Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!

More COVID game changes are on tap for next week. Let’s see what happened this week.

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AFL 2021 Season Week 19 Recaps

Port Adelaide Power 97 – 69 Collingwood Magpies

For the second week in a row, the first game had a 69 in the scoreline. I don’t wander the woods of Northern Ontario, so I think I’m safe.

Here are the highlights:

Carlton 77 – 116 North Melbourne Kangaroos

Remember a couple of years ago when I said that the Swans were going with youth and would be good in a couple of years? Today is the day I’m telling you the Roos are going through the same thing. Look out for them in a couple of years.

Here are the highlights:

Brisbane Lions 120 – 71 Gold Coast Suns

All the fight has left the Suns and they are now resigned to their usual bottom of the ladder position. Meanwhile, the Lions are itching to get back into the Top Four.

Here are the highlights:

West Coast Eagles 94 – 86 St. Kilda Saints

The Saints have, as expected, realized they were too high up the ladder and have promptly lost a game they could have won. 10th place, indeed, Mr. Litre…

Here are the highlights:

Melbourne Demons 65 – 85 Western Bulldogs

The Doggies made a big statement by not just beating the Demons, but making them look bad in the process. The loss takes the Demons all the way down to third on the ladder.

Here are the highlights:

Adelaide Crows 102 – 83 Hawthorn Hawks

This one came straight out of left field. The Crows were playing bad while the Hawks were playing well and here we are.

Here are the highlights:

Sydney Swans 98 – 58 Fremantle Dockers

Sydney keeps winning and look to be a real threat come finals time. Meanwhile, the Dockers just lost Fyfe for the year and look to be out of the finals picture.

Here are the highlights:

Geelong Cats 95 – 57 Richmond Tigers

The Cats have now won twice over the Tigers in their Grand FInal rematches from last year. The Tigers are clinging to life but may yet still make finals considering the teams above them are not exactly taking advantage of the situation.

Here are the highlights:

Essendon Bombers 53 – 66 GWS Giants

The Giants are back in the Eight but one has to wonder for how long. If they can get their act together, they can do it, but they’ve been wildly inconsistent.

Here are the highlights:

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2021 Ladder

Here is how the teams stand after Round 19:

P	TEAM	W	L	T	PTS	%
1	Western Bulldogs	14	4	0	56	139.9
2	Geelong Cats	14	4	0	56	132.1
3	Melbourne Demons	13	4	1	54	124.2
4	Port Adelaide Power	13	5	0	52	121.0
5	Brisbane Lions	12	6	0	48	127.3
6	Sydney Swans	12	6	0	48	118.8
7	West Coast Eagles	10	8	0	40	98.6
8	GWS Giants	8	9	1	34	96.6
9	Essendon Bombers	8	10	0	32	103.4
10	Richmond Tigers	8	10	0	32	98.2
11	Fremantle Dockers	8	10	0	32	90.3
12	St. Kilda Saints	8	10	0	32	86.9
13	Carlton Blues	7	11	0	28	91.9
14	Gold Coast Suns	6	12	0	24	86.2
15	Adelaide Crows	6	12	0	24	81.5
16	Collingwood Magpies	5	13	0	20	88.5
17	Hawthorn Hawks	4	13	1	18	79.1
18	North Melbourne Kangaroos	4	13	1	18	70.8

Here is the Balls Graph (TM) as of Week 19:

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Footy Tipping Contest

Here is where we stand after Round 19:

P	TIPPER	Round Tips	Round Margin	Total Tips	Total Margin
1	Litre_cola	6	28	108	596
2	Mr. Ayo	6	28	107	520
3	Dok Zymm	7	3	107	570
4	SonOfSpam	5	11	106	527
5	BFC	6	2	106	598
6		7	2	103	512
7	BALLS	6	22	102	587
8	Game Time Decision	8	14	100	501
9	Dolph Ucker	3	28	100	573
10	BC Dick	5	22	100	580
11	Why Eagles Why	3	28	95	544
12	bk109	3	28	87	534
13	Reverend Mayhem	3	28	76	542
14	Maestro	3	28	73	572
15	Yeah Right	3	28	73	584

Big congratulations to Game Time Decision, who vaulted himself into contention with a tremendous 8 pick week! Keep up the good work! We’re getting down to crunch time and there are only 8 points separating 1st from 10th!

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Balls Sechs

• The COVID situation has again forced games to be moved up and relocated. So far, the AFL is doing a great job of making sure the original planned games are played. As we run out of games, though, this becomes more difficult. We’ll see if they are able to play out the rest of the year without any problems.
• We officially have four teams qualified for finals: Western, Geelong, Melbourne, and Port Adelaide. One more win will see Sydney and Brisbane officially qualify
• Western is playing really really well. They manhandled Melbourne and should rightfully be considered the favourites to win it all.
• Richmond is still in the finals picture only because none of the other contenders (pretenders?) have won lately. One more loss could kill their hopes and a trip to Perth is not easy under normal circumstances.
• Meanwhile, at the bottom of the ladder, the Kangaroos are now tied with Hawthorn for the Wooden Spoon with only 9 percentage points separating them. Both will play the Crows in the last four games. Whoever does better against them will be able to avoid the 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 Twenty Schedule

Here is the Round 20 schedule (all times Pacific):

Friday, July 30, 2021

2:50 AM – St. Kilda Saints v Carlton Blues at Marvel Stadium

7:20 PM – Western Bulldogs v Adelaide Crows at Mars Stadium

8:15 PM – North Melbourne Kangaroos v Geelong Cats at Blundstone Arena

10:10 PM – Gold Coast Suns v Melbourne Demons at TBD

11:15 PM – Collingwood Magpies v West Coast Eagles at the MCG

Saturday, July 31, 2021

2:40 AM – Essendon Bombers v Sydney Swans at The Gabba

9:10 PM – Hawthorn Hawks v Brisbane Lions at UTAS

10:10 PM – GWS Giants v Port Adelaide Power at TBD

Sunday, August 1, 2021

12:10 AM – Fremantle Dockers v Richmond Tigers at Optus Stadium

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