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Reaching the mid-point of the AFL season, statements are starting to be made.
The two most resounding results of the year so far have happened in the last two weeks – West Coast obliterated Richmond in Round 9, and Melbourne trounced Adelaide in Alice Springs on the weekend.
Last year’s grand finalists were powerless to stop the rising stars of 2018.
For the Eagles, it was just as impressive for them to back up the win over the Tigers with a win on the road against Hawthorn. The Hawks are in a bit of a slump after an encouraging 3-1 start to the season, but provided a stern test for West Coast on the day.
It would have been an easy game for the Eagles to drop – a game and percentage clear on top of the ladder, a psychological drop off after such a big build-up to the previous week’s top of the ladder clash would have been understandable. Adam Simpson’s men played the best football of the season against Richmond, which is often hard to back up from mentally.
West Coast have now won three games in Melbourne this year, plus have taken down Greater Western Sydney at Spotless Stadium. In fact, they are unbeaten outside of Perth, and will hit their Round 12 bye at 11-1 with a stranglehold on a home final in Week 1 of September.
The Eagles’ kicking game has pierced through opposition teams, moving the ball long, flat and hard. Switching into this mode once they win the ball back through interception, which has long been a strength, means their opposition is left floundering when out of position after the turnover.
They also have confidence their forwards will win any one-on-one battle, or at least break even. Jack Darling has led the way in this regard with a career year, complemented by able support in the air and on the ground. West Coast’s piercingly quick ball movement has given opposition defenders no room for error.
Jack Darling (AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy)
Melbourne’s brutalising of Adelaide had similar traits. The ball movement was swift and clinical. The Demons are mentally deciding to move the ball quickly, trusting that an option will be there, and once the decision is made, the ball is kicked with absolute penetration.
Melbourne’s forward-line is working in tandem like few others seen this decade, with almost every player between six foot one and six foot three, all of them rangy and athletic with great hands, as comfortable on the ground as they are in the air, happy to play up the field or deep forward.
Mitch Hannan, Tim Smith and Bayley Fritsch have played less than 40 games between them, but all are mature-age players that know their games and are playing their roles. Jesse Hogan and Jake Melksham are playing the best football of their careers, and Tom McDonald could probably be put in that basket too.
What’s enabling these players to be so deadly is the slicing ball movement of the Demons.
Pressure was the buzzword of the off-season as Richmond took it to unprecedented levels in their run through September, and the question was what would be the answer to it?
The answer is kicking.
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The kicked ball has always travelled faster than any player can run, but Melbourne and West Coast have taken it to new levels by ensuring the ball is leaving the boot quicker than ever before, with a premium placed on length and penetration.
Pressure relies on numbers around the ball carrier, forcing the opposition to handball to a player that can also be pressured, and so on. If a kick happens, it is often high and slow, to a defence set up to intercept it.
But you can’t pressure what you can’t catch.
Kicking is the secret sauce that the Eagles and Demons have unlocked in their rise up the ladder, and everything about it is fast. Fast decisions, fast from hand to foot, and most importantly, as fast as possible off the boot, getting the ball from point A to point B in no time.
People within the football industry will tell you that the game evolves every 6-8 weeks through a season, and it looks like it has again.