Grinners

Gold Coast

Ultimately, despite all the vitriol targeted at Richmond for deciding to sell the game to Cairns, there are still two sides playing footy. The Suns exposed Richmond’s lack of depth and got themselves the chocolates and deservedly so after a season of near-wins against good sides.

Sydney

Dominant out west and now top of the heap. Once again, the top four changes around but this movement is far more ominous.

North Melbourne

Now momentum is building. After Carlton’s win against Collingwood, many suggested that the Blues were back in the hunt; the dominant Roos win brought them back to earth. North seem more and more likely to be the side falling into the last spot in the eight.

St Kilda

Keeping their nose in it by knocking off Brisbane, despite the Lions challenging.

Adelaide

We saw Hawthorn shaft GWS by 160 points last week, but now Adelaide have followed it up with a comparable effort. The Crows’ percentage is now 138 with games against the Suns and Melbourne still to come, which will surely see them with a home final if they can defeat the likes of West Coast.

Moaners

Chris Judd

That’s one of the more bizarre things I’ve seen in footy. Moreover, though, Judd has a history of the bizarre, with two eye-gouging incidents, the infamous ‘pressure point’ and the elbow on Matthew Pavlich. For a player who is a two-time winner of the award for the AFL’s best and “fairest”, it is a blight on his career.

Richmond

Not only has it almost definitely destroyed the Tigers’ finals hopes, with them now being a win and percentage behind both North Melbourne and St Kilda, but it has also unravelled what has been a fine Richmond season. Rather than the good, such as the smashing of Hawthorn, people will surely look toward this sort of result as problematic. The Tigers can hit big in 2013 but need to fix problems which caused this sort of result.

Melbourne

Another week, another couple of injuries, another quarter where the Dees are totally blown out of the water.

Carlton

That must be the end of their finals hopes now. Surely. More and more, it seems that 8th is once again going to be the spot that is backed into rather than actively sought and if the Blues make it from here they’re doing a great job of backing in.

GWS

Unfortunately for the Giants, I can only see more nasty pain. They still play four finals contenders in the last 7 weeks, all of whom will be aiming for a similar percentage boost.

Brisbane

Unfortunately the end of their slim finals hopes.