Opinion AFL 2023 Round 15 - Liked, learnt, hated

[Zevon]

Liked - In a round that hadn’t reached any great heights beforehand, that Collingwood-Adelaide game was a shining light. One of the games of the year to watch as a neutral.

Learnt - The Suns are still in the finals race. Was great to see them shake off the post-bye lethargy from last week. Have some tough games in the run home starting with the Magpies next round so if they do make the 8 they’ll have really earnt it.

Hated - Would have said it was the Eagles performance but I mentioned them here last week, plus as a Swans supporter that was a thing of beauty anyway. So instead I’ll say I hated the umpiring in the aforementioned Collingwood-Adelaide game. I’m not usually much of an umpire critic but that was bad and the Crows have some cause to feel hard done by.

 

[jabba5114]

Eh karma for getting a high free kick when there player was hit in the stomach in a showdown

Sent from my motorola edge 30 pro using Tapatalk

 

[Toump Ass]

Was unreal seeing WCE eviscerated, thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[Lsta062]

Liked:

• Collingwood vs Adelaide. A great spectacle.
• Receiving the answer to the question I had for years. The answer is Sydney. Sydney’s the next team to score over 200 points. Thought it would be Melbourne around 2018, but I guess I was wrong. It was a consistent effort from Sydney all day bar parts of the second quarter, so it’s nice to watch a team play so well.

Learnt:

• Sydney, Geelong, Fremantle, and Gold Coast aren’t done with the finals race. This year’s top 8 race seems to have a lot of good competitors
• 12 out of 18 teams have a percentage above 100%. In fact, only 3 teams have a percentage below 97%. Quite interesting.

Hated:

Conceding 205 points. Look, I enjoyed watching a team score 200+, but at the same time it was a really bad performance by West Coast. Richmond copped that in the 2000s so it’s not a fun time. They have enough senior players playing to not get whacked like that. Unbelievable how Sydney won the tackle count despite having 140 more disposals.

 

[Rotayjay]

Liked:

Getting within 2 points of the premiership favourites at the MCG

Seeing a team crack 200 for the first time since 2011

Hated: losing. It was infuriating, especially since they best us by 1 point just weeks ago.

Learned: the Eagles have completely checked out, so it might simply get worse. That might be handy if we need to beat them by a certain margin in the last round to make finals.

The potential is there for the Crows, just not the execution yet. We'll have issues when Walker retires. He'll play on next year, but I can't see him being best 22 in 2025.

 

[Chinacats]

Liked: woods vs crows game was top end.
Learnt: the fixture will see 1-2 teams make the eight. Although they’re not in the 8 best teams.
Hated: eagles first 10-15 minutes. Okay they weren’t going to win but at least be competitive in the first quarter. Surely that has to be the target at least…. Way too easy for the swans in the first 10 minutes and we saw what happened thereafter.

 

[JackFlash]

Liked: Winning a tough game in difficult conditions against the much lauded Demons ruck duo. I have a begrudging like for the Collingwood coach. I still can't stand the team, but McRae is a very good coach and good for football.

Learnt: It's time the AFL stopped Umpires making game day reports, the two against the St.Kilda players were absurd.

Hated: Seeing Cameron going down to friendly fire, but that's footy. The Essendon away strip is appalling and my Essendon friends all agree, it's the worst in the competition and that's saying something considering how bad the Port one is. As much as I don't like the "Evil Empire" the West Coast situation is at a crisis point and directly affects the final 8 composition this season. They play all the teams vying for a spot in the 8 except Geelong and they will all win those games by at least 15 goals. Percentage will be all important at the end of the H&A season. What on earth has happened to the Eagles, they were premiers just 5 years ago?

 

[citizen-erased]

liked: Crows. Always good to watch. Can't wait for Dons v Crows in a few weeks.
The next crop of gun mids having a good weekend - Anderson, Serong, Daicos - ripping games.
Ben Hobbs' game was excellent too. Another one to watch.

Learnt: Crows talent identifiers are still top of their game. Hinge, Butts, Murray are forming a great backline.
Multiple bye rounds won't be around in '24. Suspect the media noise is there to build ground swell for a single bye week.

Hated: Umpiring. it's getting worse and the AFL has their head in the sand with it.

 

[JPetro83]

Hated: Umpiring

 

[Wargreymon90]

Like: The fight for the 8.

Learnt: the Melbourne players think they’re better than they actually are. In addition, the Gawn/Grundy experiment won’t work.

Hated: the spread out bye rounds. Have it over two weeks.

 

[bungalow_bill]

Liked - clinically dismantling the Saints.

Learnt - Wilmot and Fletcher will be stars

Hated - Lions inaccuracy (again)