You never win anything with kids. They don’t hand out trophies in March. One swallow doesn’t make a summer. These chestnuts are all tired and they are mostly true. But write off round one’s two major upsets as anomalies typical of round one at your peril.
Neither Adelaide nor Sydney, two clubs in varying stages of rebuild, will likely be contending for the 2021 AFL premiership but their remarkable triumphs said as much about the teams they defeated as it did of their own states of being. More to the point, they provided a blueprint going forward that any team worth their salt would be mad to ignore.
Inside the first six matches of the new season, two top-four teams from 2020 had been beaten by two sides from the bottom three of the ladder. The Beatles were still making music the last time a wooden spooner beat a grand finalist in round one of VFL/AFL football. It just is not meant to happen. But happen it did at Adelaide Oval as the Crows jumped Geelong in the first half before holding on amid a growing injury toll to win by 12 points.
Were it not for that stunning result, the Swans’ 31-point win over Brisbane at the Gabba would have been the story of the round. It comes a very close second. Neither victory was a fluke and though the season has a long way to run, coaching staff at the Cats and Lions are in for a week of soul-searching.
Both Geelong and Brisbane bolstered their ranks with senior stock in the off-season, believing full well their premiership windows are still open. But on Saturday both were shown up, essentially, by a bunch of kids.
There is no younger list in the AFL this year than Adelaide’s. In round one, not far short of half of their team had made fewer than 10 senior appearances. The Swans were not quite as green but handed debuts to three youngsters – Errol Gulden, Logan McDonald and Braeden Campbell – all of whom had a major impact on the game.
Tellingly, both the Crows and the Swans exhibited a brand of footy unrecognisable from seasons past. Both teams moved the ball with a speed and derring-do befitting the valour of youth, but there was more to it than that.
Both victors made full use of the man on the mark rule, playing on at all costs, hunting the corridor and bringing now-isolated forwards quickly into play. Taylor Walker has rarely had it – or looked – so good. Conversely, Geelong and Brisbane looked less than embracing of the opportunities the new conditions bring.
As such, both triumphs can be credited to masterstrokes in the coaches’ box. Adelaide’s Matthew Nicks has done it tougher than most in his initiation into senior coaching, but he now has reason to smile after doing a number on his decorated opposite number, Chris Scott, coaxing an unexpected intensity from his troops and catching the Cats unaware with boldness of ball movement.
Sydney’s John Longmire will point to one stat in particular – 23 marks inside-50 compared to Brisbane’s five – as proof the Swans are on the right track to make the most of 2021’s altered state. Numbers such as these are inconceivable without quick, direct and irrepressible delivery into scoring zones.
A by-product, or so the AFL hopes, of the new rule and the reduction in rotations is an increase in scoring levels, which for years have been heading south. It looks to be doing the trick across the board but round one’s two big upsets were a shining case in point.
Matches might have been shorter in 2020, but last year the Crows were flat out kicking seven goals a game let alone a quarter, as they did in the second term against Geelong on Saturday.
The Swans, who last year managed returns as paltry as five, three and two goals in entire matches, had not scored 19 goals in a game of footy since round 12, 2018. It has taken them just one outing in 2021 to return to those giddy heights. Sydney might be favouring youth but they are not rebuilding as drastically as Adelaide. Who knows what their ceiling is in 2021.
Nobody, not least those pulling the strings at Adelaide and Sydney, will be getting too carried away by acts of isolation - impressive as they were – that essentially brought no more than four premiership points. Their challenge now is to replicate the efforts week after week. But both clubs have pointed the way forward. Though others joined the chorus in round one, none did so as vibrantly as the Crows or Swans. In slaying their respective giants, their message to the wider competition was clear: evolve or perish.
This weekend is set to be even more revealing. Geelong will play host to the Lions the day before Sydney welcome the Crows to the SCG. One of last year’s standard bearers will be 0-2 after two rounds. One of last year’s whipping boys will be 2-0. Welcome to the 2021 season.
