It’s as wide open as ever, as I’m sure you all know, with the Swans and Collingwood faltering again along with the Blues giving those underneath them a genuine sense that they are gettable.
And they are. There are no super teams in the AFL at present despite what some have said of the Swans and the Blues – who are very good teams – but a long way from proving their greatness.
So to the good, the bad and the ugly.
For THE GOOD, there’s always mistakes, but there’s no doubt the umpires had a far better weekend, a good weekend in Round 16.
Ken Hinkley, Brad Scott, Ross Lyon all had very good weekends in the coaches box and Adam Kingsley, well, he had a great weekend after such an impressive come-from-behind victory.
Adrian Dodoro traded up to get Nate Caddy. What a great weekend he had seeing the Pies put to the sword.
So too did Jesse Hogan with his five goals along with Mitch Georgiades, sadly not playing this week because he was undisciplined with a stupid punch to the chin. Lucky really to get just the one week.
Lachie Neale, Zak Butters, Connor Rozee, all midfielders had magnificent first halves to set up their victories. And Tom Green had a great four quarters.
Melbourne, well, they had a great weekend, especially the run and the gun goals with handball from the backline right through the middle and then a long kick into the forward line.
It’s the first time I’ve seen that running power and that running link with handball from the Demons for a good four years, which is surprising given how much of a cornerstone it was for the Tigers in their premiership era.
And a very good for Mattaes Phillipou. Has anybody come out of the twos after spending a month down there and got 10 coaches votes? Magnificent.
The Bombers’ midfield had a magnificent weekend with Draper, Merrett in particular, Durham, Caldwell, Shiel and Martin – all very good.
North Melbourne was magnificent knocking off the Gold Coast and the Carlton reserves, it seems, from 1986.
Tom Stewart and Jeremy Cameron were back to their best along with ‘SDK’, Neale and Close.
I love the way the Cats are rebuilding on the run while still being very competitive and finals bound.
It’s one for Collingwood to consider, which takes us to THE BAD and THE UGLIES and let’s begin with the Swans’ inaccuracy – ugly.
Izak Rankine’s shirtfront – four weeks for you, Izak – ugly. Zak Butters, pull your head in before it gets ugly.
The cheap shots re: Adam Simpson – ugly. The Bulldogs’ game – very ugly.
The Dogs must rebound from that lack of competitiveness beginning with the ruckman Tim English in the middle of the ground from the first bounce.
The Blues’ fragility after losing Weitering and having a shutdown on Sam Walsh and ‘TDK’, that was ugly, but better now than September.
Same goes for the Swans.
Observing Clayton Oliver, well, his fitness or lack thereof, that’s ugly. Not enough petrol in the tank right now.
The fact that you can punch opponents three times and be fined and be eligible for the Brownlow is ugly, but you get a tackle and it goes wrong or you brush off someone and it goes wrong and you can’t win it.
That’s really ugly, that needs investigation and the AFL’s traditional argument thrown in the bin, it’s a fallacy.
Not tagging Lachie Neale was ugly. Three goals in quarter one, the margin 11 points.
And one final one – the Lions’ forward line cohesion. Think team.
It was really ugly at times, a good win, but too much selfishness going on forward of the centre.