Carlton and Melbourne, both winless through four rounds, fall at similar hurdles as Patrick Dangerfield displays his old-man game to devastating effect.
Here’s what we learned from round four of the AFL season.
Carlton and Melbourne’s shared struggles
Three teams have now started the season with an unenviable 0-4 record. One of them, West Coast, isn’t a surprise. The other two, Carlton and Melbourne, were more likely to start 4-0 if you’d polled experts in the pre-season.
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The Blues and Demons rank in the bottom three in terms of points scored among teams to have played four matches so far this season, a staggering development considering the star power available on both lists.
There are parallels. Both teams contain high-powered midfielders featuring dominant ruckmen, yet both seem to have gotten their centre bounce set-ups wrong.
Carlton, whose most common centre bounce quartet features Patrick Cripps, George Hewett and Sam Walsh at the feet of Tom De Koning, ranks third-last in centre clearances per game so far this season.
Melbourne, featuring the trusted premiership quartet of Max Gawn, Clayton Oliver, Jack Viney and Christian Petracca, ranks fourth-last in centre clearances with 10.8 per game.
The good news for the Blues is their clearance issues appear to be restricted solely to the centre bounces, because they lead the league in stoppage clearances at 32.3 per contest. Comparatively, the Demons rank dead last in the league for stoppage clearances. Basically, it’s awful everywhere.
Both teams’ forward lines appear to be broken at this stage. Carlton ranks 18th in the AFL for scoring shots per inside 50 at 36.5 per game, while Melbourne is 17th with 38.6 in the same metric.
Haphazard forward 50 entries are more apparent for both sides when looking at marks inside 50. Melbourne is the worst in the league in this category with just 7.5 marks inside 50 per game, while Carlton is third-last with 8.0 per game. West Coast splits the pair of Victorian heavyweights.
Both Carlton and Melbourne have way too much firepower on paper to remain bottom five sides, but if these current trends don’t correct themselves, Michael Voss and Simon Goodwin might start getting a little nervous.
Dangerfield, the old-man forward, continues to cook
Geelong captain Patrick Dangerfield has been one of the defining players of his generation since he came into the league as a fresh-faced 18-year-old with the Crows in 2008.
There was no more damaging midfield wrecking ball than Dangerfield in his prime years in the mid 2010s, but it is clear now at 35, he is at a different stage of his career.
Dangerfield’s numbers have slowly dialled down over each of the past five years, but this is the first year where his profile looks vastly different as he spends more time as a permanent forward.
As the likes of Max Holmes and Bailey Smith take control of the Cats’ engine room, the result is more time in the forward line for Dangerfield, and he proved against Melbourne that he can continue to be a significant match-up headache for opponents, even at his advanced age.
There is something poetic about watching an aging superstar outpoint younger, more athletic opponents, simply by virtue of having seen every situation the game has to offer. This is exactly what Dangerfield is doing in Geelong’s forward line.
He may not be able to go full throttle all the time like he did a decade ago, but his processing speed remains as quick as ever, and being half a beat behind him can be lethal if you’re a defender playing against him, particularly on the last line of defence.
Dangerfield was outstanding against the Demons, finishing with three goals to go along with 20 disposals. One of the goals, a left-footed snap off a groundball, showcased Dangerfield’s terrific predatory instincts as he pounced on a loose ball quicker than every player in the vicinity.
Every time the ball went into the Cats forward line either on the ground or in the air with Dangerfield around, the result was instant panic among Melbourne’s defenders.
The Cats skipper’s goal tally of seven so far through four matches is almost more than his goals tally from each of the last four seasons. He is also averaging 6.8 score involvements per game, his highest mark since the 2019 season.
Dangerfield also picked up three clearances against Melbourne, and still has the ability to go into the engine room when the game really requires it. But the ability to have him roaming in and out of the midfield is a genuine luxury for Chris Scott and will keep his skipper fresher in the long run.
Genuine player-on-player rivalries might be back
Part of the nostalgia surrounding the 90s is due to some terrific one-on-one rivalries that used to be headline acts.
