This week, both the men and the women were in action!

Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!

There is SO MUCH footy to go over! Let’s get right to it!

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Week 8 Recaps

Gold Coast Suns 27 – 87 Carlton Blues

The Blues’ victory ensures that there will only be one winless team at the end of the year. Unless the Suns and Cats tie their game next week and that would be hilarious.

Here are the highlights:

Geelong Cats 9 – 16 GWS Giants

What can you really say about a game like this? The Cats were in it until they weren’t. Alls I know is that next week’s Suns-Cats game could end up 0-0.

Here are the highlights:

Collingwood Magpies 59 – 13 St. Kilda Saints

The Pies rebounded strongly from their first loss of the year and are now in great position for one of the two Finals byes. Meanwhile, the Saints’ season is mathematically over.

Here are the highlights:

Brisbane Lions 35 – 20 North Melbourne Kangaroos

This was a HUGE win for the Lions. It gave them first place and also proved they can beat any of the contenders. Another big test looms next week.

Here are the highlights:

Richmond Tigers 42 – 34 West Coast Eagles

The Eagles did a good job of coming back and making the game close, but the Tigers are really the one team out of all the non-finals contenders that looks like it’s getting its shit together. They will be good next year.

Here are the highlights:

Adelaide Crows 78 – 22 Western Bulldogs

The “good” Crows are back and they tore into the Doggies. With this loss, the Doggies are effectively eliminated from the finals picture. What a way to go out…

Here are the highlights:

Fremantle Dockers 32 – 37 Melbourne Demons

This was the Match of The Round. A nail-biter until the end that gave Collingwood and Brisbane some breathing room while lumping everyone else together in positions 3 to 6.

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	Brisbane Lions	7	1	0	28	218.5
2	Collingwood Magpies	7	1	0	28	217.0
3	Adelaide Crows	6	2	0	24	210.7
4	Fremantle Dockers	6	2	0	24	200.6
5	Melbourne Demons	6	2	0	24	133.9
6	North Melbourne Kangaroos	5	3	0	20	147.3
7	Carlton Blues	4	4	0	16	128.1
8	Western Bulldogs	4	4	0	16	82.8
9	GWS Giants	4	4	0	16	71.6
10	Richmond Tigers	3	5	0	12	86.4
11	West Coast Eagles	2	6	0	8	58.7
12	St. Kilda Saints	2	6	0	8	52.8
13	Gold Coast Suns	0	8	0	0	34.5
14	Geelong Cats	0	8	0	0	32.0

And now, the glorious return of the Balls GraphTM:

[gview file=”https://www.doorfliesopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/AFLW-Ladder-2021R8.pdf”]

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Footy Tipping Contest

Here is how we stack up after Round 8:

P	TIPPER	Round Tips	Round Margin	Total Tips	Total Margin
1	SonOfSpam	6	31	44	138
2	BALLS	6	42	42	154
3	BC Dick	6	42	40	136
4	BFC	6	36	38	117
5	Litre_cola	6	43	37	153
6	Game Time Decision	2	60	36	189
7		6	60	30	187

If it wasn’t for Fremantle losing to Melbourne, this would have been another week where most of us got perfect scores. As it is, the standings remain mostly the same with Game Time Decision taking a bit of a tumble down the ladder. One more full week of games and then we move onto finals! Yes, the competition continues through the end of Finals!

I remind you, as always,

DON’T FORGET TO PUT THE FOOTY TIPS IN!

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Balls’ Sechs

• The field is set after the Doggies lost big. Carlton has a mathematical chance of getting in if they blow out the Giants while the Roos lose big to the Dockers at home but, yeah, that ain’t happening.
• Brisbane’s victory over the Roos shows they can beat anyone. Their only blemish this season was a loss to the red-hot Crows, who may just be the team to beat.
• The Pies-Crows game in Round 9, though, will probably be the Match of the Year. Whoever wins that game will have a Finals Bye and will most likely be the favourite to win the Premiership.
• At the other end of the table, the Suns and Cats will battle it out for the Wooden Spoon in Geelong.
• The Tigers and Eagles have both improved significantly from their early season form. It will be very interesting to see if both teams are contenders next season.
• Next week’s Marquee Matchups are the Roos hosting the Dockers, the Lions visiting the Demons, and the Crows hosting the Pies. Finals Byes and seeding are all at stake.

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Round Nine Schedule

As of now, the schedule stands as written below.

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

Thursday, March 25, 2021

11:10 PM – Western Bulldogs v Richmond Tigers at Whitten Oval

Friday, March 26, 2021

7:10 PM – North Melbourne Kangaroos v Fremantle Dockers at Arden Street Oval

9:10 PM – Melbourne Demons v Brisbane Lions at Casey Fields

11:10 AM – Gold Coast Suns v Geelong Cats at Metricon Stadium

Saturday, March 27, 2021

6:40 PM – Adelaide Crows v Collingwood Magpies at Norwood Oval

10:10 PM – GWS Giants v Carlton Blues at Blacktown International Sports Park

Sunday, March 28, 2021

12:10 AM – West Coast Eagles v St. Kilda Saints at Mineral Resources Park

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AFL 2021 Season Week 1 Recaps

Richmond Tigers 105 – 80 Carlton Blues

The Blues hung tough, but it was always going to be a difficult task to beat the reigning champions in the season debut.

Here are the highlights:

Collingwood Magpies 56 – 69 Western Bulldogs

Does Scotchy read the AFL Beat? Is he going to be upset if I say this was a NICE win by the Doggies?

