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MONDAY'S result at the MCG confirmed that the gap between Hawthorn and Geelong is now significant.
 
And a reason why might be the ageing champions of the two clubs, such mighty contributors to six of the past eight premierships between them, are heading in different directions.
 
Look at the best players for Hawthorn. Luke Hodge (30 years of age), Sam Mitchell (32), Shaun Burgoyne (32), Brian Lake (32) and Josh Gibson (31) were superb, carrying on their tremendous form from last year's finals series. Jordan Lewis, a relatively sprightly 28, was best afield in the first half when the heat was on.

Veterans Sam Mitchell (left) and Joel Selwood clash at the MCG on Monday. Picture: AFL Media


And when that heat was on, the Geelong veterans, for the first time in a long time, gave little. Corey Enright (33) repeatedly butchered the footy, Steve Johnson (31) was reported yet again, while Jared Rivers (30) and James Kelly (31), well, they looked every bit their age.

We'll spare Jimmy Bartel (31) from that. He went OK. Getting his head slammed into the freshly-cut MCG centre square with three seconds to go was a fate he didn't deserve.
 
But the question hovering over the Cats was, ‘how much petrol do these stars have left in the tank?'. Chris Scott wasn't about to shepherd them out the door, but did challenge them after the straight-sets finals exit last season to come back and offer the club something different and something better.
 
It is one game in, so let's not overly analyse things. But the drafting of players such as Nakia Cockatoo and Corey Gregson and the willingness by Scott to play them so quickly suggests some of the veterans are on notice.
 
They're a proud group and how they bounce back at the Cattery next Sunday against Fremantle will be fascinating. They'd want to otherwise it could be said that the sun is setting on a wonderful era and Scott won't hesitate to make big changes.
 
But the Cats would be casting an envious glance over at their heated modern-day rivals, who while replenishing their list at an impressive pace, are being pushed for a place in history by a bunch of veterans who unlike those at Geelong, are clearly getting better with age.

Demons shred the playbook

There are days when you go to the footy when the game pretty much goes to script.

You just knew that Sunday night's Fremantle-Port Adelaide game would be epic – two premiership aspirants, both supremely fit, and the re-match of an enthralling final from last year.

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, this one went to the wire. We didn't learn a whole lot about either side other than to confirm that they'll still be alive when it comes to the pointy end of the season.

And we'll get back to that match a bit further down.

But back to the earlier point.

There are days when footy gives you what you expect and other days when it throws you a curve ball. Saturday at the MCG and Sunday afternoon at Adelaide Oval are examples of the latter.

Melbourne wasn't supposed to beat Gold Coast. The Demons are a work in progress, losers of their last 10 matches last year. The Suns are finals-bound, or so we thought.

Melbourne coach Paul Roos stopped the haemorrhaging of goals last year, but plenty of work needed to be done with the ball and forward of the ball. But as one piece of play on Saturday exemplified, the Demons are learning, and quickly.

It came about 10 minutes into the second quarter. Melbourne's Jeremy Howe gathered the ball in the back pocket, flicked it across goal to Colin Garland, who kicked long kick down the wing to Jay Kennedy-Harris, who wheeled around and found a surging Dom Tyson, who sold the candy and kicked truly on the run from 50m out.

It was exhilarating end-to-end football and not one Gold Coast player laid a glove on either a Melbourne opponent, or the ball.

As Dermott Brereton said in the Fox Footy commentary, the Demons hadn't "split open" a team like that in three years.

The Demons ended up winning by 26 points, their first season-opening victory since 2005. All the players involved in that passage of play have been at the club for more than a year, but a feature of the win was the contribution made by seven Melbourne players who were playing their first game for the club.

Jack Watts embraces first-gamer Jesse Hogan as the Dees snap a decade-long dry spell. Picture: AFL Media

 

All eyes were on Jesse Hogan, the West Australian wunderkind who in his third season at the club was playing his first game. There were 27,000 fans at the MCG, about 4000 more than the club had budgeted for, and they even sold out of AFL Records. Hogan might have been the reason why.

He kicked two goals, took six marks, bashed into packs and brought the ball to ground repeatedly. But fellow newbies Jeff Garlett, Ben Newton, Sam Frost, Aaron Vandenberg, Heritier Lumumba and Angus Brayshaw all made contributions.

Brayshaw, the third overall pick at last year's NAB AFL Draft led the Demons with nine tackles. Garlett and Newton kicked two goals each.

