Quote Originally Posted by Axe Man View Post
I think this is a bit of a myth. Of course when you start the game well you are a better chance of winning but to say you can tell within a couple of minutes how the game is going to play out I think is quite often untrue.

Three examples this season I can think of, just off the top of my head -

1. Round 1 v Melbourne - started well, kicked 2 quick goals and Melbourne only tightened things up with 2 late goals in the first quarter. We looked on early and end up playing poorly.

2. Hawthorn game - We kicked 3 goals in the first 5 minutes, if you could tell we were a bit off from that I'll have tonight's Powerball numbers thanks.

3. On Sunday I thought we looked a little bit lethargic early. In fact it probably took until halfway through the second quarter to get going. Sure the opposition wasn't much but if we weren't on it could have easily been a grinding 30 point win, it wasn't.

Of course there will be examples like the Adelaide game where the start is reflective of the game, and maybe it is more often than not, but it would only be by a small margin at best.
I knew within 30 seconds against the Crows we were off.

There's exceptions to the rule, sure, but it's also a thing, and probably why when we lose, we lose big.