Gerard's Snap Judgements from a huge weekend of sport! (01.06.26)
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What are Gerard's initial thoughts on the weekend of sport?
Monday morning. This is your town. This is your station. This is Waitley. Good morning. The first day of winter and the halfway mark of the AFL season. Calling all snap judgments 1-300-736-736 and the 40 Wings temper text 0-4-3-3-98-11-16. The difference is temper. what you feel most passionately from the weekend of footy, and more broadly, sport, if that's where your emotions are running. 12 rounds down, 12 to go.
How does the AFL season's halfway point impact team strategies?
It demands a step back to survey the picture before us. And it's as you take in the view, you fully recognise the change in the terms of engagement. We're beyond the debate whether you like the idea of a top 10 in wildcard games. That's the altered reality. It was done for dramatic effects and the drama it's stirring is obvious. The heightened tension around the top two, the top four, the top six, the curse and the refuge of seven through ten, the dead zone of 11th and 12th and the glimmer of hope that exists for those who would previously have been entering hibernation. We have our tearaway leaders. It will now, frankly, be surprising if Fremantle and Sydney don't hold those places through to hosting qualifying finals.
Third and fourth will be put on a plane, but with the security of the double chance. Fifth and sixth keeps you at home against an opponent who will have played one extra game while you were resting. There's a world in which fifth and sixth is a preferable landing zone. It was suggested to me a couple of weeks ago that terms of PFI needed to alter to match the altered circumstances to assess top six integrity. There's merit to that argument. Either side of the wild card line are Melbourne and the Bulldogs. The honeymoon might be over for the demons. There were some old flaws in efficiency and connection evident yesterday. And performance tells you now that they aren't the same team away from the MCG.
A second straight loss was easy enough to diagnose. The Giants ran past them all day long. The Bulldogs have seven wins, five of them by a goal or less. They are this year's heart attack team, and if history has taught us anything, there's nothing that matters more than winning your close ones. The difference between sixth and seventh is the chance to truly contend. Luke Beveridge said as much on 360 last week. The Bulldogs have to drag themselves the right side of that line, and these narrow wins are giving them that chance. The wildcard zone is offering refuge to the Lions. Everyone will have a theory on Brisbane. To my eye, they are exhausted. They just can't go. The spirit was willing enough early on Saturday, but the body is weak.
The Lions have prevailed through the two longest campaigns in history. This is the cumulative toll. Chris Fagan will try to keep them viable with a win here and there before the breather of the bye. He needs reinforcements and he needs a second wind. If they can cling to a wildcard berth, the idea of the Lions will be there throughout. Great teams carry a lingering aura.
What changes are being discussed regarding wildcard games in the AFL?
But this is not hard to diagnose either. It's the most understandable decline imaginable. This is the lot of the long-term champion. The Lions are gassed.
We'll keep plugging away. I realise we've been at six wins and six losses and we're just holding on to our spot in the top ten now, whatever it's called. But we've been in worse positions and we've just got to keep working away and stay positive. Do you know, I've got a lot of faith in this group. I should have, shouldn't I? They've played in finals the last seven years and You know, they've got to the big dance three years in a row. So there's something there to work with. We've just got to find it. I don't know whether they're a bit tired from all of those efforts over the last few years. It's really hard to work it out. There's just so many things at the moment that aren't quite right. But I'm going to stay positive with them because would you, if you were me?
Of course you would, because of what they've been able to do the last three years. And I know that doesn't help right now, but I'm going to back up.
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