After two weeks of surprises, Round 3 went close enough to the script. However, the following are seven stories that are not on the script.
1. The best take away what you are good at
The three perennial contenders of recent seasons – Hawthorn, Sydney and Fremantle – all had commanding weekend performances, and all won in a similar fashion, taking away the opposition’s strength.
Hawthorn didn’t just take away Western Bulldogs’ tackling and pressure, but delivered their own performance of tackling prowess, smashing the Bulldogs around the ground – and it showed in the tackle count.
After an impressive second half against Melbourne based around stoppage dominance, Greater Western Sydney were not able to get anything going at the contest and in the ruck. A supposedly weaker Sydney ruck division neutralised the GWS ruck advantage, while at ground level the Sydney midfield produced a hard-nosed performance.
In the final game of the round West Coast’s forward line and conversion strength was non-existent simply because the West Coast midfield could not get the ball. Fremantle dominated the midfield battle and prevented any West Coast forward attack or momentum.
Three great teams, three great ways of dominating an opponent by removing what they do best. It is one of the key differences between the good and great, just how well coached they are.
2. July 10, 2011
That date is the last time Rodney Eade sung the club song in an AFL match as head coach. Nearly four years now.
So much has changed in that time at AFL level and it seems to be the one forgotten factor of the Eade hire that is continuing to gain momentum – this is a coach who has been too far removed from the coaching system.
As nice as the role Eade enjoyed at Collingwood was, the difference behind operations and coaching are being shown by Eade and Gold Coast’s troubles.
For those wondering, Gold Coast lost a match to Sydney the day before this by 70 points.
3. Forget the now, look at the month-long future
It is easy to look at one performance, either good or bad, and make a decision about a team, but it is worth considering what is to come for teams that have struggled or are flying early on.
For example West Coast have been crucified for their poor derby performance, but with a winnable month or so to come – including Brisbane and St Kilda and home matches with Gold Coast and GWS – the Eagles could look very different in a month with a 5-3 record.
Adelaide, who have made a strong start, also have a good run ahead with Western, Gold Coast, St Kilda and GWS. Easy to see Adelaide being near top with a 7-1 record.
Meanwhile, a surprise packet like Western Bulldogs have tough games with Adelaide, Sydney and Fremantle to come. After a strong 2-0 start it could fall away to 2-5 very quickly.
It is easy to get captured in the moment, but more often you hear coaches talk about the weeks ahead. That old phrase ‘one week at a time’ might still be relevant to players, but for coaches and real fans, it is about looking longer term.
4. The coaches’ votes
There is nothing like the coaches’ votes to stir debate about who was best in any given game. The unique perspective that opposition coaches have into a game should mean that more is made of the AFLCA votes when they come out on a Monday.
Last week brought an intriguing case study into what used to be termed ‘team effort’. Brad Scott and Ken Hinkley differed majorly on the influential players in their game of the year contender. The only thing they could agree on was that Brad Ebert was best on ground.
Outside of that, one coach thought Matt Broadbent was second best while the other said it was Jasper Pittard, one gave Sam Gibson three votes, the other gave him none, one coach gave Andrew Swallow three votes, the other gave him none, even the Robbie Gray, Hamish Hartlett, Luke McDonald and Lindsay Thomas found it to one vote card but not the other.
A stab would say that Hinkley went Ebert, Broadbent, Gibson, Gray and McDonald, while Scott went Ebert, Pittard, Swallow, Hartlett and Thomas. But that is the beauty of the coaches’ votes, only they know.
Always catch the coaches’ votes on Monday if you want a real insight into how coaches view the game.
5. PR stands for Paul Roos
After six quarters of the worst attacking football imaginable it was expected that the wily coaching veteran in Paul Roos would go to external topics to deflect what has happened to his side over the past two weekends.
Since returning to the coaching caper with Melbourne, Roos has shown deft touch in being able to deflect attention from his side when it calls for it most.
The substitute rule is now a part of the AFL game and no coach is going to get the AFL to move on this stance. Yet, while Roos may not change minds, he has at least turned the attention off a team that has scored just eight goals in six quarters of football.
6. Fox Footy Analysis, masters of the obvious
According to Brad Johnson, two of the key stats you need to look at in the modern game are contested ball wins and uncontested marks.
