2023 AFL Season

MiracleOfO2704

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I don’t know if we’ve ever had a thread for Aussie Rules here, but it was mentioned as an alternative to association football during the World Cup, so maybe how’s the time.

But first, what’s the structure of a footy match?

-4 20 minute quarters. Once upon a time, the clock counted up, so time taken for stoppages, such as centre bounces, ball-ups, and boundary throws as well as the time after a score would be included on the television clock, but not the official clock. So you were left to guess when 20 minutes had been played. These days, however, most metrics use a countdown clock with stops for the important stuff
-18 players per side, with a 4-person interchange bench
-3 ways to move the ball: running, as long as you bounce it once every 15 metres or so; hand balling (punch or slap, no throwing allowed); kicking
-If you kick it 15 metres or longer and it’s caught clean, that’s a mark and a set kick option. If you’re within the 50-metre arc you’re attacking, you get 30 seconds to make a play; outside of 50, it’s 10 seconds
-Scoring comes in two manners: goals (a kick that clears the boundary between the two middle posts without being touched by anyone else) are 6 points, and behinds (a kick that strikes a post, is touched over with a hand before clearing the boundary line, or missing between a goal post and an outer post) are worth 1 point. Scores are often presented as [goals.behinds.points], but at the end of the match, points are all that matter.
-For the home and away season, ladder points are 4 for a win, 2 for draws, none for losses
-The top 8 teams make the playoffs, collectively known as the Finals, but seeding is different. 1st hosts 4th and 2nd 3rd, but all four teams know their season isn’t over. Those are the Qualifying Finals, and the winners get a bye and host a Preliminary Final (semi-final), while the loser hosts a Semifinal (quarter-final) the next week. 5-8 and 6-7 are the Elimination Finals, with the winners going on to the Semifinals. The winners of the Preliminary Finals go on to the Grand Final at the 100,000 seat Melbourne Cricket Ground (COVID messed things up there, as the 2020 GF was at the Gabba in Brisbane, and the 2021 GF at Optus Stadium in Perth. They were back in Melbourne last year, though). This is the pinnacle of the AFL season, with the league’s Best and Fairest awarded the Charlie Brownlow Medal, some major musical act brought in for the week, and a parade into the MCG.

As of this season, there are 18 teams in the league, and as a reflection of its very Victoria roots, 10 of those teams are based in the state of Victoria, and all but one of them in Melbourne. Even two of the eight interstate teams have roots in Melbourne.

Melbourne teams (first year in VFL/AFL, Premierships)

-Carlton Blues (1897 [est. 1864], 16)
-Collingwood Magpies (1897 [est. 1892], 15)
-Essendon Bombers (1897 [est. 1872], 16)
-Hawthorn (1925 [est. 1902], 13)
-Melbourne Demons (1897 [est. 1858], 13)
-North Melbourne Kangaroos (1897 [est. 1869], 4)
-Richmond Tigers (1908 [est. 1885], 13)
-St. Kilda Saints (1897 [est. 1873], 1)
-Western Bulldogs (1925 [est. 1877 as Footscray Bulldogs], 2)

Non-Melbourne Victoria team

-Geelong Cats (1897 [est. 1859], 10)

NSW teams

-Sydney Swans (1897 [est. 1874 as South Melbourne Swans, moved to Sydney in 1982], 5)
-Greater Western Sydney (GWS) Giants (2012, 0)

WA teams

-West Coast Eagles (1987, 4)
-Fremantle (Freo if you’re Australian) Dockers (1995, 0)

SA teams
-Adelaide Crows (1991, 2)
-Port Adelaide Power (1997 [est. 1870, played in SANFL until joint AFL], 1)

Qld. Teams
-Gold Coast Suns (2011, only team to never appear in Finals)
-Brisbane Lions (merged club, 1997, 3)
-Fitzroy Lions (1897-1996 [est. 1883], 8)
-Brisbane Bears (1987-1996, 0)

If there’s appetite for it, I’ll try to get a primer for each club, including where they’ve been and where they’re at today. As there’s no Pro/Rel in AFL, its teams have boom and busy cycles similar to North American teams, so you don’t have to worry about picking a side then having to scrounge the Internet for a pirated stream of some state league. But don’t try to understand player movement. It makes almost no sense, and there’s almost no player movement past January on the league calendar.

