Round 9 is done, and I feel like with every passing week, we learn less about the season we’re having.

GWS are back in business in stunning style, while Geelong and Brisbane, the big winners out of last week, fell off their perch. Collingwood are red-hot regardless of who they put out on the park, Richmond have as many wins in the first two months of the year as we thought they’d have all season, and Gold Coast have lurched back to the ‘good’ side of the Are-they-actually-good-o-meter.

And is anyone else starting to think we might be sleeping on Essendon just a little bit?

In any case, it was a cracking round with three thrillers on Sunday to finish it off – and everything from Showdown Medals to the Willie Rioli saga to unpack.

And as it turns out, it was the closest round by average margin in VFL/AFL history! Truly special.

Let’s begin.

1. The Showdown deserves prime time permanence

There is no better rivalry in the AFL than the Showdown.

In fact, it’s not even close – and I struggle to think of a better one in all of Australian sport.

We have cross-town derbies all the time. Plenty of matches come between two teams who hate each other – think South Sydney and Sydney in the NRL, or closer to home, GWS and the Western Bulldogs, or more recently Collingwood and Geelong.

And there are even teams that reguarly produce thrillers – the Giants and Cats, for instance.

But the Showdown combines all three – and the only thing wrong with the latest classic between Adelaide and Port Adelaide was the timeslot in which the AFL scheduled it.

It’s time for the league’s best rivalry to be a permanent prime time fixture, and not hidden away on Fox Footy as part of a Saturday night double-header.

A good game is just about inevitable – recent years have proved form doesn’t matter at all in these games. The Power came into Saturday night off the back of a 90-point loss, while the Crows have had a superb start to 2025 – yet in the end, less than a goal separated the two teams.

What other match can you bank as being a blockbuster AND living up to the hype year on year?

If it was up to me, the Showdown would be given a permanent prime time slot as a marquee event – something like the Thursday night before Good Friday – to bring it to as wide an audience as possible.

If the AFL thinks Victoria, still the biggest market, will have minimal interest compared to a match featuring a major Melbourne club, I would point to social media on Saturday night, which was dominated with discussion on the Crows-Power classic unfolding.

Please, AFL. Give the people what they want.

2. Rozee boos prove it’s time for a major medal rethink

When Connor Rozee was announced as the Showdown Medallist at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday night, the stands erupted in boos.

The reason? Not because the honour was controversial – though I’d certainly argue that a certain R. Thilthorpe was extremely stiff – but because Rozee was on the losing side, Port Adelaide having lost a thriller by nine points, and celebrating Crows fans in the stands were in no mood to be gracious.

We can make the reaction all about Adelaide fans lacking class if we want, but for me, the reaction to Rozee’s win reinforced a thought I’ve had for a while about the league’s major best-afield medals: they should be awarded to the best player … on the winning side.

Partly, this is because I find best-afield honours secondary in most cases to most valuable player honours – the man or woman that made the biggest impact on his team’s victory.

Rozee had 32 disposals – some of them he didn’t even turn over – 684 metres gained and a stunning goal, but it wasn’t enough to get the Power over the line. That can’t be said about Thilthorpe, whose three goals and vice-like hands proved instrumental in the Crows’ triumph despite badly losing the inside-50 count.

Mostly, though, it’s because awarding a best-on-ground medal to a player on the losing side is the ultimate mood-killer.

No Power fan or player takes any solace out of Rozee’s medal in the aftermath of a heartbreaking Showdown loss – Rozee himself was flat as a tack when giving a classy acceptance speech in which it was clear he’d rather have been anywhere else.

It’s the same for the rare cases where a Norm Smith Medal is won by a player on a losing grand final team – did Nathan Buckley or Chris Judd get any joy whatsoever about being called onto the dais for the medal they didn’t want to claim that day?

Compare it to the delight of teammates and the roar of the crowd when it goes to a player on the winning side, like for Steele Sidebottom on Anzac Day, or Will Ashcroft in the QClash, or Ashcroft again for last year’s Norm Smith.

It’s a no-brainer for mine – cast the votes post-game or have the selectors decide via a consensus, but either way make the winner an on-field victor too.

