We have now entered the confusing section of the season where the ladder shapes itself awkwardly to accommodate the debated bye-rounds. Still, Collingwood sits pretty atop the table while the Power separated themselves comfortably inside the top two.
Brisbane, St Kilda, Fremantle and Sydney will get their chance to catch up with the rest after their week off while Geelong and Gold Coast now wait to see who may rise above them in the meantime.
With plenty to ponder after the weekend of footy, let's dive into the winners and losers of Round 12.
Winners
The interim coaches
North Melbourne and Richmond have found themselves in precarious positions into the mid-point of season 2023, with Alastair Clarkson temporarily stepping away from his duties and Damien Hardwick giving his role a rest after nearly 14 years at the helm.
Despite an 0-3 record during his brief stay at Arden Street so far, the energy, effort and fight that Brett Ratten has pulled out of his players since stepping in has been gallant.
They may have deserved the win in Round 10, but that controversial three-point loss to Sydney began a three-week stretch of form we haven't seen for some time from the Shinboners.
They confronted all expectations in their performance against the juggernaut Magpies by falling by 35 points (about 10 goals less than expected).
Their most recent outing against the Bombers saw their young guns shine once again to test a quality opposition and require a full four-quarter effort to be beaten by six points.
A clash against the Giants in Tassie presents a major opportunity to collect their third win of the year and a first under Ratten.
For the Tigers, the departure of Damien Hardwick essentially surrendered their season and brought upon the opportunity for Andrew McQualter to hone his coaching craft in the big time.
Their 10-point loss to the second-placed Power was admirable, but their weekend win over the Giants in a Sydney Showground shoot-out releases the pressure of notching that first win in unforeseen circumstances.
Moreover, to win their first close game in over two years in Tim Taranto's return to GWS should have McQualter sleeping soundly until their clash with Fremantle this Saturday in Perth.
Darwin-based Gold Coast supporters
There hasn't been much to celebrate for Suns fans during Gold Coast's 13-year history, but those passionate followers based near Marrara in the Northern Territory would be thrilled with the past 18 months of footy from their side at TIO Stadium.
2022 saw Gold Coast thrash North Melbourne and Hawthorn by a combined margin of 129 points in back-to-back weeks at this venue, leaving fans eager to watch them take the field again in 2023.
Once again, they have not disappointed, in fact, they have exceeded expectations dramatically by knocking two of the form teams of the competition in consecutive weeks.
Matt Rowell, Jarrod Witts, Noah Anderson, Jack Lukosius and Bailey Humphrey all shone in a thrilling seven-point win over the Bulldogs last weekend, but a clash against the Adelaide Crows fresh off defeating Brisbane presented another major challenge.
The Suns passed with flying colours; kicking five goals to two in the final quarter to ice the Crows in a proud performance again led by Anderson, Lukosius, Witts and the like.
Fans will be thrilled to welcome back their fellow Suns to Darwin in the years to come, especially this whip-cracking character.
We love you Darwin (yes this is real) ❤️ pic.twitter.com/FT9gnUwLei
— Gold Coast Suns (@GoldCoastSUNS) June 3, 2023
Ken Hinkley
He may have been the coach under more duress than any other entering the season, but 12 games into 2023, Ken Hinkley has taken control of the narrative surrounding his position with 10 wins and a two-game cushion within the top two.
Their 55-point thrashing of Hawthorn last Saturday afternoon sustained a club-record nine-game winning streak and brought about the first 100-point first half since 2019.
Hinkley has his men running out with a pride and passion that screams of a team playing for their coach.
The pressure on the Port Adelaide management builds week after week with Hinkley coaching the way he is and Hardwick waiting on the sidelines.
The finals series may be the deciding factor in Hinkley's tenure at Alberton and it will be an exciting watch as the season reaches its boiling point.
Losers
Deficient Dogs
Things change quickly in the AFL business. No team understands that more than the Western Bulldogs after the weekend just gone.
Two weeks in a row they have cost themselves with poor accuracy and poor decision-making both on the field and in the box in games they were favoured in.
Lacklustre forward 50 entry limited their chances against Gold Coast as they butchered the ball to the hands of Sam Collins and Charlie Ballard.
The decision to position Rory Lobb on the wing against Geelong to accommodate James O'Donnell up forward was perplexing and may have impacted the final result.
However, the main fault lies in their poor goal-kicking over the past four weeks and particularly in the last two matches.
Both weeks they had more scoring shots than their opponent and in both weeks they cost themselves late. Poor misses from Aaron Naughton, Jamarra Ugle-Hagan and others have put them in vulnerable positions too often and may affect their standing at the business end of the season.
The bump
Saturday brought yet another case study in the examination of what the AFL is desperate to remove from the game.
This scenario seems to have been amplified more than others, given the polarising culprit at the forefront of it in Jordan De Goey.
Notable critic of De Goey, Kane Cornes called his high bump on young Eagle Elijah Hewett a "weak act" on the Sunday Footy Show, adding salt to the emotional wounds of De Goey, who will be sidelined for at least 4 weeks including the bye, and including next Monday's King's Birthday epic between Collingwood and Melbourne.
The action will likely have him suspended for 3-4 matches with a chance of more if the AFL decide to make a statement, figuratively.
It also adds to the collection of head-high bumps in 2023 which unfortunately began dramatically in Round 1 with three acts that were deemed suspendable, generating public debate over the status of the bump in football.
Whether the bump is dead or not, sensical people can agree with the sentiment to eliminate the head-high hit from our game.
Die-hard footy watchers
While the passionate footy folk would have been thrilled to witness both Sunday thrillers without overlap in the matches, many will not excuse the conflicting time slots for two key matches of the round on Saturday night.
Fans were essentially treated to back-to-back pre-determined matches on Saturday afternoon. The second-placed Power faced off against the spoon-contending Hawks at the Adelaide Oval before the worst team in the comp faced the best team, with West Coast hosting Collingwood.
That left two highly anticipated matches to be played at the same time, much to the dismay of those who love two upset wins more than one.
Fans were forced to choose between watching the undermanned Cats kick their way to an unlikely victory over the in-form Dogs, or watch the rising Suns take down the dangerous offensive machine in the Adelaide Crows to really heat up the top 8 race.
Both options produced high-quality games not to be missed by the passionate footy-lover, yet the AFL continue to see the management of its fixture fall flat on its face.
It's a simple fix which requires minor adjustments, but it's time to remove the unnecessary overlap between matches in the AFL and to apply common sense to the inevitable Saturday night conflict.
Let's hope Andrew Dillon can kick off his CEO tenure with a bang by making the appropriate changes for 2024 and onward.
