For a sport that barely cedes Boxing Day to its rivals, the FIFA World Cup casts a month-long shadow over the AFL as dark as a Carlton supporter’s heart. But as is often the case, there are a few interesting observations to be made in the dark.
With only six games on offer as a result of six teams having the bye, the round began with a Thursday night game that, for anyone not following Port Adelaide, had little to recommend it – and even less for Bulldog fans who watched Easton Wood and Brownlow fancy Jack Macrae both injure hamstrings in a miserable 57-point loss.
While the Power move to 8-4, with a favourable draw for their remaining 10 games (only three of those games feature teams currently in the top eight), it is the names Foot, Rosebury, Meredith and Mollison that may be the game’s enduring legacy. Sounding like something you’d pull from a Google search for a law firm, the group constituted the AFL’s commencement of a two-week trial of four umpires. While most viewed the trial as a success, Bulldogs’ coach Luke Beveridge was more, well… er, sceptical.
“The AFL will assess how they went. Yeah, I can’t say too much,” said Beveridge, not wanting to risk a hefty fine atop an already dismal night.
On Friday night, after a string of dismal lightweights under lights, the third-placed Swans hosted the league-leading Eagles, maintaining one of the game’s great modern-day rivalries. A run of seven consecutive goals between goalless first and last quarters was enough for Sydney to snap West Coast’s 10-game winning streak and announce themselves as a genuine premiership threat.
On Saturday, Carlton showed nothing even vaguely falling within six-feet of a threat when they hosted Fremantle at the soon-to-be-nonsensically-named Marvel Stadium. The Blues’ bye last week proved to be the calm before the snooze as they sleepwalked their way to 0.7 and a 70-point deficit to a Dockers side whose recent average losing margin away from home approaches 10 goals.
It was the sort of performance that gets a club dumped by its corporate sponsors, to the point where they would be within their rights to ask anyone wearing navy not named Kade Simpson to return the keys to their Hyundai i30s. “To learn to how to play consistently at a high, high level just doesn’t happen. We’re too inconsistent,” said Carlton coach Brendon Bolton, in a remark of no spectacular insight that was offered nonetheless.
“We’re not happy about it and we’ll work our way through it, but it’s a learned behaviour,” he added.
Another learned behaviour is that of the football media, who after a listless loss like Carlton’s, gaff their hooks into the coach. The “rebuilding process” – the bane of all football fans – should see a 10-goal thumping as a “teachable moment” in Bolton-speak, although fewer Blues fans are accepting performances such as this as an all-purpose alibi for the club.
There was no such alibi for St Kilda this year, and with just one win, a draw and a 31-point three-quarter-time deficit against the lowly Gold Coast Suns, the psyche of a Saints supporter must have looked like a bar-fighter’s face. But coach Alan Richardson never lost his belief, and after the Saints stormed home – kicking 5.3 to nothing in final term – he was relieved his players shared it, however oddly-located it was.
“Our group has got a lot of belief in their legs,” said Richardson. “When you have those sort of performances, it certainly adds to your belief.” While Richardson’s faith in his side may have received a boost, the win may mask a multitude of sins from the Saints, particularly their profligacy going into attack.
Still, a boost for the Saints is better than the booting Gold Coast coach Stewart Dew got – again. After the game, Dew had the frustrated air of a man a card shy of a royal flush, his patience waned by that one maddening card, or to drop this metaphor entirely, Saints small forward Jade Gresham.
“We’re looking for guys that can influence in that time of the game, and we lacked them,” said Dew.
A man with more than a few cards missing is Adelaide coach, Don Pyke, whose side’s injury riddled season is just about done, and doomed to finish out of the finals for the first time in four years. The Crows will be grateful that this match was scheduled against the Socceroos’ opener against France, as only die-hard partisans tuned in to see Adelaide outscored by Russia’s five goals two nights earlier, and registering their lowest-ever score against an opponent who wasn’t St Kilda.
The Crows’ conquerors of last year, Richmond, aren’t having nearly as tough a time of it, returning to the top of the ladder after a hard fought three-goal win against Geelong on Sunday. Again, it was Richmond’s small forwards – Jason Castagna, Dan Butler and the return of Daniel Rioli – who showed the way with their pressure and tackling, proving every bit as much of a Tiger trademark as Dustin Martin’s fend-off.
The Tigers have now won sixteen straight at the MCG – something that, given the challenges this year look likely to come from interstate – is not an inconsiderable advantage for when the AFL steps out of the shadow.
