AFL Power Rankings – Round One (or how quickly the best laid plans can come undone)

As with last year, each week I’ll be doing a Power Ranking of the AFL. Givne the lopsided and biased nature of the AFL draw, the Premiership table con often be a poor indicator of a side’s true strength (especially at the start), so in a device flogged from ESPN and the US Fox Sports sites, I’ll put the teams in the order I think better represents the order of things.

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Well it was a bumper of a round to start the season. Some great footy, marred I think by less than brilliant umpiring – not so much as too many bad decisions given, as far too many missed. But at least the AFL has shown a great sense of comedic value in getting the umpires to be sponsored by OPSM.

It’s hard to gauge a hell of a lot from just one round, but Collingwood certainly look the goods, and the Crows certainly look like they will need to improve if they are to match last year’s finish. Geelong won, but were a bit scrappy, so too were Carlton – both will get more honest tests this week.

Melbourne and Richmond are already thinking about 2010 (but we knew that before they played).

	Rank	LW	Team	Record	Comment
	1	-	St Kilda	1-0	The Saints just got the job done in Sydney; this week against North should be a much easier task.
	2	-	Collingwood	1-0	The Pies looked good – real good. If you hate Collingwood, this might be a good year to have an AFL sabbatical.
	3	-	Geelong	1-0	The Cats were lucky that the young Essendon side don’t really know how to win yet. They won’t be able to give the Hawks a 5 goal lead this week.
	4	-	Bulldogs	o-1	The Bulldogs gave the Pies a real contest, but were always playing catch up. The Tigers this week should give them a nice percentage boost.
	5	-	Hawthorn	1-0	The Hawks were flying, but the Demons are not Geelong, the Bulldogs or Collingwood – and that’s who the Hawks face now. By Round 5 we’ll know if this is Hawks 08 or Hawks 09.
	6	-	Carlton	1-0	The Blues were flattered by the Tiger’s ineptitude. With a run of Brisbane, Essendon, Adelaide, Geelong, Collingwood and the Saints ahead, we’ll know where they really are very quickly.
	7	-	Brisbane	1-0	The Lions took a while to heat up, but when they did, they ran away with it. Fev’s haul of 3.7 is something the Lions’ fans should get used to – frustration due to such amazing potential.
	8	-	Essendon	0-1	The Bombers should have had the game won twice, and they failed to put the Cats away. There’s some good signs, but the best early guide will be Round 3 against Carlton.
	9	-	Sydney	0-1	The Swans were more wasteful than the Saints – and they need more out of Bradshaw than 1.1. A tough match in Adelaide this week against the Crows, before they meet the Tigers at the SCG.
	10	-	Fremantle	1-0	The Dockers were fast and disciplined – they dealt the Crows easily, now they face a tough three weeks of Essendon, Geelong, and the Saints.
	11	-	Adelaide	0-1	The Crows were lacking a ruckman and made far too many poor decisions. They looked awful and if they lose at home to Sydney, a season that was meant to be one full of promise, may quickly be full of something else less enjoyable.
	12	-	West Coast	0-1	For 3 quarters the Eagles looked the goods, then in the blink of an eye, they were flying home winless. If they’re winless after meeting Port this week, they’ll be in for a long, painful season.
	13	-	Port Adelaide	1-0	Port at one stage led by 50 points, but they let the percentage booster slip as North outscored them in the 2nd half 8 goals to 3 – not a good sign.
	14	-	North Melbourne	0-1	You can bet if the Saints get 50 points ahead of North this week, they won’t be letting them come back like Port did.
	15	-	Richmond	0-1	The difference between this year’s Round 1 loss to Carlton and last year’s is that this year no one really expected them to win. Round 4 against Melbourne may be the only time this season that expectation changes.
	16	-	Melbourne	0-1	If the game had stoped at the 10 minute mark of the 3rd quarter, the Demons would have had a percentage of 13%.