Can we get a footy thread going here?

Christ, St Kilda's next eight games are:

Adelaide (in Adelaide)
Carlton
Hawthorn
Melbourne
Freo (Subi)
Collingwood
Western Bulldogs
Geelong (MCG)

They'd be lucky to get more than 2 wins out of that on current form. Gonna be tought to turn it around, Adelaide is a must-win.
 
Arwon said:
Christ, St Kilda's next eight games are:

Adelaide (in Adelaide)
Carlton
Hawthorn
Melbourne
Freo (Subi)
Collingwood
Western Bulldogs
Geelong (MCG)

They'd be lucky to get more than 2 wins out of that on current form. Gonna be tought to turn it around, Adelaide is a must-win.
Click to expand...

They have to beat Adelaide else it's almost certainly season over.
 
Rugbyleaguefan said:
The gap between the top and bottom sides is definitely an issue for the AFL . The fact that the Swans can win their first 3 and still have legitimate question marks over their competitiveness is a problem .

In the NRL , anyone has a genuine chance of winning on any given week

Please don't rip into me , I love AFL :)
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Swans don't have question marks about their competitiveness, they'll be competitive pretty much every week. There's legitimate question marks about their quality, and whether they can go anywhere in the finals.

The Broncos have won 5 straight, but there's legitimate question marks about them, and whether they'll be able to match teams like Melbourne & St George in the finals. Plenty of one sided floggings to be had, too, it was 40-0 or so two weeks ago between Melbourne & Parramatta, and 3 other matches that week were 20 point wins as well. You reckon Manly-Penrith or Storm-Warriors this weekend are any chance of an upset win?

I hate to use last night's game as any sort of example, because it was seriously fugly footy, but few people thought Brisbane were a genuine chance of winning pregame, and yet they should have ended up in front. Hawks-Weagles last week was an obvious mismatch pregame, but was actually an excellent game of footy.

I can think of plenty of reasons to avoid the NRL, not even having my old foty coach running a team can get me to watch, but obvious mismatches and lopsided games aren't really a problem for either code as a whole, they're only problems for specific teams that are lacking support.

Oh yeah, and the saints are gorrrn. Couldn't happen to a more deserving team.
 
I see your point but I think the examples you quote are the exception rather than the rule. Just check out the betting odds when Collingwood or Geelong play Port , Brisbane or The Suns . No way are Penrith or NZ paying those kind of prices

The Storm belting Parra was more a reflection of Melbourne being on fire at the moment than a gap between top and bottom nearing that in AFL.

Outside of St George being the clear standout , I can think of 10 legitimate grand finalists
 
I don't think the AFL is much different though. And if you go back a few years, it was probably the other way around. Storm were dominating the NRL, but the AFL was very wide open, the Weagles and Swans got premierships, but neither side was the sort of quality of 2008-9 Geelong or 2010-11 Collingwood.

Having a quick look at what I can find online, there are 8 NRL teams at $17 or better to win the flag. There are 8 AFL teams at $17 or better as well, and 9 at $10 or better to play in the grand final. The only real difference is that the AFL has a standout good team in Collingwood, and a standout bad team in Gold Coast. But last time the NRL added new teams, or when Souths came back, they had the same issues. When the Bears come back next year (or 2013?), I think there'll be the same problems there.

And really, I don't think that more chance of a lucky premiership is a good thing to have anyway. The NRL finals system means there are 2 meaningless games in the first week, it gives the 5th & 6th teams more chance to play just one really good game to make the grand final. AFL system makes it very tough to win from outside the top 4. I'd say the AFL has 7, maybe 8 teams who would think they can be top 4 this year, and two more (Crows & Saints) who started the year thinking top 4, but will now be very worried about missing the finals.
 
If the Crows started the year thinking top 4, they're even more delusional than I thought.

And I've lived in Adelaide, I know how they can get...
 
Arwon said:
If the Crows started the year thinking top 4, they're even more delusional than I thought.

And I've lived in Adelaide, I know how they can get...
Click to expand...

It wouldn't have been unreasonable to begin thinking top 4 after Round 1, but since then those hopes should've been crushed, specifically by Port.
 
Really? I wasn't taking much from that. Round one does funny things. They've lost 1300 games of experience since the end of last year.
 
Arwon said:
Really? I wasn't taking much from that. Round one does funny things. They've lost 1300 games of experience since the end of last year.
Click to expand...

To be fair, they lost a large chunk of that experience before Round 22 last year. They didn't lose it all at once.

I wouldn't have been picking them for top 4 after that match, but it looked like they'd be a definite finalist.
 
So um.

Gold Coast.
 
As gutless as Port were, that last quarter was simply superb. Their dominance out of the centre, Smith's ruck work, Ablett's class, everyone's desperation. The centre combination of Smith/Ablett/Bennell/Harris/Swallow is going to be amazing in 3 or so years. Then Matera and Dixon up forward...

And Karmichael played a great game after half time, he's a perfectly solid defender.

Sucks for Port though, they really really didn't need that.
 
They're in a lot of trouble. Debt, not a lot of talent, average crowds falling. They really really really need SACA members to appove the move of AFL gams to Adelaide Oval in a couple of weeks. It's a sad situation for one of the greatest clubs in Australia.
 
Gold Coast are currently above 4 teams on the ladder, assuming Carlton beat the Saints.

Quite lolsome.
 
IT IS FINALS TIME.

Yay.

Swans have earned a pass mark for the season (2nd round of the finals like last year, minus Bradshaw Bolton and Kirk, whilst blooding youth and unearthing some serious new talent) with a belated flash of good form, anything now is a bonus. I'm going to my first MCG game on Friday night and I've even lined up an MCC guest pass!
 
Enjoy it. Great place to watch footy, though I dunno about sitting in the MCC area. Far too civilised in there. I haven't made it to a game this year yet. I hope you win this week so we can have the pleasure of ending your season.
 
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