Opinion
Round 8 was lacking its share of close games, but some upsets and thrashings have helped define some positions in the final eight but left us guessing about others.
Four teams now look safe; Melbourne, Fremantle, Brisbane and Carlton, and the next four down are doing enough to shake off any flakey challengers although Port Adelaide – with three wins in a row – have not given up yet despite a poor percentage.
Collingwood, Hawthorn and Adelaide will be the big improvers (although the Crows performed poorly this round) but appear to not have the man power or consistency to mount a serious challenge and Essendon, Greater Western Sydney and Western Bulldogs will win enough games to keep the punters guessing, and Gold Coast, North Melbourne and West Coast Eagles Will concentrate on season 2023.
Amongst the individual performers of the Round, Tom Lynch was amongst the goal scorers again. After his seven goals last week (which took him into the AFL Top 100 goal scorers of all time) he kicked another six in Round 8 to show he is a man in a hurry to move up the goal kicking list he had to share the honours with Charlie Curnow (Carlton) and “Two-Metre Peter” Wright (Essendon) who both also shared some individual highlights.
For Wright as part of the impressive Bomber comeback in the final quarter, it took him past the 50-goal total, and he finished the day on 52.
Curnow became the 91st Blue to score over 100 goals, and he again leapt up the Carlton Top 100 list, passing seven players including Jon Dorovitch, Lachie Henderson, Rod Gault and Fraser Brown.
For Lynch’s part, his six goals meant that he drew level on the AFL list with Melbourne’s Fred Fanning, still the only player to kick 18 goals in a VFL/AFL game.
Fanning did it in his last game for Melbourne in Round 19, 1947, and finished the year on 97 goals .Fanning joined the Hamilton Football Club in the Western District Football League as captain-coach in 1948, after being offered three times the salary he was receiving at Melbourne which shows that quality footballers could attract big money, even 75 years ago. This appointment caused a split in the club and the Hamilton Imperials were founded.
Jack Gunston (Hawthorn) avoided being overtaken by Lynch by scoring two goals in Hawthorn’s capitulation to Essendon. As a result, he drew level with South Melbourne Triple Brownlow Medallist on 412 goals in 97th position on the VFL/AFL Most Career Goals list.
A number of other goal scoring achievements happened during the round, including Melbourne’s Tom McDonald’s 150th goal in his 200th game, Aaron Naughton’s four goals that saw his rapid rise up the Western Bulldog’s goal kicker’s list where he passed Charlie Page, Simon Garlick and Jason Akermanis to draw level with Merv Hobbs, and Lachlie Schultz’s 50 goals for Fremantle.
For a number of players, Round 8 provided the thrill of their first goal in AFL football, an achievement always acknowledged with great enthusiasm by their team mates. In Jye Amiss’ case it was 2 goals in his first ever AFL game at Fremantle. He was
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Now that was a quick change of mind!
