The first of the bye rounds is done and dusted, and we’re back to the ladder being properly skewed by all teams having a non-equal amount of games under their belt. It was a nightmare weekend for us tipsters, with a string of favourites going under, most obviously Melbourne’s remarkable Sunday afternoon capitulation at the hands of Fremantle. St Kilda and Carlton likewise came away with excellent wins on the road, while it was a dark weekend for South Australian football as both the Power and Crows got done in concerning fashion.
But the biggest loser of all this weekend was probably the Rising Star Award, with its two biggest frontrunners – Harley Reid and Sam Darcy – both copping suspensions to throw betting for the gong into disarray and leaving it as open a race as we’ve seen in years. There might have only been seven games, but there’s just as much to talk about as ever. Let’s begin.
More AFL 1. Fantastic Freo silence the doubters I wasn’t quite as bullish about Fremantle’s prospects this year as Dem Panopoulos was when he wrote on Friday about giving the Dockers more respect. And then they went and absolutely towelled up Melbourne in Alice Springs for their most emphatic – and probably best – win under Justin Longmuir, that leaves them with the second-best percentage in the competition and suddenly entrenched inside the eight.
The Dockers have been a victim in the last 18 months of becoming a finals team – and a finals winner – a year earlier t.