Hi everyone,
It was a drawn-out finish to the home-away season, with the postponed Gold Coast vs Essendon game not being played until Wednesday night. It was fun to watch the ‘live tipping ladder’ as fortunes changed for our leaders throughout the round (it is ‘fun’ provided you’re not in contention and don’t have the stress of contending for a top-three placing!)
On the field: The Blues finished a very disappointing season with a 34-point victory over Essendon on Thursday night. These two teams, with their huge supporter bases, are badly off the pace. Collingwood had to battle very hard on Friday night to secure a narrow one-goal victory over Melbourne at the MCG. The win gave the Magpies a double chance as they finished in fourth spot, but this team, which was 10 points clear in first place a couple of months ago, needs to regroup quickly if it is to progress deep into the finals. Gold Coast was hoping to confirm their first finals’ appearance in the club’s history when they travelled to Adelaide last Friday to play the Power. Port had other ideas, however, and they rose magnificently to farewell their games record holder, Travis Boak (retiring after 387 games) and their outgoing coach Ken Hinkley, who finished after 13 seasons coaching the club, in winning fashion. The final score was Port Adelaide 10.11.71, defeating Gold Coast 9.13.67.
In the Saturday games, Adelaide defeated North Melbourne by 13 points, Geelong accounted for Richmond by 39 points and Sydney powered away from West Coast in the second half to win 18.10.118 to 7.9.51. On Sunday, St Kilda made GWS work hard, but the Giants triumphed by 11 points to secure fifth spot on the ladder.
There was considerable interest in the Fremantle versus Western Bulldogs “win and you’re in” game at Marvel Stadium. This game was also designated as the margin game by the espn tipping site. The Bulldogs were warm favourites to win as they came into the game in great form and had home-ground advantage. Fremantle trailed by 16 points at quarter time, but a seven-goal to zero second term turned the game on its head. In the second half, the Dockers continued to press and deny the Bulldogs space. For most of the second half, they kept an approximate five-goal lead until the Doggies booted a flurry of late goals to bring the final margin back to 15 points. What a gutsy win by the Dockers. Final score: Fremantle 17.10.112 defeated Western Bulldogs 14.13.97. The Hawthorn versus Brisbane game from the Gabba on Sunday night resulted in a 10-point win to the Lions. The loss combined with Gold Coast’s win, dropped the Hawks to eighth place on the ladder while the Suns finished seventh. This was not confirmed until the final game when the Suns
crushed Essendon by 89 points to secure the club’s first finals’ appearance in their 15-year history. The Western Bulldogs missed the finals as a result.
Tipping
Our competition was very close at the end! Congratulations to Heaver13, who is our tipping champion for Season 2025. Heaver has been our leader for quite a few weeks but he was chased down in the final round by Valerderos1964, who surged by tipping a perfect score of 10. Fortunately for Heaver, he still had the better margin of the two so Heaver is our tipping champion in 2025. Thrice Winner Hullsy and the Big D were not far behind. Congratulations. St Lindsay is the winner of our weekly prize this week. He not only tipped a perfect score, he tipped the exact margin in the Freo versus Western Bulldogs game. Very well done.
Final Tipping Ladder for Season 2025
Heaver 13 157 (611)
Valerderos1964 157 (631)
Thrice Winner Hullsy 155 (586)
Big D 155 (642)
Weazr 1 154
Darty 153
Richard Jones 153
Luke Capt Awesome 152
Martin Hunt 152
Pies London Fan 152
Flying Doctor 152
Thanks again for your interest in our tipping competition. I hope we can do it all again next season.
Best to everyone.
Don