BRAVO, Daniel Hannebery.

For the poster boy for all that went wrong for the Sydney Swans in the Grand Final last year, the anticipation ahead of the rematch at the MCG on Saturday night must have been enormous.

He was thoroughly worked over by the Hawks during their opening onslaught last September and by quarter-time of the Grand Final he was battered - physically and mentally.

And while everyone at the Swans was keen to point out that the rematch against the Hawks was for four premiership points and not a whole lot more, there had to be an element of redemption for Hannebery.

And he got it.

To this observer, he was the best player on the ground on Saturday night. In a game that was utterly brutal in the coalface and at stoppages, the 24-year-old was magnificent with 36 possessions (15 contested) and seven clearances. There was no obvious strategy from the Hawks to work him over this time, but he just rolled up his (metaphoric) sleeves and went about delivering the sort of performance that should put to rest any lingering demons from last September.

And Jarrad McVeigh gets an elephant stamp as well.

He also played a stinker in the Grand Final last year but thrived in the pressure-cooker atmosphere on Saturday night. Significantly, and this is a sign of how John Longmire has tweaked the Swans in terms of adding some flexibility, McVeigh went forward in the last quarter, taking advantage of the match-up with Matt Suckling to kick two goals to reverse the trend of a game that was threatening to slip out away from the Swans.

Six other takeaways from a ripping night at the MCG

1. Whoever says football isn’t as hard a game as it used to be ought to sit down and watch a replay of the Hawks-Swans match. It was manic, frenzied, fear-for-your-health sort of stuff, except that the players didn't. They just went at the ball and at each other. The contrasts between that and what Carlton has been offering up of late is stark.

2. Sam Reid's redemption is a feel good story. Again, the Swans have been borrowing from the Alastair Clarkson book of versatility and he has been bobbing up on the wing as well as forward and back. He will be a match-up nightmare for both teams.

3.The Swans tried to do to Sam Mitchell what the Hawks did to Hannebery in the Grand Final.

Mitchell (32 possessions) worked through it and his second and third quarters in particular were outstanding. How does this player get better with age?

4.It has become the trendy thing in football for small forwards to be labeled the next Cyril Rioli. Steven Motlop, Eddie Betts, Jeff Garlett, Chad Wingard and Luke Dahlhaus have all been talked about in this respect and all have played great footy. But on Saturday night they were reminded why they get compared to Rioli. The Hawthorn champ was just marvelous, getting his side back into the match in the second term and almost winning it in the last. Still the best small forward in the AFL.

5. Luke Breust and Jack Gunston's kicking for goal has regressed this year and it is hurting the Hawks. Breust's secret last year was to practice fatigued kicking at training. It was the sort of "one percent" stuff that gave the edge the Hawks last year. Is there the same mania to prepare like that this year?

6.James Frawley kept Lance Franklin scoreless for one of the few times in his career. He will prove to be a great pick-up by the Hawks.

Redemption part two

To cap off the weekend of redemption, Richmond returned to the scene of last year's elimination final humiliation and turned the tables on Port Adelaide in the most comprehensive fashion.

It wasn't a pretty win. The style points certainly weren't there but it was a win shaped by a tremendous work ethic and some fanatical defence, particularly in a remarkable third term in which the Tigers were scoreless while Port, which pressed hard, managed just 1.4.

Not since 1952 have the Tigers won a match while being held without a score for a quarter.

Full credit goes to coach Damien Hardwick, who was under the pump a fortnight ago and could offer nothing more than a promise that the Tigers would work hard to turn their season around. Two wins later and what do you know, the Tigers are back in the eight.

The Power, meanwhile, are now 13th. It was unfathomable at the start of the season when so many had them penciled in for the Grand Final and even the flag. But the evidence was clear again on Sunday that teams have worked out how to defend against their run and without quick ball movement into attack, their forward line is pedestrian and unable to take advantage of gettable set shots such as those missed by Chad Wingard and Jay Schultz when things were tight.

They kicked five goals on Sunday, compared to 20 in the elimination final. That about sums it up. It was a dreadful way to farewell the great Kane Cornes and the Power go into the remaining 14 games of the year without a first-choice player who was still their best lockdown midfielder.

Ken Hinkley made some waves when he dumped Matthew Broadbent for the Richmond clash. Who will be next?

Frustration boiling over?

The vision of the incident that led to Western Bulldogs ruckman Will Minson allegedly pushing an umpire in a VFL match on Sunday is a bit innocuous, so we will start with some sort of presumption of innocence.

