Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!

More COVID game changes, a couple of big upsets, and a couple of disappointments. Let’s see what happened this week.

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AFL 2021 Season Week 17 Recaps

Fremantle Dockers 31 – 100 Geelong Cats

The Cats did a tremendous job of focusing on the task at hand with a short week and increased COVID protocols to follow. The 69 point win was very nice. No, I’m not sorry.

Here are the highlights:

Richmond Tigers 106 – 86 Brisbane Lions

The Tigers roared back to life on Jack Riewoldt’s 300th game with him putting up 6 goals. On the negative side, Dustin Martin got a kidney injury that will put him out the rest of the year so maybe their chances for another Premiership just went poof.

Here are the highlights:

St. Kilda Saints 61 – 74 Port Adelaide Power

The Power played one of their better games this season and took care of the Saints who really should change their mascot to Icarus.

Here are the highlights:

Gold Coast Suns 79 – 90 Western Bulldogs

The Sunnies tried hard, but they couldn’t overtake the Doggies, who are now poised to take over the top spot in the ladder.

Here are the highlights:

Melbourne Demons 79 – 79 Hawthorn Hawks

Yes, this was a big upset even though it was actually a draw. Hawthorn gave Melbourne all it could and earned some respect on top of the two points.

Here are the highlights:

North Melbourne Kangaroos 74 – 92 Essendon Bombers

The Bombers were playing like crap in the first half and the Roos were dominating but they couldn’t make it show on the scoreboard and that came back and bit them. The real Bombers showed up in the second half and that was that.

Here are the highlights:

Collingwood Magpies 62 – 91 Carlton Blues

A week after beating Richmond, the Pies came stumbling back down to earth in a bad loss to the Blues. Carlton put up more effort and heart and were justly rewarded.

Here are the highlights:

Adelaide Crows 56 – 98 West Coast Eagles

This could be an aberration or a return to form for both teams. Adelaide was bad and West Coast was good but the problem with these two teams is that you don’t know which team will show up each week.

Here are the highlights:

GWS Giants 72 – 98 Sydney Swans

This one hurts for the Giants. They had a 30+ point lead in the game and yet Sydney came roaring back to not only beat them but to beat them by 26. That’s absolutely embarrassing for a team pretending to want to get in the Eight.

Here are the highlights:

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2021 Ladder

Here is how the teams stand after Round 18:

P	TEAM	W	L	T	PTS	%
1	Melbourne Demons	13	3	1	54	127.8
2	Western Bulldogs	13	4	0	52	140.4
3	Geelong Cats	13	4	0	52	130.3
4	Port Adelaide Power	12	5	0	48	119.8
5	Brisbane Lions	11	6	0	44	124.9
6	Sydney Swans	11	6	0	44	116.5
7	West Coast Eagles	9	8	0	36	98.0
8	Essendon Bombers	8	9	0	32	104.5
9	Richmond Tigers	8	9	0	32	100.8
10	Fremantle Dockers	8	9	0	32	92.5
11	St. Kilda Saints	8	9	0	32	86.6
12	GWS Giants	7	9	1	30	95.5
13	Carlton Blues	7	10	0	28	93.9
14	Gold Coast Suns	6	11	0	24	88.7
15	Collingwood Magpies	5	12	0	20	89.8
16	Adelaide Crows	5	12	0	20	79.4
17	Hawthorn Hawks	4	12	1	18	79.0
18	North Melbourne Kangaroos	3	13	1	14	67.1

Here is the Balls Graph (TM) as of Week 18:

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Footy Tipping Contest

Here is where we stand after Round 18:

P	TIPPER	Round Tips	Round Margin	Total Tips	Total Margin
1	Litre_cola	6	61	102	568
2	Mr. Ayo	8	69	101	492
3	SonOfSpam	7	61	101	516
4	Dok Zymm	6	44	100	567
5	BFC	8	46	100	594
6	Dolph Ucker	5	69	97	545
7		5	59	96	510
8	BALLS	5	61	96	565
9	BC Dick	5	65	95	558
10	Game Time Decision	7	54	92	487
11	Why Eagles Why	5	69	92	516
12	bk109	5	69	84	506
13	Reverend Mayhem	5	69	73	514
14	Maestro	5	69	70	544
15	Yeah Right	5	69	70	556

Big congratulations to Mr. Ayo, who vaulted himself into a tie for second place with a tremendous 8 pick week! Same goes to BFC, who also got himself an 8 pick week and is only 2 behind the leader, Litre. Keep up the good work! We’re getting down to crunch time and there are only 7 points separating 1st from 9th!

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Balls Sechs

• The one thing that I don’t understand about the AFL is their unwillingness to let Geelong play all of their home games in Geelong. This week, they will, despite asking for the game to be moved from the MCG to GMHBA Stadium, be forced to go to the MCG to play in front of no fans. I mean, I get it that the AFL can make more money at the MCG which holds more fans but this is COVID and there will be NO FANS. There is no reason to let the game stay at the MCG.
• As of Monday night, there was still no confirmation on the time for the Cats-Tigers game and no venue or time for the Essendon-GWS game. If anything comes up during the morning, I’ll post it in the comments.
• With Melbourne tying the Hawks, this week’s game against the Doggies is HUGE. If the Demons lose, they could fall all the way to third and may not be able to get back in the Top Two. If they win, they would take a commanding 6 point lead over the Doggies and be virtually assured of finishing Top Two.
• Richmond is inching its way back to get into the Eight but the loss of Dustin Martin for the year will be almost impossible to overcome. If they lose to Geelong this week, the defense of the championship is over.
• Meanwhile, at the bottom of the ladder, the Kangaroos had a golden opportunity to tie Hawthorn on points but they blew it against the Bombers. They will finish with the Wooden Spoon.
• The Match of The Round next week is obviously Melbourne-Western. It’s too bad it’s on in the middle of the night!

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Round Nineteen Schedule

Here is the Round 19 schedule (all times Pacific):

Friday, July 23, 2021

2:10 AM – Port Adelaide Power v Collingwood Magpies at Marvel Stadium

8:45 PM – Carlton Blues v North Melbourne Kangaroos at Marvel Stadium

10:10 PM – Brisbane Lions v Gold Coast Suns at The Gabba

11:35 PM – West Coast Eagles v St. Kilda Saints at Optus Stadium

Saturday, July 17, 2021

1:10 AM – Adelaide Crows v Hawthorn Hawks at Marvel Stadium

2:25 AM – Melbourne Demons v Western Bulldogs at the MCG

7:30 PM – Sydney Swans v Fremantle Dockers at Metricon Stadium

Time TBD – Geelong Cats v Richmond Tigers at the MCG

Time TBD – Essendon Bombers v GWS Giants at Venue TBD

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