Last Week 7/9 Season Total 36/54
While the holiday was nice and the Eclipse
was outstanding viewing, it is good to be back to the daily grind and shirking
my responsibilities in order to get this preview out. That being said, if anyone reading this has
kids and has never been to Karijini to explore the gorges…book now. What a wonderful natural playground we have
in our own backyard.
St Kilda vs Port Adelaide Marvel Stadium Friday Night
What a great game to start the round
off. Port Adelaide have turned around a mini form slump
to play some scintillating football and St Kilda just keep ticking all the
boxes to lead the league. But let’s get
to the crux of this matchup. This is a
revenge game, a grudge match from a demolition job done at Jiangwan Stadium
back in 2019. St Kilda will be looking
to avenge that loss as they were embarrassed in front of a puzzled crowd of
9412 people in a match that will echo through ages. St Kilda only win against Port in one out of
every three matches and after three losses in a row, a win is on the cards. The time to strike is now. The quick Marvel deck will provide the speed
needed to cut through the Port Adelaide defense and exact revenge for the
debacle in Jianwan (such a debacle that I believe the stadium has now been
completely built over and removed from existence by a now defunct construction
company). What does all of this history
mean in the scheme of this battle royale?
REVENGE for St Kilda. St Kilda by 19 points.
Brisbane vs
Fremantle Gabba Saturday Afternoon
Where are Brisbane at?
Most of the experts will have them back in the mix for Premiership glory
but when we look at their victories, they have faced two premiership fancies in
Melbourne and Collingwood at their unbeatable home and then a couple of soft
victories against some non-contenders.
I’m not so convinced of their credentials just yet. What about Fremantle then? At the start of the season, most experts had
them in contention. Forceful
Phrenologists fancied Fremantle’s flag favouritism…for sure. But they have been pretty poor, even though
their losses have been against good teams, generally. This spells danger for Fremantle. A poor performing team against a team that is
at least 6-goals better at home? If
Fremantle want to be taken seriously this season, they need to not only make a
good showing, but need to win this. A
feat they have not achieved at the Gabba since 2016. Fremantle need to work hard, but I don’t see
them beating a Brisbane
team who have survived the season almost injury free to date. Brisbane
by 44 points.
Sydney vs
GWS SCG Saturday Afternoon
The Battle
of the Bridge. Sydney’s
key injuries finally took their toll on Saturday with Geelong inflicting a similar result to the
Grand Final to help them celebrate the flag unfurling. And the injuries just seem to keep mounting
for them. I mean they’re not in the same
injury league as West Coast, but their injuries are running deep. GWS have looked solid in patches but have
been a bit off the pace when against genuinely good sides. They came up against Brisbane on the weekend but didn’t have the
chairs or the whips required to tame them.
GWS will be a ho-hum side this year no doubt about that. They won’t languish at the bottom, but they
won’t impact the bona-fide teams. This
game may decide if Sydney
is one of those bona-fide teams? I like
GWS in this one as injuries keep affecting Sydney.
GWS by 11 points.
W. Bulldogs vs Hawthorn Marvel Stadium Saturday Afternoon
Hawthorn came agonizingly close on the
weekend and as they go through a painful rebuild, they will continue to have
some of these painful moments. This week
against Footscray however, will not be painful.
It will be a swift and merciful death at the hands of a team which is
now surging after a rocky start. Footscrays
ball movement has improved, and I even saw footage of Caleb Daniel out-bodying
Sean Darcy which says a lot for confidence.
W. Bulldogs by 50 points.
Melbourne vs North Melbourne MCG Saturday Night
I liken this contest to an Imperial Tie
Fighter being sent out to bring down Luke Skywalker.
Stormtrooper 538764 “But, he’s the hero, Lord Vader.”
Darth Vader “Nah,
it’s all good, you can do it buddy.”
Stormtrooper 538764 “But, he has the force with him”
Darth Vader “Force
Smorsh, you got this.”
Hopefully, the cinematographer will do us
viewers a favour and make it look like Stormtrooper 538794 has a chance before
he is snuffed out. I’m not predicting
any dramatic effect here. Melbourne
by 67 points.
