St Kilda needs to purchase some pens and notepads and head back to school. Taking the class will be the Geelong Football Club.
The Cats yesterday showed the AFL that they’re not ready to make an inevitable slump down the pecking order and firmly justified their credentials as the number one challenger to the all-conquering Collingwood.
For long spurts of the Easter Tuesday blockbuster, Hawthorn looked like they were back in September 2008 pulling apart a Mark-Thompson led Geelong.
The Chris-Scott version of the Hawks must take not only great confidence but the rest of the league should take great notice of the 2011 Cats.
It was a combination of the dominant Cats of years previous with a modern, contemporary twist that saw them beat off a Hawks outfit who can set a reasonable goal of making the top four this season. They are firmly on the way up.
But everyone’s still chasing a black and white machine that even with a most gallant Essendon, the same team that finished a dismal 14th last year, taking it to the reigning premier for the best part of three and a half quarters, the Maggies got the job done, once again on the big stage at the MCG.
So the Pies are the yardstick, the Cats have not only hung on but are chasing, the Bombers have top four in their sights and the Hawks would be disappointed from here on in if they fail to earn a double chance.
Where does that leave the Saints?
Whilst they got the four points last Thursday over a much more encouraging Brisbane outfit, those down at Seaford would have been better off losing and receiving the most almighty of wake up calls.
Where Ross Lyon and the rest of the football department must be applauded for their continual efforts over the last four or so years, preliminary finals after preliminary finals, only a little bit of luck away from the ultimate prize, the time has come where a bad call or two has left the Saints staring at the precipice of failure.
The club denies a poor off field culture, but the retort has always been where there is smoke there is fire, and there’s been more smoke hovering over St Kilda than a 60s gentlemen’s club for some time now.
And credit where credit’s due, the players have soldiered on despite and produced some wonderful results.
But we may be just starting to see the off-field infiltrate on-field of play going by the effort put forward at the Gabba.
Brisbane is by no means a good team. St Kilda got up only because of the inconsistencies and rawness of a Lions side full of kids and littered with injuries.
The Cats and Saints have been paired for the best part of a decade now, in their development and expectation, no further pointed out by the 2009 season.
Yet, we see the Saints look sloppy, frail and done. Geelong against a rebounding Hawthorn looked just like the Saints, except for every single detail.
We hope St Kilda was watching, otherwise the road looks long.
The road’s getting shorter and shorter for the victorious Gold Coast after toppling a pathetic and embarrassing Port Adelaide.
The Suns may be short at this stage on supporters as they grow their club from scratch but about 5pm Saturday they had barrackers into the millions as they produced a Lazarus-like surge from 40 points down to register win numero uno.
Port Adelaide meanwhile did what no-one saw coming, yet, in hindsight, looked anything but unsurprising.
An impressive Showdown win the week before, who wouldn’t be shocked if they followed up with a stinker. Talk about on-field culture, since those impressive seasons of early last decade it’s become all too familiar down at Alberton. Matthew Primus, you’ve got quite the task ahead of you.
Collingwood’s maintained the hunger and laughed at the idea of premiership hangover inevitability, Geelong has shrugged off the idea of league equalisation, Essendon and Hawthorn have put in the hard work to get better with, at this stage, early gratification, and Fremantle has defied the odds and finally secured the mantle of being taken seriously.
St Kilda, over to you.