Sam Lalor and Isaac Kako show AFL's rookies are the real deal as Harley Reid shows petulant side - quick hits from round one

The first full round of the 2025 AFL season is in the books and it was one that had just about everything you could want as a fan.

Things started off with one of the all-time great upsets as Richmond beat Carlton on Thursday night before the Suns accounted for the Eagles in the fourth separate lopsided contest to end the weekend's action on Sunday evening.

Here are the quick hits from round one.

Coaches using creative kick-in set plays

Teams are forever figuring out the best sources of scoring in the AFL, but one particular game situation seems criminally under-utilised as an avenue to kick goals — the kick-in.

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Perhaps due to teams mostly setting up in a way that prevents their opponents from scoring rather than looking to score themselves, we often see a lack of dare in how they set up all over the field, and this is never more evident than during a kick-in.

TV broadcasts often go to the behind-the-goals view on kick-ins and more often than not, you'll see every player pack one side of the ground waiting for a long kick to a big forward pushed up onto the wing.

On Friday night, as Essendon pushed to get itself back in the contest, Hawthorn's players decided to chance their arm.

With the ball in the hand of captain James Sicily, the Hawks packed one wing, dragging all of the Bombers on the ground with them.

Sicily, after feigning to kick towards the congregation of players, turned the other way towards Jarman Impey, who imitated Gout Gout with a sprint that left his direct opponent in the dust.

Richmond legend Matthew Richardson, on commentary for Seven, noticed it immediately, saying, "Oh, this is that set play they did last week", before the ball had left Sicily's boot.

Sicily kicked the ball into space on the wing, allowing Impey to paddle the ball ahead of him to gain some more territory before he eventually took possession and found Connor MacDonald with a lovely kick inside 50.

The entire play took a total of 15 seconds on the countdown clock and was one of many that killed off a spirited comeback attempt from the Bombers.

An all-time-great goal celebration

Another area where the AFL could really stand to improve is goal celebrations.

Almost every other sport encourages exuberant celebrations in big moments, but for some reason it is frowned upon in this sport and I don't really know why.

Richmond found itself just minutes away from one of the greatest upsets in league history as Carlton threw the kitchen sink at them in the dying stages of the fourth quarter.

After defending grimly for the best part of the final 10 minutes, the Tigers killed off Blues hopes when Sam Lalor (more on him later) and Jack Ross combined on the wing to send a ball long inside 50, where Seth Campbell found himself in a foot race with Lachie Cowan.

Campbell showed a terrific turn of pace to beat Cowan to the ball metres out from the goal as he soccered it home, and then provided a moment that will be played in Richmond montages for years to come.

He first nonchalantly walked away from the goal mouth by staring down the Carlton cheer squad that was metres away, then did a little sprint and unleashed a backflip before celebrating with his teammates.

"It [doing the celebration] was a bit of a joke going into every game but it was never the right time. I thought that was the right time," Campbell said on Nine's Sunday Footy Show.

To further rub salt into the deep wounds of Carlton fans, snappers at the ground caught Campbell giving the Blues faithful NBA star Stephen Curry's iconic "Night Night" celebration as well.

An instant Tigers legend.

Harley Reid flops in his season opener

Let me preface this point by making it clear that I love almost everything about Harley Reid's game, he is as box office as they come.

Reid has been scrutinised like very few players and it makes you forget that he is still just 19 years old.

On Sunday in West Coast's season opener, Reid showed his immature and petulant side.

The Eagles were already trailing the Suns by 39 points midway through the second quarter when replays showed Reed flopping for a free kick after a brush with Suns defender Charlie Ballard.

The incident in isolation was not a great look, and looked even worse when you coupled it with the fact that Reid had barely touched the football to that point in the game.

Reid has shown throughout his young career that he is not afraid of a confrontation and was in the middle of another dust-up with Suns players heading into the half-time break with the Eagles trailing by 45 points.

Reid was marginally better in the second half, but still finished the game with a disappointing stat-line of 12 disposals and one clearance in West Coast's 87-point loss at home.

The young gun has a huge contract call to make in the next 12-18 months and with that payday, reported to be in the millions, he is going to have to get used to eyes being on him at all times, particularly if he moves to a big Victorian club as many around the AFL industry are predicting.

Players taking ground in crucial moments

It must be said this is an observation that is easier to make while watching from in the stands rather than actually being out on the field, but it beggars belief why players don't take up ground more often.

Often players will find themselves in acres of space, usually on the wing going forward, but instead of using the bounce and carrying the ball a little closer to goal, there is a rushed kick forward.

The benefits to taking up territory using your feet are twofold. Firstly, the obvious one is that you are closer to goal, which is the ultimate aim of the game. Secondly, delaying a kick or handpass up the ground allows the play to develop ahead of you.

