Ryan Daniels: 2025 AFL campaign promises to be every bit as good as season 2024

The coffee smells extra roasty, the air a touch fresher, the bacon a little crispier. It’s round one of the AFL season, and the world is filled with hope. This is what it’s all about. Footy is always fun — but round one is the best round of the year. Unless you’re Carlton supporter — that was ugly. Maybe try following soccer this year? If you read the training reports, every player’s had a brilliant pre-season — more time in the midfield is coming, personal best time trials have been run, muscle has been piled on like Schwarzenegger in 1977. Last year proved one of the closest seasons in AFL history. Thirteen clubs were in the finals race with a round to go — every game felt like a final. This year appears to offer the same. Hawthorn, GWS, and Brisbane the popular flag choices amongst tipsters — but you could talk yourself into Fremantle, Sydney, maybe even Geelong. The Crows, Pies, Bombers, Suns, Dogs, Power - and yes, the Blues — would all believe September is in their sights. But as Richmond proved on Thursday night, football has a way of making us all look silly. My advice? Follow the results — but fall in love with the stories. Get behind the return of Elijah Hewett after nearly 600 days out with injury. Marvel at Josh Treacy’s meteoric rise to the AFL’s best key forward. Buy ‘shares’ in the young kids, the ones you claim early and declare “this kid will be a star”. At least 16 players will run out for the first time in the AFL, including a couple for the WA sides. Sure, Harley is great, but have you heard about Archer? Murphy? The Eagles and Dockers named a debutante each this week, both named Reid, both packed with potential. Archer is a giant. At 203cm he’s the Eagles tallest player. For a kid so massive he gets low to the ground with ease. His frame is somehow both lean and imposing, with hands like a Swedish masseuse. He’d get all the knots out. West Coast fell in love with him before the 2023 draft, jumped at the chance to take him at pick 30 and never looked back. He showed that promise in the WAFL last year and has gone up a level this pre-season. So much so he’s gone past Jack Williams, another talented tall — and the selection says more about Reid than it does Williams. He’s that good — or he could be. Clearly Andrew McQualter has decided to put time and games into this kid. He won’t be tearing games apart for a while, but you’ll see signs tomorrow. Green shoots. The other-other Reid is Murphy — nicknamed Burce after WA’s fast bowling cult hero. Fremantle have one here. When you watch this guy train or play, you see things that make you raise the eyebrows. The little deft touches to a teammate’s advantage, the time and space he finds in congestion — dare I say it, Mundy-like. He uses the ball exquisitely, seeing players you didn’t know were there. He’s young, needs a few more pre-seasons, is about 20 per cent of the finished product — but this kid won’t be overwhelmed. At an early pre-season training session ‘Bruce’ brought down Nat Fyfe with a poleaxing tackle. Taking down Fyfey — even in his final footy chapter — is no easy feat. Everyone there made the sound you make when you see a toddler fall down a step. Even Fyfey was probably impressed, once he got the grass out of his teeth. Afterwards, Reid told footy staff he’d been waiting to do that since he got drafted — mix it with a two-time Brownlow medallist. He loves to hit — and be hit. A lunatic in the Zak Butters mould. The salad days of Murphy Reid are going to be fun. So is 2025. Finally, tomorrow is a big day for us at Channel Seven Perth. For the first time we’ll have our own live and local commentary team at the West Coast and Gold Coast game. Footy media, and broadcasting is changing quickly — and it’s opened the window for what’s happening tomorrow — where you have a choice what to beam into your loungeroom. Our team is poised and passionate, just like you. For a kid from Thornlie who grew up idolising Dennis Cometti, Bruce McAvaney, Sandy Roberts and so many more, this is a dream come true. We don’t take the responsibility of broadcasting football lightly — we know how much it means to the fans, the players, the staff. Providing the soundtrack to this beautiful game means just as much to us. Join us tomorrow from 3pm on Seven and Seven Plus and we’ll have some fun.

Ryan Daniels: 2025 AFL campaign promises to be every bit as good as season 2024

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