Round 14 was a cracker, Round 15 could be even better

On Monday, Ryan Buckland took us through what he claimed was the best round of football in AFL history. Four games played on a knife-edge, with all results decided in the dying seconds.

In 2017, we can only savour the past for so long, before looking ahead to the next lot of tantalising games. And this weekend, we have four huge matches taking place in the space of 27 hours, with each game involving travel with a Victorian team taking on an interstate side.

Friday night football sees the two resurgent teams in the competition, Melbourne and Sydney, face off at the MCG. Following that is Super Saturday, with West Coast coming to Etihad to play the Western Bulldogs, GWS hosting Geelong at Spotless Stadium, and Richmond travelling to Adelaide to play Port.

The Swans have won six out of seven since their horror 0-6 start to the year. Their form is hot on paper but a deeper look shows three games decided by single-figure margins in their last four. They dropped a game to Hawthorn which no-one saw coming, and have pulled off two great escapes in the last fortnight, against Richmond and Essendon respectively.

The win over the Tigers was earned after a lacklustre first quarter, by outplaying them over the next three. The game against the Dons was a genuine 50-50 slugfest, which swings and roundabouts, but Sydney famously stole off with victory like a thief in the night.

Melbourne have manufactured two great escapes of their own in recent weeks, coming from behind to beat Collingwood and West Coast by less than a goal. The Demons have won four in a row, and five of the last six, defending well but attacking even better.

The midfield battle is about youth versus experience, Jack Viney and Clayton Oliver head to head with Josh Kennedy and Dan Hannebery. The overall war is defence versus attack – Sydney with a top four backline and Melbourne rated top four for scoring.

Western Bulldogs versus West Coast pits the two most disappointing sides of 2017 against each other, in a seventh versus ninth battle. The winner will be knocking on the door of the four, while the loser will not be in the eight at round’s completion.

After a 4-1 start thanks to a soft opening draw, the Dogs have gone 3-5 since then, and a one-point win over 17th place North Melbourne on the weekend hardly suggests a team reignited.

Luke Beveridge has been erratic at the selection table since his first days at the helm. In his first two years, it looked inspired. This season it’s looked desperate and uncertain, reflecting itself in the team performance, which has lacked cohesiveness.

On paper at the start of the year, West Coast had a draw that looked good. They were playing the better teams in Perth, where they could be expected to win, while they had a soft away draw, important for a team that can struggle on the road.

Instead, the worst case has happened. The wins at home have been hard-fought, with losses sprinkled in. The easier batch of away games has produced only two wins, one of those being in Round 1 against 17th placed North.

The Eagles and Dogs met only seven weeks ago, with an eight-point victory to West Coast in one of the toughest, but most dour, games of the year. Expect something similar again with so much at stake, especially given both sides are slated to play top four teams in Round 16.

Saturday night brings GWS versus Geelong, first versus third.

The Giants fly under the radar in general terms thanks to their lack of profile and off-Broadway schedule for the most part. They’ve quietly established themselves a game clear on top of the ladder, despite an injury list that has consistently been the longest in the league.

Ultimately, this will work in their favour, given they’re going to hit September with a core group of 25-28 match-hardened, experienced players they can call on to cover any absences from their best 22.

GWS played their best football between Rounds 2-5, so it’s been a while, but the ten-goal win over Brisbane on the weekend may just spark them into the second half of the season.

Geelong have been their usual hot and cold selves. The concern is they’ve been involved in three games decided by two points or less, and have won them all. That’s unsustainable over the course of a long season, and these things generally come back to bite at the worst time. Just ask Hawthorn last year.

The Cats are at their best when playing a high pressure game, but this usually occurs at their Simonds Stadium home, and they’ve played poorly away from there in recent times.

They may be without talisman Joel Selwood this week, although brave will be the doctor that tries to rule him out of this match-of-the-round clash.

The winner all but locks in a top-four spot, which will certainly be the case if GWS get up. These two teams meet again in Round 23, down at Geelong, and they will be a good chance to see each other in finals too. Last year they met twice, with the home side victorious on each occasion, but with not much between them.

To round out Saturday night, Port Adelaide host Richmond, as the two biggest improvers of 2017 are scrapping and clawing for a top-four finish.

Defence is king for the Power and Tigers, both sides clearly ranked one and two for points against. Both sides are firm believers in attack being the best form of defence, both ranked top three for inside 50s this season.

Richmond’s entries tend to be repeat efforts thanks to their famed forward pressure applied by a fleet of smalls, thus not as clean and often to a clogged forward 50. Their finishing skills have left something to be desired, both in front of goal, and late in games when under siege from opposition.

Port like to win the ball at the contest and pump it in quickly to give the likes of Charlie Dixon and Robbie Gray the best one-on-one chances, who are both extremely hard to beat in those circumstances. How often do we see Gray parked at the top of the square with him and his opponent the only two players within 35 metres of goal?

The prize in this game could well be sitting third on the ladder on Saturday night, a huge result for two clubs that were roundly picked as bottom four sides in pre-season predictions.

Last year, we saw the top eight sides locked after six rounds, but they all played musical chairs for the rest of the season. It’s easy to forget Adelaide were second on the ladder heading into Round 23 last year, but a loss saw them tumble out of the top four and subsequently out of the finals two weeks later.

This year, the musical chairs are on again, except we’ve seen the list of teams extended down to a dozen or more. The even competition has gone from coaches cliché to absolute reality.

Ryan tells us Round 14 was the best of season so far, at least. I’m calling it now, that Round 15 won’t be surpassed as the best of the year from this point on, and will go down as the most defining round in shaping the top eight in 2017.

Footy fans across the country should be changing any plans they have this Friday night and Saturday, to ensure they are positioned front and centre on the couch. Bring it on.