As far as venues go, the league is limited if it stays in the seven cities it has (no seriously, it’s Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Geelong, Adelaide, and Perth), so the round are spread out from Thursday to Sunday, and it’s not rare to have teams play in completely out-of-the-way places to “grow the game”. Some examples include one round where all 18 teams will play in Adelaide one round. Western Bulldogs play a match in Ballarat every year, which would be like the Patriots playing a game in Lawrence. There are also round where the league will go to Darwin and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, or Hobart and Launceston in Tasmania. So most teams might play only 8-9 matches at “home”, a nebulous concept for the Melbourne sides, who split between the MCG and Marvel Stadium in the Docklands neighbourhood.

Oh, and Round 1 starts a week from Thursday, with Carlton playing Richmond at the MCG. So get a side and dig in.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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Oh, a couple things I forgot to mention:

-There’s no offsides. If you want to let a forward cherry-pick, you can.
-Every club has a song, a la Fly Eagles Fly, except both teams run out to their song at the beginning of the match, and the winner’s song is played after full time:
View: https://youtu.be/Lv2uultlegI
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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I've been watching and semi-following AFL for a few years now. It was a convenient live sporting event at a time when I inexplicably found myself awake at 3-4am a lot and it hooked me in. Now I make it a point to seek it out as often as it's broadcast (FS1/FS2) instead of randomly stumbling on to it. I've adopted Port as my side and installed the AFL app on my phone just to get alerts for their matches/results. I understand most of the basics of the game and I know all the teams (though only a handful of players). I still have plenty to learn though and I'd eagerly participate in this thread as much as I can (and quietly read and learn otherwise). Thanks for starting it.
 

thehitcat

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Back when ESPN was new (mid to late eighties) and they were scrounging for late night content my buddy and I started watching AFL and hooked onto the North Melbourne Kangaroos who had twin aboriginal brothers playing for them at the time. Kept up with the side from afar ever since they never win but they’ll always be my team. I’m in for sure.
 

Awesome Fossum

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My wife and I got into this a few years ago; she adopted Richmond and I adopted Adelaide, and then they ended up facing each other in the Grand Final. Things have gone in different directions for the two clubs since, so we tend to watch more Richmond (on delay) these days.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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I've adopted Port as my side
We’re….gonna have an issue here. I’ll explain in a second.

My wife and I got into this a few years ago; she adopted Richmond and I adopted Adelaide
You, OTOH, can hang out with me any day of the week.

Okay, I got into the Crows (carn Crom) in a bit of an unusual way. I tend to watch a couple matches in a sport and in a short amount of time, the sport clicks in my head. So the first full match I watched, almost five years after it happened? The 2017 1st Prelim, Adelaide vs. Geelong. It had an amazingly compelling story, too: Geelong’s current captain and generally one of the faces of the AFL, Patrick Dangerfield, got his career launched with the Crows, but when he got the chance, having grown up near Geelong, he wanted to go back. So after the 2015 season, he gets traded. This was not an unusual problem for Adelaide, as they frequently had to trade away players. Still do to this day (their offseason could best be described as Billy Frampton out, Izak Rankine in). But the team that stood in the way of his first GF: his old club, guys he celebrated with. And wept with.
As far as what he left behind, they just became this relentless attacking side, and that PF was their master class. Tex Walker sitting just behind Charlie Cameron and Eddie Betts, the youngster and the wily old vet. Great midfielders like Rory Sloane and Matt and Brad Crouch and Tom Lynch, strong backs like Daniel Talia, Jake Lever, and Riley Knight, twin tower rucks in Sam Jacobs and Josh Jenkins. They were a house on fire, jumping out to a quarter time score of 6.2 (38) to 1.2 (8). The second and third quarters were fairly even, then the Crows exploded after 3-quarter time to win the match running away, 21.10 (136) to 10.15 (75). I LOVED the Betts/Cameron combo, and they’re the prototype in my mind of a small, fast, scoring forward.
As @Awesome Fossum can tell you, the next Sunday went poorly. The next preseason worse. And the Crows have been in the wilderness since.
 

luckiestman

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I went to see the Bombers play Brisbane at the Gabba and it was one of the highlights of my trip. Never see this shit anymore. It used to run on ESPN all the time.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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I went to see the Bombers play Brisbane at the Gabba and it was one of the highlights of my trip. Never see this shit anymore. It used to run on ESPN all the time.
Fox has the rights for US broadcasts. There are one or two live games a week on FS1 or FS2 (and live means airing sometime between midnight and 6am usually). The first such broadcast will be Friday 3/17 at 5am on FS2 (Geelong and Collingwood). If you really want to watch a bunch of matches, the thing to do is pay for the Fox Soccer Plus channel. They air a bunch of live games and air replays during the week.
 