The most satisfied person at the MCG on Saturday evening might have been Todd Viney, the former Melbourne hard nut now list manager. "If you can find one or two players a year who can make your list better then that's what you're after," he told this column. "But to have seven guys in who all contributed today, that's good."

Viney worked at Hawthorn when its list rebuild started with an emphasis on players who could kick. At Melbourne, the key attributes he looks for when scouring the country are "commitment and character" and players who show "resilience and leadership".

The early signs are that the Demons have found a player. Or two. Or seven.

Pre-season football proves its worth

Every year there are a few voices – usually led by former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas –decrying the need to play NAB Challenge.

But that was shown to be a nonsense argument on the weekend.

Let's start at the MCG on Saturday. Gary Ablett had his customary moments of brilliance and kicked two goals to keep the Suns in the game, but it was patently obvious to all that he was nowhere near match-fit.

Now, Jack Viney did his footy club and the family name proud, by niggling Ablett and testing his repaired shoulder at every opportunity. But Ablett was tentative and even appeared to favour it at times. Even superstars can seem to be short of a gallop.

A few hours later at ANZ Stadium we had Essendon – so magnificent for three quarters – stopping as if shot in the final quarter. The Bombers led by 41 points shortly before three-quarter time and ended up losing by 12.

The reason why was plain for all to see. More than half the Essendon line-up had played no pre-season football ahead of the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal outcome and their lack of match fitness – despite the pre-game assurances of James Hird and others – came back to bite them.

Fast forward to Sunday at Domain Stadium. In a frenetic game, Matthew Pavlich kicked 4.0 in his team's gripping seven-point win over Port Adelaide. That would be the 33-year-old Matthew Pavlich who played in all three NAB Challenge games including one in Sydney at the nondescript Drummoyne Oval.

Fremantle coach Ross Lyon used the extended pre-season due to the Cricket World Cup to get the extra miles into players' legs – five weeks' worth according to his estimates – and he spared nobody. The way the Dockers finished all over the Port Adelaide, the self-proclaimed fittest team in the competition, further underlined the merits of playing plenty of minutes during the NAB Challenge.

QUESTION TIME


Ashley Browne: Pavlich is a freak. The only player from a West Australian club to play 300 games. He might be the most professional player in the competition and that's a reason why he gets over the line every week. He craves the work, craves the competition. On Sunday's form he gets another season for sure, but we have barely got started on the marathon that is a football season. How he stands up to potentially 25 more games this year and where the Dockers sit in respect to their premiership window will determine whether he gets another contract. What I do know about Pavlich is that a glittering career in football administration awaits him post his playing career, if that's the path he chooses to follow.


AB: I've been encouraged by some North Melbourne mates to go hard on the Kangas. But given they've made the finals twice in the last five seasons without winning their opening game, I'll resist. Nevertheless, there are causes for concern, and they start with a recurring inability to put the brakes on, or to mix things up when the opposition gets a run on. Or as one North fan observed, "Brad Scott has no Plan B, other than to look befuddled." What North need this year is for either Joel Tippett or Robbie Tarrant to emerge as the second key defender, but they struggled on Sunday as Tex Walker ran amok. They were well beaten in clearances and stoppages – areas the Shinboners have long prided themselves in – and plainly, they didn't kick nearly enough goals. The pleasing aspect was the polished, four-goal debut of former Bulldog Shaun Higgins, but that was about it. The veiled 'bring your mouthguards to training' remarks from Scott post-match means an interesting week looms on the track at Arden Street and at least one long and drawn-out meeting of the match committee.


AB: A bit of man love for the great man? And why not? He was super against the Western Bulldogs, with six touches and taking 12 marks – five contested – while matched up to Tom Boyd. And with Mitch Brown done for the year, where he will join Eric Mackenzie on the sidelines, McGovern and Will Schofield will need to be super all year.

West Coast's Adam Simpson wasn't part of the roundtable of AFL coaches interviewed by AFL Media earlier this year about a raft of list management issues, but it would be interesting to get his views now on the idea of a mid-season draft or in-season trading. You would imagine the idea of bringing in, say Tayte Pears (the other Mitch Brown), or Ryan Schoenmakers to boost a badly depleted backline would have some appeal.


AB: Bruce McAvaney said during the Channel Seven broadcast on Sunday that Walker is the sort of player everyone gravitates towards in the players' area of the Adelaide Football Club. To the outside it seemed that Walker was given the nod by new coach Phil Walsh because of Patrick Dangerfield's uncertain future, but maybe Walsh is smarter than we give him credit for and that Walker is the real leader of that club. I can't recall many better performances from a player in his first game as skipper. He looks born for the job.