liveSportAFL Round 15 Port Adelaide vs Brisbane Lions, GWS Giants vs Sydney Swans, Melbourne vs North Melbourne live updates — blog, scores and stats
Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley has responded after being roundly booed by his fans, who left the game against the Brisbane Lions early.
Meanwhile, the ladder-leading Sydney Swans locked up a 12th straight win after dominating the Battle of the Bridge against the GWS Giants.
Now, Melbourne will aim to get its season back on track in a clash against the Kangaroos at the MCG.
Follow the live blog below, keep up to date with all the latest stats in our ScoreCentre, and tune in to our live radio coverage.
Key events
To leave a comment on the blog, please log in or sign up for an ABC account.
Live updates
AFL Saturday scoreboard
By Chris De Silva
Match report: Sydney 15.12 (102) def GWS Giants 11.9 (75)
By Kyle Pollard
The Swans have continued their red-hot charge towards the AFL finals, beating cross-city rivals GWS by 27 points to make it 10 wins on the bounce.
The league leaders made the most of injured defender Sam Taylor's absence, at one stage piling on 10 unanswered goals on their way to a 16.12 (102) to 11.9 (75) victory at Sydney Showground.
GWS have now lost three of their past five games, while Sydney are sitting three games clear on top of the ladder.
Giants coach Adam Kingsley, who recovered from COVID just in time for Saturday's match, aimed to disrupt the Swans from the source and tasked Toby Bedford with nullifying Chad Warner.
The close attention mattered little for midfield bull Warner, who still managed two goals and 20 touches.
Errol Gulden led the statistics with a game-high haul of 41 disposals to win best-on-ground honours, while James Rowbottom brought the heat with 19 contested possessions.
Tom Green was the shining light for a disjointed Giants side missing Stephen Coniglio, while defender Lachie Whitfield got the upper hand on Swans forward James Jordon in their rematch.
Defender Leek Aleer also went to work on Joel Amartey, limiting the goalkicker to 0.1 after he kicked nine last week against Adelaide.
Sydney's Hayden McLean slotted the first goal of the game at the 20-minute mark as the Swans took a three-point lead into the quarter-time break.
The Giants snuck ahead courtesy of a Jesse Hogan goal, but their hopes of extending the lead were quickly snuffed out, with the visitors piling on 7.3 to 1.2 before the main break.
Debutant Max Gruzewski kicked two goals in a five-goal stretch across the second half to help bring GWS back into the contest, but an unrelenting Swans unit refused to give up their lead.
AAP
QT: Demons hold a comfortable break at the MCG
By Kyle Pollard
The Demons are four goals up at quarter time and that feels about right in this one.
North haven't looked awful, the Demons haven't looked brilliant, but there's just that little extra class of experience that has helped Melbourne get ahead in this one.
Jack Viney, Harry Sheezel, Steven May and Ed Langdon lead the disposal count with seven each.
And Petty kicks another one!
By Kyle Pollard
He missed an easier shot that this earlier in the game, but this one is straight as an arrow and goes through the middle.
Took the mark on a strong lead after a hurried kick from Sparrow out of the guts.
North desperately need a settler here.
Chandler gets the Demons' fourth
By Kyle Pollard
Kade Chandler gets taken high in the contest but plays on anyway through the pack and snaps the goal.
It's starting to look a bit concerning here for North. They're not playing badly but they do seem to be getting in each other's way a lot.
Max Gawn is also battling a bit after a whack in the throat but he seems mostly alright.
Turner converts the set shot
By Kyle Pollard
And now it's Dan Turner's go, as he converts a set shot from directly in front, about 25m out.
Max Gawn has the most touches on the field at the moment with six, and is looking ominous.
McDonald launches a monster on the run!
By Kyle Pollard
The brilliantly monikered Koltyn Tholstrup looks nervous about having a shot from the boundary about 40m out, so centres to the 50m mark where Tom McDonald launches a beautiful shot from distance and absolutely nails it.
Bit of an ugly one so far, but the Demons get the small break.
Socks up or socks down?
