Australian Football

Round 17

Premiership Season 2014 - Round 17 Review

Total Crowd 269,740 (Avg 29,971)

Port Adelaide's season is not quite in freefall, but it is in severe danger of becoming derailed after the Power succumbed unexpectedly to Richmond at Docklands on Sunday, their fourth in five matches. Just over a month ago, Port was on top of the ladder, two games clear of its nearest rivals and looking for all the world like a genuine premiership contender. It may yet be one but it will need to regain form quickly, starting with a big win over Melbourne at home next Sunday.

Round 17 kicked off at the Adelaide Oval on Friday night where the home side the Crows put up a gallant fight against reigning premiers Hawthorn but always seemed to be just slightly short of the mark. Adelaide did lead briefly in both the second and third terms but the Hawks, with a greater spread of goalkickers, always had the answers when required. Ex-Crow Jack Gunston made the loss all the more painful for the hometown fans by kicking four goals against his old side.

Melbourne's improvement this season has been significant but the Demons have hit a couple of speed humps in the last two weeks. Having received a 10-goal thumping from Fremantle in Darwin last week, Paul Roos' team copped an 11-goal hiding this week against a Geelong side that continues to be "thereabouts" and which moved quietly back into the top four this week.

It was a cold, wet and miserable afternoon in Hobart on Saturday and North Melbourne made it all the more miserable for Saints fans at Bellerive Oval, thumping St Kilda by 59 points. The win takes North up to sixth place, with a top four finish still an outside possibility. For the Saints, it was an 11th consecutive loss and its difficult to see when the next one will come.

The first of two upsets in round 16 occurred in far north Queensland as the Bulldogs upstaged the fancied Gold Coast to knock the Suns out of the eight. Pleasingly for the Dogs, the win was set up largely by the younger brigade, with Jack Macrae having 43 disposals, the youngest player (at 19) to attain that many possessions in an AFL match, and Nathan Hrovat, Jake Stringer and Lachie Hunter all playing significant roles. Hrovat's match was rewarded with a Rising Star nomination.

Sydney and Carlton played three relatively even quarters of football but it only took one explosive one - the third at the SCG on Saturday night - for the Swans to blow the Blues completely out of the water. Sydney kicked 10 goals to nil for the term, with a rampaging Buddy Franklin kicking five of them. The Swans coasted home to a 71-point win in the last quarter, their 11th in a row, a feat not achieved by them since 1935.

Brisbane and West Coast played an entertaining match at the Gabba in Saturday night's other match, with the Eagles never dominating but always doing just enough to stay ahead of the Lions throughout the evening. They squeaked home by 12 points to keep alive a very remote chance of finals participation in 2014.

The big upset of the round took place at Docklands on Sunday as Richmond looked far more like a team that was looking forward to September action that Port Adelaide. In a free-flowing affair the Tigers took an early lead, extended it at times and held off several challenges from Port before winning by a relatively comfortable 20 points. The Power's losing score of 106 was the highest of the year so far, but that will be of little comfort to fans of the Power, who have lost four from five and slipped to fifth on the ladder.

Essendon's win over Collingwood at the MCG wasn't a huge upset, but the magnitude of it certainly was. The Dons had a better start, leading by eight points at quarter time and then ground the Magpies into the ground in each of the next three quarters. In the end Collingwood could manage just five goals for the match, as the Bombers went onto win by 64 points and take seventh spot on the ladder, pushing the Pies down to a precarious eighth.

Fremantle finished off the round with a routinely polished performance against the GWS Giants, outscoring the fledgling side across all four quarters, and flexing its muscle in the last term, kicking seven goals to two to run out victors by 76 points and pinch second place on the ladder from Hawthorn on percentage. The Dockers have won eight in a row and are looking very much like a team ready to have another shot at an AFL premiership.

R-17, Ladder