Awesome Fossum

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We watch through watchafl.com.au. Gives you all the matches live and immediately on replay, and a few hours later they get around to cutting out all the ads. They also do a really good job not spoilering the results if you're watching on replay. My wife's instagram feed ... less so.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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A note about that match: Geelong are the defending premiers, and Collingwood had the luckiest season in league history, with 11 of their 22 games won by less than 2 goals. In fact, their propensity to pull a rabbit out of their ass on a near-weekly basis led to one of the most laugh-out-loud hilarious moments in sports.

Round 23, Carlton is set to end their 9-year finals drought. Western Bulldogs was tied for points, but had already played their last match. However, if Carlton faltered, the Dogs had an advantage in the first tie-breaker: percentage (really, just point differential expressed in an odd way, it’s PF/PA*100). So Carlton knew they had to win. And at 3-quarter time, they are. By 24.

Cue the Collingwood comeback. They score 5.1 in the fourth against Carlton’s 0.6, with Jamie Elliot putting the Pies ahead with less than 2 minutes left.

So Collingwood wins, giving them 4th despite a percentage below Carlton’s, while the Blues were pipped by the Dogs.

View: https://youtu.be/x0FkLgeOss4
 

Humphrey

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1. IIRC the goal judges used to wear white raincoats. Glad they look like referees now.
2. What are the field dimensions? Do they vary from venue to venue?
3. Back when ESPN showed a lot of games, I was partial to the Magpies.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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1. IIRC the goal judges used to wear white raincoats. Glad they look like referees now.
2. What are the field dimensions? Do they vary from venue to venue?
3. Back when ESPN showed a lot of games, I was partial to the Magpies.
There are actually no required dimensions or even shape. They'll play the game in whatever location they can find. Ovals are the traditional shape because the game usually shares facilities with cricket. As such, most of the professional stadium fields are fairly uniform. Fields typically run 135-185 meters in length (goal to goal) and 110 to 155 meters in width.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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Also, if anyone wants to have a little fun, here’s a match-by-match tipping predictor. My highlights:

-in the 8: Brisbane/Melbourne/Geelong/Sydney/Freo/Carlton/Richmond/Gold Coast
-Adelaide JUST miss. A draw in Showdown 53 does them in.
-Collingwood and the Doggies just out as well.
-Huge gap between the bottom 6 and the rest of the ladder
-Hawthorn with the wooden spoon, and only 1 win to boot, so likely to get some competitive compensation at the drafts.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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And we’re off…to a draw.

Richmond 8.10 (58)
Carlton 8.10 (58)

Dusty Martin scored early, but Carlton took over a cagey first two quarters and went to the half-time break at 4.6 (30) to Richmond’s 2.4 (16). Coming out of the break, Richmond scored the next three goals (Jack Riewoldt, Shai Bolton, and Tom Lynch) to pull ahead, before Charlie Curnow scored two in two minutes to put the Blues up. After that, though, the rest of the third belonged to the Tigers, outscoring Carlton 2.4 to 0.3 to lead at 3-quarter time. Out of the last break, Carlton seemed to take some kind of control, with a Sam Docherty goal and Curnow’s 3rd on the night giving Carlton the six-point lead in the last minute when Tom Lynch took a nice mark (don’t know if it was a speccy yet, I haven’t seen any game action) and kicked the set shot for a goal and a smash and grab draw.

Only one match in Australia’s Friday at 4:40 am ET from the MCG: defending premiers Geelong against last season’s cardiac kids, Collingwood.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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Geelong 16.7 (103)
Collingwood 19.11 (125)

Both teams lost defenders to injury (Cats vice-captain Tom Stewart and the Pies’ Jeremy Howe), but this one came down to the last term, with Collingwood dominating 5.2 to 0.4. Even those behinds for Geelong came very late, with the first of the four coming nearly 30 minutes in.