Connor Rozee celebrates a Port Adelaide goal. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

3. Let’s talk about the Dees’ Clayton Oliver problem

That Melbourne have a problem with Clayton Oliver, and that it’s growing bigger by the day, can’t be denied.

Regardless of whether it was his idea or Simon Goodwin’s, the sight of one of the premier ball-winning midfielders of his generation, a four-time best and fairest, two-time Coaches Association MVP and three-time All-Australian, reduced to tagging a pre-season draft graduate in Jai Newcombe – and doing an excellent job, to be fair – would have been unthinkable even 12 months ago.

The issue for Melbourne, though, remains the same as it was at the end of last season when Oliver’s name was once again put on the trade table – there is no scenario where the Demons can offload him and his sizeable contract without coming out significant losers.

It was even suggested on one of the footy panel shows this week that the Dees missed a trick by not offloading him at the end of last year – and I literally mean ‘offload’, given the suggestion was for them to have thrown in a high draft pick as a sweetener, similar to what Gold Coast did with Jack Bowes in gifting him to Geelong.

There would have been riots in the streets if the Dees had done that. Oliver remains, however dire his last couple of years, one of the most important men in modern Melbourne history, and to hand him over to the Cats – and we all know that’s where he would have gone – for anything short of two first-round picks, never mind actually giving up a pick of their own as well, would have been madness.

Yes, it would have opened up some space in the salary cap: but people seem to miss that having free money in the cap can only take you so far.

Geelong and Brisbane luring a star recruit every other year has proved no hindrance on their cap space; meanwhile, St Kilda are about to spend their war chest on a ruckman they don’t need in Tom De Koning, seemingly because he’s the first big-name gun from another club who’s agreed to them after rejections from Finn Callaghan, Zach Merrett and Andrew Brayshaw.

If offloading Oliver was going to help them land an Oscar Allen, say, or even an Aaron Cadman, or assisted in luring Luke Jackson back home, then fine; but sometimes a war chest just ends up resulting in overpaying for Jared Polec, Jasper Pittard and Dom Tyson, as any North Melbourne supporter can tell you.

Right now, regardless of whether he’s tagging or can ever get back to his best, Oliver is more valuable to the Demons in red and blue than he could possibly be in other colours.

As sticky a situation as it is, the best thing to do is be patient, cross your fingers, and hope things eventually click for him. At 27 years old, he’s still got plenty of time on his side.

4. Of course Zach Merrett deserved to be cleared

No, Zach Merrett being cleared for his high whack on Nick Blakey is not a case of different rules for Brownlow Medal contenders than for everyone else.

It’s not a case of the Match Review Officer finally putting action above outcome, having shirked away from it in cases such as Bo Allan’s high hit on Jack Viney and especially Paul Curtis’ tackle on Josh Sinn.

Merrett attacked the ball with an open palm, attempted to tap the ball over Blakey’s head, made contact with the ball, and then caught the Swan high.

A free kick? Absolutely. But anything more than that, regardless of whether Blakey had been concussed or not, would have been yet another example of the MRO’s laws being ill-equipped to deal with anything but the most egregious of incidents.

Comparisons to young Eagle Allan’s ban are also ridiculous – for one thing, Merrett had eyes on the ball all the way through, unlike Allan, and for another, actually made contact with the footy.

The only similar incident to compare it to is Rory Lobb’s attempted spoil in Round 2 which missed the ball and collected Mason Cox in the head – for which he was, correctly, cleared.

The problem I have is I fear that Merrett WOULD have been suspended had Blakey indeed proved to be concussed, and that it would have been another three-week ban with a ‘severe’ grading.

But I find it humorous that, after weeks of bemoaning every single suspension handed down, the clamouring for Merrett to be banned for this.

Yes, we want consistency – but we also want the right decision. What’s the point of consistency if every single call is a howler?

5. The AFL let everyone down in Willie Rioli saga – especially Willie Rioli

No, Willie Rioli is not the victim out of this week’s drama.

But the AFL’s handling of his threatening message aimed at Bailey Dale, from start to finish, seems to have been constructed in order for him to be pilloried as much as possible.

