As I mentioned mid-week, this week’s Round is the Indigenous Round, which is meant to honor and recognize the contributions of Aboriginal people to Australian Football and to Australian culture in general. If you ever want to go down an interesting rabbithole, look up the history of Australia and its people.  And I’m not talking about after the British got there.  Go WAY back and you’ll discover some amazing shit.

Anyhoo, the footy was pretty interesting too this week, so let’s get right to it.

Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!

The round started on Thursday Night in Australia (in the middle of the fucking night on Wednesday night/Thursday morning for us in North America) with the Geelong Cats hosting the Port Adelaide Power. Unfortunately, Thursday night games are proving popular in Australia, so there may be more to come and my sleep patterns will suffer.  What makes a difference, though, is that the games they put on Thursday night footy have been quite good (are you listening, Goodell?!?) and this week was no exception.

The match between the Cats and the Power was close throughout and the lead changed over 10 times over the course of the game. Luckily, I woke up early enough to go to work that I was able to catch the fourth quarter.  In the end, a little bit of magic from Patrick Dangerfield and some good alert defending allowed the Cats to narrowly edge the Power by 2.  Here are the highlights:

The next game was on Australian Friday Night Footy (Thursday night/Friday morning for us) and that one was a good one as well.  Sydney were hosting the Hawks in a match that was incredibly important to both teams in terms of being able to revive their seasons.  As with the Geelong game, this one went down to the wire.  Let’s check out the last two minutes:

The Hawks leave Sydney with a win and both clubs are still wondering if they can somehow salvage this season and make a run.  BTW, that call is reason #4243 why the AFL is run better than the NFL.  How can you not love those announcers?

On Proper Friday Night, the Western Bulldogs “hosted” the St. Kilda Saints at both teams’ home ground, the Etihad.  This was another important game as both teams were fighting for a spot in the Eight.  St. Kilda wanted to prove Litre_cola wrong and finish the season above 10th place.  Well, never doubt our good friend Mr. cola.  The Saints really missed Nick Riewoldt and ended up losing to the Doggies by 40.  Here are the highlights:

The second game had the Melbourne Demons “hosting” the Gold Coast Suns in Alice Springs as part of the Indigenous Round celebrations (Alice Springs is home to a sizable Indigenous population).  The Demons took the game over in the second half and pulled away to a 35 point win. Here is the highlight package:

and here is what I consider to be the highlight of the match:

Let’s see that again in gif form, shall we?

And now with a closeup and in slo-mo:

Don’t you worry, he got right up and pulled out the finger gunz signifying a goal.  He’s Australian, after all.

There were two late late games left on the Friday night/Saturday morning slate.  The Adelaide Crows took care of business at home against the Fremantle Dockers, as I said last week they should, and beat them by a hundred. If you are into a team taking a beating, here are the highlights:

The more interesting and compelling matchup was the Dreamtime at the G match, which is essentially the culmination of all the Indigenous Round activities.  Here are some of the pre-game ceremonies:

As for the game, Richmond finally righted the ship and managed to win a close game by snagging the last two goals and winning 81-66.  Here are the highlights:

North American Saturday night brought the last three games of the Round.  The first one was an expected rout of Brisbane by Collingwood.  The Lions kept things tight for the first quarter, but then the Pies rolled to a 129-84 win.  I saw most of this game and, let me tell you, it is painful to watch the Lions make mistakes.  They certainly play well in stretches and the potential to be a good team is there, but they just make too many mistakes that end up killing their chances.  If I knew how to fix that, I’d be a good AFL coach.  Here are the highlights:

The second game featured the Carlton Blues hosting the North Melbourne Kangaroos at the Etihad. The Roos got out to a good lead in the first half only for the Blues to come storming back and take the lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter. The Roos then woke up and fought back to re-take the lead for good.  In the end, the Roos won by 17.  Here are the highlights:

The last match of the Round was arguably the best.  The GWS Giants travelled to Perth to take on the West Coast Eagles with an extensive injury list.  Despite that, the Giants showed they are for real as the backups showed no fear and contributed greatly to a YUUUUGE 8 point away win. Here are the highlights, but if you go to the AFL website, you can catch the entire fourth quarter.  It’s worth a watch.

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

and here is our updated Balls Graph:

There is a little bit of separation, but not much and the Eight remained the same.  Also, do you remember where Litre_cola said the Saints would end up?  And where are they now?  The man knows his stuff.  Speaking of.. (I really am the king of the segue)

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Footy Tipping Contest

Our fearless leader continues to do well in the tips. Here is the table as it stands now:

I think I have learned my lesson.  I will NOT show you the Salma foot picture this week.  Maybe that will remind our two folks that forgot to put their picks in AGAIN this week to put them in.  Otherwise, I will have to resort to foot fetish site images and YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE THAT!

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Round 11

Here is the Round 11 schedule (All times Pacific)

Thursday, June 1, 2017

2:50 AM – Port Adelaide Power v Hawthorn Hawks at Adelaide Oval

The Power look to bounce back after a tough loss to the Cats in this week’s Thursday game.  The Hawks will be feeling pretty good about themselves and will look to continue to salvage their season.

Friday, June 2, 2017

2:50 AM – Geelong Cats v Adelaide Crows at Simonds Stadium

This is the third real home game for the Cats in a row and it’s by far the toughest.  The league leaders are coming off a destruction of the Dockers and are back to playing their best.  The Cats will need their best and then some to take this game.

8:45 PM – Gold Coast Suns v West Coast Eagles at Metricon Stadium

Yeah, the Eagles don’t play well outside of Perth, but this should be an easily winnable game for them.  Gold Coast, again, have gotten injuries to key players and are on their way down the ladder.  Again.

11:35 PM – GWS Giants v Essendon Bombers at Spotless Stadium

The Bombers are another team looking to rebound, but they have a tough task of it in facing the Giants in Sydney.  It looks like two losses in a row for Essendon.

Saturday, June 3, 2017

2:25 AM – North Melbourne Kangaroos v Richmond Tigers at the Etihad

This figures to be a close game.  Richmond just won one of those after losing all the others.  Have they figured out how to do it consistently?

11:40 PM – Fremantle Dockers v Collingwood Magpies at Domain Stadium

The Dockers should rebound strongly from this week’s horrible loss.  They did earlier in the season and they do get the Pies at home.

You will notice that there are a lot fewer games this week.  That’s because the dreaded byes have started.  Luckily, with Port Adelaide and Gold Coast already having taken their bye, the loss of games won’t be as drastic this year.  The teams on bye this week are: St. Kilda, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Carlton, and Western.

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I leave you with some Indigenous art, Balls-style.  Have a good week, everyone!