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The big talking points and questions out of AFL Round 4

2023-04-09T20:03+10:00

We’re a month into the 2023 season and teams with some exposed form behind them, teams are starting to show where they truly sit in the premiership race.

See the talking points below!

Cameron Rayner should never play half back again

SEN’s Kane Cornes has been onto this one for a while, but he’s right, Cameron Rayner is wasted at half back.

After training for the entire pre-season in that position, Rayner has since moved back into a more natural role and that paid off in Thursday night’s win over Collingwood with four goals and 17 disposals.

While he’s struggled with injury and form since being taken with pick No. 1 in the 2017 Draft, Rayner clearly has the attributes and athleticism to be a dominant front-of-centre player, and that may be starting to show now aged 23.

Alongside Charlie Cameron - who was also red-hot against the Magpies - Rayner could become one of the competition’s most damaging players inside 50 and you’d hope that Thursday’s performance nails down a role for him there for the foreseeable future.

With his output finally starting to catch up to his potential, the competition may need to watch out for Brisbane’s number 16 across the next decade.

__Carlton are still unconvincing

Yes, Carlton are unbeaten, but they’re certainly not firing on all cylinders.

While North Melbourne are an improved outfit under Alastair Clarkson, the Blues wouldn’t be thrilled with their 23-point win over the Kangaroos - particularly after Harry McKay and Charlie Curnow combined for 10 goals against their undermanned backline. Surely they would expect a better result coming off that sort of inside-50 dominance.

While the Blues are just ticking the box at the moment, they still have 14 points to their name and now is the time to really cash in.

With games against the Crows, Saints, Eagles and Dogs to come, the Blues could easily be unbeaten after Round 8 and really begin to cement a place in the top four.

But based on their current output, they’re in real danger of dropping a couple of those.

With a relatively easy run coming up, now is the time for the Blues to make a statement and prove they’re contenders.

If they don’t, things are going to get much more difficult once the fixture begins to prove more challenging.

Adelaide probably should play finals

Adelaide are finally starting to see the fruits of their labour under Matthew Nicks.

After a couple of years of rebuilding, we’re starting to see the Crows come out the other side.

The former GWS assistant was big on having his players play with elite effort and intensity, even when they were cellar dwellers, and that base is proving pivotal now.

With a team-first, effort-based mentality already ingrained, sprinkling in genuine star power on top of that in Izak Rankine and Josh Rachele is proving an ideal mix.

With a record of 2-2 that could have so easily been 3-1 or 4-0, the Crows have had a quality start to the season and should build from here.

Add in that they’ll now effectively play 13 home games due to Gather Round, the Crows are simply going to win more than they lose from here if they continue their run of form.

They might need 11 more wins from the next 19 games to get there, but on current pace, 13 wins is well and truly achievable for this group.

The Saints have uncovered another potential A-grader

We’ve already said the Saints have found one in Mattaes Phillipou, and it looks like they’ve now uncovered another future gun in Mitchito Owens.

While Owens came into the competition with far less fanfare - having been taken as an Academy selection at pick No. 33 in the 2021 Draft - the 19-year-old has all the traits of a player taken far earlier in the piece.

At 191cm, Owens is a prototype build that can play both midfield and forward and while his already shown glimpses, his performance on Saturday night was a genuine breakout game.

Up against the Suns, Owens was simply too much to handle inside 50, kicking 2.2 to go along with 27 disposals, seven score involvements, five tackles and four contested marks - all in his 11th career game.

With silky skills, good hands overhead and the athleticism to match, Owens is another forward-of-centre player that the Saints have been screaming out for in recent years.

We know they’d be disappointed after missing out on free agent Jordan De Goey in the off-season, but the early season form of both Owens and Phillipou is making that easier to swallow for Saints fans early on in 2023.

Sydney may need to make a tough Buddy call

He’s a legend of the competition, but the game unfortunately looks like it’s passing Lance Franklin by.

All footy fans will hope that’s not the case, but on Saturday night against the Power, he simply wasn’t up to the task against Aliir Aliir.

Kept to just eight disposals and one behind, Franklin was a non-factor in the defeat and just isn’t the force he has been for such a long time now.

Yes, it was against Hawthorn, but we saw how well Sydney’s tall forwards operated in Buddy’s absence in Round 2 as youngsters Logan McDonald and Joel Amartey combined for nine goals.

There’s no doubt Franklin deserves to go out on his own terms in his last season, but we’re starting to wonder whether the Swans may be better off giving more opportunities to their young talls inside 50.

It’ll be interesting to see how John Longmire and his staff manage the last 20 or so weeks of the all-time great’s career.

Grundy move looks a win-win despite short-term Magpies pain

Yes, there’s no doubt Collingwood would love to have Brodie Grundy still at the club with their ruck stocks decimated … but we think they’d do the trade again.

No one at the AIA Centre could have imagined they’d be without the likes of Darcy Cameron, Mason Cox, Aiden Begg and even Nathan Krueger this early in the season, and without a ruckman, we saw Lions big man Oscar McInerney dominate the Magpies on Thursday.

While having Grundy, in theory, would solve their woes, getting his mammoth contract off their books and using some of that money saved on the likes of Tom Mitchell, Bobby Hill, Dan McStay and Billy Frampton simply make the Magpies a better team - they’ll just need to grit their teeth until one of their rucks returns.

With the Magpies taking some pain in the short-term without Grundy, his new club, Melbourne, are making some serious short-term gains for picking him up.

Without Max Gawn, Grundy has stepped up to the plate to put in impressive ruck performances across the last fortnight, most recently in the win over West Coast on Sunday with 22 disposals, seven clearances and 33 hitouts.

At this stage, Melbourne will be feeling pretty happy about the trade deal.

You imagine though, that if Collingwood gets through the next month relatively unscathed, they’ll be pleased as well.

This is one move that could turn out to be a rare win-win for both clubs.

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