Adelaide v Fremantle - Port v Bulldogs

Two big games this week for the two SA sides, but for vastly differing reasons.

After literally stealing 4 points from the Kangaroos pouch, Adelaide will be looking to cement a sopt in the 8 for the first time this year and build on wins over North Melbourne, St.Kilda and GWS they will be looking for 4 wins on the trot.

Worryingly for Adelaide their big man Sam Jacobs is either completely out of touch or not fit ( despite Adelaide denying any injury concerns ) and has not been able to find any form in the wins Adelaide have had in recent weeks. The plus side is Josh Jenkins seems to have grabbed this opportunity with both hands and is making a spot in Adelaides first 18 his. McKernan has been capable backing him in the ruck and also looks to be more comfortable moving around in Adelaides forwards structure with Jenkins and Lynch.

Peterenko ( lucky to be in last week IMO ) and Porplyzia are slowly gathering momentum and look to be giving Adelaide more scoring options, letting them release Dangerfield into the middle of the ground, where he should be.

Luke Brown impresses me, Andy Otten is back in pre-knee form and Rutten is defying old father time and is in good touch. Although this is helped by the midefield pressure Sloane, Dangerfield, Thompson etc create.

Fremantle are always tough to beat anywhere, but Adelaide beat them 3/3 last year and I dont think Fremantle have their best side on the p[ark this week, while Adelaide are building their attacking options and I think they might give Fremantle a touch up this weekend.

Adelaide 39 points.

Port head to Darwin for a must win match against the lowly Bulldogs who last weekend mustered up enough emotion to get over the line against a very poor St.Kilda. Lets face it, St.Kilda are one of those teams that can surprise ( like the win over Carlton ) but in all reality are a team finishing 10-12th. Not too far above the Bulldogs, so it wasn't THAT much of an upset.

The Bulldogs do boast one of the competitions in form big men with Will Minson and I hope Lobbe is fit to come back this week to support Redden in the ruck in hot, humid Darwin.

Port are on the back of a 4 game losing streak and at 5-4 with the bye to follow and then GWS simply must win this one to keep any finals aspirations alive. The 4 weeks after that includes Collingwood, Sydney, Essendon and Hawthorn so the next two are critical.

Butcher ( for those who were at the ground last week ) was not Ports worst player. Sure he missed some sitters, dropped a sitter in front of goal but his work rate was good and better kicking and take a grab would have seen him kick 3-4. Instead he has two OOF and no score involvement but I for one am willing to be patient with him to build a forward half of Sculz, Westhoff, Butcher, Wingard ( who has simply been sensational this year and along with Boak would be leading our BnF at the moment ) Monfries, Neade ( when back, after the bye I would think ) and midfielders rotating through.

On the midfielders, Ebert and Harlett need to lift their output. Hamish has been judged harshly over the last 3 weeks, rightly so, but this ( I think ) will be the first time he has put together 10-12 weeks of AFL football back-to-back and as much as anyone I think he would be looking forward to the bye. Ebert has been playing more of an outside role with Ollie Wines ( more on him ) taking the inside roles with Boak and Gray.

I think Wines is looking for the break too ( overwhelming how many of our blokes look tired, but the NAB Cup was good to us and so were the first 5 weeks of season proper, they have been "up" for about 12 weeks now ) and will enjoy the fortnight off.

Gray and Wingard kept Port from being stung by a big margin last week against Geelong and I think the form the two of them are in, along with Boak will help Port win the midfield battle.

Schulz has been getting further up the ground in recent weeks looking for the ball, I hope the mids give him enough supply this week to keep him inside the forward 50.

Port have more to lose in this one. Port 28 points.

Nice preview Booney, hope you correct about the Crows.

Yep, I hope you're right about the Crows too! Definitely looking forward to the game, should be a cracker. You can't buy the sort of confidence they would have after that win last week.

Port really need to ice this one to confirm that they are genuine improvers this year.

We got similar confidence earlier in the year coming back from 30 points down to beat someone.....for the life of me I cant remember who it was though.

West coast?

Nah, that was from 40 odd points down. Cant recall who it was with the 30 point lead. Cant be too important.

Crows win easily. Power to continue to struggle - bubble has well and truly burst - their confidence is shot!

Booney wrote:We got similar confidence earlier in the year coming back from 30 points down to beat someone.....for the life of me I cant remember who it was though.

Hasnt done you much good since

Tough game in trying conditions today. Can't really fault Adelaide's effort, they were just a bit poorer with their disposal and lacked the finish in front of goals when it was needed.

Freo on the other hand are a quality no nonsense outfit. Their defense is like a vice and the way the get numbers around the contest is impressive.

Really needed to jag that one, cause it doesn't get any easier next week.

Great write up Boon.

0/2....might need to look at the opposition a bit more next week.

I did think you underestimated Freo a bit!

Port on the other hand, should've won that one. Bad loss that one, real bad.

Port will struggle not to lose to the bye! LOL

One thing after Saturday’s game that irritated me – listening to MMM on the way home and the number of Adelaide fans calling in to bleat about the umpires being bias. WTF??

I don’t even understand it. The umpires pay what they see. Sometimes they are wrong, they are human after all. However to suggest that they make their decisions/errors based on some systematic bias against Adelaide is as ridiculous as suggesting that the moon landing didn’t happen.

Get a grip people.

bigclock wrote:Port will struggle not to lose to the bye! LOL

Wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?

Must keep the brain on the other side table.

I couldn't believe how many dropped marks there were in the Port game.
Both sides did it - easy chest marks downed.

Must have been very humid and slippery conditions. But you almost don't see that many in a wet day down here.

Port seemed to struggle with the work rate in those conditions the longer the game went.

Booney wrote:

bigclock wrote:Port will struggle not to lose to the bye! LOL

Wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?

Must keep the brain on the other side table.

As opposed to the delude side of the bed you got out of! Port Pfft.

Another inciteful comment from the massive cock.

Err, clock.

Just a bit on the goal review stuff as well - I was at the game on the weekend and the umpires chatted about it for a good couple of minutes before sending it upstairs, it was ridiculous.

The right decision was made, but surely they know within 20 secs of discussion whether there's enough doubt to send it to video review.

Agreed. Must be a time limit put on it.

If the decision cant be made in 45 seconds, it stands as first called.

Booney wrote:Another inciteful comment from the massive cock.

Err, clock.

Yeah good one!