AFL power rankings Round 2: Flagpies already? Scintillating Swans? Faltering Fremantle?

Welcome back to my weekly column, the Power Rankings. In all honest this was an extremely difficult week to write, teams that were good last week (e.g. Melbourne and Port) were awful this week, and the veteran coaches in their new club continued to strut their stuff in front of their very passionate fan bases.

Read on for my power rankings as I give my take on the status of your team in week 2 of the 2023 Australian football league season.

18. Hawthorn Hawks (down one)

We have 18 positions to fill this week so that is entirely why the Hawks have dropped another rung lower. The Hawks are the favourites for the wooden spoon this year, and they’re sorely missing the presence of Mitch Lewis in the forward line as the Swans were able to easily dominate the game in transition leaving the Hawks rueing their decision to cut as aggressively as they did last year.

There were preciously few Hawks flying the flag on Sunday afternoon despite that James Sicily battled manfully as an undersized centre half back with 7 marks among his 25 possessions, furthermore, Will Day continued to win fans with his new move to the midfield winning 26 disposals with 7 clearances.

It is going to be a long long year for the Hawks, I just hope the signature of Harley Reid is worth it at the end of this crucible.

17. Western Bulldogs (down four)

Fool me once shame on me, well that’s twice now. The Bulldogs were optimistic about their performance this year yet they have had two extremely disappointing losses against Melbourne and now St Kilda respectively.

With Rory Lobb out with an ankle injury, and now Jamarra Ugle Hagan taking a leave of absence from the Western Bulldogs football club things are going from bad to worse as notoriously prickly head coach Luke Beveridge flails around for an answer to his sides woes.

The worst statistic I found on Saturday was the tackles, despite losing the overall possession count the Bulldogs were beaten by 13 in tackles which I believe is a stat that correlates accurately to the amount of effort your side is putting in.

The Saints were able to utterly eviscerate the ego of the Bulldogs with their impenetrable defensive zone leaving the Bulldogs listless without an answer to the problems they’ve been confronted with. The Bulldogs now go into an important month in which we will get an accurate reflection of their character as a side.

16.Adelaide Crows (down four)

What is the idiom? “bad kicking is bad football”. The Crows would be ruing lost opportunities after they kicked five goals eight behinds as they were charing across the third quarter after the Tigers took the early dominance.

The Crows would also be worried about Patrick Parnell as he was very clearly left groggy thanks to the Nathan Broad sling tackle. But the Crows failed to take advantage of their normally accurate players like Taylor Walker (2 goals 3 behinds), and Darcy Fogarty (3 goals 1 behind) as they scored 10 goals 16 behinds.

I am honestly left questioning where the Crows are at right now as they were considered to be a smokey to make the eight this year, and the early signs are they’re still going to be a middling side in Matthew Nicks’ contract year.

Shane McAdam  (Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)

15. West Coast Eagles (up two)

It seems the wins are going to be few and far between for the West Coast Eagles this year as they struggle to show a new and improved gamestyle to their rabid fanbase.

It was a better performance this week as they defeated the similarly positioned Giants in front of their home audience. However, I cannot in good conscience move them up this ranking as their still far too reliant on their older talent like Tim Kelly (32 disposals), and Andrew Gaff (22 disposals).

Despite that I believed we could see the signs of some greenshoots with Jake Waterman performing ably as a third tall forward kicking 4 goals from his 16 possessions, and Jarmaine Jones with a new lease on life since his move to Western Australia with 27 disposals.

The Eagles now go into a very compelling clash with the woefully out of form Fremantle Dockers in what is sure to be the most intriguing Derby in some time.

14. Gold Coast Suns (up one)

I will admit, I do have a bias in favour of the Suns. That being said the Suns would be bitterly disappointed with their late game fadeout against the more heavily fancied Bombers resulting in them going down by 28 points when all was said and done.

This was a match of almosts for the Suns the scores were level at the last change but despite that they were inaccurate in front of goal all day leaving themselves unable to take full advantage of the pressure they applied at the coal face.

(Photo by Graham Denholm/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

The Suns would be enraged by the act of poor discipline shown by Charlie Ballard as he struck Matt Guelfi in the back of the head resulting in a certain goal to the Bombers, while they were never able to find an answer to the mosquito fleet Essendon now finds itself in possession of.

The Suns now face a Geelong outfit eager to scratch their first win on the board, but I believe you cannot count the Suns out as they go in front of their home fans for the second time this year eager to reward the faith that has been shown in them.

13. Fremantle Dockers (Down two)

The Dockers are in trouble. Luke Jackson runs the risk of being declared Trent Croad like as the Dockers gave up far too much while they were still far too early in their rebuild. They run the risk of losing Sean Darcy to a trade back east leaving them with even less pieces with which to build the side around.

