THERE was a time when Richmond great Kevin Bartlett thought handballing was just a fad. Like pet rocks, Rubik’s cubes, hula hoops and yo-yos, KB believed his coach Tom Hafey when he told him the popularity of the handball would surely pass. Bartlett certainly wasn’t going to get caught up in it.

Now Kevin’s love of Tommy is legendary, but maybe a year under Hafey had an effect on a young Mick Malthouse as well.

While the rest of the football world embraces handball like never before, Collingwood under Malthouse remains defiant.

West Coast and Geelong have shown how multiple handballs and power running can be the key to an effective transition from defence to attack. This philosophy is exciting and high-risk, but for these superbly-skilled sides, it has worked. Like most trends in football, other teams are following suit. But not Collingwood.

In round one every winning team had more handballs than the opposition except Collingwood and St Kilda. Of course the Saints’ matches against Sydney are something else altogether.

The Magpies won despite having 53 fewer handballs than Fremantle. Malthouse has embraced the other aspect of modern footy – increased interchange rotations – allowing his Pies to run as well as any side.

However they continue to rely on moving the ball by foot. They kick the ball much wider than others when bringing the ball down the ground, which also leaves them less vulnerable to counter-attack when the inevitable turnovers occur.

So while the Pies are still getting their kicks, what can we expect from those teams intent on all this attacking movement by hand?

If round one is any guide, you can’t afford to look away for too long because the momentum shifts in games might just be longer and more telling than ever before. 
Maybe it’s the mesmerising rhythm of the way the ball moves, or maybe it was just the craziness of round one, but when a team was able to get on top on the weekend they sure did some damage.

Carlton was able to get four goals up, but then Richmond got the edge and ended up winning by five. Geelong moved to a 37-point lead, but ultimately won by just nine. West Coast went handball happy early to take a six-goal lead before Brisbane took control and were able to hit the front at one stage. The Bulldogs-Crows match was also one of changing momentum; it’s just that the shifts were more frequent and violent.

Unfortunately for Melbourne the whole match against Hawthorn was one long shift to the dominating Hawks. North Melbourne was another team able to establish a 27-point margin in just over a quarter, before being outscored by seventeen goals to three by Essendon.

Sydney coach Paul Roos remains committed to tempo footy, and while he was able to take Ross Lyon down memory lane on Saturday night, you can be sure the St Kilda players won’t let that happen regularly in 2008. If ever a side needs to get it down quickly to the forwards it’s the Saints.

The exhausting nature of modern football no doubt played its part in many of the scoring runs in round one and some coaches will be wondering if their teams are well equipped enough to run and gun with the big boys for a full match.

Essendon is fully expecting its free-flowing style to result in some heavy loses as well as some glorious victories. Will other coaches be prepared to go on that ride?

No KB, handball is not a passing fad. Let’s hope attacking football isn’t either.