Did you tip 9/9 in Round 1 of the AFL?
If so, you clearly know nothing about Football and I assure you it will never happen again.
Round 1 provided plenty of insight as to who may contend and who will simply pretend as season 2019 got underway.
Who will win this weekend and who do we simply rule out after two rounds in?
We preview all the games ahead of Round 2 of the 2019 AFL season and a sneak peek into Sunday’s AFLW GF for good measure.
“Put a fork in Richmond, they’re done.” – DA INTERNET.
Alex Rance is ruled out for the season with an ACL injury and despite the fact experts on the internet think he’s overrated and a diver the 5-time All-Australian, Premiership player and 2 time best and fairest will cost Richmond’s tilt at another flag.
As if.
In a rematch of last year’s preliminary final where Collingwood led by Mason Cox dominated to cause the upset of 2018, the Tigers will be out to make a point.
The first point being redemption over the old enemy Collingwood.
The second point is that while Alex Rance may be gone, they can still get the job done.
Collingwood comes off a fairly ordinary performance after going down to the Cats by seven points (if you watched the whole game that is) and the Tigers managed to the win over a gallant Carlton by 33 points.
Despite some Richmond fans lobbying for Peter Dutton to deport Mason Cox over the off-season, the big Yank will have a massive target on his head with the Tigers wanting to do everything they can to ensure he has an ordinary night.
New Tiger Tom Lynch and Jack Riewoldt will want to have a night out and Dylan Grimes will need to pick up the pace with the absence of Rance playing on Jordan DeGoey.
Richmond is a resilient team and would love nothing better to get Collingwood to an Owen-Two start for season 2019 and I expect that will be the case on Thursday night.
If Adelaide loses this, club management will have no choice but to call in the boys from Collective Minds to arrange a new camp to get their season on track.
The Crows were woeful against Hawthorn last week at Adelaide Oval and with people considering a chance to be right amongst it in the business end of the season, a 0-2 start would be more of a disaster than Nigel Smart’s firewalking.
Sydney went down to the Thor inspired Western Bulldogs last weekend, despite finishing strongly, it was too little, too late as the Dogs got the job done.
While you’d consider the fact the game is being played at the SCG, Sydney actually lost seven home games last year and will want to re-establish the SCG as their fortress.
The new 6-6-6 set up and small SCG ground should suit the Swans perfectly.
The midfield of Heeney, Hewitt, Parker and Kennedy can get the ball down nice and quickly to Buddy in the goalsquare and he kicks a bag.
If that happens, it’ll be another ugly night for the Crows and they’ll be back on the bus with the blindfolds and Richmond theme song blaring in no time.
Picture this:
Essendon recruits Dylan Sheil over the trade period and everyone expects a team that hasn’t won a final for 15+ years as a premiership fancy.
The Swagger is back amongst the Bomber faithful.
There’s belief.
A bleak period in the club’s history has light at the end of the tunnel.
Then comes Round 1 and the Bombers get their pants pulled down by GWS by 72 points and everyone realizes that Essendon is quite overrated.
Their opponents, St.Kilda managed to bravely beat the Gold Coast Suns by one point last Sunday and the pressure is off coach Alan Richardson for the next week or so.
But you know what?
Many expect the Bombers to beat the Saints, but I don’t.
If the Saints are able to keep up the forward pressure against the Suns they had in the first half of last weeks game, they might just be able to get over the Dons.
Just think of the crisis montages AFL 360 will have ready to go should the Saints get over the Bombers.
For that reason alone, I’m backing the Saints.
Coming off a sensational 26 point win over the Dees last week, the Power goes in favorite against Carlton who were actually alright against the Tigers in the season opener.
The Blues went down by 33 points to the Tigers and unlike the past few years you can’t consider them to be the Bye anymore.
Carlton remained the contents for at least three quarters and gave Richmond a Nick Duigan 2013 elimination final type scare.
If the Baggers can limit Port’s midfield of Boak, Powell-Pepper and Rockliff they are a chance to cause a major upset.
Port was outstanding last week against Melbourne and if they are going to back up this performance, it’s going to be against Carlton.
And here’s a good stat that David King in the FOX Footy war room would be proud of – in the past eight games between the two teams neither has won twice in a row.
But it’s Port’s young guns and a rejuvenated Jack Watts that should prove too good for Carlton as they experience another honorable loss.
Coming off a big win over the Pies, the Cats play their first home game of the season at GMHBASSFGSERFFGVSD Stadium against the Dees, who was incredibly ordinary against the Power last week.
In a rematch of last year’s elimination final where the Dees beat the Cats by 29 points at the G, Geelong would love nothing better than to ensure that Melbourne starts the season 0-2.
For Melbourne, captains Jack Viney and Nathan Jones were still in JLT series mode last week and along with a few others will need to lift big time this Saturday night at whatever Geelong’s home ground is called this week.
It seems to be a simple recipe to stop the Demons, simply shut down Max Gawn.
Rhys Stanley and Esava Ratugolea simply need to tell Gawn that his ads for Cider and Google are shit and he should probably focus on getting a kick before thinking he’s so funny because he likes watching Gilmore Girls.
Shut down Max, shut down the Dees.
