#poor john higgins though - ANOTHER final he's lost :(

[robboselbs-evansdoorne]

my favourite pattern in Snooker is back - first Robbo wins a title and then exactly one week later Selby wins the next one!

[footyplusau]

After the siren: Best weekend ever? It’s right up there

IN TERMS of drama and impact, nothing will ever beat the final round of the home and away season in 1987.

Hawthorn champion Jason Dunstall’s last-minute goal at Kardinia Park knocked Geelong out of the finals and paved the way for Melbourne to make it for the first time in 23 years by beating Footscray at the Whitten Oval.

Meanwhile at Waverley, Carlton kept the Hawks from claiming top spot – and the precious week’s break that came with it – courtesy of Stephen Kernahan’s goal after the siren.

But the weekend of footy just gone comes awfully close. Hawthorn’s fabulous win over Adelaide on Thursday night at Adelaide Oval (17th beating first for the second straight week) might have stood up all weekend.

Yet the events that followed over the next 72 hours had already consigned it to the “ancient history” basket by Sunday night.

We’ll get to the Hawks a bit later. Let’s start instead with the really close ones. This was the first round since round 23, 2013 to have two one-point results. Add the West-Coast Melbourne and Geelong-Fremantle games and you have four games decided by less than one kick – giving us a weekend of drama and excitement not seen for, well, 30 years.

• The run home: How the race for the finals is shaping up

Comeback Cats do it without Joel

As he sat dazed on the bench after the head clash that sent him off the ground after just one minute on Sunday, Joel Selwood was entitled to wonder whether, after so many games over the last decade in which he carried his side to victory, that gesture would be reciprocated.

Thankfully for him it was, and the two-point win over Fremantle turned out to be one of Geelong’s bravest for years.

By the final quarter, Tom Stewart and Darcy Lang were also out of action, yet it was the Cats who finished all over the tiring Dockers, who at one stage during a mesmerising second quarter led by nearly six goals.

WATCH: The thrilling final minutes at Simonds Stadium

It might have been at home in front of their adoring fans, but such a win can only fuel the belief at Geelong that anything is possible this year. We’ve moved on from the ‘Dangerwood’ phenomenon at Geelong this year, but to claw back and win in the fashion the Cats did without one of them, bodes well for what is to come for the rest of the year.

A grand old flag? Win in the west gets Dee faithful dreaming

Saturday night marked Melbourne’s first win over West Coast since 2009 and the first by the Demons over West Coast in Perth since 2002.

They had no business winning the game, really. Jack Watts, Jesse Hogan and Nathan Jones were watching on TV on the other side of the country while a fourth star, Jack Viney was running around with a crook shoulder.

• Nine things we learned from round 14

Yet the toughness and the versatility for which they’ve become renowned in 2017 came to the fore. Viney was magnificent after spending part of the third term off the ground and Clayton Oliver (despite an awful theatrical flop to the ground right on half-time) relished the hard contest.

Demon takes on ex-Test cricketer in Twitter spat

And then there was the career-best five-goal haul to Tom McDonald. Usually a defender, the absences of Max Gawn, Hogan and Watts have required him to play everywhere but in defence, and he has emerged as one of the better swingmen in the competition.

And that goal to put the Demons ahead just before the death was superb. A bit lucky, but superb nonetheless.

WATCH: McDonald’s five hauls Dees across the line

Social media was abuzz afterwards as to whether the Demons are premiership material. Footy history suggests this group might need to experience some finals footy heartbreak first, but with the best ruckman in the competition and the right blend of speed, hardness, scoring power and flexibility, Melbourne’s premiership window is open. In this new era of AFL parity, why not this year?

Dogs thrill, but 2016 still a distant memory

About a quarter of an hour earlier, the Western Bulldogs outlasted North Melbourne to win by a point, having led for most of the night.

Only in the final seconds of the game, when they went coast-to-coast to get the ball to Jake Stringer for the match-winning point, did they resemble the premiership winning team of last season. Otherwise, they played in fits and spurts and it is hard not to hark back to 12 months ago when the Bulldogs would have put this game to bed much earlier.

WATCH: The final thrilling minutes of WB v NM

The umpiring will be a talking point out of this one – the 26-14 free kick count (which at one stage was about 14-2) and episodes such as Shaun Higgins being called to play on by the non-controlling umpire 40m away just before half-time will dominate the Monday AFL talkfests this week.

Frustrated Scott not dwelling on costly free kicks

The Dogs have been mainly good at home but woeful away and are going to have to manufacture some wins at places such as Adelaide Oval, Cazalys Stadium and Eureka Stadium before the end of the year to a) make the finals and b) enter them with any degree of confidence. After Saturday’s clash with the Eagles they play just three more games at Etihad Stadium for the year.

Swans get the little things right in huge win

The night before at the SCG was insane. What is it about Sydney, Essendon and close finishes?

