WITH a seemingly large chasm between the top five teams in the league and the rest, AFL season 2011 has delivered more thrashings than an English public school.
Melbourne's obliteration by Geelong on Saturday was a benchmark, but fellow finals contender North Melbourne has also endured the odd hiding this year.
While there's no great shame in getting pasted by Collingwood and Geelong, an aggregate losing margin of 270 points to the flag contenders did add to the perception of Brad Scott's men as strugglers against teams of serious quality.
Their effort against Carlton on Friday night, although ultimately a losing one, was a step in the right direction, as they hung tough with the Blues until late in the game.
Andrew Swallow, Drew Petrie and Daniel Wells have delivered career-best seasons to drag the Kangaroos from a poor opening to the year (they failed to win their first match until round six) to the team best placed to pinch Fremantle's spot in the finals.
But it's been ruckman Todd Goldstein whose contribution has been the most impressive. Petrie's success up forward, David Hale's move to Hawthorn and Hamish McIntosh's long-term injury have meant that the bulk of North's ruck work has fallen to the fourth-year big man.
He's thrived under the challenge, delivering a club record 54 hit-outs against Port Adelaide in round 14 and following up with big games against the Bulldogs and then Carlton on Friday night to lead the league in hit-outs per game (36.6).
He's doing plenty of work at ground level as well, being the leading AFL ruckman in terms of clearances and contributing a handy 10 goals into the bargain.
We've resisted the temptation to have a second ruckman in Greatest Team of All since Aaron Sandilands' season was halted by a serious toe injury, but Goldstein's consistency and dominance of ruck contests means that he has proven himself well worthy of a place on the bench.
Maybe there is some kind of ruckman's pact at play, because it was Dean Cox who inadvertently opened up a spot in our team by flinging a tennis ball a bit too close to Josh Kennedy and putting the Eagles forward in hospital with bleeding from the eye.
It's meant a bit of shuffling of our forward line, with Lance Franklin moving to full-forward, Travis Cloke now looking a better fit at centre half-forward and Dane Swan moving off the bench into the centreline, which is what happens when you can gather 45 possessions against Essendon without raising a sweat.
Steve Johnson's day out against Melbourne tempted us to put him on the field but we just couldn't resist the thought of demoralising a hypothetical opposition for three quarters, and then bringing on the Geelong wizard for a final 30 minutes of showtime.
It might be a bit vindictive but there can't be too many football fans who wouldn't enjoy seeing Stevie J running through his substantial repertoire of party tricks.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
