IN the wake of the battle of attrition between Hawthorn and St Kilda - or Snorethorn and St Static, as they should have been called - you can expect another round of recrimination from frustrated fans demanding wholesale rule changes to stamp out ugly stalemates like Saturday night's two-goals-all first half.

Calls will be made to stop awarding marks when the ball is kicked backwards, to make it mandatory to have a certain numbers of players in attack or defence, to reduce the number of interchange players or even the number of players on the field and to draw more lines on the ground than you would find on a pensioner's face.

Forgotten amid this navel gazing will be that, about the same time the Hawks and Saints were engaging in a defensive stand-off about as entertaining for most in the crowd of 36,063 as organised slug racing, the Kangaroos and Carlton were having a 42-goal shoot-out at Carrara that might have thrilled Gold Coast first-timers, but didn't exactly have purists reaching for the superlatives, either.

Just as St Kilda, particularly, placed too high a price on goals the Blues and Roos were giving them away like Russian roubles for US dollars during the Cold War. While the AFL, which considers itself to be in the "entertainment industry", would have loved the Gold Coast goal-fest, surely the fact the sport can produce such different encounters should be considered a strength rather than a weakness.

St Kilda's defensive sleeperhold will be linked to the Swans' so-called "ugly football", given former Sydney assistant Ross Lyon is now in charge at Moorabbin. However, his decision to put players behind the ball and chip the ball around the back line was not born of a defensive mindset but old-fashioned necessity.

With rebounding defenders Jason Gram and Xavier Clarke joining a long list of casualties, Lyon was forced to field three debutants in his 22 from a list of just 23 fit players. While most expected him to stack his attack with talented tall forwards Nick Riewoldt, Fraser Gehrig and Justin Koschitzke and stretch the Hawks' defence, Lyon was worried they would be starved of supply.

Rather than attack, he put players behind the ball, instructed them not to relinquish possession and dared the Hawks to come at them. So you could probably put some of the blame for the ugly armwrestle that followed on Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson, who took three quarters to get his players to take the game on - and only after the Saints had eased the defensive pressure.

Some will say that Lyon should have at least given his players a chance to win. That he waved the white flag in the medical room rather than giving his team the chance to go after what would have been a morale-boosting victory. They have a point.

Meanwhile, those who did not share the view of Lyon and Clarkson that it was, a "terrific contest" and "absorbing duel" will note the Melbourne Storm had run up more points in 80 minutes at nearby Olympic Park (26) than St Kilda could in the first 90 minutes at the MCG (23).

But if the AFL's entrepreneurial spirit demands big scores, then the manner in which they were kicked at Carrara was hardly a recipe for sustained success. The Kangaroos' fifth straight win was further vindication of coach Dean Laidley's decision to remove the defensive shackles from his team and their 14-goal second half was impressive. Yet, at the same time, Carlton's ability to punish the Roos on the rebound and exploit a defence admittedly missing stalwart Glenn Archer will have encouraged the Roos' more talented and hard-bodied future opposition. This was basketball, not finals football.

Besides the dour nature of the Hawks-Saints match, the other theme of the weekend was just how even the competition has become.

Essendon's crushing 64-point win over the previously impressive Brisbane leaves them 4-4 and the question of coach Kevin Sheedy's future more confused. Is he again orchestrating the revival of talented young team or benefiting from the proud farewell season of veteran James Hird and a league in which most teams can beat each other on a given day?

Fremantle's call on out-of-contract coach Chris Connolly perhaps became more clear after a big loss at Geelong compounded a disappointing start to the season. Will he become the latest coach for whom aesthetics are meaningless - unless you get the four points?