AFL
  1. Home
  2. AFL
  3. News

AFL 2016: Some key Hawks still on song, but Swans have refreshing sound

Growing up, I'd often wonder why musicians seemed unable to create amazing music throughout their whole life. I could never see a logical reason that a musician shouldn't be able to continue to improve their song-writing acumen well into retirement age. While there are always exceptions to the rule, it seems that even the best musicians have a period of hyper creativity where their best songs are made before spending the following years performing their hits and occasionally coming up with songs that are constructed as opposed to created.

I suspect that at a certain age the musician begins to realise that they're not as special as they thought they were, and once they're thinking like this, their ability to create a hit is greatly diminished. The increase in musical knowledge they acquire as they mature probably makes them realise that the hit they once thought was unique was actually pretty similar to a song that came before, which in turn was similar to a song that came before that. Eventually the musician gets a mortgage, school fees and superannuation – all things sure to hinder the creative juices.

Up Next

Replay

Replay Video Icon
Player help icon

More Sport Videos

More videos

GWS have nothing to fear against Swans

Rohan Connolly chats to AFL legend and Fairfax columnist Wayne Carey about how GWS can upset their cross-town rivals in the first Qualifying Final.

Ageing is a great leveller, a reminder to everyone, that no matter how special you think you are, you're just as human as the person next to you. For a footballer, there's the problem this causes with the belief that you're special enough to have premiership success, but there's also the undeniable fact that as you get older your body degenerates, you get sorer, and you get slower. That's not to say that players well into their 30s can't still be great players - there's plenty of examples that they can - but I get nervous when they're relied upon to do the heavy lifting. By heavy lifting, I mean, when they're the players who respond first when the team gets challenged. It's amazing how regularly this response comes from the same players within a team.

At Hawthorn I think of Hodge, Burgoyne, Mitchell, Gibson, Rioli, Gunston and Lewis as the core group most likely to lift when a response is required. The only problem for the Hawks is that other than Rioli and Gunston, the rest are at the stage of their careers where they're slowly starting to look human.

The Swans are the strongest team in terms of "age, quality and depth of numbers".
The Swans are the strongest team in terms of "age, quality and depth of numbers". Photo: AFL Media/Getty Images

Out of the other top four teams, the one I'd have the most faith in due to age, quality and depth of numbers is Sydney. Hannebery, Franklin, Kennedy, Mitchell, Jack, Parker, McVeigh, Rampe are the players I think of regularly standing up for Sydney when something needs to be done, and most of these guys are at an age where they're still creating hit songs and not just re-living them. As a team they're incredibly consistent and predictable and you feel like you know what you're going to get each week.

Of the top four teams, the one that you don't know exactly what you're going to get is Greater Western Sydney. While they're slightly more unpredictable, they may boast the most talent assembled in an AFL side. This may be seen as a laughable statement for a team that is yet to win a premiership, however when we look back on the talent in this team in the years to come, we'll marvel at the quality of players in it, and I suspect we'll be speaking about many of them as multiple premiership players if they can keep the most important members of their list together.

The Giants seem set for multiple premierships.
The Giants seem set for multiple premierships. Photo: Getty Images

I don't think it will happen for them this year, though. Their form away from home has been patchy all year, and while they could get to the grand final without having to leave Sydney, they can't win it from there. I still think they're coming to terms with just how good they could be; it will be unfortunate for the rest of the competition once they fully understand what they're capable of.

Then there are the Cats, whose strength is that they have possibly the two players most capable of standing up at big stages of games out of the entire competition. Their weakness, however, is that too much is often left to these two players, Joel Selwood and Patrick Dangerfield. They have a number of other great players on their list, however many are on the other side of 30 and are at an age when everything on an AFL field has to be earned and negotiated with your body.

It's going to be an intriguing finals series. There's some strong teams in the bottom half of the top eight as well. But the winner almost always comes from the top four, and at this stage I'm leaning towards Sydney.