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AFL finals will start early after results set up some knockout games for the last round of the season. Twelve teams can still make the finals, five can make the top four, and the rest can make the best of one last crack at 2014. So who won big this week?
Port Adelaide get my vote for the most important win of the weekend. Damn if the Power did not deserve the adjective ‘spectacular’ on Friday night.
Finally, after two months of limping, stilted football that delivered five losses in eight, the Power got back to the surging attacking style that had delivered them ten wins in their first eleven.
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Don’t talk it down in retrospect: this shaped as a real danger game for Port. Carlton had been playing well for a couple of months themselves, pushing the top teams in the competition and growing in confidence. There was every risk they could upset the Power and put a hole in their finals chances.
Instead, Port came back to life. Full of confidence, full of attacking fervour, they swarmed the Blues. I don’t even think Carlton played badly, but they were taken apart to the tune of 103 points.
Robbie Gray took control of the game when it was there to be won, ending best on ground by a mile. Chad Wingard, Travis Boak, Hamish Hartlett and Jared Polec were all back to their sprinting, handballing best. The Power went coast-to-coast all night, scoring on the slingshot at will. Boak’s ability to pick out targets on the run from 60 metres away was footballing perfection.
10 goals in each half was a model of consistency, and if Port had been more accurate they might have won by 150. What they have done is boost their percentage above Fremantle’s, while staying only four points behind them.
Whatever happens from here, we’re in for a treat when Port travel to Perth to play the Dockers next week. The winner is guaranteed fourth spot and a double chance. They’ll need it, as they’ll go to Sydney to play the Swans, but at least they’ll be in with a shout.
Sydney sit first, Hawthorn’s comeback took second from Geelong, and that’s where it should stay. Geelong’s record for the highest ever AFL score was set against Brisbane, but the Cats would need to beat the Lions by 480 points this week to pass Hawthorn on percentage. The Hawks-Cats game was as always great to watch, but the result means little. Neither side will be cocky nor despondent, and their finals date remains set bar any last-round disaster.
Richmond were the sentimental winning favourites, notching eight in a row to get themselves back inside the eight. In classic Richmond tragedy though, they won’t stay there. Call me Buzzkill Lightyear, but a win against the Swans in Sydney is not going to happen.
How deeply they will regret those early losses to Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs. Admittedly the game is at ANZ Stadium, where the lack of atmosphere would help visiting teams. There’s also not much for Sydney to play for. But in the likely scenario that Richmond lose, they’ll spend Sunday arvo praying for two upsets: St Kilda to take out Adelaide and Gold Coast to beat West Coast.
It’s West Coast who really won out of the weekend, with a nice percentage boost against Melbourne. They may sit 10th, but with Richmond and Collingwood both likely to lose, they’ll Bradbury into the top eight with one more win.
Adelaide could still pip the Eagles from 11th, if they can righteously smite St Kilda by a much huger margin than West Coast can manage. Brenton Sanderson will be punching the nitro booster when he sends his side out at Adelaide Oval, so get ready for either comedy or carnage.
Of course Adelaide could have been in the eight already if they’d won on Saturday, their shortfall making North Melbourne one of the round’s big winners.
The Kangaroos set themselves up beautifully a game clear in sixth with only the speed hump of the tired Demons to roll over. Adelaide were never going to be as easy, with no clear advantage in the Kangaroos’ adopted home of Hobart, and it was arm wrestle all day as small leads swapped back and forth.
Eventually North were able to lock down scoring late in the game to preserve a seven-point lead, exactly the kind of play they’ll need to replicate against fiercer opposition. A home final is now assured, though almost certainly against Essendon.
Essendon also had an important win against a Gold Coast side that weren’t prepared to go quietly away, pulling level in the last quarter before the Bombers got away. They could only miss finals now if the Tigers and Magpies both pull out percentage-boosting upsets against the top two sides, and that’s not going to happen.
Coach Mark Thompson was justifiably proud but forgetful: “I’m glad they’ve got something out of [the season] and that was the reason why we’re all here, for them, because they’ve been treated pretty badly,” he said, another amnesiac regarding just who put Essendon’s players in their current position.
It’s been a tough run for Gold Coast, so hopeful of a first finals appearance before some mean kid broke Gary Ablett. They’re still a mathematical chance, but they’d have to spank West Coast while having three teams above them lose. Let’s hope they have a crack.
Finally there was Collingwood: a brave win, given their massive in-game injury toll for the second match running, but their season is gone regardless. They’ll go into a game against Hawthorn missing their three best midfielders, their most damaging tall and small forward, three running defenders and two key defenders, their best tagger and a handful of others besides.
The final ladder will come right down to next Sunday afternoon. Let’s meet here next Monday to see how it all turned out.