The comeback's always on in footy's Lazarus season
A TEAM has trailed at half-time and won 28 times this season.
That's 19 more times than in the first 10 rounds last season and six more than in the first 10 rounds of any season in the past 10 years.
Melbourne did it the hard way on Saturday, becoming the sixth team in 2017 to have been behind by 30 points or more and still win.
No team did that in the first 10 rounds last season.
But the Demons made it look easy, banging on eight unanswered goals from the 12-minute mark of the third term until early in the fourth quarter.
Following that goal streak the Dees were destined to win. Only four times since 2010 has a team kicked eight unanswered goals and lost.
The Dees surged from 35 points down to beat the Suns in Alice Springs. Picture: AFL Photos
The winning comebacks only tell half the story too.
In 2017, teams are coming back from the dead, hitting the front, and then dying off again as Carlton did against North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
At this rate, John Farnham should sing at the Grand Final.
It's a year where rare has become common too with four of the past 35 games decided with a lead-changing goal inside the last two minutes.
It's not great for the poor old coaches but it's great for supporters as the game is never over, until the song has been sung.
The Kangas were headed despite taking a 25-point lead into half-time on Sunday ...
Geelong coach Chris Scott explained what players and coaches were up against after the Cats withstood a Western Bulldogs comeback in round nine.
"The laws of the game committee have made it very, very difficult to close the game down," Scott said.
"It is so hard to draw stoppages, so hard to just possess the ball in your back half. The game has changed."
He could have thrown in interchange caps, crackdowns on melees, the tightening of deliberate rushed behinds and out of bounds interpretation and the countdown clock as well to explain why it's hard to pull a few cords so the parachute lands slowly.
... but rallied to inflict a painful defeat on the Blues. Pictures: AFL Photos
Now momentum matters with more swings in fortune on show these days at an AFL game than you'd see standing around a roulette wheel.
Teams can score quickly with the Brisbane Lions taking less than 12 minutes to kick the first five goals against Gold Coast in round one.
On Saturday, we saw the Demons at work, as it took less than 16 minutes for Rodney Eade's Suns to lose a five-goal lead.
No wonder Rocket needed a massage.
We might all need one at this rate because it's easier to keep beer in the fridge when your brothers visit these days then it is to keep a lead.
No frees for you
The only two players to have given away six free kicks in a game in 2017? Essendon's Shaun McKernan and, as of Saturday's nightmare outing against the Crows, Fremantle superstar Nat Fyfe.
Only Giants ruckman Shane Mumford, with 26 frees against, has given away more free kicks than Fyfe's 22 this season.
At least Mumford (25 frees for) and Fyfe (22) get some free kicks.
Spare a thought for Port Adelaide's Matthew Broadbent, who is yet to receive a free kick and has conceded 10 in the nine games he's played this season.
He must have looked at Geelong's Joel Selwood with envy on Thursday night, as the Cats skipper collected six free kicks.
Selwood has received a free kick in all but one game since round five, 2010 and has missed out on a free kick just nine times in his 238-game career.
The highest quality top five you'll see today
Sam Mitchell racked up 30 disposals in a game for the 119th time on Sunday.
He passes St Kilda legend Robert Harvey for the most 30-plus disposal games.
The top five in that list have all won Brownlows, showing there's more to winning the medal than having blond hair.
Five years and 64 days
That's how long Greater Western Sydney took to beat all the other AFL teams, completing the set against West Coast on Sunday.
It's quicker than eight teams took to beat all comers. The Hawks' wait was longest – a drought of 17 years against Collingwood only ending during World War Two.
| Team | Time elapsed before beating all comers | Last team defeated |
|---|---|---|
| Essendon | 0 years, 56 days | Collingwood R9, 1897 |
| Geelong | 0 years, 63 days | Collingwood R10, 1897 |
| Melbourne | 0 years, 91 days | Essendon R14, 1897 |
| Collingwood | 1 year, 76 days | South Melbourne R11, 1898 |
| West Coast | 2 years, 116 days | Sydney Swans R16, 1989 |
| South Melbourne / Sydney Swans | 2 years, 124 days | Essendon R17, 1899 |
| Adelaide | 2 years, 160 days | Collingwood, R22 1993 |
| Fremantle | 4 years, 108 days | West Coast R16, 1999 |
| GWS | 5 years, 64 days | West Coast R10, 2017 |
| Carlton | 5 years, 79 days | Fitzroy R13, 1902 |
| Port Adelaide | 6 years, 48 days | North Melbourne R8, 2003 |
| Western Bulldogs | 8 years, 53 days | Collingwood R9, 1933 |
| Brisbane Bears / Lions | 9 years 10 days | West Coast R2, 1996 |
| St Kilda | 9 years, 18 days | Essendon R4, 1906 |
| Richmond | 10 years, 15 days | Carlton R2, 1918 |
| North Melbourne | 11 years, 98 days | Richmond R14, 1936 |
| Hawthorn | 17 years, 34 days | Collingwood R5, 1942 |
| Gold Coast | Yet to beat Adelaide, Sydney Swans, West Coast | |
The heart of the Giants' fab four
Few centre-square starting fours in the game's history have look better on paper than Greater Western Sydney's Shane Mumford, Josh Kelly, Callan Ward and Dylan Shiel.
That quartet went to work in the last quarter against West Coast, attending six of the 12 centre bounces, with the Giants winning nine centre clearances as the game reached its climax.
The least talked about of the quartet but arguably the most effective is Shiel, who leads the competition in centre clearances this season.
The best thing about Shiel is that he does it at the start and the end. He's the only player in the top five in the AFL for centre clearances won in the first half and the second half.
As for the Eagles, they had no answer, particularly with Luke Shuey missing through injury as West Coast wins a clearance 44 per cent of the time when he attends a centre bounce.
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