, im sure he would know how to make the most that. Think about it, its a very congested game now, turnovers happen everywhere during a game. You get the ball, create the loose man, go goalward to Judd one on one. It could work.
Penster
Guest
I wouldn't back too many midfields, let alone Carlton's, to cover an extra player while the FF is waiting for delivery in front of goal.
Jack Smith
Roar Guru
That's the funny part. Essendon didn't. Oh did I give my dad a ribbing...couldn't stop Riewoldt - one man > lose.