The Bombers lost a couple key players to injury in the early parts of the game against St Kilda on Friday night and the Saints were right in it. Until half time.
The Dons’ structures were shifted, players were being thrown into all positions over the field to accommodate for the losses and in the last quarter they have no fit players on the bench. And the Saints didn’t even look like a threat.
The lack of A-grade talent is becoming a big issue for them.
Jack Steven is a gun and Jade Gresham is on his way to becoming a superstar, but they can’t do it all. Seb Ross looked like he was going to turn into a superstar, but he’s going about the same as he was last year. Jake Carlisle is doing okay but he has very little support in the backline. Tim Membrey isn’t a number one forward and Jack Billings hasn’t developed into what people thought he would.
St Kilda need to throw some big money at some superstars if they want to have any chance at success in the near future.
Long story short, Gold Coast are in a shambles on and off the field.
The way they discarded Tom Lynch after he announced he wanted out was appalling. He served the club for the best part of eight years, captained them and gave his all week in, week out and deserves success at AFL level, but it’s clear he was never going to get it at the Suns.
On field, the team look like they don’t want to be there. The effort and intensity aren’t up to AFL stanard, and they aren’t just getting beaten every week, they’re getting pummelled.
The AFL need to step in and take control. Give them priority picks, increase their salary cap, anything to make them a legitimate AFL club.
In hindsight, a team on the Gold Coast wasn’t a good idea and they should have considered a Tasmanian team before looking at another Queensland team.
People were calling for his head after he missed that goal against Richmond last week and all season people have questioned whether it’s time for him to hang up the boots or not. But Gary Ablett showed on Saturday afternoon that he’s still got plenty to offer at AFL level.
While the Cats didn’t get the win, he was clearly best on ground and Geelong wouldn’t have gotten themselves back in the game at all if it wasn’t for him.
Alex Johnson was the story of the week for the last two weeks for completely different reasons.
This week it was for all the wrong reasons.
When he went down and grabbed his knee, the hearts of every footy fan broke a little bit. It’s one of the most heartbreaking things to happen in the game for a very long time and what made it even worse is that it was the good knee.
If we could all get around him and give him a hug, I’m sure we would.
Are Melbourne about to out-Melbourne themselves? It’s looking more and more likely.
Remember in the first half of the year when people were tipping them to win the flag? It’s a long season.
The one thing that’s holding them in good stead is their percentage, but they have West Coast and GWS in their last two games and they are yet to beat a top eight side.
When the going gets tough, their leaders don't stand up and that's the difference between them becoming a great team.
It could come down to the last game of the season again and for the sake of all the Melbourne fans out there, I hope it doesn’t.
