Not sufficient has been written concerning the artwork of being underwhelmed by soccer. Definitely not up to now week, after just a few days of finals footy that started as engrossing and ended up as epic, heralding a media deal equal to Fiji’s GDP.
However for the impartial supporter, there's a sense of AFL ennui this weekend, significantly within the context of it approaching the center of September. To make use of the phrases of Ross Lyon: “Generally it’s simply... it wasn’t vibing. There was no vibe.”
Forgetting for a second that almost all AFL golf equipment purposefully don't have anything to do with sports activities betting sponsorships, the league’s official sports activities wagering companion has this week’s visiting groups, Brisbane and Fremantle, as clear outsiders.
As you roll this week’s video games round in your thoughts, the first emotion is, properly, a bit of meh. However roll them round with a can of Pink Bull and a few crushed anti-inflammatories, and you can also make a case for a weekend of intrigue.
Melbourne v Brisbane
This yr, Brisbane has been used as a punching bag by Melbourne who've twice overwhelmed them up by 10 targets for the reason that bye.
If the Lions are going to return to the preliminary last stage, replicating their seven-goal first quarter in opposition to Richmond on the MCG in spherical 20 is an efficient place to begin – though that's simpler mentioned and finished in opposition to a Melbourne defence that includes two of the league’s greatest in Stephen Might and Jake Lever. Right here, there are some classes to be discovered from Sydney final week, who clearly put some work into Lever to restrict his intercept marking.
A problem could also be Brisbane’s tall ahead set-up of Joe Daniher, Eric Hipwood and Dan McStay, which dictates the ball coming in lengthy and excessive. Luke Hodge’s suggestion of dropping one of many three for a smaller, extra agile participant could end in some extra “chaos ball” and higher ahead stress, which troubled Melbourne final week. Do the Lions play McStay into the ruck, the place final week he bought his palms on the ball extra occasions than he had in any of earlier 158 video games?
Whereas McStay rucking in opposition to the six-time All-Australian Max Gawn would possibly make for an attention-grabbing tactic, it wouldn’t make it into the highest two most intriguing elements of the midfield battle, the place Dane Zorko will play pantomime villain to the light boos of the MCC and the Demons’ Christian Petracca will play regardless of a hairline fracture in his fibula (which whenever you hear Seven’s Tom Browne describe the fibula as “one of many two legs in your decrease leg” is akin to a miracle by one of many lesser-known saints).
If Lachie Neale can photocopy his sport from final Thursday night time and if the Lions can discover somebody to dampen Clayton Oliver’s affect, and if Brisbane can pull off a dozen or extra ifs, we would simply have a contest.
Collingwood v Fremantle
There are simply as many ifs required to make the case for Fremantle in Saturday night time’s sport when you think about Collingwood pulled them aside by six targets in Perth the final time they met.
In addition to, breaking the sport down by its elements has confirmed a futile train when discussing Collingwood this yr. Whereas they could have misplaced one of many nice finals of the fashionable age final week, their coach, Craig McRae, summed it up when he mentioned “We misplaced the sport, however we’re not losers. There's a distinction.”
If anybody doubted Collingwood’s high 4 bona fides, they tabled sufficient proof on Saturday to show they belong, and listening to McRae, you sense the “perception” that has carried them this far has not been diminished.
There would loads of perception, too, at Fremantle after giving the Western Bulldogs a seven-goal begin final Saturday night time. But concede a begin half as nice at a hostile MCG and also you’d suspect this one could be nearly finished. However ought to the Dockers translate their second-half momentum to the opening half-hour and perhaps, simply perhaps, the end result isn’t as black and white as it will seem.
Central to this for Fremantle would be the 21-year previous Caleb Serong, who's coming off a 33-possessions-10-clearances-six-tackles-and-a-goal sport that had him adjudged greatest afield by each coaches.
Serong is pretty much as good a 21-year-old because the AFL has seen since his now 22-year-old teammate and present AFLPA MVP Andrew Brayshaw. Serong has already trousered a Rising Star Award in addition to the AFLPA’s greatest first yr participant award. If he have been on the Gold Coast, he’d most likely have a Film World trip named after him. If he have been in Melbourne, he’d be an authorized phenom.
Nick Daicos is an authorized phenom. He too has received each the Rising Star (it wasn’t a contest) and AFLPA greatest first yr participant award, all of the whereas attacking from off half-back in a manner that has powered Australia’s greatest membership to a season no pundit got here near predicting.
Whereas Daicos’s stats are spectacular, they largely miss the purpose of the 19-year-old, whose elusiveness, decision-making and poise are uncommon in any footballer, least of all one so younger.
To see three of the sport’s easiest younger gamers examined within the warmth of a semi-final is an attractive prospect whatever the consequence. Possibly the vibe’s not so dangerous in any case.
Comply with the primary semi-final on Friday between Melbourne and Brisbane with Guardian Australia’s liveblog. Begin time on the MCG is 7:50pm AEST.
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