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Each week of the 2026 AFL season, ESPN.com.au’s Jake Michaels looks at six talking points.
This week’s Six Points feature the turning-the-corner Eagles, the criticism-escaping Power, a worrying Gather Round realisation, and the most common first name in football history.
1. West Coast is officially through the dark, dark trough
At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, it’s been a horror few years to be an Eagles fan.
From the beginning of 2022 until the end of 2025, the club endured an embarrassingly bad 11-79 record, rivalling the likes of Fitzroy and University for worst four-year stretches in league history. In that time, the Eagles suffered 33 losses by at least 10 goals, relieved premiership-winning coach Adam Simpson of his duties, and, if we’re being honest, became the laughing stock of the competition.
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But things are finally looking up in 2026. Two wins from their opening three games — already doubling last year’s tally, mind you — has shown that there is indeed light at the end of what’s felt like a never-ending tunnel of disappointment. And while West Coast is by no means completely out of the woods, it’s evident the club is now through the toughest part of the rebuild.
Granted, it’s a small sample size, but the metric that must please every Eagles fan is scoring. This team had averaged 65, 62, 69, and 64 points per game across the last four seasons. This year it’s jumped significantly to 92 points per game.
Champion Data’s premiership standard report also highlights the club’s improvement. Last year, West Coast failed to rank top six in any of the 31 metrics that have been proven to lead to flag success. After three games this season, the Eagles rank top six in 10, including a host of midfield and attacking areas, such as scores per inside 50, points from stoppages, chain to score percentage, contested possession differential, and post-clearance contested possession differential.
All of a sudden there’s plenty to like about the club’s personnel, too. Budding star Harley Reid looks to have matured and has taken his game to another level, fellow youngsters Willem Duursma, Jobe Shanahan, and Cooper Duff-Tytler all look comfortable playing at the highest level, while the return of Jake Waterman has made the forward line a far more dangerous unit.
Do I believe the Eagles will win more games than they lose this year? Absolutely not. And yes, I still expect them to finish the year in the bottom four. But this club, at long, long last, appears to be on the right trajectory.
The Eagles celebrate their two-point win over Port Adelaide. Mark Brake/Getty Images
2. Port Adelaide is rivalling Carlton, Essendon for most disappointing side of 2026
There wouldn’t be a person on the Port Adelaide payroll who isn’t thankful for the existence of both Carlton and Essendon in 2026. The two former Victorian powerhouses have shared the crown of the competition’s most laughable club in the early part of the year, in the process taking the media spotlight and scrutiny away from the Power.
But the reality is Port has been equally disappointing to begin the year. No club had a more favourable opening month of the season and yet after three games they find themselves 1-2, having suffered back-to-back losses to perennial cellar dwellers North Melbourne and West Coast (and yes, I understand I just gave the Eagles their deserved props).
40-POINT LOSSES IN LAST 12 MONTHS
TEAM40-POINT LOSSESWEST COAST12ESSENDON11RICHMOND10NORTH MELBOURNE8PORT ADELAIDE7CARLTON4
This club may now be under the guidance of Josh Carr but little has changed from last year where Port finished the season on a 1-5 run and was outscored by a whopping 280 points in that time. In fact, only that drubbing of Essendon (big whoop) has saved them from a sea of red on the aforementioned premiership standards report. It all means this weekend’s clash with 18th-placed Richmond is as must-win as it gets if they’re to maintain some sort of pulse in 2026.
But win or lose against the Tigers, what does all of this mean for Zak Butters’ future?
It’s hard to find a scenario where the star midfielder is more likely to remain in South Australia than head back to Victoria at season’s end, but a year in which Port Adelaide loses more games than it wins would surely take any second-guessing out of his decision. Time is ticking…
Port Adelaide suffered a shock loss to the Eagles in Round 3. Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images
3. If guilty, Lance Collard will never play professional football again
Let me preface this one with a big, fat ‘IF’. If Lance Collard is found guilty of using an anti-gay slur for the second time in his young career, I’m convinced he will never be given the opportunity to play professional football again.
