Round 1 thoughts? Impressions?

[Rod Stroker]

Can't believe how bad GC were, considering they usually start well
North and St Kilda both played really well and looked like finals teams
Essendon and Freo still mediocre
Melbourne won't get back to their 2018 form

We were rubbish in the first half, they were rubbish in the second. Neither would trouble other finalists on that showing. I'm not a huge Terry Wallace fan, but I agree with his statement that you aren't winning too many games kicking only 8 goals.

 

[Giant Pete]

WC, Tigers, Pies and Giants looked the best I thought.
With season likely to be cancelled, those older lists just lost another year. Younger lists will get more time to gel in what will probably be a really long offseason.

 

[Macpotata]

Allen Jackovich was back to his dazzling best
Good to see Tony Modra return to form
Jeff Farmer worked his wizardry
Gary Lyon is still shit at best
Buddah Hocking is all class
Den Kemp on that level
The man they call God is better than the rest
Darren Jarmn is a unique little pest

 

[Chinacats]

I’m still waiting for us to turn up to the game.....

Yeah bulldogs were horrendous. But if you peak in late November you can
Still win it!

 

[Johnny_Dogg4]

dogs were in the mindset that the season would get suspended very soon, prob the mindset of the coach also

 

[Chinacats]

The short quarters went quickly, time wise, but the congestion/scrappy game was still the same. As well as the short quarters, the AFL should have tried 16 a side aside to see if it would help with the congestion, with the bonus of saving on player payments as well.

Could still try 16 a team later in the year.
Pies looked the best, but they have to go away and peak again in late November possibly.
I think teams in the window will come back best as other teams might just wipe the season and half arse it.

 

[TedDougChris]

Yeah bulldogs were horrendous. But if you peak in late November you can
Still win it!

Someone said we had drunk our own bathwater, as accurate a description as I could think of....

 

[Numero Uno]

freo lost again despite 6 months of endless talk

 

[Dirty Bird]

Richmond vs Carlton - (I watched from late 1st to late 2nd) - Richmond is still good. Carlton is still bad and relying on too few. Sure. Those few are pretty good and will get them wins vs bad teams. But theyre not good enough yet.

Western Bulldogs vs Collingwood - (I watched a couple of minutes) - I see the umpires still let Brodie Grundy get away with anything in the ruck. I wonder how they'll go in a few years time. Collingwood WOULD have crashed to crap if they lost Grundy, but will they torpedo their own team by letting players walk after paying Grundy what they did?

Essendon vs Fremantle - (I watched the last quarter) - Okay, what happened to Fyfe? His eye looked ****ed. Wanted them to get up, but you could see with Fyfe struggling to even see Freo were average despite dominating possession.

Adelaide vs Sydney - (I watched the first half before going to great aunt/uncles 50th wedding anniversary) - Adelaide's midfield is getting worse year on year (after peaking in 2017). FOgarty is massive upgrade on Jenkins. Does Fog offset the midfield regressing? No tbh. I thought Adelaide would be 8-12 entering the season. After seeing the midfield regressing ill say 10-14. But Sydney impressed me, I had them just around 10-14 but now thinking 6-10.

North Melbourne vs St Kilda - (I watched about 2 seconds) - Dwayne Russell still makes the ears bleed.

 

[BronCrow]

Adelaide vs Sydney - (I watched the first half before going to great aunt/uncles 50th wedding anniversary) - Adelaide's midfield is getting worse year on year (after peaking in 2017). FOgarty is massive upgrade on Jenkins. Does Fog offset the midfield regressing? No tbh. I thought Adelaide would be 8-12 entering the season. After seeing the midfield regressing ill say 10-14. But Sydney impressed me, I had them just around 10-14 but now thinking 6-10.

I would agree with most of what you said about us. Would disagree about Sydney being impressive though. Whilst they were much the better side, we were absolutely abysmal in the second and third quarter. Apart from Heeney, who is a gun, they were not great I didn't think.

Also, if we start playing again, we are stuffed with O'Brien as the only ruckman. Naismith annihilated him in the ruck after Quarter time, and Frampton is not AFL standard. To make matters worse we had a proper ruckman in Henry Crauford right under our noses at Norwood, who we ignored and let Essendon pick up instead.

