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Opinion
Round 5 is the first time the AFL will have ‘Gather Round’, which should make for plenty of entertaining footy. Each team has a player that can make a difference.
Adelaide:
Jordan Dawson is a player of immense talent. It will be a big test for him and a great challenge, playing against an unbeaten Carlton team. He can expose the opposition as he showed in Round 3 when he won the Showdown Medal, despite having just 18 disposals. In Round 4 he polled seven Coaches’ votes, in a game where he featured playing partly in defence and partly in midfield. He finished the game with 27 disposals and six tackles and the most metres gained of any player on the field with 598. Hopefully, he can continue his good run of form and Matthew Nicks can find a balance between playing him in defence and in the midfield.
Carlton:
Nic Newman will probably get the job of negating the influence of Izak Rankine, which is a challenge Newman will be up for. In Round 3 he was assigned the role of curtailing the impact that Toby Greene had on the game and he kept Greene to one goal along with five disposals. Newman polled eight Coaches’ votes that Round, which indicates that he can limit the influence of arguably the most dangerous small forward in the game in Rankine.
Fremantle:
James Aish has been a bit of a barometer for Fremantle in season 2023. The more disposals that he accumulates the better Fremantle seem to perform. In Round 1 and Round 4, he had just 35 disposals in both games combined, which Fremantle went on to lose by a combined total of 55 points. Contrastingly, in Round 2 and Round 3, he had 61 disposals in both games combined. In Round 2, Fremantle lost by one point and in Round 3 they won by 41 points.
Gold Coast:
Jack Lukosius needs to be consistent, as he needs to have more of an influence on games, as he did in the only win of the season for Gold Coast in Round 3 against Geelong. He only had 13 disposals in this game, but kicked five goals and polled nine Coaches’ votes. He needs to bring the same intensity against Fremantle in Round 5 to ensure he has an impact on the game.
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Richmond:
Samson Ryan will most probably have to shoulder the ruck load with Toby Nankervis and Ivan Soldo unavailable due to injury. He will be up against Peter Ladhams of Sydney who is also only playing due to his team’s number one ruckman being injured, in Tom Hickey. No one likes to see anyone injured, but with injury comes opportunity and Ryan will be looking to grab it with both hands. He has also shown that he can hit the scoreboard with two goals in Richmond’s five-point loss to the Western Bulldogs in Round 4.
Sydney:
Logan McDonald has kicked at least one goal in all four of the games this season. He will get an opportunity in Round 5 against Richmond, probably matched up against Noah Balta to kick a few goals, as Lance Franklin won’t be playing due to a knee injury. In the only game Franklin has been absent from so far this season, McDonald kicked five goals in Round 2, in a resounding win for Sydney against Hawthorn.
Brisbane:
Joe Daniher played well in Round 4 against Collingwood as he kicked two goals, accumulated 20 disposals and provided a contest. It’s a danger game for Brisbane, as North Melbourne are a different kettle of fish in season 2023, with Alastair Clarkson as coach. Daniher needs to bring the intensity that he brought against Collingwood against North Melbourne.
North Melbourne:
Darcy Tucker showed that he has the potential to be in the best 22 for North Melbourne, as he amassed 24 disposals against Carlton in Round 4. It was the first game that Tucker has been in the starting 22 as he was a sub in Round 3, where he kicked his first goal for the club. He will be up against Hugh McCluggage, Will Ashcroft and Jarrod Berry at times, but he should be up for the challenge.
Essendon:
Jake Stringer will need to be at his best if Essendon are to perform to their optimum level and be a chance of an upset win against Melbourne. That doesn’t mean he has to do anything out of the ordinary, he needs to disrupt the opposition’s defence and most of all needs to kick straight. In Round 1 against St Kilda, he only managed one goal and eight disposals and Essendon lost. In his only other game this season in Round 4 against GWS, he had 15 disposals and kicked four goals and six behinds, in a 13-point Essendon win, which would’ve been more had Stringer kicked straight.
Melbourne:
Kysaiah Pickett is a livewire that has X-factor and has added another string to his bow in season 2023 as he can play midfield. He has kicked six goals in two games. It’s difficult to find a match-up for him. It will be interesting to see who Essendon chose to negate his influence. He kicked two goals from seven scoring shots in Round 4 against West Coast so he will need to improve his goal-kicking in Round 5. Melbourne proved that they need him as in Round 2 they lost by 11 points to Brisbane, in a game that Pickett was unavailable for and probably would’ve won had he not been suspended. He has averaged the most score involvements of any player in the competition with an average of 11.00 score involvements on average.
Port Adelaide:
Jeremy Finlayson proved what a pivotal player he is for Port Adelaide as he kicked three goals and amassed 18 disposals. He is the third tall forward, with Charlie Dixon and Todd Marshall being the other two. It means that Finlayson may be difficult to find a match-up for, as the Western Bulldogs come into the game without Alex Keath.
Western Bulldogs:
Tim English has averaged 25.50 hit-outs per game and remarkably he has averaged 20.2 disposals per game. Incredibly, he has averaged 5.2 tackles per game and should prove too mobile around the ground for Scott Lycett. English is arguably the best ruckman in the competition in the season so far.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Geelong:
Mitch Duncan made a massive difference in his first game of the season. He amassed 31 disposals and had 439 metres gained. He is a player that Geelong needs to perform, as they lost the opening three games while he was unavailable due to injury. He gets the ball on the outside as he has averaged the most uncontested possession of any player in the competition with 22. He will need to play well in Round 5 in a game that should prove a percentage booster for Geelong.
West Coast:
Andrew Gaff has averaged the third most disposals of any West Coast player per game with an average of 24.25 disposals per game. He only averages a disposal efficiency of 70.10 per game, which he can improve on. If he can work on that and use the ball better, he will have an impact on the game against Geelong.
GWS:
Lachie Whitfield needs to take advantage of a Hawthorn team that lacked pressure in the second half in Round 4 when they lost the half against Geelong by 90 points. He must produce for GWS to take advantage of a Hawthorn team that should come in with a point to prove. It’s a game that both GWS and Hawthorn must win as they both sit at one win and three losses. Whitfield is a competitor and should relish the importance of this game.
Hawthorn:
Ned Reeves has averaged 22.00 hit-outs per game, despite Sam Mitchell choosing to go with two ruckmen, as Lloyd Meek averages 11.25 hit-outs per game. Matthew Flynn of GWS averaged 24.75 hit-outs per game as arguably the GWS number one ruckman while Braydon Preuss is injured. The ruck is an area of the game where Hawthorn can expose GWS and help them be competitive. Reeves needs to be up for the challenge.
Collingwood:
Jordan De Goey must perform well for Collingwood to have a chance of being competitive against St Kilda. He needs to give the opposition something else to worry about apart from Nick Daicos. De Goey has averaged 8.00 score involvements per game in the opening four games of season 2023. This is a big game for him to show why he is such a talented player, against an undefeated St Kilda team.
St Kilda:
Mason Wood is a player that’s having an extraordinary impact for St Kilda so far in season 2023. He is extremely talented and it’s great to see him playing his best footy. He has found a home on the wing, despite playing much of his career as a forward. He has averaged the equal second-most score involvements per game of any St Kilda player in season 2023 with an average of 6.25 score involvements per game. He will need to be at his best against Collingwood.
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For somewhere between two and three and a half quarters, depending on how generous you want to be, Adelaide didn't do a whole lot…
Hopefully Jake Soligo doesn't keep it in there for too long!
Why wasn't Brandon Zerk-Thatcher right on the line?
