The preseason is officially over and Round 1 is just a fortnight away. Who looked mighty in the JLT Community Series – and who didn’t?
Comfortably beat a probably-good team in the Dons, and a probably-not-so-good team in the Kangaroos. Either way, their victories were clinical and fearsome. The premiers aren’t resting on their laurels this season. Be wary of them. Very wary.
Standard Sydney fortnight, to be honest. Their win over Brisbane was business as usual and didn’t tell us much, but their win over GWS came of the back of a closely-fought topsy-turvy game. Most peg them for finals, and I can’t disagree.
The loss to West Coast would’ve stung, but holy hell that fightback against the Crows was brilliant. A bag of six goals from Jack Watts was an added bonus, as was their incredible accuracy in Saturday’s match. Tracking well for a big year.
Everything that Carlton fans could’ve wanted happened. Their attacking flair was evident, and they got two wins. Booting over 100 points was the cherry on top.
This squad ain’t the cause for pessimism that some believe. Solid win over Collingwood, before looking a combination of poor and brilliant against the Swans. They’ll be happy with their preseason performances, despite the loss to their arch-rivals.
Their second half against the Saints was almost a very Melbourne thing to do, but their win over North was a great start to the year. Most have them pegged for finals, and despite the their close(ish) call against the Saints, I have no new qualms. Just a few age-old Melbourne-esque doubts.
Great last minute performance against my Dockers, but would’ve been disappointed with their capitulation against Port – especially deep in enemy territory. Darcy Fogarty looks the goods.
A tale of two JLT games. Dreadful in their first against the premiers, they were pretty good against the Cats. A fair to middling effort, ultimately.
Freo would’ve been disappointed with their effort in their game in SA, but they were excellent in dominating their arch-rival yesterday. A ladder resurgence? We can’t get ahead of ourselves, but their ball movement and attacking flair was on point.
Dangerfield’s injury likely the biggest story out of Geelong’s preseason. Match wise, it’s difficult to put too much stock in their first loss, but their second would’ve made the diehards bitter.
Like many other teams, they had one good win, and one loss. They showcased skill in their resurgence in the Hawks game, but they’d be worried by their flat performance after a great first quarter against the Pies. Ultimately, an average preseason.
Always a divisive team, Collingwood impressed with their win over the Dogs, but they fulfilled the doubts of pessimists with their flat performance in JLT 1. It remains to be seen which is the reflection of the real Collingwood.
Their second-half fightback against Melbourne was admirable, but their loss against Carlton was beyond poor. They showed a little, but not enough. Disappointing fortnight.
Optimists will appreciate the two wins, pessimists will note they came against a Geelong side missing their Holy Trinity and Brisbane. Either way, they might not be as bad at this footballing caper as we think.
They were utterly dreadful in JLT2, sure, but won a thriller in JLT1. Most have them pegged for a slide down the ladder, and based on this evidence that’ll probably eventuate.
Two losses, which will sting, but it wasn’t their opponents which were their biggest foes. Third quarters were.
Any doubts about North Melbourne’s immediate potential were probably amplified. A little anonymous in both their games, but they fulfilled the rebuilding stereotype in playing the youth. Good on ’em.
Two losses, and the Lions never particularly looked like winning either. I’d have wanted to see more from a team heading into a potential year of resurgence.
Cat
Roar Guru
Whatever you want to base it on really. I’ve followed power rankings in American sports for decades now. The one thing they all do is set the rankings before the season starts (typically based on how they expect the teams to perform over the course of the year). What this does is when the season starts you have a basis to move teams up or down from those expectations. It smooths out the big swings we’ve seen in previous roar power rankings. For instance if Carlton beat Richmond in round one, with no previous ladder you’d have to have Carlton top ... or near it depending on margin etc. But if you think Carlton will finish say 16th and have Richmond finishing 4th, then maybe Carlton winning that season opener only moves them up a few spots. In my mind you get a more realistic ladder sooner and without the huge swings and obvious what the .... rankings.
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
With the obvious exceptions of Carlton and Geelong, most of these teams are in a relatively realistic order. But yeah, I'll consider doing a ladder like that. I'm guessing you mean more of a ladder predictions type thing? I could do that the Wednesday before the season starts, maybe?
Cat
Roar Guru
You should do a preseason ladder based on expected h&a fishes. That way the movement for week 1 makes more sense
PeteB
Guest
Yeah nice bit of pre-season form from the Blues but don’t think I’d be ranking them 4th best in the competition.
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Interesting question! I'll probably be starting relatively fresh after the first round, but I'll be using some of this pre-season form in considering the order.
Darren
Guest
AD - will these carry over into the season proper or do you start a fresh power ranking after Rd 1?
