Carlton champion Patrick Cripps (left), Essendon ruckman Sam Draper (middle) and Freo star Caleb Serong all rue missed opportunities on the weekend. PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES/AFL MEDIA.
To borrow a line from Eminem: won’t the real second seed please stand up? Please stand up! Please stand up!
Does anybody want to be ordained as the clear-cut challenger to Sydney’s assault on the 2024 AFL premiership? Anybody?
Because after the weekend, it sure as hell doesn’t look like there is a single team in the league that is prepared to put its hand up and declare itself as the Swans’ dancing partner.
What a calamitous round it was for would-be “second-best” teams.
It all started on Saturday when Fremantle travelled down to Launceston to take on one of the season’s biggest surprise packets in Hawthorn.
Prior to last weekend, the Hawks went on a tear, winning eight of their previous 10 games, but were shown to be mere mortals by Geelong when the Cats pumped them by 51 points at Kardinia Park in Round 17.
The Dockers headed into their clash as one of the form teams of the league, dropping just one of their previous seven games to surprise many by grabbing third spot on the ladder.
This was their chance to prove beyond doubt that they were a worthy adversary to Sydney so soon after upsetting the Swans by a point at the SCG without their captain Alex Pearce.
After all, Hawthorn’s record in the northern Tasmanian city is very strong.
But after leading by nine points at three-quarter time, it all went awry for the Dockers who conceded five goals in the final term to lose by 13.
Fremantle blew a golden opportunity to maintain the heat on second-placed Carlton, and about three hours later, the Dockers’ inability to finish the job would become even more painful for them as the Blues suffered one of the biggest upset losses of the season against the undermanned Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium.
The general consensus is that Carlton is supposedly that mysterious second seed that everyone is searching for. Really? It certainly didn’t look that way on Saturday evening.
The Bulldogs headed into the game with a decimated backline that was missing Liam Jones, Alex Keath, James O’Donnell and Ryan Gardner due to injury.
Surely that would make this result a fait accompli with Carlton’s forward line featuring the league’s most potent one-two punch of Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay?
Not to mention that down the other end of the ground, Dogs key forward Aaron Naughton was also out with concussion.
Making matters worse for Luke Beveridge’s side was Adam Treloar withdrawing very late after injuring his calf in the warm-up. And that’s not even taking into consideration the absences of Jason Johannisen, James Harmes and Bailey Smith. It all pointed towards a Carlton easy kill. But, oh, how misguided that assumption was.
The Bulldogs proceeded to pull off one of the great backs-against-the-wall heists of 2024 to not only keep their finals hopes alive, but consign the Blues to horrible back-to-back losses. You would’ve thought a serious contender would’ve responded fiercely to a spectacular implosion such as the one Carlton experienced last week against GWS, especially in captain Patrick Cripps’ 200th game, but clearly something is amiss at the Blues.
In a nutshell, it appears Carlton relies way too much on sporadic bursts of goals throughout games, rather than applying their immense talent towards becoming a four-quarter team. But that’s a story for another day.
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The purple agony was real. The Dockers blew a chance to be second on the ladder. Enter: Essendon.
The Hawks and Bulldogs each did the Bombers a massive favour by pulling off their respective upset wins.
This was an opportunity almost too good to be true. Could Essendon keep up their end of the bargain and grab second spot now that the Blues and Dockers were out of the way? Brad Scott’s men just beat the reigning premiers last week, so why couldn’t they? They’re surely now a legitimate premiership contender, aren’t they? Bah bow. Wrong again.
Just like what happened a mere fortnight ago against Geelong, Essendon was completely undone in the driving rain by a far hungrier and more desperate side – Melbourne, in this case.
Just when it appeared as though the Bombers had finally arrived after impressively taking down the Magpies last week, they promptly reminded everyone that they are still a long way off the competition heavyweights. Their inability to learn from their mistakes against the Cats was truly gobsmacking, and given where Collingwood now finds itself (12th), Essendon’s win over the Pies all of a sudden doesn’t look that impressive. Down to sixth you go, Bombers. And Freo, you’re fifth now.
That brings us to the new top-four teams in Geelong and Brisbane. Are either of them potential challengers for Sydney?
Well, they’re both in reasonable form, but if you scratch the surface a little bit, it’s hard to be completely convinced.
After losing six of seven matches, the Cats have won three in a row, but those triumphs have come against Essendon, which is still clearly not a fully mature team, the 13th-placed Hawks and the Magpies who look like their massive injury toll has finally caught up with them.
And then you have the Lions. Granted, they’ve won their last six, and lost just one of their last 10, which is very impressive, especially when one considers their 2-5 start. But in their past two games they’ve been unconvincing against out-of-contention Adelaide and bottom-three West Coast, and before that they fell over the line against Melbourne at the Gabba after the Demons dominated the game for most of the night.
At this rate, the Swans could be facing the AFL’s version of Steven Bradbury on grand final day.
With two games separating second and 13th, it really is anyone’s guess who will wind up battling it out with Sydney at the business end.
But here’s the kicker: even the Swans have looked human in recent weeks! Their recent losses to Fremantle and St Kilda were eyebrow-raising to say the least. If Sydney wants to keep tempting fate by making slow starts to games, then good luck to them in the unforgiving furnace of finals football.
So buckle up, everyone. It’s going to be a rollicking final six rounds of the AFL home-and-away season.
We might not get our wish granted of the second seed standing up and clearly announcing itself anytime soon, but the process of elimination that is about to transpire over the next month-and-a-half is going to make for some riveting viewing.
