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Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!

AFLW Round 2 Recaps

Round 2 began on North American Thursday night which didn’t work out too well for me to watch the game between the North Melbourne/Tasmania Kangaroos and the GWS Giants live. Luckily, the handy dandy Watch AFL app made it so I could watch it on Friday evening before the other matches.

It’s a good thing I did that because it turned out that the game’s start was delayed 45 minutes due to a lightning storm and then was further delayed right before Half Time as three of the lighting towers lost power. Watching the replay saved me all that wasted time.

In the actual game itself, the Giants played the Roos tough for about three quarters with the margin holding steady at around 8-10 points. However, the Roos pulled away in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Giants 20-3 to seal the big victory.

Here are the highlights:

Later on Friday night, the Collingwood Magpies hosted the Melbourne Demons at the traditional home of the Collingwood F.C., Victoria Park. The men’s team plays home games at the MCG now, but the small venue in the Melbourne neighborhood of Collingwood is where the team used to play its games when Australian football started over a century ago.

This was a tight and slow-scoring game in the first quarter with both teams only getting two behinds each. The Demons were going against the wind but the Pies couldn’t capitalize. The Pies were then held scoreless in the second as the Demons were able to get a couple of goals and two more behinds to open up a gap.

In the third, the wind was against the Demons again, who could only muster one behind. Unfortunately, the Pies didn’t score at all. Both teams roughly matched scores in the fourth and it turned out that the second quarter burst gave the Demons the win.

Here are the highlights:

My Geelong Cats were playing late late on Friday night at the Western Bulldogs’ home, Whitten Oval. It was the Doggies’ first home game and they were unveiling their championship flag from last year before the game. I tried to stay up and watch, but couldn’t. When I woke up the next morning, I saw that the Cats’ #1 draft pick, Nina Morrison, tore her ACL during practice and was out for the year. This was not a good sign.

In many ways, this game was similar to the Pies-Demons game. There was a significant breeze, which influenced scoring. The Cats had it at their backs to start the game but could only convert one goal and two behinds. At least it was better than Western’s lone goal.

The second quarter, though, proved to be the difference as the Doggies scored three goals while holding the Cats scoreless. The Cats came back in the third to cut the lead by two points, but then failed to score in the fourth and that was that. To be fair, the Cats held the Doggies to only four behinds with the wind in the fourth, so that was pretty good.

Here are the highlights:

The next two games were on North American Saturday night. After a delightful Breakfast for Dinner meal, I started watching the Carlton-Adelaide game from Ikon Park, the Carlton equivalent to Collingwood’s Victoria Park.

The Blues actually surprised me as they played really well! They hung with the Crows in the first quarter and actually shut them out in the second while building a 4 point halftime lead. They then proceeded to build a 17 point lead late in the third quarter that got erased by a furious Crows rally just in time for the fourth.

In the final quarter, the Crows kept the momentum and continued to score while the Blues could only answer with one goal and one behind. The Crows took it in exciting fashion. And we also had this hilarious moment!

Here are the highlights:

The last game was again too late for my old ass, but I was able to see the replay on Sunday morning. Last week, the Fremantle Dockers won on the road and they were coming back home to host the Brisbane Lions, who also won last week.

Not much has been expected of the Dockers as they have disappointed in the first two years of AFLW. They do have a new coach and that seems to have made a difference as this team is showing a new resiliency and more skill. The Lions started off well in the first quarter, building an 11 point lead, but got shut out in the second while the Dockers came all the way back to take a 10 point lead.

Fremantle dominated the game from there and ended up with a well-deserved win. Here are the highlights:

Having seen two rounds now, several things can be deduced. One, the Blues are not as bad as they were in the first game against North. Two, North is not going to run away with the competition as the Giants played them tough for long stretches. Three, Collingwood is in trouble. Four, the conferences at the moment seem uneven in terms of team strength.

To show you what I mean, let’s take a look at the ladders, shall we?

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Ladder

This year, since we have two new teams, the ladder will be split up into TWO ladders, one for each conference:

Conference A

P	TEAM	W	L	T	PTS	%
1	North Melbourne Kangaroos	2	0	0	8	256.4
2	Western Bulldogs	2	0	0	8	157.6
3	Fremantle Dockers	2	0	0	8	132.6
4	Adelaide Crows	1	1	0	0	119.4
5	Melbourne Demons	1	1	0	0	119.1

Conference B

P	TEAM	W	L	T	PTS	%
1	Brisbane Lions	1	1	0	4	73.4
2	Geelong Cats	1	1	0	4	70.2
3	GWS Giants	0	2	0	0	64.9
4	Collingwood Magpies	0	2	0	0	64.0
5	Carlton Blues	0	2	0	0	55.0

Every single team in Conference A has a better record than the leader in Conference B. If this was a single table like last year, you could just stack Conference A on top of Conference B and you’d be set.

The problem is that the Preliminary Finals are set so that Conference B gets a guaranteed two spots. This has the potential to make one or more teams in Conference A pretty upset. We’ll keep monitoring the situation as the season goes along, but it may prompt the AFLW to change the format for next year.