The league’s decision to not suspend him for the initial text was completely out of line with other bans they have doled out for off-field behaviour in recent times.

No, a big ban like what was handed out for homophobic abuse last year to Jeremy Finlayson, Will Powell or Lance Collard would have been overkill – however threatening the message, the only one affected by it is the person receiving it, whereas homphobia is a direct slur against an entire community of innocent bystanders.

But a one-week ban would have killed the story immediately, and allowed the league to make a distinction when stories later broke of previous threats Rioli had made – that, in the words of Brad Scott, as long as it’s not racist or homphobic, what happens on the field stays on the field.

Not giving a ban, and only launching an investigation once the media unearthed further dirt, made the league look incompetent, derelict in its duty, and – and this is worst of all – allowed the worst people in the AFL community to proclaim the race card as the reason Rioli originally escaped sanction.

Willie Rioli celebrates a goal. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Then, the cherry on top – to only announce a ban after Rioli himself had elected to stand down from the Showdown, effectively both causing him to miss a match while also allowing the idiots of the world to proclaim that they were still not punishing him.

In the process, it made a media circus of something everyone, most of all Dale and the Bulldogs, wanted to simply move on from; just as Geelong and Essendon made no public mention of Rioli’s on-field threats last year.

The AFL dropped the ball horrendously this week. And more than anyone else, Rioli was let down the most by the whole shambles.

6. It’s too early to know anything about this year

As North Melbourne threw everything but the kitchen sink at Brisbane in the dying minutes at Ninja Stadium to very nearly steal the second-most unlikely win of the year (Richmond beating Carlton in Round 1, of course, the unconquerable leader), it struck me that a lot of conclusions are already being drawn about a season which we still know barely anything about.

Things like the eight being set already and the premiership contenders unshakeably established were bandied about this week – and even with history suggesting that after eight games, most of the top eight is already set, it strikes me that modern footy is crazy enough to throw that history straight out the window.

Only last year, the eventual premiers had three wins and a draw to their name at this point; Hawthorn had just started to turn the corner, while both Melbourne and Essendon were entrenched in the top eight.

Strange things can happen in any season, and in modern footy most of all – if the Kangaroos can nearly topple the ladder-leading Lions, and deny them the full four premiership points for just the second time this season, then literally anything can happen.

So no, Sydney aren’t already cooked this year – and indeed, just a week ago after beating GWS, we were talking about them as having turned the corner.

The same goes for Fremantle amid their miserable run, and especially GWS – the most out of form team going around last week, they silenced plenty of doubters by storming GMHBA Stadium for a famous win at what has become the strangest happy hunting ground in footy.

On the flip side, Geelong remain more inconsistent than they’ve been for quite a while – you don’t know whether you’re getting the powerhouse which took down Collingwood and Adelaide in Adelaide, or one that can look like schoolboys against Jesse Hogan at their own fortress.

Hawthorn are racking up the wins but don’t feel all that inspiring at the moment – they could either come good and dominate the competition, or fall by the wayside as any number of strong-starting teams have done over the years.

Equally, we might have been sleeping on Essendon all this while: the closeness of their wins has prevented the usual rush of acclaim whenever the Bombers get a win streak going, and you can bet that suits Brad Scott just fine.

The point is: footy is weird right now. And with 15 weeks of season 2025 left before the finals, no matter where you are on the ladder (except, probably, if you’re West Coast), hope springs eternal, and disaster is only ever one corner away.

Random thoughts

– Turns out this was an omen!

– Jack Gunston is vying for Steele Sidebottom’s top spot in the ‘I thought you were cooked three years ago’ stakes.

– Andrew McQualter screaming from the box for Tom Gross to kick it, then blowing his stack when Tom Brown caught him, might just be my favourite footy clip of the year.

– Heartbroken Reilly O’Brien didn’t follow through with a switch with 40 seconds on the clock in the Showdown. Would have been the ruckman moment to end all ruckman moments.

– You can’t seriously be paying holding the ball in this situation.

– Harvey Langford is going to be some player.