This week,

Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!

Round 6 Recaps and Highlights

The schedule continued being weird as the ANZAC Day holiday fell on Australian Thursday night, which meant a Thursday game AND a Wednesday game as there is also a traditional ANZAC Day Eve game. That meant North American Tuesday night and Wednesday night games in the middle of the night.

This year, the Richmond Tigers took on the Melbourne Demons on the Eve. Both teams have struggled this year even though they were both finals favourites coming into the season.

As I mentioned last week, even through injuries, the Tigers’ youngsters are playing well and this bodes very well for later in the year. They won in convincing fashion in front of a big crowd.

Here are the highlights:

The Collingwood Magpies took on the Essendon Bombers in the ANZAC Day game in what turned out to be a thriller at the end. Several controversial refereeing decisions were made, which led the crowd to boo heartily and then a controversy broke out over booing. Yeah, I thought it was a bit silly too.

The game itself came down to the last two minutes:

Here are the highlights:

The Port Adelaide Power took on the North Melbourne Kangaroos early on North American Friday morning and they seemed to have everything well in hand up until the first third of the fourth quarter.

At that point, the Roos suddenly decided to stop sucking and reeled off five goals to none for the Power. Fortunately for the Power, the lead was too high and they managed to hang on to the four points.

Here are the full-game highlights:

On proper Friday night, the Gold Coast Suns and the Brisbane Lions met in another edition of the Queensland Derby, also known as the Q-clash. While Gold Coast kept things close in the beginning, the Lions slowly took over the game and eventually ran the Suns out of their own park.

The Lions got back to their winning ways and are firmly in the Eight.

Here are the highlights:

The next game had the red-hot St. Kilda Saints taking on the surging Adelaide Crows at home. Many expected the Crows to be finals contenders, including me, but the start of the season has been rough for them.

The Saints started off well and held the lead for about a quarter and a half. At that point, the Crows’ stars took over with Rory Sloane and Tex Walker both having good games.

The Saints not only suffered a loss at home, but got some more key players injured

Here are the full-game highlights:

The next game was a Sydney Derby and I’m not sure if it has a special nickname. I’ve heard it called the Battle of the Bridge, but that’s sort of a misnomer since it’s not THE bridge that everyone knows and recognizes. It’s another one (The ANZAC Bridge).

Despite a brief period of competitiveness between the first and second quarter, this game was all GWS.

Considering the game was held at the SCG, that makes a lot of sense.

Here are the highlights:

The last game of late late Friday night had the Fremantle Dockers hosting the Western Bulldogs

The game turned out to be tougher than expected as the Doggies hung tough on the road against the favoured Dockers for the first three quarters.

The Dockers, however, pulled away in the fourth quarter and took the victory at home. Here are the full-game highlights:

The first of the Saturday night games had the Hawthorn Hawks “hosting” the Carlton Blues in Tasmania. The Blues started the game extremely well and, at one point in the second quarter had a 36 point lead.

The Hawks, however, must have gotten a hell of a halftime speech, as they erased the bulk of that lead in the third quarter and finally took it in the fourth. At the end, it came down to a tense final two minutes:

Here are the full-game highlights:

The last game of the Round had my Geelong Cats hosting the defending champions. The Eagles were beaten badly last week and it was tough to see them lose big again.

That’s actually what ended up happening. I somehow woke up in the middle of the night and started watching the game at Half Time. By then, the Cats were up by 31. They did not look back and ended up getting a big percentage-boosting win.

Here are the full-game highlights:

We had two losing 69 scores this week, which was Nice!, but not NICE! Do ya see the difference?

Let’s take a look at the ladder, shall we?

P	TEAM	W	L	T	PTS	%
1	Geelong Cats	5	1	0	20	146.9
2	Fremantle Dockers	4	2	0	16	128.1
3	Collingwood Magpies	4	2	0	16	122.1
4	GWS Giants	4	2	0	16	118.8
5	Port Adelaide Power	4	2	0	16	116.4
6	St. Kilda Saints	4	2	0	16	105.2
7	Brisbane Lions	4	2	0	16	103.9
8	Richmond Tigers	4	2	0	16	102.4
9	Adelaide Crows	3	3	0	12	113.9
10	Essendon Bombers	3	3	0	12	107.3
11	Hawthorn Hawks	3	3	0	12	101.2
12	West Coast Eagles	3	3	0	12	88.2
13	Gold Coast Suns	3	3	0	12	77.3
14	Western Bulldogs	2	4	0	8	90.7
15	Carlton Blues	1	5	0	4	93.6
16	Sydney Swans	1	5	0	4	80.3
17	North Melbourne Kangaroos	1	5	0	4	69.9
18	Melbourne Demons	1	5	0	4	69.2

