North Melbourne Trounces Port Adelaide
After completing the regular season undefeated with ten victories and one tie, the North Melbourne Kangaroos were favoured coming into the finals to be crowned champions.
However, in this sport there are no sure things, and each side must bring their best every weekend to progress in the finals.
Their opponents Port Adelaide were coming off an upset of second seeded Hawthorn and had all the confidence in the world that their Cinderella run could continue.
At IKON Park in Melbourne, the two sides clashed in a match that would unfortunately get out of hand rather quickly.
The heavily favoured Kangaroos showed early on that they were not going to underestimate their opponents by putting through four goals in the opening ten minutes of the match.
After that initial blitz Port Adelaide settled in and only gave up two behinds the rest of the quarter, but found themselves in a daunting 26-0 hole.
The second quarter wasn’t much better for the underdogs as North Melbourne would put up 26 more to make the score 52-0 before Port Adelaide finally got on the board with a pair of behinds just before the half.
The match was effectively over at this point. The second half saw North Melbourne take their foot off the gas pedal a little and Port Adelaide play a much stronger game.
They were able to muster 19 points in the half while only surrendering 28 but the damage had already been done and they never appeared as though they would cut into the North Melbourne lead with any significance.
With a final score of 78-21, North Melbourne was into the Grand Final with ease, awaiting the next day's game to find out their opponent.
Brisbane Comes from Behind to Beat Adelaide
The second of the two semi-final matchups was much more of an even matchup as Brisbane and Adelaide finished the regular season third and fourth on the ladder with just one victory separating them.
This was evident from the jump as both teams came out and didn’t allow an inch to their opposition.
Adelaide got on the board first with a trio of behinds to which Brisbane responded rapidly with three of their own. The score held at three-all until the 15th minute when Adelaide found the matches opening goal to lead 9-3.
The second quarter followed a similar theme as neither team could pull away but the pitch opened up and more scoring was prevalent.
It was Adelaide initially taking advantage as they worked up to a 17-4 lead. Brisbane quickly responded with their first goal of the match to cut the lead to seven. Just four minutes later they would find another to make the score 17-16. Just before the half Adelaide scored again to go up 23-16.
After being on the back foot for much of the first half, the second was all Brisbane. The Lions outscored the Crows 25-2 in the third quarter to take a commanding 41-25 lead heading into the fourth and final frame.
Adelaide was unable to shift gears in the fourth as Brisbane had upped their level and refused to let their lead slip. Adelaide finally put through their first goal of the half in the 17th minute but it was too little too late as the match had gotten away from them and Brisbane ultimately won 50-32.
With the win Brisbane kept their hopes of repeating as champions alive.
The AFLW season is now approaching it’s final weekend as the Grand Final is upon us. The competitors are familiar as a rematch of last year’s final with North Melbourne and Brisbane is in store with North looking to complete an undefeated season and avenge last year’s loss.
