After 10 weeks of motion the 2022 season has reached considerably of a fork within the street, and a few flag-chasing groups are about to face their largest checks but.
Welcome to the AFL Spherical-Up, the place we digest the week that was.
The challengers await the Demons
You’ll be able to rely on one hand the quantity of instances the Demons have been genuinely challenged to this point in 2022.
Most of them have been temporary fees that lasted little over 1 / 4 and had been promptly nipped within the bud, like from the Western Bulldogs on the season’s opening evening, or Essendon’s final quarter on the MCG in spherical three.
St Kilda in all probability supplied up probably the most hearty four-quarter effort a number of weeks in the past and nonetheless misplaced by 38 factors.
Coming off back-to-back video games in opposition to the league’s worst groups — North Melbourne had been gallant on Saturday arvo however nonetheless sufficiently outclassed — the time feels proper for Melbourne to begin going through some severe warmth.
The Dees’ subsequent 4 video games sit round their round-14 bye, and are available in opposition to Fremantle, Sydney, Collingwood and Brisbane.
Within the Dockers and Lions you have got top-four fancies and groups who’ve at instances appeared like real threats to the Demons’ throne, and within the Swans and Pies two unpredictable sides whose attacking finest will threaten the Melbourne defence greater than most others.
The caveat is that every one 4 of these video games will likely be performed on the MCG, however in a month’s time a remaining verdict on simply how far forward of the pack Melbourne are will likely be reached.
In all chance, this stretch will solely solidify their dominance. However there is a fairly rattling attention-grabbing season brewing beneath them, and the chasing pack have been biding their time, ready for a shot on the king.
Tigers’ time is now
Dion Prestia can sniff it.
He informed ABC Sport after Richmond’s win over Essendon that the whiffs of 2019 are solely getting stronger round Punt Street.
Prestia identified the Tigers’ document on the bye in that yr — 7-6 at 91.99 per cent, and outdoors the highest eight — and the home-stretch surge that took them to the second of their three flags.
It is true the Tigers are scorching proper now, using a four-game profitable streak and taking part in soccer immediately recognisable as Richmond-like. However all 4 of these wins have come over sides unlikely to play finals this season.
Very similar to Melbourne, the following 4 weeks for Richmond will likely be illustrative. Sydney on the SCG, earlier than Port Adelaide, Carlton and Geelong on the MCG is the duty earlier than them.
For Prestia’s vibes to be confirmed proper, they should win all 4 of them.
However that is not past Richmond in a contest that, except for Melbourne on the high and a few battlers on the backside, is remarkably even.
For the following few weeks at the least, Richmond stay on high of the watchlist.
Across the grounds
The Spherical-Up has been a really pro-Hawk house this season, and but once more Sam Mitchell’s males proved why. Hawthorn play attacking, uncompromising footy irrespective of the opposition, and have now one other large scalp within the bag within the Lions.
The margin could have flattered St Kilda barely, however they had been good worth for his or her win in Adelaide. Beating the Crows down there isn’t a stroll within the park anymore, so this win is a severe feather within the Saints’ cap.
Carlton are the most effective watch within the league proper now, largely as a result of they’re so wildly unpredictable. It won’t be straightforward on the hearts of Blues followers, however it’s a hell of a superb time for the remainder of us.
Geelong’s win over Port Adelaide was hardly a traditional, however Jeremy Cameron’s boundary-line barrel after the 3QT siren means no one inside Kardinia Park will quickly overlook it. Each bit pretty much as good as Mitch Duncan’s final yr.
This teaching caper is a stroll within the park for Mark McVeigh. Sadly for him and the Giants, they will not get to play West Coast each week — and coughing up 86 factors to the Eagles is a little bit of a fear too.
Freo have to be cursing La Niña. Their final two video games have been performed within the moist, and on each events they’ve didn’t discover a option to rating. The Dockers’ wonderful season has hit its first main velocity bump, and the Demons, Lions and Hawks await earlier than the bye.
The Bulldogs received on Saturday by discovering a option to negate Jarrod Witts’s affect and retaining the midfield battle scrappy. The Suns deserve credit score for working all of it the best way to the wire, however the sport was by no means actually on their phrases.
Within the clubhouse
Right here we take inventory of who’s main the race for the season’s particular person awards.
The Rising Star battle is getting attention-grabbing, and it is a few mature-age gamers who need to be main the best way proper now.
We have had Nic Martin in entrance for the previous couple of weeks, and he’ll keep there for now, however his closest challenger is now clearly Jai Newcombe.
The draft class of 2021 is having a quiet few weeks, although Ben Hobbs is worthy of a point out as his profession begins to actually heat up.
It is laborious to imagine it is taken this lengthy for Jeremy Howe to seem on this part, however his seize within the moist in opposition to Freo is our mark of the week. It is proper up there for the yr too, however for now Cam Zurhaar’s lead stays.
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And for the hell of it, Jeremy Cameron’s torp may be purpose of the week, simply so we are able to watch it once more. Not fairly sufficient to knock Ed Langdon off the highest of the leaderboard although.
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