AFL Power Rankings: Round 9 (or, the Crows won! Quick what are the words to the theme song??)

Have to say I missed a lot of the matches played this round – it was one of those weeks were to be honest there weren’t a lot of matches that captured my interest, and it was also one of those very rare weekends where I got a life and did stuff!

But the Crows won. Am I happy? Well yes of course, but there is also that lament for what this win might have meant had we not started so pitifully.

The big game on Friday between the Pies and Cats certainly showed how far behind the Pies are, and also let the rest of the competition know (if they didn’t already) that Geelong are the ones to beat.

The week ahead has almost no “big matches'”. But there are quite a few “a loss here could say quite a bit” games. For example, the losers of Collingwood v Lions, Hawthorn v Sydney, Essendon v Bulldogs and Saints v Crows will have some big questions to answer (unless it’s the Crows, in which case it won’t so much be an answer, as a confirmation that those hopes should not have been lifted).

	Rank	LW	Team	Record	Comment
	1	2↑	Geelong	7-2	The Cats will be the benchmark for the rest of the season – they won by six goals even though Ablett was pretty quiet.
	2	1↓	Collingwood	7-2	Look, if the Pies had kicked a few of those shots at the start of the last quarter… they might have only lost by a couple goals instead of six.
	3	4↑	Fremantle	7-2	An impressive win by the Dockers – Pavlich took the game by the scruff of the neck, and showed why he is a certain first year of eligibility Hall of Famer.
	4	5↑	Bulldogs	6-3	The Bulldogs are back playing like we all thought they would. But they’ll have to do it without Barry Hall for a few weeks.
	5	3↓	Carlton	5-4	Good ole’ Carlton – always to be counted on to totally stuff up your tipping. You’d think even the ugly-Blues will beat the Eagles this week.
	6	6↔	St Kilda	6-3	They won as they should. They now face Adelaide, then Richmond, before Fremantle and Geelong (how’s that for a month of 2 halves).
	7	7↔	Port Adelaide	5-4	Port came home with a rush, and looked have snatched the game from the jaws of defeat. They now return home to beat up Richmond.
	8	10↑	Essendon	4-5	They beat Richmond. No it doesn’t count. This week against the Bulldogs will though.
	9	14↑	Hawthorn	3-6	Are they the “resurgent Hawks”? They now have the Swans, Port, Adelaide and Essendon (all bar the Crows game, are at the MCG). They could be 7-6 after that.
	10	8↓	Sydney	5-4	A hard loss for the Swans – losing Kennelly in the process. And they’re looking a bit lost game wise as well. They now face a resurgent Hawks. (yeah we can call them resurgent)
	11	12↑	Melbourne	4-5	They won by a point – but really they were bloody lucky – blowing a 33 point 3/4 lead is almost unforgivable.
	12	9↓	Brisbane	4-5	Five losses in a row – and they lost even with Fev kicking them out of his backside (almost literally). If they lose to the Pies this week, their season will be looking almost terminal.
	13	11↓	North Melbourne	4-5	North found that beating the Crows doesn’t really give you much of a form guide.
	14	15↑	Adelaide	2-7	The Crows played like they actually wanted to score goals – it was great to see. But now they have to play the Saints (which will probably snuff out any chance of calling them –ahem – “resurgent”).
	15	13↓	West Coast	3-6	The Eagles are done for the year – they’ll just be hoping to win some upsets – such as this week against the Blues in Melbourne. But I can see them doing it too often.
	16	16↔	Richmond	0-9	Oh dear. It really is a long season. They now travel to Adelaide to face an annoyed Port.