But while the spotlight will be about the Bombers and the number of errors they made in the final few minutes, the takeaway should also be about how well the Swans played the last few minutes. Heath Grundy and Callum Mills made some enormous defensive plays and player after player made the correct decision during those same frantic contests.

WATCH: The final two minutes of the Swans’ thrilling win

It’s what you get with a mature group that is never out if the game and is a product of one of the best coaching set-ups in the AFL. John Longmire looked as though he couldn’t believe what he saw, but in fact, he shouldn’t have been too surprised. He has engineered the Swans to finish the game as they did.

• Forecast the road to the flag with the AFL Ladder and Finals Predictor

Clarko’s still the king of coaching

Hawthorn’s triumph on Thursday night was another triumph of coaching. Adelaide’s forward line contained Eddie Betts, Taylor Walker, Josh Jenkins, Tom Lynch, Wayne Milera, Hugh Greenwood and Andy Otten. The Hawks countered with Kaiden Brand, Blake Hardwick, Ryan Burton, Taylor Duryea, Luke Hodge, Grant Birchall and James Sicily.

On paper the Crows win that every time, but Alastair Clarkson’s brilliantly crafted defensive game-plan didn’t let the Crows get the easy goals out the back, which has been their modus operandi for much of the year.

The Hawks recalled 774 games of experience to their side and it showed. Birchall was a key inclusion and it was a night where the veteran savvy of both Hodge (how fantastic was it having him mic’d up by Channel Seven?)  and Shaun Burgoyne came to the fore. We still don’t see Hodge playing next year, but giving Burgoyne another year at this stage appears a no-brainer, even though the Hawks should rightly wait until the end of the season before making the call.

But the most important person at Hawthorn right now is Clarkson. In a fascinating interview on ABC radio on Saturday he gave every impression of someone determined to stick around for the rebuild, even if nobody at Waverley is calling it such. He remains the best in the business, as Thursday night in Adelaide amply demonstrated.

Other observations

1. It’s all about the wins for the Tigers these days, so excuse the lack of style in their defeat of Carlton on Sunday. Things such as poor conversion can be worked out to a degree at training, but the Blues came at them several times and the Tigers held their nerve. Bachar Houli likely won’t be playing any time soon after what was one of the most uncharacteristic reportable acts in recent memory.

2. Fortress Subiaco? Perhaps not. Saturday night was the first time since 2010 that West Coast has lost a game at Domain Stadium by less than a goal, having won the previous seven. West Coast’s last four games at home this season have been decided by an average margin of eight points. It is becoming increasingly likely that West Coast’s round 23 clash with Adelaide there will be the last AFL game before the move to the new stadium next year, because hopes of a home final for either the Eagles or the Dockers are fading fast.

3. This was the second time this season North Melbourne has lost by one point, and North in 2013 is actually the last team to lose two one-point games in the same season. Adding further salt, they’ve played in five one-point games since 2011 and lost them all. 

4. Hayden Ballantyne’s value to Fremantle was evident from the very start against the Cats on Sunday and he was a factor until he ran out of petrol tickets in the final quarter. He’ll be better for the run, as they say, and Ross Lyon will be delighted to finally have him back.

5. Compared to the lofty standards set elsewhere this weekend, Saturday’s Collingwood-Port Adelaide clash was a relatively drab affair. But the brilliant work of Robbie Gray, especially in the first half, was worth the price of admission alone and his five-goal haul was easily his best return in 12 games at the MCG to date. Ken Hinkley made the point post-match that Gray wasn’t hurt, which hopefully for Port’s sake is a portent of what is to come for the rest of the year.

WATCH: Robbie Gray’s MCG masterclass

6. Expect some of South Australia’s best investigative football journalism this week as the locals examine how North Adelaide’s Ryan Burton slipped twice through Adelaide’s grasp at the 2015 NAB AFL Draft and found his way to Hawthorn. Those two third-quarter goals against the Crows were all class and Burton now shapes as the best first draft pick made by the Hawks since Cyril Rioli a decade ago. He’s signed through until the end of next year, but some of that extra money the Hawks now have thanks to the new CBA will surely find its way into Burton’s bank account before too long.

7. Dayne Beams can’t take a trick and let’s hope the Lions captain, who has been riddled with injury since moving home two-and-a-half years ago, gets on the ground again this year. Beams stood no chance up against Shane Mumford, who as long as he keeps things legal, will scare the bejeezus out of the Giants’ opponents between now and the end of the year.

• Around the state leagues: Who starred in your club’s twos?

8. Relax, Saints fans. Cool your jets everyone else. Jack Billings (30 disposals and a goal against Gold Coast on Sunday) is becoming a super footballer and is on track to give the club all it could hope for from a No.3 draft pick.

WATCH: Jack Billings puts on another show

9. We have the technology but… goal line reviews are still sketchy. Thursday night and twice on Friday night, the TV pictures weren’t quite clear cut to support what the naked eye seemed to show. Some clarification from the AFL on Monday about want the goalpost padding means when it comes to the ball crossing the goal-line would be helpful as well.

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