AFL WOMEN’S Rankings: Round 6 2021

The OG’s beat up on the new kids.

As predicted in last week’s post Round 6 of AFLW was one-sided, with the final aspirants – which aside from the Kangaroos consist of the competition’s original teams – easily beating the lower, newer sides. The average winning margin was nearly eight goals. However, since many of those teams were expected to win easily, their ranking points did not change much or even fell. The main teams that gained several ranking points included Collingwood for their six goal win against a Bulldogs side still competing for a finals spot, and Melbourne with their larger-than-expected win against a Saints team that had won a couple of games this season.

Fortunately, next week’s matches – possibly not coincidentally – are a more interesting prospect. The eight finals hopefuls play off against each other (while the other six teams try to get a rare win). The rankings predict that the field of finals contenders may effectively get narrowed to six teams, with the seventh and eighth placed teams – the Bulldogs and Carlton – tipped to be handily beaten by their opponents (the Kangaroos and Fremantle) next week.

Even if the finals race looks like it’s sorting itself out though the battle for one of the prized top two spots – which comes with a first week ‘bye’ in the finals, and hence one less win required for the premiership – could come down to the wire. The Brisbane-Collingwood matchup in Queensland looms as an important one. A Lions win will place them above the Pies, while a Collingwood win will put them two wins ahead of Brisbane with just two rounds to go.