Very winnable? Unlosable, in the case of the Eagles.

They have given up. You can't prove tanking and they will deny it black and blue but they are, to coin an OTF phrase, cheese-eating surrender monkeys, focused only on the extyra draft picks finsihing last will bring.

They are not the only ones. Melbourne yesterday led by 30-odd points against the Dockers at quarter time. Then they stopped playing. Freo improved but the Demons simply packed it in.

Much was made in the commentary about the blunder Melbourne made in winning a game against Carlton last season. The victory meant they did not have two seasons in a row where they won only four games.

This meant they missed a priority draft pick and chance to get involved in the Chris Judd trade.

It is a mistake they do not intend to make twice. In AFL they talk about the battle to avoid the wooden spoon (finishing last).

This season there is a battle on to avoid not finishing last.

Unless they AFL sorts this out the competition's credibility is going to get seriously eroded.

Another tough, closely contested "showdown" in Adelaide saw underdogs Port get up by two goals. One thing this match did show was that the Crows no longer have much to offer as a serious finals contender. Without Burton, they have no match winning forwards.... indeed they have no-one capable of kicking a match winning score. Port's Brett Ebert, a player with the worst kicking style in the AFL, managed to kick four goals.

And Edwards and MacLeod, usually two of the Crows' most influential midfielders, were seldom sighted during yesterday's match.

jason voorhees wrote:

QUOTE:
Any YouTube links so far ?

Congrats, MA. Best of luck against your favorite team.

Cheers, JV.

This clip of Saturday night's classic second half is on the long side but I suppose it has to be when you kick 12 goals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wyxnVndKpE

An historic night. The attendance at Hawthorn-Geelong of 86,179 is the largest crowd in VFL/AFL history for a game not involving Collingwood, Essendon or Carlton.

Geelong have now won 35 of their last 37 games, the best run of results since Collingwood in the 1920s. Last week, Geelong beat 2nd placed Western Bulldogs by 61 points. Although tonight's margin was just 11 points, Geelong started the match minus Gary Ablett (their best player), Cameron Ling (the best tagger in the AFL), Darren Milburn (an elite defender) and speed merchant David Wojcinski. The obnoxious, but hugely talented, Paul Chapman, went off injured before half time.

Give them the flag now.

It must be the fear of playing Geelong in the first week of the finals because it seems that no-one wants to finish 4th. The 4 leading contenders all suffered shock defeats yesterday – Sydney, Collingwood, St Kilda and Brisbane. Adelaide and North Melbourne are now in with a shout.

St Kilda’s 17 point defeat by West Coast in Perth was shameful. Almost as shameful (sour grapes alert) as the extraordinary umpiring. In a close game, West Coast won the free kick count by an amazing 29-10. One decision really stood out. Late in the game, with the margin at less than 2 goals, Brendan Goddard was penalised for a high tackle deep in St Kilda’s defensive 50. It could only have been a high tackle if the West Coast player had been a dwarf. Goddard’s understandably incredulous reaction resulted in a 50m penalty which made a near certain goal an absolutely certain goal. From the resulting centre bounce after the goal, West Coast were awarded another mysterious free kick just as St Kilda were about to break forward. This resulted in another goal.

I deserve to be congratulated for my restraint in not despatching the television into the garden with a drop punt. St Kilda’s rank awfulness, the corrupt umpires and the creaming his jeans commentary of Glen Jakovich would have pushed a lesser man over the edge.

We should have been 5th just 2 points behind Sydney. Now, if North Melbourne win today, we’ll slip out of the 8.

One other point to note was the performance of Michael Gardiner on his return to Perth. He replaced the suspended, and sorely missed, Justin Koschitzke. Gardiner’s performance was so bad that he registered minus 19 points in the Herald Sun supercoach scores. The 2 possessions he managed during the game were negated by the all the free kicks he conceded. He’s not in my team but I do have him listed as an emergency.

It was an excellent weekend for the Crows. When I logged on to the AFL website on Saturday morning waiting for the Crows-Swans match to start I was really surprised to see both the Saints and Pies had lost. Richmond winning against Brisbane was another surprise - I'll look forward to watching the highlights later in the week, the last quarter seemed to be end to end stuff.

I turned on this morning to see the Bulldogs leading Carlton by something like 12 points, near the end of the third quarter. This was pleasing as I'd had a bet on them to win by less than 39.5 points. I then witnessed a big turnaround. Every Blues kick into 50 found Fevola, and he quickly kicked the game in his teams favour. So this means both Carlton and Richmond have an outside chance of their first finals berth in (I think) 7 years.

