What are the key takeaways and observations relating to your club in Round 12?
We have dissected each of the matches and offered a number of talking points for all 18 clubs.
The following will not apply to each club every week but form the basis of our views.
The Key Takeaway
The Undroppables
The Overreaction
The Positive
The Negative
What no one is talking about
What they need to tweak for next week
The Key Takeaway: Crows are certified home track bullies
No one can take away from the scintillating football Adelaide has brought at home this year.
But away from the Adelaide Oval, the Crows are 1-5 and would have been 0-6 had they not fended off Hawthorn in a thriller.
This latest defeat to Gold Coast highlights that while Matthew Nicks’ team can play some good football as the away team, they don’t yet have the maturity to bring it for four quarters. And with the competition so even, it’s cost them in winnable games.
Adelaide is now facing an uphill battle to play finals and will have to upset at least one club if not more if they are to play in September in 2023.
The Negative: Workman-like tag is gone
Last year, Adelaide built its brand on being a team that was as hard at the football as anyone.
Classier teams could beat the Crows, but they’d be bruised as a result. Since Round 6 this year, Matthew Nicks’ side has won the contested possession count just once and again were smacked off the park against the Suns in that department on the weekend just gone.
There’s no doubt Adelaide’s ball use is better than it's been in a long time, but it’s come at the significant expense of one of the club’s biggest assets in recent weeks.
Seb Mottram
BYE
What no one is talking about: Why can’t the Blues score?
Fremantle started 2023 playing a slow style, struggling to move the ball and unable to score. However, Justin Longmuir and his coaching staff managed to work it out, inject speed back into their game and put the Dockers back on track to play finals.
Why hasn’t Michael Voss and his coaching team managed to do the same?
The Blues appear to be in quicksand and their ball movement and scoring struggles are getting worse, not better. Where does this leave Voss as the year progresses?
Undroppables: Brodie Kemp
Brodie Kemp had a career best game on Friday night against Melbourne, playing as an intercept marking third tall.
He was a little exposed last week playing in Lewis Young’s key defensive role, but with Young back in the team, Kemp was freed up, taking 10 marks – three of which were contested.
Kemp’s performance topped anything seen from Mitch McGovern in the last few months and it will be curious to see if the Blues persist with playing the four taller players in defence.
What they need to tweak: Does Harry have to play in the ruck?
Tom De Koning battled well in the absence of Marc Pittonet, but when Jack Silvagni was forced to ruck against Brodie Grundy, Melbourne took full control of the stoppages.
With Essendon likely to expose Carlton in a similar fashion this week with Sam Draper and Andrew Phillips, should the Blues throw Harry McKay in the ruck to at least break even?
They seemingly don’t believe developing ruckman Alex Mirkov is an option yet and Silvagni up against Draper or Phillips likely does not end well.
Nic Negrepontis
The Positive: Darcy Cameron back in full-flight
While Brownlow favourite Nick Daicos stole the headlines in Collingwood’s 63-point win over West Coast with another three-vote performance, the Magpies would have been thrilled with Darcy Cameron’s outing.
In his third game back from an MCL injury, Cameron returned to his early-season form with 23 disposals, 31 hitouts, seven marks and five clearances.
After taking two games to work back into some form and fitness, Cameron again looks like a genuine weapon for the Magpies at the clearance.
If he can break even against Max Gawn and his former teammate Brodie Grundy on King’s Birthday, it’ll go a long way to Collingwood picking up their 12th win from 13 games.
The Negative: De Goey’s looming ban
In a game they were almost certain to win, Collingwood would have hoped to get out of Perth unscathed with an easy four points in their pocket.
On top of potential injuries to Beau McCreery and Will Hoskin-Elliott, Collingwood’s win was also soured by Jordan De Goey’s bump on Elijah Hewett.
While everyone’s thoughts are with the teenager who was concussed as a result of the incident, there’s no doubt the act will cost Collingwood with De Goey facing a ban of more than three weeks.
The time off comes at an inopportune time for the midfielder as he was in the midst of putting his best season together and genuinely entering Brownlow contention.
After such a strong start, the Magpies will hope they can continue their strong form without their superstar at the source for the next few weeks at least.
What they need to tweak for next week: Centre-bounce attendances
With Jordan De Goey set to be suspended, Collingwood will have to change things up at the centre-bounce.
