This week…
We play games again!
Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!
This is the week we’ve all been waiting for. Finally, the 2020 AFL season is re-starting! Here is this week’s schedule (Please remember that all times are Pacific):
Round Two
Thursday, June 11, 2020
2:40 AM – Collingwood Magpies v Richmond Tigers – at the MCG
Friday, June 12, 2020
2:50 AM – Geelong Cats v Hawthorn Hawks – at GMHBA Stadium
8:45 PM – Brisbane Lions v Fremantle Dockers at the Gabba
11:35 PM – Carlton Blues v Melbourne Demons at Marvel Stadium
Saturday, June 13, 2020
2:40 AM – Port Adelaide Power v Adelaide Crows at Adelaide Oval
2:40 AM – Gold Coast Suns v West Coast Eagles at Metricon Stadium
8:05 PM – GWS Giants v North Melbourne Kangaroos at Giants Stadium
10:35 PM – Sydney Swans v Essendon Bombers at the SCG
Sunday, June 14, 2020
1:05 AM – St. Kilda Saints v Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium
***
If y’all will remember, we did have one Round played way back in March. Here are the results:
Richmond Tigers 105 – 81 Carlton Blues
Western Bulldogs 34 – 86 Collingwood Magpies
Essendon Bombers 63 – 57 Fremantle Dockers
Adelaide Crows 71 – 74 Sydney Swans
Gold Coast Suns 29 – 76 Port Adelaide Power
GWS Giants 105 – 73 Geelong Cats
North Melbourne Kangaroos 56 – 54 St. Kilda Saints
Hawthorn Hawks 90 – 62 Brisbane Lions
West Coast Eagles 78 – 51 Melbourne Demons
***
Let’s take a look at the ladder, shall we?
| P | TEAM | W | L | T | PTS | % |
| 1 | Port Adelaide Power | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 262.1 |
| 2 | Collingwood Magpies | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 252.9 |
| 3 | West Coast Eagles | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 152.9 |
| 4 | Hawthorn Hawks | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 145.2 |
| 5 | GWS Giants | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 143.8 |
| 6 | Richmond Tigers | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 129.6 |
| 7 | Essendon Bombers | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 110.5 |
| 8 | Sydney Swans | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 104.2 |
| 9 | North Melbourne Kangaroos | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 103.7 |
| 10 | St. Kilda Saints | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 96.4 |
| 11 | Adelaide Crows | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 95.9 |
| 12 | Fremantle Dockers | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 90.5 |
| 13 | Carlton Blues | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 77.1 |
| 14 | Geelong Cats | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 69.5 |
| 15 | Brisbane Lions | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 68.9 |
| 16 | Melbourne Demons | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 65.4 |
| 17 | Western Bulldogs | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 39.5 |
| 18 | Gold Coast Suns | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 38.2 |
Normally, here is where I would stick the Balls Graph, but it just doesn’t make sense with one data point. I’ll add it after Round Two.
***
Footy Tipping Contest
Here is where we are after Round One:
| P | TIPPER | Round Tips |
Round Margin |
Total Tips | Total Margin |
| 1 | Dolph Ucker | 8 | 2 | 8 | 2 |
| 2 | BALLS | 6 | 1 | 6 | 1 |
| 3 | BC Dick | 6 | 3 | 6 | 3 |
| 4 | SonOfSpam | 6 | 4 | 6 | 4 |
| 5 | Litre_cola | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| 6 | BFC | 6 | 13 | 6 | 13 |
| 7 | Yeah Right | 5 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| 8 | Game Time Decision | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 |
| 9 | Reverend Mayhem | 5 | 24 | 5 | 24 |
| 10 | 5 | 26 | 5 | 26 | |
| 11 | |||||
| 12 | |||||
| 13 | |||||
| 14 |
We have just barely started, so it’s the perfect time for new folks to join in! The link to join the Tipping Pool is below:
https://mobile.footytips.com.au/competitions/?competitionId=401652
You should be able to join the competition without a password. All you have to do is create an account with ESPN Australia. Please note that it will be different than your North American ESPN account!
Any new person that joins the Pool will start with 3 points as the Pool automatically awards a point for each road victory if someone forgets to put the Footy Tips in. Three road teams won in Round 1, so that’s why you would start with 3 points. I wouldn’t count on that as a sound strategy for the rest of the season, however, so:
DON’T FORGET TO PUT THE FOOTY TIPS IN!
