It’s been a while since Blues, Pies, Bombers and Tigers were at top at same time, is 2018 the year powerhouses return?
AFTER Richmond roused its mighty army from a long slumber last year, is it time for Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon to awaken their loyal fans? MATTHEW LLOYD looks at each of their chances for the 2018 season.
Matthew Lloyd
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I WILL remember the Western Bulldogs’ premiership glory in 2016 and Richmond’s drought-breaking Grand Final victory last season for exactly the same reasons for decades to come.
The football world witnessed these two teams winning premierships through sheer
willpower and a desire to crash through anyone and anything standing in their way. They rode a wave of momentum to achieve the pinnacle of our sport.
The Western Bulldogs and Richmond players had such a belief in each other, their coaching staff and their game plan that they were like a tsunami at the business end of the season.
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Both clubs could not have been more worthy winners of their fairytale premierships.
So can we expect another feel-good story to evolve this year, involving one of the AFL’s four power clubs, alongside Richmond, in Carlton, Essendon or Collingwood?
Collingwood has always seen itself as the biggest club in the land, but you stand for nothing if you don’t contend for premierships on a consistent basis.
As lean as the past four years have been at the Pies, they did win a flag just eight years ago, but for Carlton and Essendon fans the wait has been much longer.
It has now been 23 and 18 years respectively since the Blues’ and Bombers’ last premierships. This falls well short of what the powerbrokers of these clubs once stood for. All three clubs’ results in recent years are wearing thin with their loyal supporters.
The last time all four Victorian power clubs competed in the same finals series was 1973 — when it was a final five in a 12-team league.
Wouldn’t it be great to see the revival of the Victorian powerhouses this year? Richmond aside, Essendon looks the most likely to challenge for the flag.
Joe Daniher and Zach Merrett are in their prime, while the recruitments of Devon Smith, Jake Stringer and Adam Saad are shrewd selections — they all join the club at just 23 years of age to top off a highly talented list.
I was always a big believer that you had to have multiple years of finals experience as a team before you could go on and win a flag, but that belief is waning after the past few years.
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PREVIEW: ESSENDON PLAYERS TO CONSIDER FOR YOUR SUPERCOACH TEAM
Any team that gets its act together and is playing the right type of football come September can win it, and Essendon should be aiming for the stars with the squad it has assembled.
Talent is one thing, honesty and a willingness to play your role for the team’s betterment is another. I still don’t have total confidence in Essendon with that.
They also haven’t got the balance right between attack and defence, which made them look like schoolboys in last year’s elimination final against Sydney.
The Swans made Richmond look like a rabble just 12 months before it won its historic premiership, so if Essendon can get things right and the new recruits find their feet early, the Bombers should have their sights set on the top four at the end of the home-and-away rounds.
From there anything is possible.
Rival supporters have taken great joy in seeing the Pies play the way they have under Nathan Buckley in recent years.
Injuries, poor skills, different game styles and a lack of cohesion on and off the field have all been key reasons for their demise.
For all that, Collingwood stood strong as a club and backed its man Buckley after an improved showing in the second half of last season. Buckley also looked calmer and more in control of his emotions in the coaches’ box as the season unfolded.
PREVIEW: COLLINGWOOD PLAYERS TO CONSIDER FOR YOUR SUPERCOACH TEAM
Collingwood was the No.1 contested ball team in the AFL last year, which goes to show that Buckley’s playing group was having a red-hot crack for him.
But it has been their inability to hit targets by hand and foot over the past two years that has been the most alarming thing for me.
If Collingwood’s decision-making and skill level doesn’t drastically improve across the board this season, the Pies will not make the eight.
Key position players Darcy Moore, Ben Reid, Mason Cox and Brodie Grundy are vital to the team’s fortunes as its depth in this department looks thin.
With Moore most likely going into defence and Reid forward, Buckley may restructure his attacking set-up, much like Richmond of 2017, with a small, high-pressure forward line.
This may be their best chance of kicking a winning score and playing finals, as too much depends on the midfield brigade having a day out and the undersized X-factor players in Jamie Elliott and Jeremy Howe dominating the air at either end of the ground.
Collingwood plays five of its first six games at the MCG, with four of those games being against Hawthorn, Carlton, Essendon and Richmond.
It doesn’t get any bigger than that for the Magpie army in a make-or-break year for Buckley.
Carlton lost Patrick Cripps in Round 16 last year and only won one more game for the rest of the season. It finished the year with six wins.
PREVIEW: CARLTON PLAYERS TO CONSIDER FOR YOUR SUPERCOACH TEAM
Cripps returns, but Bryce Gibbs departs and Sam Docherty will not play all year due to an ACL tear in the pre-season. They are two massive losses.
Playing finals isn’t a realistic option, in my opinion, but every decision made by Brendon Bolton looks like it is being based on when Carlton will play its next final.
Bolton continued to play youth last season instead of the recycled players on the list and this year should be about finding the club’s next five potential All-Australians.
Blues fans would also want to see the next layer of the game plan under Bolton after years of defence-first football.
Carlton was the 18th ranked attack in 2017, averaging just 72 points a game.
Seeing the likes of Charlie Curnow, Jack Silvagni, Harry McKay, Jacob Weitering and Sam Petrevski-Seton in the forward line alongside Levi Casboult can enhance and fast-track their development provided they are given one-on-one opportunities through faster ball movement.
If the Blues don’t hit the scoreboard more freely this year, it will be hard to see them winning more than the seven games Bolton won in his first season.
As young as the Blues are, the pressure and expectation to win games will be heightened this year with Bolton coming into his third season at the helm.
May the sleeping giants awaken as it is always a better AFL competition when they do.
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