It’s great to be on this side of that split round and it’s full steam ahead towards the A-League finals – a postseason that gives nearly every club the opportunity to win, regardless of how terrible they’ve been for the entire campaign.
You know the drill – Round 22 A-League tips are below.
This is in theory a ‘derby’ and in theory a ‘heated rivalry’, but it really isn’t either of those things. It’s actually just another opportunity for the Perth Glory to record a win and another opportunity to take a nice price for them to do so. Both clubs enter this one fresh, because the split round meant that they actually played two weeks ago, but that also doesn’t mean anything. Does this match mean anything at all? Yes. Like it says above, it potentially means plenty to the ol’ betting bankroll. I guess it could also go a long way towards securing the premiership for the away side.
This is actually a derby and actually a heated rivalry when all the pieces fall into place and I’m legitimately keen to see this match played out now that Alen Stajcic has taken control at the Mariners. The Jets have clearly been the better side for a few seasons now and this time last week, I would have tipped ‘Jets to Nil’ with my eyes closed and my fingers in my ears. I am, however, a firm believer in the immediate effects of a shake up in the managerial ranks and for that reason alone, I give the Mariners a legitimate chance of pulling off the upset.
If snuff films are your forte, look no further than Saturday night’s match between the Victory and Brisbane Roar in Melbourne. One club is legitimately title threat, one club has been chasing mad Monday since Round 1. In saying that, it has actually been a bit of a lean patch for the Victory recently, but they simply won’t be offered a better opportunity to return to the winner’s stall than they find against this park football side, at home. Given we’re yet to open a 40-0 option, I’m happy to take the obvious value that’s on offer.
I’ve been on the bandwagon since like Week 8, but the Phoenix’s eight-goal flurry against the Mariners last week really did something to me and I’m finding it hard to make anything of a case for the Wanderers doing anything across the ditch. The Phoenix now also find themselves in the top four for the first time since New Zealand was granted Dominion status and they can consolidate that position by winning this match as well. I had them priced at around $1.70, so I couldn’t get around the $2.05 quickly enough.
They’re now looking like the only team that could possibly catch Perth Glory in the race to the premiership and while that is probably unlikely, they can certainly put away a Melbourne City side that is doing everything in their power to miss the finals. Perhaps an unfair statement given they’ve drawn with the Glory and Victory at their two most-recent starts, but they’ve slipped to the edge of the six and are leaving the door open for some other team to fight in, so is the ridiculous rewarding nature of the ‘everyone gets a go’ A-League finals.