March 2022 heralds in the new season of Australian Rules Football. 18 teams at the elite level will be vying for the Premiership and the two of the best will compete in the AFL Grand Final match which takes place in September.
The season starts off with a bang, with the two teams from last year’s Grand Final facing off again in the very first game. The Western Bulldogs will be hungry for a win over the Melbourne Demons to make up for their bitter loss in 2021 and trying hard to turn the tides for the new season. The Demons will be keen to keep their successful mantle, so the match should be a very exciting one for all concerned. The game will be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), so it will genuinely seem like a rematch of the 2021 Grand Final.
The next match will be between the Richmond Tigers and the Carlton Blues, neither of whom made it to the finals in 2021 so both of these teams will be looking to start the season in an explosive fashion and hopefully to set a winning tone for the season ahead.
The St Kilda Saints and the Collingwood Magpies will be up next and like the previous two teams, neither fared too well in the 2021 season, especially Collingwood as they finished second-last on the ladder. The Saints will be the AFL betting favourites for this match based on last year’s comparative seasons but the Magpies would, without a doubt, be looking to change their luck for 2022.
Two teams who made it into the top eight are up next: The Essendon Bombers and the Geelong Cats. Geelong had a pretty good season in 2021, finishing third on the ladder and making it all the way to the Preliminary Finals before being soundly beaten by the Melbourne Demons by 83 points. The Bombers narrowly made it into the finals but were knocked out in the Elimination Finals by the Western Bulldogs.
Greater Western Sydney will be facing off against the Sydney Swans at the Accor Stadium in Sydney on the 19th of March, so you can bet a lot of Sydney-siders will turn out for that match, especially since they had such a close finish in the 2021 Elimination Finals, with Greater Western Sydney winning by only 1 point.
Next up will be the Brisbane Lions against Port Adelaide at the GABBA in Brisbane. The Lions will be looking to take advantage of their home ground and start the season off with success. Port Adelaide, however, will be working hard to make sure that this does not happen.
The last match of the first round is the West Coast Eagles versus the Gold Coast Suns at the Optus Stadium in Perth. West Coast will be the favourites for this match, not only for the home ground advantage but based on their last performance at this stadium, where they narrowly missed out on making the finals. The Suns were an abysmal third last on the ladder, but you can be sure they will be looking to turn their luck around in 2022, no matter where they are playing.
As Australia has slowly reopened, more and more people have been turning out to sporting events and hopefully, 2022 will continue this upward trend as the season progresses.