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Thursday, March 24. It’s the day all AFL fans cannot wait for. No more silly season, this is when the real thing arrives.
I’m chomping at the bit like a kid on Christmas Day. The excitement is at a high level. But it’s not at the thought of what my Brisbane Lions are going to bring this year, but what the whole AFL season has in store for us.
This season comes with even bigger potential to be the closest season yet. Fans of all clubs are looking to see how their team fares whether positively or negatively.
And as a fan I thought I’d tackle something slightly different to what we’ve seen on The Roar in the last month. I’m putting on my fortune teller hat to provide five left-field predictions for Roarers to digest.
1. The smallest Coleman Medal winner
That’s right folks, we will have the smallest Coleman Medal winner ever.
No, not the smallest amount of goals to win the Coleman Medal, but the smallest winner physically. The big boys’ domination of the Medal will be broken!
AFL football is an ever-changing beast, and the last few years has seen the mosquito fleet start to exert significant influence on our game. Teams are relying less and less on the big men and finding ways that are seeing smaller players having an impact on the scoreboard.
Eddie Betts, Chad Wingard, Luke Breust and Harley Bennell are types who love to sniff one out, and I’m backing one of these four to sneak up on everyone and snatch away the Coleman!
2. What are finals without Sydney? We are going to find out
With the AFL currently in the middle of a big push in rugby league heartland, the AFL will be having heart palpitations at the thought of the Swans not playing September football.
Usually, Sydney, September and finals is a given. But the Swans’ fantastic recent successful period is coming to a hiatus.
With the recent retirement of Adam Goodes, and a combination of a few key players like Jarrad McVeigh, Ted Richards and Ben McGlynn getting a little older and struggling with injuries, the Swans are going to go all Richmond Tigers on us and just miss out on the top eight by percentages.
3. Crouching Tiger, hidden consistency
I have some really bad news for the whitegoods suppliers of the Greater Richmond area. Your businesses are going to struggle this year when the mighty Tigers and their leaders don’t go missing during the autumn and winter months!
Players like Trent Cotchin, Brett Deledio, Troy Chaplin, Alex Rance, Dustin Martin and even Chris Yarran (just to tick off the long suffering Blues supporters) will have career-best years and be found leading from the front in the trenches from the word go.
No wet sails here, just consistently tough and competitive footy, week in, week out. And you know what? They’ll even win a couple of finals games (shock horror).
4. No AFL coach will be harmed in the making of the 2016 season
The coaching merry-go-round always revs up in the winter months each year. It’s a cutthroat game that has senior coaches always looking in their rear vision mirrors.
But this year, coaches fear not. There will be no playing list losing confidence in you, there will be no CEOs declaring that you have the board’s complete faith.
No negotiating payouts, no assistants grabbing the whistle and telling press conferences we just want them to go out and play with freedom. You can put the coach clichés away, because the ‘out of order’ sign is up on the merry-go-round down at Luna Park!
5. Queen’s Birthday, another rout… just a black and white one
AFL season and the Queen’s Birthday weekend go hand in hand. And usually with those hands comes a Dees shellacking from the club everyone loves to hate: Collingwood.
If it’s not Travis Cloke terrorising the Dees’ key positional players, it’s Scott Pendlebury doing what he pleases around the ground with his silky skills.
You could even imagine Jeremy Howe going all Jeremy Howe on the Dees this year on his way to another speccy.
But no, not this year my friends. Queen’s Birthday weekend will see the Dees finally sprout their wings and do a demolition job on Bucks and his Pies. There will be smashed Pies all over the ground, and I’m not just talking about the heads of those in Joffa’s army.
This will be the making of the Dees. It will spark a big push that gets their fans all wired up for a crack at finals which will ultimately finish peak-Richmond in ninth position.
So, Roarers, what your thoughts? Can any of these actually come true, or what other magical surprises will the 2016 AFL season provide?
I know it’s going to be a cracker and just can’t wait to start hearing the dulcet tones of Bruce McAvaney, Dennis Cometti, Anthony Hudson and company.
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.