Think Wayne Carey versus Glen Jakovich, or Gary Ablett Sr up against Stephen Silvagni, prime Tony Modra climbing all over any given defender on any given day. These are the match-ups people yearn for.
The game changed for a while in the 2000s, becoming more midfield dominated as many of the game’s great forwards retired. With very few power forwards around, the big lumbering fullback also became extinct, resulting in less genuine one-on-one forward line battles.
On Saturday afternoon, we had a genuine throwback in the final minutes of the Gold Coast Suns’ thrilling one-point win over Adelaide as Suns defender Mac Andrew went toe to toe with Crows big man Riley Thilthorpe.
Mac Andrew and Riley Thilthorpe went toe to toe in the dying stages of the thriller between the Suns and Crows on Saturday afternoon. (Getty Images: Chris Hyde)
Thilthorpe has enjoyed a sensational start to 2025 and appears hell bent on making the power forward position sexy again alongside Bulldogs phenom Sam Darcy. Both players have taken over games in a way that thrill you if you’re a neutral observer or terrify you if you’re an opposing defender.
Thilthorpe almost single-handedly helped the Crows beat the upstart Suns, kicking five goals while also picking up four clearances and 16 disposals as he floated in and out of the ruck.
The Suns opted to mark him with rugged defender Sam Collins for much of the afternoon, but in the final minutes of the game, it was Suns young gun Mac Andrew’s turn to hop in the Thilthorpe torture chamber.
Andrew is a defender, but has the swagger of a forward, and this made for a tantalising match-up against Adelaide’s main man because there was no chance the Suns defender was going to back down.
As the Crows went forward hoping to steal the game in the dying seconds, Thilthorpe led Andrew into the pocket and looked certain to take a mark before Andrew used his incredible wing span to get a fist in.
Then things turned box office. Andrew, clearly happy with his shutdown job in the final seconds, decided to let Thilthorpe know about it. Thilthorpe reacted as you’d expect any competitor to do so, and a high-school style jumper punch situation ensued before teammates intervened.
There was much made about whether Andrew sledging an opponent who had played well was good for the game or not, but if this exchange is proof that proper rivalries are back, then the AFL is better off for it.
The Suns and Crows face off again in round 19 in Adelaide and the Thilthorpe-Andrew match-up will be must-watch television.
Serong, Fremantle’s near-perfect Neale replacement
Fremantle fans would have been shattered to see Lachie Neale grow into one of the finest midfielders of his generation after leaving for Brisbane at the end of 2018.
Since leaving the Dockers, Neale has added four All-Australian jackets, two Brownlows, two best and fairests and a premiership to his career CV.
As Neale began dominating for the Lions, the Dockers went to the draft and added just about as close to a Lachie Neale regen as you can imagine in Caleb Serong, who they drafted eighth overall in the 2019 draft.
That pick already looks like one of the great modern day draft home runs. Serong, 24, is already a two-time All-Australian and a two-time club best and fairest winner, and you get the sense that he is only starting to tap into his full potential.
The Dockers edged out the Bulldogs and survived another superhuman Sam Darcy game because Serong simply refused to let them lose on Sunday evening.
Caleb Serong is one of the highest-rated players in the AFL through the first four rounds of the 2025 season. (Getty Images: Paul Kane)
Serong finished the game with 38 disposals, a whopping 15 clearances, nine score involvements, seven tackles and accrued a whopping 553 metres.
Comparing Serong and Neale’s career numbers show an eerily similar profile for the two midfield maestros.
Neale edges the disposals average (27.4 to Serong’s 26.1), clearances (6.2 vs 6.4) and score involvements (5.6 vs 5.3), but Serong leads the way in inside 50s (4.3 vs 3.4) and metres gained (354.6 vs 305.2).
The next step for Serong, and what currently separates he and Neale, is cleaning up his ball use. If he can raise his kicking efficiency from his current career mark of 54.7 per cent to the high 60s where Neale resides, Serong will be an even more damaging midfielder.
Serong is hardly ever mentioned in conversations about the AFL’s best players, and you’d suspect that would be different if he was playing in Victoria. But if his first four games are anything to go by, Fremantle’s number three is going to put together one hell of a season.
