2017 AFL Season

Started by Aerlik, March 16, 2017, 03:55:58 PM

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Aerlik

Aye, 'tis time again for those of you with an iota of interest in the AFL to become jibbering wrecks in anticipation of my insightful, unbiased, fair and equitable reports of the preceding weekend's games.  However, I will not be able (probably) to provide any comments for the first three or four rounds as I'm about to set off on my wee dander over a couple of wee hills in South America, some refer to as The Andes.  So, I will have to rely on the questionable fairness of others who partake on a regular basis on this thread. 

Here are my predictions for the 2017 season.
(1) Fremantle will not be as bad as last season - having half the team out through injury was the reason.
(2) Sydney will be in the Grand Final (at least), though I hope I'm wrong.
(3) Fremantle will be in the top 8.
(4) The trash down the road will be mediocre at best - the obituaries are already being written as their "There is no I in team but there is ME" greatest ever player from Fiji, via Midvale Perth, is injured.
(5) Carlton will finish bottom
(6) Gold Coast will not make finals
(7) Fremantle's Nat Fyfe will win the Brownlow medal
(8) Geelong will make the top 4, and have secured the services of Mr. Tuohy
...

And with that it's time to start the countdown clock

7 days to go. 
To find his equal an Irishman is forced to talk to God!

An Astrail

Freo will definitely improve - bottom half of the 8 I predict. Sydney will be top 4 but the noisy neighbours at GWS have as good a chance as any of taking out the flag.

The Eagles might be missing Naitanui to start with but Mitchell will give them some structure in the middle alongside Priddis - they will be neck and neck with your boys.

North Melbourne will sink like a stone in a continuation of their form in the second half of last year. Essendon will start slowly as they get their old and new players working in combinations properly but will be decent later in the year. And Collingwood and Richmond will massively disappoint their fans as is customary.

With the midfielder's medal (aka Brownlow) voted on by clueless umpires it is a bit of a lottery. Fyfe, if he comes back well from his injuries, is a fair chance, but my money would be on Josh Kennedy (the Sydney one).

TabClear

GWS for the flag.  They have been building towards it for a number of years now.  The bombers to be the years surprise package. Some serious talent in there like hurley and hepell with a point to prove.

Mitchell at WC will make them contenders, he's that good and Hawthorn with realise it.  Big Roughead back and o meara and Tom Mitchell in the midfield mean the Hawks will be competitive but not on the same level as previous years. 

As for the Brownlow, Fyfe will be in the mix but if Danger field plays like he did last year a repeat medal is likely. The biggest risk to him is Selwood stealing votes from him.

Bring it on

An Astrail

Well round 1 was an odd mix. Sydney, GWS, Hawthorn all beaten and the Bulldogs run closer than they would have thought.

The new ruck rules with the third man up banned will have a big influence on the season. Genuine top draw ruckmen will be able to give their midfield first use of the ball much more often than in the past. It is one of the gaps we have at Sydney with a number of ruckmen but no one really top class.

Deliberate out of bounds rule is also as random as ever. Some very odd calls already.

TabClear

Quote from: An Astrail on March 28, 2017, 03:40:53 AM
Well round 1 was an odd mix. Sydney, GWS, Hawthorn all beaten and the Bulldogs run closer than they would have thought.

The new ruck rules with the third man up banned will have a big influence on the season. Genuine top draw ruckmen will be able to give their midfield first use of the ball much more often than in the past. It is one of the gaps we have at Sydney with a number of ruckmen but no one really top class.

Deliberate out of bounds rule is also as random as ever. Some very odd calls already.

Yeah some strange results. West Coast very impressive as were Essendon. Should be a good season!

The Subbie

Went to the Swans vs Collingwood game last night, the swans were brutal, Collingwood destroyed them in the 1st 2 quarters, ruthlessly .

Not a hope in hell the swans will be anywhere near the top of the table this season.

Never beat the deeler

Aerlik must still be celebrating after Freo beat the reigning premiers Bulldogs.
Elsewhere, Hawks are rock bottom after 3 losses from 3 after getting a trimming from no-hopers Gold Coast. Sydney were poor in losing by a point at home to Collingwood.

