This week, the games were intense

Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!

There were some titanic clashes that told us a lot about what finals will be like.

In addition, the AFL men’s season starts THIS WEEK, so I’ve got to get you prepped for that!

There is much to go over. Let’s get right to it!

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Week 7 Recaps

Gold Coast Suns 26 – 41 Richmond Tigers

The Tigers have now won two games on the season and are looking really good. The Suns just look really good in their unis.

Here are the highlights:

St. Kilda Saints 25 – 45 GWS Giants

Do you like watching wet women rolling around in the mud chasing after a ball? Then this is the match for you! Seriously, I love watching rain games. It reminds me of my youth.

Here are the highlights:

North Melbourne Kangaroos 37 – 26 Western Bulldogs

This was a great game. You had two finals contenders trying to prove they belong. Ultimately, the Roos prevailed, but it was a hard-fought victory.

Here are the highlights:

Melbourne Demons 43 – 15 Adelaide Crows

This was, by far, the surprise of the round. Not that the Demons won, but HOW they won. They played their best game yet. The only question is whether they can repeat this performance in finals.

Here are the highlights:

Carlton Blues 41 – 45 Fremantle Dockers

The Dockers came back from 21 points to beat the Blues at their home turf. It was an amazing game to watch. It put Fremantle in first and pretty much eliminated the Blues from finals contention.

Here are the highlights:

Brisbane Lions 35 – 32 Collingwood Magpies

I was going to say that Carlton-Fremantle was the Match of the Round but then this game happened. This was an awesome game that I recommend everyone watch the replay. It was tough, it was back and forth, and it was close all the way to the end. It was worthy of being a Grand Final.

Here are the highlights:

West Coast Eagles 53 – 14 Geelong Cats

The Cats’ best chance to win a game will be in Round 9 against the Suns. As for the Eagles, they’ve won two now and are looking good to win another one.

Here are the highlights:

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Ladder

Here is how the teams stand after Round 7:

P	TEAM	W	L	T	PTS	%
1	Fremantle Dockers	6	1	0	24	231.9
2	Brisbane Lions	6	1	0	24	224.6
3	Collingwood Magpies	6	1	0	24	195.9
4	Adelaide Crows	5	2	0	20	192.6
5	North Melbourne Kangaroos	5	2	0	20	162.9
6	Melbourne Demons	5	2	0	20	136.4
7	Western Bulldogs	4	3	0	16	101.3
8	Carlton Blues	3	4	0	12	108.8
9	GWS Giants	3	4	0	12	68.2
10	Richmond Tigers	2	5	0	8	82.1
11	St. Kilda Saints	2	5	0	8	58.7
12	West Coast Eagles	2	5	0	8	55.7
13	Gold Coast Suns	0	7	0	0	35.3
14	Geelong Cats	0	7	0	0	31.0

And now, the glorious return of the Balls GraphTM:

[gview file=”https://www.doorfliesopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/AFLW-Ladder-2021R7.pdf”]

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Footy Tipping Contest

Here is how we stack up after Round 7:

P	TIPPER	Round Tips	Round Margin	Total Tips	Total Margin
1	SonOfSpam	4	3	38	107
2	BALLS	5	4	36	112
3	BC Dick	2	15	34	94
4	Game Time Decision	4	7	34	129
5	BFC	4	8	32	81
6	Litre_cola	5	4	31	110
7		5	2	24	127

I was able to get a little closer to SonOfSpam and overtook BC Dick for second place. There is still time to catch him, I think!

I remind you, as always,

DON’T FORGET TO PUT THE FOOTY TIPS IN!

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Balls’ Sechs

• It’s, more than ever, a 7 team race for 6 Finals spots. And Western needs to pull off a miracle to get there after this week’s loss to the Roos.
• Brisbane’s victory over the unbeaten Pies was even more impressive when you consider they were supposed to have a home game and then were suddenly told (24 hours before the game!) they were going to fly into Melbourne and play in the Doggies’ stadium instead due to COVID concerns.
• The Demons were very impressive in their victory over the Crows. I’m not quite sure if it was more the Crows had a bad game or the Demons were really that good. I’d love to see a rematch in Finals.
• Fremantle may have just saved their season with that huge comeback against the Blues. They retain first place on percentage and still have the possibility of a first round bye.
• The top three teams are only separated by percentage while the next three are one game back and also separated only by percentage. Any of the top six can still earn a bye.
• Next week’s Marquee Matchups are the Lions hosting the Roos, the Dockers hosting the Demons, and the Crows hosting the Doggies. If the Doggies lose, the Top Six is set and the only thing to be decided in Round 9 is seeding.

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Round Eight Schedule

As of now, the schedule stands as written below.

Here are this week’s games (all times Pacific):

Thursday, March 18, 2021

11:10 PM – Gold Coast Suns v Carlton Blues at Metricon Stadium

Friday, March 19, 2021

7:10 PM – Geelong Cats v GWS Giants at GMHBA Stadium

9:10 PM – Collingwood Magpies v St. Kilda Saints at Victoria Park

11:10 AM – Brisbane Lions v North Melbourne Kangaroos at The Gabba

Saturday, March 20, 2021

6:40 PM – Richmond Tigers v West Coast Eagles at Swinburne Centre

10:10 PM – Adelaide Crows v Western Bulldogs at Norwood Oval

Sunday, March 21, 2021

12:10 AM – Fremantle Dockers v Melbourne Demons at Fremantle Oval

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AFL 2021 Season Preview

Last week, I told you about the rule changes for this year, reminded you about the Footy Tipping Pool, and gave you the first week’s schedule.