By Kyle Pollard
This is the sort of conversation we're here for on the national broadcaster on a Saturday night.
What's your preference? Socks up or down? Because Eddie Ford is rocking the socks up tonight and I've gotta say, I'm here for it.
It should be mandated.
North answers straight back!
By Kyle Pollard
Harry Sheezel has North's first after some lovely quick hands from North in the forward pocket.
Demons fans would have a strong argument that Paul Curtis should have been done for holding the ball after slipping while Clayton Oliver tackled him, but it's not to be.
Solid start from North so far.
Demons first on the board!
By Kyle Pollard
Kozzy Pickett snaps truly from bread and butter crumbing work after a nice contest from Harrison Petty.
Pickett is looking ominous early, he has the early two scores of the game.
Rare trip to the MCG for North
By Kyle Pollard
We are of course on air right now for ABC Sport, so tune in via your local channel, with the AFL button on the abc.net.au/sport homepage, and the ABC Listen app.
Corbin Middlemas raises an interesting stat with experts Nathan Burke and Brent Harvey, that this is just the 11th visit to the MCG for North Melbourne in a decade.
Only the Suns have played fewer games at the 'G in that time.
Welcome to the Demons v Kangaroos clash
By Kyle Pollard
Many thanks to Chris 'Runners' De Silva for taking us through the early Saturday games, and now we move onto the late one from the MCG as the Demons take on the Kangaroos.
My name is Kyle Pollard and I'm a late call up to guide you through this one, so in the heavily edited words of Eminem, 'this looks like a job for me, so everybody, just follow me live blogging Melbourne v North Melbourne'.
Let's have some fun.
LoadingDemons vs Kangaroos team news - No late changes
By Chris De Silva
Both Melbourne and North Melbourne will line up as originally selected at the MCG tonight.
FT: Swans continue streak with impressive win over Giants
By Chris De Silva
Another week, another win for Sydney and John Longmire's machine keeps rolling on!
The Swans were tested early by the Giants, but split the game open with a scintillating run of 10 straight goals which spanned the second and third quarters.
The final margin is just 27 points, but really this game wasn't that close.
Sydney just keeps passing every test with aplomb at the moment, and they just look a class above the rest of the competition.
Errol Gulden outstanding for the Swans with 41 disposals, while Brodie Grundy was again dominant in the ruck with 28 touches of his own.
Jordon kills off Giants comeback with a dribbler
By Chris De Silva
The Swans have responded well to the Giants challenge.
Having locked the ball inside their forward 50 for a few minutes, James Jordon eventually gets the goal as he snaps one through.
That's the Swans' fifth goal from stoppages tonight.
10 minutes to go at the Showgrounds
By Chris De Silva
It's a simple equation for the Giants here.
10 minutes left to play and they need five goals.
We've seen stranger things happen this season.
Cleary strikes with his first kick in AFL football
By Chris De Silva
CAIDEN CLEARY!
The debutant has only been on the ground for a matter of minutes, and he strikes with his first kick.
It's as easy as you'd like for Cleary, who receives a handball from Will Hayward in the goal square.
A massive goal for the Swans, that, because the Giants are coming and coming hard.
FIVE in a row for GWS as Kelly joins the party
By Chris De Silva
There is a definite momentum shift that's taken place here!
The Giants running all over the top of the Swans all of a sudden.
Josh Kelly snaps one through under immense pressure and Sydney's lead is down to 23 points.
GWS's pressure rating is at 211 in this quarter, the Swans have dropped right off.
The Giants have kicked seven of the last eight goals.
Riccardi makes it four straight for the Giants
By Chris De Silva
This one might not quite be done folks!
The Giants finally stringing some good ball movement together, and a deep kick inside 50 from Brent Daniels finds Jake Riccardi.
Riccardi kicks the Giants' fourth straight goal and the margin is under five goals now.
PLENTY of time for GWS. Just under 15 minutes left on the clock.
Debutant on the ground as Swans activate sub
By Chris De Silva
A nice moment here at the Showgrounds as the Swans flick their sub on.
Debutant Caiden Cleary on the ground for the injured Lewis Melican.