You know how a week is a long time in football? It’s scarcely felt longer than right now.
Down and out seven days ago, a swathe of clubs turned around their form in spectacular fashion, from St Kilda stunning Geelong, to North Melbourne massacring Melbourne, to Port Adelaide doing unspeakable things to Richmond, and West Coast putting on a vastly improved performance in the most honourable of losses to Brisbane.
Then, of course, we finished the round on a cliffhanger, with Sydney, having clung to Fremantle’s heels throughout the evening at Optus Stadium, kicking the last two goals – a stunner from youngster Riley Bice and a nerveless Joel Amartey set shot – to steal Dean Cox’s first win at the helm and prevent a disastrous 0-3 start.
Suddenly, it’s a new group of teams in the hot seat – though you can expect it’ll be Essendon and Carlton, and maybe Melbourne too, feeling the pinch when the footy talk shows begin to roll in.
There’s plenty to talk about and only six points in which to do it, so let’s get stuck in!
1. Friday night’s umpiring wasn’t THAT bad
Every man and his dog has had their say on Friday night’s performance from the umpires, and in particular the 33-14 free kick differential Collingwood’s way.
So here’s a controversial take, which given it comes from a supporter of the supposedly shafted Western Bulldogs should hold at least a modicum of weight: the umpiring wasn’t THAT bad.
Was it a great performance from the men in fluoro? Certainly not; there were more bad decisions than you’d want to see at the highest level, and the call to penalise Bailey Dale for insufficient intent in the dying minutes was genuinely one of the most inexplicable free kicks I’ve ever seen.
It’s not even one I can blame one of world sport’s most complex, innately inconsistent and always frustrating rules on; this was a blatantly wrong interpretation of the insufficient intent law.
But to be honest, that was the only time the Dogs were on the end of a true howler in my eyes – and I’m also big enough to say the first-minute holding the ball call against Darcy Moore that handed Sam Darcy the game’s first goal was a call very nearly as harsh as the one against Dale.
And no: the call not to penalise Nick Daicos for walking the ball out of bounds in the final minute was not a shocker, except in the context of every single time the ball goes out being a free kick if Dale’s one was deemed worthy of one.
The narrative is that the Bulldogs were robbed blind, with a few scattered, out of context examples of free kicks supposedly missed for the Dogs or given to the Pies, and the +19 free kick differential the Pies’ way; and it’s honestly rubbish.
It’s the same shallow analysis of umpiring that has seen the Bulldogs’ 20-8 free kick advantage in the 2016 grand final deemed to have shafted the Swans and gifted them a premiership.
The free kick count doesn’t have to be equal – the fact is that on Friday night, the Bulldogs tackled recklessly, had defenders concede frees when caught out of position, and most obviously of all, dallied too long with ball in hand in congested situations and were repeatedly caught holding the ball.
Sure, it’s surprising that the count was so lopsided, and over the course of the match you’d probably say the Magpies had the rub of the green (except for the first five minutes, when seemingly every call went the Bulldogs’ way), but I have left far more games far more convinced the Dogs had been crucified than on Friday night.
As for Bulldogs fans incensed about the count, or about decisions going against their team, my advice is the same one I’ve dished out to rival supporters for years: if you don’t want to give away free kicks, tackle properly and distribute the footy legally. Simple.
2. 22 Bombers should be embarrassed to be Zach Merrett’s teammate
I honestly can’t recall a player so comprehensively showing up his teammates like Zach Merrett on Saturday afternoon at the MCG.
Essendon were an utter rabble: wayward moving forward, fumbly whenever the ball came their way and paper-thin defensively, Adelaide did as they pleased in racking up a whopping 25 goals amid a wide spread of contributors.
Without Merrett, a 61-point loss would have without a doubt been in triple figures. There’s an argument he was the best player on the ground, despite the result.
And that should absolutely embarrass the 22 Bombers who followed him out onto the field on Saturday.
It wasn’t just the 36 disposals and four goals, either; it was the fact that he was seemingly the only player willing to bust his gut to sprint to the next contest and try to make an impact, rather than lamely jogging and waiting for someone else to do the hard work.
Two of his four goals came from outrunning everyone, teammate or opponent, into a dangerous spot inside 50, and then finishing beautifully.