So far this season, De Goey has attended 76 per cent of centre bounces while he’s attended 80 per cent or more in five of the last six weeks.
With Scott Pendlebury (61 per cent) and Tom Mitchell (60 per cent) the Magpies that attend the next most CBAs, Collingwood will need to fill De Goey’s time on-ball.
Expect Pendlebury and Mitchell’s numbers to increase while Jack Crisp (34 per cent) and Taylor Adams (38 per cent) should also see their averages spike.
Patrick Lipinski could also roll through the middle if he returns from injury while Nick Daicos (who has attended 41 per cent of CBAs in the last six weeks) could also be set for an increased role.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Magpies handle their dilemma, they’ll need to do it well coming up against Christian Petracca, Jack Viney and the returning Clayton Oliver on King’s Birthday.
Lachlan Geleit
The Key Takeaway: Just keep winning
Despite the talk in the lead up, Sunday evening’s clash against North Melbourne was never going to be easy. The Bombers started well but were largely overwhelmed after quarter time in the midfield, going minus two in clearances and minus eight in centre clearances.
North Melbourne led by as much as 17 points in the third term, before the Bombers were able to wrestle back momentum and bank a crucial four points.
Brad Scott’s side have now rocketed into sixth spot after three straight wins, despite not playing anywhere near their best football.
With Carlton on Sunday to come, they had to bank the win against a side they were tipped to beat.
The Overreaction: Essendon has a finals place locked in
According to Champion Data, the Bombers have the easiest draw of any team for the remainder of the season, prompting some to declare their finals prospects with 11 games to go.
On the paper their draw is the back half of the year could open up all possibilities, but at Brad Scott pointed out post-match on Sunday night, their team against North Melbourne was actually younger than the Roos.
With several key players still missing and North Melbourne showing up Essendon’s midfield and key position defender deficiencies, a good draw on paper may not result in another six wins which they’ll need to play finals
Laurence Rosen
BYE
The Key Takeaway: Top four chances growing again
As we said last week, the Cats had to win on Saturday if they were to have any chance in their next two against Port Adelaide and Melbourne.
With the Round 11 victory, those games aren’t far off a 50/50 for Geelong. Chris Scott would have been delighted to take two wins from this tough bloke of three games, especially with the club’s following three contests being of an easier nature.
The league changes quickly, but the Cats are probably in the top four after Round 18 if they win four of their next five as they’re expected to do.
The Positive: Winning ugly
The stats make for startling reading. Geelong lost disposals, contested possession, clearances, marks inside 50, contested marks, scoring shots and even inside 50s, but still found a way to edge out the Western Bulldogs by nearly four goals.
There’s a case to be made that the Cats didn’t deserve the victory, but this club’s desire to win can never be underestimated.
To be pulling away late against a strong team despite those stats and a decimated midfield is good reading for Cats fans.
What no one is talking about: Where is Dangerfield?
Patrick Dangerfield left the field in Round 8 with what was thought to be a very minor hamstring, but it’s one that’s kept him out of the team for four weeks.
If the Geelong captain plays in his team’s next game against Port Adelaide in Round 14, it will have been 40 days since he last took to the field.
He turned 33 in April earlier this year and had declared the Bulldogs game as the one he was targeting to be back by. Fans of the Brownlow Medallist would hope he’s biding his time to return after the bye rather than dealing with the lingering impacts of the setback.
It’s not doing his All-Australian hopes any good.
Seb Mottram
The Key Takeaway: Get more games in Darwin!
One of the first requests to the AFL for next year’s fixture from Gold Coast has to be more games in Darwin.
For the second week running the Suns beat off a more fancied team in the slippery conditions at TIO Stadium, despite a slow start once again.
There’s now enough evidence that Stuart Dew’s team handles the climate better than most, if not all teams – not exactly surprising considering they’re based in Gold Coast – and you’d expect the AFL to want to maximise the potential of its lovechild.
The win over the Crows was as gritty as it was classy and there’s now genuine optimism they won’t be far off finals come the end of August.
The Positive: Gold Coast nailed the 2018 draft
Jack Lukosius was the last piece to fall, but we’ve now seen more than enough evidence that Gold Coast got the 2018 draft absolutely spot on.
Along with Ben King and Izak Rankine (despite him leaving), Lukosius is emerging into a genuine star of that draft and won’t be too far off in this year’s Coleman Medal if he can maintain some sort of form.
