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I said in my last article that the biggest upset of the round was Port Adelaide beating West Coast Eagles.
I was wrong, because the next day Fremantle rolled Greater Western Sydney at their home away from home, Canberra. Any win on the road is a good one, and Greater Western Sydney stunned Geelong at the Cattery, but this week – in a topsy turvy season – they were defeated by a committed and talented Docker’s team where all the goal scorers – apart from Michael Walters and Matthew Taberner – had scored a total of 25 AFL career goals between the five of them.
The upsets continued into the night with both victors – St Kilda and Richmond – less favoured than their respective rivals Melbourne and Sydney.
In the Saturday day game, Fremantle finished off the game in much better fashion and started to get some payback for the recruiting of Jesse Hogan who kicked three goals, as did the reliable Matthew Taberner and the Dockers’ third-greatest goalscorer of all time, Michael Walters.
Jeremy Cameron – now equal second greatest game player for the Giants and by far their greatest goal scorer – kicked four goals in a losing team to take his career total to 348. Based on Cameron’s average goals scored per round (4.2) this year he is on target to join the AFL’s top 100 greatest goal kickers by the end of the season, but on his career average even with the aid of finals he will not.
Is he playing better this year than ever? The other Jeremy – Finlayson – may prove to be the other avenue to goals required after he kicked three.
At St Kilda, the twin towers battle continued with six goals now separating Josh Bruce and Tim Membrey. Bruce’s two goals were enough to take him past Nick Del Santo while Membrey’s four goals saw him draw ahead of Jack McDonald and Trevor Barker, who I profiled in an earlier article.
McDonald was a left-footer from Camden who first played for the Saints in 1948 and won the club’s goalkicking on three occasions three years apart. Jack Billings scored two goals and Jack Lonie one to bring up his 50th goal in league football.
In the Richmond/Sydney game, Dusty Martin announced his return with three goals to take his total to 221. Josh Caddy kicked two, and he is now also on the doorstep of making his club’s top 100 goalkickers.
Dustin Martin of the Tigers celebrates on the final siren during the 2018 AFL First Qualifying Final match between the Richmond Tigers and the Hawthorn Hawks at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on September 06, 2018 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Adam Trafford/AFL Media/Getty Images)
The Swans, while losing the game, had the unusual situation of all goalkickers being members of the Swans’ top 100 club, and all except Buddy Franklin rising through the ranks as a result of the goals they scored. Franklin – while not climbing up Sydney’s top 100 list – kicked four goals and passed former Essendon champion Matthew Lloyd on the AFL’s all-time top 100 list and moved into 7th position on 928 goals, two goals ahead on Lloyd.
Those who climbed the list at Sydney were Isaac Heeney, Luke Parker, Josh Kennedy, Tom Papley and Sam Reid. All except Heeney (two goals) scored only one goal.
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