After one of his goals, in the second quarter, he headed to the bench and keeled over on the ground gasping for air; I reckon plenty of Bombers fans would have watched that and felt that their club doesn’t deserve him.
The positive for Brad Scott is that there is a clear example sitting right there in the room when he attempts to coax a lift out of his team; just show the vision of Merrett’s entire game, and try and get a match in endeavour at least – no one is going to equal his brilliant skills or ball-winning nous.
The Bombers have one of the youngest sides in the AFL, which deserves to be taken into account when they dish up a shocker like this; but with youth is supposed to become enthusiasm if not quite four-quarter consistency, and it’s an indictment on their young crop that the standard-bearer in that regard is still their 29-year old champion.
3. There are no easybeats anymore
For the last few years, amid the most even era of football we’ve ever seen, there were few things fans could take for granted – but one of them was a near-guaranteed four points against the AFL’s easybeats.
North Melbourne and West Coast have occupied that low rung since 2022 at least, while Richmond joined them in 2024; all three headed into 2025 as the likeliest candidates to once again be in the bottom three and fighting for the spoon.
But no more. There isn’t a guaranteed four points to be found anywhere in the league at the moment, and football is better for it.
The Eagles, fresh off a humiliating hiding on home soil against Gold Coast last week, channelled a week’s worth of frustration and scrutiny into a performance against Brisbane that was approximately ten thousand times better.
Their pressure was immense, their work rate to push into space for uncontested marks elite, and everyone from Tim Kelly to Jeremy McGovern lifted accordingly to come very close to pulling off one of the great upsets against Brisbane at the Gabba.
The first 20 minutes, in which they piled on five goals to none, is the best footy the Eagles have played since 2021; putting the reigning premiers to the sword on the rebound and looking dangerous every time the ball went into attack, it was everything Andrew McQualter would want to see from his young charges.
They’ve found a good one in Tyrell Dewar, too, who put together quite clearly his most impressive display of his nine-game career to show plenty of Lions up with his endeavour to sprint from contest to contest. At just 21 years old, a Rising Star nomination this week would be a fitting reward.
It was always unlikely to last, but they forced Brisbane to bring out their best footy to bring things back to a level pegging midway through the third quarter, then hung around gamely for another half an hour, responding almost goal for goal, until finally running out of legs with 10 minutes left.
But there was no shame in a loss like this; on the contrary, there is nothing but pride.
Even better were North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium; the Kangaroos have had early-season wins before to promise false hope, but their utter dismantling of a Demons outfit expected to win relatively comfortably feels different.
Utterly dominating a star-studded Dees midfield, the likes of Tom Powell, Harry Sheezel and Luke Davies-Uniacke did as they pleased, fed by a rampant Tristan Xerri, who handed Max Gawn a rare drubbing to stake his claim as footy’s new number one ruckman.
In attack, Nick Larkey is now surrounded by capable options, with 300-gamer Jack Darling offering invaluable key support and Paul Curtis developing into a very nice small forward now that decent supply is starting to come his way. And down back, Charlie Comben isn’t the finished article yet, but there’s a scenario where in 12 months’ time he’s the best intercepting key defender in the game.
It was impossible not to feel happy for the Kangaroos fans shouting their lungs out as the dam wall burst in the final quarter; I suspect it won’t be the last time the Roos put a team to the sword this year, however many wins they end up with.
And of course, we saw only last week what will happen when a team doesn’t take Richmond seriously. The Tigers were trounced by a Port Adelaide side that needed to make a statement; that will happen regularly, but you do still need to be keen for a kill to destroy them, and even then the young Tigers did themselves plenty of credit by fighting out a respectable final term to keep the margin under 100 points.
For a while now, teams have had the luxury that, as tough as times were, a gift four points were never too far away.
Not anymore.
4. Hornet and Harley need to pull their heads in
I started writing this column thinking that no player had a more miserable time of it over the weekend than Jason Horne-Francis on Saturday afternoon; but 24 hours later, Harley Reid nearly matched him up at the Gabba.
Despite the disparate fortunes of their teams – Port Adelaide flogged Richmond while Reid’s Eagles ran out of puff against Brisbane – the two number one draft picks had remarkably similar days at the office.
