A brilliant fortnight on the road has sparked a new No.1 in the rankings, with some less-than-impressive wins from their fellow contenders.This is our attempt to rank every AFL club from best to worst. We take wins and losses into account, but also the quality of opposition faced and whether teams are likely to get healthier or improve going forward. It’s a little bit ‘who’s hot and who’s not’; part predictive, part analysis of what’s happened.
We wrote in Talking Points about our concern the 4-0 record flatters Geelong, based on the opponents they’ve faced and the way those games played out - specifically with excellent Cats goalkicking swinging their last three results. They should be 5-0 after this weekend but they feel a lot closer to a pre-2022 Geelong team right now, the type that would bank a bunch of wins and make the top four but not actually pose a major threat to the other true contenders.
It’s the inconsistency that gets you. Oh, there you go, the Bombers are competitive, they’re at least average, ooh that’s a nice win over St Kilda... bang, a 69-point drubbing against Port Adelaide where they look totally feckless. It was reminiscent of their worst showings last year, against Geelong, GWS and Collingwood across the final two months of the season.
We put some consideration into having the Kangaroos 18th based on how uncompetitive they were against Brisbane, compared to West Coast’s solid showing, but we don’t want to be too reactionary. The Kangaroos have had a bloody tough draw so far and there have been more green shoots across the opening month overall.