My tip for the flag, Adelaide have continued to impress with a derby win which leaves them top of the table on with three wins, while Richmond are this year's North Melbourne after a good start, although they have only beaten West Coast (who don't travel), Collingwood and Carlton. Geelong are the other unbeaten team after beating Melbourne.

A young Brisbane Lions team again battled well for three quarters before tailing away to lose by 31points to St Kilda in what was almost a carbon copy of last weeks loss to Essendon.
Essendon themselves lost to Carlton - I haven't seen any of this but was a very low scoring affair, finishing 57-42.
Lastly, GWS had a regulation win against North Melbourne in Tasmania
Hasta la victoria siempre

An Astrail

So only Sydney, Hawthorn and North Melbourne are winless now, while Richmond are undefeated. Clearly the Russians are interfering with the results here.

Collingwood only dominated for the first 20 mins and didn't win a quarter after that - but that was enough. A number of key Swans are out of form but all credit to the pressure from the Pies. Sydney now have to take on West Coast then GWS so could be 0-5 in a couple of weeks.

Hawthorn looked terrible against a team that are supposed to be sunk already.
Brisbane put the effort in but if St Kilda had kicked straight they would have been out of sight long before- 14.23 to 11.10.
The Essendon-Carlton game was played in pouring rain which accounts for the low score - Carlton were 3.10 at half time so accuracy in the conditions kept it close.


TabClear

Didn't expect Hawthorn to be as poor as they have been and Richmond looking very good. Expect the Swans to start to come back up the ladder soon but all in all a strange start to the season

Aerlik

I'm back.

Yes, a wee 3-week dander on a motorbike over the Atacama Desert, The Salar de Uyuni, the road from Uyuni to Potosi (the best motorcycling road I've EVER been on), onto La Paz where the driving makes Perth drivers (and Swatragh women in Ladas) appear good, then to Cusco and finally to Machu Picchu has come to an end.  And what did I miss?  Well, fekkall as Freo were shite the first two games, according to mini me.  However, the lads found out is was my 50th. last Friday and so helped me celebrate on Machu Picchu by beating the Premiers!  Now the beer flowed in Cusco with that result.  So, normal service shall resume after this weekend's games. 
To find his equal an Irishman is forced to talk to God!

Never beat the deeler

Just finished watching Geelong hammer the Hawks in the MCG and if they had their shooting boots on it could have been over at qtr time. 134 - 48 the final score. Geelong are sitting pretty on top with 4 wins, not many would have predicted thay the winless Hawks would be bottom.

Elsewhere Adelaide and Richmond remained unbeaten by dispatching Essendon and Brisbane by nearly 120points combined, while Sydney and North Melbourne remain winless after losses to West Coast and the Bulldogs respectively, although North were impressive and unlucky to lose by3 points.

Fremantle backed up a superb win last week with a 2 point victory over Melbourne, GWS are tracking OK with a 31 point victory over Port Adelaide, Gold Coast and St Kilda scored upsets over Carlton and Collingwood.

Pearce Hanley picked up an injury playing for the Gold Coast NEAFL side
Hasta la victoria siempre

TabClear

Just watched the Hawks game and can't believe how poor they are up front.  Gunston, Rioli and Breust are a shadow of the players they have been for the last few years and the lack of (the real) Mitchell in midfield means Roughed is spending too much time out there and there is minimal creativity.


Swans and Hawks on zero after 4. Never would have thought it

Aerlik

Finally, five days of footy have come to an end.  And with it is some interesting outcomes so, here it is, my ever fair view of the weekend's proceedings.

Themmuns 91-65 Sydney Swans
I sat down on Holy Thursday to a plethora of excuses from the incredibly biased Channel 7 Perth commentators telling anyone who would listen that the poor eagles only had a 5-day turnaround before facing the might of the Swans - who were minus several of their key players, I might add.
Well, if the Swans had kicked straight in the first 15 minutes the game would've been over (pretty much).  As it was the infidel started kicking past their midfield and as often happens when you do so, you score.  Then you score again...and again.  Suffice to say the game was not the best of the weekend and the Swans have now dropped to second bottow with 0-4 win/loss record.  Worrying times ahead especially when you consider they play the Giants next week in the Sydney derby and that does not augur well...not a bit.    Of course, the Perth media has themmuns as flag favourites (as usual).  Pfffft.