Both were visibly frustrated by quiet starts to the game; both let the opposition get under their skin; and both let their tempers boil over with cheap shots that won’t attract Match Review Officer scrutiny but frankly should.
Horne-Francis ended with 17 disposals and five free kicks against; Reid 15, seven frees against and several pitiful staging acts trying and failing to square the ledger. Yikes.
It’s probably time for this two obscenely talented young guns to be told some hard truths, and to pull their heads in; all they are doing by proving so easy to provoke is making their careers so much harder than they need to be.
When was the last time you saw Marcus Bontempelli react like they do on a weekly basis? Or Scott Pendlebury? Or Isaac Heeney, Patrick Cripps, Nick Daicos, Andrew Brayshaw? That’s the group both Horne-Francis and Reid should be aiming to join, never mind how early in their careers they are.
All they are doing at the moment is hurting their teams; and while it didn’t cost Horne-Francis this week, if he keeps going like this, eventually there will come a time when his temper does real damage to his team’s fortunes.
It’s time for him – and Harley – to find a better way of dealing with it.
5. What was Simon Goodwin thinking?
Post-match AFL press conferences are usually an exercise in tedium: a coach rocks up, politely answers the questions, spouts some cliches and usually avoids calling anyone a ‘weak-gutted dog’ like they do in the NRL.
Really, they’re only ever interesting when a coach makes a blue – and Simon Goodwin’s response to being asked about a rare quiet game for Max Gawn certainly qualifies in that camp.
“You’ve also got to realise that in life there are other things going on,” Goodwin said.
“We’ll support Max, he’s a great person, he’s a great leader. There’s a backstory to everyone’s performance.
“I’m not going to go into the details… there’s footy and then there’s some stuff in life. You’ve got to understand that people have backstories.”
Goodwin then didn’t elaborate on any of this, ensuring that the rumour and innuendo mill, both among regular footy fans and most likely in the media, can go into overdrive, piling yet more attention on the Demons and their skipper in addition to what will come as a result of being flogged by North Melbourne.
It was a bizarrely vague excuse, and completely unnecessary: Max Gawn has earned the right to a rare lowering of his colours after nearly a decade as the game’s best ruckman, especially at the hands of an outstanding counterpart in Tristan Xerri, for a simple ‘he didn’t have his best game today, he’ll be back to his best next week’ to suffice.
Instead, Goodwin has now created a story that didn’t previously exist, and given his club something else to worry about ahead of a crucial week.
Truly head-scratching.
6. It’s time to bring back Footscray
Nearly 30 years ago, when the Footscray Football Club board made the decision, against the will of the members, to change the team’s name to the Western Bulldogs, the club was in perpetual financial strife, scrambling for cash wherever they could, and needed any broader appeal they could muster.
Fast forward to 2025, and the Bulldogs are doing great; blessed by the arrival of monstrous TV sums and the AFL’s egalitarian distribution around the league, the club is sitting healthily in the green, has a strong contingent of young fans, a talented list, and just posted their highest ever home home-and-away crowd (though Collingwood probably deserve most of the credit for that).
All of that would make it the perfect time for the Bulldogs to go back to their roots and re-embrace Footscray – if it was good enough for one one-off evening to honour 100 years in the AFL, it should be good enough for the rest of the time.
I could give you a thousand reasons why I, as a Bulldogs member, would love to see it – a key one being that my dad has never quite got over the name change and still despises when Fox Footy only bother to list them as ‘Bulldogs’ for games – but I think Nat Martin from X pretty much sums it up perfectly.
It’s time, Dogs, to go back to the future.
Random thoughts
– Joel Freijah has it.
– I loved Izak Rankine watching Josh Rachele kick a ripper goal, think ‘amateur’, and then pull out a Goal of the Year frontrunner five minutes later. Supreme one-upper.
– If Bailey Smith can report hamstring tightness on a Saturday, then pull out of a game the next Friday, without a single mention from his club in between that he’s under a cloud, the injury list each team puts out every week is entirely pointless.
– We’ve all been her at some point.
– As great as it is to watch Jack Macrae and Caleb Daniel rack it up in different colours, we all understand they’d still be on the fringes at the Bulldogs, yeah?
– I thought Zak Jones was washed about three years ago. Can you have a breakout game at 30?
