The saying of something being a marathon and not a sprint is one that is applicable in many walks of life. The meaning of it is essentially this — timing is everything.
We're just a few days removed now from a magical Paris Olympics where countless athletes showcased the importance of impeccable timing.
In the first week of the Games, it was French swimming sensation Leon Marchand who displayed perfect timing, mowing down Hungary's Kristof Milak in a thrilling finale to the men's 200m butterfly final, a race that lasted under two minutes.
On the final day in Paris, the Games wrapped up with Dutch runner Sifan Hassan running an Olympic record time to take out the women's marathon. Hassan's run lasted more than two hours — 2:22:55 to be precise — but came down to her executing in the final 200 metres of the race.
Loading...As the Olympics have ticked along in Paris, so too has the AFL season on the other side of the world, and a number of teams across the league are also learning the season is indeed a marathon and not a sprint.
The 2024 AFL season has been one unlike any before. At the conclusion of Round 22, just two wins separate the second-placed Port Adelaide and the ninth-placed Carlton.
The uniquely tight nature of this year's ladder has resulted in teams flicking up and down the ladder wildly. String together three or four wins and suddenly you're a top two chance. Lose a couple in a row, and you go from thinking about a double-chance in September to thinking about booking tickets to Bali instead. Timing is more important than ever before.
Three teams look to have timed their runs perfectly after coming out of the gates slowly: Brisbane, Hawthorn and the Western Bulldogs.
It is hard to believe now that just a few months ago, Brisbane was a team in crisis.
After coming within a kick of winning a premiership last year, the Lions stumbled out of the gate amid claims of unrest at the club courtesy of an off-season trip abroad at the end of last year.
Brisbane found itself in 13th with a 2-5 record and a paltry percentage of 94.2 after being hammered by the GWS Giants in Round 7, and questions were being asked about coach Chris Fagan's position at the helm.
In previous seasons, a start like that would've condemned last year's runner-up to a year of no finals, but this isn't any normal season. Even at that stage, the Lions found themselves just two games outside the top eight.
Incredibly, Brisbane was in 13th position as recently as Round 14 before finding itself inside the top four just a month later courtesy of four straight wins. That run of four straight wins came within a run of nine straight following the Lions' bye in Round 12.
Slowly but surely the Lions have gotten back to playing the style of football that has made them one of the most feared teams in the competition during the past few seasons.
In its past five contests, the Lions are the league's best clearance team, averaging 43.8 per contest. The dominance has been led by the metronomic Lachie Neale, who has somehow become underrated despite being a two-time Brownlow Medal winner.
Neale is averaging 7.5 clearances per game this season, a hair below last season's career-best mark, but he's ramped that up to 9.7 per game in the past five matches as the Lions have started humming.
He now has six separate seasons of averaging at least 25 disposals and seven clearances per game. Any conversation about the best midfielders of this generation surely has Neale's name right near the top of it.
The Lions' once-stuttering forward line has gotten going as well. In the past five weeks, Brisbane is second only to Collingwood in terms of scores per inside 50. The midfield dominance has been there all season, but now the Lions' talented midfield brigade is finding a better connection with their weapons up forward.
While Joe Daniher's inconsistency is still maddening at times, he's quietly ticked along to 45 goals so far this season. Cam Rayner, the obvious next pick in the Dustin Martin and Christian Petracca mould in terms of players who can single-handedly take over games, ...
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