We’re twelve weeks through the AFL season with teams beginning to catch a reprieve in the bye rounds.
While six clubs had the week off, results from the remaining 12 told us plenty, with the reigning premiers shockingly losing two on the bounce.
Here’s what we learned from the weekend’s games:
The competition looks wide open again
Just like that, the race for the premiership appears wide open.
Through the first 10 rounds, it appeared that Melbourne was unbeatable, but their last two weeks at home in losses to interstate rivals Fremantle and Sydney have proven that there are chinks in the armour.
While there’s no denying their position as favourites still, clubs won’t be fearing this Melbourne side as much as they were a fortnight ago.
Just as the Demons have appeared to slip, wins from the Dockers and Swans have proven their credentials and all of the sudden they’ve joined a list of contenders that could be seven or eight strong.
If Melbourne is truly back to the pack, it’s a raffle of who the next best side could be, potentially leading to an exciting end to the season.
We’ll all have Simon Goodwin’s side as the number one seed until something drastic happens, but number two has never looked closer.
Fremantle have genuine PFI
They proved it last week, but Fremantle’s win over Brisbane further exacerbated their obvious PFI.
PFI, or Preliminary Final Integrity, is a notion that SEN’s David King created which argues that certain games throughout the season elevate a team’s status if they can overcome the challenge in front of them.
Fremantle hasn’t just done that, but they’ve probably done it against the two teams you would’ve had ahead of them just a fortnight ago.
With those two feathers in their cap and a 9-3 record at the turn, Fremantle doesn’t look only a top-four threat, but a genuine premiership contender.
They’ll host Melbourne once more in Round 20 at home and they won’t face the Lions again unless they match up in September.
There’s every chance they take a 3-0 record against their biggest competitors into finals, who knows how much confidence that could give them on the big stage.
Dockers fans should genuinely dare to dream, something special is building out West.
Geelong is a top-four lock
Just like clockwork, Chris Scott’s Geelong side looks like a top-four lock after knocking off the Dogs on Friday night.
While their form has been questioned, this veteran side has quietly picked up four wins in their last five games, nestling them in fourth place with an 8-4 record.
Heading into the bye inside a double-chance slot is probably all the convincing we need to expect the Cats to feature there at season’s end, but that reads even truer when you take a gaze at their fixture.
From their last ten games, three of those come against the Eagles and Kangaroos, with two in particular coming against Adam Simpson’s side that looks the worst in the competition, and quite comfortably.
15 or 16 wins should earn them one of those places, and that leaves only four or five wins against the rest of the competition on the run home.
After coming so close across the last decade, it’s the platform this side needs to earn another flag.
Gold Coast looks the goods, their next month will tell us if they’re up to it
The Suns are 6-6 and genuinely in the race to feature in September for the first time in their 12-year history.
While they currently sit 11th on equal footing with Richmond and the Western Bulldogs, the Suns could genuinely position themselves for a finals tilt in the next month.
Following next week’s bye, Stuart Dew’s side faces Adelaide at home, Port Adelaide away, Collingwood at home and Richmond at home, four somewhat evenly matched games before their fixture opens up a little on the run home with the Kangaroos and Eagles to come.
If the Suns can take three wins from those next four, there’s no doubt that they can go past the 12-win mark and play finals footy.
Do that, and there’s no way Dew will leave his post as the club’s coach at season’s end.
We’re none the wiser in the Rising Star race
What a season our Rising Star candidates are having.
There’s probably a clear top-four at the moment that’d win in any other year, with Jai Newcombe, Nick Daicos, Nic Martin and Sam De Koning making big impacts for their side.
Entering the round with a bit of momentum, De Koning’s name was thrown up as a potential winner after another starring performance, this time restricting Western Bulldogs forward Aaron Naughton to one goal.
With De Koning one of the best players on Friday, Collingwood’s Daicos and Hawthorn’s Newcombe may have even one-upped him as they met in a head-to-head battle on Sunday afternoon.
Daicos had a whopping 798 metres gained from 36 disposals and often looked like the only player out there in dry conditions, while Newcombe’s huge second half brought the Hawks back into the contest – whichever way you look at it, they’ll probably earn the 3 and 2 come Brownlow night.
With 11 weeks left, let’s just sit back and enjoy watching the kids play.
We’ll know once the award is handed out, the winner will be immensely deserving with the competition they’ll have had to fight off.
It’s a big week for Melbourne
After Melbourne’s Round 11 loss to Fremantle, we were all expecting a bounce-back against Sydney on Saturday.
That wasn’t to be, and now the Dees have lost two on the bounce to sit 10-2 after 12 rounds.
While that’s still a domineering record, it’s not as impressive as it once was, with the Lions and Dockers just one win behind them at the turn.
Perhaps most concerningly for the Dees, it hasn’t been that they’ve lost, it’s how they have gone down.
In their last halves against the Dockers and Swans, Simon Goodwin’s side has only notched three total goals as the forward line has appeared to malfunction.
On the big stage again of Queen’s Birthday against a resurgent Collingwood at the MCG, there’s no better opportunity for the reigning premiers to make a statement and prove they’re the best side in it.
Heading into the bye with a win would help settle them and let them refocus on their title defence in the second half of the year.
The footy world will be awaiting their response … it could be emphatic.