This was certainly the round of surprises and shock.  First and foremost, the thing that shook the AFL to its core was the murder of the Adelaide Crows’ coach Phil Walsh late Thursday night/early Friday morning in Australia by his own son in some sort of domestic dispute.  The Crows were scheduled to play the Geelong Cats at home on Saturday night in Australia, but that game was cancelled and the decision was made to give each team 2 points, the same as they would have received if the match finished in a tie.  One game, Sydney-Port Adelaide, had already been played, so the other games went on as scheduled with the provision that there would be no music or other arena entertainment during games, the winning team’s song would not be played, and the players would link arms at the center square in remembrance after each game.  It made for a moving and powerful sight and it reminded me yet again of how many things the AFL gets right that the NFL and Goodell would absolutely botch.

As for the action on the field, there were quite a few surprises there as well.  Let’s dive in, shall we?

Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!

As mentioned before, the round started on Thursday night in Australia (Late Wednesday/early Thursday for us) with the Sydney Swans hosting Port Adelaide in a game crucial to the Power’s finals hopes.  Port hung tough all game, but the closest they could come was to tie the game up during the third term.  Sydney was ahead all game and finally pulled out the ten point win at the end. It was a courageous win considering the Swans were missing two of its stars due to suspension and during the game lost two more due to injury.  Here is Ted Richards getting

There were some highlights for Sydney too with Toby Nandervis getting his first ever goal:

and Adam Goodes showing the youngsters how it’s done

In the first game post-murder, Collingwood took on Hawthorn at the MCG.  Emotions were predictably high and the game was close throughout.  At one point in the fourth, the Magpies even took the lead but the Hawks reacted well and closed out the ten point victory. You can tell in these two highlights how hard fought and even the game was:

And then we get to the on-field surprises. In the first game on Friday night/early Saturday morning, the Richmond Tigers stormed back in the fourth quarter from a 15 point deficit to beat the GWS Giants by 7. The Tigers have now proven they are for real as they have climbed to within sniffing distance of a top four spot. Plus, it can’t hurt to have a guy with a glorious mullet taking down the opposition:

I am as in awe of that mullet as I am of the hit.

A much bigger surprise, however, was in store in the second game as the Gold Coast Suns destroyed the North Melbourne Kangaroos by 55. I had chalked this up as an easy victory for the Roos going into the round, but the Suns were powered by the return of their superstar Gary Ablett

doing the little things and the big things and inspiring his teammates.  This was certainly a much different Suns team than the one we’ve seen all season long.  The one highlight for North was this candidate for Mark of the Year by Lindsay Thomas:

In the next game, the newly resurgent Carlton Blues valiantly made a run in the fourth, but could not overcome the Western Bulldogs and fell by 11. The Blues started well with this great goal from a tight angle:

but then Caleb Daniel made a big impression despite his lack of height and scored a goal in his debut after coming on as a substitute at halftime:

At 5′ 6″ (167 cm), Caleb is shorter than me!  Which gives me hope that I too could have played AFL.  If I had ever set foot in Australia.  Or didn’t have a gut. Oh, to dream….

Finally putting some sense into the round, the West Coast Eagles took care of business against Melbourne by the tune of 54 points. This highlight pretty well summarizes the night for the Demons as Angus Brayshaw got hurt trying to make a tackle and had to be subbed out.

You know Deion Sanders is shaking his head and wondering why the hell he did that.

And now, to the big sporting surprise of the Round. Given that the death of Adelaide’s coach was a sad and horrible surprise, it was nice that we got a nice pleasant surprise at the end of this round.  Of course, you can disregard the previous sentence if you are an Essendon fan.  The pleasant surprise came in the form of a record setting 110 point destruction of the Bombers by the St. Kilda Saints.  This was the biggest winning margin by the Saints against Essendon ever and the most points scored against Essendon ever.  The final score was 162-52 and it was glorious to watch.

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Saints as they epitomize the lovable loser stereotype.  This year, however, they have a new attitude and their losses, while numerous, have been close.  The effort has always been there this season and it is a credit to their coach, Alan Richardson.  This week, they were rewarded with a thrashing of a team that was their equal in the standings but certainly not on the field.

Everything was going St. Kilda’s way, including this beautiful little dribble goal:

In the game that wrapped up the round, Fremantle handled the Brisbane Lions by 36 to maintain the top spot in the ladder.  The game was close up to the beginning of the fourth when a combination of the Lions’ inexperience and the Dockers’ physicality wore down Brisbane and caused the final margin to be as big as it was. Here is a taste of the way the game went:

Let’s take a look at the ladder, shall we?

As you can see, things are a bit weird as both Geelong and Adelaide show 12 games played, but their point totals are reflective of the 2 points they were given for this week’s cancelled match.  Those two points actually make the standings quite intriguing now.  I can almost guarantee that they will have great importance in who makes the finals and who doesn’t.  As the season progresses, it’s getting more and more interesting.

See you next week!

I’ll leave you with the circle of Hawthorn and Collingwood players in the first game after the murder: