Winner: St. Kilda
The Western Bulldogs may have had the night from hell but it was exactly the opposite for the Saints, as they now sit in ninth spot and eye off their first finals berth since 2011.
Sitting two wins back from the embattled Kangaroos, a fair amount will need to go right for St Kilda to make September action, but they can put a foot in the right direction by beating that team on Saturday night in Brent Harvey’s record breaking game.
Loser: Western Bulldogs
The Bulldogs lost a lot more than the footy match on the weekend, losing young guns Jack Redpath (ACL) and Mitch Wallis (leg) on Saturday night.
It is cruel blow in what has otherwise been a very successful campaign for the Dogs, and the opinion of many is that it may unfortunately be a decisive blow to their top four chances.
Winner: John Longmire
Sydney head coach John Longmire has not been shy to selection gambles this season, favouring younger and sometimes rookie options at small forward as opposed to experienced campaigner Ben McGlynn.
He again rolled the dice against the Blues on Saturday, omitting popular key defender Ted Richards and keeping the promising Aliir Aliir in the side. The risk paid off, with the young Swan having arguably the best game of his career so far.
Winner: Aaron Francis
Aaron Francis was made to wait probably a little longer than he expected to break into a severely depleted Essendon Bombers side, but the wait for Francis and fans alike was well worth it, with the young redhead impressing on debut.
We had heard about the rebound from defence, good reading of the play and intercept marking all year, but we finally saw it in action on Saturday, as he recorded three of the latter stat in the first half alone.
Loser: The Richmond Football Club
It was deja vu all over again for the Richmond Tigers, as I have included the entire footy club in this section of the article. Head coach Damian Hardwick lambasted his side for their 70 post loss to the Hawks, with not even Dustin Martin safe after his 39 touches.
The under fire Hardwick thought the Brownlow Medal contender “handpassed too much” and “put his team under pressure”. One wonders if anyone dressed in black and yellow can do anything to impress anyone in 2016.