This week,

Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!

Round 8 Recaps and Highlights

We are again back to a normal schedule with no Australian Thursday Night games for the foreseeable future. That means one Australian Friday Night game (North American Thursday night), five Australian Saturday games (North American Friday night/Saturday morning), and three Australian Sunday games (North American Saturday night/Sunday morning).

This week, the first game had the struggling Sydney Swans facing the surging Essendon Bombers in Sydney, which is usually a problem.

It seems the Swans got a little bit of good old-fashioned home-cooking this week as a potential game-deciding penalty was not called at the end.

Take a look:

The controversy arose after the game as it was shown that one of the Swans players tried to climb the post to stop the shot. The referee, instead of giving a direct penalty, told him to get down, which he did. In my view, it’s probably ok to not call a penalty as he did not exactly “shake” the post, which is what the rule explicitly says. Here are the full game highlights:

The proper Friday Night game had the classic Carlton v Collingwood rivalry match. Even though Carlton is at the bottom of the ladder, after the expected loss to the Pies, they played hard for about three quarters. Almost there.

Here are the full-game highlights:

Later, the Western Bulldogs hosted the Brisbane Lions in a battle of teams trying to prove they are good.

For this week, the Doggies proved to be better than the Lions, although I’m not sure how much each side has for the rest of the competition.

Here are the full-game highlights:

Even later on Friday night, the Gold Coast Suns and Melbourne Demons met in an epic clash of mediocrity. Neither team is really that good, but that made for a good and close game.

The game went down to the final two minutes:

If the Gold Coast player marks that ball, the game is over. And they say the NFL is a game of inches… Here are the highlights:

The next game had the sinking St. Kilda Saints hosting the West Coast Eagles, which, if you’re going to play the Eagles, is probably the best place to play them.

Unfortunately, the Saints did not take advantage of the home field and have now sunk to their more familiar spot mid-table.

Here are the full-game highlights:

The last game of the night featured another edition of The Showdown, otherwise known as the Adelaide Derby.

The Power were the “host” team this time and it turned out to be a good game, as most Showdowns tend to be.

In the end, the Crows took this one and are now firmly in the top four after a rough start to the year.

Here are the highlights:

The first game of North American Saturday night (Australian Mother’s Day) had the twin coaches (Chris Scott of the Geelong Cats and Brad Scott of the North Melbourne Kangaroos facing each other in the battle for Mom’s affection.

Chris now holds the edge in matchups after a tight contest in which the difference in the game was accuracy in front of goal. The Cats had it and the Roos didn’t.

Here are the full-game highlights:

The second of the Saturday night games had the Hawthorn Hawks hosting the GWS Giants and I’ll just let Giants fan BFC tell you how it went:

1. I previously thought the whole Giants can’t win at the MCG narrative was bullshit but I may stand corrected.
2. The first quarter, the Giants played like they were point shaving. The rest of the game, the Giants played like they needed to be relegated. Very little tackling, horrible kicking, and I don’t think Mumford being out was a difference maker, but it didn’t help.
3. This is a different team without Callan Ward and Lachie Whitfield
4. The only people still looking good in the fourth quarter were Coniglio and Toby Greene
5. When Jeremy Cameron misses four from point blank range, you’re not going to win.

It was ugly. Here are the full-game highlights:

The last game of the Round had the Fremantle Dockers hosting the Richmond Tigers after last week’s embarrassing defeat for the Tigers.

Talk about a regroup! The Tigers went into Perth and kicked the Dockers’ collective ass.

