Watching Eagles spearhead Josh Kennedy power his way towards a 10-goal haul last weekend reminded me of the likes of Tony Lockett, Gary Ablett and Jason Dunstall racking up team scores on their own.
When a key forward unleashes in this manner it adds intrigue to even the most one-sided of contests.
Fans start to predict how many majors the marauding player will boot, his teammates begin to direct more passes in his direction, and the opposition scrambles to crowd him.
In the 1990s it was commonplace to see power forwards running amok. On any given weekend you were liable to get a double-figure goal haul from Lockett, Ablett, Dunstall, Peter Sumich, Tony Modra, John Longmire, Wayne Carey, Saverio Rocca or Paul Salmon.
The game was offence-driven – a high-scoring exhibition of teams’ abilities to blitz the opposition defence.
It was brilliant to watch. Granted, football was far less refined than it is now. Accountability was an afterthought for many players as they sought merely to win the ball and then hurt their foes with the manner in which they used it.
The past decade has seen the game swing in the opposite direction. Defensive structures, when correctly applied, are nigh-on watertight. Against well-drilled and brilliantly disciplined sides like Hawthorn, Sydney and Fremantle, even teams with potent midfields and forward lines can struggle to boot more than 10 goals.
As Roar colleague Cameron Rose noted recently this season has seen more teams adopting a faster, aggressive style of ball movement than we have seen for years.
It is a direct response to the success of Hawthorn and Port Adelaide last season, in scorching their way through defensive presses with bold running and disposal.
As a result, after a sometimes ugly, overly defensive 2014 season, Australian football in 2015 is in much better shape. Even teams low on talent and expected to languish in the bottom four are taking on the game.
In Round 1, Melbourne’s players displayed a level of flair that was unthinkable after a 2014 campaign marred by some of the slowest, most indirect ball movement the AFL had ever seen. What’s more is it worked, earning them an unexpected win over the Gold Coast.
The Western Bulldogs, widely tipped to reside in the league’s cellar alongside Melbourne, have had even greater success with a run-and-gun approach. Not only are they 2-0 but they’re garnering praise from all sections of the football community and are thrilling their loyal supporters with the exciting brand of play they have adopted.
We’re only two rounds into a long season but the game is more watchable than it has been for a good while. One of the fortunate byproducts of the swifter ball movement on display is that tall forwards are being offered more time and space to showcase their talents.
Last weekend alone, we saw Kennedy vaporise Carlton, Jarrad Waite maim Brisbane with seven goals and young St Kilda big man Josh Bruce finish as best-on-ground with a haul of six goals against Gold Coast. In Round 1, new Adelaide captain Taylor Walker was Wayne Carey-esque as he had 22 touches, 15 marks and 11 scoring shots.
It’s a small sample size, no doubt, but maybe we might be seeing the rebirth of the key forward.
Teams are too well organised to see a return to 1990s-level bags of goals. But AFL spearheads once again are getting a decent number of opportunities for one-on-one contests with their opponents. These clashes between gun players are what make the game great.
Australian football was moving uncomfortably in the direction of rugby, with the heinous amount of players around the ball in recent seasons and the inability for individual battles to be played out in a modicum of space.
This problem is far from resolved, however the signs are good. As long as this attacking trend continues the game will be moving in the right direction.
Tom
Guest
Too true. I must admit i have enjoyed the back and forth between Don and Macca all preseason.
johno
Guest
Nice to have you back jax Would down hill skiers be a more preferable term? :) Looking forward to this weekends game. If West Coast win I will write an article dedicated to the wonders of West Coast!
