AFL Women’s Power Rankings: Round 6 2017

Only three clubs can now win the first AFL Women’s premiership: the Brisbane Lions – who have locked up the right to host the Grand Final – and Adelaide and Melbourne, who will fight for second place next week. My Power Rankings now have them all as very close together, after the Demons beat the Crows in Adelaide last week and Brisbane had only a narrow win against the Bulldogs. Based on the rankings each of the three teams’ chances of winning the flag really comes down to their current ladder position, with Brisbane having the best chance – as it will host the Grand Final at home – while Melbourne must rely on an Adelaide loss next week to move into second spot.

At the other end of the rankings GWS will likely finish the season as the lowest ranked team after being well beaten by Collingwood, despite the Dogs being last on the actual ladder. The Dogs though will have a chance to avoid getting the ‘wooden spoon’ when they play the Giants next week. Even with GWS’ home ground advantage the rankings like the Dogs’ chances, given that they have performed much better than their ladder position suggests in recent weeks.