Opening round issues

With one game still to come of the opening round, there are plenty of talking points.

 

• Have the Suns come of age faster than many had given them credit for?
• The AFL seem hell-bent on changing some things, but slow to react to more obvious issues.
• Were the Demons really that bad?
• Are the Bulldogs really that good?
• Two teams playing in vertical stripes and the sky didn’t fall in!

 

Watching the Suns on Saturday night was an interesting experience. AussieRulesBlog likes to see an underdog succeed, so we were naturally predisposed to be pleased about their performance (and the Saints aren’t our favourite mob). Conditions certainly played a part — no amount of match practice is going to give a properly-hardened match fitness — but without a certain shaven-headed midfielder dragging teammates to the win, the Saints would have cruised to victory.

 

When the Suns got the sniff of victory, they found extra reserves of physical capacity. Likewise, as the Saints perceived the game slipping away, their lactate-bound muscles tied up even further.

 

Gazza is really something else. There’s no other player in the competition who could have dragged his team over the line the way he did. He is head-and-shoulders above any other player in the competition. There is daylight in second and third place!

 

Despite Ablett’s influence, the Suns look to have overcome those second-year blues — as we predicted might be the case — and the recruitment of a few extra hardened bodies has helped to spread the load a little more too.

 

. . .

 

The AFL is a curious beast. Hell-bent on changing some things faster than the speed of light, it has to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to recognise issues that are clear as day to the rest of us. This time it’s the fluoro orange uniforms of team runners. Against anyone but the Suns or the Swans (both with predominantly red strip), there’s no problem, but when either of these two are involved there’s a serious issue. This happens occasionally with the umpires’ colour strips too. It seems like someone at AFL house hasn’t put their thinking cap on.

 

But the AFL’s reaction is to deny there’s a problem. It actually reminds us of the Church of Rome’s doctrine of infallibility.

 

We highlighted last season the problem of goal umpires wearing navy blue jackets in cold weather. Why are their jackets not a green — or blue or yellow — similar to their shirts?

 

Let’s hope that Mark Evans can improve on the seemingly muddle-headed analysis of unlamented predecessor Adrian Anderson and take some action to get these issues sorted.

 

. . .

 

The Demons have provided the round’s major talking point with their unflattering display against Port. AussieRulesBlog watched a portion of the game on replay and the Dees weren’t totally disastrously bad. It seemed to us to be a matter of effort — they were working at 95% and Port were operating at 102%. In a two-horse race, that difference translates into a chasm.

 

What’s concerning is turning up to round one and giving 95%. The next few weeks will tell whether the problem is transient or terminal, and the bloke with the responsibility is Mark Neeld.

 

Port actually showed a bit, albeit against ordinary opposition, that highlights a potential problem for the Demons. What if Mark Neeld is actually a very good assistant coach, as it appears Matthew Primus might be, as it appears Mark Harvey might be? The Hinckley-coached Port looked a much better team than the Primus-coached Port, with not a great change in personnel. What if the Demons have chosen two good assistant coaches in a row to head their footy department?

 

. . .

 

As poor as the Demons appeared, the Bulldogs looked great in demolishing a clearly over-confident Brisbane. Who would have thought that losing an ageing star and gaining an ageing recruit could turn a list around? And yet it seems that Brendan McCartney might just have done it. If Brett Goodes down back allows Bob Murphy to play forward, the ‘Dogs could well fulfil the promise that AussieRulesBlog always felt they had.

 

. . .

 

Yesterday’s battle of the stripes — Kangaroos versus Barcodes — didn’t result in the end of the world. Just like the Mayan calendar fiasco, predictions of dire results proved fruitless. There was more colour confusion at Metricon Stadium than at Docklands. No need for Argentinean strip for the Roos. Hopefully that teacup can remain storm-free for a good many years now.