***
For your advanced Tipping reference, here is the schedule for the next few rounds (All times Pacific):
Round Three
Thursday, June 18, 2020
2:40 AM – Richmond Tigers v Hawthorn Hawks- at the MCG
Friday, June 19, 2020
2:50 AM – Western Bulldogs v GWS Giants – at Marvel Stadium
8:45 PM – North Melbourne Kangaroos v Sydney Swans at Marvel Stadium
11:35 PM – Collingwood Magpies v St. Kilda Saints at the MCG
Saturday, June 20, 2020
2:40 AM – Geelong Cats v Carlton Blues at GMHBA Stadium
2:40 AM – Brisbane Lions v West Coast Eagles at the Gabba
8:05 PM – Gold Coast Suns v Adelaide Crows at Metricon Stadium
10:35 PM – Essendon Bombers v Melbourne Demons at the MCG
Sunday, June 14, 2020
1:05 AM – Fremantle Dockers v Port Adelaide Power at Metricon Stadium
***
Round Four
Thursday, June 25, 2020
2:40 AM – Sydney Swans v Western Bulldogs at the SCG
Friday, June 26, 2020
2:50 AM – GWS Giants v Collingwood Magpies at Giants Stadium
8:45 PM – Port Adelaide Power v West Coast Eagles at Metricon Stadium
11:35 PM – St. Kilda Saints v Richmond Tigers at Marvel Stadium
Saturday, June 27, 2020
2:40 AM – Essendon Bombers v Carlton Blues at the MCG
2:40 AM – Gold Coast Suns v Fremantle Dockers at Metricon Stadium
8:05 PM – Brisbane Lions v Adelaide Crows at the Gabba
10:35 PM – Melbourne Demons v Geelong Cats at the MCG
Sunday, June 28, 2020
1:05 AM – Hawthorn Hawks v North Melbourne Demons at Marvel Stadium
***
Round Five
Thursday, July 2, 2020
2:40 AM – West Coast Eagles v Richmond Tigers at Metricon Stadium
Friday, July 3, 2020
2:50 AM – Collingwood Magpies v Essendon Bombers at the MCG
8:45 PM – Carlton Blues v St. Kilda Saints at the MCG
11:35 PM – Geelong Cats v Gold Coast Suns at GMHBA Stadium
Saturday, July 4, 2020
2:40 AM – Western Bulldogs v North Melbourne Kangaroos at Marvel Stadium
2:40 AM – Brisbane Lions v Port Adelaide Power at the Gabba
8:05 PM – Adelaide Crows v Fremantle Dockers at Metricon Stadium
10:35 PM – Sydney Swans v Melbourne Demons at the SCG
Sunday, July 5, 2020
1:05 AM – GWS Giants v Hawthorn Hawks at Giants Stadium
***
So, the question on everyone’s minds: Who is going to be any good this year?
Let’s break it down into categories.
The Premiership Favourites
The Richmond Tigers are the reigning champs and have won two out of the last three, so they’re automatically in. The GWS Giants were last year’s finalists and looked pretty darn good in Round 1, so they’re in. The West Coast Eagles and the Collingwood Magpies were in the final two years ago and continue to be good. They both won well in Round 1, so they’re in.
The Premiership Contenders
The Geelong Cats finished the Home and Away Season in 2019 in first place, but could not get to the Grand Final, losing to eventual champion Richmond. They struggled in Round 1 against the GWS Giants, but that game was on the road. The Cats have one of the best schedules for the restart, playing three out of four games at home with the fourth at the MCG, a short drive away. That should position them well for the rest of the season.
The Hawthorn Hawks are doing a good job of rebuilding to get back to the days when they won three premierships in a row starting in 2013. Their coach, Alastair Clarkson, is considered the best coach in the AFL. They should finish in the Eight.
The Brisbane Lions had a wonderful campaign last year and not only made the Eight, but played in two finals. Granted, they lost both, but gained valuable experience. They ran into a tough Hawthorn team in Round 1, but playing the first four games at home should help them get a good start to the season.
The Question Marks
I place the South Australian teams (Adelaide and Port Adelaide) and Fremantle in this category. No one knows how they will react to being placed in a hub in Queensland and forced to play all their games there. It could either be a great thing as they pull together or it could tear the teams apart. We really will be discovering this as we watch the games.
