What a strange round of football.
There were draws, delays, fixture changes, crowds, no crowds, upsets and eye-opening results.
With that in mind, here’s what we learned from Round 18:
Richmond’s season was alive again...until it wasn't
The Tigers responded after a horror month with a big win over Brisbane on Friday night.
In Jack Riewoldt’s 300th, the side found its spark again, with their finals chances reignited again after four consecutive losses…that was until Saturday morning when Dustin Martin was ruled out for the season.
The superstar succumbed to a nasty kidney injury after coming off second best in a collision with hard nut Mitch Robinson.
After being hit with the injury bug across the season, the loss of Martin looms as the final blow, with the already stuttering Tigers likely to miss finals without their superstar on the field.
At least it’s come at a time where the Tiges’ weren’t looking like a premiership threat.
He and Richmond will be hoping to come back firing in 2022.
We don’t have a clear flag favourite
It’s Round 18, and we are no closer to anointing a clear flag favourite.
To be honest, it’s actually quite an exciting thing for football fans knowing that there’s potentially six clubs that have genuine flag claims.
Melbourne have the best record against their fellow finals sides, but they often look so average on a bad night.
The Bulldogs are electric at their best, but they’re not consistent enough.
Geelong could be the one, but they almost lost by 10 goals to Brisbane just a few weeks ago.
Port Adelaide have a poor record against teams above them, while Brisbane look unlikely without Eric Hipwood.
It’ll be interesting to see if one emerges as the clear best in the coming weeks…it’s there for the taking for any of them.
Footy isn’t the same without fans
The AFL did incredibly well to keep our season going and the round ticked off with both Melbourne and Sydney in lockdown.
Obviously, the games at the MCG and Marvel Stadium were in front of empty stands, while some games at Metricon felt like there wasn’t a soul in attendance.
That’s not the AFL’s fault, but footy just doesn’t have the same appeal without fan noise and presence.
Imagine how loud the MCG would have been as Carlton got on top of Collingwood in the last term on Sunday, it’s a shame that finish was played out in front of no one.
Hopefully we’re through this soon and we’re all back at the footy before the season’s out.
St Kilda missed their shot...literally
St Kilda missed a golden opportunity to stake its finals claims against Port Adelaide on Saturday afternoon.
After being unable to capitalise on a dominant first term, the Saints were made to rue their missed chance as the Power took the lead before half-time and held them at bay for the remainder of the clash.
As has been the issue for the majority of the year, kicking 0.7 from set shots will particularly pain Brett Ratten and his coaching staff, with several losses this year coming down to poor conversion.
With an 8-9 record and a poor percentage, it’s going to take something special for the Saints to make the eight from here.
Their chances may have just died this weekend.
Lock in the top six
We all know there’s a clear top six in the competition this year, and the ladder properly reflects that now.
Sixth placed Sydney are two wins ahead of West Coast in seventh, and three wins ahead of Essendon in eighth along with the chasing pack.
With just five games remaining, it’s just about certain that Melbourne, Western Bulldogs, Geelong, Port Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney will host at least one home game in the finals series.
It’d be a fair shock at this stage if they weren’t the remaining teams in it come semi-final week.
It’s a big week for Brisbane
Brisbane slipped out of the top four for the first time since Round 9 after their loss to Richmond.
With just five rounds left, they’ll need to be near perfect from here to break back in.
There’s no doubt they have the ability to do it, but they’ll need to get there without Eric Hipwood.
The loss of the star forward was evident to see against the Tigers, with the Lions looking a little toothless in attack.
There’s enough talent there to pick up the slack, it might just take them a little time to find their mojo again.
They’ll be hoping it comes to them this week before they face a Hawthorn side that nearly knocked off Melbourne.