Footscray 89-86 North Melbourne
I left at the end of the first quarter to go to Good Friday Mass and the game was pretty even, if a tad boring.  Feeling inspired by the commemoration of the sacrifice made for us by the good Lord, I came home with Mini-me and managed to get the last 15 minutes of the last quarter.  Well, what a game it had been (apparently).  Anyways, it was a real ding-dong affair and had Lyndsay Thomas kicked straight with the very last kick of the game it would've been a most deserved yet unlikely victory for the Roos.  As it transpired, the bulldogs held on.  Worrying times at North as they are now propping up the table with Sydney and Hawthorn on a 0-4 win/loss record.  And to make matters worse they now have to come to Perth next Saturday to face the formidable...(drum roll)...

Fremantle 106-104 Melbourne
What a game.  Best of the round.  What a turnaround for the royalty in two short weeks.  From being trounced by Port Adelaide by 89 points in R2 with the usual suspects masquerading as experts lining up baying for the head of the coach, the boys have had two very good wins to leave them just outside the top 8 on percentage (ahem considerably out but that's another matter - why can't we play Carlton or Hawthorn or Sydney this weekend?)
I watched the game with Mini-me and it was inspiring to see the efforts of the youngsters.  The last 5 mins are worth the entrance fee along.  Seven unanswered goals in the third quarter had Freo in the driving seat and in order to keep the MCG faithful from leaving too early, Freo let them back in the game before a last minute toe-poke from Cam McCarthy got us over the line. 
There are lots to be very optimistic about this year.  But I will not get too confident.  :P

GWS 112-81 Port Adelaide
I was keeping an eye on this game with the AFL app.  Port were right in it up to the last quarter before the Giants put her in overdrive and pulled away.   Looking pretty damned formidable at this stage but it is early days yet.  And they haven't played Freo (cough)  Giants are now 4-0 for the season.

Gold Coast 108-82 Carlton
Well, that is the last bloody time I'm tipping Carlton this year.  Let me down big time.  I didn't see any of the game but according to match reports on-line, I didn't miss anything.

Adelaide 153-88 Essendon
According to the Essendon coach, Worsfold, the pharmacist who knew nothing of the off-field behaviour of themmuns players in the 00s, the bombers have hit a wall in the season.  Well, it must be the Great Wall of China cos they were shite.  Big day for Walker and the wonderful Eddie Betts who kicked 11 between them.  Betts is some operator.  Check out his accuracy from the forward and half-forward pockets.  A week on from yet another incident where racism has raised its ugly head in Australian society, he had the perfect answer.

St. Kilda 69-55 Collingwood
More shite from the magpies and a great game for the neutral (read I-hope-Saints-win) to watch.  Some of the decision making in the pies midfield was schoolboy stuff.  The axe is starting to swing I feel for Nathan Buckley, the pies coach.   Both Collingwood and Essendon play next Tuesday in the ANZAC Day blockbuster at a heaving MCG (without Conor McKenna who is suspended) and the loser may as well rack the cue for the season.

Richmond 119-67 Brisbane.
Yep, Brisbane are still shite.  Richmond are now 4-0 for the first time in over 20 years but they haven't exactly played much quality opposition.   Great goal though from Whinger-in-chief Jack Riewoldt.

Geelong 134-48 FLAWthorn
Gawd this was tedious to watch.  The Hawks were miserable throughout the park and made the Geelong midfield look great (which, admittedly it is).  Hawks are 0-4 while the Cats are 4-0.  A couple of sessions of handbags and a smack on the chops for Luke Hodge were the highlights.  I'm not condoning the hit but the same boyo was fairly handy with the elbows himself.  Karma, that old devil. 