This week, I’m reminding you of how teams finished last year, which DFOer has picked which team to root for, and discuss who the favourites are.

Before all that, I do want to remind you again about the chance to win a gently-used Fleshlight via the Footy Tipping Pool! The site we use is the Australian ESPN site and we’ve been moved off a web address and onto a Tipping app. It’s a lot of fun and it’s free. Our competition name is “door flies open”.

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2020 Final Ladder

Here is how the teams finished last year:

P	TEAM	W	L	T	PTS	%
1	Port Adelaide Power	14	3	0	56	136.4
2	Brisbane Lions	14	3	0	56	124.9
3	Richmond Tigers	12	4	1	50	129.9
4	Geelong Cats	12	5	0	48	136.8
5	West Coast Eagles	12	5	0	48	117.0
6	St. Kilda Saints	10	7	0	40	116.2
7	Western Bulldogs	10	7	0	40	106.7
8	Collingwood Magpies	9	7	1	38	109.5
9	Melbourne Demons	9	8	0	36	107.8
10	GWS Giants	8	9	0	32	95.6
11	Carlton Blues	7	10	0	28	94.3
12	Fremantle Dockers	7	10	0	28	93.7
13	Essendon Bombers	6	10	1	26	79.2
14	Gold Coast Suns	5	11	1	22	90.6
15	Hawthorn Hawks	5	12	0	20	84.1
16	Sydney Swans	5	12	0	20	82.6
17	North Melbourne Kangaroos	3	14	0	12	71.2
18	Adelaide Crows	3	14	0	12	64.4

Here is the final Balls Graph (TM) from last year:

[gview file=”https://www.doorfliesopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/AFL-Ladder-2020R18.pdf”]

And here is how Finals went:

As you will remember, the Richmond Tigers won their third Premiership in four years by beating my Geelong Cats in the Grand Final.

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Footy Tipping Contest

Here are the final standings from last year. Congratulations to Dolph Ucker for being the Big Weiner!

P	TIPPER	Round Tips	Round Margin	Total Tips	Total Margin
1	Dolph Ucker	1	23	115	509
2	BFC	0	45	112	427
3	SonOfSpam	0	37	112	468
4	Litre_cola	0	39	108	480
5	BALLS	0	81	105	591
6		1	24	103	583
7	Yeah Right	1	6	102	484
8	BC Dick	0	37	101	537
9	Sunrisesunrise	0	31	101	687
10	Game Time Decision	1	11	95	585
11	WhyEaglesWhy	0	31	94	499
12	Maestro	1	6	83	511
13	Sharkbait	0	31	73	827
14	Reverend Mayhem	0	31	64	507

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Here is the Round 1 schedule (all times Pacific):

Thursday, March 18, 2021

12:25 AM – Richmond Tigers v Carlton Blues at the MCG

Friday, March 19, 2021

12:50 AM – Collingwood Magpies v Western Bulldogs at the MCG

6:45 PM – Melbourne Demons v Fremantle Dockers at the MCG

9:35 PM – Adelaide Crows v Geelong Cats at Adelaide Oval

Saturday, March 20, 2021

12:25 AM – Essendon Bombers v Hawthorn Hawks at Marvel Stadium

12:45 AM – Brisbane Lions v Sydney Swans at The Gabba

6:10 PM – North Melbourne Kangaroos v Port Adelaide Power at Marvel Stadium

8:20 PM – GWS Giants v St. Kilda Saints at Giants Stadium

Sunday, March 21, 2021

11:10 PM – West Coast Eagles v Gold Coast Suns at Optus Stadium

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Finally, here is a handy dandy table showing which DFOers support which teams:

AFL TEAM	DFO COMMENTIST
Adelaide Crows	Game Time Decision, Dolph Ucker
Brisbane Lions	Balding Spiritually
Carlton Blues	King Hippo
Collingwood Magpies	JJ Fozz, Moose
Essendon Bombers	Rikki Tikki Deadly
Fremantle Dockers	Yeah Right
Geelong Cats	Balls, TWBS
Gold Coast Suns
GWS Giants	BFC, LemonJello
Hawthorn Hawks	Sharkbait
Melbourne Demons
North Melbourne Kangaroos	Sunrisesunrise
Port Adelaide Power	WhyEaglesWhy, entropy
Richmond Tigers
St. Kilda Saints	Litre_cola, Doktor Zymm
Sydney Swans	Spanky Datass
West Coast Eagles	Low Commander
Western Bulldogs	SonOfSpam

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Who Will Be Good?

Richmond, obviously. Beyond them, I think the youngest teams in the competition have an improved chance to win given the rule changes instituted this year. That may be bad news for my Geelong Cats as they are among the oldest teams in the competition, but the emphasis is really on fitness as opposed to youth, so who knows?

It will be interesting to see how teams adapt to the new rules and which teams are able to take advantage. I look at this 2021 AFL season as I do a NASCAR race that starts in the afternoon and ends at night. There are so many changes to the track over the course of the race and a team that does well in the beginning may not be there at the end and vice versa.

Like in NASCAR, all the AFL teams will be trying to adapt and take advantage of the changing conditions. The teams that adapt the best will be the ones in contention at the end. It truly is a wide open season in which anything can happen!

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That’s all for this week. See you next week!