Andrew Walker

The highly decorated, 15-year, 305-game career of Geelong champion Jimmy Bartel has come to an end with Bartel announcing his retirement during the October trade period. While Bartel said he felt he had more to give, he "understood the bigger picture" and respected the direction in which the club wanted to move.

by Lisa Albergo reporting for AFANA from Chicago

500 games, brothers: the Selwood brothers will become the 11th set of brothers in League history to reach a combined total of 500 games in Round Eight. The breakdown is 182 games for Adam (WCE), 75 games for Troy (delisted by Brisbane), 142 games for Joel (GEEL) and 99 games for Scott (WCE).

The leading families in history are Daniher 752 games (Terry 313, Neale 82, Tony 233 and Chris 124); Madden 710 (Simon 378, Justin 332); Morwood 611 (Paul 170, Tony 229, Shane 212); Nankervis 578 (Ian 325, Bruce 253); Coventry 533 (Syd 227, Gordon 306); Richardson 518 (Wayne 277, Max 241); Ablett 515 (Geoff 229, Kevin 38, Gary Sr 248; Wakelin 513 (Shane 252, Darryl 261); Cornes 506 (Chad 255, Kane 251) and Shaw 502 (Ray 146, Tony 313, Neville 43).

Rick Browner reporting for AFANA from Patersons Stadium, Perth

With sixteen consecutive winning games at Patersons Stadium, the West Coast Eagles were favorites to win against the Carlton Blues. This was the 600th game for West Coast since entering the competition in 1987. Carlton has been on a slide going down as they struggle to win with key players out injured. The Eagles were coming off a bye and were well rested ahead of the game played in wet and wintry conditions.

A bumper crowd of nearly 43,000 fans witnessed an epic Semi-final contest in perfect football conditions in Perth. West Coast was charged up to win a game and go one step closer to a Grand Final berth. Carlton had never won a Finals match away from Melbourne but this did not seem to faze them as they produced a cracking start in the opening minutes of the game.

Carlton effectively ended Fremantle’s Finals’ hopes in a comprehensive demolition at Patersons Stadium in Round 21. Fremantle had won the last 12 of 14 encounters with Carlton and got off to a great start winning the ball from the first bounce down. Aaron Sandilands was back after injury and tapped the ball down for a Matthew Pavlich clearance. Pavlich chased up his own kick to goal within the first 30 seconds of the game.

Trent Cotchin (RICH), charging North Melbourne's Sam Wright: assessed as reckless conduct (two points), high impact (three points), and high contact (two points), equaling seven activation points, a Level Four offense, 425 demerits, and a four game suspension. Cotchin and the Richmond Football Club took the case to the Tribunal in an attempt to have the high contact classification dismissed and downgraded.