Where is your team? Season start leaving everyone feeling disorientated

Was it just me, or did "Opening Round" throw everyone's equilibrium out of kilter?

It's like there's been a mad flurry of activity since then, but not enough context to it to be able to easily work out exactly what's going on.

In four weekends of AFL football, just once have we had a full roster of nine games, only four played in what became known as "Round 0", and two teams with a bye in both of rounds two and three.

This week, it's the much-discussed "Gather Round", when there actually will be a full card of nine games, but all of them played either at Adelaide Oval, at Norwood, or in Mount Barker.

Not your typical weekend.

Rounds five and six will see two more teams each time with byes, before finally, come the beginning of round seven, every one of the 18 teams will have played six games.

But even that won't be a typical week, because with Anzac Day falling on a Thursday, there'll be the now annual "Anzac Day Eve" clash between Richmond and Melbourne on a Wednesday evening, giving us a second round, following the "Easter extravaganza", which is spread across five days.

That means between the end of March and the end of April, we will have had at least one and usually more AFL games played on 22 out of 32 days.

It's not necessarily overload early in a season if you really love your footy, but it is getting harder and harder to work out where one round starts and another finishes these days.

That in turn can make it harder for us pundits to work out who is what, where and why.

And who knows, perhaps it just might make it harder for the teams themselves?

Take Fremantle, for example.

With 14 teams having played three games and the other four teams four games, the Dockers sit second on what currently passes for a ladder, considerably higher than most would have been tipping pre-season.

It's how much value we attach to that position right now that is the question.

Freo gets a big tick for its opening win over Brisbane, albeit achieved in Perth and against an opponent patently struggling to recapture its 2023 best.

It beat North Melbourne, as you'd expect, but only after having slipped five goals in arrears of the Roos.

The Dockers then ground down Adelaide, holding the Crows to just four goals, but also kicking only nine themselves.

Sure, you can only beat what's in front of you, but it's not a 3-0 record which would have even coach Justin Longmuir convinced yet that his team is the real deal.

Similarly, while Greater Western Sydney sits atop the ladder at 3-0, does coach Adam Kingsley have a rock-solid idea just how well his Giants are travelling?

There's certainly no questioning their opening win over Collingwood, but GWS only did what was expected and not a lot more in subsequently dispatching of North Melbourne and West Coast, clearly the two weakest teams in the AFL for some time now.

Collingwood, meanwhile, might have a contrasting form line to Freo and the Giants, but with an outlook right now equally as potentially confusing.

Only a week or so ago, we had the Magpies just about cooked for 2024 at 0-3.

A subsequent ice-breaking win over grand final opponent Brisbane hardly puts everything right in one hit, either.

But it was a win at the Gabba, and impressive enough to look at Collingwood's situation with fresh perspective.

Sure, the Pies have hardly started their flag defence in a blaze of glory.

But they have come up against four finalists from last year, all of them souped up to make a real statement of intent against the reigning champ.

Collingwood's renowned defensive pressure and intent was clearly absent in those first three defeats.

It was rediscovered in spades against the Lions last week.

So while a fourth loss would no doubt have had many writing the Magpies' epitaph, victory has us instead considering that a top four spot may only be a couple of wins away.

It's certainly a profile more dangerous than you might expect of a team 1-3 and in 12th spot on the ladder.

And this week's Gather Round in South Australia puts a different slant still on the state of play.

Fremantle's clash with Carlton certainly seems a good test for the Dockers, but as worthwhile as were it in Perth or Melbourne?

Ditto Western Bulldogs match-up against a seemingly resurgent Geelong.

Does the result mean the same in terms of a form guide as a game at GMHBA or Marvel Stadium or the MCG would have?

We can't really know for sure. Nor the clubs involved, for that matter.

The one certainty is that they'll need to put their best foot forward whatever the compromised playing field.

Because once things are back to normal this different sort of season, it might well be too late.