Oh Yes!
North Melbourne came out firing on Friday night, trouncing the Pies in the first quarter, which left Buckley’s Boys to play catch-up for the rest of the match. The gap was bridged and the Pies looked like being a winning hope at one stage, but North pulled away in the last 7 minutes of the game, winning by 40 points. Drew Petrie played his best game in months, kicking two goals. Lindsay Thomas kicked five. Wells starred in the mid-field, which was surprising given the fact that he was almost a late out after an injury scare in the warm-up. Michael Firrito was at his niggling, albeit humorous best, teasing Collingwood’s Jesse White about his ponytail, even giving it a playful flick. Jesse wasn’t laughing! With a hard draw to season’s end, North have most likely secured eighth spot. Majak’s mark! What a ripper!
Geelong win at home and Tom Hawkins kicks 4 goals! Sounds like a report from earlier in the year. Nope, it was Saturday night and the Cats took care of the Crows by 30 points. Patrick Dangerfield racked up 36 disposals against his old team, the most of any player on the ground.
St. Kilda topped the Dogs’ in the humorous banner department, with one of their own. With a tongue-in-cheek spin on the latest Pokémon Go craze, the Saints wrote, “No Pokémon Here, 22 Dogs To Be Found, We’ll Catch ‘Em All & Send ‘Em To The Pound.”
The Gold Coast Suns pulled away for a solid 24-point win over the injury-riddled Dockers on Saturday afternoon. The Gold Coast big men, Day, Lynch and Wright kicked 11 goals between them. The “Triple Towers” are a formidable force up forward.
After a dozen losses, Brisbane finally got a win! It was a solid win at that (37 points). The much talked about “wooden spoon clash” between the Lions and the Bombers, and Essendon found themselves in the rare spot of being favourites to win. Inaccurate kicking (12.19) let the home team down. Given the glimmer of hope the Bombers have shown over the past few weeks, it was an extremely disappointing performance in front of a hopeful hometown crowd. It’s now fifteen straight losses for Essendon. A club-record. Seems the ol’ wooden spoon belongs to the Bombers this season. On a positive note, the debut of swingman, Aaron Francis shows there’s a hell of a lot to like about Essendon’s enforced re-development. Likewise, Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, Darcy Parish, Zach Merret and Orazio Fantasia are all stars in the making.
Once again Hawthorn slowly built up to an impressive 70-point, percentage-boosting win over the Tigers. Eight wins in a row and the Hawks now have a two-game buffer on top of the ladder. There was no better way to celebrate Sam Mitchell’s 300th game. He put on a show for his big one, clocking up 38 disposals, 9 clearances and 9 marks. Despite a disappointing loss, the Tigers lined up and clapped Mitchell as he was chaired from the ground, unlike Collingwood’s snub of Scott Thompson after his 300th game last week.
There’ll be a big week of media commitments coming up for North Melbourne’s, Brent Harvey. He’ll be breaking Michael Tuck’s playing record and clocking up his 427th game. Amazing! Congratulations, Boomer!
The end of Round 18 and 2nd thru 6th all sit on 48 points apiece, with percentage the only thing separating them.
Oh No!
Collingwood’s forwards were quiet, but Travis Cloke, with 8 disposals, 3 marks and no score on the board, well, those aren’t the stats of a high-priced player. It was like he wasn’t on the ground. No influence whatsoever. Collingwood’s, Ben Sinclair was taken to hospital after another hard contest left him dazed. A series of concussions in a short space of time puts an ominous dark cloud over his playing future. At just 24 years of age, it’d be a tragedy if his career was cut short, but we’ve seen it happen before, and no doubt we’ll see it happen again. The bad sign for Sinclair is that this latest knock wasn’t directly to the head. It was more of a shoulder-to-shoulder bump, but it was enough to give him concussion-like symptoms. Not good. Coach, Nathan Buckley publicly stated that all players are on notice after their poor performance. Hmmm, me thinks the coach isn’t far off the “on notice” radar either.
Controversial, Sport Scientist, Stephen Dank was wounded in a drive-by-shooting early Saturday morning. He was treated at the Royal Melbourne Hospital for a bullet graze on the bridge of his nose, which has also served to give him a black eye. Dank told police he had no idea who the shooter could be or why he was a target. Yep…alrighty then!
A one-goal win to Sydney over Carlton at the SCG isn’t good enough. After the last couple of weeks of watching them closely, I’m officially counting the Swans out of being premiership contenders! The bigger story is Carlton. Two weeks in a row and the Blues have taken it right up to the Eagles and the Swans. They’ve been unlucky not to win both games. When a loss is a win, Carlton won that game.
Another close game in the west and Melbourne led at every break, until the one that mattered. A one-goal win to the Eagles was as good as a loss. Melbourne deserved the win, but their inaccuracy in front of the big sticks, along with their inexperience, did them in.
The Bulldogs’ had a horror night of injuries on Saturday night. It’s a devastating blow to their finals campaign. Many players were in tears in the rooms after the game on Saturday night. Mitch Wallis broke his own leg in a sickening incident when he was pushed on the run as he went to kick the ball. He missed the ball. His back leg hit his front leg, and there it went – snap! Season ending. Just like that! It’ll be a long, hard road back for him. Jack Redpath was taken from the ground with a serious knee injury (ACL), and Dale Morris finished his game prior to half time with a hamstring issue. Despite a poor percentage, the 15-point win to the Saints keeps them in finals contention. On the flip side, the Doggies have now slipped out of the top four. The next few weeks will be tough going with a number of their star players on the sidelines.
Adelaide just can’t win at Simmonds Stadium. The 13-year losing streak continues.
From the outset, Port Adelaide looked to be in control of their home game against the Giants. A 20-point margin in favour of the home team at half time, and with weather that was far from ideal, Port were cruising and in the box seat in trying conditions that weren’t conducive to a come from behind win for the Giants. It was, however, a game of two halves. The Giants persisted, getting on top with a one-goal lead at three-quarter time, and an eventual 19-point win at the final siren. In their history, GWS were winless in Adelaide, until Sunday afternoon! They’re now second on the ladder. Port’s loss could be the finals blow they dreaded. It now means St. Kilda have leapfrogged them into 9th spot, one game ahead, albeit with a lesser percentage.
