Grinners

Collingwood

The Pies hung tough and fought back. Down to one on the bench and with Geelong pushing hard, they got a little bit lucky through Josh Hunt’s mistake, then sealed it through the fantastic Scott Pendlebury. Great win that stabilises them a lot.

Adelaide

Finals contenders, certainly. Flag contenders? Form suggests yes. Apart from the Hawthorn loss, it’s hard to find gaps in the Crows’ lineup, and they still have their easy draw to go. What’s more, they’re winning on the road, which is a dangerous signal for September.

Port Adelaide

Finally showing some of their good form, and are better than 2-5 suggests.

Big bag kickers

7 to Merrett and Schulz, 5 to Brown, Petrie and Cox and 4 to Nick Riewoldt, Ryder, Pendlebury and Roughead. And yet, Walker still leads the Coleman!

Essendon

The Dons were somewhat fortunate through Richmond’s wastefulness in front of goal, but when push came to shove in the final term they stood up. Mention must go to both Brent Stanton and Jobe Watson, who were superb.

Moaners

Carlton

They’re lucky that they play the bottom-placed side this week. Carlton were totally insipid. Chris Judd is a superstar, but the rest of the side are average and can’t handle it when the opposition puts the pressure on. Essendon worked them out, and now other teams aim to emulate it. If you don’t give the Blues time, they won’t hurt you, unless the bloke’s name is Judd. They’re fortunate to be playing Melbourne this week, as even GWS would honestly put the pressure on them to make them cough it up; probably not enough to win, but still trouble them. Concerning given the rabid nature of finals football.

North Melbourne

A comeback isn’t the worst part about that loss. No, the worst part is how completely non-existent the Roos were in those final 10 minutes, until the Power hit the front and they decided to go again.

There’s a great YouTube video around mocking Port in 2011 about ‘losing the bye’, but if you watch those final ten minutes again, you struggle to see any Roos players putting any pressure on.

Melbourne

Fake Twitter accounts. Rumours a-swirling. AFL personalities lining up to have their kick. Can anyone say it’s undeserved?

Only three Melbourne players can hold their heads high with the season so far. Two of them only arrived at Melbourne at the start of 2012. Mitch Clark, James Magner and Nathan Jones have continually performed. The defence, too, has made the best of getting bombarded with inside 50s all day.

But then it’s others. Colin Sylvia has averaged 10 disposals and 2 tackles a game. In 2011 he averaged 20 disposals and 5 tackles. Brent Moloney does not have the outright statistical dropoff of Sylvia, but his work rate is well down, and he is seemingly unwilling to chase.

This is a huge indictment on these two players. Add other senior problems. Aaron Davey has lost his pace and with it, his game. Brad Green has simply lost his game.

It’s going to get worse before it gets better.

Josh Hunt

One of the worst AFL games I have ever seen a single player play. He just couldn’t get anything right.

Leroy Jetta

Staging? Grow a pair. Should not happen. Glad it’s been reprimanded, but needs to be stamped on, hard.