Round 3

Round 3 and all the talk suggests finals are just around the corner, well, for Adelaide in Adelaide at least it is.

Friday night Collingwood and the Sainters kick the weekend off, what, no room for Carlton? Collingwood went down to the much improved Adelaide last week, while St Kilda went up to the Goldy and like a storm brewing over the Ippy hinterland, put a dark cloud over the Coast and the Suns didn’t have a chance to shine. I didn’t see St.Kilda winning many, if any this year and a Suns outfit bereft of players willing to work hard gave the Saints 4 points to take with them through 2015.It might be their only points. I’m not sure who to pick here, I think the Pies are the better unit, they aren’t hot, but they should beat the plucky Sainters. Pies by Four’n’Twenty. 4 goals.....but I'm not discounting the Saints in this one, they're not as terrible as I thought they were going to be this year.

Saturday at the G and Carlton take on the Not Guilty players. After looking like they were out on their feet, the Not Guilty players somehow managed to pluck up enough run to finish over the top of the Hawks. The Not Guilty players have a very sound back half, with Hooker, Carlisle and Hurley pumped up and looking as sharp as needles. Carlton with nobody left to kick goals and nobody interested in going there, according to Mick, are on a hiding to nothing against a side who might do some damage at the pointy end of the season, but then again, they may run out of juice when things really get going. Not Guilty players, easily.

The Demons come to Adelaide looking to repeat last year’s massive upset and beat the Crowies on the Adelaide Oval. It won’t happen this time around. Adelaide are looking extremely dangerous up forward, have one of the best midfields in the game and their defence won’t have much to do in this one. With a 1:40 kick off, I hope those AFC folks take a hat to keep the sun off, as it turns out, it might be to keep the rain off! They might want to sunscreen the roof of their mouth too, they’ll be looking up at the scoreboard plenty as it tick’s over in their favour. Melbourne were given a spanking in Canberra last week, it’s legal there. Adelaide by......lots.

The great Sydney take on Greater Sydney in a derby, battle of the bridge, showdown thingy. The Giants went to work on Melbourne, in Canberra, proving someone there does work from time to time. 13 goals to nothing in one stretch and the Giants win 2 on the trot. They’re building nicely and the 368 members they have are loving it. This one will be a bigger, if not the biggest test they face early in 2015, yes, bigger then St.Kilda and Melbourne. You read it first here, folks. They beat the Swans in the corresponding match last year, it won’t happen again this year. The Swans smashed Port in the clinches last week and I’d imagine boring Johnny Longmire would be setting that as the standard for the year. Sydney, the nice one, by 28 points.

Saturday night under the roof Port are nearly at season on the line stage, with Hawthorn and Adelaide to follow, 0-3 would be a disaster and who do we have, our bogey side. North were rubbish through 02/3/4/5 and still had Port in a squirrel grip for 5 years....we just couldn’t beat them. Goldstein is the first hurdle,not an easy one to jump, Harvey is the next, easier to jump but harder to stop. We don’t now and have never had anyone to quell Harvey’s influence on our games. Not many sides do. Our best stopper, Kane Cornes, has never had the turn of speed to negate Boomer. Lobbe is in doubt, Redden is underdone and Ryder/Westhoff/Schulz are yet to find some balance. Port lost this one last year and the Roos got some form back against the hapless Bears last week. Cripes....I just don’t know. I’ll keep backing my lads in though and expect a much more brutal effort around stoppages this week. Port....just, please.

This week has a classic “who cares” match up, the Bears and 9th. The Bears get riddled by injury every year (is it the harder ground they play on most weeks?) while 9th continue to frustrate their army of fans. Seriously, if I supported 9th I’d give footy away, even change clubs, the ridicule of doing that would be easier to wear than barracking for them. Or, just say, “I don’t follow the footy”, which, really means “I barrack for Richmond” so no point using that. The Bears are in for a long, long year. They’ve got a developing midfield but struggle in the big man department. Meanwhile Richmond have one of the best key defenders in the game setting up their back half, Alex Rance, who also has one of the best Ray Martin look-a-like hair cuts the game has seen. Richmond to set themselves up for a spot just out the 8....Tigers by 32.

The Hawks suffered the most minor of hiccups on the weekend, dropping their guard for the last 5 minutes as Hirdys Hero’s ran over the top of the Hawks by less than a major. That will have the Hawks smarting. On the other side of the coin the Doggies have got a midfield full of talented youngsters and a “youngish” coach who looks like a surfer, talks like a drunk yet somehow brokered ( away from football ) a deal with the ATO and big business that has been used as a blueprint around the world. Anywho, while the young Pups from Footscray look to have a bright future, this week looks bleak for them, facing the Hawks after a rare loss. I think this will be very entertaining, Hawthorn might get Mitchell and Gibson back, but they’ve lost the bloke who jumped off a sinking ship, courageous, Frawley. He’s ripped a pec, ouch, but he can at least sit back while his team wins with him on the sidelines. Hawks by 44, but, the young Dogs will take it up to them. I just think last weekends loss will have upset the Hawthorn playing group, not that they lost, but that they stopped. They won't stop in this one.

Geelong host the Suns, not often you hear Geelong and sun in the one breath. The Suns, sans GAblett, who is out “indefinitely” with his bung wing head to Sleepy Hollow to take on the rapidly slowing Catters machine. The Cats still have some real class, but their second tier players along with their coach are being questioned while their big blokes up front, a bit like Port, get used to each other. Rocket Eade will be teaching the young Sunny boys what a good ol’ bake is and it’s not something Mum does on a rainy Sunday either. He’d have given them both barrels after the loss to the Saints. But, with the smart old Cats licking their wounds after 2 losses I expect the boys from the coast, the sunny one of the two here, to be 0-3 and Eade would be thinking “Why am I doing this again?”. While Bluey McKenna sits back thinking “Good luck with that”. Steve Motlop will not be appearing at any local for happy hour this Friday night, he will not be spinning the wheel at the First Commercial Chook Raffle. He’ll be home in bed, with a scotch and dry, being a good boy. Hey, you said I couldn’t drink beer! Catters by 21.

Meanwhile in 1973, I mean Perth, the Weagles take on the Dockers in the Derby/derby ( I hope you pronounced them differently ). Last week Josh Kennedy nearly beat Carlton thanks to his midfield and the Dockers went and beat up the Cats in Geelong. Ballantyne couldn’t get near Steve J to exchange monosyllabic words so he belted Harry instead. I think the Fremantle form line reads better, so does their forward line, so does their defence and so does their midfield. West Coast might have won big, but against Carlton.....Carlton.So take nothing away from that other than 4 points and the weekend off. Fremantle have added something to their game, kicking goals! Fremantle by 28 points. Do they still use Burleys over there?

Take this for what it’s worth. Last week’s preview was worth 4 winners......

Sydney have dropped Goodes.

Collingwood
Essendon but.....no certainty
Adelaide
Sydney
Port
Brisbane
Hawthorn
Geelong
Fremantle

First time Collingwood and St.Kilda have met on a Friday night in 15 years according to Sandy Roberts at the start of the game. They played on a Friday night 2 years ago.

Collingwood by a lot at half time.

Collingwood beat St.Kilda by 74 points

Essendon beat Carlton by 21
Adelaide beat Melbourne by 25

Sydney def GWS by 20 odd

Port 17.11.113 def North Melbourne 16.9.105 in a great match. One of the best matches for quite some time.

Richmond beat Brisbane by 80ish

Hawks smashed Bulldogs.

Freo up by 50 odd in the first quarter in the derby

Freo won by 30

Geelong held off Gold Coast by 9 points