The Race for the Flag in Squiggly Lines

Animated!

Three clear winners this week!

1. North Melbourne took Richmond apart, like they always do, only more convincingly.

2. Adelaide held St Kilda to 6 goals while kicking 19: exactly what they needed, since their scoring power hadn’t been accompanied by enough defensive strength.

3. Port Adelaide delivered a thumping away win over Collingwood. As the Pies and Tigers fell away, this put Port a lot closer to the top 8 than the bottom 9.

But all the top teams had a reasonable week, with the exception of Hawthorn, who should have beaten Melbourne by more than 18 points.

Good period for squiggle tipping, too, with 17/18 from the last two weeks! The line-ball decisions fell the right way.

Looking at the weather, I thought Gold Coast vs Sydney might be one of those games that breaks the squiggle, sending teams shooting off to the right. But they managed to score enough to keep it sensible.

The ever-changing Ladder Predictor! The nice thing about Port’s surge is it means there might be a ridiculously small gap between top 4 and 9th. Or maybe less “nice” and more “terrifying,” if you’re the supporter of a team in contention.

And on Flagpole, after Hawthorn lost top spot last week, now the Crows squeak past them and the Eagles! That’s an unusual call, but Adelaide have really only had one bad game this year: the 26-point home loss to Geelong. Which wasn’t that bad. Aside from that, they’ve had honourable away losses to Hawthorn (by 3), North Melbourne (by 10), and the Bulldogs (by 15), and 7 wins with an average winning margin of 46 points.

West Coast vs Adelaide coming up this week. In fact, there are a few games between top sides, which offer the opportunity for lots of movement if anyone really takes charge.