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After last week's round, I think we can safely cross out West Coast and North. Yes, I know, no surprises there, but it's probably wise to be a little bit cautious, with two thirds of the home and away season still to come. Strangely, North being a write off surprises me a bit more than West Coast. At the start of the season, I thought that West Coast were definitely heading in a downward direction and they were my favourites for the spoon. (I thought that Hawthorn and Collingwood were the other contenders, but this doesn't appear to be happening. Yet). On the other hand, I thought that North had the capacity to rise to mid-table obscurity, so I didn't really expect to be writing their season off after round 7. But hey, I can't say that I'm devastated by that turn of events.
Anyway, in this round, there's probably a chance to write off a few more teams. Tonight's match between Port and the Bulldogs is a case in point. While Port fans will be buoyed by two wins in a row, if they can't beat a Bont-free Bulldogs, then it's hard to see them recovering from 2/6. On the other hand, a win by over thirty points, should see them sneaking above the Bulldogs on percentage. And on the Bulldogs, last week I was curious whether Cody Weightman would attract some hardcore booing, after he stated that he considered staging for frees as part of his skill set. While I didn't see a single second of the game, I can't find any reports to say that it occurred: so I assume that it didn't. Which is interesting. Years ago, when the Goodes booing controversy was raging, the online apologists were always claiming that, oh no, the booing has nothing to with racism, it's just that he was caught staging for free kicks. Hmmm.
For some reason, there's two matches tonight. Though some people would be tempted to label Fremantle hosting North, as Fremantle having the bye. I must try and find when the bye joke was first made in Aussie rules football? I suspect it was the late 19th century, and if so, almost certainly St Kilda would have been mentioned. Anyway, Fremantle are at $1.10, which in the past, would've been a good reason to back their opposition; but they couldn't lose this, could they?
On Saturday, Richmond and Collingwood clash at the G. Probably the main interest there, is what sort of shape Dusty comes back in.
At the same time, we host the Suns. I'm a little nervous about this one. As someone who's suffered through many Suns games, it seems to me that they can occasionally put in a very good performance, in between longer spells of crappiness. Perhaps once in every four or five games. Their last such performance was four rounds ago, when they beat Carlton by 30 points. And with only two wins so far, it's probably already season on the line.
Possibly the same for GWS when they host Geelong at Manuka. If they go 2/6, do they really have the class to come back?
On Saturday night, Brisbane host the random collection of players known as the West Coast Eagles. Brisbane's biggest ever win against West Coast is 100 points in 1999 and their highest ever score was 173 in 2000.
The other night game is Essendon v Hawthorn. I don't know why I haven't already written Essendon off, but if they lose tonight, the texta's coming out.
The first Sunday game is Melbourne v St Kilda. Which means that if we beat the Suns, then we should be in the top four at the end of the round.
The end of the round is Carlton v Adelaide.
Anyway, in this round, there's probably a chance to write off a few more teams. Tonight's match between Port and the Bulldogs is a case in point. While Port fans will be buoyed by two wins in a row, if they can't beat a Bont-free Bulldogs, then it's hard to see them recovering from 2/6. On the other hand, a win by over thirty points, should see them sneaking above the Bulldogs on percentage. And on the Bulldogs, last week I was curious whether Cody Weightman would attract some hardcore booing, after he stated that he considered staging for frees as part of his skill set. While I didn't see a single second of the game, I can't find any reports to say that it occurred: so I assume that it didn't. Which is interesting. Years ago, when the Goodes booing controversy was raging, the online apologists were always claiming that, oh no, the booing has nothing to with racism, it's just that he was caught staging for free kicks. Hmmm.
For some reason, there's two matches tonight. Though some people would be tempted to label Fremantle hosting North, as Fremantle having the bye. I must try and find when the bye joke was first made in Aussie rules football? I suspect it was the late 19th century, and if so, almost certainly St Kilda would have been mentioned. Anyway, Fremantle are at $1.10, which in the past, would've been a good reason to back their opposition; but they couldn't lose this, could they?
On Saturday, Richmond and Collingwood clash at the G. Probably the main interest there, is what sort of shape Dusty comes back in.
At the same time, we host the Suns. I'm a little nervous about this one. As someone who's suffered through many Suns games, it seems to me that they can occasionally put in a very good performance, in between longer spells of crappiness. Perhaps once in every four or five games. Their last such performance was four rounds ago, when they beat Carlton by 30 points. And with only two wins so far, it's probably already season on the line.
Possibly the same for GWS when they host Geelong at Manuka. If they go 2/6, do they really have the class to come back?
On Saturday night, Brisbane host the random collection of players known as the West Coast Eagles. Brisbane's biggest ever win against West Coast is 100 points in 1999 and their highest ever score was 173 in 2000.
The other night game is Essendon v Hawthorn. I don't know why I haven't already written Essendon off, but if they lose tonight, the texta's coming out.
The first Sunday game is Melbourne v St Kilda. Which means that if we beat the Suns, then we should be in the top four at the end of the round.
The end of the round is Carlton v Adelaide.
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