AFL Round 14 Review: Poor kicking costs Lions and Demons yet again

Aaron Murphy

There's a lot of pride to be restored amongst the pride and Chris Fagan is struggling to hide his worries.James Elsby / AFL Photos / Getty Images via AFP

Collingwood would have enjoyed their bye weekend despite their lead at the summit being halved, whilst it's hard to make a finals case for nine of the 18 clubs on current form.

The big winners of Round 14 were...

Hawthorn Hawks for a second consecutive week - and after they picked up a second straight significant scalp, who can argue against it?

They were on notice after a trio of losses to Gold Coast, Brisbane and Collingwood prompted a multitude of questions about whether they deserved to be a finalist, let alone a Premiership contender, and responded with gritty victories over both the Bulldogs and Crows to sit outside the top four only on percentage.

This one was described by head coach Sam Mitchell as "the best win of the season", pointing to his team's ability to win the final tackle count 79-74 after being ten behind in that particular category at quarter time.

A cold Friday night in Launceston created slippery conditions that made ball handling difficult and straight kicking even tougher, but sometimes it's the ugly wins that can be the most inspirational in turning a team's campaign around.

Don't forget the Hawks' fantastic turnaround last year was prompted by an unexpected win over the Bulldogs and then an aesthetically unpleasant 58-53 win over St Kilda in Launceston, albeit one month earlier in the year.

They'll be hoping that history repeats itself from here to some extent.

Honourable mention: The Bulldogs kept just ahead of Geelong for most points per game in 2025 (103 to 102) and returning forward Sam Darcy produced a performance that had Wayne Carey describe him as the league's "most valuable commodity".

The big losers of Round 14 were...

Brisbane Lions once again as their Premiership defence continues to find new ways to stumble.

They've now failed to win at the odds of $1.20 (GWS Giants), $1.14 (Melbourne) and $1.09 (North Melbourne) and have already suffered three defeats at The Gabba this year.

The one saving grace from their poor form is that they lost their first three home games of the 2024 season, proving that it's by no means the end of their 2025 campaign, but the signs must be worrying for Lions fans.

They lacked intensity and pressure against the Giants last weekend, laying just 28 tackles which is less than half of the league average of 60 per game this season, and in the process they were unable to stop the pair of Aaron Cadman and Jesse Hogan (11 goals combined), not helped by what has since been confirmed to be a season-ending injury for defender Jack Payne.

Fagan is going to have to work some magic for his team to defeat the Cats in Geelong on Friday night, otherwise they'll fall six points behind the top-two with five other clubs breathing down their necks.

Dishonourable mention: For the third consecutive week, Melbourne lost with as many if not more scoring shots than their conquerors. They're shooting for goal at a league-worst accuracy of 41.4% and it's really hurting now.