Three rounds into a season, and the ladder looks… interesting, to say the least!
Of course, the farce that was Opening Round has distorted it utterly – Hawthorn are a game ahead of everyone else, while Gold Coast are a game behind – but even looking past that, the first month of 2025 has thrown up plenty of surprises.
Adelaide and Gold Coast look in imperious touch ahead of a battle royale on the glitter strip next week; meanwhile, the Western Bulldogs are defying their star-studded injury list and St Kilda predictions of mediocrity to sit safely inside the eight at round’s end.
On the flipside, Carlton and Melbourne are winless and in dire straits, Port Adelaide in crisis mode after a second grim defeat in three weeks, and while Essendon and Fremantle will be relieved to be off the mark at last, they’ve still got some serious catching up to do.
Both on-field and off, there’s much to discuss, from the Suns’ stirring form, to late change controversy, to all that Noah Balta business. Let’s begin.
1. Geelong withdrawing Tom Stewart late is fine
Naturally, the official announcement an hour before Saturday night’s match that Geelong were withdrawing Tom Stewart from their selected team got people a wee bit upset.
Not to go against the grain – and I feel like I’m defending Geelong every other week in this column – but what the Cats did with Stewart is totally fine.
Let’s go through the timeline quickly: Stewart was injured last night, was subbed out, Chris Scott said during the week that he would be touch and go but they were hopeful he would play, he was named in their team on Thursday night, flew up to Brisbane, and only after that was it deemed he wasn’t fit.
I’ve got no problem with any of this – the Cats wouldn’t have wasted a flight on him, and denied him an extra few days of rehabilitation, if they were truly resigned to him not playing, and they’re well within their rights to give him as much time as possible to get himself fit given his importance to the team and the quality of their opposition.
There wasn’t even any obfuscation: Scott and Geelong said all along Stewart’s selection was far from a sure thing, and the way the AFL team selection system works is that teams only have to be locked in an hour before the match. The league even made clubs go against their will in 2021, in response to fan demand, to name their teams on Thursday night in the first place as opposed to just 24 hours beforehand.
The Cats’ handling of Stewart’s injury is surely infinitely preferable to what they did with Bailey Smith a week earlier, anyway: he too reported an injury on match day after their Round 1 win over Fremantle, yet there was no mention of it on their mid-week injury list, he was named in the team on Thursday night as if nothing had happened, and it was left to Seven’s Mitch Cleary to report on Friday night that he was going to be a late scratching… with the Cats only officially confirming the news with their final team list.
If you’re going to be annoyed about any Geelong injury shenanigans that have happened lately, that’s the one to be up in arms about.
(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
2. Mansell ban the right one… just a month too late
At some point, the AFL was going to have to clamp down on the new trend of players pushing their opponents dangerously into marking contests.
And just because they dropped the ball in the pre-season on a number of incidents, including the one where Richmond No.1 draft pick Sam Lalor had his jaw broken after being pushed into a pack by West Coast’s Reuben Ginbey, doesn’t mean they should have repeated the dose when Rhyan Mansell shunted St Kilda’s Liam O’Connell into an oncoming Tom Lynch on Saturday
As with so many things involving the Match Review Office, three weeks feels a little bit harsh for what he did – Jack Riewoldt has been criticised for suggesting there was no malice to it and that Mansell couldn’t have foreseen Lynch crashing into the Saint – but it’s definitely something that needs to be stamped out of the game, and for that to happen you’ve also got to start suspending players for it.
The word is that the AFL sent a directive to clubs several weeks ago advising them that incidents like Mansell’s would be punished moving forward: if that’s the case, then it’s hard to imagine how the Tigers could possibly get him off the hook at the Tribunal should they challenge.
Really, all this incident proves is that the AFL should have acted far earlier, back when Ginbey and several other players did it in the pre-season; better late than never, sure, but had the crackdown happened when it should have, maybe O’Connell wouldn’t be facing 12 days in concussion protocols.
3. Are Gold Coast… good?
I’ve written at length over the first three rounds of the year about how pathetic Gold Coast’s two opponents to start 2025 have been: West Coast were abysmal at home in Round 1, and on Saturday Melbourne were left broken in an MCG demolition job.
But it’s also worth acknowledging something else: the Suns, for the first time in 11 years, might be… good?
I didn’t tip them against the Demons, mostly because after 14 years of false dawns, strong starts and perpetual disappointment, I didn’t trust them as far as I could throw Sam Collins.
There’s still a niggling feeling in the back of my mind that they’re bound to self-destruct at some point, like they did in 2014, the last time they felt like a budding finalist as strongly as they do now – but it’s getting harder and harder to deny the evidence mounting that this is a strong outfit firing on all cylinders.
Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson are fire and ice in midfield, one contested beast and the other a silky-smooth outside runner; John Noble and Daniel Rioli have added plenty of run and carry to a backline that was solid as a rock but without any game-breaking spark on turnover; up forward, Ben King is feasting on the sheer amount of footy coming his way, while Touk Miller is hugely impressive in a new role as a wide-ranging half forward with only stints on-ball.
The cancellation of the Suns’ Opening Round clash with Essendon means they will psychologically be chasing the game all year – they’ll be at least one game behind everyone else, and for the early rounds two behind teams in their vicinity such as Hawthorn – but to be in the top four with a percentage of above 200 isn’t nothing, no matter how dubious the quality of the two teams they’ve played is.
Saturday afternoon’s clash with the also undefeated Adelaide at People First Stadium looms as, for neutral fans at least, the match of the round.
Right now, the Suns are favourites. Win it, whether it’s as emphatic as their first two victories or not, and it will be time to officially take Gold Coast seriously, for the first time since Gary Ablett’s shoulder gave way in Round 16 of 2014 to change the entire course of this football club.
