Once again, the AFL Beat is delayed.  BUT THIS TIME I HAVE A GOOD REASON!

Keen observers, of which I am not, will have looked at last week’s post, seen the schedule of game for this Round, and realized that we had a Sunday Night Footy game!  Let me take that back, I did realize it, because I wrote it on the post, but I did not make the correlation that I could not publish the AFL Beat on Sunday afternoon with one game to go.  True, this does not explain why I am posting on Thursday Night/Friday Morning in the US, but anyway, tl:dr,

Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!

I was able to sleep in on Friday morning as the Friday Night Footy (in Australia) this week featured the Essendon Bombers facing the Hawthorn Hawks.  The only suspense was by how much the Hawks would win.  Which is what made the fourth quarter thrilling for me as I ended up only 8 points away in our Footy Tipping Contest having tipped the Hawks to win by 100.  They ended up winning by 108.  This is a pretty good microcosm of the Bombers’ night:

On North American Friday Night, the first game more than made up for the earlier contest as it was a really good and close game.  Port Adelaide hosted the Western Bulldogs and just barely lost, by 3.  Let’s take a look at the last two minutes, shall we?

Damn.  A classic case of too little too late.  Just like my love life.

The next game was the Cleveland Bowl matching up the hapless Fremantle Dockers with the equally hapless Brisbane Lions.  Alls I know is that Yeah Right should be feeling a lot better after the Dockers smashed the Lions by 83.  Hard to believe the Lions were up by 18 at one point, isn’t it?

Obviously, that didn’t last long.  The first of the two late night games had my #3 Geelong Cats facing the #1 North Melbourne Kangaroos.  Check that, BEATING the North Melbourne Kangaroos.  This was a sweet sweet victory and I’m bummed I missed it, but it was nice waking up in the morning and checking the score and seeing that we won by 31.  Were there highlights?  You betcha!

Patrick Dangerfield played his motherflipping ass off this game.  It was his best statistical game of his career and he has now solidly taken over the lead as the best player in the AFL.  This is actually statistically determined, it’s not me being a homer.

The last Friday night game was also expected to be close as the West Coast Eagles, who are nearly unbeatable at home, were hosting the Adelaide Crows.  Imagine my surprise when I woke up to see that the Crows won by 29.  To be fair, the game was tied in the fourth.  To be further fair, the Crows just ran over the Eagles at the end.  It wouldn’t be an Adelaide recap without an Eddie Betts highlight:

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This

is normally when I introduce you to a new AFL footballer.  However, as I’m writing the AFL Beat late, I’ll skip it for this week.  HOWEVAH, I will take advantage of this space to announce that the AFL announced the teams which were awarded women’s teams for the inaugural Women’s AFL league to begin next season.  In case you didn’t click the video, the teams are:  Brisbane Lions, Fremantle Dockers, GWS Giants, Adelaide Crows, Melbourne Demons, Western Bulldogs, Carlton Blues, and the Collingwood Magpies.  In addition, the league may expand in 2018 depending on the development of the game.  Although Geelong did not get a team, there is still hope for a team in 2018.

It’s a nice step forward for the AFL and it seems they are doing it the right way.  They will not be forcing it down people’s throats like the NBA tried to do.  Instead, they will let it grow on its own, let the game develop, and evaluate the talent pool before adding new teams.  Reason #9210 the AFL is run better than the NFL…

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On North American Saturday night, we had three games with the promise of an additional game on Sunday night (Monday in Australia) due to the Queen’s Birthday holiday.  Let’s begin with the St. Kilda Saints surprising the suddenly successful and surging Carlton Blues.  Yes, I did that on purpose.  You’re welcome. It’s always nice to lose your virginity with a win:

As expected, the Richmond Tigers took care of the Gold Coast Suns

with some good and unusual scoring:

The surprise of the Round was undoubtedly the GWS Giants hosting and shocking the #2 Sydney Swans in the latest edition of the Sydney Derby by 42!   They played very well:

like really well:

In the last match of the Round, which was shown LIVE on Fox Sports 1, the Melbourne Demons demolished the pride of the Collingwood Magpies to the tune of a 104-58 win. Max Gawn to kick you in the nuts:

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

Looks like reality has hit for the Bombers and the Lions.  My beloved Cats are now up to #2 and have a chance at #1 if the results go their way.  BTW, next week the Byes begin!  Here is the schedule:

Friday June 17

North Melbourne v Hawthorn at Etihad Stadium (2.50 AM) (LIVE on Fox Sports 2!)

Brisbane Lions v West Coast Eagles at Gabba (8.40pm) (LIVE on Fox Soccer Plus)

Fremantle v Port Adelaide at Subiaco Oval (11.35pm) (LIVE on Fox Sports 1!)

Saturday June 18

Western Bulldogs v Geelong at Etihad Stadium (2.25 AM) (LIVE on Fox Soccer Plus)

Sydney Swans v Melbourne at SCG (8.10pm)

Essendon v GWS Giants at Etihad Stadium (11.40pm)

Byes: Adelaide, Carlton, Collingwood, Gold Coast Suns, Richmond and St Kilda

Even though we have 3 less games, there are some really good matchups starting with North vs Hawthorn, continuing with Western vs Geelong, and then finishing with Sydney vs Melbourne.  That last one may be a bit of a blowout if the Swans react as they should after this week’s loss.

Here are the standings in our Footy Tipping Contest!

As always, I remind you to PUT THE TIP IN!

See you next week!