General footy chat Round 22: the other games.

[dejavoodoo44]

Interesting start to the round, with Collingwood v Hawthorn. To many people, who to go for, might be governed by what they would find most amusing: Collingwood missing the top four, after looking to be cruising to the minor premiership, or Hawthorn missing the eight, after being premiership favourites not all that long ago.

Most of the other games look like being very one-sided, with teams still in the finals race, taking on teams who are already resting players for next season. Perhaps the biggest non-event, will be flat track bullies, Geelong, hosting the long flattened, Essendon. A game that would be of interest to most Geelong fans, a few die-hard Essendon fans, and very few neutrals. I suspect that the folks at Channel 7, are quietly seething at whoever it was, that decided to schedule Essendon in a number of prime TV games.

[Jimitron5000]

There was an article on The Age website wondering whether this is the worst season ever. To be honest, I haven't watched enough footy to know, but what I have seen, the lopsided results and the Swans showing, I would think that it is. At least since the early 90's when we were West Coast Eagles bad.
I think the only interest for me is if Jeremy Cameron kicks 100 goals and hoping that Hawthorn or Collingwood don't win the flag. As the footy this week, it seems that Collingwood is doing a good impression of the Swans from last year.

[neilfws]

Looking forward to seeing how The Age spins tonight's game into a Pies-positive headline tomorrow.

[dejavoodoo44]

Looking forward to seeing how The Age spins tonight's game into a Pies-positive headline tomorrow.

I only just turned it on. There doesn't seem to be many Collingwood fans there? Did they all have something else on?

For the Collingwood spin, it'd have to be something like: Pendlebury defies father time, to be top possession winner.

[Thunder Shaker]

There was an article on The Age website wondering whether this is the worst season ever.

The article was probably written by Essendon and Collingwood supporters. Why would they write such rubbish with little research?

This season has a lot going for it. Nine teams are still in with a chance of making the finals, several are genuine premiership contenders and the top teams are separated by two games from first to eighth.

A worse season: the 1900 VFL season

* Average score was 41 points.
* The premiership was decided by a finals system that was so rubbish that Melbourne won the premiership from sixth, in an eight-team competition.
* Due to the finals system, the entire home and away season only had one obvious purpose: to decide which team finished on top of the ladder, not to crown them premiers but to give them the right of challenge the finals winners to a grand final.

[neilfws]

Looking forward to seeing how The Age spins tonight's game into a Pies-positive headline tomorrow.

Well so far we have:

McRae apologises to Magpies fans after Hawks loss; Mitchell praises Newcombe and

Stopping Collingwood’s slide is Craig McRae’s biggest test yet

Three words about the winner in two headlines. This is doing nothing to allay my suspicions.

[wolftone57]

Gee, the so called super Saturday is underwhelming and Sunday is worse.

Tigers v Saints is paint dry stuff. saints will play one quarter and still win by 10 goals

Lions v Swans by rights Lions should win this by at least 60 points. I mean, Swans without Amartey, McDonald, Hayward really impact the Swans ability to score.


Blues v Suns this will be another lopsided game. Blues are bereft of confidence and suns are full of it. suns WILL play finals because they have the extra game in hand, against Bombers who can only manage an Under 19 side.

Port v Freo this ends Substandard Saturday. Suns should win this by a Country Kilometre

Sunday

Giants v North It really doesn't get any better. Giants should flog North. I have picked the Giants to miss the Eight because they are too unpredictable and have the suns and Saints to end the season. Saints are playing better defensively than Giants.

Dees v Dogs a huge win coming up for the Dogs. I think the Dees players are going to be too devastated to play well at all. A massive Dogs win, 100-200

Eagles v Crows it doesn't get any better. Worst round of the season.

i am calling this Sad Sunday

[neilfws]

There was an article on The Age website wondering whether this is the worst season ever

I'm sure someone somewhere thinks every season is the worst season ever. It would be interesting to search the news archives and see how often that phrase comes around.

At the risk of cherry-picking to support an argument, I did enjoy this season review from the writer known as 'Markwell':

No one who has watched the trend of events will deny that the quality of the play has been unsatisfactory. The game has greatly deteriorated, and the majority of the matches played during the year have been little better than rough and tumble scrambles, in which brute force, mean time-wasting, and many times, too, fighting, have usurped the place of clever and attractive football.

That's from The Australasian, dated - September 28 1895.

[dejavoodoo44]

Former Swan, George Hewett, is playing his 200th tonight. Well done to him, but of course, I hope the Suns give Carlton a thrashing.

Ben King with a genuine mark of the year contender!

[dejavoodoo44]

Suns now making a mess of Carlton. The big difference between the two sides, is that the Suns seem much more capable of kicking the ball to the advantage of their team mates. Carlton can hardly get the ball from defensive 50 to forward 50.

[imuninformedtwo]

Suns now making a mess of Carlton. The big difference between the two sides, is that the Suns seem much more capable of kicking of kicking the ball to the advantage of their team mates. Carlton can hardly get the ball from defensive 50 to forward 50.

Carlton are trash.

Given it’s such an open year, I’d give the Suns a shot at the flag if - and it’s still an if - their forward line could hold up in a final series. I suspect that’s one part of the ground where they are still a year or two away from maturity and depth, but they’re not far off.

[dejavoodoo44]

Carlton are trash.

Given it’s such an open year, I’d give the Suns a shot at the flag if - and it’s still an if - their forward line could hold up in a final series. I suspect that’s one part of the ground where they are still a year or two away from maturity and depth, but they’re not far off.

Of course, soon as I wrote that, Carlton decided to launch a comeback. Though I suspect it was more Gold Coast slacking off, than Carlton suddenly becoming a top side. It was more forcing the ball forward, rather than slicing their way through the defence. Once Gold Coast decided to hit a few targets again, the comeback fizzled out.

I'm slightly surprised that Voss has been given another year. Both because Carlton tend to sack coaches, and because I suspect that his coaching career may have peaked, when they won a couple of finals in 2023. Maybe Carlton management thought that Melbourne might be coming for him, and felt that they needed to head that off?

[Thunder Shaker]

I get home and I find that the Dogs only beat the Dees by a goal, and West Coast is leading Adelaide by a goal at half time.

1. Could West Coast close out the game and cause the season's biggest upset?
2. What is it with one-goal margins this week? That was Fremantle's winning margin against Carlton.

[Thunder Shaker]

Gee, the so called super Saturday is underwhelming and Sunday is worse.

I see your prediction of a round of awful games with many beltings has not come to pass.

Margins: 4, 2, 19, 6, 54 and 6.

And West Coast is LEADING against Adelaide as I write this.

[liz]

I get home and I find that the Dogs only beat the Dees by a goal, and West Coast is leading Adelaide by a goal at half time.

1. Could West Coast close out the game and cause the season's biggest upset?
2. What is it with one-goal margins this week? That was Fremantle's winning margin against Carlton.

Halfway through the final quarter, and the Eagles are still (nearly) a goal ahead. Five points, to be precise.

It's certainly been a weekend when the 'lost causes' of the season have chosen not to be so easily pushed over as I anticipated. Us included.