At the weekend, the fans got what they wanted, rehab from the infamy of the off-season. Instead of months of scandal involving photographs, drugs, inappropriate dealing and sackings, round one delivered grace, upset and excitement.
The majority of footballers adhere to team guidelines. Those that don’t create headlines, bad ones, fodder for speculative journalists. Most people without athletic ability are adamant, for $350,000 a year it’d be easy to live clean, but that comment is built on jealousy, uttered by people without any inkling of the pressures of public life. It is a privilege to play football, but no matter how good players are, poor behaviour isn’t tolerated anymore.
Footballers are always live. They can’t escape public fascination. In the off season, most of the media was fascinated by wrongdoing, assaults, arrests and a tepid pre-season competition.
The fascination has changed. The season is underway. Attention is on the field. Round one, eight games, has set the tone for the season. Richmond will be better but still won’t play finals. Carlton should make the eight. The match was reasonable, exciting for three-quarters until the Tigers ran out of class.
St Kilda coach Ross Lyon promised the industry a new game plan and was caught in a lie. The Saints kicked six goals from 54 forward entries. Geelong did marginally better, six goals from 50 forward entries. Neither club, loaded with ample talent, could find the goals. Despite the conditions, both clubs should know better. Six goals won’t win a final. It won’t be enough to win many home and away games. Lyon should stop the ruse, because getting booed at half time must rankle.
Collingwood hammered Port Adelaide by 75 points, neat proof of the gap between the best and the rest. Lyon could do worse than analyse the Magpies attack.
Hawthorn gave up a five goal lead in the second quarter and lost to Adelaide by 20 points, an apt margin to help celebrate the Crows 20 year anniversary. The loss has exposed Hawthorn as soft. After the game Hawk coach Alistair Clarkson said the Crows scored too many easy goals.
‘We had some terrible clangers and some of our defensive efforts were quite poor,’ Clarkson said. ‘The ball went out the back far too easily.’
Buddy Franklin kicked 2.6 for the Hawks. Had he kicked straight, the result could’ve been different. ‘We had the same amount of scoring shots,’ Clarkson said. ‘But we couldn’t punish them.’
The players will get punished at training. Bad kicking isn’t good enough, nor is letting go a five goal margin. Last season every club who led by 34 points at some stage during a match ended up winning. The research showed five goals isn’t a safe lead, but six goals is. Against Adelaide the Hawks were a goal short.
Brisbane’s two point loss to Fremantle mirrored the Lions horror off-season. After leading all night, Brisbane faded badly, giving up the last three goals. Shocking injuries to Jonathon Brown and Brent Staker have cruelled their season. Brown was collected by Luke McPharlin’s knee, an incident that must be looked at. The collision, as the vision suggests, could’ve been avoided. Brown will have his face reconstructed, Staker his knee reconstructed.
Lions coach Michael Voss must be ruing the curse affecting his club. ‘We did come in healthy into the season,’ Voss said after the game. ‘It was fleeting.’
Sydney and Melbourne ended as they started with scores level. Both clubs had chances to win, the Swans leading by 25 points during the third quarter, Melbourne taking the lead with three minutes to play. It was an intense, exciting game neither side deserved to win. The draw wasn’t honourable, it was the right outcome. The shared points, two each, could be crucial late in the season.
Before the season the Western Bulldogs released a five year plan that included two premierships. The Dogs want to be the team of the decade. Winning two premierships inside five years is a nice thought, but it won’t happen if they keep playing like they did against Essendon.
‘We certainly didn’t see it coming,’ coach Rodney Eade said of the 55 point loss. ‘The midfield got absolutely obliterated, I thought the defence probably held in there okay. We just didn’t win contested ball, which we’ve been pretty good at.’
The Bulldogs have played in the last three preliminary finals. Before the season, in serious discussions they were rated as the team most likely to challenge Collingwood. They couldn’t challenge Essendon. The significance of the result will be apparent within a month.
West Coast defeated North Melbourne by 10 points. The Kangaroos were hammered by injury during the pre-season and appear to lack depth necessary to contend for a finals berth. The Eagles won but it was hardly convincing and their rebuilding phase isn’t over. On the ABC, former Hawk champ Ken Judge lauded North’s fighting spirit. ‘They’ve got that fighting spirit,’ Judge said during the final term.
North might have fighting spirit, which is admirable, but they need to win instead of losing to last year’s wooden spoon claimant.
The new season brings promise, like a new lover. Not all fans were satisfied. Already bad habits, a losing mentality or poor recruiting have surfaced as they do in any relationship. To love football is to love a team, one club, one hope, one myth ready to be destroyed or espoused.
Football gave a reminder how great sport can be. The round was exciting, much needed rehab for six months of withdrawal and addiction to infamy. The horror had to end, but don’t expect the arrests, assaults or sackings to stop. Footballers may play well, but they’re not always the smartest men society can provide.
The Western Bulldogs might need to review their five year plan. On paper, with the inclusion of two premierships, it seems a braggart’s boast for a club that has one solitary flag since its inception in 1925. The Bulldogs are hopeful, the board hoping for sponsorship and members, the players hoping for glory.
The time for talking is over now. Five year plans are in play. Every club started clean and eager, like a virgin without the alcohol. Football is love, but it won’t always treat us as it should.
| 6 | Sandra, Neal, Dallas, Stevo, Matt B |
| 5 | Graeme, Dave, Paul, Adam L, Anne |
| 4 | Eric, Pam, Russ, Matt, James, Wayne, Andy |
| 3 | Adam |