The 22-year-old hauled in three contested marks – more than all bar two at TIO Stadium – along with his five goals and handled the conditions better than anyone on Saturday night.
Standing at 195cms, strong aerially with one of the best field kicks in the competition, he just doesn’t have a weakness in his game and is only getting better.
Seb Mottram
The Key Takeaway: The Giants leaked too many points
The Giants had a remarkable 70 inside 50s compared to Richmond’s 47 yet had one less scoring shot and lost by a straight kick. GWS’ efficiency inside-50 was 42.9 per cent once the final siren was gone and once again, it was Toby Greene who led the way with three goals.
On the other end, Richmond had a 66 per cent efficiency when they went forward and capitalised on their limited chances. After lauding the defence of the Giants in recent weeks, they had a poor afternoon which ultimately led to a heartbreaking loss.
The positive: Tackling pressure
Despite having more of the ball than the Tigers, GWS soundly beat Richmond in the tackle count 75-55 including 20 tackles inside 50.
The Giants’ best performances this season have come when they lay 60+ tackles in a match.
The negative: The one that got away
After trailing for 114 minutes, GWS hit the front with just three minutes left courtesy of a scrappy goal through Kieren Briggs.
From there, the Giants needed to find a way to hold on to the lead but conceded a goal almost immediately from the centre bounce and in the final two minutes, Daniel Lloyd went down the line rather than hit Tom Green or Stephen Coniglio who were free in the corridor.
Charles Goodsir
The Key Takeaway: It could have been much worse
Having conceded more than 100 points to half-time and facing a 82-point deficit, the young Hawks could easily have given up and lost by 150 points.
To their credit, they kicked 11 goals to seven in the second half and played an exciting brand of football that saw them win their previous two matches.
After nine goals to two in the first quarter and 16 goals to three in the first half, it could have been much, much worse for Sam Mitchell and his developing side.
The Undroppable: Connor Macdonald
Having been the sub the previous two weeks, Connor Macdonald come into the starting line-up for the Power clash and finished with 20 touches and a goal.
Macdonald is pure class and needs to play every week.
With Chad Wingard fit, hopefully Macdonald doesn’t get dropped this week as he has plenty to offer.
The Positive: Luke Breust, 500 career goals!
Luke Breust has been an incredible player for well over a decade and doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon.
His five goals on the weekend was his best haul since kicking six against West Coast in Round 18 last season. Its also took him past the 500-goal milestone, becoming just the seventh Hawk to do so.
He now has 23 goals for the season and is a good chance to be the club’s leading goal kicker this season.
The Negative: How quickly the game was done
Unfortunately for the Hawks, the game was over after the first five minutes.
Whilst the Hawks are a young side and were expected to lose to the Power, their first quarter was horrendous.
What they need to tweak for next week: Which changes to make?
Captain James Sicily will return after his suspension, which means Jack Scrimshaw could be dropped for Brisbane this Saturday.
Whilst it was good to see Bailey Macdonald debut, it appears as though Seamus Mitchell, who was a late out with sickness, will replace him.
The biggest question will centre around Chad Wingard. Does he come in and if he does, who goes out - Sam Butler or Connor Macdonald?
Brad Klibansky
The Key Takeaway: Winning in complete control while not dominating
Melbourne’s 61-44 win over Carlton on Friday was professional in every sense.
Without ever really dominating the opposition offensively, Melbourne suffocated the Blues to restrict them to just six goals and 39 inside 50s.
The Demons also controlled the stoppage winning 38 clearances to 29 and that was without Clayton Oliver.
While Carlton are obviously struggling, Melbourne would have been pleased to win in reasonably comfortable fashion without all aspects of their game firing.
There’s no doubt they’re a rung above the league’s mid-table sides even when they’re not at their best.
The Positive: Steven May’s performance
Melbourne’s Steven May sent out a reminder that he’s still one of the competition’s superstar defenders on Friday night.
As well as keeping the dangerous Charlie Curnow to just one goal and 11 disposals, May had 18 touches of his own to go with five marks and four rebound 50s.
With clubs so often trying to go around May and Lever in attack, it would have been nice for the 31-year-old to have somewhat of a fill-up against such a quality opponent.
He’ll likely have the match-up with the in-form Brody Mihocek on King’s Birthday.
