We’ve pushed past the halfway point of the season and the stakes are rising.
Who’s standing up and who is disappointing?
Scott Gullan names his likes and dislikes from the round so far.
LIKESCLUTCH SWANS
Brodie Grundy take a bow.
Winning close games is an art form and the Swans ruckman showed that smart, experienced footballers are worth their weight in gold.
After his opposing number Jordon Sweet kicked a goal to get Port Adelaide within three points with 34 seconds remaining, the game was again in the balance.
A scramble at Port’s half-forward line ended with a ball-up and this was when Grundy showed why he is the best ruckman in the league right now.
As Port flooded the contest, Grundy wrestled his way into the prime position and spiked the ball 15 metres towards the boundary line, safely away from the danger zone.
It was a winning move given the clock was down to 18 seconds and that one act ended Port’s courageous comeback.
The Swans have now won four games under eight points, including last week when they came from the clouds to win in the dying seconds against St Kilda.
And who was responsible for setting up that winning moment … Grundy.
His perfect tap found Isaac Heeney in space who then handballed to Jai Serong whose left foot snap won the game.
For premiership contenders like Dean Cox’s team the middle part of the year can be a grind but what wins like this do is provide invaluable confidence.
When things get tight in September which they inevitably do, the muscle memory of executing at the death against St Kilda and Port Adelaide will kick in.
And if you’re a challenger against the Swans in three months time, your scouting report for a close finish should focus on one man … Brodie Grundy.
NORTH’S BIRTHDAY BOY
Given the week North Melbourne has had, the fact it took a veteran celebrating his 34th birthday to get them over West Coast will be allowed to go through to the keeper.
Alistair Clarkson just had to find a way after the humiliation of last week’s 124-point flogging by Fremantle although we’re tipping relying on his oldest player to kick the most goals he has for four years wouldn’t have been on his bingo card.
Nor would relying on Eagles spearhead Jake Waterman to hit the post from directly in front in the final minute.
Or for his captain Nick Larkey to take a match-saving mark in defence in the dying seconds.
But footy throws up all sorts of crazy sometimes, and this game had it all.
Darling wound back the clock against his old team, booting four goals in the first half – something he hadn’t done since Round 11, 2022 – to set up an important win for the Roos who remarkably now find themselves back in the wildcard hunt.
As Ross Lyon likes to say, the ladder doesn’t lie. With two games remaining in Round 13, North Melbourne are currently 11th and sit above Collingwood, St Kilda, Carlton and Port Adelaide.
While relying on their oldest player to inspire a crucial victory against the Eagles isn’t ideal, their sixth win of the season puts the Roos just one game behind the Gold Coast Suns. Who would have predicted that a couple of months ago?
And they have a very winnable next three weeks against Richmond, Essendon and Port Adelaide (away).
In a way they can thank Harley Reid for waking them out of their Freo funk.
The West Coast star was on fire in the first half and getting under the Kangaroos’ skin. Every time there was some niggle, Reid was in the middle of it.
It was inspiring the home team before Darling got busy, kicking the last three goals of the second quarter to get the Roos’ noses in front at half-time.
The best thing about the third quarter for Clarkson was that a number of his young midfielders got rolling which was how he would have drawn it up at the start of the game.
George Wardlaw and Reid banging heads at every stoppage was worth the price of admission while the dash of Colby McKercher was a game-changer.
And then there was Harry Sheezel who deserves his flowers. He has now had more than 20 possessions in 44 consecutive games after a stunning 32 disposals, nine clearances and one goal performance.
MID-SEASON GOLD
The AFL cops it for stuffing up – and let’s be honest the standard of umpiring and video reviews provides plenty of examples – but what they have nailed is the mid-season draft.
Every week there seems to be a feel-good story stemming from the rookie draft which gives a lifeline to many footballers who thought they’d missed the boat.
Clubs are clearly embracing it more and more with Melbourne trotting out two debutants against Essendon just 16 days after they were selected in the mid-season draft.
Tall defender Lukas Cooke and midfielder Joel Fitzgerald fulfilled their lifetime dream on the MCG and immediately had an impact.
Cooke was compared to Brisbane’s captain Harris Andrews in the way he moved by commentators before unfortunately having his cheekbone broken in a head clash which ended his day prematurely.
Fitzgerald, however, had no such misfortune; with the No.47 one of the Demons’ best collecting 26 possessions, five clearances and six score involvements.
The big-bodied midfielder, who’d averaged 36 disposals in his past two games with Casey in the VFL, looked the part in the big time with Melbourne captain Max Gawn singing his praises afterwards.
“The mid-season draft keeps producing some great stories, it’s a great initiative,” Gawn said.
“He (Fitzgerald) had played against (Will) Setterfield and (Elijah) Tsatas (for Essendon) four weeks ago in the VFL so he knew what it was about.”
Fitzgerald, 22, who comes from a family of seven, was overlooked in four drafts, had previously played for Williamstown and Essendon. “It’s doesn’t feel real to be honest,” he said.
