Australian Football

Round 19

Premiership Season 2013 - Round 19 Review

Total Crowd 324,505 (Avg 36,056)

Round 19 saw plenty of action at the top of the table with three of the top four sides from the previous week all suffering losses. Of those four, only Sydney managed a win, and even they were pushed to the limit by the rapidly improving Western Bulldogs.

At the other end of the scale, Greater Western Sydney has avoided the ignominy becoming the first club since Fitzroy in 1964 to go through an AFL season without a win. The Giants scored a runaway victory over the hapless Demons and retain some chance of climbing off the bottom of the ladder before the season ends.

Adelaide and Port Adelaide played out a fitting finale at the final Football Park Showdown. The two sides played out the closest Showdown of all time, and arguably the best. The fortunes of the two combatants lurched one way, and then another, before the Power fell in by four points, helped along by an Angus Monfries goal that almost seemed to the laws of physics.

Meanwhile, Richmond knocked off ladder leader Hawthorn with a big win at the MCG, to stake its claim as a genuine contender in 2013. The Tigers' 41-point mauling of the Hawks was their second consecutive thrashing of the brown and gold. They defeated Hawthorn by 62 points at the same venue in May last year.

Second-placed Geelong succumbed to a slick North Melbourne outfit and slipped back to third, while Essendon was no match for Collingwood and fell out of the top four, having been in second place just two weeks earlier. The Magpies' win over the Bombers was possibly their best performance of the season. If they can reproduce that form in September, a flag might yet be a possibility.

The weekend's other winners were:
- Fremantle, who overcame the Blues with a big last quarter to move into the top four;
- Brisbane who comfortably accounted for St Kilda but lost Jonathan Brown to a plantar fascia injury in the proves;
- and West Coast, who eked out a 17-point win over the ever-improving Gold Coast Suns.

With four weeks remaining of the home and away season, Port Adelaide stolen a two-game break over ninth-placed Carlton, and the top eight would appear to be settled. However, the spectre of the loss of premiership points still hangs over Essendon, and a ninth-placed finish could yet be a passport to September action in 2013.

R-19, Ladder