Seven quick takes from AFL Round 14

If you like great games of football, the 2017 AFL season just continues to give. This year could’ve been written by Shel Silverstein. As always, I’m here with some quick takes.

Chill Gill, the AFL has all the X it needs
The AFL world was briefly aflutter during the week with the news that the league is looking to run a weekend of ‘AFLX’, a seven-man, fast-paced version of the game during the bye between Round 23 and finals.

That being the case, it was well timed indeed that this weekend’s games should remind us there’s really no need for any further X-factor in footy. The game has hardly ever been in better shape in terms of throwing up engaging and surprising contests.

I’ve said before this year that it’s a golden age of footy and there have been a mix of responses, some saying that the footy we see, while often exciting, hasn’t always been a game of elite skills and precision.

I won’t argue against that, and I don’t have a memory stretching back as far as some others, so maybe there’s a golden era of perfectly skilled footy that this isn’t quite at the level of, though I rather doubt it.

Still, there’s plenty of reasons to like football and seeing good skills for mine isn’t anywhere the near the top of the list. Give me physicality, a good scrap and a tight finish over that any day of the week.

This isn’t all to say that I’m 100 per cent against the notion of AFLX, because I’ll be honest, any initiative to bring football to a part of the calendar that doesn’t already have it is at the very least going to pique my interest.

That said, any suggestion that we need to drastically fiddle with football to make it more exciting is really just looking sillier by the minute.

Continue to focus on creating a comp where every fanbase feels like they’re a chance on any given week, and you’ll never want for followers.

(AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy)

Close games tell fibs, but will probably decide 2017
It’s been a season characterised by slim margins – this week alone we had four matches where the difference at the final siren was less than a goal, making it 20 for the year.

The most difficult thing with a close game however is trying to work out what it means about a team – particularly if they have a string of similar results in a row.

Does a team who loses a string of close games in a row have a choking problem – as Cam Rose suggested for the Tigers this week? Does a team who does the opposite ‘just know how to win the close ones’?

We could argue until we’re blue in the face but put me down as sceptic when it comes to the suggestion that a club’s record in close games tells you a lot about them.

By the very notion of trying to write a ‘quick takes’ column I’m always trying to take greater meaning out of individual results but as time goes on when it comes to close ones I suspect that there isn’t actually that much there – the best course of action instead is just to bask in the joy of great footy.

This sport is such a volatile one with so much random chance that if a match is decided by less than a goal, the winner probably comes down more to luck than it does one team being genuinely better, and if a team loses several in a row this way, it’s probably just unfortunate coincidence.

Don’t get me wrong, I love laying into Richmond as much as anyone, but if you look at them as a team that has only had one loss by 10 points or more this year, you’d actually say they’re doing remarkably well, especially in comparison to the pre-season predictions.

On the other side of the coin Geelong fans will remember all too well the 2014 season when they triumphed repeatedly in close games and finished top four, only to be bundled out in straight sets in finals.

Drastically lifting or lowering your opinion of a team because they won or lost a close game is probably a mistake, though I won’t pretend I haven’t thought that way in the past and won’t be tempted to do so again in the future.

Really though, seeing the Bulldogs said to be ‘back on track’ on the AFL website last night after a 1-point win over the team sitting in 17th was just a classic example of putting way too much value on a razor-thin margin.

The combination of many close games with a fairly even spread of performance across the competition, however, does suggest that the final ladder will be heavily influenced by how they turn out, for better or worse.

Geelong (3-0), Fremantle, GWS and the Bulldogs (all 3-1) are getting boosted by that right now, while North Melbourne (0-4) and Richmond (0-3) both arguably deserve to be better off than they are. Who knows whether or not things will even out by the end of the season.

(AAP Image/Tony McDonough)

Playing the kids pays dividends for Dockers
Yes, I know, Fremantle didn’t get the win against Geelong – but as discussed above, in a close match like that, it’d be a mistake to write of all the things that went well for them just because of that.

I mean, a Fremantle side minus Nat Fyfe and Aaron Sandilands going up against Geelong at home? A ten goal margin probably would’ve seemed like a kind result.

They’d be devastated not to get the win, and so they should be, but that shouldn’t rule out a bit of pride at the good work they did to put themselves in a winning position.

