This week,

Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!

Round 15 Recaps and Highlights

Finally, we are BACK to 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).

This week, the first game had the GWS Giants traveling to Melbourne to take on the Essendon Bombers at Marvel Stadium. The Giants have, to use an Australian term, copped some stick for not winning at the MCG. That got addressed earlier this year.

Another criticism has been that the Giants can’t win in Melbourne, period. The Bombers contributed to this narrative by playing the Giants extremely tough and making sure the game came down to the last two minutes:

The critics are out in force again. Here are the full game highlights:

The proper Friday Night game had my Geelong Cats hosting the Adelaide Crows in a tough matchup of teams in the Eight. I woke up early for this one and caught the second half before work.

To my pleasant surprise, the Cats turned a one-point lead at Half Time into a comfortable win with strong third and fourth quarter performances.

Here are the full-game highlights:

Later, the West Coast Eagles returned to the scene of their Premiership triumph last year (the MCG), to take on the Hawthorn Hawks. Now, the Hawks are not the same team that won multiple premierships a few years ago, but they’re not exactly Carlton or Gold Coast either.

While the Eagle went out front, the Hawks did come back in the third to take the lead. The game went back and forth from there until the last two minutes:

It was a good win for the Eagles and a bad loss for the Hawks. Here are the full-game highlights:

Even later on Friday night, the Sydney Swans took on the Gold Coast Suns, who went toe to toe with the Swans for the first half.

The second half was a different story, however, as the Swans found another gear and took it to the Suns.

Here are the highlights:

The first of the two late late Friday night games was what I consider to be the upset of the season. The Collingwood Magpies were hosting the North Melbourne Kangaroos at Marvel Stadium and maybe the fact that the Roos use Marvel as their home stadium helped, but the Roos played a heck of a game and the Pies played probably their worst game of the year.

The result was a comprehensive 44 point victory that looks shocking when you read it on paper. Yes, it was close for a half, but it seems only the Roos decided to show up for the second half.

Here are the full-game highlights:

The last game of the night offered up another upset. Fresh off beating the league leaders at home, the Port Adelaide Power were hosting the lowly Western Bulldogs. Everything looked set for back to back wins.

The Doggies, of course, had other ideas. They answered Port’s early goal and then withstood a third quarter rally to take the low-scoring game in the driving rain.

Here are the full-game highlights:

I was able to watch the three quarters of the first game of North American Saturday night again before I succumbed to sleep. The St. Kilda Saints were facing the Richmond Tigers in “Maddie’s Match”, the now traditional fundraiser for Bone Marrow Disease research.

Maddie was the sister of former St. Kilda Saint Nick Riewoldt and the cousin of current Richmond Tiger Jack Riewoldt. She died at 26 a few years ago of a rare bone marrow disease. Since then, the St. Kilda-Richmond game each year has become a fundraiser. You can donate here, if you want.

As for the actual game, the Saints hung tough for almost three quarters. At the end of the third, though, I could tell they were running out of steam. True enough, the Tigers dominated the fourth and took the win. Here are the full-game highlights:

The second of the Saturday night games had the Brisbane Lions hosting the struggling Melbourne Demons.

The Demons started the game well and actually took the lead on the road. However, the Lions eventually added to the Demons’ season-long misery with a strong second half that erased the slim Demons lead and got them the four points.

Here are the full-game highlights:

The last game of the Round had the Fremantle Dockers hosting the Carlton Blues in a game that had Dockers win written all over it. Well, I did mention we had a few upsets this week, right?

The Dockers certainly thought they had the game wrapped up with a healthy 30+ point lead in the first quarter. However, the Blues did not give up. They managed to crawl all the way back to even in the third only for the Dockers to build back a 20+ point lead deep in the fourth.