The perfect example of this came in the Giants' thrilling win over the Demons at the MCG on Sunday.

GWS found itself trailing by eight points with 10 minutes left in the final quarter when they unleashed a prototypical tsunami on the opposition.

Finn Callaghan, one of the best players in the league at eating up metres, found himself in the back pocket pinned up against the boundary line and combined with Josh Kelly to break through the Demons' press.

Callaghan kicked to Xavier O'Halloran on the 50m arc, before O'Halloran found an unmarked Aaron Cadman on the wing.

As Cadman marked the ball on the Toyota logo, teammates streamed forward asking for him to kick the ball over the top of Melbourne's last line of defence.

However, Cadman decided to take up the ground instead, touching the ball on the turf, and then found his skipper Toby Greene inside 50 with a lovely deft kick that allowed Greene to play on without breaking stride to kick the goal.

This year's rookies might be the truth

In the lead-up to the 2024 draft, the crop of players coming into the system were talked up ad nauseam.

It is easy to dismiss this talk as teams looking to drive up the price of first-round picks at the trade table, but after just one full round of football, it is obvious draft experts knew what they were talking about.

Things started on Thursday night when number one pick Sam Lalor strutted around the MCG looking like a proper Dustin Martin regen en route to 18 disposals and two goals. The sooner the Tigers take him out of the number 22 jersey and hand him Martin's number four, the better.

The Bombers lucked out months before the draft when the AFL changed its Next Generation Academy rules to allow them to have access to electric small forward Isaac Kako, who was eventually taken 13th overall.

Essendon hasn't had a superstar small forward in what feels like decades and fans could hardly believe their eyes when Kako kicked his first goal with a mid-air volley against the Hawks.

Saturday's headline act for the rookies was none other than Fremantle's Murphy Reid, the number 17 pick, who kicked four goals in the space of 6 minutes and 7 seconds, giving the Dockers a brief glimmer of overturning a 60-point deficit against Geelong.

Reid's onslaught overshadowed Levi Ashcroft's debut for the Lions, which saw the father-son prospect pick up the quietest 25 disposals you're ever likely to see as he displayed ball accumulation skills usually reserved for grizzled veterans.

There was some disappointment on Sunday when Adelaide named its number four pick Sid Draper as the sub, but after coming on late in the third term, Draper showed he had all the tools to become a monster midfielder.

Opening Round giving some teams a head start

Debate has raged on regarding the AFL's polarising Opening Round to start the season, and some of the effects of it were on show in round one.

The merits of the idea of the round played outside Victoria makes sense: capitalise on the NRL being in Las Vegas by playing games in Queensland and New South Wales, both traditional rugby league heartlands.

However, one of the by-products of the split start to the season is some teams being in much better shape than others when it comes to the first full round of the season.

Let's make this clear — Hawthorn is a better team than Essendon, but on Friday night it was evident that the Hawks were the team who had gotten a full game under their belts while the Bombers had to work themselves into shape and looked scratchy.

Hawthorn proved to be far too classy for an Essendon outfit still working off its rust in the two teams' round one clash. (Getty Images/AFL Photos: Michael Willson)

The disparity was apparent on Saturday when Brisbane, which didn't play in this year's Opening Round due to Cyclone Alfred, faced Sydney. The Lions were classy enough to still pick up the win over the Swans, but still looked incredibly rusty at times in the first half.

Collingwood, which was smashed in the Opening Round by GWS, looked an entirely different outfit a week later by dispatching Port Adelaide by 91 points in the Power's season opener.

The AFL has indicated Opening Round is here to stay, but it leading to a less than even playing field is something that must be considered at league headquarters.

Fancy footwork leading to goal assists

There is the famous saying that is often used in sport which states there is more than one way to skin a cat and it is applicable when it comes to setting up goals.

In the high-performance, fully professional era of Australian rules football, players across the AFL often seem to be over-coached and don't rely on instinct as much as their predecessors once did.

This is never more evident than when it comes to moving forward, where it often proves to be a labour-intensive exercise for players to find their teammates in goalscoring positions.

One play in round one indicated that sometimes the best way of thinking is to not think too much at all.

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It came on Saturday night from Bulldogs recruit Matt Kennedy, who enjoyed an excellent debut after being traded by Carlton.

With the Dogs holding a 13-point lead early in the fourth quarter against the Kangaroos, Kennedy found himself matched up with Caleb Daniel chasing a loose ball on the wing.

Daniel was hot on Kennedy's hip, meaning Kennedy didn't have time to grab possession of the ball when it bounced favourably, so he decided to kick the ball midair into the path of Lachie McNeil, who ran into an open goal.

It was a terrific bit of play that showed a player using his natural instincts to set up a goal rather than relying on excessive coaching structures.

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