For Geelong fans, that means

thanks to an embarrasing effort against Collingwood on Friday Night Footy (Friday morning for us in the US). For that story and more on who the final eight are and what the possible finals matchups will be, READ ON!

Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!

To borrow one of Chick Hearn’s “Chickisms”, Geelong’s chances of making the finals after last week’s draw with St. Kilda were Slim and None and Slim just left town.  They needed to win this round and have either North Melbourne or Adelaide lose this week to maintain any chance alive.  They promptly shat the bed in a 48 point drubbing on prime time.  Here is a good example of the type of play exhibited by both teams:

Geelong fans are now looking forward to the offseason when some old champions will depart and new faces will arrive to bring the club back to postseason contention.  On the bright side, Daniel Menzel came back from having gone through 4 knee reconstructions at the tender age of 23 to score four goals and show he still has what it takes to be an AFL star:

On Australian Saturday (Friday night for us), the GWS Giants started things off by thrashing Carlton at home by 81.  It’s clear the Blues just want this disaster of a season to be over, which is probably the same way their supporters feel.  Here is a nice hustle and skill goal from the Giants’ Adam Treloar:

Carlton’s Tom Bell did have a nice goal from the boundary line when the game was close:

The beatings continued as Hawthorn more than doubled up Brisbane at “home” in Tasmania.  The Hawks really like Launceton, as they have won 15 straight there. The Hawks are rolling going into the finals, but they definitely need to work on their high fives:

Jarryd Roughead (Important notes:  #1-Australians know how to spell that name the right non-pedo way and #2- This may be my second favorite AFL name after Steele Sidebottom) also scored a very nice and difficult goal:

Later, the North Melbourne Kangaroos hosted the Western Bulldogs in what may end up being a preview of one of the elimination finals.  The Doggies took this one in emphatic fashion with a final margin of 23 points.  Here is a nice bit of effort early in the game from the Roos:

Boomer Time indeed.  North’s Shaun Higgins scores a goal against his former team after a sweet tackle from Taylor Gardner:

but the Doggies would have the last laugh.  The two late night games were Richmond against Essendon and Port Adelaide against Gold Coast.  Richmond took care of business with a 27 point victory over the Bombers while Port continued playing well and beat the Suns by the magic number of

This is probably the highlight of the week for many reasons:

Aussie Rules reminds me so much of being in mosh pits.  There is a lot of pushing around and arms flailing, but ultimately everyone chills out and grabs a beer afterwards.  BTW, are mosh pits still a thing?  I’m old, so I have no idea…  There was some actual footy played:

Meanwhile, at the MCG, a soccer game broke out:

Saturday night (Sunday in Australia), Adelaide hosted the #2 team in the competition, the West Coast Eagles.  With Geelong’s loss, the pressure was off, but the Crows were looking to see how they matched up against the best teams in the league.  All I can say is that whoever draws them in the finals will be in for a tough time as the Crows dominated the Eagles for most of the game and won by 57.  I really liked the Crows at the beginning of the year and I’m starting to see again the form they showed at the beginning.  They may be co-favorites along with Hawthorn in my book.

They started off hot with a goal in the first 45 seconds of the game:

In fact, the lead was 50 after one quarter!  West Coast cut the lead in half during the second, but the Crows put their foot down again in the third and cruised the rest of the way.

The first of the two late games featured Sydney visiting the St. Kilda Saints.  I’m not sure if the Saints celebrated too much after last week’s draw with Geelong, but they barely showed to this one and lost by 97.   Here, Sydney’s Kurt “Just the” Tippett picked up a loose ball and capitalized on the opportunity:

On the last game of the round, the beatings continued as Fremantle expectedly doubled up the Melbourne Demons.  Here, the Dockers got a little sloppy (look at the score at the time) and let Melbourne grab a goal from a tough angle:

This is more representative of how the game went:

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

Fremantle have finished as the regular season champs.  Here are the final week’s key games:

Richmond host North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium

Geelong host Adelaide at Simonds Stadium

Port Adelaide host Fremantle at Adelaide Oval

Brisbane host Western at the Gabba

Hawthorn host Carlton at the MCG

Sydney host Gold Coast at the SCG

West Coast host St. Kilda at Domain Stadium

The key game that will determine the finals seedings will be Richmond-North.  All the other games should see the favorite win.  If Richmond wins and all other results go according to expectation, the Finals will be as follows:

First Qualifying Final

Fremantle hosts Sydney

Second Qualifying Final

West Coast hosts Hawthorn

First Elimination Final

Richmond hosts North Melbourne

Second Elimination Final

Western hosts Adelaide

If, on the other hand, North should beat the Tigers, the Finals will be as follows:

First Qualifying Final

Fremantle hosts Sydney

Second Qualifying Final

West Coast hosts Hawthorn

First Elimination Final

Western hosts North Melbourne

Second Elimination Final

Adelaide hosts Richmond

The excitement of playoff games is here!  See you next week!