With 4 rounds remaining in the home and away season, things are starting to heat up before the finals start in September. Here are the fixtures for Round 19, starting this weekend... FRIDAY 6TH AUGUST Fremantle vs Collingwood, at Subiaco, 6:40p.m. Perth time (8:40pm Melbourne time) SATURDAY 7TH AUGUST St Kilda vs Adelaide, at York Park, 1:10p.m. Melbourne time Essendon vs Carlton, at the MCG, 2:10p.m. Melbourne Time Sydney vs Kangaroos, at the SCG, 7:10p.m. Sydney time Western Bulldogs v Hawthorn, at Telstra Dome, 7:10p.m. Melbourne time SUNDAY 8TH AUGUST Brisbane v West Coast, at The GABBA, 1:10p.m. Brisbane time Richmond vs Geelong, at the MCG, 2:10p.m. Melbourne time Port Power v Melbourne, at AAMI Stadium, 2:10p.m. Adelaide time (2:40pm Melbourne time) As always, live audio is available on the AFL's official website, shortly before the opening centre bounce of each match. Ladders and news to follow...
After 18 rounds, the AFL Ladder is looking like this. http://afl.com.au/default.asp?pg=ladder Code: [u][B]Ladder after Round 18[/B][/u] Pos Team P W D L F A % Total 1 Melbourne 18 14 0 4 1900 1508 125.99 56 2 Brisbane Lions 18 13 0 5 2008 1511 132.89 52 3 St Kilda 18 13 0 5 2008 1532 131.07 52 4 Port Adelaide 18 13 0 5 1949 1580 123.35 52 5 Geelong 18 12 0 6 1689 1466 115.21 48 6 Fremantle 18 11 0 7 1656 1484 111.59 44 7 Sydney Swans 18 10 0 8 1541 1506 102.32 40 8 Essendon 18 10 0 8 1901 1861 102.15 40 -------------------------------------------------- 9 Kangaroos 18 9 0 9 1765 1570 112.42 36 10 West Coast Eagles 18 9 0 9 1644 1734 94.81 36 11 Collingwood 18 7 0 11 1529 1673 91.39 28 12 Carlton 18 7 0 11 1501 1898 79.08 28 13 Adelaide 18 6 0 12 1575 1690 93.2 24 14 Western Bulldogs 18 4 0 14 1555 1973 78.81 16 15 Richmond 18 4 0 14 1394 1976 70.55 16 16 Hawthorn 18 2 0 16 1338 1991 67.2 8
Top five is up for grabs-- and I'll go out on a limb and say that St. Kilda will be the team most likely to drop the two of their final four matches required for Geelong to grab that double chance in September. Looking forward to a trip to the MCG ("the home of football") on Sunday to watch Geelong take on and beat Richmond.
The big news this week was the sacking of Western Bulldogs coach, Peter Rohde. (see other thread about Rohde) The coaching situation is interesting as well, with Terry Wallace likely to coach either Hawthorn or Richmond next season. The Hawks and Tigers are currently going through the process of finding the right coach, with Gary Ayres, Mark Harvey, Gary O'Donnell and Rodney Eade also amoungst the possible candidates. Anyway, here are my tips for the weekend's round of matches... Fremantle Essendon St Kilda Western Bulldogs Sydney Brisbane Geelong Melbourne I am currently on 92 for the year.
Darren's pretty well summed up the news of the week here, not much else going on. And therefore, no real need for me to do a news round-up here. I will add something regarding the Tribunal-- Geelong's Cameron Mooney was found not guilty of rough play, and mixed results for a couple of Port Adelaide players. Mooney in the clear -- afl.com.au, via Sportal Carr to miss Demons clash -- afl.com.au, via Sportal Lots of other content news-wise on the AFL's official site worth reading, as well as on my normal sources from the Herald Sun and The Age and so forth-- but it figures, a slow news week in a busy week for one of this area's newest bartenders.
And now, my tips... Fremantle vs Collingwood St Kilda vs Adelaide Essendon vs Carlton Sydney vs North Melbourne Western Bulldogs v Hawthorn Brisbane v West Coast Richmond vs Geelong Port Adelaide v Melbourne Not that hard of a week of tipping across the board, but there are a couple of tough games to pick. Port to beat Melbourne merely on the strength of home-ground advantage Lethal Leigh won't allow Brisbane to lose two in a row right before the finals much-needed wins forecast for Essendon and Sydney, for their bids for finals places I was going to tip the Western Bulldogs this week anyway even before the news about Peter Rohde's job future going with the Saints although with a bit of intrepidation if Adelaide slow the game down to an ugly crawl like it did against North Melbourne last weekend and Freo to consolidate its finals place with a Friday night win over Collingwood. Oh, and Geelong to thrash Richmond at the MCG for a nice percentage-booster. So far this season, I'm on 97/144. Not bad tipping, so far...
