Programming Note:  I decided to post this on the eve of Finals Week Two because 1)  NFL just started WOOOOOOOO!!! 2) this post was going to get drowned out with all the NFL #content, and 3) This is a Late Night sport and it deserves a Late Night post.

So, did SunriseSunrise’s new favorite team get eliminated?  Is the ghost of the Adelaide Crows’ coach helping them from beyond the grave?  Did the top two seeds earn themselves byes to Finals Week Three?   To get the answers to these questions and more, READ ON!

Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!

Four games were in store the whole entire weekend.  Let’s take a look at them one by one in chronological order:

Second Qualifying Final – West Coast Eagles vs Hawthorn Hawks at Domain Stadium in Perth

This game was played in the wee hours of Thursday night/Friday morning US time which was really Friday Night Prime Time in Australia.  The two-time defending champion Hawks were traveling to the Australian West Coast to battle the #2 team in the league.  It was expected to be a tight close contest and it was, for about a quarter.  After that, the Eagles took off (sorry) and soared (again, sorry) to an unexpected but convincing 42 point win.   Maybe the Hawks were relying on the second chance their #3 seed afforded them, because even their coach admitted that the Hawks played like shit.

Here, the Hawks’ Jarryd Roughead (love that name!) gets things started on the right foot by giving a back of the head ball massage to an Eagles player:

Things went downhill from there as Hawthorn’s Jack Gunston suffered a lower leg injury late in the game and has been ruled out of the Semifinal round:

On a more positive note, here is West Coast’s Mark LeCras scoring a nice goal from a tight angle:

First Qualifying Final – Fremantle Dockers vs Sydney Swans at Domain Stadium in Perth

This game came on at a more reasonable hour of 10:20 PM Pacific on Friday night, so I was able to watch it.  It was a pretty tight game throughout as Fremantle would get out to a lead and extend it to the point where they could potentially put the game away with another goal, only for Sydney to go on a run and get it within two goals.  The Swans desperately tried at the end to make a final move to overcome the deficit but could not convert goal opportunities into 6 point goals, settled for 1 point behinds, and ended up losing by a score of 69-60.

Here, the Dockers get off to a fast start to build that early lead:

This was a cool play as the Dockers’ Hayden Ballantyne (you know, I just noticed that Australians LOVE their y’s!) tried to for an amazing goal but ended up giving his teammate and assist for a tap-in goal.

As I said, the Swans stayed tough and kept fighting even though they were down,

but it was not enough.  The Swans still had the second chance, though, and would need to wait 24 hours to find out their rival in the Semifinal Round.

Second Elimination Final – Western Bulldogs vs Adelaide Crows at the MCG in Melbourne

The only thing wrong with this game was that it started in the middle of the night on Friday/Saturday in the US and I couldn’t stay awake to watch it since I had been up since 4 AM to watch the tail end of the West Coast-Hawthorn game and get ready for work.  Other than that, it offered everything anyone could want out of a Win-or-Go Home match. Both teams played very well and scored a lot of points.   The key difference was that the Crows converted their set shots (such as after marks or free kicks) into goals while Western settled for too many behinds

I highly suggest you take six minutes out of your day/night and see this summary of the thrilling finish to this game:

If you can’t afford that much, here is a quality goal from Adelaide’s Charlie Cameron:

and the dagger that ultimately sank the Bulldogs’ hopes and sent them home:

Western lost, but they gained a lot of valuable experience which, for a young team, bodes well for the team’s future.

First Elimination Final – Richmond Tigers vs North Melbourne Kangaroos at the MCG in Melbourne

The last game of the round was shown LIVE on Fox Sports 2 on Saturday night at 10:20 PM Pacific.  We did a bit of a liveblog on the DFO Late Night / International Open Thread post and I know Senor Weaselo was watching at least the first half.  As opposed to the other elimination final, both teams were wasting opportunities left and right at the beginning of the game.  Richmond got out in front but would build and then lose leads as they made mistakes and North Melbourne capitalized.  Then North would make mistakes and the Tigers would build the lead again.  The pattern repeated itself until around the middle of the third when the Kangaroos finally figured out how to stop making mistakes.  They took the game from there and ended up winning by 17.

The Tigers really have no one to blame but themselves as they had several opportunities to blow the game wide open but shot themselves in the foot early and allowed the Roos to stay in the game.   Here is a nice fake that set up Richmond’s Ty Vickery for an easy goal:

This was easily the hit of the weekend.  I am so glad the AFL put it on Youtube:

Keep in mind there was no penalty on that play for any kind of “defenseless receiver” bullshit.  Fuck you, Roger Goodell!  Reason # 429 why the AFL is run way better than the NFL.

There were Kangaroo highlights too:

Let’s take a graphical look at where things stand, shall we?

The Hawks host the Adelaide Crows at the MCG in just a few hours (2:50 AM Pacific, to be exact).  I’ll be watching the second half before I go to work.  The winner faces the Fremantle Dockers at Domain stadium in Perth next week.  I expect this to be a close game.  Adelaide has the ghost behind them and have actually played very well lately.  Hawthorn needs to rebound off that shitty game and play at the championship level they know.  I think the Crows win a close one.

Almost twenty four hours later (2:20 AM Pacific), the Sydney Swans will host the North Melbourne Kangaroos at ANZ stadium in Sydney.  The Roos’ coach, Brad Scott, was roundly criticized for resting his players for the Round 23 game against Richmond and was proved correct after winning the Elimination Final rematch.  Can he spin his magic two weeks in a row and get the Roos to a Preliminary Final against the West Coast Eagles?  I say yes and not just because Brad Scott is the twin brother of Geelong’s coach, Chris Scott.  The Swans have some serious injuries to key personnel and their star Buddy Franklin is out with mental health issues (apparently severe depression) and is undergoing treatment.  The Roos are on a roll and seem to be catching the Swans at the right time (same as what happened in the regular season!)

There are only five games left in the season.  Luckily, the two Semifinal matchups are being shown live on Fox Sports 2, so any of you curious East Coast early risers may be able to catch some of the first game before going to work and the second game before the JV football games start.  Enjoy!