So, there you go.  As unbiased and as fair as you've come to expect.  An interesting weekend ahead where there is the potential for the bottom three teams, Sydney, Roos and Hawks to go 0-5.  That would mean the end of my prediction for Swans to reach the GF. 




To find his equal an Irishman is forced to talk to God!

An Astrail

The structure across the field is all wrong for the Swans - a lot of ball going through the middle into congestion resulting in turnovers. Although the young players coming in are performing well in their own right there is no cohesion as a team. But this week Rohan, Tippett, McVeigh and Heeney are all available. It will be a tough game against GWS (who are 3-1 rather than 4-0) but I think the Swans will perform a fair bit better this week.

Melbourne should have buried Freo after their first half but they still have that weakness to teams that get on the roll - the 3rd quarter killed them. But Freo would have given up at half time last year so good signs that they pushed on. Should be to good for North this week. The Dees might be the team to break the Richmond run this week.

Hawthorn will have it tough against the Eagles and might well go down again. That said, WCE on the road are rarely the same as WCE in Perth.

Elsewhere the Cats will be too good for St Kilda, the Crows will beat the Gold Coast, and the Bulldogs should be able to beat Brisbane. Carlton are unlikely to get up against Port Adelaide but the Power aren't that solid for me.

The Anzac Day game is always an impressive spectacle but I doubt the actual football will live up to it. I can't say I care too much who wins but it would be good for Collingwood to get just enough wins to hang on to Buckley as coach so let's say go Pies for this one.

Aerlik

Round Five

Port Adelaide 137 – 47 Carlton
What garbage.  What utter garbage to put on as a "prime time" game on the much coveted Friday night TV spot.  What the AFL was thinking is beyond me.  How they can justify having a membership of Carlton superseding the viewing population of the country is beyond me.  But then again, this is the AFL we are dealing with where it is strictly forbidden to criticise on-field officials (and indeed anyone involved in the financial juggernaut that is that organisation.)
What is there to talk about in this game?  Nothing.  Port were just way to strong all over.  And my criticism is not aimed at Port in any way.  I recorded the game with a view to watching it later.  I started to watch the first quarter.  After fifteen minutes I had stopped and deleted the whole thing.  Crap!

Footscray 122 – 90 Brisbane
On the other hand, this game was only televised in Melbourne and Brisbane.  It was a clinker.  I began to listen on the car wireless as it was just to bloody exciting. Up until a few minutes into the final quarter Brisbane were leading but were eventually overrun by the experience of the Bulldogs and the win was a fitting tribute to the 300-game hero of the Bulldogs, Robert Murphy.  He is a great player.
The Lions led by 32 points at half time but a 12 goals to 2 fight back was enough to get the Bulldogs over the line.  Now, whilst the Bulldogs were the sentimental underdogs in the Grand Final last year and everyone bar any Sydney fans was barracking for them, there would've been a fair few thinking the same way in this game had the Lions won.  Good signs at Brisbane, but can it be sustained.

Adelaide 153 – 86 Gold Coast
The signs are ominous for the rest of the competition.  Not that Gold Coast is that bad; it's just that the Crows are looking bloody awesome and invincible.  I didn't see the game but the reports and the highlights reel shows a team that is not only winning, but winning very convincingly.  A sense of foreboding descends....

Greater Western Sydney 105 – 63 Sydney
The prefix "greater" is quite apt, I feel.  They are certainly the greater team in Sydney, turning a four-goal salvo from the Swans in the opening few minutes into a five goal lead with nine unanswered goals in the rest of the first half. 
I'm not sure if it is a case that the Swans were actually THAT bad, moreso that the GIANTS were THAT good.  Even the 800th. career goal for Lance Franklin was eclipsed by the clinical finishing of the Giants.  Now all is left for this team is to win a Grand Final and perhaps the AFL's aim of chewing into the NRL heartland of western suburbs Sydney will be complete.  It's already looking like either one of three clubs for this year's title.  For the Swans the 0-5 record is its worst in over two decades.  There goes my prediction of the Swans as premiers.  I'm not disappointed.