jax
Guest
I never said that so stop telling porkies. If you carefully read it you will see that I always try to remember to type it as "could/should" and I know that they didn't and I also know that there is a difference between the two. Good sides win those games and WC didn't win them but I'm pretty comfortable with their performances and this is why. In the R7 game both teams had the same number of shots on goal. WC were inaccurate kicking 7.12 and in the R15 game WC had more shots on goal than Freo but were again inaccurate kicking 11.15. WC didn't kick straight on those 2 days but if they did you would have lost both of those games. That's particularly lucky for Freo because WC finished 2014 as the most accurate kicks for goal in the league as I recall (even after some horror days in front of goals) so you got them on a good day, and no it wasn't because of your pressure, they missed some sitters. I watched those 2 games and WC matched Freo for most of the day and outplayed them for decent periods but they didn't capitaise on their opportunities. They had an off day in front of goals just like Freo did in the 2013 Grand Final. Freo lost to the Hawks by 15 points and WC lost to Freo by a combined total of 27 points across 2 games for an average losing margin of 13.5 points. Last year the Hawks beat Freo by a combined total of 77 points across 2 games for an average losing margin of 38.5 points. If I apply the same logic to Freo as some people apply to WC it would mean that WC has a 300% greater chance of beating Freo than Freo does of beating the Hawks. Does that seem to be an accurate reflection of Freo v Hawks in 2015 to you? I'm betting that it doesn't and that is why some of the comments and stats used for WC don't add up to me. Do you think Freo can beat the Hawks this year? If you do then I'd like you to pay some respect to WC when it is due. If you don't think Freo has any chance of beating the Hawks then carry on as you have been by all means but if you do think they can win can you please take off your hate goggles and open your other eye so we can stop this BS. I don't have a lot of time for people that simply hate other sides and refuse to give them credit when it is due. Freo deserved to win last year, fact. My point all along is that I rate WC a lot higher than a lot of others and I'm sticking to it until I see reason to re-evaluate. That does not mean they will play finals or beat a top 8 side this year. I'm looking for improvement and if that lands us a place in the 8 even better but it's about a lot more than that when you take a longer term view. When people compare WC to Freo they should remember that they are comparing the oldest team in the league against one of the youngest. WC will win some and lose some, they will thrash some and get thrashed and that's normal for a developing team in my eyes. So long as they learn, improve and keep playing for the coach I'll be pretty satisfied because the results will soon begin follow.
Ryan Buckland
Expert
I'm also a West Coast fan jax, and I watched I reckon 20 of 22 games last year. Send me an email at my name (no spaces) at outlook dot com and I can hook you up. With stats.
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
You certainly cling to that version that WC should of beaten Freo last year, don't you?
jax
Guest
Where can I see those stats? I don't know where to look but I'd like to be able to see granular stats like that. I'm happy to look at stats as they are important but on the flipside I'd people to actually WC play more often because the rhetoric isn't congruent with the output. Are you saying that every other team from outside last years Top 8 performed better against Top 8 teams than WC last year? You said WC were 18th out of 18 teams which sounds like they were the only team not to register a win against a Top 8 team, is that what happened? 13th in percentage seems closer to the mark but without a midfield it's really easy to see how the better teams were able to capitalise on their misfortune. I watch every WC game and my comments are based on what I see and while stats are important they are not the be all and end all in every situation. Yes, they did beat up on a number of lower placed sides last year and there is nothing wrong with that. Yes, they didn't beat any teams that finished in the Final 8 and for a team that missed the 8 I'm not sure what is wrong with that either? I saw them play some good footy against Top 8 teams and they came very close to pinching to a couple, without a midfield. Last year WC struggled to put a midfield on the park due to injuries while this year they don't have that problem but some people still have them in the same box without looking any deeper into the reasons behind why they didn't beat a Top 8 side, it's much easier to label them FTB's it seems. It's skimming the surface. It's a very shallow and one-sided assessment in my eyes. Picking out a few select metrics while omitting significant data (no midfield, new coach and game plan, playing 3 out of 4 good quarters, some close loses to top 8 teams etc) is the problem I have with the term. If people aren't prepared to factor in WC's injury problems from last year and concede that they were contributing factors I'm not sure what else there is to say. I would argue that if WC had their midfield last year they would have pinched a couple of wins against Top 8 teams and we would not be having this discussion. I'd much rather have my team thrash bottom 10 sides and lose to Top 8 sides than to just get over the line, and even lose games to bottom 10 sides and still go on to lose to Top 8 teams. Interestingly, many pundits have tipped some of those bottom 10 sides that couldn't beat up on any sides regularly to have a better year than WC. That doesn't make a lot of sense any way you look at it.