Tomorrow’s gonna be a busy one, with four matches in three states:

North Melbourne vs. West Coast at Marvel, 10:45 pm ET tonight
Port Adelaide vs Brisbane at the Adelaide Oval, 1:35 am
Melbourne vs Western Bulldogs at the MCG, 4:25 am
Gold Coast vs Sydney at the Metricon, 5:00 am
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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That Howe injury was gruesome. Got to hand it to the Australian broadcast (Ch. 7 I think) for choosing not to show replays or close-ups of the aftermath. It was bad enough in real time even if the extent of it wasn't obvious. Geelong seemed to run out of steam in the fourth. The first three quarters were a pretty high octane affair for both teams and a fun watch.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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I think that fourth was a combination of losing Stewart so early and Geelong’s list being so old. It’ll be interesting to see how they handle the mileage on them, particularly some of the older ones like Danger, Hawkins, and Tuohy.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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I’ll get into more detail later, but there were a couple stunners in today’s matches

North Melbourne 12.15 (87)
West Coast 12.10 (82)

Port Adelaide 18.18 (126)
Brisbane 11.6 (72)

Melbourne 17.13 (115)
Western 9.11 (65)

Gold Coast 9.7 (61)
Sydney 16.14 (110)
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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I'll never get the draws. Seems like sudden death would be such a good fit.
Would you require it to be a goal to win or would it just be the first point scored wins? If a team won because they booted a prayer from 60 meters right off the bounce that resulted in a behind, that'd be kinda lame. I maybe could be talked into an extra five minute period to break a tie, but I'm okay with a draw. It's not like they happen frequently. There was one all of last season and only three the season before.
 

Awesome Fossum

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Yeah, I guess maybe first to three or something? So a goal ends it but you'd need to string together some behinds otherwise. IDK. It just seems like a sport where you can safely play just a little bit more to get a winner. It's not like soccer or American football where it can go on forever, and it's not like basketball where a single score is too trivial to decide a game.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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I believe in the finals draws are settled with extra time, two ten-minute halves. It’s only happened once, in the 2017 Elimination Final between Port and West Coast. Luke Shuey kicked after the siren to win it for the Eagles, 78-76.

Before that, draws meant replays. Ask St. Kilda fans how that goes.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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As far as why no extra time in the home and away season, the best argument I can think of was a stat that was flashed before the Melbourne-WB match: Bailey Smith and his glorious mullet averaged 13.3 km a match last season. And that was good for 3rd…on the Dogs.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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So first thing I think is worth mentioning: there have been complaints about the state of the MCG pitch. Patrick Dangerfield was one of the commentators for the Dees-Dogs match (I have no idea why either he or 7 thought that’s a good idea since he’s an active player for an AFL club, but whatevs), and he mentioned that Geelong found the footing a little rough in patches. He also pointed out that Ed Sheeran had a couple of concerts at the G, but that was 2 weeks ago, and it’s the edge of summer. It’s all made worse by the fact that there are FOUR matches at the G this round, and one of the few breaks the sod there will get is Round 5, when all the matches will be in Adelaide.

Onto the matches…

Roos 12.15 (87)
Eagles 12.10 (82)

Young beat old today. North had quite a few debuts, and a side that’s had a rough last couple of years gets a good home win, even if West Coast made it interesting late. Harry Sheezel was massive for the Roos, but they also lost ruckman Tristan Xerri early on. As long as their matches can be competitive going forward, though, it’ll be a desperately needed improvement for last year’s wooden spoon.

Power 18.18 (126)
Lions 11.6 (72)

This isn’t how it was supposed to start for most experts’ favourites. Brisbane actually seemed to be doing okay at halftime, leading 8.3 (51) to 5.9 (39). But obviously, everything fell apart for Brisbane, as well as coming together for Port, as the second half scored 13.9 (87) to 3.3 (21). Perhaps more than a hiccup for Chris Fagan’s side, it could indicate that Ken Hinkley’s team may be up to playing for his job. Lions’ rookie midfielder Will Ashcroft did decently in his debut, with 13 disposals and a goal, but he was overshadowed by the Power’s debutant, Jason Horne-Francis, who came up with 25 disposals, 3 tackles, and scoring 1.1.