 

[MadMundy]

Thought it was a good round, the games themselves were a lot more entertaining and fast paced, would be cool with the shorter quarters sticking around for good.

 

[Blackhawk42]

Everything that every optimistic Hawk fan raved about came true, and it feels extra depressing now the season has been halted.

1. Patton will improve our options moving the ball forward and ultimately assist our small forwards by bringing the ball to ground.
Tick.

2. We'll play more run and gun football and be more entertaining to watch.
Tick. Hendo and Scully had low possession tallies, proof that we went down the middle far more often on attack.

3. Our midfield will be underrated.
Tick. Mitchell, Worpel, Shiels and Wingard were probably our best players aside from Burgoyne. Against a very highly rated midfield.

4. Ceglar as first ruck and Big Boy in defence will work.
Tick.

5. Wingard will have a great year.
One for one so far.


Was thrilled with Sundays performance and pretty devastated if it all amounts to nothing because our age profile will be really starting to stretch by 2021. Especially if we don't get a chance to blood the youth this year in the seniors OR reserves.

 

[Yippy Yi Yeo]

If Naitanui played on Grundy for a full length game, he would be dominant, jumping all over him, running him down putting immense pressure......For about 10 minutes. Until Grundy started to get possessions all over the ground and finished with 40. If I was picking rucks I wouldn't pick Naitanui over Grundy in a million years. Plus his body will probably pack it in a after a few games anyway.

Last time the 2 went head to head Naitanui was clearly having more impact until he did his ACL halfway through the 2nd. Grundy then finished the game with 14 touches, so to suggest he'd get 40 against a full game of NN is just nonsense. He's had his first full preseason in half a decade and just showed he's clearly a level above the supposed 2nd best ruck in the game.

 

[blitzer]

Last time the 2 went head to head Naitanui was clearly having more impact until he did his ACL halfway through the 2nd. Grundy then finished the game with 14 touches, so to suggest he'd get 40 against a full game of NN is just nonsense. He's had his first full preseason in half a decade and just showed he's clearly a level above the supposed 2nd best ruck in the game.

Yeah except I said head to head for an entire game. Not head to head for 10 minutes, then Hickey rotates in so Nic Nat can recover (fair difference there). Plus even the game you gave as an example Nic Nat injured himself before the game was even half finished. Hardly something to be excited over.

If you play Grundy you can get by with a guy to give a chopout for a few minutes and don't even need to play a second ruck. With Naitanui that's not the case. Don't get me wrong Naitanui brings a lot to the table but he also brings significant downsides which do need to be covered for.

If you want to go on believing Naitanui is the best ruck in the game then go for it, but in a season that goes for 22 rounds plus finals, he's nowhere close.

 

[HolyWars]

I honestly forgot all about it after Thursday night. It wasn't until about 8pm Sunday that I again realised that AFL was even happening and checked the Hawks vs Lions score.

The season is done, it won't come back until 2021.

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

Hawks are better than a lot of media folk will have you believe. Breust and Wingard have the potential to be the best mid sized forward combination in the game. 6 goals between them and made it look easy.

 

[Back One Out]

Look as though nobody apart from Hawks and Lions fans bothered to watch our game lol
Oh well. I enjoyed it. Thought the Hawks looked good, but people will continue to underrate us, talk shit and overrate other teams

The funniest part about Round 1 was how good the footy actually was compared to Round 1 footy in past years, but how people (fans and commentators) need the crowd to enjoy it. They can't just watch a game and enjoy the footy without all the hype

I've always known this from watching our Tassie games and then seeing the muted response to the same game from everyone else. A bloke can kick the goal of the round in Tassie and nobody cares. Kick the exact same goal on Friday night at the MCG with Brucey and 70,000 people screaming and fapping and it will be replayed 1000 times.

 

[The Nostradamus]

pies dogs game surprised most like how the dogs were so shit was unexpected

Cats and lions were my picks to slide this year but maybe the dogs were going to be the major slider also