Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!

Let’s see what happened this week.

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AFL 2021 Season Week 15 Recaps

Brisbane Lions 94 – 50 Geelong Cats

Woo that was a beatdown! Easily the Cats’ worst loss of the season and Brisbane got sweet home revenge for a controversial early season loss to the Cats in Geelong.

Here are the highlights:

Richmond Tigers 22 – 62 St. Kilda Saints

No, that is not a typo. The Saints, of all teams, held the reigning champions to 22 points. Yes, I’m still wondering how that happened.

Here are the highlights:

Collingwood Magpies 79 – 91 Fremantle Dockers

The Dockers played very well outside of Perth, for a change, and managed to outlast the plucky Pies, who were playing at Marvel Stadium instead of their usual MCG home.

Here are the highlights:

North Melbourne Kangaroos 72 – 63 Gold Coast Suns

The Roos picked up another win and the Suns are just hopeless. Each year they start out well and people start to think they might actually be better and then they lose to the Wooden Spooner.

Here are the highlights:

Port Adelaide Power 81 – 71 Sydney Swans

It was always going to be tough for the Swans to beat Port in Adelaide but they did a pretty good job of hanging around. They just need that one little extra bit to get over the edge.

Here are the highlights:

Essendon Bombers 57 – 68 Melbourne Demons

The Bombers had a chance but couldn’t prove that they belong with the contenders. Meanwhile, the Demons put some nice distance between themselves and the teams looking to get into the Top Two.

Here are the highlights:

GWS Giants 72 – 90 Hawthorn Hawks

I turned this off at the end of the first quarter with the Giants up 16 points. The Hawks came back strong and held off the Giants in convincing fashion. Another opportunity lost for GWS.

Here are the highlights:

West Coast Eagles 43 – 98 Western Bulldogs

This actually happened in Perth too! HUGE win for the Doggies as they and Melbourne are separating themselves from the rest of the league.

Here are the highlights:

Carlton Blues 83 – 73 Adelaide Crows

Looks like it was Bad Adelaide’s turn to play this week. Some weeks they look good and some weeks they lose to Carlton.

Here are the highlights:

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2021 Ladder

Here is how the teams stand after Round 15:

P	TEAM	W	L	T	PTS	%
1	Melbourne Demons	12	2	0	48	131.4
2	Western Bulldogs	11	3	0	44	148.6
3	Brisbane Lions	10	4	0	40	131.5
4	Port Adelaide Power	10	4	0	40	122.2
5	Geelong Cats	10	4	0	40	120.6
6	Sydney Swans	8	6	0	32	106.6
7	West Coast Eagles	8	6	0	32	102.6
8	Richmond Tigers	7	7	0	28	101.5
9	Fremantle Dockers	7	7	0	28	93.0
10	GWS Giants	6	7	1	26	96.2
11	Essendon Bombers	6	8	0	24	101.9
12	St. Kilda Saints	6	8	0	24	82.1
13	Carlton Blues	5	9	0	20	91.4
14	Adelaide Crows	5	9	0	20	86.9
15	Collingwood Magpies	4	10	0	16	89.7
16	Gold Coast Suns	4	10	0	16	86.4
17	Hawthorn Hawks	4	10	0	16	82.0
18	North Melbourne Kangaroos	2	11	1	10	63.7

Here is the Balls Graph (TM) as of Week 15:

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Footy Tipping Contest

Here is where we stand after Round 15:

P	TIPPER	Round Tips	Round Margin	Total Tips	Total Margin
1	Litre_cola	6	40	87	431
2	Dok Zymm	3	34	87	432
3	SonOfSpam	5	37	84	386
4	BFC	5	60	84	481
5	Mr. Ayo	5	44	83	392
6	BALLS	5	38	82	429
7		5	55	81	410
8	Dolph Ucker	3	50	81	412
9	BC Dick	5	62	81	427
10	WhyEaglesWhy	3	47	77	396
11	Game Time Decision	3	53	76	389
12	bk109	5	44	69	396
13	Reverend Mayhem	5	44	58	404
14	Maestro	2	51	55	434
15	Yeah Right	5	44	55	446

We have a new leader! And by the slimmest of margins too! Only one point in the margin separates Litre_cola from Dok Zymm at the top of the board. It looks like Dok needs to go back to exotic locales on vacation. She did way better when she was in paradise.

Good job to Litre for getting top score and edging into the lead! There was also further movement down the ladder and the pack at the top gets tighter and tighter.

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Balls Sechs

• I am as shocked as anyone about that Richmond-St. Kilda game. Does this mean the end of their reign? Has someone finally figured out how to beat them? We’ll find out more in the coming weeks but that game will be reviewed thoroughly by the rest of the competition for sure.
• At the same time that the COVID restrictions went down in Melbourne, they went up in Sydney. The Giants were supposed to play the Hawks in Sydney but ended up playing them at the MCG. Not sure how fair that was, but it is what it is.
• There is now a big two game gap between the fifth-placed Geelong Cats and the sixth-placed Sydney Swans. That means the battle for places 3 and 4 will be heated between Geelong, Brisbane, and Port Adelaide.
• Fremantle is now in position to knock Richmond out of the Eight as they are tied with them on points. A few handy wins and they could overcome the Tigers even if they Tigers don’t lose.
• While the Saints’ win was certainly impressive, I think the more impressive win was Western in Perth. Not just that they won, but HOW they won.
• The Match of The Round next week is probably the Sydney Swans – West Coast Eagles game which, due to COVID, will be held in Geelong’s home ground. That will be VERY interesting to watch!

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Round Sixteen Schedule

Here is the Round 16 schedule (all times Pacific):

Thursday, July 1, 2021

2:20 AM – Gold Coast Suns v Richmond Tigers at Metricon Stadium

Friday, July 2, 2021

2:50 AM – Geelong Cats v Essendon Bombers at GMHBA Stadium

8:45 PM – Melbourne Demons v GWS Giants at the MCG

11:35 PM – Adelaide Crows v Brisbane Lions at Adelaide Oval

Saturday, June 26, 2021

2:40 AM – Fremantle Dockers v Carlton Blues at Optus Stadium

2:40 AM – Hawthorn Hawks v Port Adelaide Power at Marvel Stadium

8:10 PM – Sydney Swans v West Coast Eagles at GMHBA Stadium

10:20 PM – Collingwood Magpies v St. Kilda Saints at the MCG

11:40 PM – Western Bulldogs v North Melbourne Kangaroos at Marvel Stadium

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