Well then.
Gather Round is in the bag for 2025 – and it certainly saved the best for last!
After another weekend of drama aplenty in the city of churches, beginning with Adelaide getting overrun by Geelong on their own turf and ending with THAT Port Adelaide onslaught to hand Hawthorn some of their own medicine, it’s safe to say footy has rarely been more unpredictable, confusing and flat out bonkers as it is right now.
We saw epic comebacks – none better than Brisbane’s to steamroll the Western Bulldogs in Norwood – sensational goals, bizarre moments, and yet more pain for West Coast and Melbourne, the only two remaining winless teams.
But let’s be honest – the fallout will be dominated by the events of Sunday night at the Adelaide Oval, vindicating the prime time spot given to the Power and Hawks in what is officially footy’s hottest grudge match.
So, without further ado…
1. Port’s massacre means absolutely nothing…
Richmond beating Carlton in Round 1 will forever remain the biggest upset of 2025, but what Port Adelaide did to Hawthorn in the first half on Sunday night has it covered as the most shocking 60 minutes of the year.
Staring at oblivion after a 1-3 start to the season, against an undefeated juggernaut that had surged to premiership favouritism, surely no one could possibly have predicted the utter carnage that the Power doled out in quite possibly their best ever first half in 12 and a bit seasons of Ken Hinkley’s reign.
Extraordinarily ferocious in their hunt for the footy to win virtually every contest, manic in their pressure to force the best kicking side in the game into repeat rattled turnovers, from James Sicily down, and ripping through the Adelaide Oval corridor with devastating speed to destroy the Hawks’ backline and give their forwards a feast, this was quite clearly the most spectacular single half anyone has dished up this year to date.
But here’s the thing: the manner and the execution was unbelievable, mostly because it wasn’t clear whether the 2025 Power could go to this level, but the result itself was actually entirely predictable if you’ve followed Hinkley’s Power over the years.
This has always been a side that rides on emotion, that loves it when their backs are up against the wall, that can lift its ferocity and intensity to undreamed of levels. The pressure cooker of Gather Round, with both the coach and the club’s succession plan on the ropes, in a literal grudge match against a hated foe with the memory of last year’s semi final fresh in everyone’s memory, made this the perfect environment for the Power to pull off something like this.
And honestly, it’s an indictment on them.
The team that was 59 points up on the Hawks at half time, and as much as 70 up midway through the second term, might as well have been a different club to the one which was utterly pathetic in every facet when they lost to Essendon a fortnight ago. Or the one that was comprehensively outplayed by St Kilda last week, with a hunt for the footy about one-fiftieth of what they mustered on Sunday night.
It’s one thing to benefit from a rev-up, or to respond to media scrutiny with an improved showing – it’s quite another to have your best and worst so far apart as to be practically interstellar.
Even after half time, when the match was (we assumed) beyond doubt, the Power’s levels went back to normal, and it was pretty ordinary, regardless of getting the job done.
Sure, the monkey is off the back now, and the Power have been known to turn their form into a real run of wins, as they did in 2023. This is still a two-time reigning preminary finalist who has made it to the last four in four of the past five seasons.
But you know what? I don’t even trust them enough to tip them against Sydney at the SCG next week, when they’ll have to motivate themselves to rock up and not have circumstance light the spark for them. No one at the Swans said they’d been a nowhere club for eight years, after all.
Port were awesome on Sunday night. That’s indisputable.
But for it to mean anything at all, they’ll need to produce something close to it from here on out.
Even managing to recreate 75 per cent of it against the Swans would be well and truly AFL standard… but that’s also something that has continually proven to be beyond this club in the last few years.
Connor Rozee celebrates a Port Adelaide goal. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
2. … and it doesn’t mean much for Hawthorn, either
In many ways, the Hawks ran into the perfect storm on Sunday night.
That they were so helpless in the face on the onslaught, so completely blown apart in every facet, is both a reminder that their irresistible form over the last 12 months by no means makes them invincible, and, just maybe, the kick in the pants this group needed to avoid getting ahead of themselves.
As much as we gush about the Hawks’ scintillating style and quality contributors, this is still a team with weak links. Without Will Day, their midfield was comprehensively obliterated by Zak Butters, Jason Horne-Francis and co.; a forward line used to having it all their own way were shown up by Connor Rozee’s run and drive and incapable of doing anything to check him; while the forward line still lacks a key forward target above AFL standard (I’m counting Jack Gunston as a mid-sizer), with Aliir Aliir an immovable object all night against the decidedly outclassed Mabior Chol.