The answer may lay in Brennan Cox with 1 goal and 3 score involvements from his 20 possessions that may indicate another potential string to his bow.

The primary question for the Dockers remains where are the goals going to come from? the one consistency across both tenures of Ross Lyon and Justin Longmuir is an inability to convert on the scoreboard, they have the defence downpat yet even still their slow methodical ball movement shows an inherent lack of faith in their strongest part of the ground.

The Dockers are in danger of this year escaping them, the one silver lining of the long contract for Luke Jackson is he will be given ample opportunity to make things work either as a forward or a ruck.

12. Greater Western Sydney Giants (down five)

A big big drop for the Giants this week, you could almost say it was a giant drop for them. Now there are 2 reasons for this: 1 is that they have a woeful lack of depth losing to the Essendon VFL outfit by over 80 points, and the second is they lost to the Eagles.

Now my thoughts are with Jacob Wehr who for the second week running was poleaxed by a bump from the opposition leaving him gasping for air.

The Giants were away from home, and could not put their best foot forward despite the efforts of their talismanic captain in Toby Greene with four goals, and Jesse Hogan with an inaccurate 3 goals 3 behinds.

The Giants do have an armada of youthful talent that they can bring in, and they will be sprinkled in and around the length of the season. It’s a steep drop, but it is more that I over rated them last week and this is a precipitous decline.

11.North Melbourne (down one)

Allistair Clarkson has a new lease on life, he has given a license and security by the North Melbourne football club and it shows in the enthusiasm and emotion he brought to the sideline on Saturday evening as the Kangaroos eeked out a controversial win by the slimmest of margins.

On the field, they were ably lead by Luke Davies Uniacke who continues to show how under-rated he has been with 30 disposals and six score involvements, while Harry Sheezel continues to have a dominant first year with 30 disposals this week after 34 last week.

Jack Ziebell and Harry Sheezel of the Kangaroos celebrate. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Liam Shiels continues to be an inspired selection providing veteran leadership to go with his 19 disposals on the weekend, while Nick Larkey continues to add zeroes to his free agency deal next year with another 4 goals to lead the Coleman on 10 goals. North Melbourne would be ecstatic meeting their win total of last year in the second week of this year.

10.Brisbane Lions (up four)

A week is certainly a long time in footy. The Lions were electric on friday night, so electric in fact there was a busted circuit in the Gabba light towers.

Obligatory bad pun out of the way, the Lions were extremely good as they were able to build their victory out of the midfield as Lachie Neale, Will Ashcroft and Josh Dunkley combining for 84 posessions, 26 clearances, and 10 score involvements.

What they really insured was that the Demons would not get first use of the footy out of the midfield, while keeping the Demons midfielders honest when the Demons typically play someone behind the ball.

Additionally, I would be lying if I said I expected Connor McKenna to be this good as soon as he came back from two years in Ireland, he brings an element of anarchy to the Lions half back line streaming forward, selling candy, and being totally unaccountable that may backfire at times but it is enthralling to watch even if you’re an opposition supporter.

9. Geelong Cats (down four)

This match was a shootout at the MCG corral as Jeremy Cameron took the entirety of the Blues on with a momentous six goals, 25 disposals and a match leading 11 score involvements. I think we can reliably say that Jeremy Cameron is the single most important player for the Geelong Cats, and they’re going to need him to perform as they’ve become the first premiers since Hawthorn in 2009 to go 0-2.

Making matters worse the last time the Cats were 0-2 was 2015 when they also missed finals, I’m not saying they’re going to miss finals but I’m not not saying that if you catch my drift.

Tom Hawkins of the Cats celebrates kicking a goal during the 2022 AFL Grand Final match between the Geelong Cats and the Sydney Swans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on September 24, 2022 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/AFL Photos/via Getty Images)

8. Port Adelaide (down five)

As I said about the Lions, a week is an exceptionally long amount of time in football. It is rare that you see a tag of a second year player but the Power knew Nick Daicos would be a threat as the ‘quarterback’ player out the back of the stoppage for the Pies but that is what the Power attempted with Lachie Jones.

Additionally, the Power appeared to struggle with the strength of the Magpies in the air comprehensively losing contested marks (-11) and marks inside 50 (-4).

The Power have long been crying out for a big bullocking key defender as their defence often goes in under sized more often than not. I think the Port Adelaide Power will be in the 5-7th range at the end of the season, but with ten years in the top job Ken Hinkley would be feeling hot under the collar particular with vaunted assistant Josh Carr waiting in the wings.

7. Melbourne Demons (down five)

The Demons had a cursed run this week despite them coming in a rush at the end that does not take away they were missing Christian Salem, Steven May, and Max Gawn from early in the first quarter.

The Demons’ midfield had their colours lowered as they lost the clearance count by 28 and contested possessions by 15. The Demons would be extremely concerned by Brodie Grundy’s inability to tap the ball down to the advantage of their midfielders as they won the hitout count by 9.

