The second round of the 2026 AFL season saw many highlights and lowlights headlined by the West Coast Eagles upset win over North Melbourne in the final match of the weekend.
EAGLES UPSET NORTH MELBOURNE
The West Coast Eagles have upset North Melbourne at their home venue of Optus Stadium in Western Australia to secure their first victory since Round 10 in 2025 ending a 14-match losing streak in the process.
Down by 30 points, West Coast produced a magical comeback in front of their home crowd in which they scored ten goals to turn around the rest – eight of these goals coming during a terrific third quarter performances.
Jamie Cripps led the goal count for the side with three, while Elliot Yeo, Jobe Shanahan, Archer Reird, Milan Murdock, Willem Duursma and Cooper Duff-Tyler all had two each. Meanwhile, rookie Harley Reid had 30 possessions and five tackles.
“I think we saw them grow in front of our eyes today and I think that’s great for them,” Eagles coach Andrew McQualter said.
“The game is about moments when it becomes a tussle like that in the last quarter, and I thought multiple guys – and I said that to them – just owned their moments and executed what they had to do.
“The confidence they’ll gain from that will be huge … we’ll enjoy this night with our family and friends, and we’ll get to work again tomorrow.”
SAINTS WIN A NAIL-BITER
The St Kilda Saints have clung on to withstand a late surge from the GWS Giants to emerge victorious on Saturday afternoon with a four-point victory.
Opening the contest with seven consecutive goals, it looked like the Giants were in for a long day but they managed to come back from as much as 39 points once they got their act together in the second-half.
Kicking five of the last six goals, they got withing four points with less than 30 seconds to go on the clock but were unable to strike again and walk away with the win.
Lachie Ash led the disposal count for the Giants with 39 while Saints midfielders Jack Sinclair and Callum Wilkie were equally as dominant with 31 and 28 disposals each.
“Our inability to finish our work when we had opportunities was really disappointing,” Giants coach Adam Kingsley said.
“I listened to [St Kilda coach] Ross [Lyon]’s press conference last week and I think he summed it up that sometimes the game can be dropped marks, dropped handball-receives, missed tackles, fumbled ground balls and to be fair I thought that was largely us tonight.
“We didn’t execute that aspect of the game, the fundamentals, anywhere near enough to win a game against a strong opposition.”
HERO EMERGES IN DOGS VICTORY OVER ADELAIDE
An astonishing goal from Oskar Baker has seen the Western Bulldogs defeat the Adelaide Crows in a Friday night blockbuster showdown at the Adelaide Oval.
Down by four points with a couple of minutes remaining in the contest, Bryant produced a magnificent moment of class and skill to snatch victory from the opponents in front of their faithful fans.
Bulldogs skipper Marcus Bontempelli led the match with 30 possessions, six tackles and a goal in arguably a ‘Best on Ground’ performances, while Ed Richards and Tom Liberatore both had over 28 disposals themselves.
Meanwhile, star forward Aaron Naughton, Joel Freijah and Baker all had three goals to their names on the scoreboard.
“The difficult thing for both teams was that the clock stopped,” Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said.
“No-one knew what the time was until it got to about, gee what was it? There was about five or six minutes to go… everyone was flustered because you weren’t sure how urgent it was based on that clock ticking down.
“But I thought our players managed it pretty well. I mean, at the end when you’ve got a small margin, you’re definitely managing. You’re just trying to make sure the opposition don’t score.”