What started as a chore at work, and became a weekly hobby; It's The Weekly Turnaround!
Collingwood vs Western Bulldogs
We started the week at the soon to be Marvel stadium, with the Bulldogs somehow managing two Friday night fixtures in a row. The Bulldogs started this game like a team out to ruin everyone's tipping, dominating the tackles and clearances in the first half. However this was short lived as we were yet again forced to realise that Collingwood might be a good team, as they kept the Bulldogs goalless for the second half, marching into the top 8. Mason Cox found himself on report for clearly failing to factor in the size difference between him and Johannisen - something AFL players are expected to do now apparently.
Richmond vs St Kilda
After being well beaten in Perth last week, we all expected Richmond to bounce back hard, and serve a hiding to what has been a disappointing St Kilda team. however we got presented with a truly awful first half of footy, in which neither team seemed to want to win, and a lopsided Free Kick count that had Dimma standing up a lot, however I'm not sure if this helped. St Kilda, much to everyone's surprise came to life in the third term, learning how to kick goals, and even kicking five in a row to bounce out to a handy lead. However Richmond aren't one of the best teams in the comp for nothing, and ran out comfortable 28 point winners even with an in game injury list almost as long as St Kilda's premiership drought.
Brisbane Lions vs Sydney Swans
Dayne Beams steps down as Brisbane captain, as Dayne Zorko takes over. It's a good thing Brisbane have such an abundance of high quality Daynes, or that may have been confusing. In a miraculous turn on recent years, Brisbane have been playing very watchable football lately, and this continued into this week, where only their inaccuracy in front of goal let them down, as the last quarter was Brisbane racking up inside 50's faster than I was racking up beers while watching this match. All in all Sydney were too strong, and too polished for Brisbane, and despite being less than their best, move to an enviable 7 - 3 scoreline. This was also the first game decided by less than 28 points since Round 8, so that was nice also.
Geelong Cats vs Carlton
As a Geelong supporter, I'm finally starting to understand how my parents must have felt watching me go through highschool, all the talent is there, and it's enough to scrape you in to the top 40% consistently, but they just don't really seem to care? The prodigal son returned home, as Ablett played his first home game in Geelong for 7 years, but Carlton were brave in defeat as the Blues Brothers returned in dewy conditions at Kardinya park. However two goals from Hawkins, some brilliant defence from Stewart, and a miracle goal late from Mene-goal-a was enough to make the margin much less flattering to the Blues than it should have been.
GWS Giants vs Essendon Bombers
Maybe more teams should make a habit of losing to Carlton, and then immediately sacking someone, because boy, has it done the Bombers a world of good, this week toppling a GWS side at home, who welcomed back names such as Kelly and Patton into their lineup. Heppell, who continues to look more like a homeless man in an Essendon jumper with every passing week, was superb, as the Bombers took the game by the scruff of the neck in the final quarter to run out comfortable six goal winners. The Giants, with a less than giant four wins are watching their chance of making finals again this year slip through their fingers like trying to catch water in a colander.
West Coast Eagles vs Hawthorn
Straight of the back of thumping defending champs Richmond, one big question remained; "Can West Coast beat quality opposition in Melbourne," And I guess that question still kind of does remain, because Hawthorn lost to the then winless Lions last week, and I'm not sure if we can class 10th place as quality. Nevertheless the Eagles got it done, in an reasonably ugly affair, to maintain top spot on the ladder. It's really hard to be mean to the Eagles this year, and I can tell people in the media, and on comment feeds are really struggling with it. The only game they've lost this year has been at home, and they've now beaten Richmond and Hawthorn, and are sitting very comfortably first.
Melbourne vs Adelaide Crows
Melbourne have been making a habit of absolutely belting teams in recent weeks, but people have been asking, "but can they do that against a good team?"
Short answer: Yes.
Melbourne burst out of the gates at the neutral ground in Alice Springs to absolutely clip the Crows' wings, kicking the first five goals of the game. The scenery at Traeger Park was beautiful, and the Adelaide Crows sure seemed to notice it much more than they noticed the Melbourne players running up and down the ground. In recent weeks Adelaide had been doing a good job of mimicking an AFL team, even with half their players out, but couldn't keep up the facade against a rampaging Melbourne.
Fremantle vs North Melbourne
Why do I keep watching Fremantle games? They're usually Nat Fyfe being really really good, and the result kind of depends on the quality of the opposition. Considering North managed six behinds before their first goal, and went into quarter time trailing, even with double the inside 50's I'm going to class their quality as "iffy."
The weather in Perth wasn't great all weekend, but when the team with the stingiest defence comes up against the fourth lowest scoring team in the comp it was never going to be pretty. The final quarter was the best of the night, with control see-sawing between the two teams, but the first four goals of the second half was enough to give the Kangaroos the hop on Freo and run out 28 point winners - the fourth team to win by 28 in the last fortnight, which is probably interesting to nobody but me.
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