4. Spare the outrage over debuting as the sub
“We need to bring in a rule – you should never be able to be the sub in your first game. You have to actually start! It’s rubbish… I’m not copping that!”
So spake Jason Dunstall on Fox Footy before Thursday night’s Essendon-Port Adelaide clash, after it was revealed both sides would be starting a debutant as their sub – Saad El-Hawli for the Bombers, Tom Cochrane for the Power.
It’s a sentiment I’ve seen frequently since the sub rule was brought back, originally for medical reasons only, for the 2021 season; and originally, I was in full agreement.
But the rule has changed since poor Connor Downie was forced to make his Hawthorn debut as the medical sub four years ago only to sit on the bench for the entire four quarters and not be used. Now, you can make your sub at any time and for any reason, so the odds of a first-gamer not getting on the ground are virtually nil.
Both El-Hawli and Cochrane did come on in the final quarter and have an impact, particularly El-Hawli, whose dashing run from defence set up one Bomber goal and whose seven disposals played a key role in their stirring victory.
And based on his own reaction, as well as that of his family, in interviews post-match, it’s pretty clear they don’t feel him starting as a sub diminished the significance of his first game, or made it anything other than a night none of them will ever forget.
As it stands, the rule is no different to olden days footy, when interchange rotations barely happened and it was entirely possible for, say, Kade Simpson to play his first three games and not manage a single disposal.
All making a rule to ban debutant subs, which Dunstall seems to want, would achieve is making coaches less inclined to pick them at all; I’m not sure El-Hawli would have got a game for the Bombers had it meant starting him over anyone in the 22 (though I’m sure Dons fans would disagree about a few).
The rule was dodgy in 2021; but it has since been fixed. End of story.
5. Fox stumble on commentary perfection
Sure, the Western Bulldogs running over the top of Carlton on Friday night was great – but my favourite sporting moment of the weekend has to be Jason Sangha clipping the winning runs in the Sheffield Shield final and sending Adelaide into raptures.
The best part was watching the jubilation of the fans rushing onto the Karen Rolton Oval, giving Sangha and Ben Manenti a royal guard off, one of them trying to steal a stump and instantly getting apprehended, and just in general enjoying a moment 29 years in the making.
And the kicker? The incredible scenes were only enhanced by something entirely accidental – the commentary broadcast on Fox Cricket, due to day-long technical difficulties, cut out, meaning we got to hear the entirety of the celebrations completely as they were.
And it was glorious.
Which leads me to something I’ve thought about for a while: it would be a winning move for either Seven or Fox Footy to offer something their rival doesn’t – a ‘quiet’ broadcast option.
You should be able to press a button or click on a Kayo or 7Plus feed to turn off commentary for a game, and just listen to the noise of the crowd and anything picked up in the umpire mic.
It’s a strange one for me that both outlets have spent an exorbitant sum of money beefing up their commentary teams – and in the case of both, in my opinion, improving their coverage – when going ‘nude’ is something I and a lot of other fans would really value.
Of course, it’s a pipe dream for now given that commentary stable beef-up: but it’s something for, say, Prime Video or Disney to keep in mind when they start sniffing around for rights again when the current broadcast deal expires.
Just a thought…
6. Okay, let’s talk about Noah Balta
It’s always fraught with danger to try and bring non-footy incidents into a footy setting; plenty of people believe strongly in the separation of church and state, and that things players and administrators do in their own time should have little to do with their availability on the weekend when we’re in the public eye.
Sometimes, though, the AFL is left no choice but to act – and the latest news from Noah Balta’s assault case in the NSW courts will surely prompt an intervention.
The vision that emerged of Balta’s alleged assault – shoving his victim almost airborne backwards before delivering blow after blow on the ground that sent him to hospital – is grim stuff indeed, and its public exposure has naturally led to calls for him to not see a footy field for quite some time yet.
But as it stands, Balta has just one round to serve on his club-imposed four-game ban before he can again appear for the Tigers. There is, right now, a scenario where he could play in Rounds 5 and 6, and then spend Round 7 behind bars.
To address the latter first – I have it on good authority that as it is a first offence, Balta is unlikely to see jail time even if found guilty of a high-degree assault.
But it shouldn’t take literally being sent to prison for the AFL to determine that a player’s conduct has brought the game into disrepute – players have been banned for far less. Take all the GWS players who were suspended for between two and four matches for that end-of-season party last year.
At the bare minimum, Balta should not be allowed to play until his sentence is handed down – I think as a general rule any player facing trial should likewise be stood down by the league, and not leave it to the clubs to dole out sanctions that are unlikely to be as severe as warranted.
Then, after that, it’s up to the Integrity Unit to determine how many extra weeks’ suspension such an incident deserves.
If Balta does indeed play for Richmond in Round 5 – which I’d expect is deeply, deeply, unlikely – it would be a far greater affront to the AFL’s reputation than anything those Giants players did.
Hopefully they will do what they have thus far been perfectly happy to shirk in the Balta case, and act.
Random thoughts
– It’s exceptionally funny how frequently now TV cameramen know to pan to miserable Carlton fans whenever the Blues are losing late in a game.
– Brian Taylor calling out Fox Footy for calling Adelaide-North Melbourne from a studio on Sunday might be his greatest ever commentary moment.
– Murphy Reid is already looking like a hell of a steal at pick 17.
– Watching Bailey Smith turn it over three times, fumble twice and get caught holding the ball once in the five minutes of Geelong’s loss to Brisbane I was able to watch made me chuckle. As did his 28 per cent disposal efficiency.
– Ben Keays is so, so good.
– When do we start talking about Dayne Zorko reaching 400 games? A million years old and as good as ever.
