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Opinion
Welcome back to the AFL Season. That was certainly a warm one.
It’s fantastic to have footy back in all its glory. This round had it all – upsets, draws and fans wearing their heart on their sleeves as they sweated it out in the sun.
Here are the opening Power Rankings for the long season ahead.
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They’re the ‘winners’ of the Harley Reid cup. That is to say they have earned favoritism for the wooden spoon. They have the youngest list in the competition and they cut aggressively at the end of last season, and no amount of swing the magnets changes the ugliness of the result on Sunday.
The Hawks were comprehensively beaten by the third-youngest side in the competition as Essendon kicked the second highest score of the weekend.
When you lose to the side that came last last year it is expected that you will not rate highly this year. However, the match on Saturday revealed the folly of Adam Simpson’s management decisions where the older heads of West Coast failed to fire. The Eagles had a dramatically older side than their opposition and their veterans failed to fire against the Kangas and as a result they earned the 2nd lowest rung on this ladder.
They have the fifth oldest list in the competition, and they have allowed time to completely pass them by as they play an outdated and anachronistic style.
You lose a game like that when it’s expected you will challenge for the flag this year. It is an inauspicious sign for Chris Fagan and his players that even with some skeptical umpiring in the first half (free kick count was 21 to 5 at half time) the Lions were unable to capitalize on their accurate kicking to get a favorable outcome on the scoreboard. The Lions were left at sea without a viable anchor defender outside of Harris Andrews.
The Lions would be asking questions of their side after they were shellacked in the second half to lose as they turned the ball over more than the Power despite have 161 less possessions.
The Bulldogs took a pretty big risk in this game playing a four-pronged tall forward line and it did not pay off as they went down to the Melbourne Demons. Adding insult to injury was the uncertainty around Liam Jones who was thought to be the piece that could resolve ended the night injured.
Additionally the Bulldogs would be concerned with the inaccuracy that plagued them as they ended Saturday night with less goals than behinds with Jamarra Ugle-Hagan butchering the ball in front of goal. It may be a small sample space to work with but there are concerns with the Bulldogs and that sees them earn this lowly rank in these rankings.
Jackson Macrae of the Bulldogs remonstrates with Kysaiah Pickett of the Demons. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
Inaccurate. That is the best way to summarise the first match of the Crows. With two goals five behinds Izak Rankine typified the Crows performance as they showed positive signs of growth yet failed to capitalise on the glut of opportunities that the Giants provided them with.
Now the hellish temperatures in Western Sydney are something of a mitigating factor which is why they are not lower, but they allowed the Giants to dominate the latter half of the proceedings.
Freo is not the way to go, it would seem. They are supposed to be challenging for the top four. Justin Longmuir will face the meat grinder that is West Australian press this week as he absolutely refused to make any changes to the make up of his side as St Kilda romped away to kick the last five goals of the match.
The most glaring statistic outside of the low score was the fact that Freo had more inside fifties than points that were scored. Freo will need to learn how to kick a winning score as they’ve gone far too defensive.
Jack Ziebell and Harry Sheezel of the Kangaroos celebrate. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
Now of all the four coaches in new clubs this year they all experienced wins first up. Alastair Clarkson was no exception as he had his charges playing a smooth moving brand of footy typified by Harry Sheezel playing a new role on the half-back flank with 34 disposals (the most on debut in decades).
The Clarkson effect is in full swing and it remains to be seen if the Kangas can be a side of consequence this year. You can’t help but be happy for the Roos this week.
It was clangers galore (154) in a dour kick-off to the season. Close games of footy are not necessarily better games of footy as an unstoppable force hit an immovable object.
The Blues held on to salvage a draw from the jaws of a victory as Richmond were unable to take advantage of their glut of inside fifties to beat a Carlton side that they have had the wood over in the recent history.
Jack Silvagni and Jesse Motlop of the Blues celebrate a goal. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
It may have been a dour game but Fremantle were supposed to challenge the upper reaches of the eight this year.
The Saints played in a blue-collar style as they ran out leaders in a dour and depressing affair (only 17 goals were kicked between both sides) but Ross Lyon would have an enormous grin on his face as he revealed that he could achieve full and total buy-in from his charges.
That was a fantastic win by the Giants. In the furnace of Sydney Olympic Park the Giants came back from 31 points down to run down an inaccurate Adelaide Crows outfit. Toby Greene was enormous with nine scoring shots and four goals and four behinds, while Tom Green was titanic in the midfield with 37 possessions.
The Giants are going to surprise some sides this year, while it is too early to call them as finals fancies they’ve loaded up at the draft and could have some of their gun draftees debut as early this week when they face West Coast in Perth.
The Bombers ended a round on top of the ladder for the first time since 2013, and ended round one on top of the ladder for the first time since 2011.
The Dons were back to their smooth moving best against an exceptionally young Hawks outfit as they gave themselves the best springboard for the oncoming season with 13 individual goal kickers. Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti coming back onto the ground and kicking his first goal in 588 days was inspirational.
The Cats were the walking wounded on Friday night losing Tom Stewart early, along with Sam De Koning for long periods of the game. It was the most compelling football played all weekend as both sides scored above 100 points yet it was only the superior fitness of the Magpies that saw them win out.
They lost absolutely no fans on Friday night. The Cats would be ruing their decision to select players that were under cooked as the Pies out ran them inevitably allow the Pies to get on top, however, thanks to their draft period last year they have an obscene amount of depth.
If there was any sign of a grand final hang over it was not seen on Saturday evening as the Swans ran out 49 point victors over a lackluster Gold Coast Suns outfit. All things considered the Swans probably should have won by more as they controlled the ball (+51 in disposals) and held the Suns off of obtaining the ball at all (+33 in marks).
It was the young Swans that drove the victory with Chad Warner leading the way with 30 disposals being able assisted by Errol Gulden and Dylan Stephens to build towards another top eight charge.
Port smashed the Lions up and down the Adelaide oval through their strength in the air with a gargantuan 24 marks inside fifty.
It was the success of the young guns with Jason Horne-Francis, Connor Rozee and Zak Butters dominating at the coal face to be the conduit for the Power against the hapless Lions.
Brodie Grundy of the Demons in action. (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
Grawndy has been a success so far freeing Maxy Gawn up to intercept and run all around the ground as he sees fit. Max Gawn and Brodie Grundy combined for 3 goals, 38 disposals and 38 hitouts as they gave their players first use out of the middle.
The Demons were able to capitalise on their dominance marking the ball inside 50 17 times allowing Ben Brown and Kysaiah Pickett to kick four goals apiece, and Pickett’s bump notwithstanding the game was an optimistic performance for the Dees.
This pains me but the Magpies were electric on Friday evening. It’s a little early to call ‘flagpies’ however they didn’t put a foot wrong. Now my thoughts are with Jeremy Howe and the broadcasters should be applauded for not replaying his gruesome injury ad nauseum but the Pies won a war of attrition with explosive pace in a high scoring last quarter. Bobby Hill was huge with three goals alongside Jordan De Goey who has a new lease on life with three majors as well. It was also a vintage performance from the Daicoses – Josh and Nick – and Scotty Pendlebury as they gave their forwards first use as the clean and crisp disposal was able to defeat the premiers.
Well there you have it folks, leave your thoughts in the comments below and I will do my best to respond in a timely fashion.
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