Footy is back at Optus Stadium. And with 60,000 expected at two games, a little bit closer to normal. Photo: AFL MEDIA
One hundred and sixteen days is a long time in football. It’s an even longer time during a global pandemic.
But Western Australia is in the fortunate position where its citizens can now afford to look ahead with a little more cautious optimism than those of us based in the south-eastern corner of the mainland.
There will be a total of 60,000 people flood through the gates when AFL football returns to Perth this week, and Thursday night’s Geelong-Collingwood blockbuster is a possible grand final preview in more ways than one.
Not only are the Cats and Pies two of the better sides in the competition, with the experience and squad depth that suggests they could ride out the 2020 rollercoaster better than most others. But they meet at a sparkling new venue that could realistically host the first AFL season-decider played outside Victoria.
Up to 30,000 fans (with social distancing policy enforced) will be on hand at Optus Stadium despite Thursday’s fixture featuring two visiting sides, and ongoing COVID-19 issues in Victoria and New South Wales could put Western Australia in the box seat for the grand final, assuming we get one.
Thursday will be the first AFL game in WA since West Coast cruised past Melbourne on March 22, just a few hours after Gillon McLachlan announced the season was going into shutdown. Unfortunately, a forecast deluge of rain will put a literal dampener on proceedings for the western restart, but the moment will be significant nonetheless.
Three days later, there’s a Western Derby for the locals on which to feast. The Eagles and Dockers are back on home soil after taking one for the competition with their hub stint in Queensland over the first five rounds of the season restart.
Flag fancy West Coast will start warm favourite to extend its record derby winning streak to 10 matches, but who knows what Justin Longmuir’s Fremantle will produce after overcoming a six-goal deficit at quarter-time last week to beat St Kilda.
It was a huge shock for the Saints, who had been riding high after wins over Richmond and Carlton and seemingly thought they were home and hosed in the Gold Coast sun.
Brett Ratten’s side wasn’t the first and won’t be the last to hit a brick wall this year. As soon as a team gets a little run-on, it seems to cop a brutal reality check. It could be seen as a metaphor in a year when we can ill-afford to become complacent on the COVID-19 front.
Hawthorn, Gold Coast, Collingwood and even ladder leader Port Adelaide have all been put back in their box at various stages over the past month. Last week, GWS copped the same treatment and Brisbane were flattened out of nowhere. The Western Bulldogs really didn’t see it coming.
So whose turn is it this week?
Geelong is the only side on a winning streak of at least three matches heading into round seven. Essendon is in hot form but faces a danger game against the wounded Bulldogs, having lost Dylan Shiel to suspension.
Which brings us to the tribunal. If missing a couple of matches isn’t enough of a deterrent not to flatten an opponent with an illegal hip-and-shoulder, then spending a few hours in front of a jury on a Tuesday night should be.
One colleague at AAP noted this week: “I’ve sat in on Supreme Court trials and I still doubt I’ve seen any ‘legal’ institution take itself as seriously as the tribunal does.”
There’s a process to be followed – sure. But listening to a high-profile midfielder detail his good record from a junior playing career at Edithvale-Aspendale can’t really be relevant or necessary to proceedings.
Shiel was one of five players penalised for illegal hip-and-shoulder incidents that caught opponents high in round six. The Bomber star was banned for two matches and is out of Brownlow Medal contention.
Who has been dishing out the angry pills? David Teague and Nathan Buckley both suggested this week that strict limitations on contact work at training might have contributed to increased on-field aggression. Time will tell if it becomes a trend.
What we can bank on seeing more regularly is five straight days of footy. Thursday and Monday nights are in, and don’t bet against Wednesdays getting a run when the AFL really starts compressing the fixture.
It’s footy across more days, even if it’s being played in fewer states. Crowds are gradually coming back and despite a few dour games prompting gloomy assessments, we’ve still got old favourites like Eddie Betts and young stars like Izak Rankine keeping us transfixed.
I reckon we’ll take that right now.
Shayne, this weekend in Perth is all well and good, but do you get the feeling the AFL is wary about letting too many of it’s assets head West? Why would it send all ten Victorian clubs north to shelter in the shadow of Lang Park only letting them escape to Perth and Adelaide for FIFO, quarantined three-night-stands?
Could it be – call me paranoid if you like – that the sight of too many 30/60,000 crowds in what is clearly the “other” genuine coliseum in the AFL empire, in the biggest city other than Melbourne in that empire, makes them nervous that pressure to see the bulk of the final series, including the big one, played there would become to much to ignore?
Which might, in turn, might have consequences for the neat little deal of the half-century cobbled together between the AFL and the Victorian Government (no doubt over luncheon, port and cigars at the Athenaeum Club) to keep the tastiest bits of the football pie on the banks of the Yarra.