When the Hawks have the game on their own terms, when they can get the ball to the outside and in the hands of their elite users to put speed on the ball, they dazzle like few other sides can.
And in the nicest possible way, both the way they play and the success they’ve had in producing it has made this group, as I’m sure you’ve heard from everyone else before, rather arrogant. And as we learned on Sunday night, that arrogance quickly becomes anger if things aren’t all coming up brown and gold.
Every good team, especially the ones on the rise, needs a reality check at some point. The Hawks’ could scarcely have come on a more public stage, nor the humiliation much grander.
But when the dust settles, the Hawks are still firmly entrenched in the top eight, have West Coast, Richmond and Melbourne in their next month, and get a chance to publicly redeem themselves in the spotlight on Easter Monday against Geelong next week.
It’s by no means the end of the world.
3. Blowing up the joint is the worst thing the Dees could do
There’s no use sugar-coating it – these are grim times for Melbourne.
What was meant to be a bounce-back year after injuries ripped the heart out of 2024 following back-to-back straight sets September exits has suddenly become a nightmare, a 0-5 start the Demons’ worst since the truly dark days of 2012.
Naturally, whenever a once-good team falls by the wayside, and especially when they’re plagued by the off-field woes the Dees have endured for the last four years, the calls start flooding in for the joint to be blown up and a full-scale rebuild to be started.
For some, that will involve stockpiling draft picks and moving on their two greatest assets, both of whom flirted with leaving at the end of 2024 – Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver.
To be honest, though, as bad as things are right now, if the Demons wanted a way to make them even worse, it would be offloading those two.
For starters, neither of them will receive anything like fair value in a trade – Oliver has been most closely linked to Geelong, whose list of quality picks is short and of players who they’d be willing to offload even shorter.
After a wretched 2024 and a mediocre – by his standards – start to 2025, plus the anchor of the further five years remaining on his current contract, trading him for virtually anything would be a firesale. Even, in my view, a top-10 pick.
Ditto Petracca: the best player in the game in the eyes of many as little as 12 months ago, no doubt the Dees would have traded him at the end of last year if they’d received a fair value offer.
What’s fair value for Petracca? For me, pick 1 or 2: a bona fide superstar with time on his side, for all his recent https://x.com/AFL/status/1910995133799027114struggles, is worth infinitely more to any team than first access to a likely gun who nevertheless could flop. Melbourne more than anyone should know the risks inherent in even the highest draft picks.
Add to that potential departures of Kysaiah Pickett and Trent Rivers, and the cold hard facts are you do need SOME good players on your list – especially when you’re a club like Melbourne that can’t command the first pick of high-profile interstate free agents like Carlton, Collingwood, Geelong or Hawthorn.
There is still plentiful talent on the Dees’ list, even with Max Gawn nearing the end of his glittering career and every single one of their stars woefully out of form.
Even if this season is a write-off, they simply must push through – if anyone is cut, it should probably be Simon Goodwin, who seems out of ideas to solve the Dees’ long-disastrous ball use inside 50 and crippling inability to hit the scoreboard.
Similar calls were being made of Collingwood during 2021, with Scott Pendlebury, Steele Sidebottom and Jordan De Goey floated as trade bait options.
Instead, Craig McRae came in, reinvigorated the joint, and more than three years on, the former duo in particular are still major contributors to a premiership contender team. The Pies’ last three years of success are every bit as unlikely as it would be for Melbourne to do the same in their next three.
It’s this path the Dees should consider if things stay grim in 2025. Anything more drastic would be madness.
Melbourne Demons coach Simon Goodwin. (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
4. One Gather Round is more than enough
I’ll admit I’m starting to warm to Gather Round with every passing year of its existence.
If you’ll recall, two years ago after its first interation, I described it as ‘fine’ while being adamant there were flaws, specifically the fixture leg-up it gave Adelaide and Port Adelaide with an extra home game as well as empty stands for several games that would have received bumper crowds had they been played in their home state.
But there’s something about the suburban feel of footy at the Barossa Valley, or the way South Australia have absolutely embraced the concept, packed the stands and made it the festival the AFL would have hoped it would be, that has made this venture a resounding success, while offering something other than just shamelessly copying the NRL’s Magic Round.
All the same, suggestions this week that Western Australia could stage its own mini-Gather Round next year in and around Perth make me want to put my foot down.
