Skip the AFL mid-season ‘gongs’ from Footyology

Essendon’s Zach Merrett, Brisbane’s Harris Andrews, Sydney’s Isaac Heeney and North Melbourne coach Alasatair Clarkson. Image: ESPN

Twelve rounds down, twelve to go. The 2024 AFL season is flying by and so fast that sometimes it’s hard to keep track of everything. Need a mid-season refresher? We are here to help you. The problems, the people, the flops, the fun. Here are my mid-season gongs. Don’t you agree? You do not care. Only the truly fit win these very special prizes.

THE “Yes, it’s those guys again” AWARD.

Is anyone dumb enough to think Sydney’s 2022 show was a flash in the pan? Now give yourself an uppercut. Come on, the Swans have been “buttering” themselves for the better part of 30 years and while they may have officially finished 2023 in eighth place, that was after a terrible run with injuries and after reaching 15th on the scale of 14. Now, even with team leaders Callum Mills and Luke Parker literally spectators all year, Sydney are clearly the best team of the mid-season. Nicely balanced on the park and age-wise on the list, the Swans are No.1 in both defense and attack and have three of the top dozen players in the AFL Coaches Award in Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner and Errol Gulden. At the halfway point, six points above the ladder and a game in hand, Sydney couldn’t be better placed.

“It’s just a flesh wound” AWARD.

Monty Python’s famous Black Knight might actually have half a chance of getting a game for Richmond this week if he can kick a football, given the Tigers’ ridiculous run of injuries, one that has now claimed one of the few bright lights in a gloomy 2024. , impressive forward Mykelti Lefau, the fifth lone Tiger to go down with an ACL this season. The 150 injured players so far this season equates to around 20 per cent of the entire AFL player population, with Richmond and Carlton the hardest hit in terms of games missed by their top players. Just five Tigers have played every game this season compared to 15 Sydney players. Unsurprisingly, the Swans also find themselves at the top of the premiership ladder. There are a variety of theories and solutions being put forward for this big emerging problem. Longer pre-seasons, shorter seasons, shorter games, shorter training sessions, longer breaks, more breaks, etc. That should tell you that the science of these things is pretty contested. What it is not, is that fitness or else come the sharp end of this season, which will have as big a say, perhaps more, than any other factor in determining the premiership in 2024.

“WHICH RAPIDLY ESCALATED” AWARD.

Yes, she is a beauty, no doubt about it. But West Coast Tyro Harley Reid appears to have moved on from selection no. 1 draft pick to the Eagles’ brightest hope for the future, to one of the best rookies we’ve seen in a cultural phenomenon worthy of its own page in a newspaper. basic with remarkable speed. And now he’s ineligible for Rising Star after a two-game suspension, just wait for the “Free Harley” justice campaign. Personally, I’m not sure Reid’s season, as impressive as it was, is any better than Nick Daicos’ at Collingwood in 2022. Yes, that long ago. What is it with attention these days?

“SHOULDN’T IT BE A PREMIERE?” AWARD

That’s certainly what Brisbane looked like… well, at least with seven minutes left in the first half of the Lions’ ‘Opening Round’ clash with Carlton, when they led by 46 points. Then two things happened. First, the Blues scored a couple of late goals to go into the break. Then, literally on the buzzer, critical running back Keidean Coleman did his knee, keeping him out for the season. And from then on it was pretty much all downhill for Brisbane. Coleman is just one of four Lions this year with ACLs (Lincoln McCarthy, Darcy Gardiner and fellow draftee Tom Doedee). The Lions lost to Fremantle and Hawthorn and only drew against Adelaide. Their conversion is among the worst in the AFL. And they went from the second highest scoring team in the competition to a mediocre 10th place. Two-and-a-half games outside the top eight, Brisbane have a huge task in the second half of the season to simply make finals, let alone challenge for flags.

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“UNIVERSITY” AWARD.

That’s not to rub anyone’s nose in it, and it’s not like North Melbourne doesn’t have at least one hope for the future in the form of young prodigies like Harry Sheezel, George Wardlaw and Colby McKercher. But the facts are the Roos are now right up there among the worst performing teams in the entire AFL era. North Melbourne have won just one of their last 32 games since their two surprise wins to start 2023. And even that win, in the final game of last season, came at a price, with the chance to draft Harley Reid in the national draft. This is as bad as the worst streaks that infant teams Gold Coast and GWS have compiled in their first two seasons in the AFL. Next in the losing pantheon are Fitzroy in 1995-96 (one win in 36 games) and Sydney in 1992-94 (one win in 37 games). It’s terrible company to keep, and on top of that, the Roos have had their fair share of off-field drama (see Tarryn Thomas and Alastair Clarkson). Just a speck or two of light at the end of a very long tunnel would be nice. Note: University, incidentally, from 1911-14 won just one of their last 71 games in the VFL, so there’s still some way to go before North gets that bad.

“MAKING IT UP AS THEY GO” AWARD

I’m still not sure how I feel about the AFL’s dramatic overhaul of ball-handling. Yes, things had gotten ridiculous by the time Gold Coast’s Mac Andrew had spun Carlton’s Charlie Curnow so many times the other weekend, his biggest danger was not being called for a free kick but becoming motion sickness. But why did it take a couple of coaches (Damien Hardwick and Michael Voss) to speak up to force the AFL’s hand? And should we really change the tacture to this degree over the course of a season? I tend to think there may have been an over-correction in this first round after the tightening. Hopefully, the “truth” the referees are looking for, the right balance between rewarding the ball winner and the tackle, lies somewhere in the middle.

THE “I’M NOT SURE HOW I AM, BUT I AM” AWARD.

Yes, we keep hearing that Essendon isn’t all that good and that the Bombers aren’t a true “second on the ladder” team. And in the long run, this season could prove to be the case. But there’s a bigger game here that perhaps only long-time Bomber fans can fully appreciate. And it’s about getting the exact same kinds of wins that don’t knock critics’ socks off. Indeed, even competitive losses like this against Gold Coast on Sunday night. Raw, unspectacular but effective football, the kind Essendon haven’t played consistently for a long time, which more often than not is becoming the norm in a team led not just by super-skipper Zach Merrett, but hard. -hard-working, hard-working types like Andy McGrath, Jye Caldwell, Sam Durham and Archie Perkins. The Bombers have talked about a blue-collar ethos for years without ever really delivering, but the model coach that Brad Scott is enduring is fueled by just that ethos. It might not be recognized until this kind of ladder position is maintained for much longer than 12 rounds, but if you’re a bomber who’s been through the last two decades, who cares?

THE “PICK IT UP PLEASE” AWARD.

OK, so this is for all of you who watch your AFL football primarily on the small screen rather than in person. Yes, we can discuss the commentators, frontier riders, camera work and steering, but can we all at least agree that it’s time for Toyota to end those country foot commercials? Seriously, we’ve spent a good year watching the opposition naysayer jump because some old codger threw him some bad dentistry. Any chance we can find out what happened, let them go back to the bar and give the rest of us a break?

This article first appeared on ESPN.