The Demons did well to come back in a rush but I believe that this is primarily attributed to the power outage in the lighting towers above the Gabba.

The Demons need to get their personnel back soon otherwise this will be a wasted year as they’ve been pushed into playing another game style that they do not prefer.

6. Richmond Tigers (up three)

That was a prototypical Tigers performance as they built their game on forward half turn overs and pressuring the ball carrier. I still believe that the Tigers still have an unacceptable amount of players older than thirty as they strangely subbed out Dustin Martin in the fourth quarter prompting speculation from the commentary staff as the Crows charged as apart of their late game comeback.

Despite that it was not to be as Samson Ryan joined the rare group of players to kick 3 goals with their first three kicks, even more rare was the fact that he achieved the feat in his second game.

The 206-cm youngster in Samson Ryan shapes as the long term replacement for Jack Riewoldt who is a near certainty to retire at the end of the year.

5. Essendon Bombers (up one)

Yes they’ve only beaten Hawthorn and the Gold Coast, but if you were to tell me six months ago that the Bombers would be 2 and zip I would have called you one eyed. It warms the cockles of my heart to see the Bombers playing with dash and dare with a confidence in their system that simply did not exist under Ben Rutten.

If the match on Sunday took place last year the fair weather Bombers would have lost that game, instead they dug in and ground out an important win that is more reflective of the talent that is on their list.

The Bombers have turned Will Setterfield into an AFL standard player with an enormous 9 tackles, while Kyle Langford showed off his versatility in the forward line with a career high five goals in the forward line. The Bombers have given themselves a very solid springboard with which to challenge the eight this year.

Dyson Heppell and Zach Merrett. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

4. St Kilda (up three)

Man I have egg on my face. I did not expect St Kilda to be this good this early in Ross Lyon’s tenure particularly with the critical abscences in Max King and Tim Membrey who both have commanding prescences in the forward fifty. It has been creative swinging of the magnets moving Zayne Cordy forward to give them a target, while Anthony Caminiti has been a find for the Saints as he has gone from University and playing AFL footy in the space of a month.

I would also be remiss not to mention Jack Steele’s collarbone fracture, I saw the x-ray of the fracture that he played through and it leaves me with the mindset that Jack Steele is the best captain in the league when it comes to putting aside his own needs. St Kilda now face Essendon at the Melbourne Cricket Ground this saturday for the Saint Kilda 150th Anniversary game.

3. Carlton Blues (up six)

They finally won a close one. After a string of close losses and a draw the Blues managed to grind out a win in front of their faithful at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The Blues would be substantially better for the run particularly given the confidence they gained both from winning the game, and beating the reigning premier. Charlie Curnow was his usual magnificent with five goals and 9 score involvements, while Blake Acres was splendid running down the wing racking up 26 disposals, and 8 score involvements in a prototypical wingman’s game.

I think we can safely say that the Blues are going to challenge at the business end of the season, the only question in my mind is how high they go?

2. Sydney Swans (up one)

No Buddy no problems. The Swans continue to proove all the doubters wrong, and in the abscence of their spearhead in Lance Franklin it fell to the lesser lights in Logan McDonald (5 goals) and Joel Amartey (4 goals) to put the horrendous Hawks to sword in an 81-point demolishing.

Furthermore, the young Swans continue to show that last year’s grand final is naught but a bad memory with Callum Mills continuing to lead from the guts with 28 disposals, while Errol Gulden also showed why he’s the steal of the 2020 draft with 28 disposals of his own along with seven score involvements.

The most heart-warming stat for Swans fan is despite missing their focal point in attack the Swans were able to take 18 marks inside fifty to go with 13 contested marks showing that even without Lance Franklin the Swans are building for another flag tilt.

Logan McDonald of the Swans  (Photo by Will Russell/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

1.Collingwood Magpies

I am audibly sighing as I write this on Sunday afternoon. But the Collingwood Magpies are the team to beat at the moment, and if they keep it up they will win the flag in a canter finally equalling Carlton and Essendon on 16 flags.

It was the Daicos show, either Nick or Josh Daicos would get the Port Adelaide Power on Saturday afternoon as they made the Power look second rate with 4 goals, 58 posessions, and 1235 meters gained as the Magpies played an electric brand of footy that premiership fancies are going to struggle to match.

It appears that the close victories of last year are a distant memory as the Magpies gear up for a flag challenge this year as the Collingwood Magpies were able to shellack the Port Adelaide football club at the coalface winning contested possession by a huge 57.

When the Magpies are playing such an attractive brand of football no opposition can stand up against them, and you can’t help but root for their style of play to become the trend across the competition as they truly represent the Neil Craig school of coaching.

Well there you have folks. Do you agree with me? Leave your thoughts in the comments below and I will do my best to respond in a timely manner.