AFL Dream Team
Australian Football League continues despite outbreak in Melbourne
Australian Football League Season continues with Collingwood set to move up the table
Australian Football League enters week five with Port Adelaide top of the table, however, it’s Collingwood who are grabbing attention as they face Essendon and Brisbane Lions in the coming weeks. After a surprise defeat to GWS Giants in week four losing by just two points, the team are in need of a victory to move them into the top four of the table. Big expectations were set for Collingwood at the start of the season and there is believe they can now go on a run of wins in the coming week given the recent narrow loss. They currently sit as favourites to win the Grand Final, so they will need to improve their consistency as they look to compete with in form teams such as leaders Port Adelaide.
Last years Premiership winners Richmond have made an indifferent start to the season only winning one of their first four matches. Currently sitting in the bottom half of the table, they have lost two matches on the bounce and their odds to win their third title in four years is drifting. After an opening day win against Carlton and scoring over a hundred points, they drew with Collingwood and then suffered two surprise defeats to Hawthorn and St Kilda.
With an outstanding squad, Richmond are likely to improve as the season goes on and with the vast experience of delivering when it matters most, it’s important that they start delivering wins or face the prospect of only just sneaking into the finals.
Looking at another team who are set to continue their winning run is Hawthorn. They won three titles in a row between 2013 and 2015, however haven’t featured in the final since then. With a squad rotation, they have a competitive team this season and will look to make the finals when the regular season finishes. Next up for them Great Western Sydney Giants and this game promises to be a classic. Last season runners up will want to go one better this year and this matchup is sure to be electric.
COVID outbreak in Melbourne
With an outbreak in COVID in Melbourne, this is having an effect on Australian Football League matches. Melbourne have a game in hand over the rest of the teams which is scheduled to be against Essendon, while the latest outbreak may cause more matches to be postponed. There is confidence that this recent outbreak won’t cause long term delays to the league and with other areas of the country not affected, matches can be played outside of the area which has a spike in cases.
The League officials will work with the teams in areas of a spike to ensure they are fully safe and can move around unaffected so that matches can continue as the last thing anyone wants is teams to have many games in hand over their rivals.
Australian Football League key stats so far this season
Stats are key in any sport but in the Australian Football League, they are very much looked at given many aspects of the game. Leading the number of kicks this season goes to Andrew Gaff of West Cost Eagles. Next up is Carlton’s Sam Docherty who is having a fine start to the campaign. Two of Collingwood’s key players make up the next two in the kicks ladder which are Jeremy Howe and Braydan Maynard.
Another West Coast Eagles player Elliot Yeo leads the number of tackles this season along with two other players. Hugh Greenwood from Gold Coast Suns and James Worpel from Hawthorn also top the amount of tackles so far this season.
Disposals is a key part of the game to seal possession from opponents and the top player in the league here is Lachie Neale from Brisbane Lions. Neale is regarded as one of the top players in the league and may well be taking home individual awards at the end of the season. Neale has 118 disposals which is ten clear of third place showing what a key talent Neale is. 2nd place currently is occupied by Andrew Gaff from West Coast Eagles who is also a player admired by many.
It promised to be a superb season ahead and the start of the campaign has seen entertaining football which will only get better.