It’s not like the Conference B teams are that far off, though. For the most part, they’ve been competitive and have hung tough. The only problem is they’ve done that for three quarters and the games have four.

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Lady Footy Tipping Contest

The Footy Tipping Contest for AFLW is back again! Those who participated last year should have received an email. If any of you newer readers want to participate, please click on this link and sign up. The URL is https://www.footytips.com.au/comps/DFO_Lady_Footy. It’s an Australian ESPN site, so it’s perfectly legit and, even better, completely free. It’s the same site we use for the regular AFL season.

Here are the standings after Round Two:

P	TIPPER	Round Tips	Round Margin	Total Tips	Total Margin
1	Litre_cola	5	17	8	23
2	SonOfSpam	4	15	7	26
3	BALLS	4	13	6	18
4		3	32	6	42
5	Mr. Ayo	4	17	6	43
6	Blax	2	124	6	148
7	BFC	2	25	5	32
8	Dolph Ucker	4	25	5	42
9	GameTimeDecision	2	1	4	17
10	Sharkbait	2	75	3	124

Our great start from last week came to a grinding halt as someone (hint: BFC) forgot to put the footy tips in! Do you really want me to start posting foot fetish pics? I’ll give you one more week…

Big props to Litre_cola who put together a perfect week of tipping! The competition is super tight, so if any of you want to join in, it’s not too late! There are still lots of games to pick and even someone starting from scratch should be able to catch up to the pack.

DONT FORGET TO PUT THE FOOTY TIPS IN!

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AFLW Round 3

As a reminder, all the games are available to watch on the Watch AFL app. If you are an International Member of one of the AFL clubs, this is included in your membership. If not, you can subscribe directly through the Watch AFL website: https://www.watchafl.com.au

As I mentioned last week, for $150 per year, you get to see live every AFLW game, every AFL preseason game, the AFLX tourney, and all AFL games up to and including the Grand Final. You also get full game replays of every game I mentioned in the prior sentence as well as the live feed of the Fox Footy channel from Australia.

It’s really quite a bargain for nine months of entertainment.

Fox Soccer Plus also shows most games live. However, there is an extra charge for that channel and if you’re only interested in AFL, getting the Watch AFL yearly subscription is much cheaper and you get the benefit of replays without having to take the time to record games.

Here is the schedule for this week (all times Pacific):

Friday, February 15, 2019

12:15 AM – North Melbourne Kangaroos v Western Bulldogs – at University of Tasmania Stadium

Again, remember that this game is really being played on North American Thursday night. Which means, with work commitments, it’s going to be a replay watch. It should be worth it, though, to see two unbeaten teams go against each other.

9:45 PM – GWS Giants v Carlton Blues at Blacktown International Sportspark

In contrast, here we have a game between two teams that have not won a game. It’s in Sydney and it looks pretty cool!

Saturday, February 16, 2019

12:15 AM – Fremantle Dockers v Collingwood Magpies at Fremantle Oval

Again, keep in mind this is a Friday night game in North America. The Dockers get two home games in a row and now get the lowly Pies that only scored 9 points in their last game. Something tells me Fremantle will be at the top of the ladder after Round 3.

7:35 PM – Adelaide Crows v Geelong Cats at Norwood Oval

Finally the Cats are on at a decent time so I can watch the game live! Too bad it will be a tough road trip as the Crows seem to have hit their stride and will be a tough foe.

10:35 PM – Brisbane Lions v Melbourne Demons at Hickey Park

I wonder if that’s where young Australians go on dates to make out? The Lions are the only hope for Conference B to get a win against Conference A this week, I think.

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AFLX

The full teams were announced last week in advance of the February 22, 2019 tournament as you saw in the image at the top of the post. In addition, some rule changes were announced:

• Each team will have 14 players: eight on the field, six on the interchange bench (no interchange limit), up from the 10 players per side in 2018.
• The field umpire will throw the ball up to begin play at the start of each half and after a supergoal is scored.
• A player has the opportunity to play on from out of bounds after the ‘last touch’ rule.
• Players can run 20m without taking a bounce or touching the ball on the ground.

The biggest change, though, is that, with five minutes to play in the game, each team will have the opportunity to nominate a “Game Changer”.

The ‘Gatorade game changer’ will have his score worth double during the last five minutes of a match. A behind will be worth two points, a six-point major recorded as 12 points and a 10-point supergoal will become 20 points from the game changer

A 10-point supergoal can be scored in two ways: either when a player from the attacking team kicks the ball from anywhere within or behind the launch zone (pictured in graphic below) OR when the ball is kicked within or behind the launch zone and is marked inside the 15-metre forward zone by a teammate who then scores a goal.

At least kids get in free.

It will be interesting to watch, to say the least. On the bright side, the captains seems to be getting into it:

I should note that Stephen May has been replaced by Jade Gresham in the Deadlys lineup due to hamstring problems. The AFLX tourney will start in North America at midnight Pacific Time on Thursday Night, February 21, 2019

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See you next week!

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