Here are the full-game highlights:

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

P	TEAM	W	L	T	PTS	%
1	Geelong Cats	7	1	0	28	145.6
2	Collingwood Magpies	6	2	0	24	126.1
3	Adelaide Crows	5	3	0	20	118.1
4	GWS Giants	5	3	0	20	116.3
5	Brisbane Lions	5	3	0	20	103.8
6	Richmond Tigers	5	3	0	20	98.5
7	West Coast Eagles	5	3	0	20	97.4
8	Fremantle Dockers	4	4	0	16	112.7
9	Hawthorn Hawks	4	4	0	16	105.4
10	Western Bulldogs	4	4	0	16	102.7
11	Port Adelaide Power	4	4	0	16	102.6
12	St. Kilda Saints	4	4	0	16	93.9
13	Essendon Bombers	3	5	0	12	99.8
14	Gold Coast Suns	3	5	0	12	78.6
15	Melbourne Demons	3	5	0	12	75.6
16	Sydney Swans	2	6	0	8	82.7
17	North Melbourne Kangaroos	2	6	0	8	80.9
18	Carlton Blues	1	7	0	4	84.9

Here is the Balls Graph:

[gview file=”https://www.doorfliesopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/AFL-Ladder-2019R8.pdf”]

The Cats are still a game on top of the competition, but the win against the Roos shows that anyone can beat anyone this year. There are still a lot of games left to play.

One thing is for sure: Carlton is bad.

***

Footy Tipping Contest

Here is where we are after Round Eight:

P	TIPPER	Round Tips	Round Margin	Total Tips	Total Margin
1	Litre_cola	5	11	46	214
2	Son Of Spam	6	20	42	233
3	BC Dick	4	38	41	293
4	BFC	5	18	39	276
5	BALLS	3	17	38	241
6	Yeah Right	4	49	38	327
7	Why Eagles Why	6	5	37	224
8		6	15	35	273
9	Game Time Decision	4	20	35	301
10	Dolph Ucker	4	22	34	251
11	Sharkbait	4	105	33	354
12	Blax	5	5	32	211

It was a tough week for everyone, but specially me. BFC has now leapfrogged me into 4th place. Everyone else is pretty close, so one bad week for Litre and we’re all right back into this thing!

Litre remains our leader but Son Of Spam has taken over second place and is threatening to pull off the AFL Tipping Double! (He won the AFLW competition). Well done to everyone for putting in their tips!

DONT FORGET TO PUT THE FOOTY TIPS IN!

***

AFL Round 9

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

Friday, May 17, 2019

3:10 AM (Late Thursday Night!) – West Coast Eagles v Melbourne Demons at Optus Stadium

It looks like the Eagles will get back on a winning streak. I don’t think the Demons win in Perth.

8:45 PM – Collingwood Magpies v St. Kilda Saints at the MCG

The poor Saints are in 12th place. Insert Moe “Hello, old friend” jpg.

9:10 PM – Brisbane Lions v Adelaide Crows at the Gabba

The Lions are still in good shape, but must win this game at home in order to get taken seriously.

11:35 PM – Geelong Cats v Western Bulldogs at GMHBA Stadium

The Cats need to show their class against the Jeckyl and Hyde Doggies. Which Western team will show up in Geelong?

Saturday, May 4, 2019

2:25 AM – Essendon Bombers v Fremantle Dockers at Marvel Stadium

This one shapes up as an intriguing matchup. Neither team has convinced me that they are any good.

2:25 AM – North Melbourne Kangaroos v Sydney Swans at Blundstone Arena

The Roos played well against the Cats and always play well in Tasmania.

8:10 PM – Port Adelaide Power v Gold Coast Suns at Adelaide Oval

The Suns are continuing their downward slide after a hot start. Same as last year and the year before that and….

10:20 PM – Richmond Tigers v Hawthorn Hawks at the MCG

This time, the Hawks are the “visitors” at the MCG. The Tigers seem to be back, so this shapes up as the Match of The Round.

11:40 PM – GWS Giants v Carlton Blues at Giants Stadium

After a tough loss at the MCG, a game at home against the lowly Blues is just what the doctor ordered for the Giants.

***

That’s all for this week! Sorry about the late post. Hey, maybe I can be Canadian!

See you next week!

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