The 2018 AFL season has finally begun, and as usual the first round offered plenty to talk about. Sure, we could be cautious, but where’s the fun in that? Here’s my quick takes from Round 1.

WA clubs missed the boat not throwing money at Lance Franklin
It was only fitting that Perth’s big new stadium should be christened in it’s first AFL match by Lance Franklin, the best WA-born player of the era, guiding his club to victory with an electric bag of eight.

In what was a close affair until the Swans pulled away late – and don’t worry Perthicans, I’ll say lots of nice things about the Eagles a little later on – there can be no doubt that Buddy was the difference between win and loss.

But while watching the game I couldn’t help but think it was a bit of a shame that the club in question wasn’t one from the state he calls home. For the occasion alone, how great would that have been?

I recall that when it first became clear Franklin would look at free agency there was speculation that both Fremantle and West Coast would be in the mix.

Ross Lyon publicly denied that the Dockers were targetting Franklin early on, and Sharrod Wellingham – a former housemate and great mate of Franklin’s who had moved to the Eagles that year – denied reports they’d agreed to both play for West Coast.

Who knows if a serious play for Franklin’s services would have changed the eventual result. By all reports, the machinations that moved him to Sydney were in play well before anyone else wised up.

Still, I’m sure there are WA footy fans at Optus Stadium tonight who watched Franklin in full flight and thought to themselves gee, if only.

I know I did.

Can’t argue with the facts, Port’s new recruits pack a punch
I’ve been a sceptic about just how much Port Adelaide’s big three recruits can do to improve the team’s fortunes in 2018 on more than one occasion, but man… I love being proven wrong.

I’m not entirely swayed just yet, but it’s safe to say that Round 1 could barely have gone more perfectly to script for those spinning the wheels at Alberton – and it was orgasmic for the fans.

I’ll admit to a cheeky little snigger when Jack Watts sent his first shot on goal into the post but he was brilliant thereafter and finished with three goals. Steven Motlop kicked two and both were stupendous.

Tom Rockliff had a pretty average day at the office but it’s not that much of a surprise given his limited preparation. He’ll be better in weeks to come, and still managed to add a goal.

At the same time Riley Bonner probably earned himself a Rising Star nomination, the Power midfield did a brilliant job of containing Nat Fyfe and Brad Hill, Todd Marshall in his fourth career game kicked a bag.

As much as I’ve been optimistic about Fremantle in the preseason, they were rubbish. And Port Adelaide beating a rubbish side is nothing new, so let’s not get carried away just yet.

There’s so much reason for Port Adelaide fans to be excited though. And as a neutral, I’m love watching them – they play a great brand of footy.

Quality sides Sydney, Essendon and Geelong are three of their next four opponents, and I’m looking forward to finding out whether their new faces can help them beat the best.

When Tom McDonald returns, it should be as a defender
The match between Melbourne and Geelong at the MCG was a perfect fixture to open the season and remind us all after a long break just what an incredible game football can be.

It’s a shame that there had to be a loser as both sides played scintillating football at times and in the end it was only a lapse in the second quarter that kept Melbourne from opening the year with a win.

It looked like a game played between two top-four teams and at the end of the year I suspect the finishing positions of both sides will reflect that.

Simon Goodwin said after that match that, despite making some unusual calls, Melbourne hadn’t cost themselves the game at the selection table.

I agree, because it’s absolutely a match that the team named to play could have won – and should have. Max Gawn had no business missing his last-minute shot on goal and the Dees will be disappointed to have let four points slip.

That said, I’d be surprised if Angus Brayshaw and Dom Tyson don’t get a gig next week after being emergencies only for this one. With Jack Viney already a massive out, it was a misstep to handicap the midfield even further.

The Demons were also missing Tom McDonald from their forward line setup and will be looking forward to his return. But when he comes back, it should be at the other end of the ground.

Jake Lever made his debut for the club today but had little impact trying to play as the team’s lynchpin defender. It’s just not him, and Geelong shut him down superbly.

He’s more an Alex Rance type who needs a lockdown David Astbury type partner in crime so that he has a license to run off his man, intercept, and create.

