Friday night football
Friday night football this week is just the kind of match-up we’ve all been screaming out for; a barely-functional Essendon side and a North Melbourne one whose soft run over the next month should set them up perfectly to be annihilated in the first week of the finals. Awaiting the Roos after this theoretically straightforward assignment is Brisbane, Carlton, Melbourne and St Kilda. If they don’t win at least three of those they should be forced to ditch the Boomer tribute guernsey and instead play with a mug shot of Jason Daniltchenko screen-printed across their chests.
Combative Roos pair Jack Ziebell and Bun Cunnington will have only the ceaselessly impressive Dyson Heppell for hard-ball competition here and you get the feeling that North ruckman Todd Goldstein might break new statistical landmarks for hit-outs the way the Bombers have fared in the middle since Paddy Ryder’s departure. Even better this season has been the renaissance of former Bulldog Shaun Higgins, who has 18.29 disposals per game and booted 27.16 to lead the club’s goal-kicking. What a joy that such an attractive and creative player has been able to get back and thrive again.
North will be without suspended veteran Drew Petrie this week and so lose a great deal of whatever physical intimidation factor they actually still hold these days. He’d played 105 consecutive games until now, a remarkable achievement for a man who throws his body at contests like a crash test dummy. The subsequent reliance on Jarrad Waite’s offensive productivity here is a little less of a concern against the second-worst scoring side in the competition.
Simpson’s Eagles might make it a winless month for Collingwood
Adam Simpson’s West Coast side have been the great redemption story of this AFL season, extracting a greater amount of improvement from a higher number of untapped stars than probably any other side. Last week against the Crows they had 13 goal kickers and midfield trio of Andrew Gaff, Luke Shuey and Elliot Yeo provided an apt summary of everything that’s improved this year. Gaff and Shuey in particular were maligned figures when things went wrong in 2014 but with Yeo they shared in 92 possessions and 8 goals against Adelaide. That causes carnage on the opposition white boards.
With the Eagles in second place now and only a game behind ladder-leaders Fremantle, would one be getting a little carried away to wonder whether Simpson’s side might actually be the toughest and most uncomfortable finals draw of the two Western Australian teams this year? They’ve certainly got more scoring firepower to worry opposition coaches; four goals more than the Dockers per game and they’re also only 2.5 points per game worse off at the defensive end.
A worry here for Collingwood – even if this weekend’s meeting takes place in Melbourne – is that they’re susceptible to opposition scoring blitzes like the Port Adelaide one that ruined the Pies’ chances last week. Maybe they won’t concede 8 goals to nil like the Crows did against the Eagles, but their intensity can’t let up for a second. If Collingwood drop this one its four straight losses, a fringe position in the Top 8 and a promising season frittered away. Recent losses have been narrow ones and a soft run home means they’ll probably still play finals, but that’s where they’ll meet sides like this West Coast outfit, sides that currently look eons ahead of them.
Your match of the round
Regular season games between Hawthorn and Sydney are about as good as AFL football gets these days. The Hawks destroyed ladder-leading Fremantle last week – as many of us assume they might again come September – and despite the statistical evenness of this fixture you get the sense that Hawthorn is currently like the champion freestyler emerging from his dive in the middle lane of the pool, ready to explode into action, while the Swans are just ever-so-slightly off the pace.
Sydney’s win over Brisbane last week was far from emphatic and indeed they were outplayed for extended periods of the game but the final result did underline their admirable ability to just get things done, even when they’re well below their best. “Sometimes you’ve got to find a way and we were able to do that,” shrugged coach John Longmire.
The Round 8 clash between these two was fascinating because despite a +18 win in the battle for forward entries, the Hawks spurned their chances and lost by 4 points. They’re a better calibrated machine now and if they could blitz the best defensive side in the land, it’s hard to see any reason why they’ll struggle to score against the second-best. Lance Franklin is likely to boot the 2 majors required to vault himself to 700 career goals against his old side, in the fabled surrounds of ANZ stadium.
The Showdown
As gallant, brave and everything else noble that Adelaide was last week in its first game since the tragic loss of coach Phil Walsh, we really can’t expect a hell of a lot from them at the moment, which makes this weekend’s Showdown clash an unusual proposition. What we do know is that the game will be something close to a football memorial, for Walsh had a pronounced impact at both clubs and his loss is felt keenly by both sets of players.
The two teams will enter the field side-by-side and break through a shared banner, after which both will be required to somehow adjust their focus to the game at hand, one that could end up playing a decisive role in their respective finals fates. If Ollie Wines can back up with a repeat of his pack-splitting, lung-busting efforts against Collingwood last week, the battle between he and Patrick Dangerfield in the middle will provide some absorbing contests.
Adelaide’s forward setup remains intriguing, too. Skipper Taylor Walker carried far too much of the load in the early stages of the season but the move to play him further up the ground in recent times has meant that Eddie Betts and Josh Jenkins have been given space to step up and generate scoring opportunities. Though Charlie Cameron provides plenty of excitement he’s still lacking in polish at this point and Tom Lynch always looms too, so Port have plenty to think about. Lead by Wines, Justin Westhoff and stout defensive work from Jack Hombsch and Matthew Broadbent, Ken Hinkley’s side triumphed last week by hanging tough in trying circumstances. Whichever side that takes this Showdown will probably need to show many of the same qualities.
NB. This game will be coming to you live via the Guardian goal-by-goal live blog.
The best and worst of the rest
Save for Fremantle’s likely punishment of Carlton at Doman Stadium on Saturday, it’s a sneakily appealing round of football elsewhere, this one. The Bulldogs can go 10-5 if they beat Geelong at Simmonds Stadium, which has certainly lost its luster as a Cats fortress in recent times. The last time the Dogs won this match-up we were still living under the Howard Government. On the topic of bygone eras, there was an old-timey comfort in watching Jimmy Bartel rack up 41 possessions in his comeback game last week. His impact will be a little more closely monitored this time, you’d assume.
In Gold Coast’s home meeting with GWS, the Suns are the mostly likely team of the round to cause an upset. Clearly they’re a far different and improved side with the likes of Ablett and Swallow back but you’d hope they don’t serve up a repeat dose of their final quarter effort last week against the Dogs, when a 37-point lead somehow became a 22-point loss. Melbourne and Brisbane’s Sunday afternoon meeting is an entertainment option of purely morbid appeal and across town at Etihad Stadium, newly swaggering Richmond will have to maintain its game face against ever-improving St Kilda.
