Melbourne has beaten Adelaide twice in the same season for the first time. Tonight’s game at Adelaide Oval was totally different from the Alice Springs clash in May when the Demons won by 91 points. Adelaide dominated the first quarter and the first part of second quarter, before the Demons controlled the rest of the term and the third quarter. The Crows fought back in the final term and got within seven points, before the Demons scored one last goal to win the match and celebrated Jordan Lewis’ 300th game in style. The Demons’ season is still well alive, but the Crows are now just one loss away from missing the finals.
Earlier, Carlton beat the Suns in the Gold Coast by 35 points.
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Actually, it was a 91-point thrashing by the Demons at Traeger Park, Alice Springs. Dom Tyson celebrated his win in his 100th match. The Demons will need to win at least one game if they want to play finals footy. Top 4 for Melbourne @JohnsonTV? Please watch this space.
So Sydney went from fourth to outside the 8. Proves how close this season is. With Adelaide, Essendon, North Melbourne and Sydney still a chance this is going to be an epic four weeks.
Games like Geelong v Hawthorn, hathorn v essendon, Sydney v GWS and Hawthorn v Sydney will determine the 8.
You would also be slightly mad to think North arent finals contenders as they have four very winnable games which would give them 14 wins.
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Just realised that if we’d (Hawthorn) have beaten Brisbane twice in the two games we’ve played them, we would be 2nd on the ladder right now. That seems crazy to me and shows how close this season is.
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Yeah i know its a crazy season. I think a team will miss out with 13 wins this year. I think 14 wins will be needed to make the 8. 15 wins to make the top 4.
I know i say its a close season but i guess its also a case of there being a very big gap between good and bad teams. With the lower clubs really struggling to find wins.
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The Dees, Hawks and Giants can still be in the chance of finals. However, Adelaide Crows, Freo Dockers hopes of Finals footy are done following their 13 point loss to Demons at Adelaide Oval, and 59 point drubbing to Hawthorn Hawks at Optus Stadium. Fremantle Dockers have had small amounts of success over the Hawthorn Hawks. Look something needs to happen for Fremantle. They cannot be losing games so badly to the hawks. If you play sloppy footy, then your chances of Finals Footy will be dented.
Hawthorn is the 5th interstate team to win at Optus Stadium. Hawthorn face Essendon at MCG and this will determine Top 8.
If you see a pattern with my teams I mentioned they were actually all outside the top 8. The teams you just mentioned are all inside the top 8 so its obvious they are still a chance to play finals! Crazy thing is Collingwood and Port Adelaide will still need to win 2 more games to be assured to play finals. So they are also not lock ins.
Not that this sentence makes sense but Adelaide still do have a chance to make the finals. They simply would need to win all of their 4 games and have other teams lose.
Collingwood’s loss to Richmond could probably dent Top 4 hopes. Something needs to explain why. Saturday’s game against the Pies at the SCG could be determined whether Pies will be able to play finals.
The Suns v Blues game at Metricon Stadium was a crappy match - just 10 000 people turned out to watch these two sides play. WOW. Carlton Blues have upset the Suns by 35 points. I noticed that Steven May was booed at the match. Unfortunatley, I don’t know why.
Meanwhile, I am thinking optimistically about the Western Derby next week at the Perth Stadium. It is Eagles’s home game. I am expecting close to 60,000 (prediction: 59,800 at the venue.
AFL has released a fixture for Round 23 this afternoon.
24 Aug 2018
Port Adelaide v Essendon (Adelaide Oval) - 19:20 (ACST)
25 Aug 2018
Geelong v Gold Coast (GMHBA Stadium, Geelong) - 13:45 (AEST)
Richmond V Western Bulldogs (MCG) - 14:10 (AEST)
Fremantle v Collingwood (Optus Stadium) - 14:35 (AEST)
Sydney v Hawthorn (SCG) - 19:25 (AEST)
Carlton v Adelaide (Etihad Stadium) - 19:25 (AEST)
26 Aug 2018
Brisbane v West Coast (Gabba) - 13:10 (AEST)
Melbourne v GWS (MCG) - 13:20 (AEST)
St Kilda v North Melb (Etihad Stadium) - 16:40 (AEST)
What concerns me is Fremantle v Collingwood playing in the arvo in Perth.
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Why does Freo v Coll Sat arvo concern you? Should be more games held in this timeslot in Perth personally? After all, that timeslot on a Sunday seems to work there, why not Saturday? And don’t say “the WAFL play then” because attendances aren’t what they once were there.
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What concerns me, is that of the telecast time. In WA, Freo v Pies will screen at 2:30pm on Seven. After that the Saturday Night match (Sydney v Hawks) will be shown on 7mate at 5PM.
Those two matches are designed not to overlap?
Final rounds are going to be vital, so many permutations, certainly for 7th and 8th. Essendon and Hawthorn still a chance, Adelaide too but extremely hard now and some teams like Port and Cats have slipped, Sydney now too. While Pies and GWS have skyrocketed.
Fremantle v Collingwood is scheduled to start at 2.35pm AWST, and unless it is a high scoring game or has stoppages due to serious player injuries, it should finish at 5.05-5.15pm, leaving viewers enough time to switch to 7mate for the start of Sydney v Hawthorn (5.25pm AWST start).
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They went up from last week.
If the twilight game runs late they delay the night games. Admittedly, I don’t remember it needing to happen since the AFL changed the Sat slots to 4.35 and 7.25 instead of 4.40 and 7.20.
And, anyway, surely WA would only get 3 matches like everyone else?? Receiving Sydney vs Hawthorn would be a fourth match.
So, its a twilight Saturday game in the eastern states.
Fremantle’s Finals hopes have been dashed. I wouldn’t be surprised if a Freo player will play his final game at the ground. I would expect a massive crowd of 53000 at the stadium.
This will be very interesting with the AFL Fixtures for 2019 with a tricky Easter and Anzac Day rounds. There will be 18 games played in 10 days (except 23 April).
This is how it shows out:
18 April: Easter Thursday Footy
19 April: Good Friday Footy (North Melbourne v Opponent)
20 April: Easter Saturday Footy
21 April: Easter Sunday Footy
22 April: Easter Monday Footy (Hawthorn v Geelong)
23 April: No Footy
24 April: ANZAC Eve Footy (Richmond v Melbourne)
25 April: ANZAC Day Footy (Essendon v Collingwood)
26 April: Friday Night Footy
27 April: Saturday Footy (4 games)
28 April: Sunday Footy (2 games)
It will be a tough fixture for all clubs during Easter & ANZAC Holiday period.
On SEN this morning, Daisy Pearce blasted the AFL’s reported proposal to keep the 2019 AFLW season to 8 weeks, even with two clubs (Geelong and North Melbourne) joining the competition. It could mean splitting the competition into two five-team conferences. She went on to suggest the league should allow the AFLW season start overlapping with the AFL season.
The latter proposal has merit as it only allows each of 10 AFLW team to play each other once, it also allows for a proposed two-week finals. Seven will also be able to show live footy on Saturday afternoons in March, given its coverage of VFL, SANFL and WAFL does not start until April, given Fox Footy has the rights to Saturday afternoon matches under the current broadcast deal.
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What’s difficult about it? No different to any other year.
Haw and Geel with both play Sun 28 April.
The 4 teams involved Anzac Eve and Day will play no later than Sat.