Round 21 stuff

From The Guardian Australia



Adelaide due an upset win

Oh Boomer. It must be at the higher end of frustrating to be followed around all day by master-tagger Liam Picken, but surely Brent Harvey is old enough (36) and experienced enough (382 games and counting) to be able to control his frustration?

Thanks to his WCW-style flipping (to be clear, the AFL counsel went with “jiu-jitsu”) of Picken to the turf – and a forearm to the throat of his opponent to boot – the Roos star will miss three weeks. Of the latter part of the whole fracas, Harvey said he was merely lifting himself up off the ground with some assistance from Picken’s head. Presumably his wife rolls as far away from him as possible when he gets out of bed. Now Brad Scott can call upon his star player again only if North reach the second week of the finals, and on Saturday will also be without Daniel Wells. That’s hardly ideal from your veterans.

The Roos face the talented but inconsistent Adelaide this weekend at Hobart’s Blundstone Arena, a virtual away game for both, but for the Crows an encounter in which they’ll look to desperately cling to eighth spot. Based on form this year, Adelaide should edge their opponents in centre clearances but they’ve struggled to find forward targets with any regularity, so a lot depends on the service to Taylor Walker and friends. In contrast, the Roos got plenty out of their tall forwards last week but it still feels like one of those games that Adelaide could pinch.
Where are the Bombers’ goals?

They’re a strange side this year, Essendon. Statistically speaking if not by reputation, they possess the fourth best defence in the league and thus would fancy themselves against the Suns, who rank 10th for points scored. The problem is that in attack the Bombers come in at 13th place, which makes you wonder how much of a threat they’ll pose in the finals. This season only Jake Carlisle (25 goals), the gradually-developing Joe Daniher (21) and Paul Chapman (19) have managed a goal per game, and those numbers are unlikely to lift significantly.

The Suns almost snatched an unlikely win last week against the Power and were generally more physically willing than in weeks past, but their late-season fade since the loss of Gary Ablett has been sadly predictable. One sure thing is that Tom Lynch will stretch the Bombers defence, as he has done so often this year on the way to 39 goals as the Suns’ primary forward target. Though they’ll probably be missing injured Dyson Heppell, Essendon should win this one and also match it with victory over Carlton the week after to finish off the season. It remains to be seen whether they’ll make much impact thereafter.
The joy of Hawthorn v Geelong

If you were to make a list of the 10 best things about AFL footy, the rivalry between Hawthorn and Geelong over the last half dozen years would have to be right up there. Grand final day is football Christmas, Anzac Day is undoubtedly special but the rivalry between these two sides produces truly compelling football. In round four the Cats prevailed by 19 points, a virtual belting compared to the thrillers that preceded it.

We’re spoiled because these two sides will probably play each other in week one of the finals as well, so the natural temptation for both Alastair Clarkson and Chris Scott will be to hold their cards a little closer to their chests than normal.

Key Cats such as Jimmy Bartel and Steve Johnson remain under injury clouds with the latter likely to miss this clash, but the Hawks will welcome back Jarryd Roughead from a one-week suspension. It probably won’t turn into a traditional shoot-out, but Tom Hawkins will also pose plenty of headaches at the other end if passed fit. The Cats should be careful not to flirt with form but a host of lesser likes might get a chance to impress if Scott follows through on cagey suggestions early in the week that some senior players will be rested. Either way this game should be gripping.

Bonus: this one will be coming to you live via the Guardian goal-by-goal live blog
Richmond and St Kilda hypotheticals

Five weeks back you wouldn’t have given this game a second thought while looking at the fixture list, but it’s now alive with so many possibilities. If Richmond do the expected and win it, they’ll still be in with a sniff of finals action. That it presents as such a pushover is probably what will make Tigers fans nervous, mind you. Which brings us to our second scenario; what if they do monumentally soil the bed and gift St Kilda a win? The Saints will probably miss out on pick one in the national draft. Everyone loses.

Not that I’m in favour of the Saints playing Lenny Hayes at full-forward and Farren Ray in the ruck, it’s just that they need to be … careful. Last week against Sydney they also showed they’re perfectly capable of getting thumped even when they’re trying. The Tigers simply have to win because next week they travel up to Sydney to play the ladder-leading Swans. If you’re not cheering on a Richmond finals appearance you don’t have a heart.
The best and worst of the rest

On Friday night Port Adelaide continue their slow limp towards the finals finishing line at home against Carlton. If they lose, their entire squad may die of shame and thus have to forfeit a finals place anyway. At Spotless Stadium the Giants have a sniff against a Collingwood side so utterly cruelled by injuries that they’ll probably need to scour their Little League team for players. Travis Cloke, Ben Reid and Dayne Beams are now done for the season and up to seven changes to the side might be necessary. Game. Over.

We’re starting to run out of adjectives for Melbourne at this point, but in a weird way, they can’t get much worse than their 64-point humiliation against GWS last weekend, a game in which a team who’d won seven of their previous 63 league games (and never saluted once at the MCG) defied the loss of three key players for the entire second half to run rings around the Dees.

How do you only kick three goals in an entire game of football against an undermanned GWS? Now Paul Roos’s side faces West Coast at Patersons with expectations so low it’ll only take an honest effort to improve on their insipid display last Sunday. The Coasters were narrowly beaten by Essendon, but could win this one if they sent out West Perth’s Foxtel Cup final side.

Buoyant Fremantle travel to Brisbane to take on the Lions, and they should consolidate fourth place with a win. The Bulldogs were disappointing last week against North and on Sunday will again lack the manpower to get one over Sydney. That will allow the Swans to tie up top spot again.

Port Adelaide vs Carlton
North Melbourne vs Adelaide
Essendon vs Gold Coast
GWS vs Collingwood
Hawthorn vs Geelong
West Coast vs Melbourne
Brisbane vs Fremantle
Bulldogs vs Sydney
Richmond vs St.Kilda

Port
Crows
Essendon
Collingwood
Hawks
West Coast
Freo
Swans
Tigers

Port lead Carlton by about 10 goals early 3rd quarter, going to watch the grass grow or something more useful so have a good weekend all.

Just turned off, can't bear to see my blue boys get thumped.

Can't believe I tipped Carlton

Others:
Adelaide
Essendon
Collingwood
West Coast
Geelong
Fremantle
Sydney
Richmond

Final Score

Port 20.20.140
Carlton5.7.37

North Melbourne beat Adelaide by 7 points

Essendon defeated Gold Coast by a few goals
Collingwood beat GWS by 8 points. Collingwood only led for the last 5 minutes.

Paul wrote:Essendon defeated Gold Coast by a few goals
Collingwood beat GWS by 8 points. Collingwood only led for the last 5 minutes.

Lucky bastardo's

Hawthorn defeated Geelong by 23 points
West Coast beat Melbourne by 60 points

Fremantle beat Brisbane by 58 points

Sydney beat Bulldogs by 10 goals.

Richmond in control against St.Kilda

Richmond won by 26 points.

Saints came back in final quarter, score flattered them.