I also place in this category the Melbourne teams that would normally be considered middle-of-the-road, yet could get an advantage by playing most of their games close to home. I include in this category the Essendon Bombers, the North Melbourne Kangaroos, the Melbourne Demons, and the St. Kilda Saints.
Finally, I don’t know what to make of the Sydney Swans. They’re in the middle of a rebuild, having purged many of their older players and going with youth last year. It paid off as they played well at the end of the season and rose in the standings. Will the young ones be able to get to continue to improve amidst everything going on or will the immaturity show and make the Swans plunge down the ladder?
The “Need To Improve” Teams
These are teams that were bad last year and will need to improve greatly to not be bad this year. I speak, of course, of the Gold Coast Suns, the Carlton Blues, and the Western Bulldogs. All of these clubs will have the benefit of playing most of their first few games close to home. They’ll need to take advantage of it.
***
That’s all for this week. Make sure your Watch AFL app is up and functioning! The games will start soon and this is way better than Korean baseball.
I’m also reading that the AFL is hoping that the fact that there are no sports on in North America will give them a boost. Fox Sports has the rights to the AFL in the United States while TSN has the rights in Canada and the AFL is pressuring them to have more games available on the FS1 and FS2 networks. It looks like 5 games will be shown live this week on either FS1 or FS2 and on the various TSN networks. Now is the perfect chance for you to see what all the fun is about! See you next week!
[is ready to run through a brick wall]
“Bring it on,” — Brick Walls
“OH YEAH!!!!” — Kool-Aid Man
“Door bursts open……”
“All in all? Gotta give this thread a C minus.”
-Pink Floyd
Miami University players and coaches in Miami Field, 1908.
May 25, 1982 HMS Coventry sunk, the last Royal Navy warship lost to enemy action.
Argentine forces chose their national day to make a supreme effort against the naval forces disgorging men and material at San Carlos.
HMS Broadsword and HMS Coventry were dispatched to waters off Pebble Island to catch incoming jets.
They were virtual sitting ducks, one Argentine pilot hit Coventry, bombs tore the heart out of the destroyer which immediately began to heel over.
Twenty Coventry sailors were lost; their surviving shipmates took to life rafts and sang Always Look on the Bright Side of Life while awaiting rescue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep9Vzb6R_58
Well, they had a British way to it, as expected.
It is still playing in my head too.
“the last Royal Navy warship lost to enemy action”
Many, many more have been lost to syphilis.
Penicillin is every port.
Here’s a drive around Bunker Hill in Downtown L.A. in the late 1940s, filmed as a rear-projection element for movie VFX.
The first frame (not the thumbnail frame) is on 2nd street, looking downhill to the SW from just below Grand Ave. The near crossing street is Olive Street. At the bottom of the hill is Hill Street. The building on the right hand corner there (with the vertical sign on its corner edge) is still there; right next to it on 2nd St. is the location of the Redwood Bar & Grill, the last stop on the recent DFO LA Pub-crawl:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-I2kLNwBak
First frame, as it looks today:
Fun fact: the Angel’s Flight railway used to be adjacent to the 3rd St tunnel. It got moved a couple hundred feet south when Bunker Hill was essentially destroyed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEeGtkybr10
Downtown L.A., Hill Street at 1st, looking north, June 1947
In order to go from Grand Central market to Chinatown you had to go through a tunnel:
Then:
Same view as top image, today
You have to cross a bridge to get to Chinatown, over a concrete trench wider and deeper than the Panama Canal locks (the 101 freeway):
This is awesome. I love historical LA.
This is the documentary Bunker Hill 1956 by USC film student Kent Mackenzie. He then made a feature film shot all over Downtown L.A., Bunker Hill, even Chavez Ravine, called The Exiles (1961) which was inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry.
https://vimeo.com/332916635
At 00:46 you can see the “JESUS SAVES” sign in its original location. It’s now mounted behind the United Artists theatre on Broadway, put there by Dr. Gene Scott (God’s Angry Man!) when the UA was his church. The sign is a registered landmark now.
“Me too, but have you ever tried to fit ‘historical’ into a chorus?” — Randy Newman
Be careful when tickets are too cheap.
