Rohan Connolly
The quick, outside running game that defined the Giants in 2016 has evaporated.
No premiership window stays open forever.
Now in its third year, the merits or otherwise of the pre-finals bye remain hotly contested.
A series of younger faces have come into the mix and done their job. And the trickle down effect continues.
Whichever way you slice or dice it, the excuses for Fremantle are running out.
Are the Cats really 35-odd per cent less chance of winning a flag than a team they have already beaten twice?
The Tigers continue to get the job done, even when not at their best. Their would-be challengers, meanwhile, are, literally, dropping like flies.
The top 10 in Sydney’s best and fairest count of last season is instructive.
Just two wins separate nine teams occupying positions between fourth and 12th on the ladder.
They’re not going to finish last this time, and even in defeat have been consistently competitive
Who actually is the team best-placed to give Richmond a run for its money for the AFL premiership in 2018?
They've withstood all the challenges.
The Power are fifth on the ladder, behind fourth-placed Collingwood only on percentage.
Would a tweak here or there, a different game plan or different coach, even Alastair Clarkson, be achieving that much more right now with the same group?
Eight wins from the past 10 games have to lend some sort of credibility
Even in a premiership year, the Bulldogs were a side which needed all parts and all players functioning to their optimum
Both look far less like super teams and far more like just another among a pack of clubs battling
Are Melbourne the real deal? Or is the jury still out?
It seems everyone feels at home at the Sydney Swans’ digs these days
Essendon’s biggest weakness last year was the failure of its midfield to win enough contested ball and clearances, and its unwillingness to work hard enough defensively.
North Melbourne is a club which just gets on with the job, whether or not it’s flavour of the month in the football world.
It’s been more than 20 years since we got to the end of four rounds of a new AFL season without a single unbeaten side.
The introduction of video technology into sports adjudication has been a vexed issue for quite a while now.
Collingwood need to win soon otherwise 'all hell could break loose' according to Rohan Connolly.
If they can't get this right, it's going to be a long season ahead.
Collingwood still lacks class beyond the big names patrolling the centre square.
It’s not like there hadn’t been earlier warnings about what to expect when you mess with tradition
After a couple of near-misses, can the Swans get to the top of the mountain?
Will Dangerfield, Selwood and Ablett be able to overcome the Cats' shortcomings?
Historically, the pre-season competition has proved a more reliable form guide than many acknowledge.
Any team these days is a chance of at least a finals spot with a little luck and a decent run with injuries
Will the rebuilding Dockers slide down the ladder?
Can Stuart Dew turn around the Suns' fortunes in his first year at the helm?
It’s been a pretty miserable couple of decades for the Carlton Football Club since the Blues won a record 16th premiership back in 1995.
The juxtaposition of the more realistic view of this year’s draft crop with what Jack Watts had to endure is impossible to ignore.
The success of one code in this country doesn’t have to be at the expense of another.
Football has seen the odd squad of imports dubbed a “foreign legion” before, but seldom on the scale of Port’s latest recruiting spree.
''Far from just a souvenir for still-delirious Richmond supporters''
The AFL off-season is made a little more bearable if you’re sustained by the presence of one all-important quality: hope.
Whatever the potential explanations for its cause, there’s not much doubt the “go home” factor right now is looming larger over AFL than it has ever before.
When players attempt to change their jobs, they’re subjected to what in an office environment would be considered nothing short of workplace bullying.
There’s a heap of great stories to be told when a club which has been in the premiership wilderness breaks a long drought. And so there was last Saturday.
The Adelaide conspiracy theories have come in thick and fast.
Adelaide was the only team this season to average more than 100 points per game, the next best team nearly two goals behind. Richmond ranked only eighth.
You mean there's two teams playing this weekend?
Both were to some extent forced into makeovers through injury and looked more balanced and potent as a result.
It’s a tricky one for coach John Longmire and his football department when they conduct their reviews over the next few weeks.
Come the lead-up to this season, barely a tipster in the land didn’t have GWS, if not winning the 2017 premiership, at least playing off for it.
Rohan Connolly says Victorian's couldn't care less if an interstate team wins the AFL premiership.
Rohan Connolly previews, and gives his tips for the first week of finals.
The AFL is walking a very fine line with the pre-finals bye, writes Rohan Connolly.
Expect the unexpected. It’s been the story of 2017. Why not for another month?
Buckley has now officially reappointed for his seventh and eighth years in the job.
This crazy AFL season will take its final turn in round 23, with 11 teams still in the finals hunt.
It’s hard to think of any of the most important parts of the Bulldog machine who are playing even as well as, let alone better, than last year.
Rohan Connolly returns to preview a massively important round of AFL action.
It’s the tightest season in AFL history, and with two rounds remaining there’s spots in both the top four and the top eight still up for grabs. So the flag is anyone’s, right? Well, maybe not.
Why aren’t the Bomber army more excited? Perhaps because increasingly, it looks like 2017 might have been an opportunity wasted.
Rohan Connolly is back to provide this weekend's AFL round preview.
Selwood heading for surgery is not good news for the Cats, according to Rohan Connolly
The Bombers are dealing with what has become a large elephant in the room. Jobe Watson.