McDonald would be perfect for this role. He’s played most of his career as a key defender before moving forward last year and threatened All Australian status at times in that end of the ground.

An impressive performance from Cam Pedersen who kicked two goals filling in as Jesse Hogan’s second banana should give Melbourne confidence that they can play McDonald in the backline and still have an effective forward setup.

Tom Mitchell comments come back to bite Buckley, again
Collingwood, as an organisation, would be well advised to think a bit more before they open their mouths.

Adam Treloar’s infamous comments about Richmond… Eddie McGuire’s longstanding history of public gaffes… and Nathan Buckley, the man with a deathwish, who seems intent on coining his own obituary.

In May last year he had this to say about Hawthorn’s ball-winning wunderkind Tom Mitchell:

“He just finds a way and keeps getting the pill… if I said he wasn’t hurting us a lot, would that make sense?”

Mitchell clearly took offence. When the sides played later in 2017, he gathered 35 touches, seven clearances and kicked two goals as the Hawks dealt Collingwood a four-goal loss.

Revenge, like desert, is a dish best served cold, and also like desert, it’s a lot of fun to serve it more than once.

In that spirit, Tom Mitchell broke the all-time record for most disposals in a match on Saturday night with 54, and had nine clearances as well.

Look – there’s no question that Mitchell’s gargantuan disposal numbers probably tend to overinflate his value a little at times, and teams would probably clamp down tighter on him if they were more worried about his impact.

But getting your hands on the ball fifty times is getting your hands on the ball fifty times. He’s the best at what he does, and it’d be silly to disrespect that.

Nic Nat’s back and I can’t believe I ever doubted him
After he failed to make an appearance in either of West Coast’s JLT Community Series matches and had only half a WAFL trial game as his lead-in, I was staggered to see Adam Simpson make the decision to play Nic Naitanui in Round 1.

At the time, it seemed a bit desperate – perhaps an overreaction to their awful effort in the final preseason match, hoping to give gans some reason to get excited.

I expected a lukewarm, finding-my-feet performance at best, and reinjury at worst.

No. I was wrong. Nic Nat is back, baby, and he is still bloody good.

He and Scott Lycett split the ruck duties up against a former teammate in Callum Sinclair and they slaughtered him – West Coast won the count 66-17, half of those coming from Naitanui.

You’d think a bloke who hasn’t played footy in a year and a half might be a bit cautious around the contest? Nope. Eight contested possessions, four clearances, two contested marks.

He topped it off with a goal in the third-quarter that was crucial in the context of the game, and has a goal assist on his record as well.

Nic, I apologise. Never doubt a superstar. I’ve learned my lesson.

So long as I’m handing out apologies, too, one is owed to the Eagles, who significantly outstripped my expectations.

I’ve probably been as pessimistic about them as anyone this preseason, no small part of that being due to my doubts about how much influence Naitanui would have this year.

In the end they just didn’t have it in them to match it with Sydney side that many expect to be top-four bound. And kudos to Sydney on the win, they were the only team to travel interstate and get the four points this week, something that is always very hard to do in Round 1.

But there’s no doubt West Coast performed far better than I was expecting them too and I’m really excited to see if they can carry it over into the rest of the season to come.

Naitanui was the phoenix reborn but the side was almost best typified by veteran forward Mark LeCras, who came close to being delisted last year but has clearly done a mountain of work to revive his career over the summer.

His three goals were great, but perhaps even more impressive was a game-high (tied with Luke Parker) nine tackles – an effort level that will have Adam Simpson grinning from ear to ear.

Carlton have the No.1 talent from the 2015 draft, but it’s not Jacob Weitering
The 2015 AFL draft class has been in the game for two years now and already a number of future superstars have emerged from that pack.

Callum Mills won the Rising Star in his first year and has already played in a grand final. Ryan Burton maybe should’ve won it last year. Clayton Oliver would’ve been a reasonable inclusion in the 2018 All Australian side. Eric Hipwood is freaky-good.