Ryan Air furiously taking notes…
“Here’s your mom’s dildo, Adolf!”
That’s a sister joke, please use the Grand Slam as a mom joke.
For scale; the Grand Slam is for deep penetration.
Email in WWII.
“I am sorry to inform you Mrs. Smith but your husband was killed during delivery of your letter of June 9th when the stainless steel mail container containing said letter upon falling 400 ft impacted directly on the crown of his head. As this was not a combat death nor expected during military service, you will receive no benefits. “
P.S., do not worry; the letter was undamaged and delivered to the intended recipient.
The way he twists when he hits the ground is hypnotic.
Los Angeles, 4th and Spring Street; 1959.
Once upon a time in Hollywood really made me wish I could have seen LA during the 50’s through the 70’s. I have a feeling it was a lot more interesting and entertaining than it is now.
A couple of years ago I watched the first season or two of The Rockford Files, and spent a lot of that time trying to see which streets I could identify. Or else trying to figure out how Rockford managed to go from Malibu to downtown to Bel Air to the desert and back to Malibu in a single day….
So I checked the population for LA county. In 1975 it was 8.9 million and in 2019 it was 10.4 million. The highways were newer, so few of them being worked on and a lower population? Still doesn’t mean it was possible even then, but maybe?
The big difference is the growth in Riverside, Orange, and San Bernardino counties. You add up those suburban populations and the LA Metro area adds up to 18 million.
That is a big factor, so comparing traffic between the two time periods is not really apples to apples. As I am not familiar with LA and environs that much my comparison is off. Oh well, helped relieve some boredom.
Broadway Arcade Building, 1998
“Arcade? Mom, I’d like my allowance in quarters this week, please.” – Elisha
Television shows have played fast and loose with L.A. geography pretty much forever, though usually they try to cover it by not specifying where a location is supposed to be.
The other thing I thought was funny about Rockford was the way that the villains usually screwed up by attacking or threatening Rockford. Half the time he had no clue as to who was behind the whole thing, or even if there was a crime going on at all, but when a friendly chat with Ordinary Businessman X suddenly leads to the thugs showing up at his trailer, it doesn’t take a great detective to figure out who your lead suspect is.
Still an enjoyable show, though. In large part because Rockford was pretty human for a TV lead — he had trouble taking on one thug in a fight, there was no way he was going to plow through multiple ones.
I remember pinning locations from The Big Lebowski after having the idea of doing a Lebowski tour. They are all over the place! You’d drive less miles doing a tour of New England.
Reading Raymond Chandler, I’m thinking 30s and 40s.
The beauty of LA, though, is that it’s always interesting.
That would be a great time period to be there. I always thought NYC during the 20s would be great as well.
If you like the history of New York; I found this book (through the eyes of the oyster trade) well done:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3342.The_Big_Oyster
Thanks, I will take a look into it.
Damn Dutch!
I’ve liked Steinbeck’s description of Cali., not LA specifically. Riven Rock by T.C. Boyle has some very period specific vivid descriptions.
The building in the foreground is still there.
*Sand blasted since then…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLsn-YBKV00
Hippo; I found a map that shows the soccer fields of Europe; each one is indicated by a tiny red card symbol.
Looks more like Joseph McCarthy’s worst nightmare.
No favorites; he has to leave the game like anybody else.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgAZglc-iMk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01yUzXQctcM
I’m detecting a theme in the music videos…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t5RrUt3nrY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s6JfT6T_Wk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs-MtItyOFc
ALXMAC check your email for yahoo FF. I have made a new memorial league as Yahoo would not let me take over TWBS.
I guess I need a personal invite; It’s not working now
Sent from my email.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGXvBJN2LZw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WPbqYoz9HA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkUgpfZ3rjQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8k9tC9sSbs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo-UKCxCglg
DUDE X 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd6Wv0d9FyA
DUDE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV8NHsmVMPE
FoAR tWBS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhCpVC3px4k
I won’t join unless I can pick the Tottenham Hotspurs. Oh, what’s that? wrong LG??
Not only that my Fremantle Dockers play at 8:45 PM this Friday night! Prime viewing time! We could even mini live blog it.
I’m fucking ready.
West coast time? that’s not prime time, that’s bed time
– GTD and scotchy
I will have just gotten home from work and finished dinner and drinking beers proper by then.