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Premiership Season 2014 - Round 12 Review

Total Crowd 280,157 (Avg 31,129)

Round 12 marked the season's midpoint for all 18 AFL clubs, with each of them having played 11 of their 22 fixtured games for 2014. And the clearly outstanding team of the competition at the halfway mark is Port Adelaide. The Power has won 10 matches, its only loss coming to North Melbourne by just seven points at Docklands in round three, and it has rarely looked like losing in its other matches.

You could "throw a blanket" over the other sides in the eight, with just one win separating second-placed Hawthorn from the eighth-placed Gold Coast Suns. The Suns are a game clear of ninth-placed Essendon, who received the bad news that skipper Jobe Watson is likely to miss 10 matches with a torn hip muscle, and two games clear of Adelaide, the only other side likely to have a chance of making up ground and threatening for a place in the finals.

Outside of the top eight the big disappointments have been Richmond, who fell from grace against North after half time on Saturday night and have fallen along way off the finals pace they set last year, Carlton who are struggling in 12th place with a 4-7 record and West Coast, who were expected to storm back into top four contention this year but are also well back in the field with a 4-7 ratio.

The weekend kicked off with a thriller at Docklands, with Geelong in control of its match against Carlton in the third quarter but then almost succumbing to a withering 6.4 to 0.0 burst from the Blues which saw Geelong trail by as much as 16 points in the last term. But the Cats rallied late and an inspiring goal from Joel Selwood and perhaps a little luck in the umpiring department saw them home by five points.

On Saturday at York Park, Hawthorn had a relatively routine win over the disappointing West Coast, with Jarryd Roughead starring with eight goals and Luke Lowden, having been drafted way back in 2008, celebrating a long awaited debut with three goals as the Hawks coasted home to win by 44 points in Brendon Bolton's second outing at the helm.

Travelling to Adelaide Oval to take on the all-conquering Port Power was a big ask for the young St Kilda side, but the developing Saints made a good fist of it in the first half, with scores level five minutes before the long break. The Power found their mojo just before half time, however, kicking three late goals before going on a six-goal-to-one rampage in the third quarter and coasting home in the last term to win by 70 points.

Saturday night saw two relatively close finishes. At the Sydney Showground Essendon held the Giants at bay for most of the evening before a last-quarter burst saw GWS within a point half way through the term. The Dons steadied to kick three of the last four goals of the match to sneak home by 15 points. At the same time the Brisbane Lions made it two wins in a row on the back of a scintillating seven-goal second-quarter burst which left the Bulldogs high and dry and five goals behind at half time. The Dogs recovered control in the second half and pressed hard for victory in the final term before running out of time and falling eight points short.

Gold Coast put up a competitive performance at home against Sydney on Sunday but were left to rue poor kicking for goal as they went down to the Swans by 35 points. Both sides had 24-scoring shots but the efficient Swans converted theirs to 17.7, while the Suns could manage only a disappointing 10.14.

Fremantle struggled to shake off a determined Adelaide in the first half at Subiaco, but turned the screws on the Crows in the second half, allowing the visitors to kick only three goals after the long break, adding nine of their own in the same period to win by 40 points and stay in touch with the top four.

Jekyll and Hyde side North Melbourne played both roles in the one match on Sunday night at Docklands, falling six goals behind Richmond at half time before turning the match on its head with eight unanswered goals in the third quarter and then adding five to two in the final term to win by 28 points and leave Tiger fans tearing their hair out.

The last match of the round was the traditional Queen's Birthday clash between Melbourne and Collingwood. The Demons played shut-down footy and did well to keep the Pies to their lowest score against Melbourne in 20 years. Unfortunately for the Dees, they kicked their lowest score against Collingwood for 54 years and finished 33 points adrift of the black and white. Nevertheless, Melbourne has shown that it has taken significant strides under new coach Paul Roos, and its future appears brighter than it has for some year.

Attention now turns to round 13 and every AFL fan is looking forward to its likely highlight, the match at the SCG between Sydney, who have now won seven matches in a row, and the all conquering Port Adelaide. This game might even be a 2014 Grand Final preview.

Leading goalkickers after round 12

34 - Jack Riewoldt (Rich) 3
32 - Tom Hawkins (Geel) 4
31 - Jay Schulz (Port) 3; Nick Riewoldt (StK) 4
30 - Jarryd Roughead (Haw) 8; Luke Breust (Haw) 1
29 - Jack Gunston (Haw) 3
26 - Lance Franklin (Syd) 3
25 - Josh Kennedy (WCo) 0
24 - Jamie Elliott (Coll) 1; Chad Wingard (Port) 3

R-12, Ladder

Team GP PTS %
PORT 11 40 149.33
HAW 11 32 148.38
SYD 11 32 140.08
COLL 11 32 122.12
GEEL 11 32 101.66
FREO 11 28 125.49
NTH 11 28 112.77
SUNS 11 28 103.12
ESS 11 24 106.55
ADEL 11 20 101.04
WCE 11 16 110.45
CARL 11 16 88.14
RICH 11 12 94.38
WBULL 11 12 82.68
MELB 11 12 76.45
BRIS 11 12 62.91
STK 11 12 62.13
GWS 11 8 71.27

Footnotes

* Behinds calculated from the 1965 season on.
+ Score at the end of extra time.