St. Kilda are no doubt playing some of their best football in years. Their pressure around stoppages and improved ball skills has seen them soar to the top of the AFL ladder. No doubt that St. Kilda’s form has been the main contributor to their success however not taking anything away for the Saints; the AFL schedule has undoubtedly had an impact.

The AFL fixtures see the Saints playing 14 games at their home ground Etihad Stadium, which of course aren’t all home games. Between rounds 3 and 17 the Saints will play 11 games at the dome were they have won by an average of 50 points this year; which along with their current 8-0 record which without question help them to finish in the top two. They are not the only team with a good draw; as always the Magpies will play a lot of their games in Melbourne. Collingwood play only 11 homes games which is standard among other AFL teams, but play 14 games at the MCG - their home ground. The other team which is yet to take advantage of a favourable draw is North Melbourne. They play 8 home games in the first 11 rounds; however they will have to play a stretch of 4 consecutive away games between rounds 14 and 17.

Injuries are probably the only thing that stands between the Saints and a Grand Final appearance. At the moment the Saints only have three injuries; Jarryd Allen (hip), Xavier Clarke (knee) and Sean Dempster (knee) their returns are all listed as indefinite. If some of the Saints’ key players were to go down with injuries maybe they should look at what Geelong has done this year. Geelong has kept players with injuries on the side lines for an extra one or two weeks more than needed to ensure that they are fully fit when they make their returns. The cats first did it this year, when Tom Harley went down with injury; he is yet to return and Gary Ablett may also be rested further. The Cats have the ability to do this because of their depth and why wouldn’t you if your team was playing good footy and was undefeated.

In the first four rounds of footy, it’s been difficult at times to watch teams handball the ball around a dozen times in the space of about twenty metres and eventually turn it over. So many sides this year have gotten themselves into trouble by handballing it when a kick would have moved the ball on quicker. We are aware that sometimes just kicking the footy up the ground isn’t always an option with teams usually flooding back; however wouldn’t it be better to turn the footy over in the forward 50 as opposed to turning it over in the defensive 50 and potentially giving away a shot at goal.

Last week Gary Ablett put on a masterful performance against Adelaide amassing 46 possessions. We are not taking anything away from Ablett’s performance, he was simply unbelievable but in his way to gathering 46 touches, 33 of those were handballs. Nathan Buckley was one of a small group of players in recent times that consistently gathered significantly more kicks than handballs during a game of footy. We are not saying that current players aren’t as skilled as players from yesteryear but that the game has changed so much that they have no choice but to handball more.

It was well known that both West Coast and Geelong were handball happy during their premiership winning year and of course other teams began to play a similar game to try and compete with them. When handballs are used in the right situation, the footy can be a delight to watch as teams move the ball from one side of the ground to another in an instant.

Hopefully this fad of handballs wont be around for too much longer, no doubt teams will come up with another match winning game plan that will be emulated across the league.

The biggest story of the off season has been Ben Cousins and his return to the AFL. Richmond’s selection of Cousins was both surprising and exciting; Ben would have the opportunity to resume his AFL careers. The former Brownlow medalist and Premiership winner has the opportunity to rebuild his career; all that stands between him is the possibility of injuries and his own demons. As long as Ben stays healthy we have no doubt that he will return to his best and retain his Premiership winning form.

A new AFL rule was also a talking point during the pre-season; the rushed behind rule. This rule would see the attacking team receive a free kick directly in front of the goals if it was deemed that the defensive side had purposely knocked the football over the goal line. This rule has the potential to cause major controversy and damage in the AFL. Imagine if a team loses an AFL match due to an error with the rush behind rule; very similar to the situation which occurred between the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers in a practice match recently. The AFL could find itself in a position where a match’s result could be contested post-match and eventually result in the matter going to court; something no would want to see. We view the rule as being a little bit excessive and a knee-jerk reaction to last year’s Grand Final where Hawthorn walked in numerous rushed behinds. We would prefer that if it was deemed that the football was purposely rushed, the attacking team would receive three points opposed to a free kick which slows down the game and potentially awards the team six points.

Looking to the season ahead, we believe that there are a number of movers and shakers. Of course Geelong and Hawthorn will again dominate. It’s hard to say if Hawthorn can repeat the performance from last year and win back to back flags, but if they can stay healthy there is not much holding them back from doing so. Gary Lyon recently wrote an article opposing this, stating that the young Hawks may find it difficult to bounce back from last year’s victory. If Franklin can kick 100 goals plus again it would be hard to doubt a repeat, however Franklin has struggled when comes to the playing in the big finals matches and this is when the Hawks need their other members of the forward line to step up, such as Roughhead, Williams and Rioli.

Melbourne, Essendon, Sydney and North Melbourne we believe will struggle to win games this year. Sydney has taken a huge hit to their back line over the summer in particular the knee injury to Leo Barry, who has been placed on the long term injury list. North Melbourne never rank highly before the season and always seem to make or come close to making the eight; however we think that their luck will run out this year. St Kilda and Fremantle may be this years surprise packets. Both teams should have had some success over the last few years but they may be past their best and on the way down. We believe that these two sides have the potential to cause some havoc in season 09; especially the Dockers who have had a injection of youth into their side; if they could only kick the ball to Pavlich’s chest instead of over his head they would win a lot more games.

The Brownlow will be hotly contested again this year after Cooney’s surprising win last year. Chris Judd is our man to win the converted medal. As long as he can remain virtually injury free he could easily walk away with the medal after a huge preseason. Joel Selwood is our dark horse for the Brownlow. It’s hard to believe that this kid is only 20 years old and that he can already dominant AFL games. Unfortunately for G.Ablett, it seems that his team mates will continue to steal prestigious awards away from him.

Well we hope that you enjoyed reading our first post for season 2009.

See you next week.