On the field: in this week’s Thursday night clash, Richmond hit back hard versus Carlton (as expected) after their first half-capitulation last week against the Suns. The game was close all night with ten lead changes. The Blues had a slightly better final quarter to emerge with a five-point win. On Friday night, the Sydney Swans toyed with Collingwood at the MCG. It was all one-way traffic after a close first quarter, with the Swans coasting to a 39-point victory. It looks like the Pies are suffering a premiership hangover despite the protestations otherwise by coach Craig McRae. Geelong eked out a close 8-point win over visiting St Kilda at GMHBA Stadium, while the Suns made it two in a row, hanging on to edge the Adelaide Crows by a kick at the Gold Coast. Essendon celebrated the 40th anniversary of their 1984 premiership win with straight kicking and a four-goal victory over Hawthorn at the ‘G on Saturday afternoon. These two teams met in 3 straight Grand Finals between 1983-85, with the Bombers winning in ’84-85. Essendon entered the game as favorites, but Hawthorn controlled the play for large periods and will be ruing their poor kicking at goal, which cost them dearly. The final score was 17.5.107 to 11.17.83.
In the Sunday games, Melbourne surged away from the Western Bulldogs in the final quarter to record a 45-point win. Port Adelaide won their game at the Adelaide Oval versus the West Coast Eagles by 50 points. In the late game, Freo caused a boilover by overpowering the Brisbane Lions by 23 points at Optus Stadium in Perth. The Lions were expected to bounce back after their one-point loss to the Blues in the opening round, but the Dockers overran them in the second and third quarters. Last year’s Grand Finalists Collingwood and Brisbane have failed to record a victory in the first two rounds in season 2024.
Tipping
As our tipping site appears to be having a conniption right now (10:55 pm Sunday in Melbourne), don’t pay too much attention to it. Most of us show up with more tips than games played, so something is wrong. From what I can tell, congrats to the tipsters who tipped eight out of nine this week to lead the way: Ingilby, Weazer1, PJohnW, Jacitips, Sammy, Danger Dee, and Minksy. Kudos to all of you. Ingilby leads overall with 12 total tips but our leaderboard is subject to verification when ESPN properly updates the site.
Don