There’s a rule in footy tipping – never tip against Geelong when they play at home and this is most certainly one where this applies.
Coming off being belted by the mighty Brisbane Lions (proudly sponsored by Neds) the West Coast Eagles unfurl their 2018 premiership flag in front of their home crowd (who will probably boo during the entire ceremony) face GWS who humiliated Essendon last week.
If West Coast doesn’t win this, then it’s time to order a serious supply of Berocca and some of their sponsors product (Hungry Jack’s) down to Subiaco to try and cure this premiership hangover.
This game is going to be a celebration of their 2018 premiership and is also a milestone game for captain Shannon Hurn, Chris Masten and possibly Josh Kennedy and you would expect the Eagles to win.
But did you see the Giants last week?
They were simply sensational as they smashed the Bombers in their season opener.
With the potential of Toby Greene and Jezza Cameron leading the way for the Giants and if they combine to kick a bag of goals between them, it’ll help cause a major upset for GWS.
The premiership window is still clearly open for the Giants and if it wasn’t just one bad night for the Eagles last week you can bank on it being a hangover.
Cue the Thin Lizzy because the boys are back in town!
How bloody good were the Brisbane Lions (proudly sponsored by Neds) at the Gabba last Saturday night over West Coast?
The mighty Lions travel to Marvel Stadium to take on North Melbourne who had a day to forget against Freo last Sunday in Perth.
The Gabba was roaring again as the Lions lived up to the hype over the pre-season and should they keep that willingness to dominate up forward and not be afraid to just kick a bloody goal, they’ll go alright.
These sort of 50-50 matches are the ones the Lions need to win to keep the hype and the Brisbane midfield will also need to play their role.
North, on the other hand, could easily get their issues with what Coach Brad Scott described as a “dysfunctional forward line” and the likes of Ben Brown could get his act together proving too good for the Lions who are most likely going to be hot/cold this season.
But – the swagger is back with the boys from Brisbane Town and if they start the season 2-0, look out – The Gabba is going to be the hottest ticket in town again before you know it.
It was after the infamous Preliminary Final between Hawthorn and Melbourne back in 1987, when Jim Stynes stepped over the mark resulting in a 50-meter penalty resulting in Gary Buckernara kicking a goal after the siren to get the Hawks in the Grand Final that commentator Peter McKenna declared “Never, ever write off Hawthorn.”
That statement still applies in the year 2019.
Many don’t have the Hawks in their final eight this year and they blew Adelaide away last weekend.
If the Hawks keep the momentum against the Bulldogs this Sunday at the G, we could see those poor Hawthorn fans dreaming that their horrendous three-year premiership drought could end this year.
With Big Boy McEvoy dominating in the ruck, and if he can utilize James Worpel and Jaeger O’Meara it could be a solid day out for the men in the wees and poos.
The Bulldogs, on the other hand, played a vintage 2016 style of Football last Saturday night against the Sydney Swans and even without a Marvel themed jumper this week, if they can keep the pressure on the Hawks it’ll go a long way in ensuring they start the season 2-0.
But Sunday, you should expect the Worpedo to dominate again for the Hawks and for them to be able to get the job done.
If you plan on watching this game on Sunday afternoon, ask yourself, why?
There’s so much better stuff on.
Why not give the NRL a try? Wests Tigers take on the Canterbury Bulldogs – it might turn out to be a cracking match.
Or how about enjoying a sitcom marathon on 10 Peach with back-to-back episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond and Fraiser on Sunday afternoon?
FOX 8 will no doubt have a few classic episodes of The Simpsons to enjoy or maybe just check out your Netflix library – it’s a great time to get started on Ricky Gervais new series.
These are still better alternatives than watching the Gold Coast Suns v Freo, which Freo will win by plenty.
Despite the AFL giving clear air for this game to be played on Saturday afternoon with no men’s games scheduled, they are playing the Grand Final between Adelaide and Carlton at Adelaide Oval at the same time as the North v Lions clash.
Turns out the conference system works with Adelaide finishing on top of the A conference taking on the Blues who finished on top of the B conference and it looks like it’ll be a pretty good game of footy last week.
While there were two preliminary finals last weekend, Carlton was the only team that participated in a match that resembled a contest.
The Blues defeated Fremantle at home by 36 points and led for the entire match (with the exception of the middle of the first quarter) and Tayla Harris who had a big week taking on idiots on social media, let her Football do her talking.
Adelaide is the hot favourite to win the Grand Final but basically had a training run against the hapless Geelong outfit who really shouldn’t have been in the finals in the first place.
The Crows kept Geelong scoreless for the entire game until the 12-minute mark of the last quarter and the Cats scored a mere 1. 1 (7) compared to the Crows 11. 7 (73) for the day.
Factoring in AFLW games go for half the length of a men’s game, Adelaide is a very high scoring team and Erin Phillips is a genuine superstar.
But for what it’s worth, Carlton’s AFLW team is one of those classic cases of being good at the right time and the current odds at $5.40 is way overs and worth a sneaky flutter.
It would also be hilarious that while the conference system was an embarrassment for the AFLW this season, that the team from the lowly B conference goes on to win the flag.