Geelong 126 – 88 St. Kilda
This game, in many ways, replicated the Footscray-Brisbane game last weekend.  The Saints were more than a match of the Cats and were leading at three-quarter time before an 8 goals to 1 final from the Cats overran a young, but certainly up-and-coming Saints team.  That win has left the Cats, Crows and Tigers sitting pretty on top of the AFL ladder with 5 wins and no losses.   Zac Tuohy has done well to leave Carlton.  In fact, any team would've been better than Carlton.  Well, any team except one....

Hawthorn 125 – 75 The trash
That team being themmuns.  Oh how I enjoyed watching this game (even though I stupidly tipped them to beat the winless Hawks; I'll learn...perhaps.)  Before the game there was a lot of huff and puff about how great the Eagles were and how the hoodoo that is the MCG would be broken.  Well, that was one of the worst performances I have seen on a TV screen stretching back to the 2015 Grand Final.  Oh wait, that rings a bell. 
Great to see Roughead score his 500th. career goal in light of what he has been through in the past 2 years. Oh, and look out for Cyril Rioli's mark.  That boy can jump.
Now of course the excuses are starting in anticipation of the Western Derby to be played in Perth next Saturday.  It's an Eagles home game and I wasn't going to bother going having been offered tickets.  I think I just might go now.

Richmond 88 – 75 Melbourne
What a great spectacle this game was even if I was a wee bit disappointed the Demons lost.  They have been decimated early in the season with injuries to key players especially their two giant ruck men, one of whom along with two others got injured in this game.  Eventually the tigers prevailed and overran the demons in a great game with over 85,000 in attendance.  Six goals from Whinger-in-chief Jack Riewoldt was really the difference between the two teams. A fully fit 22 Demons would've won, I have no doubt.

Essendon100 – 82 Collingwood
Another great game to watch, and it was close right up to the last 10 minutes or so.  Again over 85,000 were at this game (the now traditional ANZAC Day game at the MCG).  The knives are out for Nathan Buckley (he with the face of a boxer – and we're not talking Ali).  Such is the pressure of being coach at the biggest club in the country.  For the Bombers, the drug scandal seems to have been put behind them and they are starting to string some good form together. 

Which leaves me with one game ...
FREMANTLE 67 – 62 North Melbourne
For 90 minutes I endured sitting in my seat cringing at what I was seeing.  The shittiest of shite refereeing, diving players (we're talking about 6'9" ruckmen (actually only one - the other was 7ft tall) falling like they had been shot when challenging for a ball, and getting rewarded for it) and Freo missing the target that even I would've hit.  And then it happened.  If you are going to watch any game, try and watch the last two minutes of this game.  It was pandemonium.  The Roos were leading from practically the start of the second quarter.  In fact Freo hadn't kicked a goal from the 13th. minute of the first quarter up to the 14th. minute of the third quarter and were trailing by 29 points at that stage.  Five goals in the remaining time when we couldn't kick one in the interim?  Not even the eternal optimists sitting near me held out any hope for us.
Up stepped Brady Grey to kick an impossible goal from a set shot waaaay out on the boundary.  The die was cast.  With two minutes to go, Freo were down by 7 and it was not looking good, but along came Michael Johnson unmarked from the half back line (what the hell he was doing up that far forward I will never know) to collect a spill from the back of a contest to drill the ball through the goal.  1 point in it with 1'58 on the clock.  Suddenly the eternal optimists were chirping again.  And then it happened.
With about 45 seconds left, Shane Kersten collected a ball out on the right and lobbed a shot over his left shoulder. We all stopped breathing...the ball bounced in front of the goals and through it went.  Fcuk me the place went crazy.  It was the best end to a game I've ever been at.  It was mental in the stands.  That is the third game in a row where Freo have come from behind to win at the death.    There is a new belief and confidence in the young players which, hopefully, will carry us forward to greater things.
For North, it's 0-5 but it must be said they are not a bad team and they are sure to get over the line soon. 

So, the western derby this weekend.  Well, it's going to be fun.  Among the unwashed themmuns supporters.  I've got the chloroform ready. ;)

To find his equal an Irishman is forced to talk to God!