The big winners of Round 6 were...
Western Bulldogs. No Sam Darcy? No worries!
It looked as though their Round 6 clash with St Kilda was going to be case of everything going wrong when they went into quarter-time trailing the Saints a fter the 2024 Rising Star nominee went down in agony with what many immediately feared to be a significant ACL injury. Darcy was fortunately cleared of an ACL tear on Sunday morning but was diagonised with an 'impaction fracture' as well as ligament damage to the back of the knee, which will require surgery.
A return for Darcy in 2025 has not yet been ruled out, whilst the team marched on in his absence to pile on 18 goals to record a 71-point victory despite being just -10.5 point favourites.
Best still, they finished the Round inside the top-eight with a 3-3 record and took a load of pressure off head coach Luke Beveridge, who began the year as one of the most likely coaches to face a mid-season sacking.
Beveridge admitted after the match that it's "fair to say that we’re a bit concerned" about Darcy's prognosis, but he should certainly be encouraged by how they fared without him.
Their next three weeks - GWS (away), Port Adelaide (home) and Gold Coast (away) - is a period likely to teach us a lot about how strong their finals credentials really are.
The big losers of Round 6 were...
Brisbane Lions head coach Chris Fagan has a lot to think about after the defending premiers fell to a half-time deficit for the fourth time this season, this time in front of a sold out Gabba crowd.
But whereas they were able to overcome an average deficit of 31 points across four of their five wins (all but the Richmond one), this time Collingwood offered no mercy and no relief beyond half-time. Fagan can perhaps draw some confidence from the fact his side suffered 50+ point losses within the first seven rounds of both the 2024 and 2023 seasons, but he slammed their slow starts in 2025 as "unsustainable".
The loss was also defined by vision of Fagan and club captain Dayne Zorko having a brief verbal dust-up on the sidelines, which Fagan later explained was a stern warning to Zorko to calm down and refrain from future on-field dissent.
Between that and Lachie Neale taking to his Instagram account on the weekend to describe perpetrators of anonymous social media abuse as "a stain on society", it appears that things are a bit unsettled in Springfield at present. Their Round 8 Q-Clash against Gold Coast Suns shapes up to be a very consequential and important clash.
2025 Coleman Medal race: Higgins' trio slots him into third
It was a very quiet weekend for some of the leading sharpshooters of the competition.
The likes of Nick Larkey, Ben King, Riley Thilthorpe and Josh Treacy all were held to single goal returns, meaning that Jack Higgins' three for St Kilda in their heavy loss to the Dogs was enough to see him jump into the top five.
Jesse Hogan retains Coleman Medal favouritism despite missing Round 6 with a calf injury, having kicked 15 goals in his three appearances.