And then this happened:

Amazing and totally unexpected. 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	12	2	0	48	145.5
2	Collingwood Magpies	10	4	0	40	119.9
3	West Coast Eagles	10	4	0	40	106.4
4	GWS Giants	9	5	0	36	129.8
5	Brisbane Lions	9	5	0	36	110.5
6	Adelaide Crows	8	6	0	32	111.0
7	Richmond Tigers	8	6	0	32	95.3
8	Fremantle Dockers	7	7	0	28	107.2
9	Port Adelaide Power	7	7	0	28	105.5
10	Essendon Bombers	7	7	0	28	101.3
11	North Melbourne Kangaroos	6	8	0	24	96.6
12	Sydney Swans	6	8	0	24	96.2
13	Western Bulldogs	6	8	0	24	92.3
14	St. Kilda Saints	6	8	0	24	82.1
15	Hawthorn Hawks	5	9	0	20	96.9
16	Melbourne Demons	4	10	0	16	77.9
17	Carlton Blues	3	11	0	12	80.6
18	Gold Coast Suns	3	11	0	12	70.6

Here is the Balls Graph:

[gview file=”https://www.doorfliesopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/AFL-Ladder-2019R15-1.pdf”]

All of a sudden, Carlton is not in the Wooden Spoon position! Their win and the other upsets this week have made the ladder tighter in the middle. Heck, even the Hawks in 15th position are only 2 games behind the final spot in the Eight!

The battle for the last five spots in the Eight is going to be super tough and will probably come down to the last week.

***

Footy Tipping Contest

Here is where we are after Round Fifteen:

P	TIPPER	Round Tips	Round Margin	Total Tips	Total Margin
1	Litre_cola	5	14	84	387
2	Son Of Spam	5	20	83	423
3	BFC	5	18	81	461
4	BALLS	5	23	77	479
5	BC Dick	4	33	75	516
6	Dolph Ucker	5	37	72	424
7	Why Eagles Why	5	6	71	396
8	Game Time Decision	5	27	70	461
9	Yeah Right	4	29	70	570
10	Sharkbait	5	6	64	712
11		3	6	63	521
12	Blax	5	6	57	417

Those upsets caught almost everyone in the pool by surprise. No one got more than 5 correct this week.

Overall, the positions didn’t change too much but there is still plenty of time for things to change.

DONT FORGET TO PUT THE FOOTY TIPS IN!

***

AFL Round 16

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

Friday, July 5, 2019

2:50 AM (Late Thursday Night!) -Hawthorn Hawks v Collingwood Magpies at the MCG

The Pies are coming off a shock loss to the Roos while the Hawks are also not doing well. Which team will rebound?

8:45 PM – Essendon Bombers v Sydney Swans at the MCG

This game will go a long way towards determining which team has a shot at finals. It’s a must win for both teams.

9:10 PM – Gold Coast Suns v Richmond Tigers at Metricon Stadium

The Suns are, once again, in the familiar Wooden Spoon position. The Tigers must take advantage of this.

11:35 PM – Adelaide Crows v Port Adelaide Power

Another edition of The Showdown, this time with Adelaide as the “home” team. These are always tossups.

Saturday, July 6, 2019

2:25 AM – Western Bulldogs v Geelong Cats at Marvel Stadium

The eternal battle of dogs vs cats plays out once again under the roof. You know who I’m rooting for…

3:10 AM – Fremantle Dockers v West Coast Eagles at Optus Stadium

I guess this is Derby Weekend! First Adelaide, then Perth.

8:10 PM – Carlton Blues v Melbourne Demons at the MCG

The suddenly hot Blues are looking to win two in a row for the first time in a very long time.

10:20 PM – North Melbourne Kangaroos v St. Kilda Saints at Blundstone Arena in Tasmania

How hot are the Roos? Like the Blues, they fired their coach mid-season and are rebounding. The poor Saints must stop their season from circling the drain.

11:40 PM – GWS Giants v Brisbane Lions at Giants Stadium

This is the Match of The Round. The two sides are in the top five and are looking to consolidate their finals credentials.

***

That’s all for this week! As you can see from this week’s upsets, anything can still happen and there is a LOT to play for. If you’re thinking of starting to follow this sport, this is the time to tune in!

See you next week!

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