Essendon

In a week when two coaches re-signed and clubs bypassed the allure of the available and eager-to-coach-again Alastair Clarkson, and with a review going on ...

The umpires have seemingly told Ginnivan to re-think his approach for he cannot assume he will get the free. A decision on David Noble’s future has most likely been taken at North and one result does not decide what happens to a coach, but this was a performance that had about it a side that wanted to show something. The Magpie small forward was denied a free kick most players this year would have been paid for high contact. He is on a sizeable contract but has not found the form or the trajectory in his career his first year pointed towards. There have at least been signs amid the rubble of the season when you see games like that from LDU, Larkey, and McKay. Luke McDonald and Aiden Bonar were very good, and Curtis Taylor again showed a bit. Luke Davies-Uniacke, on the other hand, had the breakout game of his career. This is the first time the Suns could be thought of as a team with grit. For Richmond, this was a defeat of potentially devastating consequence for their season. Suddenly, North next week is a danger game, given the way the Roos played on Saturday. Brisbane were still a top-four team playing a bottom-four team and they still had a midfield of Lachie Neale, Jarryd Lyons, Cam Rayner and Hugh McCluggage, with Oscar McInerney in the ruck. They also had nearly double the number of uncontested possessions, which reflected their ball movement and how they liked to chain the play. They have now beaten Sydney and Brisbane in successive weeks and accounted for St Kilda prior to that.