Who would have thought that if you are getting your hands on the ball first and then are not turning over the ball, you would be going to win the game?
Talk about using numbers and statistics to try and explain what watching games for over 150 years has taught us.
7. Every week, every match is unique
Every year experts and fans alike try to read into early season formlines by using the logic that ‘Team A’ beat ‘Team B’ and ‘Team B’ beat ‘Team C’, therefore ‘Team A’ must be the best.
More than ever before in the AFL the effort and energy that a team brings to any game is what dictates the final result. As Ross Lyon said after Fremantle’s win over West Coast, any team can be overrun if they go away from their structures and don’t bring effort.
Trying to read early-season form based on who has beat who is flawed. It is about what fans don’t see: how teams are prepared for the week and what energy is apparent in the team on game day.
In AFL 2015, energy and effort have more importance than any other factor.
Macca
Guest
"he world is quite happy to hear your opinions. But, the world needs no one’s arguments. Just put it out there and let the others decide for themselves." Then why do you reply to others posts Don? If this attitude is correct then this site would have just a series of one off posts - no discussion. Civil "arguments" aren't bad they force people to examine/challenge their own opinions and scrutinise a different point of view - sticking rigidly to the "this is my opinion and I'm entitled to it" line is willful ignorance. And frankly your attitude is exactly what is wrong with the level of discussion in our society in so many areas at the moment - everyone believes that their opinion is right or at the very least that every opinion is equally valid regardless of the evidence that clearly suggests otherwise, this just isn't the case. "I say let them have their opinions. If you don’t share it, there is no skin off your nose" Well that is almost literally not true - people who refuse to vaccinate because of their ill informed opinion endanger us all - diseases that have been wiped out in first world countries are returning because vaccination rates drop to low, inaction on climate change is causing dangerous changes in our environment and threatening our way of life so while it may not be "skin of my nose" both "opinions" threaten my health.
Don Freo
Guest
Regarding your last comment...got any facts to support that? Not that I'd read them...I just have my own opinion.
Don Freo
Guest
I say let them have their opinions. If you don't share it, there is no skin off your nose. You can just smile in your rightness... ...like I do when it comes to colliding opinions with you. I just spa in overwhelming satisfaction with my opinions. The world is quite happy to hear your opinions. But, the world needs no one's arguments. Just put it out there and let the others decide for themselves.
Macca
Guest
Hmm Don - Anti Vaxxers have an opinion, climate change deniers have an opinion, but the fact is neither of these opinions are right or supported by evidence. Opinion sites work best when people are willing to support their opinion and demonstrate why that opinion is valid - it helps with an exchange of ideas and hopefully leaves everyone richer - just stating an opinion, refusing to support it and dismissing any evidence to the contrary seems to be swimming in the shallow end.
Don Freo
Guest
Oh, I'm right all the time. You see, all I do is express my opinion and the one thing I know is what my opinion is. It is definitely what I'm thinking. I know where all the stats are...you can't avoid them. I just don't rank them as important on an opinion site. I don't need anyone to agree with me. I'm just chucking my opinion out there.
Katfish
Roar Guru
How good or bad has Eade been this year? we don't know because the players have struggled. They panic at the sight of an opposition player, their field kicking has ben atrocious and in the first two rounds they simply did not try. Only when they can rectify these problems will we know how Eade is going as a coach
kick to kick
Guest
I'm not writing Eade off after 3 games. When he went to Sydney in 1996 the Swans lost their first two games heavily. The first to Adelaide by 11 goals. Adelaide would finish 12th that year while the Swans were minor premiers. The Swans eventually won 16 games after only winning 8 the previous season. A decade later when Eade took over the Bulldogs , the Doggies had won 5 games the year prior. They only won 2 of their first 6 games under Eade. But then they won 9 of the next 16 . They won 14 games the following year. What was interesting is that his running game-plan with the Dogs was radically different from his flood-and-rebound-to-Lockett Swans formula.I think both teams took time to adapt to a bespoke game style which in each case was constructed around the abilities of the players available. When each team got the message, they took off. Can Eade devise another style to fit yet another team, when yet another decade has passed? Maybe he is too long away from coaching. But don't bet on it . My feeling is that he will craft another winning formula - especially with the talent available to him at the Suns. .