How that contest plays out could go a long way to deciding who wins the game.
What they need to tweak for next week: Speed on the football
While Melbourne’s defence held up brilliantly against the Blues, they were very clunky going forward.
Their score of 61 proved that while they kicked just the three goals in the second half. One aspect that kept their offensive output low was a lack of speed on the ball, and while that let them set up defensively behind the footy and ultimately win the game, they’ll want to go quicker against Collingwood.
Given how freely the Magpies have been scoring themselves, you’d think Melbourne will need to up their offensive output to match their opponents.
It could be risky, but they may need to live by the sword and die by the sword against an opposition that will certainly be willing to do the same.
Lachlan Geleit
The Key Takeaway: When fully engaged, North Melbourne is tough to beat
Glass half empty – another disappointing close loss for the Roos.
Glass half full – the Roos are tough to beat when they are up for the fight, particularly under the roof at Marvel Stadium.
They should go in favourites this weekend against GWS in Tassie.
The Positive: Stoppage systems are flying
North Melbourne continues to win the clearances, even as key troops go down.
On the weekend against Essendon, the Roos were clearly on top around the stoppages, even after losing Hugh Greenwood and Jy Simpkin and with Luke Davies-Uniacke sidelined.
They won the count 40-38, after previously beating Collingwood and Sydney in the middle.
The Overreaction: George Wardlaw was worth the Horne-Francis headache
North Melbourne ending up with George Wardlaw, Harry Sheezel and Port Adelaide’s future 1st round pick is a tick in the favour of ‘ends justify the means’.
Yes, Jason Horne-Francis is starring at Port Adelaide and looks set for a great career there – but would any North Melbourne fan be unhappy right now?
Wardlaw and Sheezel look like future A+ graders, a future first-round pick is always nice and the vibes around the locker room are clearly better than they were 12 months ago.
Nic Negrepontis
The Positive: The Power have flipped a switch
It turns out that an underwhelming Round 3 Showdown performance was all it took for Port Adelaide to go nuclear.
A club record nine consecutive wins have the Power sitting comfortably at second on the table, with everything clicking despite some notable outs.
With strong numbers on display across the field, Port have put the league on notice and have injected themselves into the conversation as premiership contenders.
Some tough upcoming fixtures will put the club to the test, however with some serious momentum, the Power are looking difficult to knock off.
The Key Takeaway: Butters for a Brownlow?
The impressive streak has come with some outstanding performances from young gun Zak Butters, who has had some games worthy of three Brownlow votes.
Rounds nine through eleven saw Butters collect 30 or more touches in each, including a 41-disposal clinic against the Demons on Friday night in Round 10.
It is safe to say that the young on-baller has taken some notes from teammate Ollie Wines, 2021 Brownlow medallist, and could contend for the medal in 2023 if his form remains.
The negative: The Hawks started piling them on
The Power were able to close out on Saturday against Hawthorn with a 55-point thumping, however the backline showed some inconsistency in the second half.
After piling on 105 points in the opening two quarters, the Hawks went on to outscore Port 73 to 46 in the back end of the game.
With some upcoming tests against the Bulldogs and Geelong, Port needs to hold their own in the backline through all four quarters if they want to control the outcome of the game.
What no one is talking about: Dylan Williams
Dylan Williams is quietly a consistent contributor for the Power in 2023.
Only ten games into his professional career, Williams is playing a dominant role for the side off the halfback line, leading the team for rebound 50s.
Having started the season out of the side, he continues to fly under the radar as a force in Ken Hinkley’s backline.
Ollie Williamson
The Key Takeaway: Tigers win a close one!
Richmond owned an unenviable record of nine losses and three draws from their last 12 matches decided by a goal or less.
It appeared as though that would increase when the Giants hit the front in the 24th minute of the final term when Giants sub Josh Fahey successfully bombed long.
That sinking feeling returned eight minutes later when ruckman Kieren Briggs conjured a goal out of nothing.
However, the Tigers were able to stand up in the big moments through Dion Prestia and Marlion Pickett to give Andrew McQualter his first win as an AFL coach.
The result has them hovering six points outside the eight and with some semblance of hope.
The Overreaction: Riewoldt is finished
That was the reaction from some when it came to Richmond veteran Jack Riewoldt.
He was criticised for quiet outings against Port Adelaide and Essendon which came with suggestions that the cliff was coming quickly.
