AFL live, Melbourne vs Western Bulldogs round one: Make your 2022 predictions as we build up to the season opener

Keep ’em coming, folks

Premier: Melbourne
Losing GF team: Brisbane
Wooden Spoon: West Coast
Biggest risers: Collingwood
Biggest fallers: West Coast
Brownlow: Christian Petracca
Coleman: Jeremy Cameron
Rising Star: Josh Daicos

-Jeremy

See, I nearly said Clayton Oliver for my Brownlow pick but I think him and Trac are going to eat so many votes off each other. I too think Collingwood will improve this year though.

Premier: Brisbane
Losing GF team: Melbourne
Wooden Spoon: West Coast
Biggest risers: Saints
Biggest fallers: West Coast
Brownlow: Darcy Parish
Coleman: Harry McKay
Rising Star: Nick Daicos

-Just

Get on the Brissy bandwagon, people. Darcy Parish Brownlow is a decent shout too, he polled incredibly well last year and will be more on the radar in 2022.

Premier: Melbourne
Losing GF team: Dogs
Wooden Spoon: Hawks
Biggest risers: NMFC
Biggest fallers: Cats
Brownlow: The Bont
Coleman: Ben Brown
Rising Star: Horne-Francis

-Jason

The Cats are an interesting one too. There’s a school of thought that a fall out of the finals is around the corner, but is this year too soon? I’m not sure I can see them hold that top four spot, but nor can I see them slipping out of the eight just yet.

My 2022 predictions

• Premier: Brisbane
• Losing GF team: Western Bulldogs
• Wooden Spoon: Hawthorn
• Biggest risers: Fremantle
• Biggest fallers: West Coast
• Brownlow: Matt Rowell
• Coleman: Aaron Naughton
• Rising Star: Nick Daicos

Feel very good about the Lions prediction, Fremantle having a good year and West Coast falling into the bottom four. Spoon is a toss up between Hawks, North and Eagles.

Gold Coast will win 8-10 games this year, and Rowell is going to be absolutely dripping in votes. Naughton will win the Coleman with about 55 goals. Daicos will average 25 disposals and a goal a game to edge JHF, Josh Gibcus and Josh Ward for the Rising Star.

First couple of shouts are in

Premier: Dogs
Losing GF team: Dees
Wooden Spoon: Suns
Biggest risers: Carlton
Biggest fallers: Eagles
Brownlow: Bont
Coleman: Jeremy Cameron
Rising Star: Jason Horne Francis

-Rob

Rob’s flipping the script on the 2021 GF with the ultimate Dogs’ revenge.

Premier: Melbourne
Runner-up: Brisbane
Spoon: North
Risers: St Kilda
Fallers: Eagles 🙁
Brownlow: J Steele
Coleman: Fritsch
Rising Star: Daicos

-LW

Interesting call on the Saints being big risers. But they can ill afford another year mid-table stasis, and if Jack Steele is indeed winning the Brownlow then you’ve had to imagine finals are part of that equation.

What’s all this about a song?

Okay, this is close to the dumbest talking point imaginable leading up to a genuinely massive game, but it’s also pretty funny so we’re going over it again.

Basically there’s this song, right. It’s called Freed From Desire. It was released in 1996 by someone called GALA. And the Western Bulldogs made a habit of singing it together after wins last year, most notably after their prelim against Port.

BUT. Then Melbourne made a big song and dance of singing it together after wiping the Bulldogs in the grand final, apparently ticking those Dogs off no end. And now there’s all this animosity and rage and bitterness, stemming not from said GF wiping but from said GALA song singing. It’s amazing.

This is the song, FWIW:

And here is my final verdict on the issue: Melbourne has full rights to the song, as long as they make it an ode to Kossie Pickett by tweaking the lyrics to “We’ve got Kysaiah, your defence is terrified…” ala Will Grigg’s On Fire. There, settled.

A brand new season

Melbourne’s glorious summer of celebration is over, but they are as good a chance as anyone of lifting that cup again come September this year. But who looms as the greatest challengers to the Dees in 2022?

Our own Cody Atkinson and Sean Lawson have put the data to the test to come up with some answers – and a few fresh questions:

As expected, last year’s premiers are set to be the team to catch this year, but they will face a harder draw than most and the pack is close behind. Little is expected to separate the top six at this early stage, setting the stage for an epic season.

Recent seasons have seen surprise ‘risers’ through the competition, like Melbourne in 2021. Any team, from the predicted wooden spooner up, could make a real run at the finals.

Looming heavily on the horizon is Richmond, with its playing stocks dented but its will still intact. After a horror run with injuries in 2021, expect Damien Hardwick’s three-time premiers to rise back into finals contention this year.

Read Cody and Sean’s full preview here – the perfect intro to the new campaign.

Welcome to AFL season 2022

Hello! Welcome back! So good of you to join us! We have finally reached the opening day of the 2022 AFL season, and have launched this here blog to mark the occasion. And good news! The head honchos at AFL HQ have done us a solid by scheduling and absolute banger of a season opener.

Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs. Last year’s grand finalists. Two teams that we are told can’t stand each other. Two of the most thrilling and fun watches in the sport. Under lights at the MCG with probably around 75,000 odd people there. It honestly doesn’t get much better.

We’re kicking things off early to get in the last lot of pre-season chat and predictions in before things kick off a little later. I will soon be joined by Andrew McGarry, who I can confirm is as pumped as anyone to get this show on the road. Let’s do this.