Dees 17.13 (115)
Dogs 9.11 (65)

With about 8 minutes to go before half-time, this looked like a tight match, with the Dogs maybe starting to pull away. But the match turned when Kozzy Pickett launched his shoulder into Bailey Smith’s jaw/shoulder (Pickett was referred to the Tribunal, and I have a hard time believing he won’t miss a couple rounds, it was that reckless). Western couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity, and Melbourne turned the screws. Gawndy (ruckmen Max Gawn and Brodie Grundy) is legitimately tough (think Robinson-Duncan), and Christian Petracca, Charlie Spargo, and Pickett were very good in transition for the 2021 premiers. Making matters worse were injuries to Liam Jones and Adam Treloar.

Suns 9.7 (61)
Swans 16.14 (110)

There was a lot of optimism for Gold Coast coming into this season. They had made some nice progress last year, and a few experts had given them a shout at finals footy for the first time in team history this year. Well, those hopes aren’t totally dashed, but they’re not off to a great start.

On the other hand, teams that get routed in the GF tend to have bad seasons. This was put to rest when Sydney scored 5 goals in the first quarter and never looked back. 12 different Swans scored goals, including the legendary Buddy Franklin, Jake Lloyd, and Dylan Stephens.

Three more matches to the opening round:

10:10 ET: GWS vs Adelaide, Giants Stadium
12:20 AM ET: Hawthorn vs. Essendon, MCG
1:20 AM ET: St. Kilda vs Fremantle, Marvel Stadium
 

MiracleOfO2704

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Woof.

Giants 15.16 (106)
Crows 12.18 (90)

Mai told you they were wasteful. The positive was the first half, and Izak Rankine having an immediate impact after coming over from the Suns in the trade period. The bad is the Giants figured out they could win lots of contested marks and get the ball cleanly off centre bounces and restarts. That and Tex Walker lost his cool again, costing them a goal against. Fair play to the Giants, they went and won it, but 4 years into a rebuild, this shouldn’t still be happening as frequently as it does. I’ll get into the Tex stuff in a longer post about the Crows since the 2017 GF, but needless to say he needs to prove his value to the club, and that ain’t it.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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Before we wrap up Round 1, some MRO news:

-Melbourne’s Kysaiah Pickett receives a two-match ban for his launching shoulder charge into Bulldogs’ Bailey Smith.
-Sydney’s Lance Franklin receives a one-match ban for his bump on Suns’ Sam Collins.
-Two other players were offered fines for early guilty pleas: West Coast’s Tom Barrass ($2000 AUD) for striking North’s Charlie Comben, and Port’s Darcy Byrne-Jones ($1500, or $1000 with an early plea) for tripping Brisbane’s Zac Bailey.

Source: AFL
The Pickett charge (no, I’m not apologizing) is likely the template for Crows’ forward Shane McAdam, whose hit on the Giants’ Jacob Wehr was baaaaaaaaaaaaaad. My guess is 3 matches, just because McAdam’s hit was so much more violent than Pickett’s.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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Two more matches to talk about.

Hawthorn 9.11 (65)
Essendon 19.10 (124)

Not much to say about this one, as it was what you’d expect from a team stripped to the bone, dogged by some major accusations of heinous racist actions, and the odds-on favourite for the wooden spoon. On the positive side, Bombers legend Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti made his first AFL appearance in nearly two years, coming in as a substitute in the fourth and kicking a goal.

St. Kilda 10.7 (67)
Fremantle 7.10 (52)

Freo looked like they might take control with two goals from Sam Switkowski and Lachie Schulz early in the third, but little did we know the Saints’ aggressive work in their defensive 50 would hold the Dockers to 0.6 the rest of the way. When you get about 35 game minutes to make up 18 points, you make your life a lot easier. Freo joins Brisbane in the “teams with ambitions for the flag with new questions to answer” box.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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I might need to spring for the Watch AFL subscription. The matches I get on tv next week are Brisbane-Melbourne and Western Bulldogs-St. Kilda. Round 5 will be two squash matches with North-Brisbane and Essendon-Melbourne, both played in Adelaide.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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Okay, here’s Round 2. Days are as they are in Australia, times are ET.

