The twentieth round of the 2024 AFL season saw Port Adelaide upset the Carlton Blues, Gold Coast’s unbeaten record at home dissolve, and Sydney lose their fourth match in their last five outings.
Port Adelaide upset Carlton away from home
Port Adelaide produced one of the upsets of the round on Friday night against premiership contenders Carlton Blues. Coming from behind to emerge victorious, the Power would be too powerful for their opponents, winning by 14 points in large part to their stars Mitch Georgiades (three goals), Ollie Wines (26 disposals and 10 tackles) and Jordan Sweet (41 hit-outs and three marks).
The victory to the Power also puts massive question marks over the Blues hopes to make the AFL Grand Final later this year and go far in the finals. Mainly the club showed that they struggle to perform when they are without both tall forwards Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay. While Curnow kicked three goals, there was no other target to kick to in the Blues forward 50 with McKay out of the match with illness.
“I could sit here and say it’s not a factor, but the reality is, it had something to do with it,” Carlton Blues coach Michael Voss said.
“What we don’t do, though, as a football club is that we use that as a reason for the loss… you’ve still got to be able to find a way to be able to play consistent (footy) no matter what, and that’s still something we’re trying to achieve.”
The new holding the ball rules in effect as Charlie Curnow caught out by the Power!
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🔢 MATCH CENTRE https://t.co/S3Hw8QgesB pic.twitter.com/K0OKJHCyWY— Fox Footy (@FOXFOOTY) May 30, 2024
Gold Coast suffer first defeat at home
For the first time this season, the Gold Coast Suns have been defeated at their home venue – People First Stadium – by none other than their inner-state rivals Brisbane Lions. Not only does the loss break their unbeaten run at home, but it will also likely see them miss the finals as they need to do something they have yet to do this season – win away from Queensland.
The Suns were utterly outplayed by their opposition on Saturday evening with Lachie Neale, James Dunkley and Hugh McCluggage proving to dangerous for their opponents. Winning by 28 points, the Lions controlled the match from the opening bounce, with Neale recording 35 disposals and Dunkley racking up 31 possessions. The teams also had four player kick multiple goals throughout the match in Cam Rayner, McCluggage, Joe Daniher and Charlie Cameron.
The loss means the Gold Coast Suns will need to emerge victorious in all of their last four matches against West Coast Eagles, Essendon Bombers, Melbourne Demons and Richmond Tigers.
“You’ve just got to be playing your best footy at the right time,” Damien Hardwick said.
“Are we capable? Yeah, absolutely we’re capable. I’ve got a really strong belief in this group.
“They’re a group that’s capable of more, I hope they understand that, I hope they believe that.”
Ben King flies high and FINALLY slots a goal after missing his last 11 shots at goal 😅
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🔢 MATCH CENTRE https://t.co/uWAw1vEkKk pic.twitter.com/W08r7vvhOY— Fox Footy (@FOXFOOTY) July 27, 2024
What has happened to the Sydney Swans?
The Sydney Swans may be on top of the AFL ladder, but their loss to the Western Bulldogs on Sunday marked their fourth loss in five matches as they struggled to get going in their home venue. Hitting bad form at the worst time possible, the Swans have proven vulnerable to high-pressure teams such as the Bulldogs.
Consistently showing that they struggled in the opening 20 minutes of the match, the Swans have also been hit with injury issues to their playing roster but, thankfully, will regain the likes of James Rowbottom, Tom Papley and skipper Dane Rampe in the coming weeks.
However, they will lose Lewis Melican (hamstring) and Will Hayward (ankle) with their respective injuries and are set to be unavailable for next weekend’s match against the Port Adelaide Power.
“We got terribly beaten in front of the ball, too many aerial contests we were dominated in, and we just simply wanted to bring the ball to the ground, and we weren’t even after winning those contests,” Longmire said.
Jamarra fends off the tackle for goal number FOUR 🔥
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🔢 MATCH CENTRE https://t.co/gCC6LB7apx pic.twitter.com/p8XabEzfcX— Fox Footy (@FOXFOOTY) July 28, 2024