At least the elongated Round 6 has gone some way to resolving the confusion in punters’ minds about the true character of all the wannabe teams, separating the wheat from the chaff to reveal the true contenders for finals finishes.
After a significant defeat at the hands of Richmond on Wednesday night it would appear Melbourne is a lost cause despite the closeness of the ladder. Stranger things have happened, but not for Melbourne, who have never recovered from a 1-5 start to make the finals.
Next week the Demons face the Hawks, who may welcome back Shaun Burgoyne, but the Dees will still be without Neville Jetta, Jake Lever, Joel Smith and Aaron vandenBerg, so the road back doesn’t get any easier.
Richmond showed they are still the genuine article, and if Dustin Martin and Jack Riewoldt were to fire, they would be right in the mix. The loss of Jack again for an extended period raises just a small doubt.
Richmond’s Tom Lynch (Dylan Burns/AFL Photos/Getty Images)
In the Anzac Day game Collingwood and Essendon both showed themselves to be finals contenders, the Magpies with their first-quarter efforts and the Bombers for the balance of the match. Their second meeting in Round 23 should be another blockbuster, particularly if there were only one spot left in the eight.
As an aside I must say, as a bloke who busted a gut to play even one AFL game but failed, I have enormous respect for every player who takes the field each week and would never constantly boo any one of them.
As I predicted, Jake Stringer got the one goal he needed for his milestone (plus one more), and Jordan de Goey got the two he needed for his. Unfortunately Orazio Fantasia didn’t get to play, and that gives Bombers fans an íf-only for Round 23.
North Melbourne can fold their tent for 2019 as, like Melbourne, the crowd is disappearing into the distance. There are now too many wannabes to climb over to make the eight.
Port Adelaide should be there and Brisbane will have some say in who else fronts up in September. The Suns should continue to build.
Fremantle are a big chance and the Bulldogs could be a nuisance if taken too lightly.
Greater Western Sydney should be there, but cross-town rivals the Swans probably won’t be. It’s hard to know with Hawthorn, but Carlton is not there yet, though the Blues are on the way.
Geelong and West Coast are very short odds to make it.
To wrap up Round 6, here are some of the player highlights: David Mundy (Fremantle) wore the No. 16 jumper in an AFL game for the 300th time, the first player to do so.
After breaking into the AFL top-100 goal-scorers list last week, Taylor Walker (Adelaide) cemented his position in the elite with another four-goal game, taking him to 393 goals and outright 99th place on the list.
This leaves Phillip Matera (West Coast), Lloyd Hagger (Geelong) and Alec Albiston (Hawthorn and North Melbourne) languishing in the hot seat at No. 100 and under serious threat from Jeremy Cameron and others.
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