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Premiership race wide open:
Aside from the obvious standout in Port Adelaide, who is sitting two games clear on top of the AFL ladder, the scramble is on for an array of sides looking to secure the all important double chance come September. With Hawthorn, Sydney, Collingwood, Gold Coast and Geelong all deadlocked on seven wins, competition is fierce as the season enters its second stanza.
It’s become obvious 2014 may have the most premiership chances we’ve seen in recent times, but we know anything worse than fourth spot on the ladder makes it nearly impossible to win the flag. Hawthorn will do well to finish top four from here with its disastrous injury list, while Sydney, Collingwood and Gold Coast have had a stellar five week stretch to set up their tilt at glory. Geelong cannot be discounted, but following a 110-point drubbing, the question will be whether they can recover and bounce back.
Rory Sloane may be the AFL's best bloke
In one of the round's best matches, the highlight came deep in the third quarter. At that stage, Adelaide were leading by 20 points in slippery conditions, with the Suns looking to try and peg them back as they kicked up towards Michael Rischitelli. Not to be outdone in the contest, Rory Sloane did brilliantly to effect a spoil, tapping the ball into the air and retrieving it before bursting forward and taking three bounces. But just as he appeared set to pull the trigger and give Adelaide a 26-point advantage, Rischitelli came from nowhere, the veteran Sun grabbing a fistful of Sloane's jumper, dragging him down and forcing him to cough up the pill.
Most players in Sloane's position would have given Rischitelli a push for his troubles, but having been on the end of such a superb effort, Sloane merely patted Rischitelli on the head in admiration for a job well done. Gold Coast, though, will presumably pat Adelaide on the head for the same reason. Coming off a close loss to Carlton, the Crows dominated much of this contest but Gold Coast were good enough to soak up most of the punches and stay in the game until the final term. Both sides will now be looking at the lower rungs of the eight come September.
GWS have set a standard
Dermott Brereton said this about half-a-dozen times during the Giants' thrilling clash with Hawthorn on Sunday night, but it doesn't make it less true. On the back of consecutive 100-plus point losses, the Giants drew a line in the sand and took the game right up to Hawthorn. Their pressure was simply immense as they produced 104 tackles for the game. The Hawks were perhaps expecting a glorified training drill against GWS but suddenly found themselves in a serious war of attrition and without some key players like Jordan Lewis. But despite being on the wrong end of a massive 35 tackles alone in the third term, the Hawks youngsters found the class to get the job done. Jonathan Simpkin should take a bow as well as his superb tackle on Adam Treloar in the dying seconds ensured GWS couldn't force a draw.
The frustrating thing for Leon Cameron, though, is that had GWS applied that sort of pressure against West Coast and Richmond, they may have come away with wins instead of 100-point shellackings. But maybe this was just part of the learning experience down Blacktown way.
Essendon have a new way
It seems the Bombers have put their fortnight off to good use. Rather than dwell on their 50-point loss to Sydney, Mark Thompson appears to have taken some serious steps to change the game plan in order to ensure Essendon are competitive heading into the season's second half.
Instead of a stop-start strategy, the Bombers were encouraged to use the corridor, play on and take risks. Jake Carlisle was back in defence and looked way more at home, reading the play beautifully, taking 10 marks and having 20 disposals. With Carlisle back in the right position, even if mistakes are made going forward, maybe Essendon won't pay so dearly with an asset like Carlisle able to chop off the opposition attack.
However, everything we say about Essendon has to be taken with a grain of salt. They were playing Richmond after all. How good would it have been to be a fly on the wall as Damien Hardwick gave his side the spray to end all sprays?
Season Over!
Finals look a dim possibility for Richmond, Carlton and West Coast. All three have disappointed terribly so far this season, with Carlton being the best of a bad lot, having at least won four of their last six games. Big questions remain as to how these teams finish off the season. Do they stay the course and finish in that ninth to 12th bracket, losing the chance to recruit the draft's best talent, or is it tanking time? If they go for the latter, then maybe it's the right time to give youngsters at all three clubs - particularly Carlton who haven't used too many of theirs - a shot at senior level to see who'll stand up.
West Coast in particular, despite being very good against Collingwood last Saturday week, appear too old and too slow. Dean Cox and Darren Glass, champions of the game, are almost at the end, while the Eagles are very much struggling for leadership around the midfield. Matt Priddis continues to go in and grab the ball from the clinches umpteen times, but without the retired Daniel Kerr to do creative things with it, the Eagles are somewhat rudderless in midfield. They have plenty of outside players, like Luke Shuey, Chris Masten, Andrew Gaff and Matt Rosa but all four are struggling to have real impact on games. Shuey and Masten may have excuses. Both spear to be playing hurt, but their struggles up the ground mean West Coast's forward line can't click into gear and kick bags.
And, as for Sharrod Wellingham, the former Magpie has never been the same player since whacking Carlton's Kade Simpson a few years ago.