West Coast vs Carlton Perth
Stadium Saturday Night
I mentioned earlier West Coasts injury
issues and that they are in a league of their own. I haven’t seen an injury toll this large
since Agincourt, 1415. And talk about bad timing. Right at the beginning of a rebuild such that
you have to use your “let’s not expose these guys to AFL level just yet”
players. I mean there is scraping the
bottom of the barrel and then there is digging into the Earths mantle. Things are so bad at West Coast that even
their WAFL team is struggling to field a competitive team with an average score
against of 26 goals. But there’s always
next week. In this case next week is in
the form of Carlton who will be reeling after a
smashing from Adelaide
and a whipping from Saint Kilda. The
fact that the match is in Perth
will be helpful for West Coast, but not helpful enough. Carlton
by 35 points.
Essendon vs Geelong MCG Sunday Afternoon
This shapes as an interesting battle and
the MCG will be humming with fans of both camps expecting a win. Scott v Scott. An exciting sideshow as the two brothers
square off against each other. Twins are
always up to twinny shenanigans so don’t be surprised to find out years later
that Chris really coached Essendon and Brad coached Geelong on this day…just
for the sheer japery of it. Essendon
have played some good footy this year and will be bitterly disappointed after
letting Collingwood over-run them in the final quarter of the ball-busting
ANZAC Day match. Before I left on
holidays, Geelong
were 0-3 and the wolves were circling with obituaries written and ready to be
published. Since then, Geelong are now 3-3 with an average winning
margin of 12 goals. Of course, the
pundits have now changed their tune and Geelong
have rocketed back into Premiership favouritism (seriously, Sportsbet have them
at $5 favourites). I think we should
call for calm on this. Geelong have beaten 17th, 18th, and seriously
injury depleted 10th (at Kardinia). But,
in this age of weekly news cycles, we need beat ups and over reactions to
generate clicks, don’t we? Click here if you agree. I rate Essendon a chance in this one, but I
think they will be undone by a 5-day break since their last match. Geelong
by 18 points.
Richmond vs
Gold Coast Marvel Stadium Sunday Afternoon
Who would have predicted that Richmond would be 16th on
the ladder with one and half wins at this point in the season? Up against 14th placed Gold Coast makes this
a battle of the teens. This is one of
those games where, as a previewer, you start reaching for positive things to
tether your preview to. I’ve found this
difficult in this match. To be honest,
I’d prefer to be admiring my lawn. While
Richmond is
struggling, we’d all admit they have played some pretty good sides. If the teams weren’t in the 8, they soon will
be. Gold Coast has had a similar run
with their defeats coming against teams in the 8 (except Freo) and their wins
against North and the Cats, whose credentials I question. So, who wins this match between teams vying
for 9th? It’s a toss of the coin but
let’s weight the coin by the home ground (even if Hardwick finds it as pain in
backside to get all the way down to Marvel).
Richmond
by 12 points.
Adelaide vs Collingwood Adelaide Oval Sunday Twilight
The match between Hawthorn and Adelaide was a great
contest. Close all day and a clutch goal
in the final minutes was enough to pinch it for the Crows. Collingwood on the other hand launched one of
their trademark comebacks to pinch the match from the Bombers. Everywhere I go, everyone tells me how much
they love The Pies. Their football is
exciting and there is lots of love amongst the players and trust and
belief. They have a dynastic family
connection running with Peter Daicos getting more airtime than his boys when
they do something special on the field and then Darcy Moore, son of Peter Moore
comes out and delivers a perfect post-match speech that just makes everyone
love the Pies even more. I have a
theory. After Round 5, 2022, Collingwood
were 2-3 and it looked like a ho-hum season, and everyone still hated
Collingwood. Then, before round 6,
scientists turned on the newly upgraded Large Hadron Collider with it’s new
6.8TeV beam, thereby opening a black hole which we were all pulled into, and we
are now all sitting in a parallel universe where Collingwood win more often,
and everyone loves them. Think about it,
it all makes sense. The LHC even did their
big physics run at the same time Collingwood won 6-in-a-row by 7 points or
less! At Adelaide’s
home ground and 5-day break for Collingwood, the favouritism rests squarely
with Adelaide
on this one, but a wise Scottie once said… “You Cannae change the laws of Physics, Jim!”
Collingwood by 7 points.
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