Gather Round brought all 18 teams together in the city of Adelaide for the second year in a row, and what a success it was, with the games continuing to peak as the days went on.
Controversial calls, close finishes, reality checks.
What little bits of hindsight can we take heading into the next round?
Gather Round everyone, here is a piece we like to call AFL 5 Lessons Learned – Gather Round edition.
1. Essendon (fell off the) Edge
The Bombers haven’t been all that convincing to begin 2024, but have still managed to get the job done with straight kicking.
While they looked up for the fight in the first quarter of their Gather Round clash against the Power, the gulf in class showed out from that point onwards.
The Power did what the Saints and Hawks couldn’t do and kicked straight which put the game to bed very quickly.
Zach Merrett was once again Essendon’s main man with 36 disposals, a valiant effort against a Port Adelaide midfield that was brutal in the centre stoppages.
Speaking of midfields, how about the Power one?
With Rozee, Butters, Horne-Francis, Boak, it’s all guns blazing, and it’s unstoppable at times.
The last two weeks have told us a bit about both sides.
Essendon is still way off from competing in finals football, and the Power will dominate the regular season against the bottom feeders, but the top sides will still pose a problem come crunch time.
The Bombers seem to relive the same narrative over and over again. Will they ever snap out of it?
2. Dockers Deadly Dissent
The Dockers put together a hard-fought defensive performance for four quarters against the Blues, and it seemed for all money that Freo were home and hosed.
Now saying they were in the clear may be subjective, but an eight-point lead with just under three minutes remaining, with an average of four goals a quarter up to that point, it was a hard task to lose that.
Some Charlie Curnow brilliance in a one-on-one inside 50 got the Blues back within two points, and it was down to the final two minutes to decide a winner.
90 seconds to go, George Hewett’s kick is whipped around to the hands of Matt Cottrell, as claims of touched are shouted out by Brayshaw, Fyfe, and Young.
Cottrell slots it, the Blues in front, with 40 seconds for Freo to snatch it back.
The Dockers weren’t too pleased with the decision, and their unhappiness wasn’t a vibe for the umpires, who decided they were unhappy themselves.
Matt Kennedy finished the job, converting the dissent free kick, and it seemed like all of the Dockers hard work vanished in a heartbeat.
The replay would definitely indicate the ball deflected off Aish’s bicep, and it’s hard to blame the Dockers for raising their case, but it keeps asking the question about ball technology to help eradicate these issues.
The Blues are now 4-0 for the first time since 1995, and we all know what happened that year.
3. Harley Reid announces himself well and truly.
If you’d watched any of Harley’s Under 18 football, there was no question of his ability to match it at the top level.
The Tongala local has had every headline possible written about him, and he’s certainly let the football do the talking.
Reid’s raw strength at the contest is bullish and he was able to convert with that strength close to goal where he was able to kick his first in league footy.
Reid went into the centre where he was able to show his power out of the stoppages, and for Eagles supporters, it’s certainly everything you’d want to see from a number-one recruit.
Reid finished with 18 disposals, six clearances, and a near team-high seven tackles, in what was a well-rounded performance for the number one draft pick.
It would still be hard to go past Harley Reid as the Rising Star this year, a lot of natural talent that we’ve only just scratched the surface with.
4. Gather Round for the close finishes!
The first two nights of Gather Round didn’t give us the best viewing or most hopeful indications of exciting football to come, but sure enough, the tide turned quickly!
The Eagles gave their best performance of the year, giving the Swans a scare in the first half and making quite the contest out of it.
The Adelaide Oval Saturday double delivered, with the Dockers and Blues going down to the wire, albeit controversially.
Then the Dogs and Cats played out a seesawing affair, which saw the Cats take it by four points in a game that ticked all the boxes for an enthralling watch.
Treloar, Liberatore, and Bontempelli all tallied 35 disposals or more, which still wasn’t enough for the Dogs to assert dominance against a clinical Cats outfit.
Sunday turned our attention to the newly deemed “Expansion Cup” between the Giants and Suns, which was neck and neck for the first three quarters before the Giants got away late.
Norwood Oval saw two or three goal-of-the-year contenders in the Saints second-half comeback, as Max King and Shai Bolton sent highlight reels out all over social media.
If you had heard someone nearly came back from 38 points down in the Collingwood v Hawthorn clash, all money would’ve been with the Pies.
But it was the Hawks who nearly defied all odds, one kick away from getting their first win of the year against the Pies, who walked away narrow five-point winners.
5. Jersey experimentation should be welcomed with open arms.
There has always been the shout for a retro round or rivalry round but to no avail.
Gather Round however has given clubs the perfect opportunity to take a different approach with the onfield attire, and it sure didn’t disappoint.
The Crows rolled out their 2023 Gather Round jersey for the second year in a row, a design which interestingly came from a supporter who posted the design to Reddit.
The Eagles threw it back to 1995, with the navy blue base and yellow wings coming out in their loss against the Swans.
The Dockers redesigned their stealth jersey from 2023, a popular approach of a black base with an outline of another colour.
Although it certainly felt odd seeing the Dockers in Carlton’s usual dark colour, whilst the Blues were in white.
The Saints brought back the Candy Stripes, famous in the early 2000s, and it arguably was the best of the lot, it really should be their away jersey this year!
So who should be next to experiment? Do the Blues bring back the baby blue? Do the Roos bring back the Argentina kit? Do the Dees bring back the demon design? So many possibilities…