If you believe that much of the fun of football comes from not knowing what will happen, then this is an especially triumphant season. The distinctions between favourites, contenders, and those not really considered have never felt woollier or less meaningful.
On Sunday, Hawthorn – who were for the most part out of the discussion for the top eight – put themselves with in a game of it with a four-goal win over ladder-leaders Geelong. Predictions about sports are wrong all the time, but the post-bye Cats seem emblematic of how little we know, going L-W-L-W-L. It is a form line that was on show at the MCG, which but for a few brief moments, was always played on Hawthorn’s terms.
The round opened on Friday night at the Adelaide Oval, where the Crows surrendered a five-goal lead just before half time before conceding 12 of the next 15 goals to go down by 21-points to an Essendon side that has now won four in a row with a visit to the home of the presumptive wooden to come.
In a year that has already seen three coaches out of a job, John Worsfold has had a month that has appeared to have saved his, and on Friday night his decision to switch Michael Hartley to the backline and Cale Hooker forward appeared to stir the Bombers from their slumber and within shouting distance of living up to their pre-season hype. Conversely, Adelaide are as easy to bury in July as they were to talk up in March.
There was much talk for Richmond up until Alex Rance ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in the season opener against Carlton. Both Jack Riewoldt and captain Trent Cotchin have spent considerable time on the sidelines since, but with just five games until the finals, the Tigers have strung together a month of winning football, including Saturday’s 38-point win over a hot-than-not Port Adelaide.
Although lauding an easy win over a cold Power at the MCG is a little like talking beating the family dog at Scrabble. Still, significantly for Richmond, it provided another opportunity for the Riewoldt-Tom Lynch double act to iron out a few of the creases ahead of September. Which is exactly what they did, kicking six between them and coordinating each other’s game so that one of them would always remain an option deep in Richmond’s forward line.
The Tigers are now just a few percentage points behind the fourth-placed Collingwood and seem to be enjoying the role of once again being the hunter rather than the hunted. With only Rance and Toby Nankervis out of their best line-up (granted they are two important players), Richmond look dangerous – which is not a term you’d ascribe to Collingwood at the moment, unless it were in the context of being a danger to themselves.
The Pies were never in Saturday’s game against a GWS Giants missing Phil Davis, Callan Ward, Stephen Coniglio and Josh Kelly, collectively known as the “leadership group” in the corporate patois of modern sport. Displaying the kind of slick ball use they have teased us with at various (fleeting) stages throughout the year, the Giants kicked seven goals in 16-minutes to lead by 43-points at quarter time and put the game beyond Collingwood.
When the Giants control the ball across half-back and the middle, they can be a frightening proposition, particularly with a forward line of Jeremy Cameron, Harry Himmelberg and Jeremy Finlayson who combined for 13 goals on Saturday. Like GWS, Collingwood too have many of their best side sitting in the stands, but on the weekend’s form they appear to a little off the pace and with all the depth of a social media influencer. And just like Instagram, it’s hard to see where the likes come from here.
There remains much to like about Brisbane, despite their win against North Melbourne at the Gabba on Saturday night owed a little to a critical umpiring decision late in the game that was so bad the AFL admitted it the following morning - although they just may be worn down by a year of explaining. The free kick paid against North’s Scott Thompson that ultimately gifted a goal to Oscar McInerney inside the last two minutes was the most dramatic umpiring embarrassment in a year that has been full of them. If there’s an upside to football boss Steven Hocking’s farcical view that tackling shouldn’t be an honoured part of football, it is that he may make things a little easier for the game’s umpires.
Still, Hocking’s view is no more ludicrous than anyone who’d have suggested at the start of the year that deep in July the Brisbane Lions would be second. But here we are, and since their upset loss to Carlton in mid-June, the Lions have answered every challenge thrown at them, winning five consecutive games. If they can close out the next five, who’s to say they can’t win two finals at the Gabba and a place in the Grand Final?
You’d be loath to write anything off at this point – other than that the fun of this season will continue to come from not knowing what the hell is going to happen.