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“Jake, you’re way too soft!” I can hear the inevitable chorus of criticism from our macho comrades who’d believe such a punishment to be a laughable overreaction. But why should a repeat offender — regardless of whether it’s Collard or anyone else — be granted yet another chance? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice … well, you know the rest.
Collard is under AFL investigation after allegedly dishing out an anti-gay slur during St Kilda’s VFL game on Friday night. It comes not two years after he was banned for six weeks for committing the exact same offence. Collard vehemently denies the recent allegation and claims he was misheard by the opposition. For his sake, I sincerely hope that’s true.
But if it’s not (and again, it’s a big if) a hefty ban would have to be dished out by the league. In turn, the Saints would be crazy to not cut ties with him, and which of the 17 other clubs would be willing to brave the guaranteed PR firestorm to throw him a lifeline? I’ll tell you: none of them.
4. A (potentially) worrying Gather Round revelation
Attending Gather Round was never exactly an affordable venture for those living outside of South Australia. Hiked airfares and accommodation meant a family weekend trip to watch some footy in Adelaide was just about more expensive than a quick jaunt to Bali. Sadly, that’s no hyperbole!
READ: ‘$4000 for a night in Adelaide’: fans not impressed
In an effort to save some cash, many thrifty travellers opted instead to drive to the Festival State. But with surging fuel costs of late, is this option no longer feasible?
It got me wondering what, at the current extortionate fuel prices, it would approximately cost to make that return trip to Adelaide?
If travelling from Melbourne, that’s a 1,500km return trip. The average family-sized car will go about 8-10kms on country roads per litre of fuel. We’ll split the difference and say you’re getting 9kms per litre. That means we need 167 litres of fuel to complete the trip. At $2.54 per litre for unleaded 91, that equates to a fuel bill of approximately $424! Running on diesel? It’s even more.
Sure, this is still significantly cheaper than flying, but this time last year the same trip from Melbourne would have only cost around $270-280.
What about those footy fans who aren’t travelling from Melbourne? If you were to go to and from Sydney, the fuel bill jumps to approximately $770, while those crazy enough to drive there and back from Perth would need an insane $1,600 in petrol cash!
You’re kidding yourself if you think this won’t be a factor in some footy fans opting to scrap their Gather Round plans next weekend.
Will surging petrol prices have an impact on Gather Round? Brent Lewin/Bloomberg via Getty Images
5. Something quirky I noticed
For the first time in league history we had two Willems on a footy field, with Sunday’s clash between Port Adelaide and West Coast (plenty of chat about these two clubs this week!) featuring both Willem Drew and Willem Duursma. They also happen to be the only two Willems to ever play in the AFL.
Here are some other quirky name nuggets I discovered:
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There has never been a player in the league with a first name beginning with ‘Y’.
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The most common name in history is Jack. There have been 396 Jacks play at least one game. There are currently 29 Jacks on an AFL list, 26 of them have played at least one game.
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There are 89 names on current AFL lists that are unique names in football history (i.e. nobody else currently, or has ever, shared the same name).
Credit to the ABC’s Poppy Penny for the inspiration to delve into this one.
6. My favourite stat of the week
Blues fans, you’re well advised to look away now.
Much has been made of Carlton’s second half fade-outs under Michael Voss. It was a trend we witnessed last season and something that’s carried over into this year. Through three games, the Blues have been outscored by 57, 23, and 73 points in their second halves. The total differential of -153 is easily the worst in the competition.
FACT: Since the start of last season, Carlton has not won any game in which they trailed at any break.
But here’s the truly worrying number. So far this year, a staggering 78% of Carlton’s opposition scores have come after halftime. Once again, that number is easily the highest in the league. Is it fitness? Is it the game plan? Who knows, but boy is it a major concern!
