AFL News for the week ending April 23, 2023: Grand Final rematch, Booing stays in the news and Lethal for HO?
Grand Final rematch a horror show for Swans
A rocky start in 2023 for Geelong seems to have been put firmly behind them as they dealt out a whopping loss to the Swans in Saturday's Grand Final rematch.
With the Swans not necessarily firing on all cylinders over the first five rounds of the season either, this game could have gone either way, but with the McCartin brothers out, making it harder to cover the Cat's power forwards, Buddy out and the Swans having to travel to Geelong for the rematch, this game went south very quickly.
Chris Scott declared post game that the Cats were just getting started - John Longmire, that the Swans were "not up to standard".
Hard to argue that after a near-100 point drubbing and a side that only kicked three points after half-time.
In a half glass full, the Swans will get some players back over the coming weeks and no doubt be smarting after the loss, so it will be interesting to see how they respond.
And for the Cats - are fans daring to whisper "back to back" yet?
The boo chat continues
After the booing that has been accompanying Port Adelaide recruit young gun Jason Horne-Francis in Season 2023, the talk has continued about booing's place in the game.
Greg Baum wrote a piece about it for the Age and Caroline Wilson interviewed JHF about the situation, where he opened up about how the booing was affecting him.
It could be something that passes, but if not, as an AFL community we may need to ask ourselves, do we want to see another Adam Goodes situation where a player is eventually booed out of the game?
Food for thought.
Leigh Matthews for Head Office?
As we still await the final decision on who will replace Gill McLachlan as AFL CEO, chatter has turned to "Lethal" Leigh Matthews' - not for the CEO role - and whether a spot on the AFL Commission might be floated with him.
Lethal chatted about this on 3AW, admiting he was interested in what this might look like if it came his way,
It would mean stepping out of the media, but Leigh sounds up for the challenge if the opportunity presented.
Given his standing in the game, and being one of the most heralded players and coaches in the game's history, it would be interesting to see what he would bring as a commissioner.
Other names floated have been other luminaries, such as Joel Selwood, Andrew Ireland and Matthew Pavlich.