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They were the two closest sides to last year’s premiership behind Hawthorn: Port Adelaide and Sydney. Now the hot take from Round 1 suggests the Hawks have gone to another level.
So where does that leave Port Adelaide and the Sydney Swans?
Tonight, we get some insight. The two sides meet at Adelaide Oval after somewhat sluggish starts to the season last week.
The Power fell to Fremantle in Perth – by no means a terrible result but a reversal of last year’s semi final – and the Swans looked done before their heroic comeback in the win over Essendon.
This was followed by Hawthorn’s emphatic win over Geelong on Easter Monday, which rightly led to a wave of praise for the Hawks.
Without a dominant display from any other side to finish in last year’s top six, the Hawks were always going to stand out, but it’s hard to argue with the “another level” line – everything seems to be ticking along nicely out at Waverley.
That leaves neutral observers in the position of waiting for a challenger to emerge.
Tonight, if one of these two clubs can assert themselves over the other, we could get one.
My gut feel heading into 2015 was that the top six cluster of last year will be reduced to four – Hawthorn, Sydney, Port Adelaide and Fremantle will be battling it out at the top come September, while Geelong and North Melbourne will drop to the next tier down.
Round 1 backed up such thoughts about the Cats and Roos, who each have tougher draws relative to last year and obvious issues – be that the need for support underneath the top tier in Geelong’s case or the worrying trend of allowing opposition key forwards to dominate at North – that weren’t really addressed over the break.
When you look at list changes, both clubs lost established young midfielders in Allen Christensen and Levi Greenwood but added upside-heavy key forwards (Mitch Clark and Jarrad Waite) during the off-season. There’s a chance of breaking even, sure, but those obvious issues weren’t really tackled.
So when it comes to taking the limelight away from Hawthorn, for me – at the moment – it really comes down to three clubs.
Adelaide may have provided a “watch this space” message last week and Essendon might look a bit dangerous after getting over their interrupted pre-season, but right now it’s down to three.
Of those, Fremantle’s start to the season couldn’t have gone any better.
Port Adelaide and Sydney, though, will be itching to make a statement.
Port are interesting in that they have one of the toughest draws this year, playing Hawthorn, Sydney, Fremantle and a potentially much more competitive Adelaide twice.
That could hurt, but they didn’t lose any major pieces over the break. Indeed, the addition of Patrick Ryder ensured they most certainly came out ahead list-wise. The injury list doesn’t pose any serious concerns yet, either.
The Swans head into this season with the motivation and focus losing a grand final provides, plus as we saw last week they have a number of match-winners to turn to when the going gets tough.
Losing Nick Malceski was a big blow however, comfortably the biggest loss personnel-wise among those top four contenders. That the club had its hands tied in the trade period didn’t help.
Overall, both clubs are positioned to be there or thereabouts. Port’s path to success will require it to take big scalps, while the Swans will need to overcome the loss of a key piece.
The dream was all too close last year.
Port were three points short of the eventual premiers in the preliminary final. Sydney won the minor premiership, advanced to the grand final as favourites and just couldn’t fire on the big day.
The signs are that both will be firmly in the mix again this year, but whether that translates into going one further remains to be seen.
There’s one big obstacle in the way and it’s wearing brown and gold.