29/8/23
Greetings from Four Mile Lake, located in ‘cottage country’ in Ontario’s Kawartha Lakes region. It’s been a pleasant late summer weekend up here, with great swimming & kayaking conditions (photo below).
On the field: last Friday night Essendon suffered another heavy defeat, losing by 70 points to Collingwood. The Magpies’ victory means that they are this year’s minor premiers and will have home ground advantage throughout the finals. On Saturday, Fremantle surprised many of us by defeating Hawthorn in Launceston by 37 points. The Hawks kicked the first two goals of the game, but the Dockers dominated thereafter. The Western Bulldogs travelled to Geelong needing a win to try to keep their finals hopes alive. The Doggies played a strong final quarter to record a 25-point win (it was a rare victory for them at the Cattery). Brisbane defeated St Kilda by 2 goals to clinch second place on the ladder, while Adelaide beat West Coast by 23 points in Perth.
North Melbourne were determined not to be wooden spooners this season and played a strong second half to win going away, over the Gold Coast by 35 points. The Kangas victory coupled with the Eagles’ loss to the Crows leaves West Coast on the bottom of the ladder due to their very low percentage (both North and West Coast managed just 3 wins for the year).
Two of the Sunday games were very close at three-quarter time before being broken open in the last term. As expected, Port Adelaide defeated Richmond by 31 points at the Adelaide Oval. The win sees the Power finish in third spot – a big improvement over last season. The Melbourne Demons broke open a tight contest at the SCG in the final quarter, racing away to beat the Sydney Swans by 21 points.
In the season’s last home-away game, GWS needed a win/draw vs Carlton at Marvel Stadium to secure the final playoff spot and relegate the Bulldogs to ninth place. The Giants have been playing very well recently and they decisively beat the Blues by 32 points to move up to 7th place.
Tipping: Well done CD Saint, Weazr1, Croc Junior, Lynchey, Strength through Loyalty and Four Peat Magic for being our being our top tipsters this round with 7. Season 2023 has seen excellent front running by the Grumpy Swimmer who led our competition from Round 1, for virtually the entire year. Congrats Grumpy on your brilliant tipping this season. Andrew0711, Luke Capt Awesome and I tried to peg back your lead, but you were too good. Andrew did in fact draw level in the final round on total tips, but Grumpy takes first place by virtue of his lower cumulative margin
Final leaderboard after Round 24 (total tips followed by cumulative margin in brackets)
Grumpy Swimmer 146 (619)
Andrew0711 146 (661)
Don Warner 145 (619)
Luke Capt Awesome 145 (692)
LamboM 144 (730)
Croc Jr 143 (587)
Gebster 142 (716)
Pauline Dallimore 141 (719)
Valerderos1964 141 (938)
Thanks again everyone for your participation in our RBYC tipping competition this season. I hope you’ve had some fun and that we can do it all again in 2024.
Don