Round 19 teams -- afl.com.au Teams story, from afl.com.au Highlights from the selections: St. Kilda has dropped Steven Milne and Trenton Knobel for its game against Adelaide at York Park in Launceston (Tasmania) tomorrow. Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy has named both James Hird and Scott Lucas in the side taking on Carlton at the MCG tomorrow as the pair looks to recover from injury. One caveat, however-- Hird has been named in each of the last two weeks but has been a late withdrawl as his injured ribs haven't been up to passing the pre-match fitness test. In that match, Lance Whitnall returns for Carlton. Richmond has dropped Andrew Kellaway among seven potential changes made by coach Danny Frawley for Sunday's match against Geelong at the MCG. Peter Riccardi and Kane Tenace are recalled for Geelong, moves sure to bolster what is already a very strong midfield. Brisbane gets Justin Leppitsch back, but loses Alistair Lynch. Chris Tarrant returns for Collingwood tonight against Fremantle at Subiaco Oval.
Since the dog went but 4/8 last round, I'm taking back full tipping control for Round 19... FRIDAY 6TH AUGUST Fremantle vs Collingwood -- You can't tell me Freo would follow a win in Victoria with a loss at Fort Subi SATURDAY 7TH AUGUST St Kilda vs Adelaide -- Desperate times, desperate measures for Saints Essendon vs Carlton -- Bombers in form...of course I can't win when I tip them and I can't win when I ignore them Sydney vs Kangaroos -- Swans flying at home, Kangas krashing Western Bulldogs v Hawthorn -- I suppose someone's got to win this one...it might as well be Hawks SUNDAY 8TH AUGUST Brisbane v West Coast -- Hard to pick against Lions at home Richmond vs Geelong -- The drive to the top 4 continues Port Power v Melbourne -- Power rebounds at home
I'd agree Sparto, except I've gone for the Dishlickers over the Hawks (and my heart says Tiges while my head says Cats)
And the round begins... Friday Night Footy at Subiaco Oval, for the clash between Fremantle and Collingwood: [result]Fremantle 11.7 (73) Collingwood 14.22 (106)[/result] Let's just say that my dreaded bogey team strikes again.
Dare I say it? Oh, what the hell (although I'll probably slow-roast in hell for this)... That dog is probably running as fast as it can in the opposite direction from the nearest Korean restaurant. It's all good-- whenever I back a horse in a key race, like during the spring carnival here, it doesn't surprise me that I see it being offered on the menu at Macca's the next day. In any event, here are the morning-after reports... Post-match report in The Age Post-match report in the Herald Sun Wanted to get the perspective from Perth, but The West Australian has revamped their site this week, and as a result, I cannot find a thing.
Saturday's results-- and not for the faint of heart here... St. Kilda v Adelaide, at York Park in Launceston, Tasmania: [result]St. Kilda 14.7 (91) Adelaide 10.8 (68)[/result] Post-match report in the Sunday Herald Sun Post-match report in The Sunday Age Essendon v Carlton, at the MCG: [result]Essendon 8.9 (57) Carlton 10.14 (74)[/result] Post-match report in The Sunday Age Post-match report in the Sunday Herald Sun Sydney v North Melbourne, at the SCG: [result]Sydney 18.4 (112) North Melbourne 17.16 (118)[/result] Post-match report in the Sunday Herald Sun Post-match report in The Sunday Age And Western Bulldogs v Hawthorn, at Telstra Dome: [result]Western Bulldogs 16.13 (109) Hawthorn 19.6 (120)[/result] Post-match report in The Sunday Age Post-match report in the Sunday Herald Sun And now, I'm off to the MCG, where Geelong should hand Richmond an almighty thrashing (apologies in advance to Craig).
Sunday's scores-- and a couple of more surprises in store here... Brisbane v West Coast, at The Gabba: [result]Brisbane 10.13 (73) West Coast 12.15 (87)[/result] Richmond v Geelong, at the MCG: [result]Richmond 11.17 (83) Geelong 16.18 (114)[/result] And Port Adelaide v Melbourne, at AAMI Stadium: [result]Port Adelaide 18.17 (125) Melbourne 6.16 (52)[/result] My tipping? Forgettable, at best... 3/8, just good enough to reach triple figures for the season, on 100/152.
Richmond can count themselves very lucky that Geelong was flat after our big match the week before against St Kilda, otherwise the margin could have been much bigger. Having said that though, any win is a good win at this time of the year, especially with teams battling for positions in the eight. It was also good to catch up with you and watch the game yesterday, William. I'll have to find a good soup place for lunch in a couple of week's time. My tipping was even worse on the weekend, picking just 2 winners to move onto 94 for the season. St Kilda and Geelong were the only ones I got correct... talk about a weekend of upsets. It will be sh!t or bust for me over the next 3 weeks in an attempt to catch up to babytiger2001.
Finally saw all the results last week...and all I have to say is: WE'RE A HAPPY TEAM AT HAWTHORN, WE'RE THE MIGHTY SPOON-WIELDING HAWKS! And 4/8 tipping for the week...we were about due for an upset weekend. Thank god for Geelong...only one game away from the top spot -- it's not an impossible ask!
well, currently watching the highlights on FSW, just saw the mini-game of Swans and Kangeroos- wow, what an exciting finish/total collapse. the swans just choked big time. how about that guy giving the roos the winning free kick by purposely knocking it out in the last minute? talk about total brain fart!