ON SUNDAY, Media Watch noted our colleagues around the country had gone strangely quiet in the wake of Gary Ablett's 41-possession game against Adelaide on Saturday.
There were no articles about the Gold Coast skipper's social life, pay packet, or the lack of time he was spending around his new club and young teammates.
Such background noise tends to fade once a player starts to deliver on the field.
But it is clear from Monday's Courier-Mail that Ablett is delivering for the Suns off the field as well.
Suns youngsters Joseph Daye and Zac Smith are best placed to see the lengths Ablett goes to prepare himself for each week's game.
In a situation you would not expect to see at any other club, Daye and Smith share a house with their skipper, who relocated to the Gold Coast from Melbourne at the end of last year.
Daye told the paper Ablett had woken him and Smith at 1am on Sunday to take an ice bath.
"He is teaching us well, you can see all the little things he does to prepare for each game and he gets the results," Daye said.
Daye said he was trying to tap into Ablett's experience as much as possible.
"Whenever we're heading out to training or a recovery session, or we're at home watching the footy, I ask him questions," he said.
"But I try not to bug him too much, I'm trying to be cool about it."
It's a great insight into Ablett's off-field leadership.
He and Carlton skipper Chris Judd have often been compared for their on-field heroics, but off the field Judd has been cast as the more natural leader.
Quite rightly, Judd has received a lot of the credit for the uncompromising off-field approach he helped introduce to Carlton when he moved from West Coast at the end of the 2007 season.
In time, Ablett may be credited for establishing a similar culture at Gold Coast.
Swans the masters of recycling
No one recycles 'used' players better than the Sydney Swans. Under Paul Roos, the Swans rose to the 2005 premiership and an era of finals success on the back of experienced players it acquired from other clubs.
Six of the Swans' 2005 premiership 22 were recycled players - Jason Ball (West Coast), Darren Jolly (Melbourne), Craig Bolton (Brisbane Lions), Paul Williams (Collingwood), Barry Hall (St Kilda) and Nick Davis (Collingwood).
Recycling continues to serve the Swans well in 2011.
The Australian observed on Monday: "Sydney is the sort of organisation that can craft a banquet out of the ingredients located in the back of a cupboard and overlooked morsels found in the bins of the better off."
The national paper cited ruckman Shane Mumford (ex-Geelong) and inside midfielder Josh Kennedy (ex-Hawthorn) as prime examples.
Mumford and Kennedy were key parts of the Swans' midfield that thrashed Port Adelaide on Saturday night and, at 24 and 22 respectively, have their best football in front of them.
So buoyant was The Australian about the pair's prospects it said the officials at their former clubs who let them go "must be feeling like the record company execs who told The Beatles the world didn't need their talents".
It said, in letting them go, Geelong and Hawthorn had not considered either as "critical" players.
This is a little unfair. Especially on Geelong. Former coach Mark Thompson made a personal plea to Mumford to stay at Skilled Stadium but, with the Cats struggling to fit all of their star-studded team under the salary cap, could not match the Swans' lucrative offer.
Meanwhile, the Hawks ultimately preferred Luke Hodge, Sam Mitchell, Brad Sewell and Jordan Lewis to Kennedy as their inside players.
Which is not to deny the Swans' extraordinary strike-rate at identifying gold nuggets in other sides' fringe dwellers.
Ben McGlynn (ex-Hawthorn), Rhyce Shaw (ex-Collingwood), Martin Mattner (ex-Adelaide) Ted Richards (ex-Essendon) have all been better players at their new home and Andrejs Everitt (ex-Western Bulldogs) is showing signs in his first season he will be too.
Pies reining in rotations
Collingwood has risen to the top of the on-field AFL heap on the back of stifling defensive pressure and unprecedented numbers of interchange rotations.
The two have gone hand in hand. By rotating its players on and off the ground more than any other side in its 2010 premiership year, the Magpies ensured they were fresh enough to apply their all-ground defensive press for longer than any other side.
However, the Herald Sun reported on Monday Magpies coach Mick Malthouse has reined in his side's interchange rotations in recent rounds. In last Friday night's loss to Geelong, the Magpies had just 100 rotations, down from their average of 130 in 2010.
The tabloid reported Malthouse's comments on radio station SEN 1116 that the Magpies were prepared to risk losing their on-field edge in the short-term so they could discover what affect multiple injuries would have on their interchange rotations.
"We want to find out what the impact is when you don't have three players to interchange because you can't guarantee that," Malthouse said.
While the Magpies' experiment may cost them a game or two in the short-term, it may prove invaluable later in the year. If they suffer two early injuries in a final, Malthouse will be banking on the fact the preparation they are doing now will have the Pies better placed than any of their opponents to cope.
It's a luxury only the elite sides have; unless the Magpies have an extraordinary lapse in form, it's hard to seem them finishing outside the top four.
But you still need to have the foresight to risk short-term losses for a long-term edge. Foresight has long helped keep Malthouse ahead of the game.
In short
Gold Coast coach Guy McKenna told the Gold Coast Bulletin his side's 2-5 start to its debut AFL season had lived up to his expectations.
The Sydney Swans may be coming off their biggest win in three years, after thrashing Port Adelaide by 62 points on Saturday night, but co-captain Jarrad McVeigh told The Daily Telegraph his side had to "step up and improve to really challenge the top teams".
West Coast coach John Worsfold has paid tribute to his side's growing maturity following its ability to overcome the late withdrawals of senior players Daniel Kerr and Andrew Embley before its 33-point defeat of Fremantle in Sunday's Derby, The West Australian reports.
Geelong is currently conceding the lowest average points a game since 1966, the Herald Sun reports. After eight rounds, the Cats have conceded an average 63.29 points a game, the lowest since Collingwood averaged 59.61 points against in 1966.
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
