AFL Power Rankings: Round 13 (or homeward bound)

It’s all downhill from here…

The big game brought a big comeback and a threw the whole Premiership race open… well open for two teams at least.

At least this weekend we get back to 8 games. The split round might be nice for players resting injuries, but it is bloody boring for the fans.

With 9 rounds to go and a theoretical 12 Games plus percentage to make the finals, it means “theoretically” everyone can make it. But in theory winning 6 out of your last 9 would be doing pretty good (that return would average 14 wins in a season). That means all those teams with less than 6 wins now really would need to pull something out of the box to make it from here. This means it is probably down to 9 teams to decide the top 8, but I’ll give Essendon another week because their percentage is much better than North’s.

Either way, I don’t see there being much excitement in Round 22 to see who makes the finals – it’ll all be about where the sides within the 8 finish.

	Rank	LW	Team	Record	Comment
Should	finish	in	the	top	four
	1	2↑	St Kilda	10-3	Wow! That’s how you do it. And with Riewoldt set to come back, the Saints are looking very good.
	2	1↓	Geelong	10-3	At half time the Cats looked to be doing it easy. How the hell could they only kick 3 points in the entire second half? North Melbourne this week will feel their wrath.
	3	3↔	Collingwood	9-3-1	No worries there. Malthouse the fool thinks Collingwood has been hard done by with the draw. Not sure if he can complain about paying the Eagles next.
The	top	8	looks	good
	4	5↑	Bulldogs	8-5	A good win over in the west. The Hawks this week faces up to be a huge match (and yes, yet another “8 point” game).
	5	4↓	Hawthorn	7-6	Buddy hell. It’s not fair someone can be that talented. Six wins in a row, but now they have the Bulldogs, Cats, Lions and Saints. We’ll know in 4 weeks if they are the real deal.
	6	7↑	Fremantle	9-4	An Excellent away win by the Dockers – especially coming off 2 losses. With Port Richmond, and Melbourne up next they could be 12-4 and almost a top 4 certainty.
Percentage	will	be	a	help
	7	6↓	Carlton	7-6	The Blues lost their ruckman, and some credibility with the loss against the Dockers. Top four looks gone.
	8	8↔	Sydney	7-6	The Swans just don’t like playing the Pies. Now they face a surprisingly confident Tigers. Must win.
Can’t	afford	any	more	stuff	ups
	9	10↑	North Melbourne	7-6	North beat the completely out of it Port. Geelong up next for the reality check.
	10	9↓	Essendon	5-8	The Bombers were honest but lacked a Buddy. With the Crows, Demons, Eagles and North up next, they could be 9-8.
Not	a	chance	in	hell
	11	11↔	Brisbane	5-8	Well it’s all gone so very bad for the Lions. (Remember they were 4-0). Won’t make the finals from here – especially with Carlton, Saints, Hawks and Cats up next – they’re good things to be 5-12.
	12	14↓	Adelaide	4-9	The Crows played like they wanted to win. If they beat the Bombers this week their season will start to look like it wasn’t completely awful.
	13	12↑	Melbourne	4-8-1	The Demons played well for one quarter, but for the rest the Crows had them covered. They haven’t won since round 9. They play the Saints this week…
	14	15↑	Richmond	3-10	Three out of the last four! This is a young Tigers side that are learning how to win. The Swans won’t be feeling as happy about playing them as they did when they faced them back in round 3.
	15	13↓	Port Adelaide	5-8	Six losses in a row –and now they face Freo at Subiaco, then Collingwood and then the Bulldogs – they must be a good chance to make it nine.
	16	16↔	West Coast	3-10	Five losses in a row, and with Collingwood up next, it should be six, before they face Wooden Spoon challengers, Adelaide.