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Opinion
The most disappointing aspects of Round 3 were the thrashings handed out to North Melbourne in the last Saturday game, and – to a lesser extent – the West Coast Eagles in the last Sunday game.
In all other games, the margin was less than six goals and this amounts to little more than a run-on in these days of Kamikaze footy.
AFL footy is now – generally speaking – more exciting and even than ever and every supporter can look forward to each game with an expectation of their team being competitive.
The only things that impact a team’s ability to be competitive in the 2020s not able to be solved by salary caps and drafting are injuries, form reversals, suspensions, club morale and the ability to recognise and recruit the right talent.
Sure, these one-sided affairs may be one-off and the Kangaroos have shown enough ability to already record a win, and are well ahead of the winless teams Port Adelaide, West Coast Eagles and Essendon.
But – if the punters are any judge – North Melbourne and the Gold Coast Suns are rank outsiders to even finish higher than 13th in a season that is only three weeks old.
Although both Hawthorn and Collingwood lost on the weekend, both were in with a chance against higher rated opponents and appear likely to perform at a level above that predicted for them at the start of the season.
Adelaide, too, may perform above bottom-six level if their young players can keep up the performance shown so far.
That leaves Port Adelaide, West Coast and Essendon to kick start their season in Round 4.
Port Adelaide have the unenviable task of beating the red-hot favourites Melbourne, who have shown so far that back-to-back premierships are well within their capabilities.
COVID-19 is still the main curse of the Eagles but all but one of their goals on Sunday were kicked by the club’s top 100 goal kickers.
Nic Naitanui matched the goal tally of Ross Glendinning. So a better performance is expected against Collingwood this weekend.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Essendon also have a chance to redeem themselves after playing three leading premiership contenders in the past three weeks and gradually regaining players back.
The key games of Round 4, which will go some away to sorting out the contenders from the pretenders, are Geelong and Brisbane, Hawthorn and St Kilda, and Richmond and the Western Bulldogs.
While all the other games should have a clear favourite, no doubt there will be upsets, close games and blow outs to create more confusion as the season unfolds.
Other personal player highlights for the round were Braydon Preuss lining up for the first time at the Giants after stints at both North Melbourne and Melbourne, Lewis Young getting his first game at Carlton after 24 games in five years at the Bulldogs, and three debutants playing successful first games: Neil Erasmus (Fremantle), Jordan Boyd (Carlton) and Reef McInnes (Collingwood).
Among the goal kickers, AFL top 100 goal kickers at Hawthorn Luke Breust and Jack Gunston both kicked two goals and for Breust it meant he moved up the ladder, passing Gary Ablett Junior’s total of 445.
At St Kilda, Dan Butler kicked his 50th goal and teammate Callum Wilkie – after 66 games – kicked his first goal.
At Collingwood, Nick Daicos kicked his first goal, while at Essendon, Tex Wanganeen did the same, making two legendary fathers (Peter Daicos and Gavin Wanganeen) happy with their sons’ efforts, but not happy with the result of the game they were watching.
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