It was a gritty win for the Crows in Sydney... a half-fit Porplyzia was rushed back into their forward lines and managed to kick five goals. They needed him- their final score of 11.11 was not a convincing tally for a winning side.

Barry Hall was trying so hard not to hurt anyone that he was virtually useless....

The AFL website has listed the remaining fixtures for those in with a chance of finals action. I've pasted here a summary of that information. I've had a go at predicting the remaining fixtures, and have listed the final ladder based on those predictions - tragic!

Geelong - 1st: 64 points (16 wins, one loss), 151.69 per cent
The run home:
Rd 18: Richmond at Telstra Dome,
Rd 19: Melbourne at the MCG,
Rd 20: Sydney Swans at Telstra Stadium,
Rd 21: North Melbourne at Skilled Stadium,
Rd 22: West Coast at Skilled Stadium

Western Bulldogs - 2nd: 54 points (13 wins, three losses, one draw), 123.13 per cent
The run home:
Rd 18: Sydney Swans at Manuka Oval,
Rd 19: North Melbourne at Telstra Dome,
Rd 20: Brisbane Lions at the Gabba,
Rd 21: Essendon at Telstra Dome,
Rd 22: Adelaide at AAMI Stadium

Hawthorn - 3rd: 52 points (13 wins, four losses), 123.08 per cent
The run home:
Rd 18: Collingwood at the MCG,
Rd 19: Brisbane Lions at Aurora Stadium,
Rd 20: Richmond at the MCG,
Rd 21: West Coast at Subiaco Oval,
Rd 22: Carlton at Telstra Dome

Sydney Swans - 4th: 42 points (10 wins, six losses, one draw), 119.96 per cent
The run home:
Rd 18: Western Bulldogs at Manuka Oval,
Rd 19: Fremantle at the SCG,
Rd 20: Geelong at ANZ Stadium,
Rd 21: Collingwood at Telstra Dome,
Rd 22: Brisbane Lions at the SCG

North Melbourne - 5th: 38 points (nine wins, seven losses, one draw), 97.80 per cent
The run home:
Rd 18: Brisbane Lions at Gold Coast Stadium, Rd 19: Western Bulldogs at Telstra Dome,
Rd 20: Carlton at Telstra Dome,
Rd 21: Geelong at Skilled Stadium,
Rd 22: Port Adelaide at the MCG

Collingwood - 6th: 36 point (nine wins, eight losses), 113.47 per cent
The run home:
Rd 18: Hawthorn at the MCG,
Rd 19: St Kilda at the MCG,
Rd 20: Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium,
Rd 21: Sydney Swans at Telstra Dome,
Rd 22: Fremantle at Subiaco Oval

Adelaide - 7th: 36 points (nine wins, eight losses), 106.18 per cent
The run home:
Rd 18: Carlton at AAMI Stadium,
Rd 19: Richmond at AAMI Stadium,
Rd 20: Essendon at Telstra Dome,
Rd 21: St Kilda at Telstra Dome,
Rd 22: Western Bulldogs at AAMI Stadium

Brisbane Lions - 8th: 36 points (nine wins, eight losses), 105.27 per cent
The run home:
Rd 18: North Melbourne at Gold Coast Stadium, Rd 19: Hawthorn at Aurora Stadium,
Rd 20: Western Bulldogs at the Gabba,
Rd 21: Carlton at the Gabba,
Rd 22: Sydney Swans at the SCG

St Kilda - 9th: 36 points (nine wins, eight losses), 100.63 per cent
The run home:
Rd 18: Port Adelaide at Telstra Dome,
Rd 19: Collingwood at the MCG,
Rd 20: Fremantle at Subiaco Oval,
Rd 21: Adelaide at Telstra Dome,
Rd 22: Essendon at the MCG

Richmond - 10th: 34 points (eight wins, eight losses, one draw), 97.27 per cent
The run home:
Rd 18: Geelong at Telstra Dome,
Rd 19: Adelaide at AAMI Stadium,
Rd 20: Hawthorn at the MCG,
Rd 21: Fremantle at the MCG,
Rd 22: Melbourne at the MCG

Carlton - 11th: 32 points (eight wins, nine losses), 95.97 per cent
The run home:
Rd 18: Adelaide at AAMI Stadium,
Rd 19: Port Adelaide at Telstra Dome,
Rd 20: North Melbourne at Telstra Dome,
Rd 21: Brisbane Lions at the Gabba,
Rd 22: Hawthorn at Telstra Dome

Essendon - 12th: 28 points (seven wins, 10 losses), 86.02 per cent
The run home:
Rd 18: Melbourne at the MCG,
Rd 19: West Coast at Subiaco Oval,
Rd 20: Adelaide at Telstra Dome,
Rd 21: Western Bulldogs at Telstra Dome,
Rd 22: St Kilda at Telstra Dome

