The bye rounds are over – Hallelujah! Once again, every team has played the same amount of games, so the ladder is officially asterisk-free and accurately reflects where just about everyone stands. We have both a clear frontrunner – Sydney three games clear and fresh off another Derby smackdown of GWS – and a challenger in chief, with Carlton’s demolition job on Geelong ratifying themselves as the second-best team in it. Nipping at their heels, though, are an odd trio of rivals, with Essendon and Fremantle bouncing back in not-quite-emphatic fashion from losses, sitting on either side of a refreshed Collingwood outfit still seen by many as the Swans’ biggest threat.
After that, it’s a logjam; from the sixth-placed Giants to 13th-placed Hawthorn, everyone is scrabbling for precious spots inside the eight. And with Brisbane on the rise and the Cats, Port Adelaide and Melbourne all in a rut, it’s anyone’s guess as to who will be there come September. With North Melbourne giving it a red-hot crack and West Coast about to welcome back Harley Reid, easy games will be hard to come by in the run home – but until we can work out who’s good and who’s faking it, let’s unpack the weekend that was.
More AFL 1. Pull your heads in, Port fans In 2023, Carlton and Western Bulldogs supporters embarrassed themselves by abusing their teams as they left the field following defeats – for the former, the same supporters who undoubtedly applauded their Blues off the field a.
