A few sides finally get a taste of stability, while others continue to pinball up and down our rankings. Where does your side sit after another big round of football?
Columns and columns of opinion – sometimes all it comes down to is a kick. Robbie Gray doesn’t quite get all of it and we’re perhaps questioning Port’s credentials as genuine contenders once again. But he stood up and snatched a heart-stopping, morale-boosting win for the Power.
That was a big statement by the Lions. Erase that second-half no-show against the Cats and they’d just about be the team to beat. The Lions got more than a few impressive takeaways from Saturday’s win: the Giants’ scalp, of course, but also their first win away from the Gabba and a very even, all-round contribution from the whole 22.
The Pies are, just quietly, building an iron wall in defence. That’s another game where they’ve kept their opponents to five goals or less – their fifth out of seven games in 2020. They might need it, too: Jordan De Goey, who kicked all but three of Collingwood’s goals on Thursday night, is set to miss extended time after suffering a nasty finger injury. If they lock out the Eagles this Sunday even with their notable absentees, they might cement themselves as premiership favourites.
For a dam wall that was supposed to have broken, the Tigers have sure patched things up quite nicely. Their win over the Kangaroos was sewn up, truthfully, well before half time. But they didn’t let their foot off the gas, as several fringe players put their hands up for more regular selection. Exciting for some, eerie for others – 2020 is beginning to look a little like 2019 for the Tigers.
The Cats never got going against the Pies – Joel Selwood’s early hamstring injury didn’t help. Couple that with the looming absence of Gary Ablett and the Cats might just be reaching a crossroads in the weeks to come. If their young players step up, they can still be a top-four challenger. But if not, the year can slip away very quickly in this shortened season.
Again, it wasn’t champagne football, but West Coast are beginning to put the horror days of the Gold Coast hub well behind them after a derby win that propelled them into the eight. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves – they’ve beaten Adelaide, Sydney and Fremantle in the last three weeks, and are still to look like world-beaters. A win against Collingwood this week and they’ll be well-poised for an assault on the top-four.
Whatever we say this week, the Dogs will go and do the opposite next week. That was about as drastic a turnaround as we’ve seen all season. They went from a 52-point thumping at the hands of the Blues to a truly dominant 42-point win over the fancied Bombers. Here’s something we do know: the Dogs don’t have close games. They’re yet to play in a game that’s finished closer than four goals. So, just watch: pencil in a draw next week.
The Giants are lucky they have a very talented forward line. If not, who knows where they’d be. They were smashed yet again in the inside 50 count, losing it by 22 – that is, staggeringly, every game all season they’ve lost that contest. They won the contested possession count, but their ball movement, especially out of defence, is not nearly as constructive as it could be – Zac Williams can’t come back quickly enough. 13th with 10 rounds to go: it’s time for the Ferrari to get moving.
The Bombers kept up with the Dogs early, but among many other cracks, they couldn’t paper over the absence of Dylan Shiel – they eventually lost the contested possession count by 35. All in all, that was a serious belting. They’ve still sitting pretty at 4-2 and with a game in hand, but all their wins have come against bottom-four sides, bar their excellent win over the Pies. They can close out their bottom-four conquest against the Crows next week, but questions marks will still remain.
It was only the Crows, but the Saints needed that after their complete capitulation to the Dockers last week. They’re 4-3 and firmly nestled in the eight, but we still need to see more from them to know whether they’re an actual finals threat.
The naysayers have been held off as the Suns continue to impress since they lost Matt Rowell in Round 5. They’ve more than earned a primetime Thursday night slot, and all eyes will be on the mercurial Izak Rankine, who kicked another unbelievable goal against the Swans. But for our money, they’re still a year away from playing finals.
It was a heartbreaker, and no Blues fans will want to hear it, but that was one of the more promising losses a team has suffered all season. They surged back against the table-topping Power and it was theirs to lose late in the fourth. Lose it they did – but this year feels very different for the Blues.
Simon got the good win he needed on Sunday afternoon, and all of a sudden the Demons are 3-3, with a percentage over 100, and looking pretty okay for a team supposed to be in crisis. Truthfully, that game in hand hurts the Demons here – we still just haven’t seen enough to put them above more teams. If they beat the Lions next week, 2018 won’t be looking like quite such a distant memory anymore.
After being whacked on and off the field after a terrible display against the Pies last week, the Hawks laced up and put in – well, something pretty similar. What does it say when you lose the contested possessions (-25), the inside 50s (-21), and are still out-tackled (-12)? How about when your most impressive player is a second-gamer? Clarko’s gold-plated ship may finally be starting to sink.
Optus Stadium got a little taste of normalcy on Sunday – thousands of fans and a Derby loss for the Dockers. It was always going to be a tall order without captain Nat Fyfe, but Matt Taberner’s Nick Riewoldt impression was a little too effective. Just like the Saints in that Grand Final replay, the Dockers hardly fired a shot for the rest of the game.
There’s a line through this season for the Swans, but it’s still up to Sydney’s young brigade to determine whether it’s a thick black line or something a little softer. With nine players under 21 on the weekend, the Swans showed plenty of fight. More of this and less of last week’s no-show against the Tigers and the season won’t be a complete waste for the Swans.
No team can afford to be down by 40-odd points in the second term, especially one that can often count on one hand the amount of goals they’re kicking for a night. The Kangaroos’ desperation for top-end contributors was underlined when they rushed back Ben Cunnington again, and perhaps Jack Ziebell, too, who didn’t even last a quarter before his hamstring went again. Five lost on the bounce for the Kangas and, by the looks of it, more to come.
A few of their wooden spoon rivals are making a serious play at it, but Adelaide seem desperate to claim their first spoon in club history. Time for another pre-season camp? Things sure can’t get any worse.