Six clubs enjoyed a week away from the rigours of competition in the Toyota 2018 AFL Premiership competition, so there were just six matches in Round 13.
The capper of the round and arguably the best game, was the Richmond Tigers win over the Geelong Cats by the score of 83 – 65 at Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Spectators were apparently in short supply beyond the Tigers – Cats match and Port Adelaide actually earned the dubious distinction of selling only 26,137 seats, the lowest attendance ever for an AFL match at Adelaide Open.
That is still well over double the 10,181 who passed through the gates of Metricon Stadium to watch the Saint Kilda Saints beat the Gold Coast Suns 80 – 78. At least the fans got something worth watching.
Such was not the case when the Hawthorn Hawks beat the Adelaide Crows 88 – 32 at MCG. The Crows are in a race to the bottom and have gone from pre-season premiership favourites to laughing stock. They are now in 11thposition and it would almost appear that only Brisbane and Carlton can prop the Crows and prevent them from seizing the spoon.
The Blues, in their game with the Fremantle Dockers, actually put up more points, 46, than did the Crows.
The other game on the week was the just mentioned Carlton v Fremantle, which wound up 103 – 46 in favour of the Dockers.
The Sydney Swans played host to the West Coast Eagles and ambushed them 72 – 57 at the Sydney Cricket Ground, a game attended by 36,402.
The AFL may need to change all the bulbs to LEDs in order to keep the light on at headquarters, but they can perhaps breathe a sigh of relief following Round 14, the last bye week before all 18 clubs spool up for the run home.
Adelaide, Freemantle, Geelong, Richmond, St. Kilda and Sydney have the rest week and in the case of one of those six, it might be wise to take the rest of the season off.
