The nineteenth round of the 2024 AFL season saw Melbourne’s misery continue, Adelaide scrape over the line against the Bombers and the Bulldogs demolish the Geelong Cats.
Melbourne’s misery continues
Touted as a premiership favourite heading into the season, the Melbourne Demons are struggling to put wins on the board having lost six of their last ten matches and been unable to produce consistent amounts of football. However, they not only lost to the Fremantle Dockers on the weekend but were absolutely destroyed by them as their misery continues.
Defeated by 50 points – 116 to 66 – the Demons never looked like they were capable of winning handing the Dockers their second highest score of this season. Still without skipper Max Gawn, the Demons were unable to control the Fremantle midfielders in Andrew Brayshaw (41 disposals and six inside 50s), Caleb Serong (36 and six clearances) and Hayden Young (28 and 11 inside 50s).
However, coach Simon Goodwin believes that the return of Max Gawn won’t be able to help their stoppage game having lost the contested ball battle by nearly 40.
“That’s been one of the strongest things in our game for the last five weeks … so it wasn’t just the hitouts,” Goodwin said via AFL.com.
“It was a combination of all that within our game, and we’ll own it, we’ll lean into it. And we’ll come back better next week.”
Outside the top-eight, it’s hard to see them making the finals due to their hard run home to the finals as they face the Giants, Western Bulldogs, Port Adelaide, Collingwood and Gold Coast Suns in the Gold Coast where the team is yet to lose a game this season.
The spoil in the middle 👌 Clarky doing it all himself.#AFLFreoDees #foreverfreo pic.twitter.com/PjeB2gK5Qn
— Fremantle Dockers (@freodockers) July 21, 2024
Adelaide scrape over the line against the Bombers
The Adelaide Crows have produced a remarkable come-from-behind victory on Friday night against the Essendon Bombers after coming back from a three-goal deficit in the final four minutes to emerge victorious by two points.
A starring performance by Ben Keays (five goals and 22 disposals) and Darcy Fogarty (four goals and 17 disposals) helped guide the Crows over the line as they look to produce some consistent performances heading into the finals.
While the Crows celebrate in style, it adds further question marks to the ability of the Essendon Bombers. Sitting in the top four less than a month ago, their poor form now sees them sit 8th on the AFL ladder and struggling to make the finals.
Only two points above the Western Bulldogs, Melbourne Demons and Hawthorn Hawks, the Bombers are desperately holding onto a position in the finals as the competition enters the backend of the season.
“It comes down to execution at the end and the Crows kicked some good goals under pressure,” Bombers coach Brad Scott said.
“It wasn’t a structural issue. Now, we’ll do deeper analysis than we’ve already done, but it was poor execution rather than system or structure.”
Essendon vs Adelaide 4th quarter with 3AW audio #AFLDonsCrows pic.twitter.com/p4VtibkrlC
— Lace out (@laceoutofficial) July 21, 2024
Geelong demolished at home
GMHBA Stadium (formerly known as Kardinia Park) was once a fortress for the Geelong Cats which they never lose at. However, the Cats’ loss to the Western Bulldogs on Saturday marked another time this season where Geelong have been absolutely outplayed and dominated at their home venue.
Defeated by 47 points, the entire Cats team struggled with no players scoring more than one goal each, whilst Tom Stewart’s 26 touches were a team-high in wet and miserable conditions.
One of the stars of the match was ruck Rory Lobb, who was transitioned into defence and kept opposing forward Jeremy Cameron to only a single goals and just six touches in four quarters. While keeping Cameron’s impact to an all-time low he also added 21 possessions, nine marks and 14 intercept possessions to his name.
Marra turned on the jets in the fourth quarter last night against the Cats 😤 pic.twitter.com/zyX3gSVvus
— Western Bulldogs (@westernbulldogs) July 21, 2024