Yet another epic round of Aussie Rules footy is done and dusted.
Some teams got their season back on track, others look done.
Some are on a magical winning spree, others are showing questionable dissent for the umpires.
As always, we’ve put together a five-leg multi of hindsight in a tidy little blog we like to call Five Lessons Learned.
(1) Cripps for Lyf
A 42-disposal effort from the reigning Brownlow medallist, including being made to “rest” in the forward line late in Carlton’s 10-point win over the Giants last Saturday is a perfect opportunity for punters to look him up in the early Brownlow betting.
With 20 contested possessions, along with 13 clearances and a serious case of leather poisoning, the Carlton superstar was able to go one better than his previous personal best.
After Round 3, Patrick Cripps is third on the table for Brownlow betting at $11, behind Marcus Bontempelli ($9), while equal favourites Clayton Oliver and Nick Diacos are priced at $8.
If Crippa can dish out more of these types of efforts week on week, watch that price plummet.
The lesson here is if you’re keen on backing him to win the Brownlow – get on him. Now!
(2) A Saintly Birthday
Not even the most one-eyed of St Kilda supporters who run infamous Facebook pages about AFL trade rumours and news would have expected the Saints to be 3-0 and sitting on top of the ladder after Round 3 this year.
Saturday night’s 150th celebration of the St Kilda Football Club at the MCG was the best night the red, white and black have had in years.
Plugger was there, Nicky Winmar was there, and all of the greats to put on a St Kilda jumper (and didn’t the one they wore on Saturday look magnificent?) made an effort to be there.
Winning your first three games of the season is never easy, but since Ross the boss returned to Moorabbin, the Saints have been on a roll and are great to watch.
They blitzed the Bombers in the first quarter, held off a fightback from Brad Scott’s men and the two smalls (both former Richmond players) Jack Higgins and Dan Butler kicked four goals each in a memorable night for one of the most iconic clubs in Australian sport.
Can the Saints continue marching in to September?
St. Kilda is currently $1.80 to make the top eight, $4.50 for top four and $21 to win their second ever flag in their 150th year.
(3) No Gawn, No Worries
Although you’d rather have the big fella back playing for them, Melbourne seems to be doing just fine without Max Gawn.
The debut of Jacob van Rooyen was terrific with the WA boy kicking three goals, along with Bayley Fritsch and Kade Chandler matching it along with Steven “Froffies” May keeping Buddy quiet in the Demons 50-point win over the Sydney Swans.
You would think van Rooyen would be a shoo-in for the Rising Star nomination.
Hitting up Alex Neal-Bullen for the first goal of the game, and kicking the second one of the game himself, he very much felt at ease being part of this mighty Demons side.
With a total of six tackles, three marks and a big mark over Swan Peter Ladhams – there’s a lot to like about this kid.
Jacob Van Rooeyn is currently paying $26 for the Rising Star.
Meanwhile, two blokes known as Christian Petracca (33 disposals) and Clayton Oliver (25), also dominated.
The Demons will be fine and will just get better when Gawny returns in a few weeks.
(4) Showdown Shambles
Yet another epic chapter was written in the SA Showdown as the Crows recorded a famous 31-point upset over the Power, who you could argue they were more focused on what they were wearing than actually winning the game.
However, while the Showdown remains one of, if not, the best rivalry in the AFL, the Showdown Medal going to Jordan Dawson for 18 disposals in a game was just bizarre – even Dawson himself thought that 5-goal hero Rielly Thilthorpe should have won telling the AFL website“I probably said I thought it was his medal,” Dawson said.
What’s even more baffling that while the judge’s votes for the Showdown were questionable as to why Thilthorpe or Isaac Rankin didn’t get the honours, was that one of the judges – David King wasn’t even at the ground.
Kingy, who is one of the better analysts of the game was calling it from Fox Footy’s studios in South Melbourne, not at Adelaide Oval.
For one of the biggest games of the year, Fox Footy’s blatant disrespect of the occasion and cost-cutting is dudding viewers, misjudging what is happening at the ground is like finding out your favourite rock star mimed throughout the whole concert.
As mentioned in the Herald Sun’s Tackle column, to Kingy’s credit he gave Rankine the three votes for the medal but to have a judge who is watching the game from a TV monitor in a studio interstate is rather a sad state of affairs.
If Fox is going to raise the price of our subscriptions next, let’s hope they are allocating some funds to fly the commentators to the actual games.
(5) Cats look done…and that’s ok.
Everyone has had this hot-take in their drafts for the good part of a decade.
“The Geelong dynasty is over.”
“The Cats are done.”
Perhaps the time has come for the Cats to actually be done.
Geelong has started the season 0-3 and the reigning premiers sit 18th on the ladder after Round 3.
The Cats are the first reigning premiers to start a season 0-3 since 1976, which isn’t a bad thing given the previous team to do it was North Melbourne who went on to make the Grand Final that year.
And while the Monday hot-take columns and footy shows will do the Geelong write off segment, perhaps after the good part of 16 years of always being in the mix and a decade of trying to win another premiership until finally getting one, perhaps the Cats are actually now old, slow and satisfied.
If any club is allowed to feel that way, it’s Geelong.
Who’d have thought that an Easter Monday clash between the Cats and Hawks would be between 17th and 18th on the ladder?
These are strange times we live in.