Macca
Guest
" I have this amazing ability to think for myself." Yes but sadly not the ability to realise that you may not always be right or that there could be information out there that might increase your knowledge.
Don Freo
Guest
Still wouldn't read it. I have this amazing ability to think for myself.
Macca
Guest
Losing O'meara and Ablett hasn't helped either TomC.
Macca
Guest
What you legendary powers of observation deserted you Don?! The whole thing does demonstrate pretty clearly that different people see different things when observing a game of football - if only ther was some sort of independant data we could reflect on after the game to illuminate our observations.
Macca
Guest
"2015 killed Friday Night Football" I agreee there haven't been too many (if any) good games on a Friday night to date but I think it is part of the AFL's equalisation process. Apparently there is a pretty good correlation between Fiday night games early in the season and increased memberships (and probably better gates before the season goes completely up in smoke) - or at least that is the argument the teams put up - hence some of the less supprted sides getting a run early on. Without looking at the draw I woulnd't be sruprosed if the AFL have scheduled a lot of big Friday night games late in the season to build momentum into the finals.
TomC
Roar Guru
I say fiddlesticks to the Rodney Eade analysis. Three years in a senior assistant role at a major footy club is surely the next best thing to actually being a head coach. We should bear in mind that modern coaches are really managers of staff as much as anything. Honestly, people are focusing far too much on the new coach. Gold Coast have always been a mercurial team who struggle to cope with adversity, and that's what they are now. We're all guilty of confusing hype with ability, and we're looking for reasons to explain why they haven't progressed as we'd thought. The answer is simply that progression is hard, no matter how many high draft picks you have. It doesn't happen automatically, and it certainly doesn't happen consistently.
Don Freo
Guest
The Ebert case is excellent. Missed Katfish's Team of Round 3. I missed Ebert in my claim that Nat Fyfe was unlucky (he got 5 coaches' votes).
Don Freo
Guest
Oh yes, I'd agree that Maths can be an Art...but not when it is REDUCED to selective statistics in an opinion. A Renoir is Art but it would be stretching it to say the paint he used is art. Blake's poetry is Art...the alphabet?...unlikely.
Aransan
Guest
An example of A beats B, B beats C, C beats A is given by a "magic square". Suppose teams A, B, C are given numerical values for their backlines, midfields and forward lines. Further suppose the values are: A 6 7 2 B 1 5 9 C 8 3 4 Any team wins a match if they win in two areas. Hence, A beats B, B beats C, C beats A. 100 could be added to all the numbers without changing the argument. Don, mathematics is an art and not a science.
Michael huston
Guest
Great summary. For me... - It's too early to decide a premiership favorite. GWS, Western Bulldogs, Geelong and West Coast are four teams that have had losses against the big three contenders. It says little about Hawthorn, Sydney or Fremantle at this point. - 2015 killed Friday Night Football. After the snorefest that was St Kilda vs Collingwood, I thought it couldn't get any worse. Til I saw Richmond vs Melbourne this week. The first five rounds of this season feature no teams from last years top eight on Fridays. Get me out of this grim period! - Midfield duos are crucial to success. This weekend saw two dominant midfield duos revived to combine for a winning margin of 144 points. Swan + Pendlebury and Hodge + Lewis = Collingwood and Hawthorn victories any day of the week. - GWS need more firepower. Jeremy Cameron. Cameron McCarthy. That's it. They lack purpose going forward, and wasted the ball in their forward 50. They'll never kick winning scores if they keep relying on two moderate forwards. - Fremantles midfielders resemble the Brisbane Lions of 2001-2003. Big, brutal and strong. Watching the way they massacred the West Coast midfield was eerily similar to the way those Lions regularly smashed the pulp out of opposition teams. Not there yet, but watch this space. - Isaac Heeney and Buddy Franklin looked like a pair of 200-gamers on the weekend. With Heeney's clean disposal and clever positioning, and Buddy's freak of nature talent, they made Sydneys forward line work smoother than it has in years. - Melbourne need to win games. They beat Gold Coast. They were ahead of the Giants for the majority of the game. And they squandered their chances of an upset against Adelaide. Melbourne are no longer easy-beats, that's for sure. But a lack of wins on the board will not do much for morale. Time for excuses is up. Results need to start reflecting the effort.