This week,

Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!

Round 10 Recaps and Highlights

You know? I really enjoy our normal schedule of 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). It makes things really easy to schedule so I can watch some games.

This week, the first game had the #2 Collingwood Magpies visiting the Sydney Swans. My narrative all year has been that Sydney plays better on the road than at home. When I saw how many players would be out for the Swans, I figured the narrative would continue.

In reality, the Swans played really well. The match was close through three quarters. And then…. Well, the Pies reminded everyone why they are second on the ladder and the Swans remembered they had a lot of injuries and that they were playing at home. A string of 3 unanswered Pies goals effectively ended the game.

Here are the full game highlights:

The proper Friday Night game had the Hawthorn Hawks hosting the Port Adelaide Power in Tasmania, which is a place where they always play well.

A strong first quarter from the Hawks made all the difference as the game hovered around the Quarter Time margin for the rest of the game

Here are the full-game highlights:

Later, the Western Bulldogs “hosted” the North Melbourne Kangaroos at Marvel Stadium as each team calls that stadium home. Rumours midweek spread that this would be Roos’ coach Brad Scott’s last game.

It turned out after the game that the rumours were true. Brad Scott stepped down from his coaching duties and the Roos will have an interim coach the rest of the year. The players must have been extra motivated to win their coach’s last game as they dominated for three quarters before the Doggies made a run starting at the end of the third.

In the fourth, the Doggies took the lead, but the Roos dug deeper and bounced back with the last five goals of the game to win it for their departing coach.

Here are the full-game highlights:

Even later on Friday night, the Adelaide Crows hosted the West Coast Eagles in a game that meant a lot in the top Eight standings. It was hard-fought throughout with the Crows taking a lead in the first only for the Eagles to come back and retake it in the second.

The second half was a mirror image of the first except the margins grew bigger. Adelaide built up a 30+ point lead in the third only to watch it evaporate in the fourth. In the end, the Eagles hung on and showed why they are the reigning premiers.

Here are the highlights:

The first of the two late late Friday night games had my Geelong Cats visiting the Gold Coast Suns in the Australian East Coast. It was too late for my old ass, so I caught a Saturday morning replay.

The game turned out to be similar to last week’s in that the opponent played well and kept the game close for three quarters. However, the Cats have seemed to find an extra gear in the fourth and have pulled away to win by healthy margins. Again, the final margin was not really indicative of how the entire game was played.

Here are the full-game highlights:

The last game of the night was the traditional Dreamtime at the G matchup between Essendon and Richmond. The game features special pre-game festivities celebrating aboriginal culture, which you can see at the beginning of the highlight video.

As for the game itself, it was a low-scoring tough slog in the rain. Richmond slowly took the game over and started to dominate. Essendon mounted a comeback in the fourth, but it was a case of too little too late.

Here are the full-game highlights:

I was able to watch the first half of the first game of North American Saturday night again before I succumbed to sleep. I didn’t really think I would miss too much as the GWS Giants were completely dominating the Melbourne Demons at the MCG.

Unfortunately for the Giants, they couldn’t hit the side of a barn and the game was closer than it had any right to be. In the second half, the Giants did stretch it out to almost 60 points, but a Demons comeback in the fourth cut the final margin down considerably.

For the Giants, this was a golden opportunity missed to boost percentage for the rest of the year. Here are the full-game highlights:

The second of the Saturday night games had the St. Kilda Saints hoping to get a similar percentage-boosting win over the lowly Carlton Blues.

Unfortunately for the Saints, they made too many errors and a game Blues squad made the game closer than it really should have been. In the end, the team that made the least amount of errors won, but that’s not really something to be proud of.

Here are the full-game highlights:

The last game of the Round had the Fremantle Dockers hosting the Brisbane Lions in a game that was vital to both teams’ chances of staying in finals contention.

