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A beautifully tight finish to the AFL season awaits at both ends of the ladder, with the top eight and the bottom seven packed in like dodgem cars and jostling for position. Start the ride.
Plenty of the top teams play each other over the coming weeks, so there’s ample room to move with only two wins between second place and eighth. Down the other end there are four points between 12th and last, with the bottom seven teams all having won three or four games. The wooden spoon is anyone’s yet.
With some routine wins in the top eight this week, Gold Coast had the notable result. The McDonald’s Drive-Thru boys swarmed all over Geelong in one of those irrepressible displays that youthful energy can bring.
It was hypnotic to watch. Harley Bennell has been a star in the making from his first game, but this was surely his best outing. It wasn’t about the six goals (with a chance after the final siren for seven). It was that with the game to be won in the third, he cloned himself to be everywhere on the field, leaping, sprinting, hauling in marks and hurting an established side with each touch.
That means the Suns keep a game ahead of Essendon in ninth, with a much better run coming up. Playing Hawthorn at Aurora will be a lesson in freezing their nuts off, but the Magpies in Queensland is now a real chance, then there’s a cakewalk month of Bulldogs, Lions, Saints and Blues, with the latter the only game outside Campbell Newman’s Bikie Paradise.
The Bombers had an important win for them, beating their immediate rival Adelaide to move four points clear as the next in line outside the top eight, and to put the bitter memory of their last-second loss to Melbourne behind them. The Crows kept pushing at Etihad Stadium, but Essendon managed to find an answer whenever required.
Rather than chasing down Gold Coast, though, the Bombers’ next few weeks look grim. They’ll cop a presumably less shambolic Geelong, travel to play Port Adelaide, have the Doggies and Magpies back home, then travel to Sydney. If all goes the Coasters’ way in that time, the Bombers will be eating ASADA-approved dust.
Greater Western Sydney had the only other notable win, getting the better of Carlton at home to leap two places to 14th. That pushes 2014’s basket case, Richmond, down into the bottom three – neither they nor the Blues have been able to take a trick this year.
Carlton, the Bulldogs, Melbourne and GWS have four wins; Brisbane, Richmond and St Kilda three. It’s an interesting set-up: usually one team is stone cold motherless last by now, so to have every team winning a few is a good sign for the competition. There’s plenty of incentive, too: a win or a few percentage points could make a big difference to final positions.
The Giants will have three or four more good chances for wins before the season’s out: they’d love to finish up with a best-ever win tally, with the aim of emulating the Suns next season.
On the losers list this week, you can’t go past Geelong. As a long-time Cat-watcher, I haven’t seen a performance that bad since the development days of 2004. To be so consistently poor for a whole match is almost an achievement in itself, as a supposed top side clanged its way to a loss and handed over fourth spot to Fremantle.
Targets were missed time and again. Set shots for goal were wasted on attempts to dish off. Tackles didn’t stick. Matty Stokes was done three times for holding the ball, then subbed off injured at half time. Bennell and Gary Ablett found space all day.
Nothing sums it up better than Mark Blicav’s game. I love his effort, but his inexperience as a footballer still shows: under pressure he either can’t pick up the ball, can’t dispose of it, or gives a panicked get-out pass to his nearest teammate rather than having the composure to choose a better option. Time and again on Saturday he fumbled his way to turnovers.
A few players were still excellent, and the result blew open late as a result of Geelong’s attempt to attack for a win rather than minimise the loss, but the Cats are struggling. The Bulldogs, Melbourne and GWS should give them a chance to rebuild their game, but if they’re not careful they’ll get torched by the Bombers this Friday night.
Fremantle, meanwhile, have an even softer run, so the Cats can’t expect to get back up the ladder any time soon. That may come down to Freo’s trip to Kardinia Park in Round 20.
Hawthorn were expected to beat Collingwood, but Collingwood would have been hoping to prove some September credentials by beating Hawthorn. That didn’t happen. Sure, the Pies got within a kick in the third quarter, but you never really felt like they were going to threaten.
The Magpies retain sixth place, but are now level on points with North Melbourne and the Gold Coast. Their next six are all tricky but winnable. Their form thus far this year suggests they won’t win them all.
Adelaide were the other substantial losers of the weekend, dumped a place on the ladder by West Coast, which on this season’s form is quite an indignity. They should have got over Essendon, but gave them too great a headstart and too many easy goals.
That leaves Adelaide two games off the top eight: a bridge too far. They’ll battle on, and there are wins ahead, but with this loss I’m calling the Crows season as over.