Hawthorn defeated Essendon by 16 points

It took an Essendon inspired 3/4 quarter to rescue this match that at half time was bordering on an early night. Essendon kicked four goals after being 21 points down and even got in front in the last quarter but step up Lance Franklin. One he loves playing Essendon and two, if Hawthorn are to make an impact in this years finals, he needs to play another 2007 season. He had 5.4 but you would excuse that for his two contenders for goal of the years with several bounces and kicks from the boundary line.

Chris Judd showed he has been watching the Soccer World Cup with his acting for free kicks

The battles of this game was interesting to watch with Muston pulling the pants down on Fletcher with 3 goals, Welsh keeping Hodge quiet (to the annoyance of Dreamteam coaches). Bateman and Stanton spent the game fighting each other with Jobe Watson dominating Brad Sewell.

Fremantle defeated Carlton by 9 points

This was one of the classic 8 point games with both teams needing a win for Freo, they where wanting to cement their top 4 spot and Carlton needed a win after a humbling loss to North Melbourne. The end result imo flattered Carlton as they kicked 6 goals in the final quarter (they kicked 6 in the first three). I think this game will knock the stuffing out of the Blues as they lost their star ruckman Kreuzer to an ACL.

Michael Barlow (30 disposals, four goals) did his Brownlow Medal chances no harm, while Aaron Sandilands (49 hit-outs) took advantage of Carlton’s ruck woes. Defender Garrick Ibbotson was also terrific, as was most of Freo’s defence. The forward line for Carlton really struggled for the first three quarters with only Gartlett managing to kick a goal for their three pronged Aboriginal small man attack. Betts did manage four in the final quarter but they where junk goals.

The difference in this game was the coaching methods. Harvey aced it in the coaching box with his move off McPhee on Judd and Hasleby playing a roaming CHF. Meanwhile Ratten really struggles to think outside the box, McPhee has been showed up several times this year when playing defense and lets face it, their forward line struggled, so why not play him forward?

Richmond defeated Brisbane by 19 points

Ok yes Brisbane have had injuries to key personal and Richmond are currently on a roll but still, Brisbane are suppose to fighting for a top 8 spot and Richmond are suppose to be fighting it out for another wooden spoon.

Richmond are not the most skilled team and let this be a lesson to other teams like Port and West Coast, the difference at the end of the day was their work ethic. Cornelius and Staker kicked three goals each and again it was the young midfielders in Banfield & Rocklift to lift for Brisbane.

Riewoldt kicked three goals and Brett Deledio had 33 possessions and Richmond had other hard workers all over the ground with Shane Tuck (29), Ben Cousins (27) and classy youngster Dustin Martin (26) also was prominent.

North Melbourne defeated Port Adelaide by 36 points

I love games where forwards kick goals and while the game may not reach any great heights, all fans prefer to watch forwards kick goals than a defensive 1-1 draw. Its amazing to think that North are just percentage outside of the top 8 but they have now won three in a row. Port on the other hand have lost the last 6.

However the good news for Port is that with Grey, Tredrea, Motlop & Ebert hit and miss this year, they have two new goal kickers to build the side around in Jay Schulz (7 goals) and Hitchcock who kicked 3. I think everyone agrees that the game may have passed Chad Cornes, maybe its time to move him back into the forward line where he started his career.

Lachlan Henderson kicked five goals and had 8 marks in a dominated display at CHF, Harvey again stood up with 32 possessions and Williams is correct that he will be long remembered for his input to his side. Greenwood is one of the young kids who has stood up in 2010 and after his match winning goal against Brisbane he is becoming a hard in and under contested disposal winner.

Western Bulldogs defeated West Coast by 60 points

West Coast managed to keep up with the far superior running machine Bulldogs for almost a half of the game but everyone who watched it on TV or at the ground, just knew it was just a matter of time before they out run the slow and unfit Eagles. Bad goal kicking kept them in the game with a 23 deficit at 3/4 time before a blistering final term where they kicked 6 goals 6 to West Coasts one goal and it was time for fine tuning as the Dogs look to grab a top four spot in the second half of the season.

Murphy down back is becoming a master stroke, as he gathered 23 possessions in a classy display. Gia was the other standout for me as his clean & damaging 23 possessions up forward gave the Eagles plenty of headaches. 18 of the 22 all had scoring shots with 11 individual goal scorers, Hall had three goals and Johno gets a game under his belt.

Top Ladder after Round 13 pt1

1. Geelong: 40 points – 155.41%
2. St Kilda: 36 points – 125.33
3. Fremantle: 36 points – 118.37%
4. Collingwood: 34 points – 125.80%
5. Western Bulldogs: 32 points – 129.52%
6. Sydney: 28 points – 110.74%
7. Carlton: 28 points – 110.24%
8. Hawthorn: 28 points – 102.94%

Round 13 pt1 Talking points

1. Can Richmond get off the bottom of the ladder?
   • I think they can but there best bet is West Coast & they will struggle to win any more games this year. Adelaide should have a better second half of the season so I doubt they will loose more than they will win.
2. After half way through the season can the top 8 change?
   • No, Essendon have too much of a tough draw, Brisbane have too many injuries & North have a poor percentage.
3. Do you like the split round?
   • Surely you can split the round a bit better than the AFL have. Why not play the rivalry round over the split round, this weekend we have boring games in North v Port, West Coast v Bulldogs, Adelaide v Melbourne and Brisbane v Richmond. If you had Carlton v Collingwood, Essendon v Hawthorn, Port v Adelaide, West Coast v Fremantle etc it would not matter if there was only 3-4 games a weekend. In week two, we have two good games (St Kilda v Geelong & Sydney v Collingwood) and with the Soccer World Cup going on at the moment, its a bad move having a quiet AFL week.
4. What is your opinion of the fixturing for 2012 that the AFL has asked us fans about?
   • Waste of time as the AFL will never listen to the fans, have not in the past and I cannot see anything changing.
5. Will Judd get sighted for his acting against McPhee?
   • He staged free kicks several times, once Carlton a free kick and a goal from it but most of the time, the umpires did a good job not getting sucked into it. He should be fined though and for the record he wont be wining any Oscars with his acting on the weekend.
6. Were you surprised to see no Carlton player go over and protect Judd from the beating he got from McPhee?
   • Yes
7. Can Carlton still make the finals with Kreuzer missing?
   • They will struggle to make the finals but I think they will as Warnock and the others are not completely useless.

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