Fremantle Dockers now have the edge they need to win close games as West Coast Eagles miss opportunity

The West Australian’s Sports Editor Jackson Barrett takes a look at the big stories of each round in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. THE GOOD - TOUGH FREO It’s clear now that this Dockers team has something different. They’ve got a sharp edge they haven’t in previous years. That has played out in close games across the past two weeks, two nail-biters that set them up for a serious tilt this season. They really should go to 6-1 by the time we hit May. A big part of that is their toughness. Some of the biggest plays they made against Collingwood on Friday night weren’t silky pieces of skill, or cutting shapes with their ball movement. It was the grunt work to not let the ball get out of the first layer of a stoppage. The chase-down tackles that — at the very least — affected crucial Collingwood disposals. Jaeger O’Meara had a whole series of these moments right from the start. He laid imposing bumps, big shepherds and took contact to keep the ball moving. Corey Wagner had a couple too playing as a defensive winger, and at least one of them helped save a goal. That’s why these guys are being picked ahead of players like Nathan O’Driscoll and Jeremy Sharp, who have both started the WAFL season nicely and have their own claims to being in the side. Experience and toughness. It starts at the top too, with Andrew Brayshaw and Caleb Serong. They took their match-up with Nick Daicos to heart and got after him at every opportunity. It was an impressive contest display when the conditions required it that set up a great statement win. THE BAD - PICKING OWIES West Coast picked Matt Owies over Malakai Champion this week, named Champion as an emergency and then flew him back to Perth to play in the WAFL against West Perth on Sunday. Put simply, we all know what they’re getting out of Owies as a footballer. He’ll have a couple of moments every few weeks, but really the only time he has impacted AFL games to any great measure was when he was putting the cherry on top of a pretty good Carlton side. We don’t yet know what Champion could be as a footballer. Maybe he does only play a few more games, maybe he’s not a long-term servant of the club. But he could be. He has a burst of speed, adds dynamism and has age on his side. Clearly, the kids can’t be thrown in on their own and left to their own devices. But particularly in that sort of role, there is opportunities to be had. Owies kicked a goal and had seven touches and four tackles against the Cats. But that’s not the point. That’s a game that could have been given to Champion, or another young player. It wasn’t the worst thing the Eagles did at the weekend, but calls need to be made on some of these guys. And an elite tackling and pressure small forward should be at the absolute top of their shopping list in the off-season, particularly with Jamie Cripps nearing the end. THE UGLY - GATHER ROUND WEATHER Gather Round has been a raging success across its last four editions. One of the country’s great football cities truly comes alive for an entire week. The fans love it, the players love it, the media loves it and it appears its only critics are people that haven’t yet experienced it. But the one thing Gather Round didn’t need was rain. Torrential, squally rain that has all but the most diehard of punters rushing for cover in bars and at the back of terraces. The gloomy Norwood Oval and Barossa Park scenes weren’t quite what we all look forward to for the round. It left things looking a little bare across the weekend. But regardless, it appears South Australia pulled off another great event.