But the best of them all may well be the man taken at pick No.12, Charlie Curnow, plying his trade alongside brother Ed at the Carlton Blues.

Curnow’s draft story is one we’ll remember for a while. Just barely before the draft he refused a breath test, and the breaking news led to him falling further down the order than many predicted he otherwise would.

Melbourne in particular were linked to him a lot at the pick where they ultimately drafted Sam Weideman. Weideman still promises plenty, but they’d have some regrets.

Carlton backed the kid in, and fair to say they have been massively rewarded. His endurance, lined up against his height and power, might give him the highest cieling of the lot.

As for the man they picked at No.1 on that fateful night, Jacob Weitering at this stage probably couldn’t be counted among the top five players of the draft.

He was in poor form on Thursday and if we’re being brutally honest, since his impressive debut season in 2016, he’s gone backwards.

It was always a risky decision to pick a tall defender at the first overall selection. There’s a reason clubs virtually never do it.

Of course it’s far too early to be digging boots into the young lad. He’s a tall player coming into his third year and has plenty of time yet to find his feet and develop.

Even if Weitering only ever becomes a good-not-great player – a fate not at all uncommon among No.1 draft picks – Carlton fans will be able to celebrate the superstar they snaffled in the teens.

Geelong scary-good… and they still have Patrick Dangerfield to come back
For a side that was missing one of the two best players in the league because of a hamstring injury and then lost a crucial player like Harry Taylor early in the match, Geelong played marvelous football.

All of our preseason handwringing about whether or not Gary Ablett would be fit to line up in Round 1, or how much impact he would have, looked well off the mark in the end.

Only two members of the Holy Trinity were on field but between them Joel Selwood and Ablett had a casual 78 disposals, ten clearances, ten inside 50s, a goal and two goal assists.

Next week they get back a guy who fell just short of averaging 30 touches and two goals last year. Bugger me. How is that even legal?

The Cats were well-benefitted by the fact that players like Jordan Murdoch, Brandan Parfitt, Cam Guthrie and debutants Tim Kelly and Lachlan Fogarty all stepped up to play a role.

And this was no case of downhill skiing where average players look good against awful opposition. Melbourne offered Geelong a massive challenge. Beating them is, at the very least, a reasonable-sized scalp.

I tipped Geelong to win the flag this year on the basis that their star trio might just be too good to stop, with a bit of help from some of their new inclusions.

I’m feeling pretty good about it.

Next week, all going well, all three will play together for the first time. I’ll be down in Melbourne for the long weekend and can’t wait to see football history live in person.

Have we seen the best of Betts?
There’s probably not a player in the AFL over the past few years who offers more excitement than Eddie Betts. Neck and neck with Lance Franklin, certainly.

He’s not just exciting, though – he’s prolific. He kicked 63 goals in 2015 – and then 75 in 2017. Virtually unheard of for a small forward in the modern game.

His 2018 season started off in simillar form too, as he kicked 19 goals from his first five games. But after that, things began to tail off a bit.

From Round 11 through to the grand final, he only had two occassions when he kicked more than two goals – four in a Showdown against Port Adelaide, three in a final against GWS.

Then on Friday night he was held goalless at Etihad. You might say that it’s too much to read into a single game, but in 94 games for Adelaide it’s only the seventh time he’s failed to kick one.

It’s true of most 31-year-olds in the AFL that their best football is probably behind them. I’d really like to hope that’s not the case for Eddie. Even if it is, he’ll no doubt wind back the clock every now and then, and we’ll still love watching him.

It’s got to be a concern for Adelaide though. They lost Charlie Cameron – who was brilliant on debut for Brisbane this week – and if Betts isn’t at his best, they’ll really lack that small forward dimension in an already top-heavy forward line.

Fingers crossed I’m worrying about nothing here – but I don’t think I am.

Brad Scott’s contract extension was the wrong decision
The unusual conditions in Saturday night’s match at Cazaly’s Stadium offered the coaches a chance perhaps to have more of an impact on the game than normal as it called for significantly more tactical insight.

Under those conditions, a 180-game veteran of the senior coaching ranks in Brad Scott found himself outdone by the new kid on the block coaching his first AFL game, Stuart Dew.