Thursday, March 23

Carlton vs. Geelong, MCG, 4:20 am

Friday, March 24

Brisbane vs. Melbourne, Gabba, 4:55 am

Saturday, March 25

Collingwood vs. Port Adelaide, MCG, 3/24 10:45 pm
Adelaide vs. Richmond, Adelaide Oval, 1:35 am
Western Bulldogs vs. St. Kilda, Marvel, 4:25 am
Fremantle vs. North Melbourne, Optus, 4:30 am

Sunday, March 26
Sydney vs. Hawthorn, Sydney Cricket Ground, 3/25 10:10 pm
Essendon vs. Gold Coast, Marvel, 12:20 am
West Coast vs. GWS, Optus, 3:20 am
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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U.S. broadcasts:

Thursday
Carlton vs Geelong on FS2 4am

Friday
Brisbane vs Melbourne on FS2 4:30am

Saturday
Western vs St Kilda on FS2 4am

Sunday
Essendon vs Gold Coast on FS2 12am
West Coast vs GWS on FS1 3am
 

MiracleOfO2704

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First, l’affair McAdam. The tribunal handed him a three-match ban, which he appealed. During the Blues-Cats match, the appeals board sided with the tribunal. McAdam with miss matches against Richmond, Port, and Freo, all at the Adelaide Oval.

Carlton 13.12 (90)
Geelong 12.10 (82)

They almost did it again. After leading by 23 at 3-quarter time, Carlton managed a paltry 5 inside 50s and just 1.1 on the scoreboard, but outside Jeremy Cameron (6.1 on the day), no one else on the cats seemed to have an impact on the match. Cameron Guthrie had a decent 25 disposals/6 marks/4 tackles line, but both Dangerfield (0.0, 22 disposals) and Tom Hawkins (1.1, 8 disposals, 0 tackles) were deathly silent on the pitch tonight. For Carlton, Charlie Curnow (5.2) continues his charge for the Coleman, and Patrick Cripps was everywhere (27 disposals, 6 tackles). The Bluebaggers really do need to solve their fourth quarter problems, though. Just off the top of my head, this is the third straight match (R23 vs the Pies to eliminate them from the Finals last year) where they’ve been badly beaten in the 4th.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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12 minutes left in the 4th with Brisbane up by 40, and the lights went out at the Gabba. There were a couple loud pops and what appeared to be a fire on one of the light towers, then some of the banks of lights came back one bulb at a time. Now the teams are leaving the field for a delay. If it lasts more than an hour, they'll call the game.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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They got three of the four main light banks working and were able to finish the game. Melbourne took advantage of the unexpected break to regroup and very nearly made the comeback in the final 12 minutes, closing to within 11 by the final siren.

Brisbane 14.9 (93)
Melbourne 13.4 (82)
 

MiracleOfO2704

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I’m at work, so I only caught the updates. Some scattered thoughts:

-Will Ashcroft looks like the real deal. 31 disposals against a flag contender at 18 is nothing to sneeze at.
-The comeback and the blackout will be the big headlines, but up until then, it was the Dees losing All-Australian ruck Max Gawn to a knee injury. I mean, Grundy is hardly a slouch, but losing Gawn for an extended period could be a problem.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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Here’s Saturday’s scores:

Collingwood 21.9 (135)
Port Adelaide 9.10 (64)

A week after thumping the 2022-23 offseason premiers, Port looks all out of sorts against the Pies. The best way to quantify this: Nick Daicos continued his ascension with 2 goals, 32 disposals, 2 tackles, while last week’s hero for Port, Jason Horne-Francis, was 0.0, 15 disposals, 1 tackle.

Adelaide 10.16 (76)
Richmond 17.6 (108)

A tale in three segments:

1st half: Richmond 11.3 (69), Adelaide 3.6 (24)
Start of 3rd to 12:25 left in 4th: Adelaide 7.9 (51), Richmond 1.1 (7)
Last 12:25: Richmond 5.2 (32), Adelaide 0.1 (1)

Turns out the preseason means nothing. Adelaide’s next 3 are at the Oval, but it’s Port, Freo, Carlton. Considering these kids take laaaaaarge swaths of the game off (and even when they’re on, they’re amazingly wasteful), 0-5 and talk of a second wooden spoon should really be on the table.

Western Bulldogs 5.11 (41)
St. Kilda 14.8 (92)

Or this home-and-away season is weird. Luke Bevridge must be getting worried. If Adelaide only managed about 30 good minutes today, ol’ Footscray only managed 20. 4.4 in the second term, 1.7 the rest of the way. This team is too good to be this bad (Bontempelli and Libratore at the least should be able to keep this stuff from happening, plus a lot of this team made up of holdovers from 2021), but their record says otherwise, especially considering the Saints are basically the reserves.