Here is the Balls Graph:

[gview file=”https://www.doorfliesopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/AFL-Ladder-2019R6.pdf”]

The Cats are a game on top of everyone else by themselves, which I’m thrilled about, but it’s still early and the competition is tight. You are seeing a bit of separation, though, especially when you look at the Balls Graph. It’s a long season, though, and everyone is still alive for finals contention.

***

Footy Tipping Contest

Here is where we are after Round Six:

P	TIPPER	Round Tips	Round Margin	Total Tips	Total Margin
1	Litre_cola	9	25	35	175
2	Yeah Right	8	18	31	222
3	BC Dick	7	43	31	249
4	BALLS	8	7	30	189
5	SonOfSpam	8	24	29	202
6	Blax	6	13	26	167
7	Why Eagles Why	8	34	26	197
8	Game Time Decision	8	29	26	220
9	BFC	7	26	26	238
10		6	43	25	206
11	Sharkbait	4	32	25	213
12	Dolph Ucker	6	43	24	209

Congratulations to Litre_cola for getting a perfect score and being the Rex Ryan Footy Tips All-Star Of The Week! He managed to hold on to the lead in what turned out to be a very good week for tippers. Yeah Right climbed back onto second place while Sharkbait took a dive with a bad week. Game Time Decision, meanwhile, has rocketed up the charts and is no longer last.

Thank you to all of you that put the tips in! We had one tipper forget the first three games, but got the rest. Keep up the good work, everyone!

DONT FORGET TO PUT THE FOOTY TIPS IN!

***

AFL Round 7

Here is the schedule for this week (all times Pacific):

Friday, May 3, 2019

2:50 AM (Late Thursday Night!) – Collingwood Magpies v Port Adelaide Power at Marvel Stadium

It’s going to be probably the Match of The Round in Marvel Stadium with two Top Eight sides going at it. It’s also a rare Marvel Stadium “home” game for the Pies as they normally call the MCG home.

8:45 PM – Melbourne Demons v Hawthorn Hawks at the MCG

The Hawks have been squeaking by in their wins and haven’t really set the AFL world on fire. It’s a good opportunity for the Demons to get on track, but will they take advantage of it?

8:45 PM – GWS Giants v St. Kilda Saints at UNSW Canberra Oval

The Saints have to win to stem the tide. A second consecutive loss will have the doubts creeping in and could derail their season. Too bad they face the Giants.

11:45 PM – Brisbane Lions v Sydney Swans at The Gabba

The Lions are coming fresh off a convicing Q-clash victory, but face a Swans team that plays better on the road.

Saturday, May 4, 2019

2:25 AM – Western Bulldogs v Richmond Tigers at Marvel Stadium

I’m not quite sure what to make of the Doggies. They’re not bad, but they’re not good either. Can they beat the resurgent Tigers at home?

3:10 AM – West Coast Eagles v Gold Coast Suns at Optus Stadium

West Coast DESPERATELY needs to win this game coming off back to back embarrasing losses. Luckily for them, it’s at home.

8:10 PM – Carlton Blues v North Melbourne Kangaroos at Marvel Stadium

The two teams are tied at the Wooden Spoon position and only separated by percentage. If the Blues win, the Roos would be well on their way to the Wooden Spoon.

10:20 PM – Geelong Cats v Essendon Bombers at the MCG

This is technically a home game for the Cats, but the Bombers know the MCG well. It will be a tough game for sure.

11:40 PM – Adelaide Crows v Fremantle Dockers at Adelaide Oval

The Crows host the Dockers in another tough game to tip. They do have the home-ground advantage, but the Dockers are in second place for a reason.

***

That’s all for this week! Now, you may be asking yourselves: Who is the mystery DFOer that went to Australia and got to see a game?!?

I’ll give you two hints:

1 – The DFOer is female.

2 – The DFOer probably logs more miles in airplanes on vacation than BFC does for work.

Can you guess who it is? Your guesses are welcome in the comments. I will identify correct guesses. See you next week!

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