Ryan Buckland
Expert
I know I've got a bit of a reputation for saying this sort of thing, but have you guys actually looked at the numbers? Last year, West Coast were 11-2, with percentage of 150ish against the bottom 10. Against the top eight, they were 0-9 with a percentage of 67.7%. They were 18th in win percentage against the top eight, and ranked 13th in percentage. Flat track bullies is a terrible catch-all term, but as the sporting dictionary defines it that is exactly what West Coast were last year. Everyone plays better than the team's below them and worse against those above them - that's a tautology. The extent to which West Coast did so last year was by far the largest in the league. Hence, they are termed flat track bullies
jax
Guest
Kennedy has kicked hauls of 6 & 5 against the Hawks and the last time he did that was in 2013 when the Hawks were Premiers and he's kicked big scores against the Dees also. You might want to rethink your post Rob
jax
Guest
Slow down now Doc. You are beginning to make way too much sense for some of the people on here. Do you have some special medicine to cure their ailment? They need it badly.
jax
Guest
The term FTB is crap, not just when applied to Kennedy. Read my earlier post. You are right however, it starts and finishes in the midfield and last year most of WC's midfield was out injured but let's ignore that and just call them FTB's shall we? Biggest load of rubbish I've heard in a long time and the sheep keep repeating it.
jax
Guest
flat track bullies is amongst the biggest load of media BS I have heard in a while and you are merely regurgitating what you have heard and read rather than watching every WC game or at least checking through the 2014 results. WC performed pretty well against practically every team last year (with only a very few exceptions) but they were unable to consistently sustain their effort over 4 quarters against some of the better teams. They could/should have beaten Freo and possibly even Port and they were both Top 4 last year so I don't buy this flat-track bully crap. If they play for 4 quarters they will push and possibly beat a few of those Top 8 teams I'm sure of it. Go back and look through the 2014 results and you will see that most of the Top 8 teams didn't blow WC away, a few of them were able to when WC had no midfield due to injuries. They weren't good enough last year no doubt about it, but FTB is a term the media invented so as to put a team in a box so people with lower IQ's can associate with them more easily. Kennedy has kicked hauls of 6 & 5 against the Hawks and the last time he did that was in 2013 when the Hawks were Premiers. Any club would take Kennedy in a heartbeat.
Doctor Rotcod
Guest
Tell me, did the great forwards of the recent and not-so-recent past kick bags regularlyagainst the best sides? I think not. WCE went agonisingly close to finals last season and if not for a lay down Sally by the Swans against Richmond would have been there Judging by their efforts against the better sides during the season there wouldn't be this stupid talk about flat track bullies They're a mid-rank team at the moment and if you can't beat up those below you you'll be a low-rank side Geelong on the other hand , the only team besides the Hawks above the Eagles in terms of overall finals and Premiership achievements in the AFL era- the only real set of data worth considering -seem to be rather vulnerable at the moment to the suggestion that they do worse against the better sides and only a little better against the poorer sides than the place in the pantheon that the Victorian media allows
Don Freo
Guest
Nah...that was a different trolly Macca with a small 'm'. He did go away. We're talking about regular, long term capital 'M', Macca, that we all know and love. He of the Casboult, Curnow, Henderson fame. Come back Macca.
Harold
Guest
Im sure he is flattered your all still talking about him :) Didn't take Dalgetys advice with ignoring him I see.Hook line and sinker
JT
Guest
See - this talk of Kennedy as a flat-track bully is infuriating. The Eagles are a middle of the table side and nothing more. They beat the teams below them and lose to those above them. Want to finger-point a flat-track bully? Then point the finger at their midfield, for Kennedy can only do what he can with the service he gets. Midfield gets shut down and Kennedy falters. Midfield gets free run and Kennedy prospers. Kennedy ain't the flat-track bully. He just marks the flat-track bullies' kicks.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Yep I agree Rob, Kennedy has made a habit of bashing up weak sides, even though it should be said that against Carlton he was opposed to Jamison, who is a fine key defender. What was more striking than Kennedy's bag was that the Eagles were actually being more direct and swift with their ball movement, as has been the trend this season. The Eagles killed their forwards last year with their laboured movement into attack.
slane
Guest
Be gentle. Not only did he have to watch his beloved Blues cop an absolute hiding, he has to endure Don being 100% right in his prediction. Don told Macca that WC would win by more than 10 goals and that the WC midfielders would completely dominate and deny the Carlton forwards the ball. Spot on, I would say.
Tom
Guest
Where is Macca? After predicting that the blues would be finals contenders he sure has gone quiet
Rob
Guest
Whilst I enjoyed watching Kennedy in full flight last Friday night I kept in mind his opposition... Just like last time he kicked 10 (against GWS). Carlton is this year a bottom 4 side. Let's see him do it against the swans, Hawks, dockers... Hell even melbourne for God sake! He, like his team, are just flat track bullies
josh
Roar Rookie
Would be good to a 100 goal season again.