Fremantle 10.12 (72)
North Melbourne 11.7 (73)

View: https://youtu.be/kR-9A6GgfSM


oh yeah, no Nat Fyfe for Freo, whatevs.
 

MiracleOfO2704

not AWOL
SoSH Member
Jul 12, 2005
9,528
The Island
Sorry for being so late with the Sunday recap, I haven't felt well enough to sit through extended match highlights to get an idea how the match went beyond the stats. One match I'm not even going to bother watching highlights, as it went exactly the way we thought it would.

Sydney 17.16 (118)
Hawthorn 4.13 (37)

It's gonna be a loooooooooooong year for the Hawks, OTOH, the Swans were so dominant without Buddy Franklin, likely in his last year anyway, that no lesser source than the league's site itself posits that playing Buddy this week could destabilize their list for next year. Let's see how they do when it's not a glorified VFL side they're playing.

Essendon 16.12 (108)
Gold Coast 11.14 (80)

The final score doesn't do the match justice, as no team held a lead greater than 3 goals until the Bombers pulled away late. Kyle Langford was the big man for Essendon with 5.1, and Matt Guelfi added a couple of late goals to seal it, while the Suns could only muster 1.2 (8) in the final term. On the bright side, Ben King kicked a couple in the game and seems to be closer to rediscovering his 2021 form, having lost 2022 to an ACL.

West Coast 14.16 (100)
Greater Western Sydney 11.15 (81)

Ahhh, THAT'S the crosscountry trouble teams have going to Perth.

Or, GWS has some serious second term problems. After getting dominated in the 2nd by Adelaide at home, they uncorked a whopping 8.3 (51) to 2.1 (13) at Optus, and unlike the Crows' young list, the Eagles were able to see it out with a decent 3rd, only letting the Giants have any momentum in the last 4 minutes. Jake Waterman led the Eagles' scoring with 4.2, and the Giants got great matches from the usual suspects (Coniglio 28 disposals, Tom Green 27 with 4 tackles, Toby Greene 4.2 himself), but there wasn't too much help otherwise.
 

MiracleOfO2704

not AWOL
SoSH Member
Jul 12, 2005
9,528
The Island
Okay, here's Round 3, including our first match outside the usual places:

Thursday, March 30
Western Bulldogs vs Brisbane @ Marvel, 4:20 ET

Friday, March 31
Collingwood vs Richmond @ MCG, 4:50 ET (Canada: TSN2 live)

Saturday, April 1
Hawthorn vs North Melbourne @ UTAS Launceston, 3/31 10:45 PM ET
GWS vs Carlton @ Giants Stadium, 1:45 ET
St. Kilda vs Essendon @ MCG, 4:25 ET
Port Adelaide vs Adelaide @ Adelaide Oval, 4:30 ET

Sunday, April 2
Gold Coast vs Geelong @ Heritage Bank (nee Metricon), 12:10 ET
Melbourne vs Sydney @ MCG, 1:10 ET (Canada: TSN5 tape delay @ 10 ET)
Freo vs West Coast @ Optus, 3:20 ET

Also, I had no idea this was an option, but apparently the AFL puts up full replays of matches. I'm sure there's some period of time after the match ends before it's available, but I'm not sure if it's a day or the end of the round for all teams.

Also also, I think I'll start adding the ladder with each round's fixtures. It won't tell us too much yet (everyone will have 20 matches left, so there's plenty of time for even the Hawks to turn it around and make the 8), but could be fun for tracking purposes.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 23, 2009
20,676
Maine
U.S. live broadcasts for this weekend:

Thursday - Western Bulldogs vs Brisbane - 4:00am EDT - FS2
Friday - Collingwood vs Richmond - 4:30am EDT - FS1
Saturday - St. Kilda vs Essendon - 4:00am EDT - FS2
Sunday - Melbourne vs Sydney - 1:00am EDT - FS1

All other games air live on Fox Soccer Plus.
 

thehitcat

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 25, 2003
2,376
Windham, ME
Still no Roos on my telly. Probably the fact that they are only plus 6 but 2-0 and hopefully 3-0 after they thump the hell out of the Hawks. I'm gonna enjoy this while I can. :)