Code:

Team Current Pts Final Pts

Code:

1 GEELONG 64 80

Code:

2 HAWTHORN 52 72

Code:

3 WESTERN BULLDOGS 54 62

Code:

4 SYDNEY SWANS 42 54

Code:

5 COLLINGWOOD 36 52

Code:

6 ADELAIDE 36 52

Code:

7 ST KILDA 36 52

Code:

8 NORTH MELBOURNE 38 50

Code:

9 BRISBANE 36 48

Code:

10 RICHMOND 34 46

Code:

11 CARLTON 32 36

Code:

12 ESSENDON 28 32

Code:

13 PORT ADELAIDE 20 24

Code:

14 FREO 16 20

Code:

15 WEST COAST 12 20

Code:

16 MELBOURNE 8 8

I've predicted 4 wins out of 5 for Saints, Crows and Collingwood which gets them in the top 8 - obviously there is no % to sort out the teams at the moment in this prediction!

Well, as John Worsfold said in the post match presser "thank goodness for Nogoalsnoglory's fantastic reverse jinx on OTF, which undoubtedly got us over the line".

For bad umpiring what about the Geelong game? With Hawthorn in attack the umpire gave a dreadful holding the ball decision, then followed up with a another crap call and a 50 metre penalty to gift Geelong a goal.

Not sure aboput Collingwood. Hell of a form slump and I reckon Hawthorn, Sydney and even the Dockers have a fair chance of knocking them off (I won't jinx MA's mob).

It looks the most unbalanced top eight ever, with the top three so mucxh better than the predicted fifth downwards and even the Swans, at fourth, nowhere near as talented - though they will scare the crap out of one of the top three in the finals.

The weekend's results caused carnage in office footytipping competitions. As Robert Walls said on the telly last night, anyone who got more than 3 has no idea what they're doing (I got 3). At the moment, 6 teams could finish 4th and the finals contenders go right down to 12th place. Even with only 5 games left, it's very hard to predict what might happen.

Doing the same exercise as Jamzinho, I reckon this weekend's match in Canberra between the Western Bulldogs and Sydney could be the key to 4th place. If Sydney win, they'll be hard to catch. They could lose to Collingwood and Geelong thereafter but still finish 4th unless somebody else wins 5 out of 5. With Adam Goodes and Barry Hall out of sorts and Michael O'Loughlin injured, I fancy the Bulldogs which would mean St Kilda making 4th with 4 wins out of 5.

1 Geelong 84
2 Hawthorn 72
3 Western Bulldogs 70
4 St Kilda 52
5 Sydney 50
6 Collingwood 48
7 Brisbane 48
8 Adelaide 44
9 Richmond 42
10 North Melbourne 42
11 Carlton 40
12 Essendon 40
13 Fremantle 24
14 Port Adelaide 24
15 West Coast 12
16 Melbourne 12

A very strange little item in The Age on Sunday – in particular, note one of the words they chose to use.

Is the AFL being totally frank about drug use by footballers? A persistent rumour hawked around by club insiders is that one of the game's brightest stars has been tested positive 3 times but that it's being kept under wraps because of the potential fallout.

The piece went on to claim that a rival clubs cheersquad was going to mention it on their banner recently until club officials got wind of it.

i think we all know who that is then

The AFL is planning to build a third stadium in Melbourne. Although details haven't been finalised, it seems likely that the new stadium will be in the South Eastern suburbs with the intention being that St Kilda, Melbourne, Richmond and Hawthorn will play home games there against the likes of Fremantle, Port Adelaide, Gold Coast and West Sydney.

In a truly bizarre piece of news, Mars have said they will spend $4m on sponsoring a Tasmanian AFL side. The timing of the news is interesting as both Richmond and the Western Bulldogs are struggling to find sponsors for next year.

Incredibly, Mars are going to rebrand the Mars Bar as the Believe Bar for the month of September across the whole of Australia. Each wrapper will have a number on it inviting people to text in their support for Tasmania!

What an odd story! I'm all for a team in Tasmania, so good luck to them, get me a Believe bar.

If that potential new stadium is in the St Kilda area, does it also mean that it could be a potential venue for Melbourne Heart? I think I remember you saying they were intended for the Casey area (and I remember there is an affiliation between St Kilda and Casey Scorpions).

Can anyone recommend the best radio stations to listen to AFL games on? I listened to the Geelong v Hawthorn last week on ABC as Setanta weren't showing it live. Collingwood v Hawthorn isn't on Setanta either tonight, so I'm wondering if any of the commercial stations offer better coverage.