The comeback's always on in footy's Lazarus season

A TEAM has trailed at half-time and won 28 times this season.

That's 19 more times than in the first 10 rounds last season and six more than in the first 10 rounds of any season in the past 10 years.

Melbourne did it the hard way on Saturday, becoming the sixth team in 2017 to have been behind by 30 points or more and still win.

No team did that in the first 10 rounds last season.

But the Demons made it look easy, banging on eight unanswered goals from the 12-minute mark of the third term until early in the fourth quarter.

Following that goal streak the Dees were destined to win. Only four times since 2010 has a team kicked eight unanswered goals and lost.

The Dees surged from 35 points down to beat the Suns in Alice Springs. Picture: AFL Photos



The winning comebacks only tell half the story too.

In 2017, teams are coming back from the dead, hitting the front, and then dying off again as Carlton did against North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

At this rate, John Farnham should sing at the Grand Final.

It's a year where rare has become common too with four of the past 35 games decided with a lead-changing goal inside the last two minutes.

It's not great for the poor old coaches but it's great for supporters as the game is never over, until the song has been sung.

The Kangas were headed despite taking a 25-point lead into half-time on Sunday ...



Geelong coach Chris Scott explained what players and coaches were up against after the Cats withstood a Western Bulldogs comeback in round nine.

"The laws of the game committee have made it very, very difficult to close the game down," Scott said.

"It is so hard to draw stoppages, so hard to just possess the ball in your back half. The game has changed."

He could have thrown in interchange caps, crackdowns on melees, the tightening of deliberate rushed behinds and out of bounds interpretation and the countdown clock as well to explain why it's hard to pull a few cords so the parachute lands slowly.

... but rallied to inflict a painful defeat on the Blues. Pictures: AFL Photos



Now momentum matters with more swings in fortune on show these days at an AFL game than you'd see standing around a roulette wheel.

Teams can score quickly with the Brisbane Lions taking less than 12 minutes to kick the first five goals against Gold Coast in round one.

On Saturday, we saw the Demons at work, as it took less than 16 minutes for Rodney Eade's Suns to lose a five-goal lead.

No wonder Rocket needed a massage.

We might all need one at this rate because it's easier to keep beer in the fridge when your brothers visit these days then it is to keep a lead.

No frees for you

The only two players to have given away six free kicks in a game in 2017? Essendon's Shaun McKernan and, as of Saturday's nightmare outing against the Crows, Fremantle superstar Nat Fyfe.

Only Giants ruckman Shane Mumford, with 26 frees against, has given away more free kicks than Fyfe's 22 this season.

At least Mumford (25 frees for) and Fyfe (22) get some free kicks.

Spare a thought for Port Adelaide's Matthew Broadbent, who is yet to receive a free kick and has conceded 10 in the nine games he's played this season.

He must have looked at Geelong's Joel Selwood with envy on Thursday night, as the Cats skipper collected six free kicks.

Selwood has received a free kick in all but one game since round five, 2010 and has missed out on a free kick just nine times in his 238-game career.

The highest quality top five you'll see today

Sam Mitchell racked up 30 disposals in a game for the 119th time on Sunday.

He passes St Kilda legend Robert Harvey for the most 30-plus disposal games.

The top five in that list have all won Brownlows, showing there's more to winning the medal than having blond hair.

Five years and 64 days

That's how long Greater Western Sydney took to beat all the other AFL teams, completing the set against West Coast on Sunday.

It's quicker than eight teams took to beat all comers. The Hawks' wait was longest – a drought of 17 years against Collingwood only ending during World War Two.

Team Time elapsed before beating all comers Last team defeated Essendon 0 years, 56 days Collingwood R9, 1897 Geelong 0 years, 63 days Collingwood R10, 1897 Melbourne 0 years, 91 days Essendon R14, 1897 Collingwood 1 year, 76 days South Melbourne R11, 1898 West Coast 2 years, 116 days Sydney Swans R16, 1989 South Melbourne / Sydney Swans 2 years, 124 days Essendon R17, 1899 Adelaide 2 years, 160 days Collingwood, R22 1993 Fremantle 4 years, 108 days West Coast R16, 1999 GWS 5 years, 64 days West Coast R10, 2017 Carlton 5 years, 79 days Fitzroy R13, 1902 Port Adelaide 6 years, 48 days North Melbourne R8, 2003 Western Bulldogs 8 years, 53 days Collingwood R9, 1933 Brisbane Bears / Lions 9 years 10 days West Coast R2, 1996 St Kilda 9 years, 18 days Essendon R4, 1906 Richmond 10 years, 15 days Carlton R2, 1918 North Melbourne 11 years, 98 days Richmond R14, 1936 Hawthorn 17 years, 34 days Collingwood R5, 1942 Gold Coast Yet to beat Adelaide, Sydney Swans, West Coast

The heart of the Giants' fab four

Few centre-square starting fours in the game's history have look better on paper than Greater Western Sydney's Shane Mumford, Josh Kelly, Callan Ward and Dylan Shiel.

That quartet went to work in the last quarter against West Coast, attending six of the 12 centre bounces, with the Giants winning nine centre clearances as the game reached its climax.

The least talked about of the quartet but arguably the most effective is Shiel, who leads the competition in centre clearances this season.

The best thing about Shiel is that he does it at the start and the end. He's the only player in the top five in the AFL for centre clearances won in the first half and the second half.

As for the Eagles, they had no answer, particularly with Luke Shuey missing through injury as West Coast wins a clearance 44 per cent of the time when he attends a centre bounce.

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