Dealing With The Bye | Thebigtip

I don't know about you, but this AFL season is starting to look very similar to the 1991 season and in more ways than one. Yes, like 1991, Brisbane were near enough to the bottom, North Melbourne, Melbourne and Essendon were all fighting for the last spots in the finals, and Hawthorn, West Coast and Geelong scaled the top. Oh, and Collingwood were reigning premiers as well. Indeed, there was also a new team in the 1991 season. Weird, isn't it?

But the bye, and the subsequent problems, were also similar. And indeed, much like 1991, it took half the season for teams to work it out.

From rounds two to 14 in 1991 (multiple teams had the bye in round one), only one team - West Coast, in round four - managed to come up after the bye and win. And in 2011? Seven teams have won up to round 16 after the bye, but two of the teams that one played another team also came off the bye.

So what is it about the bye that makes teams under perform? Nobody knows.

Indeed, with the advent of the sub rule, the bye should come as a godsend, getting extra information about the team you are playing in two weeks time and enabling players on the cusp of returning an extra week on the sidelines in order to give them more match play, rather than sending said player out if he is 80% fit the week earlier.

Yet, most teams have been lethargic coming off the bye. Let's exclude the Gold Coast for round one, as they were still a new team, but since Adelaide's terrible performance against Fremantle in round three, teams have struggled with the bye. Until recently.

Last week, St Kilda came off the bye for a second time and were successful against North Melbourne, and we just saw West Coast perform on the big stage on Friday night footy against the Cats. They too, were also successful for the second time this season after the bye (although, let's admit, they played Melbourne after the first bye... my mob...).

Michael Malthouse dealt with the bye effectively after their round 13 week off, choosing to give his players a bit more freedom and also allowing some of his star players a trip to Arizona for injury management. It seems that Collingwood dealt with the bye the best out of all their clubs.

With Adelaide, Fremantle and Melbourne coming off the bye next weekend, can this recent trend continue?