There is no ideal time to stage the Grand Final rematch.
There are many who would like to see the Grand Final combatants from the year before kickstart the season, but round one doesn't need a gimmick to drag people through the gates.
Nor is the standard of footy on the opening weekend all that great. Players are still finding their match fitness. Teams are working through personnel and structures.
And nor do we want to wait too long. There have been Grand Final rematches that have taken place almost in the depths of winter with the season already more than half over. The lustre is gone if we have to wait too long.
Early May on a Friday night at the MCG seems just about right. All eyes will turn towards the MCG on Friday night to see as the Cats seek not to avenge last year’s Grand Final loss to Richmond, but to see how they might go about changing things up. Coach Chris Scott has already indicated he might do things differently.
There are so many fundamental changes to both teams, not to mention the venue, that last year’s flag decider is relevant only up to a point. Missing for the Tigers will be Trent Cotchin, Dylan Grimes, Kane Lambert and Dion Prestia, while Nick Vlastuin is only a possibility to return for the Tigers.
Geelong will be missing Patrick Dangerfield, Gryan Miers and Mark O’Connor, while Shaun Higgins is questionable. What makes this Cats outfit different to what the Tigers have faced before is the addition of Jeremy Cameron to the forward line. This is week three of the Tom Hawkins-Cameron partnership and the week the Casts will hope to have most of the wrinkles ironed out.
And then there’s MCG specialist Isaac Smith, who was brought to the club to help it win more matches at GMHBA Stadium, but to help forge a better record at the MCG where the Cats have lost too many big games, especially to the Tigers. He plays his best footy on the MCG’s vast expanses and last time out against Richmond on that ground, whikle still a Hawk, he was best afield.
The Cats blew a 19-point half-time lead over Richmond in the 2019 preliminary final and in almost identical fashion, a lead of closer to four goals just before half-time of last year’s Grand Final. The Cats know better than most that no lead is safe against Richmond and the fascination on Friday night will be how they handle things if they do jump to some sort of lead.
The Tigers borrowed from the tried and trusted blueprint on Friday night, waiting until the second half before turning it on against the Western Bulldogs, bringing that manic, trademark chaos and pressure footy we haven’t seen much of from them since the second half of last year’s Grand Final.
You have to wonder whether Scott and the Cats gulped hard as they watched the team thought to be the premiership favourites for 2021 capitulated to the Tigers in much the same fashion as they did in the biggest game of all last October. It looked all too familiar.
It’s also a big week for…
Christian Petracca: The Melbourne superstar has taken his game to a new level and has a shiny, new seven-year contract to show for it. It will make him a very rich man. But now comes the pressure to live up to the contract. He should channel Lance Franklin, who certainly for the first five or six years of his mega-deal was worth every cent the Swans outlaid. Perhaps don't think of Brodie Grundy, whose form has been only middling since he signed his long-term deal with Collingwood.
Gold Coast: The Suns have lost their last four games to St Kilda by a combined 11 points. This is becoming one of the better rivalries you've never heard of and the games are morbidly watchable. Add Max and Ben King at either end of the ground and this is one game to settle into and enjoy this weekend.
Adelaide and Port Adelaide: Both were really poor last week. But while the Power enter this game as the favourite and should win, the heat will come for the Crows with another poor performance, as their fast start to the season disappears further into the distance. They were beaten by 75 points in the corresponding game last year. Adelaide talk radio will go into meltdown if the Crows are beaten as badly again.
West Coast: They’re the Eagles at home and the Doves when they play away. They face the battling Hawks on Sunday at the MCG and they need to take care of business in games like these if they want to challenge for the top four and launch a serious assault on the premiership. This will likely be the weakest team Adam Simpson will put on the park for the rest of the season as the injured big guns prepare to return, so four points this weekend will be gold and perhaps something to build on.
David Teague: Threw out the challenge to his boys after the Essendon game that they’re good enough to beat any team at any time. He’ll look like a genius if the Blues can knock over the Bulldogs on Sunday. This shapes as one of the most entertaining games of the weekend.