This week,

Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!

Round 13 Recaps and Highlights

Once again, we have an abbreviated Round as only 6 games were played and 6 teams were on bye, including my Cats.

However, what was missing in quantity was made up for in quality. There were some pretty good games this week. The first game was, for some weird reason, held on Australian Thursday night, which means Thursday morning here in North America.

The Richmond Tigers played the first game of the Round again and this time traveled to Adelaide to take on the Crows. The good part is that they didn’t lose as badly as last week. The bad part is that they still lost big.

Here are the full game highlights:

The Australian Friday Night game (North American Friday morning) had the Essendon Bombers facing the Hawthorn Hawks in a battle of mid-table teams.

The Bombers have started playing much better as of late. This may or may not coincide with getting critical players back from injury. While the Hawks do not have a long injury list, something is definitely off. They are not the same old Hawks of previous years.

The Bombers took the four points. Here are the full-game highlights:

Later on proper Friday Night, the Gold Coast Suns played their second game in a row at home, hosting the St. Kilda Saints. They started out red-hot and took a sizable lead at Half Time.

The second half was a different story, however, as the Saints mounted a comeback and took the lead late in the fourth. It came down to the last two minutes:

Here are the full-game highlights:

Even later on Friday night, the Fremantle Dockers took on the Port Adelaide power at home in a game that would go a long ways towards determining which team is really a finals contnder and which one is not.

The Power started the game well, holding a slim lead at Quarter Time. The game was tight throughout, until the Dockers took over in the fourth and ran away with the game.

Here are the highlights:

The Late Late Friday Night game was a battle of teams stuck on the wrong side of the ladder. The Carlton Blues were “hosting” the Western Bulldogs in the venue they both call home, Marvel Stadium.

Even though the Doggies got out to a big lead in the second quarter, the Blues came right back and took the lead in the third. Another Doggies surge gave them a big lead again in the fourth, only for the Blues to come back yet again.

It all came down to the last two minutes:

One gets the feeling that the Blues just ran out of time. Another five minutes and they may have caught them. Here are the full-game highlights:

The last game of the week ended up being on Saturday night, thankfully, so I was able to not only watch a piece of it, but prepare the AFL Beat on time.

The GWS Giants traveled to Hobart to take on the North Melbourne Kangaroos, who had won three straight in the midst of firing their coach.

Well, the honeymoon had to end sometime. The Giants played their usual pressure game and that was enough to see the Roos off.

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	11	1	0	44	151.3
2	GWS Giants	9	4	0	36	132.9
3	Collingwood Magpies	9	3	0	36	127.5
4	Adelaide Crows	8	5	0	32	115.1
5	West Coast Eagles	8	4	0	32	103.0
6	Fremantle Dockers	7	5	0	28	110.7
7	Brisbane Lions	7	5	0	28	103.1
8	Richmond Tigers	7	6	0	28	92.0
9	Port Adelaide Power	6	6	0	24	107.6
10	Essendon Bombers	6	6	0	24	104.8
11	St. Kilda Saints	6	6	0	24	87.0
12	Hawthorn Hawks	5	7	0	20	99.1
13	North Melbourne Kangaroos	5	8	0	20	92.6
14	Western Bulldogs	5	7	0	20	90.0
15	Sydney Swans	4	8	0	16	89.9
16	Melbourne Demons	3	9	0	12	76.0
17	Gold Coast Suns	3	10	0	12	71.9
18	Carlton Blues	2	11	0	8	79.0

Here is the Balls Graph:

[gview file=”https://www.doorfliesopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/AFL-Ladder-2019R13.pdf”]

Thanks to the Giants’ win and the Pies and Cats being on a bye, that means the Cats have a two game lead over both the Giants and the Pies.

On the opposite side of the ladder, Carlton lost a prime opportunity to catch Gold Coast in order to avoid the Wooden Spoon.

***

Footy Tipping Contest

Here is where we are after Round Thirteen:

P	TIPPER	Round Tips	Round Margin	Total Tips	Total Margin
1	Litre_cola	5	17	75	350
2	Son Of Spam	6	21	73	386
3	BFC	5	15	72	428
4	BALLS	6	20	67	447
5	BC Dick	4	8	67	475
6	Dolph Ucker	4	3	65	381
7	Why Eagles Why	4	9	64	355
8	Yeah Right	3	51	63	533
9	Game Time Decision	4	11	61	432
10		5	8	58	480
11	Sharkbait	3	33	56	641
12	Blax	3	33	50	376

Things can certainly change in a week! Thanks to a 100% week, I’ve jumped back into the top four. Son of Spam also had a perfect week, going six for six, making us the Rex Ryan Footy Tipping All-Stars of the Week!

Litre continues to give up ground on the field and Spam and BFC both have him within their sights. Another group of us isn’t too far behind, so the competition is still wide open!

DONT FORGET TO PUT THE FOOTY TIPS IN!

***

AFL Round 14

The byes continue, so there will only be six games again. Luckily, it’s the last week of byes. Here is the schedule (all times Pacific):

Thursday, June 20, 2019

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

The Eagles come back from the bye with a home game against the surging Bombers. It will be interesting to see if the Bombers can keep the momentum going.

Friday, June 21, 2019

2:50 AM – Sydney Swans v Hawthorn Hawks at the SCG

Both teams are struggling and need a win desperately to turn their seasons around. It feels like a final in that the losing team will most likely be out of the playoff picture.

8:45 PM – Melbourne Demons v Fremantle Dockers at the MCG

The Dockers are on fire and even playing Melbourne in Melbourne may not be enough to derail them.

11:35 PM – St. Kilda Saints v Brisbane Lions at Marvel Stadium

The Saints have started righting the ship, but the Lions desperately need this win to keep their finals hopes alive.

Saturday, June 22, 2019

2:40 AM – Port Adelaide Power v Geelong Cats at Adelaide Oval

The Cats have been notoriously bad coming off byes and they have to travel to Adelaide for this game. It does not bode well.

10:20 PM – Western Bulldogs v Collingwood Magpies at Marvel Stadium

The Doggies will be going up against one of the best teams in the competition. Oh, and they’re rested…

***

That’s all for this week! As I mentioned last week, these bye weeks will be a bit awkward as the standings will not be even and positions aren’t really set. After the byes are over next week, then we can start making assumptions/conclusions as to where teams will end up.

See you next week!

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