First of all, massive respect to Dew and to the Gold Coast Suns on the victory. They adapted to the conditions better as they changed and were harder for longer. They deserved every inch of the win.

But frankly it’s an embarrassment that North should come up second best in a situation like that.

So much of what Scott preaches is winning the ball, and he seems to dream of fielding a side built of 22 slow nuggety inside midfielders – but the Kangaroos were smashed in this respect.

-19 clearances, -20 contested possessions, -12 tackles against a side whose engine room is comprised largely of players that other clubs moved on. Unforgivable.

I’m not one to call for the sacking of my team’s coach after a Round 1 loss. But it’s fair to say that the hastily-made decision to extend Scott until the end of 2020 last year was a bad call.

The jury is still very much out on whether or not he’s the man to rebuild a new North Melbourne era (although many North fans would tell you the jury has come back and results are not kind), and yet the club has committed to sticking with him for another three years at least.

If he’s not up to the task, some real damage could be done to the foundations of this young group by persisting with him that long.

Instead, he ought to be feeling the heat of knowing that his contract is up at the end of the year. I appreciate that a lot of clubs preach stability these days, but sometimes it’s a good thing to be under the pump.

Pressure, after all, is what turns coal into diamonds.

Beveridge’s best 22 baffles
Luke Beveridge is one of the AFL’s more enigmatic coaches. He’s unorthodox in the way he does things and that was represented pretty well in the team he selected for Round 1, and how he played it.

First off keep in mind that the Dogs have lost a lot of experience in their backline since last year. Bob Murphy and Matthew Boyd are gone, Dale Morris will miss most or all of the season.

And yet Beveridge opted to move his captain and an All Australian defender in Easton Wood to the forward line, and as for the mature key defender Jackson Trengove who was picked up via free agency last year, who knows – he was barely sighted.

This was, of course, done at the expense of playing either Tom Boyd or Josh Schache, former No.1 and 2 draft picks who are genuine key forwards and chewing up about 10-15 per cent of the Bulldogs’ total salary cap between them. They’re not injured.

Wood offered nothing as a forward and was eventually moved back to defense. Trengove only had one intercept for the day, four disposals and 14 hitouts as part of a bizarre three-man ruck rotation that struggled to break even against Rory Lobb rucking solo.

The net result wasn’t pretty. The Bulldogs were smashed by 82 points and finish the round in last place. Bad luck added injury to insult – Tom Liberatore will miss the season with an ACL, the second of his career.

We’ve all called Luke Beveridge a coaching genius at least once along the way. He sees things other people don’t and has made some seriously sagacious moves in his short time in the game.

That said, I can’t help but wonder sometimes how we’d rate him if the Bulldogs had bowed out in an elimination final in 2016 as was widely tipped, instead of going on to win history’s most unlikely premiership.

Because for every good mark on his record, there’s one that’s not necesarilly bad, but just… odd. Hard to understand.

I look forward to seeing how he responds to such a damning result this week. I love watching the cogs turn in his brain and trying to puzzle him out. One thing is for sure – he’ll raise eyebrows either way.

John Worsfold is right to play Cale Hooker in the forward line
I saw plenty of Essendon fans in the preseason putting forward the argument that the Bombers should return Cale Hooker to the backline, where he has previously been an All Australian, in 2018.

And I’ll admit to being a little enamoured with at times. Hooker and Michael Hurley would probably be the best key defender pairing in the league.

However after watching Hooker in action on Friday night I don’t think you can disagree that keeping him in the forward line for a second straight year was the right decision by John Worsfold.

He’s one of the great contested marks in the game and kicked three goals in a match that Essendon only won by 12 points. If he’d been at the opposite end of the ground, odds are they would have fallen short.

For now, definitely, the right call is to keep Hooker up forward. It gives Essendon a wonderful mix of dangerous tall and small options that stacks up against any side in the league.

That said, if Jake Stringer – who wasn’t bad, but just not able to shake off opponents when you’d think he should – hits peak form, then it might be the right time to reopen the discussion.