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What do we know so far in the 2014 AFL season?

Roar Pro
29th April, 2014
24

What a great round of footy! Did anyone really predict North Melbourne beating Fremantle in Perth? Because I seriously didn’t.

What about Port Adelaide sitting atop the ladder? But I digress. It’s a long season and we still have a bunch of games to go.

Here is what we know so far:

Carlton may not be the real deal, but they are far from the basket case everyone perceived them to be before last week’s win.

Two wins may not be much but they are one win out of the eight, with the next three games in Melbourne. Win two of the next three and the season is not so lost after all. Lose all three and the hounds will be back.

Hawthorn may still be losing to Geelong, but that’s about it. Apart from a narrow four-point victory over the Dons and the loss to Geelong, Hawthorn have not been troubled.

They destroyed the up and coming Gold Coast, tore apart Richmond and made Fremantle look second rate.

There is no premiership hangover this time, or a sense of missing Buddy Franklin. They take their footy week by week and do it very well. Next up is St Kilda, before a date with Sydney and their Buddy.

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Port are the best finishers in the comp. That’s common knowledge, but they can run games out better than any team. In the modern game, that is such a valuable asset. Will they be able to maintain it for the rest of the season?

After the forty point victory over Geelong, there is no doubt they deserve to be in top-four calculations and will pretty confident in taking on GWS next week.

Hold your applause until the end with Port though. They fell away before and it is known that a tough damning pre-season can come back to hurt players.

Paul Roos does not work miracles. I don’t think that’s a secret to anyone but the point is Melbourne are going to be a very hard club to turn around.

The Demons did have a good win against Carlton, but they couldn’t back it up against the Coast or even have a decent showing against Sydney.

What does Melbourne need? They desperately need to re-sign James Frawley firstly. Decent key defenders are hard to come by.

They probably need to make a decent assessment of Jack Watts. The boy has been through hell with that club and he keeps teasing.

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Against the Bulldogs last year he played arguably his best game, yet the next week he fell away. Sometimes he’s on fire other times he can’t be found.

Finally, North Melbourne can start playing mature footy. If they do or not remains to be seen but they’ve shown with decent wins against Port, Sydney and Freo (in Perth mind you) that something is different from last year.

Last year we all cringed as they dropped leads, couldn’t maintain possession and basically fell away after dominating in games. The Hawthorn thriller early on is a fine example.

Terrible stuff, but not now, has the acquisition of Nick Dal Santo helped them? It couldn’t have hurt either way. The man is an A-class midfielder and can only aid their cause.

The Western Bulldogs need a key defender. Some may not agree with this completely and consider the forward line the big problem, but the forward line is a work in progress.

I wrote earlier that Melbourne need to re-sign Frawley, but the Dogs need to chase him too.

Against Adelaide their undersized, inexperienced defence was exposed horribly. When Morris retires it will continue to happen.

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It’s going to be a long season. The cream will always rise to the top, whether this happens for Sydney or Fremantle remains to be seen.

Freo came out firing against Collingwood and the Gold Coast before falling away horribly against Hawthorn, Sydney and North.

They had one win against the Bombers in between but can they recapture their best form? They are no longer in top-two calculations but Ross Lyon has proven before that he is a shrewd coach.

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