At the ripe old age of 34, as the key forward target and battling soreness, he had no right to kick a match-winning bag of five. It could have been seven or eight as well if he kicked accurately.
In Tom Lynch’s absence, Riewoldt has performed admirably in 2023.
He has a massive ticker and should be commended for his ability to continue having an impact after all these years.
The Positive: Defence held up strongly
Richmond’s defence was under siege for extended periods on Sunday.
Noah Balta, Nathan Broad, Dylan Grimes, Jayden Short, Tylar Young and co. held up pretty well to barricade the back 50.
The Giants kept coming but the Tigers continued to shut them out, aside from the last quarter.
While the team ended up kicking 16 goals and looked menacing in attack, it was the defence which formed the bedrock of their win.
The Negative: Conceding 70 inside 50s
One the flip side of the positive, the Tigers conceded 70 inside 50s to a side that is now sitting in the bottom four.
Going -23 entries, against any opposition, is not a great sign when you look at it in isolation. Against a team that has won just four games for the season reads even more poorly.
They conceded seven goals in the final term having kept the Giants relatively under wraps for three quarters.
Thankfully, Richmond’s forward line, led by Riewoldt’s five goals, was able to double GWS’ marks inside 50 (18-9) to kick a winning score.
A much tighter overall performance will be necessary if they want to knock off Fremantle in Perth this weekend.
Andrew Slevison
BYE
BYE
The Positive: Sheed is having a great year
Dom Sheed has been a class performer on a struggling Eagles side this season.
After burying the Magpies after his 2018 premiership-winning goal, Sheed looked just as dangerous on Saturday afternoon.
He was simply superb for the Eagles despite the loss to Collingwood, having a team-best performance of 43 disposals paired with a goal in his 150th game.
The 2023 season has been a terrific one for the West Coast midfielder, posting career best splits in disposals, marks and clearances.
The Negative: The injury list continues to grow
A quarter and a bit was all it took for more Eagles to drop on the weekend, facing three early injuries before the halftime break.
A leg injury took down Connor West only nine minutes into the game, followed by Elijah Hewett being subbed out with a concussion after a high bump from Jordan De Goey.
It was an aggravated Shannon Hurn hamstring injury that topped the lot, leaving only two players on the interchange for the second half of the game.
A now sixteen player long injury list for West Coast remains the longest in the competition, creating more issues for a team with one win from twelve games.
What no one is talking about: Tackling numbers are a standout
This year, the Eagles are simply one of the best tackling sides in the competition.
Only three teams have more tackles through twelve rounds than West Coast; Adelaide, Bulldogs and Port Adelaide.
Being led by 18-year-old Reuben Ginbey (6.9 tackles a game), the Eagles are laying an element of pressure that should highlighted in a difficult season for the club.
If it remains consistent, sooner or later the tackling efforts will pay off for the club.
Ollie Williamson
The Key Takeaway: How did they lose that?
Stats aren’t everything, that’s worth prefacing.
But every single indicator would tell you the Western Bulldogs win this Round 11 game. Scoring shots, contested possessions, clearances and plenty more were all in the Dogs’ favour, so to go on and lose by almost four goals is a real head-scratcher.
Luke Beveridge again span the magnets, so to put the Cats to the sword with the team they had could be considered a positive.
But it’s a worrying development that the Dogs can dominate a game like that in front of their home crowd and still lose. If it happens again and costs this club a top four spot, expect Bevo to come in for criticism.
The Positive: Caleb Daniel sparkles again
Another splendid performance from the Bulldogs’ rebounder continues what has been a brilliant patch of form.
Despite the loss, Daniel was everywhere on Saturday night and finished with 35 disposals, six rebound 50s, six marks, a goal and even laid five tackles.
Jason Johanissen going down has seen Daniel play even more freely than before and he hasn’t dropped below 25 touches in the past three weeks.
A continuation of this form would see the 26-year-old deserving of a second All-Australian blazer.
The Negative: Ed Richards’s setback
A career-best season for Ed Richards will have to come to a (temporary) stop after the tough defender was ruled out for at least a month with a moderate hamstring injury.
The 23-year-old had been averaging career highs in disposals and rebound 50s this season and there’s no doubt Richards' influence will be sorely missed by his teammates and Beveridge.
Seb Mottram