This week, it got a little tighter in the middle, the top stiffened up and responded brilliantly, and the bottom dripped its way closer to the floor.  Vagina joke!  Also, the current state of affairs in the AFL.  Let’s dig in, shall we?

Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!

The round started on Friday night in Australia (Friday morning for us) with Hawthorn facing Carlton.  Poor Carlton never had a chance and lost by 138!  Things had been looking up for the Blues as they had been playing better under their interim coach and there was even talk he might get the full-time job.  All of that has gone out the window, however, as the Blues not only got beat, they got embarrassed and played very poorly. There are really no highlights as this was a walkover of massive proportions.

The round really got started then on Friday night with Geelong taking on GWS in Canberra in a game with major finals implications.  With a win, GWS could put some distance between them and the contenders and solidify their top eight standing.  With a win, Geelong could stay close to the top eight, narrow the gap between those in and out of the eight, and keep alive its finals hopes.  The game went to the Cats who, despite a weak third quarter, controlled the Giants throughout and won by a score of 69-42.  The Giants did have a nice behind the back goal from Toby Greene

but it was not enough to overcome the Cats.

In the second game on Friday night, Adelaide took on the Gold Coast Suns at home.  The Suns had been playing much better since the return of their star Gary Ablett.  Unfortunately, Gary injured his knee and was lost for the game and possibly the rest of the season.  With that went the Suns’ chances and they meekly submitted to a 45 point beating.  Here, the Crows’ Patrick Dangerfield (and possible new Cat next year if the rumors are true) scores a nice goal off a throw up:

Here, Richard Douglas scores a nice running goal with an assist from Eddie Betts in holding off the Suns defender to ensure the ball goes over untouched:

This brings us to the match of the night:  Fremantle vs. Richmond.  Richmond played extremely well and was ahead for most of the game.  The league leaders, however, kept the game close and then stole the victory by capitalizing on a Tiger mistake late in the game.  The excitement is really best captured by watching the last two minutes:

Later that night, Port Adelaide kept their finals hopes flickering by edging Essendon by 13 while the North Melbourne Kangaroos took care of business and demolished the Brisbane Lions by 72.  The Roos’ victory also marked Brent Harvey’s 400th game in the AFL.  He is only the fourth person ever to play that many games which is remarkable given how we hear of player injuries all of the time.  He may be the last one to ever accomplish that feat. Here, he scores a goal with an assist from his teammate:

The Power also provided some nice highlights:

Saturday night’s first game was another tense battle of teams in the middle trying to secure finals berths.  This time, it was the Collingwood Magpies against the Western Bulldogs.  Collingwood’s streak of no wins since their bye continued as the Dogs pulled away late to win by 18. As has been the case lately, the Pies started off well

but their defense let them down:

Later, St. Kilda matched up against Melbourne at the MCG.  The Saints won the battle of Good vs. Evil and dominated the Devils to win by 37

Finally, in the last game of the round, two top four teams faced off as the West Coast Eagles were eager to prove their worth by hosting the Sydney Swans.  The Eagles solidified their top two spot by routing the Swans by 52. Granted, the Swans were weakened by injuries, but a much closer result was anticipated.  Now, the Swans are in danger of falling out of the top four and the finals advantage that signifies. As we get closer to the end of the season, I’ll make a special finals preview post and explain the AFL Finals System.  It’s pretty interesting and greatly rewards performance in the regular season.  The higher up you place, the more perks you get.  You’ll see.

Here is a nice effort goal at the end of the first half for the Eagles.  Although they were ahead, getting the goal with only 8 seconds left had to be a dagger into the heart of the Swans:

Let’s look at the ladder, shall we?

As expected, North Melbourne has now joined the top eight.  This came at the expense of the GWS Giants, who lost against Geelong.  Both the Giants and the Magpies had been inside the top eight all season, so it will be interesting to see how they react now that they are on the fringe.  The margin is still super small as only 8 points separate 5th place from 11th.