Hi everyone,
On the field, the opening match on ANZAC Eve pitted Melbourne and Richmond.The AFL introduced this fixture in 2021, and the Dees made it four straight winsover the Tigers in this particular game with a decisive win last Wednesday. There were two ANZAC Day games, one of them a thriller! Essendon and Collingwood played an exciting draw in front of 95,000 at the MCG. The Dons blitzed the ‘Pies with four goals in eight minutes during the first quarter, but the ‘Pies gained the ascendancy after that and reduced the deficit to a single point by halftime. The second half was an arm wrestle. In the final quarter, the relentless pressure really told. The ‘Pies Brody Mihocek twice missed everything from a couple of set shots, and Kyle Langford missed a straightforward kick from close range, which likely would have won the game for Essendon since there was little time remaining. That’s the pressure. In the night game from Canberra, GWS bounced back from their surprise loss to the Blues last week to trounce the Brisbane Lions by nine goals. This was a very important game for Brisbane to try to resurrect their season, but last year’s Grand Finalists now have a record of 2-5. On Friday night, an injury-riddled Port Adelaide was able to hold out visiting St Kilda by ten points at the Adelaide Oval.
On Saturday, North Melbourne’s woes continued when they lost by 57 points to Adelaide. Geelong remained perfect when they defeated Carlton by 13 points in front of 87,000 fans at the ‘G. The Blues played some good footy, but their wayward 2.8 in the first quarter came back to bite them in the end. Jeremy Cameron booted five goals for the Cats. Fremantle put two poor performances behind them when they brushed off a strong challenge from the Western Bulldogs at Optus Stadium on Saturday night. The Dockers raced clear in the final quarter to win by four goals. Their cross-town rivals, West Coast, travelled to the Gold Coast to take on the Suns on Sunday afternoon. The first half was close and exciting, but Gold Coast made some adjustments and won the game in the third quarter when they held the Eagles to only five inside 50s while going inside their opponent’s 50 on 22 occasions. To the Eagles’ credit, they did not throw in the towel at 3/4 time. They cut the 33-point deficit to 18 before conceding three goals in time-on to make the final margin of 37 points. In the final game, the Sydney Swans crushed Hawthorn by 76 points at the MCG. The win moves the Swans up to second place on the ladder.
Tipping: virtually everyone did well this week after two difficult weeks for us tipsters. Congrats to the nineteen tipsters who tipped a perfect round, namely, Gazza, Tucker Browne, Valerderos1964, AnnaBanannna, John Naughton, Claridges, Maggies23, Barto03, Connor103, Carolyn Warner, Big D, John Trajonovski, Neil Belza, Flying Doctor, ‘Pies London Fan, Superstorm Sally, Luke Capt Awesome, Pauline Dallimore, JaciTips. The Big D wins the $20.00 dining credit at the club as he was closest on the margin game with a variation of only 14. Congratulations. We have a new leader at the top of our leaderboard and no less than 40 tipsters are within four points of the lead.
Leaderboard
Bart03 47
Bruce McBriar 47
FlagCoast 47
Connor103 47
Ingilby 46
Carolyn Warner 46
Matt Blakey 46
Big D 46
PJohnW 46
John Trajanovski 46
Thrice Winner Hullsy 46
Wishing you a lovely week. Four games look appealing next week, including the always entertaining ‘Showdown’ from Adelaide, Blues vs Magpies, GWS vs Sydney, and Melbourne vs Geelong. Please place your tips in a timely fashion.
Don