The 2015 AFL crystal ball: Our experts give their opinions

QUESTIONS
1. Last minute of the grand final, who is the hero?
2. The year's tactical talking point?
3. Biggest reality check?
4. The issue the AFL can't spin is?
5. Surprising headline?

ANSWERS

WAYNE CAREY
ROO BEAUTY
1. Ken Hinkley and Port Adelaide.
2. Bigger scores, more attacking footy, I hope.
3. The Tigers.
4. Drugs policy, three strikes fail.
5. Gold Coast in finals

DANIEL CHERNY
NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
1. The score review system.
2. Gary Ablett's larger role in the forward line for the Suns.
3. Rising expectations may not equate with where the Brisbane Lions are really placed.
4. Betting scandals. Never a good look.
5. Dees' Docklands drought done

ROHAN CONNOLLY
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
1. Hawthorn's Cyril Rioli chases and mows down a Port Adelaide opponent running into an open goal to win the game.
2. Thankfully, more attacking football. Defence has gone as far as it can go.
3. Player welfare post-career. The casualty toll of stars not coping with life beyond the AFL bubble is growing.
4. The fallout from the ASADA investigation of Essendon and the league's management of it.
5. TV networks abandon night grand final push

MICHAEL GLEESON
NEWSHOUND
1. Hamstrung since mid-June, Cyril Rioli.
2. Offence beats defence?
3. Tom Boyd
4. Still no one gives a tinker's cuss about GWS.
5. Hird to join Commission

PETER HANLON
BIRREGURRA FLYER
1. As the little boy on the dais said last year, Luke Hodge, of course.
2. Teams rate scoring ahead of stopping the other mob from scoring.
3. Footballers can be naughty boys.
4. No matter how many games they win, nobody gives a rat's about GWS.
5. Malthouse: As you can tell, I've loved every minute

JESSE HOGAN
PITCH PERFECT
1. Alastair Clarkson – not for any particular move on the day but the coaching pedestal on which a third consecutive premiership puts him.
2. Coaches becoming increasingly willing to start a mid-range or better player as the substitute, because of the dramatic impact they have on the outcome after their late introduction.
3. For Carlton supporters, particularly influential ones: this year will mark 20 years without a premiership, with an expectation they are on the path to exceeding their club-worst drought of 23 years that ended in 1938. The rebuild will not be easy for a supporter base accustomed to success.
4. Crowd growth – or lack thereof. Without the "Adelaide Oval" factor, the lift it provided in 2014 compared with 2013 at AAMI Stadium, the AFL may have to be content with saying crowds are holding, rather than growing as the league is accustomed to.
5. League bans players and coaches from references to "structures" and "processes".

SAMANTHA LANE
PEDALLING HARD
1. The guy who was injured/could have been suspended/would have missed the GF for the birth of his child ... but went on to play in a flag. If not him, maybe Jarryd Roughead.
2. On field: whatever Hawthorn does to achieve a premiership hat-trick. Off field: AFL-AFLPA-CBA.
3. Despite the return of post-match kick-to-kick, nothing will solve the league's conundrum of the fan who has fallen out of love with AFL footy.
4. As long as it remains a World Anti-Doping Agency complaint sport, the AFL is but one among more than 600 others – in just one of 193 signatory countries – that must adhere to the protocols as well as the rules.
5. Mick Malthouse/Patrick Dangerfield to stay at Carlton/Adelaide

TIM LANE
ELDER STATESMAN
1. Brendan Whitecross.
2. Roof-tweaking at Etihad Stadium.
3. Three Victorian clubs make the eight and four make the bottom four.
4. WADA code matters.
5. Another Clarkson sacked

MATTHEW LLOYD
HIGH ALTITUDE BOMBER
1. Paddy Ryder drifting forward and taking a speccy and kicking the sealer late in the last quarter.
2. The tactical point this year will be the coach that is bold enough to back his defence to win a one-on-one contest and revert to a traditional forward line.
3. Biggest reality check will be for those clubs who take the GWS lightly in 2015.
4. The AFL cannot continue to spin that they are waiting on fan surveys as to whether to shut the Etihad roof or not.
5. Buckley and Magpies defy the scribes and make the top eight

GARRY LYON
DEMON FOR PUNISHMENT
1. The goal review umpire, who courageously overrules the goal umpire, seconds before the ball is bounced to restart play, securing Hawthorn their third straight flag.
2. Players lingering around the interchange box, timing their re-entry to the playing field.
3. Corporate bookmakers, after the NAB rising star leak .... in round 8!
4. Soccer's appeal to the next generation of young sports people is irrepressible.
5. Caroline Wilson guest speaker at Essendon best and fairest.

MATT MURNANE
CHIPPING IN
1. Kurt Tippett.
2. More teams swinging the balance from defence to attack.
3. The AFL – decline in public interest owing to Essendon supplements saga and over-saturation of the game and related media.
4. See above.
5. Carlton re-signs Malthouse

JAKE NIALL
STAR OF THE SHOW
1. Alipate Carlile finally beats Jarryd Roughead in a one-out contest after conceding 4-5 goals, saving Port.
2. Whatever David King says, or draws,
3. Despite friendlier time slots, cheaper pies, kick-to-kick and Gill's goodwill, fans still turn up mainly when their team is winning.
4. Kids, especially girls, playing soccer.
5. "St Kilda's Sane and Sober Monday".

JON PIERIK
LOCAL HERO
1. Chad Wingard somehow weaves through a stoppage in the Power's forward pocket and snaps a match-winning goal.
2. It doesn't matter if you don't get first hands to the ball at the stoppage. It's how you set up defensively in preparation for that first kick out that matters.
3. The Tigers faithful think they can build on last year's final. The playing list still needs work.
4. It's still a case of the haves and have-nots in terms of club finances.
5. We're free – Essendon supplements saga is over.

SCOTT SPITS
ONLINE GURU
1. Jarrad Waite. Five goals in a flag team.
2. Essendon boardroom machinations – and the Port Adelaide "blitz".
3. Essendon supplements saga not over on Tuesday.
4. Crowds at GWS Giants home games.
5. Sheedy: Not even I can help Essendon

EMMA QUAYLE
DRAFTED IN
1. Cyril Rioli wins the Hawks' third consecutive flag with a chase-down tackle in the forward pocket and goal from the boundary line in the last 10 seconds (no pressure, Junior).
2. Who on earth plays on Marcus Bontempelli this year, let alone in another few seasons?
3. Both the roof and free fairy floss policies at Etihad Stadium revisited after thousands of children on major sugar highs form an enormous human pyramid and physically wind the roof shut because no one can see anything with it open and they can't take it any more.
4. Pies still cost more than salads.
5. Suns to play Giants in elimination final

ANDREW TATE
TOKEN EDITOR
1. Ross Lyon – finally Fremantle.
2. Is Rodney Eade too old school for the young Suns?
3. Kevin Sheedy's circus act can't paper over the cracks at Essendon.
4. That a night grand final is good for anyone other than TV and deep pockets.
5. Big fish recognises small pond

CAROLINE WILSON
THE FINAL WORD
1. Jay Schultz.
2. The welcome flowing style of play following adjustments to the holding-the-ball rule.
3. Paul Roos' coaching legacy.
4. The frenzy of interest over international soccer at the MCG as St Ange grows in stature.
5. Buddy bemoans: I should never have left.