We are FINALLY done with the Bye weeks!  This was the last of the Bye Rounds and we will return to our regular schedule next Round.  In the meantime, what happened this week?

Quite a bit, actually.  Let’s dive in.

Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!

Again, we had a Thursday Night Footy game which aired in North America on Thursday morning.  Unfortunately, it was the West Coast Eagles hosting the Essendon Bombers and I don’t think even people in Melbourne bothered to watch that.  The only drama was how much the final margin would be.  As you will find out when you scroll down to see the update on our Footy Tipping Contest, I did very well in guessing a 69 point margin.  To be fair, the Bombers kept the score pretty close until the fourth quarter when the bottom fell out.  Here is an example of their early success:

I managed to catch the end of the third and most of the fourth before work and it just seemed like Essendon’s legs gave out as you can see here:

It became a true rout and the margin wasn’t higher because there wasn’t more time on the clock.

The Friday Night Footy game (Friday morning in North America) was slightly more competitive, but only slightly.  Port Adelaide showed they are the best of the non-Eight, but that still leaves them out of the finals, most likely.  They soundly beat the Richmond Tigers at home by a score of 94-56. I’m not sure he meant to do this, but it counted anyway:

I’m pretty sure he did mean to do this:

On proper Friday night, the first of three games matched up the lowly Gold Coast Suns at home against the St. Kilda Saints that were fresh off knocking off the then-league-leading Cats.  Easy victory for the Saints, right?

Yup, the Suns beat the Saints.  Handily.  They started out super hot in the first

and kept right on going

If you thought that was the surprise of the Round, you obviously fell asleep before the next game, Sydney hosting the Western Bulldogs.  Somehow someway the Doggies managed to get out of Sydney with a 4 point win!  Let’s take a look at the last two minutes:

Holy shit. That’s BALLS!  Incredible finish.  If you look at the graph on the AFL website link above, you’ll see exactly how crazy this game was.  I suggest a rewatch if you can do it.

The last game on Friday night which really turned into Saturday morning was the classic clash of Carlton v Collingwood.  This one went to the Pies as they avenged their earlier loss this year to the Blues. The Pies now join the Blues on 24 points and the big pack of mediocre teams outside of the eight but above the truly crappy teams. Carlton won’t be doing the dance after gifting the Pies a goal here:

This was amazing defence played by Pies to stop a likely Blues goal:

The last game of the Round was played on North American Saturday night (Sunday in Australia) and featured the Adelaide Crows visiting the Melbourne Demons. The Demons have been more than decent this year while the Crows sometimes struggle away from home, so there was a mild chance for an upset.  It certainly looked possible at halftime as the Demons led.  The Crows, however, took over the lead early in the second half and did not look back in winning 120-98.  Here is some early goodness from the Demons

followed by an example of what brought the Crows the victory

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

Now that the byes are over, it is much easier to look at the ladder and project.  Well, the only clear thing is that the Eight look set.  I would be surprised if Port is able to get back in it.  The suspense now is to see where everyone ends up within the Eight.  Since we are now DONE with byes, we are back to 9 games next week.  Here is the schedule, all times Pacific:

Thursday July 7

Port Adelaide v Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval (2.50 AM) LIVE on Fox Soccer Plus!

Friday July 8

Geelong v Sydney Swans at Simonds Stadium (2.50 AM)  (OH FFS!! At least it’s LIVE on Fox Sports 1!)

GWS Giants v Collingwood at Spotless Stadium (8.40pm) LIVE on Fox Sports 2!

Gold Coast Suns v Brisbane Lions at Metricon Stadium (11.35pm)

Saturday July 9

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

Melbourne v Fremantle at TIO Stadium, Darwin (2.40 AM)

Carlton v Adelaide at MCG (8.10pm) LIVE on Fox Soccer Plus!

West Coast Eagles v North Melbourne at Subiaco Oval (10.20pm) LIVE on TSN2!

Essendon v St Kilda at Etihad Stadium (11.40pm)

On the bright side, we get more games.  On the down side, we still get the stupid Thursday Night Footy which turns into Thursday morning here and DON’T THEY KNOW I HAVE ENOUGH PROBLEMS STAYING AWAKE AT WORK AS IT IS?!?!?

Let’s check in with our Footy Tipping Contest!

Someone forgot to PUT THE TIP IN!!

Zymm, of all people, you should know better!   See you next week!