But the fact he was red-carded immediately doesn't look good and if the charge is sustained, he is looking at some serious time on the sidelines.

It is a stunning fall from grace for Minson who less than two years ago was the All Australian ruckman. One can only imagine his frustration at being out of favour with an incoming coach and with the team playing well without him. The combination of Ayce Cordy, Jordan Roughead and even Tom Boyd seem to be the preferred ruckmen for now.

None of this excuses for a moment what he might have done at the Whitten Oval on Sunday. But it is a sign of how far his stocks have dropped and it would appear at this stage that a change of scenery might be required next season.

But a look around the AFL would suggest there aren’t too many obvious landing spots for Minson as the switch to more athletic and nimble ruckmen, in the mode of Mark Blicavs, becomes the vogue around the League.

Bulls out of the gate

What the weekend of footy amplified was the benefits of starting well. The Hawks ultimately paid a hefty price for their slow start against the Swans, but there were other examples on the weekend.

West Coast kicked seven of the first eight goals against St Kilda, so had plenty in reserve when the Saints came back in the second term.

Injuries to Sam Fisher and Jimmy Webster did the Saints no help at all, but the game was set up by West Coast's fast-start and at 6-2, the Eagles are travelling beautifully.

At Spotless Stadium, the Giants opened up with a flurry, with five goals in the first 14 minutes. The Crows could barely get their hands on the footy and when they did they coughed it up and were sliced open in the transition.

Adelaide played some OK footy thereafter, but was never a realistic chance to win, due the opening avalanche by the Giants.

Good kicking is good football. That much we know to be true. But what also continues to hold true is that fast starts translate to winning football.

Keep it nice

So the likelihood is that Dustin Fletcher will play his 400th next week in the Dreamtime game at the MCG, which will only add to the spectacle of what is one of the great footy days of the year.

Richmond will be the home team on Saturday night, so the Tigers will have control of the MCG scoreboard, LED graphics, ground announcing etc. It must have been tempting for the Bombers to rest Fletcher this week and wait for the Saturday night clash with Geelong at Etihad the following week, where as the home team, the atmosphere would have been incredible.

Not that the Tigers will be complaining. Crowds for the Dreamtime game in the last four years have averaged 80,000 and Fletcher's milestone should add another 10,000 to that if the weather holds up.

Fair play to the Bombers for giving up some pomp and ceremony in order to play their best available 22 – which obviously includes Fletcher - in a game that is critically important given the logjam in the middle of the ladder with six teams locked in at 4-4.

As coach James Hird said on Sunday, "The marketing department were pretty keen for that (delaying the milestone), but it's football and he's one of our better players at the moment.

"We need him to play."

Fletcher deserves nothing but the best reception from Richmond fans, but it does hark back to an afternoon at the old Whitten Oval in 1984 when Hawthorn was the visiting team on the day Leigh Matthews played his 300th game and Michael Tuck his 250th.

The ground announcer did the right thing and asked the home supporters for a show of appreciation as the Hawk icons ran on the ground and indeed, there was a ripple of applause. But once the game started? It was a different story as the Bulldogs supporters gave the two Hawks the rounds of the kitchen, and the jeering only became more hostile as the visitors drew away for an easy win.

Football fans are a nicer lot these days, although the Tiger fans, particularly the Grog Squad at the Punt Road End, can be among the more venomous. This Saturday night at the MCG, we beseech them to play nicely.

QUESTION TIME



Ashley Browne: The Swans ran Freo close in round four this year, losing by 14 points at Domain Stadium, but Freo led by eight goals at half-time and took their foot off the pedal for periods of the second. I reckon the Dockers are miles ahead when it comes to premiership favourites but the one team that would worry them in the Grand Final at the MCG would be Hawthorn. But the Hawks would have to get there and there are big question marks on that at the moment.



AB: I think both were good scalps for the G-Men. One team was the defending champion; the other team had beaten them in their five games prior by an average of just under 87 points. So that alone makes them a very good team. The weight of evidence suggests they have become very adept at defending their home turf, so with six wins already and seven more home games to come (including one in Canberra), the chances they play finals continue to grow by the week.




AB: We haven’t seen much of Gary Ablett on 'media street' since the recurrence of his shoulder injury. It's not really his scene at the best of times and in his case it has been all about the rehab. But he did give a fascinating interview to ABC Grandstand at half-time of the Collingwood game on Saturday where he said he hoped to be back training this week but more significantly, he has been more vocal behind closed doors at the football club than people might think. It is easily found using the 'Google machine' and worth a listen.