Bilbo
Guest
The Fosters and Ansett Cup was pretty important to some teams, especially those that hadn't had much success The two grand finals that stand out for me were the 75,000 for Richmond v Essendon and the 66,000 for St.Kilda v Carlton.. However irrelevant these pre season cups seemed, they did mean quite a bit to some supporters
Birdman
Guest
Good job AD - Not sure I'm as worried after losing to the blues - thrashed them in scoring shots, marks inside fwd 50 and played 3 less on the bench which had an impact after half time. Polish up our kicking and Hawks win by plenty.
Leonard
Guest
"Who looked mighty in the JLT Community Series – and who didn’t?" - And w\ho TF cares? Haven't even had the fake-interest to find out WTF 'JLT' means. In a football universe now far, far away, the pre-season competition - in the early 1990s 75,000 turned up at Waverley to see Essendon v Richmond in the GF, but I reckon most spectators remember it 'coz some songstress said 'Hi! tonight I'm gunna sing you some of my new songs" = instant turn-off. Still have no idea who she was nor of any of her songs old or news. And don't care. Still, 75000 was a bonzer turnout. How about this for a pre-season: yes to the AFLW comp while it's finding its legs; yes to a week or two of AFLX; and yes to two weekends of inTRA-club practice games. But no inTER-club pretend matches with their false prefiguring of what we're all waiting for.. Which, for those of us in the 'Too much footy is still not enough' mob, might mean a couple of extra H&A rounds. (Would even be happy with a tradeoff like 15+ minute quarters, but not any silly figure like 17-and-a-half minute ones.
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
In an original draft, I had the Cats above Freo and Essendon. But then Freo decided to play football well for once and I figured Essendon win over your side naturally propelled them above them. I was tempted to put the Bulldogs and maybe even Collingwood above the Cats, but that might've been a leap too far. Yeah, I think that fortnight might be your saving grace. I'd imagine your medical and physio teams will be working like crazy over the next fourteen or so days!
Cat
Roar Guru
TBH, I'd probably rank the Cats a bit lower because heading into the season we've got a number of injury issues already and some key players have not played much preseason game time or even any at all. Hopefully the next fortnight will make a few more available. I won't be surprised if 3 or 4 AFL players play in next weekends VFL preseason game (Joel Selwood did last year after playing in no JLT games for example [TRIVIA: That was also Joel's first and only VFL game of his career]).
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
I more meant it in the way that a loss to Essendon would always be slightly annoying for Cats fans, but I completely understand your sentiment about the game. Power Rankings aren't usually done after JLT anyway, so it is genuinely hard to rank them after "meaningless games", but the forum wanted to try something different this year.
truetigerfan
Guest
Good effort with the rankings albeit with limited and confusing data, AD. Wish you luck for the upcoming season. Carna Tigers!
Cat
Roar Guru
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Ha! I'm pretty sure me taking this gig for the season means I'm certifiably insane. I blogged the Hawks-Dogs game and yeah, it was a very good game. Hawks were in that one for a long while, but their fade out was worrying. I think those concerns were more than amplified with the Carlton loss, as well.
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Yeah, I'll cop that. I might have been a bit harsh on Brisbane, but two losses wherein they don't look like winning either - let's be honest, they weren't ever winning that Suns game - didn't bode well for me. Doesn't mean I think they're going to go horribly in the actual season though! Hodge was hugely important, though, yeah.
Dan, Concord
Guest
AD you have taken on the job of compiling power rankings- very brave of you. Good luck with this. I think you have summed up the rankings well. Being a Hawks fan I'm in 2 minds about their preseason form. I think their game against the Dogs was decent but as you say in the 3rd they switched off. But their game against the Blues was very concerning especially their kicking in general play and their decision making. Whitecross made an incredibly stupid decision which i think was reflective of the team in general. He did the hard work and won a centre clearance only to blaze away and bomb it into the forward line and straight into the arms of a blues defender. I almost threw my phone into the bin! He didn't want to take a second (he had the time and was under no pressure) and try to find someone to kick it to? Then there was O'mera kicking backwards to the CBH only for his kick to be intercepted and a resultant goal. The some of those grubber kicks and fumbles. Is this a team very low on confidence or concentration? They are going to need a massive improvement or God help me but Don might finally be right about where he thinks the Hawks will finish this year.
User
Roar Rookie
Pre season is pre season. Geelong woefully bad against GC, wce woefully bad vs freo. Both had tight games against teams who they'll compete with for the finals.
Paul D
Roar Guru
You are seeing more. It's just other teams also brought more. Sydney was a bad game, I'll give you that, but those matches against the Suns are always a coin toss and that's before you throw the rain into the mix. We looked a much better side when Hodge was on the field, the Suns got a goal pretty much as soon as he went off for a break. He will be so important out there. Can we make him the runner for games he's not playing in? Seriously.