ONE OF the irrefutable laws of the AFL draft and salary cap system is what comes up must, must come down. Already this season we've seen the AFL's version of gravity hit two top-four staples of the past three seasons, St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs.
Both have looked a shadow of their former selves this season and will struggle to make the finals, let alone the top four.
But, equally, the draft and salary cap ensure what's been down should come up. We say should, rather than must, because one team, Richmond, has defied the system's laws to remain moored to the bottom half of the ladder for all but two years since the draft was introduced in 1986.
But the 'Richmond anomaly' looks like it will soon correct itself.
Under coach Damien Hardwick and a heavily bolstered recruiting team headed by Francis Jackson, the Tigers finally look to be building towards a period of sustained success, rather than the finals false dawns of 1995 and 2001.
With four wins and a draw after nine rounds, the Tigers are just eight percentage points outside the top eight.
And in a portent of better things to come, the Herald Sun revealed they've done it on the back of the most efficient disposal in the League.
In his weekly column Stats Confidential, Mark Stevens said the Tigers had hit 75.7 per cent of their targets by hand and foot in 2001, ahead of unbeaten ladder-leader Geelong on 73.4 per cent.
Stevens said the Tigers have also been deadly by foot, their kicking efficiency of 69 per cent ranked second in the competition. He did not say which team was leading that count.
Still, the Tigers have some work to do. Stevens said Richmond is the second-worst side in the AFL in contested possessions, winning 18.7 per cent fewer contests than their opponents on average this season.
Turn this statistic around, and the Tigers should continue to rise up the ladder as the draft system has long intended them to.
Suns look to shine at new home
Just seven weeks ago, the Gold Coast Suns made an AFL debut that suggested their young side might not win a game in 2011. Carlton's 119-point walloping of the Suns in that game also had the glass-half-empty types predicting it would be years before they would be competitive.
But as the Suns prepare to play their first match at their home ground, Metricon Stadium, on Saturday night against Geelong, the competition's newest side has already shown enough to suggest its youth-based list will be a formidable combination sooner rather than later.
A stirring comeback win against Port Adelaide in round five - in just their fourth game - and an exhilarating victory two weeks later against their intra-state rivals Brisbane Lions highlighted the quality of the young talent the Suns have horded through their draft concessions.
Best get used to the names of ruckman Zac Smith, midfielders David Swallow, Harley Bennell and Dion Prestia, key forwards Charlie Dixon, Sam Day and Tom Lynch, and small forward Brandon Matera - they look like being staples of a strong Suns side for years to come.
And Liam Patrick has X-factor like few others in the League.
Which is no doubt why Suns coach Guy McKenna is hopeful the Suns won't be blown away by the Cats as comprehensively as they were by the Blues.
Although McKenna acknowledged there would be a similarly big build-up to their first game at their home ground, he told the Gold Coast Courier his players had learned from the lead-up to the Carlton game.
"It's not going to be a normal week. But we can't use that as an excuse," McKenna said.
"We have to work around that and make it work to our advantage.
"So fingers crossed we'll have a better result than we did in round two."
The undefeated Cats remain one of the biggest tests in AFL football. If the Suns can put up a credible fight against them, they'll be one step further advanced in their football education.
AFL betting against cheats
The AFL has made it abundantly clear in recent times it will not stand for AFL players, coaches, umpires and officials betting on AFL games.
Last season, it took action against a number of AFL and club staff who bet on AFL games or events.
None of those club staff, who included then Port assistant coach Matthew Primus, had bet on games involving their own sides. Nonetheless, the AFL came down hard on them, with Primus suspended from his coaching duties for two weeks.
These penalties were the result of AFL investigations under information-sharing arrangements it had entered into with all major bookmakers in Australia in 2008.
The AFL's commitment to enforcing its gambling regulations was made plain in Monday's Herald Sun.
The tabloid reported AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson had called for laws to be introduced where people guilty of gambling-related corruption in sport would be subject to a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail.
At face value, it seems an extreme position.
But Anderson did not make his comments lightly, suggesting the very integrity of the AFL and our other sporting codes were at stake.
Speaking at the launch of Responsible Gambling Awareness Week, Anderson said bribery and corruption had sullied other sports internationally. In last year's AFL Annual Report, he said supporters' faith in sporting competitions was "severely challenged when a sporting contest could not be trusted to be played on its merits".
Clearly, Anderson and the AFL are determined this should not happen to our competition.
And surely a corruption-free AFL is something we can all agree is worth fighting for.
In short
Herald Sun chief football writer Mike Sheahan says the Western Bulldogs' premiership dream is "dead and buried", suggesting their consecutive preliminary final losses have sapped their spirit.
Former Carlton and Brisbane Lions spearhead Brendan Fevola booted 10.6 for Narre Warren in the Casey Cardinia League on Saturday, after deciding to play in honour of his long-time friend and Narre Warren captain Glenn Hamilton, who was playing his last game, the Herald Sun reports. Fevola's VFL side Casey Scorpions had a bye on the weekend.
The Age's Rohan Connolly says West Coast is the AFL's most-improved side this season by "a considerable margin", attributing their revival after last year's wooden spoon to resurgent veterans Dean Cox, Daniel Kerr and Andrew Embley and the emergence of youngsters such as Luke Shuey and Chris Masten.
Fremantle's decision to recruit ruckman Jonathon Griffin from Adelaide in last year's trade period will pay off if Aaron Sandilands is ruled out of Freo's clash with St Kilda this Saturday, former Crows and Freo midfielder Josh Carr told The West Australian. Carr said Griffin was unlucky not to play more games at the Crows and would be a ready-made placement for Sandilands.
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