More Fitzgeralds the better we say.
THE OLLIE WING
Footscray supporters will fondly remember at the Western Oval when the outer wing was officially named the Doug Hawkins Wing in honour of their champion.
Geelong needs to start considering something similar given the ownership Ollie Dempsey has on the outer wing at GMHBA Stadium.
Rather than change sides as was once tradition for wingmen, the Cats’ running machine stays on his side and torments his opponents.
Dempsey has changed the game in a sense that other teams are now trying to find endurance beasts like him who can bob up at either end, saving the day or kicking a goal from 10m out.
Against the Suns, he was again one of the most influential players on the ground with 20 possessions and two goals.
Ironically, Dempsey playing in the exact same spot is one of the few things which remain the same with Chris Scott’s team.
The two-time premiership coach has always preached flexibility but this 2026 version might be his most flexible yet.
Regular full-back Sam De Koning becoming a clearance king (he had four against the Suns) in the ruck has become a revelation in recent weeks.
With Tom Stewart out because of concussion against the Suns, Scott just sends Jack Henry, who had been doing his thing as a forward in recent weeks, to defence.
Midfield jet Max Holmes often goes to half-back which allows skipper Patrick Dangerfield to go from being a deep forward to in the middle of the ground.
Tanner Bruhn is a pure midfielder but he has had to learn to play half-back and on the wing to get a game in this side.
Then there is reigning Coleman Medallist Jeremy Cameron who will roam far and wide, often lining up on the wing.
And we haven’t even mentioned Mark Blicavs who has been Scott’s poster boy for flexibility.
While all this was happening on Friday night, the Suns couldn’t keep up and ultimately put up the white flag as the Cats flexed their flexibility.
DISLIKESYIPS NO GOOD
Poor old Jake Waterman.
As Kangaroos captain Nick Larkey impressively said immediately after his side’s one-point win, you don’t want to get the points that way.
What it meant was watching a player suffering from the yips have the spotlight on him in the final seconds and for the horror to continue.
Waterman, who had previously been an excellent kick for goal, has lost all his confidence this year and came into Saturday’s game with 28 goals and 34 behinds.
While he had some shaky moments in front of goal earlier in the game, midway through the final quarter he did nail a set shot from 40m for his third goal of the night which he hoped had released his demons.
Unfortunately, the yips surfaced again in the final minute when he sprayed a set shot into the post from 30m out to win the game.
It was heartbreaking for Waterman but his younger teammate Jobe Shanahan also had a shot a few minutes earlier which he’d like to take back.
Shanahan was Carey-like in the final quarter, marking anything that went near him but he blew a simple shot in time-on.
While he did make amends a couple of minutes later with an excellent banana kick from the boundary line, his earlier miss came back to haunt.
COLOUR TROUBLE
If Geelong had lost in the white-out strip, we would have been coming off a Michael Holding-like run-up to launch at gimmick rounds which impact what jumpers teams wear.
We’d paced out the mark because of what the Western Bulldogs served up wearing their ridiculous retro strips on Thursday night.
Retro Round may be the silliest one in a long list of silly themed rounds given it is hung off the fact the Dogs wore the jumper back in 1935.
And while we’re rolling about strips, what the are the umpires doing wearing blue in a North Melbourne game?
The light blue tops and black shorts by the officials in the Eagles-North match were a debacle.
Given it was an afternoon fixture, the sun and shadows were a factor at Perth Stadium so a quick glance up by a Kangaroos player searching for some blue could easily have them confused by the umpires.
The game is hard enough for everyone without these sorts of own goals.
HUMPHREY HISTORY
What does Joe Daniher, Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver have in common?
And it’s not that they were all born in Victoria.
They all asked to leave their respective clubs but were denied, only to then leave the following year.
Where are we going with this? Bailey Humphrey.
The young Gold Coast Suns star is looking disturbingly like the above trio with the way he is playing this season.
After a breakthrough season last year, Humphrey surprised the Suns when he actively courted Victorian clubs about coming home in the trade period. He was even spotted going for a walk with new Melbourne coach Steven King.
Apart from a blinder in the Opening Round against Geelong – let’s be honest the entire Suns team played out of their skulls and haven’t really been able to repeat that level again – where he kicked four goals from 15 touches, the 22-year-old has struggled.
On Friday night Humphrey again looked a shadow of the player everyone expects him to be which only fuels speculation he again wants out. Body language experts would have plenty to work with on this one.
In nine games he has only kicked eight goals and against the Cats it was the second time this season he’s failed to get over 10 touches.
Hawthorn is understood to be leading the fight to get Humphrey despite him having another year left on his contract with Melbourne, Collingwood and Carlton also interested observers.
His restlessness also feeds into the theory that there is some unrest in the Suns locker room, particularly around full-forward Ben King’s refusal to re-sign which screams he’s seriously considering his own return to Victoria
Suns coach Damien Hardwick froths when the speculation about Humphrey is raised but he would know that history has a habit of repeating … Daniher, Petracca. Oliver.