Latest AFL news where one team admits that they will start to tank and another coach deflects his and the teams poor form.

St Kilda defeated Fremantle by 8 points

This game was boring with me falling asleep during, but you expect that with two clubs who are really struggling at the moment. Even though I tipped Fremantle, you expected St Kilda to show something and for the Saints supporters they did. I do think dropping Dal Santo and Milne was the best thing St Kilda has done for 10 years.

Fremantle imo need to do something similar. While players like Mark Johnson, Schammer and Peak provide something, they just are not up to AFL standard. Why do coaches become soft when they coach, Harvey was a hard player so why not a hard coach?

Kangaroos defeated Hawthorn by 27 points

Some teams just seem to struggle against others and Hawthorn tend to struggle against Kangaroos. Kangaroos were harder at the ball, kicked straighter and had a better game plan. The Hawthorn forward line while very dangerous with Buddy, Roughead, Williams, Boyle and Rioli, I think they are too top heavy and the Hawks weakest link is their backline. So I think Boyle or Roughead needs to go down back otherwise one of these will be moved on.

Is Matt Campbell and Lindsay Thomas the new Krakouer brothers from the 80s? In watching them play I would say that they have the magic which the Kangaroos can build on.

Richmond defeated Port Adelaide by 4 points

Mark Williams commented that the finals are gone and its time to experiment, get players to have operations and to play their kids. In other words they will start to tank! While they will not start to on purpose lose games, they are tanking for next year.

It was good to see Joel Bowden play so well and what is even better is that Terry Wallace is actually putting faith into his younger players. Instead of having Bowden play key defensive and always rely on Richardson his faith is in youngsters like Moore, Mortan and Hughes and these are the types of players that will take Richmond into the finals.

Geelong defeated West Coast by 135 points

What a flogging West Coast are copping this year! They played Essendon into form last week who played amazing to beat Carlton and now they played Geelongs captain Tom Harley into form who has struggled all year. He was amazing with many good defensive marks and did not allow West Coast any flow into their forward line. Only two players from West Coast won their positions and that was youngster Schofield who kept Steve Johnson quite and LeCras who kicked three goals.

I think Gary Ablett will win the brownlow medal, some of his plays were jaw dropping.

Brisbane defeated Adelaide by 13 points

Again Neil Craig choked by not reacting in a game. Brisbane were behind and were struggling after Adelaide were leading. However while matching up well on Black, they allowed Power and Brennan to collect over 30 possessions each.

Sydney defeated Melbourne by 40 points

Sydney are looking very dangerous at the moment. While Hawthorn, Geelong and the Bulldogs are winning, Sydney have just come along very quitely with good wins and good percentage and they did most of it without Barry Hall.

Essendon defeated Carlton by 35 points

Anyone would think Carlton had won the premiership last week and all they did was get into the top 8 however after a slow first quarter Carlton are now outside the top 8 again.

Judd was surprisingly quiet and apart from Stevens their midfield struggled against the harder and quicker Essendon midfield. Several young Bombers showed a lot in Monfries, Neagle and Reimers (btw what does Reimers tattoo stand for?).

Bulldogs defeated Collingwood by 10 points

Like SunCity_Royal commented Malthouse took the attention from his sides poor form onto an AFL issue, while he has been doing this for the last 30 years, he is not getting any younger and I think it would be time, he did a Parkin and a Roos, and slowly hand over the reigns to younger coaches like McKenna or even Buckley.

Bulldogs however are showing that they are here to play finals. A sign of a good side is when they can win games they are playing badly in. Hawks did it last round and Bulldogs did it against Collingwood this round.

btw is it not good to see Collingwood lose and struggle to finish in the top 8 even with the softest draw in the competition?