The Roar
The Roar

AFL
Advertisement

AFL top 100: Round 18 highlights (Part 3)

(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Roar Guru
25th July, 2018
0

The Sunday games in Round 18 provided – as expected – a percentage booster for Hawthorn against the hapless Blues.

It also saw a scrappy but convincing win by the high flying Eagles against an undermanned Bulldogs team and a big win by Greater Western Sydney away from home against another potential finalist in Port Adelaide.

Starting with the Blues, you must have some sympathy for Kade Simpson and his dedication to what at this stage is a hopeless cause.

He managed to score one of the seven goals that Carlton scored and that took him to level with former player Mick Grace on Carlton’s all-time goal kicking list.

Two goals were scored by Matthew Cripps, one of the players that the future of the club relies on. Other positives in an otherwise dismal day were Cameron Polson’s first goal in game number eight and the debut of Matthew Lobbe.

Hawthorn, on the other hand, celebrated with a percentage-boosting win, which included a five-goal haul by Luke Breust and a four-goal effort by Paul Puopolo which took him past Garry Young and Alan Martello on the Hawks all-time top 100 list.

The West Coast Eagles and Bulldogs game saw the Eagles’ main artillery (Josh Kennedy, Mark LeCras and Jack Darling) all score multiple goals in a performance that lost the club no fans as the business end of the season approaches.

Elliott Yeo also chimed in with one goal to move past Daniel Chick on the goal kicking list.

Advertisement

For the Bulldogs, six different players scored six goals, including two players off the club’s top 100 goal kickers list. Luke Dahlhaus contributed one and Mitch Wallis who is playing as though he has something to prove, also kicked one.

Luke Hodge

(Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)

By stark contrast, all of Port Adelaide’s eight goals were kicked by five of their current top six goal scorers, with Chad Wingard being the only one not to contribute.

Charlie Dixon scored the most – three goals that took his tally at Port Adelaide to 99 so hopefully there is another milestone coming up in the game in Ballarat next week against the Bulldogs.

Robbie Gray stole the lead in his two-way tussle with Justin Westoff for all time goal-kicking honours. He scored two goals to Westoff’s one so now holds second place on the Power’s goal kicking list by one.

All this fire power proved to be to no avail as Greater Western Sydney took charge of the match at Adelaide Oval from the start and were able to hold off the challenge from Port Power when it came.

The Giants scored 11 goals to the Power’s eight and eight different players contributed with two goals coming from Harry Himmelburg, Toby Greene and Jacob Hopper.

Advertisement

Greater Western Sydney now find themselves in sixth position on the ladder and they play the Saints next weekend.

With a number of players returning from injury it appears likely that the Giants will be a significant threat in the finals. There is still some spice left in the final five rounds.

close