Opinion
The pecking order is effectively a ladder of the manner in which the teams that played in the Round of football performed, therefore it’s not purely based on results.
Round 17 proved a fairly challenging to rank the teams three games with a margin of 16 points or less. On the other end of the spectrum there were six games with a margin of 22 points or more.
In Round 17, no teams had a bye, therefore there were all 18 teams in the Round 17 pecking order. Take a look at the pecking order from Round 17!
1- Fremantle were more efficient than North Melbourne in the first quarter. The next three quarters were also controlled by Fremantle, in an obliteration of North Melbourne. They kicked three goals in the first quarter and four goals in each of the next three quarters!
2- Melbourne Demons started the game well in kicking the first three goals of the game, however, the scores were level at halftime, as they were outplayed by Greater Western Sydney in the second quarter. The Melbourne Demons struggled in the third quarter.
They showed character to win the game by under a goal!
3- Richmond started the game well leading by 14 points at quarter team; they kept Geelong goalless. It was great to see Richmond play team first, selfless football.
They were well organised and their pressure without the football was fantastic. Everyone played their role; it was difficult to find a bad player in their team, but their inaccuracy would be a concern as they kicked seven goals and fifteen behinds!
4- Port Adelaide started the game slowly as they trailed by five points at quarter time. They would be disappointed in their first quarter and their third quarter as they kicked just one goal in each of those quarters.
Thankfully, they kicked five goals in the second quarter and six goals in the fourth quarter. They would be pleased that they were ruthless and won by 50 points and only conceded four goals for the entire game.
5- West Coast started the game extremely slowly, but stayed in touch on the scoreboard. They weathered the storm and led by two goals at halftime.
They won a game that was in the balance for much of the night; both teams had 20 scoring shots, but they were victorious by fifteen points; They showed lots of resilience and character!
6- Greater Western Sydney began the game poorly surprisingly as they should have had a good first quarter, given they made eight changes at selection. They managed to stay in touch on the scoreboard in the first quarter and the same thing continued in the second quarter. They improved, but they lost the game, marginally, by five points!
7- Adelaide Crows started the game reasonably well, as they appeared to be hungry to keep winning; it was five goals to nil at quarter time. They led eight goals to one goal at halftime.
They allowed Carlton back into the game in the third quarter and for part of the fourth quarter, but in the end, it was a narrow well deserved sixteen point win for the Adelaide Crows.
8- Western Bulldogs began the game really slowly but they managed to control the balance of play after their slow start. In the second quarter the Western Bulldogs continued to gain the ascendancy, however, they did start the third quarter slowly and were outplayed in that quarter.
They managed to win the game, with a reasonable display in the second half, following an outstanding first half, with a six-goal win!
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
9- Collingwood started the game poorly, after scoring the first goal of the game. They did manage to stay in touch on the scoreboard, despite not playing their best footy.
The only reason they regained the lead in the third quarter was due to the influence of Jordan de Goey, who kicked four of their first five goals. They kicked two goals in the first and second quarter and three goals in the third and fourth quarters. Collingwood survived a tough challenge from Gold Coast to win the game by 22 points.
10- Brisbane Lions started slowly; Daniel Rich’s errant kick out on the full was indicative of their slow start to the game, as Rich is normally a good kick. They improved slightly in the second quarter as they turned a five point deficit into a nine-point lead at halftime.
They ran away with the game in the fourth quarter as they had far more class and work rate than the Sydney Swans.
11- St Kilda controlled the game early in the piece. They didn’t score at all in the second quarter and just four behinds in the third quarter.
They kicked three goals in the first and last quarters, but no goals in the second and third quarter. Despite controlling the balance of play for much of the game, St Kilda lost a game that they should have won; bad kicking is bad football!
12- Gold Coast started the game reasonably well. They outworked and outplayed their opposition; Collingwood. Based on endeavour, it appeared as if Gold Coast had a possible top eight finish on the line, when it was Collingwood who had a definite top eight finish as an incentive if they won the game.
That all changed after quarter time where Collingwood were too good, however, Gold Coast had their opportunities with Collingwood having just two more scoring shots than them!
13- Hawthorn played a decent brand of footy early in the game, that’s until the Western Bulldogs kicked three goals in a row in the first quarter. After that, Hawthorn failed to arrest the momentum that the Western Bulldogs had built.
Fortunately for Hawthorn they managed to kick the first two goals of the third quarter. In the end the Western Bulldogs were simply too good for Hawthorn.
14- Carlton missed a couple of chances to kick a goal early in the game and after that they were utterly deplorable. They finally kicked a goal in the second quarter, but it was eight goals to one goal in favour of the Adelaide Crows at halftime. They did arrest the momentum in the third quarter, but it was a shocking performance from Carlton.
15- Geelong began the game slowly, but stayed in touch on the scoreboard. That’s the main aspect of the game that matters.
They kicked one goal in the second quarter and they were goalless in the first and third quarters. They kicked three of their four goals in the fourth quarter, unfortunately they were outclassed and had a game to forget.
(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
16- Sydney Swans began the game reasonably well; especially considering the fact that they won’t be playing finals in AFL season 2020; they led by five points at quarter time. The second quarter was a different story as they failed to hit the scoreboard. They managed to stay in touch on the scoreboard after halftime until the latter part of the fourth quarter.
17- Essendon started the game reasonably, but from then on it was all Port Adelaide. Essendon were kept goalless in the second quarter. They followed that up with just one goal in the third and fourth quarters. The only positive was that they led at quarter time. It’s difficult to find any positives when the team was only competitive in two of the four quarters.
18- North Melbourne started the game slowly. They turned the ball over and didn’t look like scoring. Unfortunately, for them Fremantle’s ball use was better in the first quarter. The second quarter was more of the same. The second half didn’t change as they were outworked and outplayed, unfortunately their performance was extremely embarrassing.
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