The appeal for Gather Round in South Australia is that it’s unique. It’s a one-off round in the year where every team is in the same state, where crow-eaters can go to eight of nine games if they’re really motivated (like Peter Malinauskas seemed to be, based on how many times I saw him on the TV), and fans from everywhere in the country can come along if they fancy it and not have to pay exorbitant aeroplane ticket fees if they’re willing to drive.
To have it only be three games each across a two-week stretch, as was suggested by Perth’s number one footy reporter Ryan Daniels, achieves none of these things. It doesn’t have the novelty of a nine-game weekend in the same state, nor is Perth as convenient to get to as South Australia for everyone.
Plus, while North Melbourne vs Gold Coast in the Barossa Valley was cool, there’s something about a Kangaroos versus GWS game in Bunbury that just feels wrong.
Gather Round is great – but it’s fine to leave the rest of the fixture alone, thanks.
5. Disgraceful Kelli Underwood ‘gotcha’ highlights double standard
I wrote a couple of years ago about the issues I had with criticism of Kelli Underwood.
To summarise, it’s basically this: more than any other commentator, she has her performance scrutinised with a fine-tooth comb, any errors spread around social media and widely mocked, and as a result legitimate notes about her performance get lost in a sea of hatred and bad faith takes.
And, as we discovered this weekend, some of it is straight up bullshit.
Underwood was once again a hot topic as she called Fremantle’s win over Richmond, with one popular AFL Instagram page posting a clip in which she appeared to be suggesting Dockers captain Alex Pearce was making his debut.
“Alex Pearce, still plenty of time for him to get involved in his very first game of AFL footy,” she quipped.
In fact, the clip had been selectively edited, removing her mentioning immediately before Richmond first-gamer Jonty Faull, who had given away a free kick to Pearce.
“Jonty learning the AFL lessons the hard way, giving away a free there to the Fremantle skipper, Alex Pearce – still plenty of time for him to get involved in his very first game of AFL footy,” was the actual line.
There are two explanations for this: one, the person who originally posted it heard the line, their ears pricked up at a possible Underwood blooper, and rushed to put it to social media without having another lesson; or two, they knew full well it was bogus, and posted it anyway knowing Underwood criticism gets views and everyone gleefully joins in on the pile-on.
Either way, it’s farcical – not only is no other commentator held to the same standard as Kelli Underwood (Brian Taylor repeatedly got names wrong on Seven’s coverage on Friday night, and no one seemed to care), but she is now actually being, whether maliciously or inadvertently, selectively targeted for ridicule.
It’s plain embarrassing, and some sections of are AFL community need to grow up.
6. Dropping Tim Kelly was the right move
It didn’t inspire the team to an improved performance against Carlton – and in fact, it led to an AFL record low 77 contested possessions as an inexperienced midfield was put to the sword by the Blues.
But Andrew McQualter’s call to drop Tim Kelly for Gather Round was still the correct move.
Yes, there was always likely to be short-term pain – Kelly is by some way the Eagles’ best midfielder in full flight, and without him the likes of Tom Gross and Clay Hall were lambs to the slaughter, especially when Harley Reid remained stationed at half-back for reasons I still can’t fathom.
Still, he has been exceptionally poor this year, and there comes a time in every coach’s tenure where standards have to be met and a statement has to be made.
Kelly’s 14-disposal, three-kick, one-tackle effort against GWS was pitiful. Being left in the WAFL might just be the kick in the teeth he needs to lift his game, especially given he’s now definitely no guarantee to be given a new contract when the monster one that lured him out of Geelong ends this season.
At worst, it should send the message that no one, no matter how senior, is safe: and it’s worth noting Oscar Allen, Jamie Cripps and Liam Duggan had their best games in quite a while, Allen especially in the first quarter when the Eagles matched the Blues goal for goal.
In 2008, Ross Lyon sent a message to the entire St Kilda list when he sent Nick Dal Santo and Stephen Milne to the VFL; it’s safe to say that worked a treat for the rest of that year and the consecutive grand finals that followed.
Who knows? They’re coming from a much lower base, but maybe McQualter’s call on Kelly will be looked back as the moment this worm started to turn.
Random thoughts
– Connor Rozee, you are a half-back for life.
– Poor Harry McKay can’t catch a break this year.
– My eternal thanks to the city of Adelaide for, in the third year of Gather Round, finally not playing the Cranberries’ ‘Zombie’ 75 million times this weekend.
– Are we all sleeping on Lachie Ash? Great kick, super quick, makes good decisions, and nobody ever talks about him.
– Did someone at the Bulldogs insult Eric Hipwood’s mum or something. 11 goals in his last two games against them, 21 goals in the 17 games in between.
