The first of three AFL bye rounds thankfully provided some good footy and big talking points to get us through the mid-season lull.
It was a great week for three under fire coaches. Nathan Buckley’s Magpies had a courageous victory in Perth, Damien Hardwick’s Tigers dominated one of their bogey teams in North Melbourne and Rodney Eade’s Gold Coast side had a hard-fought win over West Coast. Hardwick is close to a lock now to continue in the top job, while Buckley and Eade’s confidence levels must be rising.
The news was worse for Alastair Clarkson and Hawthorn, who were completely embarrassed by a rampant Port Adelaide. The Power kept the hapless Hawks to their lowest half time score ever and ran out 51-point winners.
The enormity of the task ahead for Clarkson is becoming clearer each week. With clearly the worst draft position of any team this year, some stars might need to be put up as trade bait in order to kick start the rebuild down at Waverley.
