1. A week is a long week in football
Just over a week ago, the Magpies were made to look like an amateur team by Adelaide and desperately struggled to hit targets. On the same day, the Saints demolished Gold Coast – a team heavily tipped to break into the top eight this season. After managing to stick with the Pies in the first quarter on Friday night, the Saints were in a different league with their midfield dominated in the second, leaving them to watch their opponents motor away to a 32-point lead that grew sizeably as the game wore on, the Pies finishing with a whopping 77 inside 50s and 13 individual goal-kickers for the night. Which begs the question – how bad were the Suns last week?
VOTE: Your 3-2-1 in the Magpie Army Player of the Year Award.
2. Cloke's calamity
Levi Casboult's kicking dominated footy talk last weekend after the big Blue's erratic, unattractive kicking left his coach Mick Malthouse at a loss for words to describe one of his shots at goal. A week later, it might be Travis Cloke's turn to hog the headlines. Cloke terrorised opponents ranging from Luke Delaney to Sam Fisher to Sean Dempster on Friday night with his size and strength, but he had a challenging night, with five goals and fourmissed sitters. In true Cloke form, he showed how well he can kick when he relaxes outside the 50m arc or when he doesn't have time to think about it in close, but also how badly he can battle when he lines up well within range.
3. Not St Paddy's day
No.1 draft pick Paddy McCartin's call up for his first AFL game after Nick Riewoldt withdrew was so unexpected that his parents Matt and Jo had to make mad dashes to the MCG to be there for their son. Matt told ABC Radio he abandoned his car at Southbank and ran to the ground after hearing the news, while Jo jumped in the car with other sons Charles and Tom and hotfooted it from their Geelong home, having to encounter Melbourne-bound traffic over the West Gate Bridge. Matt made it to the rooms for McCartin's jumper presentation and Jo and co. got to the ground soon after. Unfortunately, it wasn't the highly-touted forward's night as he struggled to get himself into the right positions and found it hard to maintain a cohesive forward set up with Tim Membrey and Josh Bruce. He ended with nine disposals and three marks, was rotated heavily, and will no doubt remember Jack Frost giving him plenty of physical attention away from the ball.
4. No Nick
There were three players going into the game under injury clouds – Riewoldt, Scott Pendlebury and Taylor Adams - but when the team sheets were lodged 90 minutes before the bounce, Adams was the only scratching. But about half an hour later, the left calf that Riewoldt so diligently tested out at training on Thursday afternoon began to trouble him to the extent he pulled out of the game. The Saints' captain, who hasn't missed a game through injury since 2012, was given until the last moment to declare himself fit but rather than risk tweaking the calf and making it worse, he opted out and joined Alan Richardson in the coaches box.
5. Was it a mark?
Everyone knows Jamie Elliot has one of the best leaps in the competition, and he demonstrated his high-flying skills late in the first quarter when he came in from the side and planted his knees on Cam Shenton's shoulder. It was a nice jump but the ball spilled free from Elliot's hands as he hit the ground, which indicated he didn't have full control over it. There was much confusion as it was called a mark by the umpire running through the midfield, while the one closer to the play didn't signal. It's hard to see how it could be considered as a mark of the year contender this week – despite its height - when debate is sure to continue over which umpire made the right call.
ELLIOTT'S SCREAMER: Watch Jamie reach for the sky to pluck one of the Marks of the Year.