There is a narrative out there about the huge home-ground advantage that the Perth teams enjoy, but it’s not just talk. They really do tend to play better in Perth. Fremantle had to use up all of that advantage as well as extra time to handle the plucky Lions. It came down to the last kick After The Siren:

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	9	1	0	36	145.8
2	Collingwood Magpies	8	2	0	32	127.5
3	GWS Giants	7	3	0	28	130.0
4	Richmond Tigers	7	3	0	28	106.2
5	West Coast Eagles	7	3	0	28	101.6
6	Brisbane Lions	6	4	0	24	103.1
7	Adelaide Crows	5	5	0	20	111.8
8	Fremantle Dockers	5	5	0	20	109.4
9	Hawthorn Hawks	5	5	0	20	103.8
10	Port Adelaide Power	5	5	0	20	103.0
11	St. Kilda Saints	5	5	0	20	91.7
12	Essendon Bombers	4	6	0	16	97.8
13	Western Bulldogs	4	6	0	16	94.0
14	North Melbourne Kangaroos	3	7	0	12	86.5
15	Sydney Swans	3	7	0	12	85.5
16	Melbourne Demons	3	7	0	12	75.8
17	Gold Coast Suns	3	7	0	12	75.3
18	Carlton Blues	1	9	0	4	76.7

Here is the Balls Graph:

[gview file=”https://www.doorfliesopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/AFL-Ladder-2019R10.pdf”]

The top teams have started separating themselves. I’d say the top five are in excellent shape to contest finals. It will be a battle for those last three spots in the Eight and it doesn’t look like anyone except for Carlton is completely out of the running.

Poor poor Carlton

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Footy Tipping Contest

Here is where we are after Round Ten:

P	TIPPER	Round Tips	Round Margin	Total Tips	Total Margin
1	Litre_cola	6	2	60	225
2	Son Of Spam	7	8	57	252
3	BFC	8	14	56	300
4	BC Dick	7	6	54	320
5	Why Eagles Why	6	15	51	242
6	BALLS	7	14	51	265
7	Yeah Right	5	41	51	379
8	Dolph Ucker	8	12	50	278
9	Game Time Decision	6	15	47	316
10		5	40	46	324
11	Sharkbait	7	93	46	563
12	Blax	6	18	39	245

A hearty GOOD JOB to BFC and Dolph Ucker who both scored 8 out of 9 this week and continue to move up the ladder. It’s getting pretty tight in the middle and the leader continues to give up some ground. There is plenty of time left to catch him!

Overall, it was another good weekend of tipping for the competition. Everyone put their tips in and no one scored below a 5. Nicely done, everyone!

DONT FORGET TO PUT THE FOOTY TIPS IN!

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AFL Round 11

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

Friday, May 31, 2019

2:50 AM (Late Thursday Night!) -North Melbourne Kangaroos v Richmond Tigers at Marvel Stadium

The Roos’ coach just announced he’s leaving. How will they respond with an interim coach against the red-hot Tigers?

8:45 PM – Collingwood Magpies v Fremantle Dockers at the MCG

The Dockers are coming off a big After The Siren win at home, but this is the MCG and these are the Pies.

8:45 PM – GWS Giants v Gold Coast Suns at Giants Stadium

The Giants got the win at the MCG that they wanted while the Suns hung tough with the league leaders. Will it be another close game?

11:35 PM – Geelong Cats v Sydney Swans at GMHBA Stadium

The Swans won the last time they visited Geelong. And remember that they play better on the road…

Saturday, June 1, 2019

2:25 AM – Brisbane Lions v Hawthorn Hawks at The Gabba

The home field should allow the Lions to bounce back from a heart-breaking loss this week, but the Hawks are no pushovers.

2:40 AM – Melbourne Demons v Adelaide Crows at TIO Stadium

This is another “home” game for the Demons in Darwin even though Adelaide is technically closer to Darwin than Melbourne.

9:40 PM – St. Kilda Saints v Port Adelaide Power at “Adelaide Arena” at Jiangwan Stadium in Shanghai, China

The Gold Coast Suns didn’t want to go back to China again, so this time it’s the Saints who will take on the Power, winners of all China games.

10:20 PM – Essendon Bombers v Carlton Blues at the MCG

I’m not sure if the poor Blues will win another game this year.

Sunday, June 2, 2019

12:20 AM – West Coast Eagles v Western Bulldogs at Optus Stadium

Another edition of the “West” Derby that only I celebrate. Tough game for the Doggies.

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That’s all for this week!

See you next week!

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