The AFL season has reached the midway point and once again there is a sense of foreboding engulfing the entire competition.
For the second straight season, the AFL is playing the juggling game as it moves games around the country following yet another major COVID-19 outbreak in Victoria.
With the Northern Territory borders closed to Victoria, Friday night’s Melbourne-Brisbane blockbuster has been moved away from Alice Springs, while St Kilda-Sydney (Marvel Stadium), the Essendon-Richmond Dreamtime Game and Carlton-West Coast (MCG) have already been moved.
Richmond, Essendon and Carlton have each remained interstate following last week’s games, while ahead of their clash with Fremantle in Perth next Sunday, the Western Bulldogs also skipped town and have set up camp in Sydney ahead of a lightning weekend trip to Western Australia.
Thankfully for the AFL, the bye rounds are now underway, which means only six games for each of the next three weekends and a slightly easier task for the AFL as it deals with the various dislocations and relocations.
Sadly, for Melbourne fans, Victoria’s lockdown meant they weren’t able to get to Marvel Stadium for their rampaging club’s most complete performance of the year, a 28-point dismantling of the red-hot Western Bulldogs. The Demons saw off one fellow premiership aspirant by choking off their trademark run off half-back and creating all sorts of scoring opportunities for themselves off turnovers.
And now they run headlong into another side likely to be jostling with them for the flag come late September. The Lions have won seven straight, putting their own early-season COVID dislocation issues behind them with each passing week.
The Lions jumped the GWS Giants early at the Gabba and cruised to a 65-point win, although a mitigating factor might have been the Giants nightmare preparation that included arriving at the airport the day before for their flight to Brisbane only to be turned away and told to come back the following morning, only a few hours before the game.
Still, the Lions have looked superb the last few weeks and have coped brilliantly with a notable injury list that includes Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale, Cameron Rayner, Jarrod Berry and Darcy Gardiner.
This is the only meeting between these clubs in the home-and-away season, so there will be plenty at stake on Friday night. Sadly, not in front of the football-mad residents of Alice Springs.
Surging Essendon meets Richmond in the Dreamtime clash, which has been shifted to Optus Stadium. It is the most significant game between these two clubs for many years and the Bombers who have won their last three games will replace the Tigers in the eight with a win.
Essendon fans were cockahoop last Sunday and rightfully so. Coming from 29 points behind to beat the Eagles on the road was the clearest sign yet that the Bombers are finally on the path to success. They’d already be in the eight if they somehow hadn’t blown a 40-point lead to lowly Hawthorn in the season-opener.
The Tigers started slowly against Adelaide before taking control in the second term. But they needed some magic from Jack Riewoldt to close it out. The veteran spearhead took a courageous contested mark while crashing sight unseen into a pack, reminiscent of the incredible mark his cousin Nick Riewoldt took at the SCG in 2004 and kicked three last-quarter goals.
The Tigers are starting to get their best team back together and the competition for places in the side is heating up, so this should be a great game.
And Optus Stadium, with all its hi-tech bells and whistles will deliver a spectacular Dreamtime occasion. Western Australia has provided a steady stream of indigenous champions such as Graham Farmer, Barry Cable, Jim and Phil Krakouer, Nicky Winmar, Stephen Michael, Peter Matera and Lance Franklin, to name just a few, could not be a more deserving custodian, albeit it temporary, of this showpiece game.