Most encouragingly for Fremantle’s future is that their best performances as a team have come after backing in the young players – they had two debutants today.

First-gamer Sean Darcy very much held his own against Mark Blicavs and Rhys Stanley in the ruck. Connor Blakely (27 touches) and Darcy Tucker (3 goals) showed the Fremantle midfield has a future.

I was sceptical about Ross Lyon being the right man to take Fremantle into a rebuilding period – which this is, sorry Dockers fans – but his shift in philosophy this year has shown that he is.

Stick fat with the kids and good times will come again.

(AAP Image/Travis Anderson)

Are Sydney the form team of the league?
John Worsfold suggested after the Swans’ one-point win over Essendon on Friday night that Sydney are the best side in the competition going on recent form, and to be fair, their record of six from their last seven is the best you’ll find.

As it is they’re now just a win outside the top eight and with the seventh-best percentage in the competition you’d like their chances of catapulting back into there if they can keep the wins coming.

However in keeping with what I’ve said above about close wins and how they can be misleading, I feel like it would be a mistake to characterise their past fortnight as being in great form.

Against both Richmond and Essendon they were in losing positions at one point or another, and while their tenacity to win despite that is admirable, they can’t rely on getting out of jail every week.

Keep rising to the occasion and the Swans can still go far in this season – they’ve got enough winnable games left in the year that they should be disappointed if they don’t make finals from here.

However, I wouldn’t call myself convinced on them at this stage. A match next week against Melbourne – who would be my pick for the best form team in the competition, though they too have benefitted from close wins lately – should tell us a lot.

(AAP Image/David Moir)

Time for the AFL to make the call on acting
It’s a pretty average sight to see an AFL player take a dive and for Clayton Oliver to do it on Saturday night was not the first occasion we’ve seen this year, nor likely the last.

Really though, it was an incident that ought to spark the AFL into action one way or another. There are rules against this kind of behaviour after all.

Here are the two options as I see it – first choice, the AFL writes Oliver up for his dive, and hopefully players around the game get the message.

Second choice, they don’t punish Oliver, and they buy a bottle of white out to remove that rule from book – because if you’re not going to enforce it now it’s a waste of ink.

Most likely though you’d assume it will be another case of inaction though, because to take action would be to admit either that staging does happen in the game, or to admit that they aren’t willing to do anything about it.

Instead, expect this status quo where we say staging is illegal but don’t actually take action in response to players doing it to continue.

Will it ever be Saint Paddy’s day?
Hard to imagine worse news for Saints fans than Patrick McCartin suffering another head knock in the VFL on the weekend, and his string of bad luck continues.

The Saints have been in an awkward position with McCartin this year. He carries the No.1 draft pick tag which means people expect him to play, but his form hasn’t justified him keeping a spot in the team.

And when you already have tall players like Nick Riewoldt, Josh Bruce and Tim Membrey commanding spots in the forward line you don’t have room to play McCartin just to develop him.

Of course, all this has led to some sections of the media trying to drum up rumours about him being a trade target – he’s contracted till the end of next year though, so I doubt it.

The Saints do need to find a way forward eventually though and one would suspect the eventual plan is that Nick Riewoldt retires and McCartin comes into the team on a regular basis. That may play out as soon as the end of this year.

Between now and then it isn’t the worst thing for him to be developing at the lower levels. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed he can do so without too many more injury interruptions.

(AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy)

Burgyone the best choice for a Hawks vet to play on
It’s doubtful at this stage of the year whether or not any of Hawthorn’s over-30 types will still be going around next year.

The Hawks aren’t going to contend for the flag this year after all and it doesn’t seem likely that things will be any different in 2018.

For both player and club then it might seem like a better idea to cut the cord now. The old blokes don’t spend another year having their bodies hammered just to finish in the bottom four, and the young blokes get a chance to develop.

Still, Hawthorn’s list isn’t so bursting with high-end young talent that there’s a need to rush the older players out, and having their class and leadership can be handy.

If someone is going to stay on, Shaun Burgoyne is the clear choice. The Hawks’ best wins this year have been on the back of his silky performances. Whatever age may take from him in strength or speed it cannot do when it comes to class and smarts.

It’ll be fascinating to see at the end of the year what kind of decisions are made by him and his fellow veterans, and the Hawks’ management.