Here are the highlights:

Melbourne Demons 80 – 56 Fremantle Dockers

The Men’s team was able to duplicate the feat of the Women’s team and beat the Dockers on the same day. I still say that Yeah Right made the right choice in picking to support the Dockers instead of the Demons.

Here are the highlights:

Adelaide Crows 103 – 91 Geelong Cats

This was the surprise of the Round as the Crows were horrible last year and the Cats made the Grand Final. It seemed the Cats woke up a little too late to catch the Crows, but credit to the Crows for playing very well.

Here are the highlights:

Essendon Bombers 91 – 92 Hawthorn Hawks

This was a hell of a comeback by the Hawks (not the Bombers as I originally wrote), who were down by 40 at one point. It’s a tough loss for Rikki’s Australian Raiders.

Here are the highlights:

Brisbane Lions 94 – 125 Sydney Swans

The Swans have picked up right where they left off at the end of last season. They are playing very well and put tremendous pressure on the Lions. They could be a Finals team this year.

Here are the highlights:

North Melbourne Kangaroos 65 – 117 Port Adelaide Power

Speaking of picking up from last year, the Power look scary good. Seriously, they totally dominated the Roos in their own house.

Here are the highlights:

GWS Giants 78 – 86 St. Kilda Saints

This was a close game throughout with the Saints always able to stay one step ahead of the Giants. This was a good victory on the road for the Saints who may, surprisingly to Litre, make Finals two years in a row!

Here are the highlights:

West Coast Eagles 83 – 58 Gold Coast Suns

Another year goes by and another home win for the Eagles in Perth. The Suns were pretty good last year for a while and then fell off. It looks like the downward slide is continuing.

Here are the highlights:

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2021 Ladder

Here is how the teams stand after Round 1:

P	TEAM	W	L	T	PTS	%
1	Port Adelaide Power	1	0	0	4	180.0
2	West Coast Eagles	1	0	0	4	143.1
3	Melbourne Demons	1	0	0	4	137.9
4	Sydney Swans	1	0	0	4	133.0
5	Richmond Tigers	1	0	0	4	131.3
6	Western Bulldogs	1	0	0	4	130.2
7	Adelaide Crows	1	0	0	4	113.2
8	St. Kilda Saints	1	0	0	4	110.3
9	Hawthorn Hawks	1	0	0	4	101.1
10	Essendon Bombers	0	1	0	0	98.9
11	GWS Giants	0	1	0	0	90.7
12	Geelong Cats	0	1	0	0	88.3
13	Collingwood Magpies	0	1	0	0	76.8
14	Carlton Blues	0	1	0	0	76.2
15	Brisbane Lions	0	1	0	0	75.2
16	Fremantle Dockers	0	1	0	0	72.5
17	Gold Coast Suns	0	1	0	0	69.9
18	North Melbourne Kangaroos	0	1	0	0	55.6

Here is the final Balls Graph (TM) from last year. The new graph shows up in Week 2.

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

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Footy Tipping Contest

Here is where we stand after Round 1:

P	TIPPER	Round Tips	Round Margin	Total Tips	Total Margin
1	Dok Zymm	7	0	7	0
2	Litre_cola	7	14	7	14
3	Mr. Ayo	6	0	6	0
4	Maestro	6	9	6	9
5	SonOfSpam	6	12	6	12
6	BFC	6	16	6	16
7	Dolph Ucker	6	25	6	25
8	Reverend Mayhem	5	0	5	0
9	BC Dick	5	10	5	10
10	WhyEaglesWhy	5	12	5	12
11	bk 109	5	13	5	13
12		4	9	4	9
13	Game Time Decision	4	10	4	10
14	Yeah Right	4	42	4	42
15	BALLS	3	4	3	4

It does seem pretty appropriate that I’m in the rear, huh? Congratulations to Dok Zymm on getting joint top score as well as a 0 margin this week! There is still time for others to join!

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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Balls Sechs

• Richmond is off to a flying start again this year and it seems that rule changes will benefit them. As if they needed any more help…
• Port Adelaide, however, could challenge the Tigers, specially away from the MCG. They must keep ahead of the Tigers to ensure a home final and a decent chance to take the Tigers out.
• The Sydney Swans is another team that looks to benefit from the rule changes. They played fast and applied a lot of pressure.
• The rule changes will create more tired teams which means that huge comebacks like the one the Hawks pulled off against the Bombers will be more realistic. It doesn’t seem like any lead will be safe this year.
• It’s difficult to draw too many conclusions off of first game performances. There is a lot of Column A/Column B to digest. We’ll know more next week.
• The Match of the Round for Week 2 seems to be the Sydney-Adelaide clash on North American Friday night. I anticipate one of the highest-scoring games in a long time.

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Round Two Schedule

Here is the Round 2 schedule (all times Pacific):

Thursday, March 25, 2021

1:20 AM – Carlton Blues v. Collingwood Magpies at the MCG

Friday, March 26, 2021

1:50 AM – Geelong Cats v Brisbane Lions at GMHBA Stadium

7:45 PM – Sydney Swans v Adelaide Crows at the SCG

10:35 PM – Port Adelaide Power v Essenbon Bombers at Adelaide Oval

Saturday, March 27, 2021

1:25 AM – St. Kilda Saints v Melbourne Demons at Marvel Stadium

2:10 AM – Gold Coast suns v North Melbourne Kangaroos at Metricon Stadium

7:10 PM – Hawthorn Hawks v RIchmond Tigers at the MCG

9:20 PM – Western Bulldogs v West Coast Eagles at Marvel Stadium

Sunday, March 28, 2021

12:10 AM – Fremantle Dockers v GWS Giants at Optus Stadium

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