Round 9

Has the sleeping giant finally awoken? It won't surprise anyone that this weeks blog starts with Hawthorn, and their huge win over Carlton. Finally the Hawks showed the form that took them to the ultimate glory less than two years ago. It begs the question, where has this form been. What triggered the reversal? Maybe it was the fact that Hawthorn has not lost to Carlton since 2005, and with the exception of last years epic, have won many of those matches very comfortably. The Hawks are two games out of the 8, so they have to really get moving, but with a favourable percentage, there is hope for the Brown and Gold. As for the Blues, it is the first week that their forward line will really come under focus. Whilst recruit Lochie Henderson was encorouging, Setanta and his three little helpers had hardly any positive influence on the match.

The one side who are already in the 8, and are starting to look very strong, are the Western Bulldogs. They haven't made much noise, yet sit comfortably at 4th, and have an incredible drive, due to the failures of the last couple of finals campaigns. Their opponents on Saturday, North Melbourne, were absolutely slaughtered by their own supporters on talkback radio. It seems unwarrented to me. North are a very young side. They have been great to be as competitive as they have been so far this year, and surely they are going to have a couple of less than impressive games, especially when they play one of the premiership favourites.

The Dockers ticked off another unlikely win, this time in Sydney. If they keep winning away from home like they have been so far this year, they are a very serious top 4 threat, and no one is going to want to go over to Perth to play a final.

The big match of the year didn't quite live up to the billing. The one thing that the Friday night match did show us was that the Cats are every bit the premiership contender, and they have not dropped off in quality as many experts had predicted. I never thought they would miss the top 4, but I have to admit, I didn't think that they were as strong as they looked against the Pies. If they have improved on the last couple of years, I'd almost start engraving Gee on the cup now. Collingwood were the biggest dissapointment of the week. Simply put, they choked. Not just the players, but the coaches too. They completely changed the way they had been playing (and winning) and lost the ability to score. After belting all comers over the last month, why someone would change how they are playing is confusing to me. Maybe Mick, knowing this could be his last chance to coach a side to a flag tightened up?

Credit to St. Kilda this week. Under a lot of pressure and with many people questioning their ability to cover the larger Subiaco Oval, the Saints won, and won well. The may have struggled during the first 9 rounds, but they have been able to fall over the line for enough wins that they are still very much in the top 4 race


Big Winners

* Geelong. Go and get any price you can for them on the premiership.

* Darwin football lovers. They only get two games all year, and the first one was an absolute cracker!

* Hawthorn. Can they make a run at the 8? If so, who'd want to play them in the finals?


Losers

* Brisbane Lions. Where has it all gone wrong?

* Scott Thomson (NM). Obviously just a pest of a bloke. I'd have preferred to have seen Barry hit him to really teach him a lesson.

* Richmond. Again. But they can at least say they are the most consistant side in the league.