AFL Enjoyers
AFL Enjoyers - Round 21 Reaction and Review
(upbeat music) Hello fellow enjoyers of the AFL. Dino here in what is his first ever solo pod of a breakdown of the round. Obviously Matt has done his awesome supercode videos, but this is the first ever solo match review. And no, it's not that I've just gone solo. The boys are unfortunately unable to join today. Matt's are of course sipping away on his Fredo Espresso's increase. And Georgie Spender, he's unfortunately sick. Not sure if he's actually sick or if he's just sick and tired of Carlton letting him down, but look, I'll let you guys decide. Obviously won't be a lot of discussion today, just me going on a lot of rants and rambling. So just bear with me. But look, it was too good of a round. And to be fair, the boys sort of carried the pod while I was away for a few weeks. When my daughter was born, so I thought, I will repay the boys with a bit of a surprise solo pod today. So let's get right into it. First game of the round, probably a little bit flat. The doggies just did what we thought they'd do. Love that they went by Footscray, also moved by the dogs in retro round. Look, the Ds, they're just banged up, man. Gorny, he's back, but he's, I mean, fair enough to the guy. He did an awesome performance, but no, Betrayka. All of his not at his best. Gorn's not at his best. Stephen May went down as well. And the dogs are just probably, probably them, along with the lions and the hawks, probably the two informed teams, two or three informed teams of the cotton. And they've just really found their correct structure. Obviously, we've spoken about lob at the back. Nordin's hit form, Jamara's hit form, even though he was inaccurate the other night. Excellent mid-field blend as well, like Richards, Bond, Trelore. Libra doing his thing, but not having to carry the load as much. And I said a few weeks ago, and the boys sort of laughed, but Caleb Polter, man, this guy, he can play. And if he just got a more serious haircut, I reckon he'd be spoken about as one of the best wingmen in the game at the moment. But yeah, look, from Getgo on this one, dogs just sort of did the business. It kind of worked out, funnily, for the AFL, because the other game on, and I was questioning this second Friday night game, having the Suns and Gold Coast, I'm thinking, "Why would you put them on so late? "Like, no one's gonna watch that." But as it turned out, the Melbourne game was kind of over. And it allowed for easy transition to the next game. So talking about that one, I must admit, I was watching more of the Melbourne doggies game. Just thought, "What's the point of watching Gold Coast "that I've completely slandered and ridden off ever "since North Beaten?" But the game was actually sick. If anyone was actually watching the game, it was one of the more physically brutal games, especially in that last quarter, that I've seen all year. Like, credit to the equals. They brought the heat, man. They really wanted to win this one. Super entertaining game. Like, when Elliot Yoe and Harley Reid sort of smashing their weight around in the middle of the ground, but just the ferocity all around, man. Like, you had Waterman doing his thing. Alan sort of hit a bit of form. Crips was good as well. Ryan was good. But yeah, it was just a brutal game. Like, for anyone watching it, if you didn't know who these teams were or where they were on the ladder, you'd think this was like, pre-limb final, like absolute must-wing game for both teams. So really, yeah, really impressive. But I must say, Gold Coast, I formally want to ask the AFL, don't bring in a 20th team when the Tazzy devil's come around. Let's just get rid of one team, called Fold Coast and just get rid of these guys. They've been in the league how long now, not even close to finals. They've never had a winning record ever, right? And apparently, there's 70% of the way to a grand final list, according to Damien Hardwick. I don't know, mate. If you're 70% of the way to a grand final list, surely you can get a winning record. Surely you can win in a way game with Opie against North, which you failed on. Eagles you failed on. Every team you've gone away to, you failed on. It's actually wild that a team can be so good at home. And so bad away. But yeah, my opinion honestly is why expand and stretch out the talent pool of AFL players and have potentially worse players on lists when Tazzy comes around and potentially the Northern Territory team come around. Why not just get rid of Gold Coast? They don't have many fans and like fair play to the fans that do show up, but there's not many of them, of course. You might be thinking, look at the guy in the North top talking about fan and crowd size, but my North had 35, the other 35,000 the other day, which we'll speak about, but I just think, look, Queensland's already a footy state. The team has not done anything for the fans to get around and sort of build a fan base. Like when you're a new team, the AFL pumped a lot of money in you. You'd really hope that there's some success pretty soon on, like GWS, good example. Took them a couple years to get going, but they're consistently a good team now. And there is a bit of a buzzer they gave, like their atmosphere at the Hawks game earlier today was really impressive. And that's what you expect from a smaller club, a club still finding its way. So maybe it's a bit harsh. I mean, I do like a lot of plays on Gold Coast, but ultimately, when you've been in the league so long, you've had no success whatsoever, and you're already a small market. It kind of makes me think like, why have that expanded talent pool potentially worst plays playing in the league, less quality brand, just to justify having 20 teams instead of 80 again? It wouldn't be the first team of teams folded as well, or had that discussion brought up. So, I don't know, but look, let's talk West Coast a little bit. Jakey, the Snake Waterman, four goals, right? This guy when he's on, and he sort of lost his form of fitness over the last couple of weeks, post-buy, but when he's up and about, and the Eagles are playing good footy crucially, he does really well. And obviously, his strength is just incredible, especially for his size. He's not one of the monster forwards in the league, but he plays like it. And look, I guess any forward really needs supply, and there's been plenty of plays kicking a lot of goals on bad teams, just being the main focal point, but I guess when you are a little bit undersized, you show your best self when your team's playing well. So, good on Jake the Snake. Like I said, Oscar Allen chipped in with two. I really was the brutality around the ball, and in that last quarter as well, like Mitch, not Mitch, but we'll talk about Mitch, we'll have Jeremy McGovern, just stood up, lead it down the back. And I don't think it's a coincidence that now the Eagles kind of have their seeing your players all fit and firing, is when they're actually showing their proper form that we maybe saw from them earlier in the year when we thought, man, the Eagles are back, and then they tape it off again. It is sort of parallel to the players being in and fit and firing. So, I mean, surprise, surprise, the team's best players, most experienced players, being fit leads to better results, but these guys don't have a lot of talent in the back end of their list to really carry them when the big guns are out. So, similar to like a Collingwood, for example, a lot of good players out, but the bottom of their list is obviously at a higher level, and being more experienced in general. So, they were able to sort of carry, even though the form's not been as good, but being able to carry the outs in a way that the Eagles just can't. So, kind of solidifies the Eagles finishing third last, unless a miracle happens, and North just completely wallops them next week. But we know North and they don't really win by more than a couple of calls. So, they've probably locked in that third last spot, North probably locked in a second last, and Richmond most likely last now. So, that tantalizing bottom three race, that I know everyone's been keeping an eye on, looks to have a bit more clarity. Yeah, speaking of the bottom three race, so, North, V, Richmond, I was at the game with my father-in-law, had a good time. Kind of a weird feeling. The other week when we beat Gold Coast, we were, in a way, the underdog, and had him won at home in ages. So, that was like a euphoric moment. The atmosphere was insane. This one was a bit different. It was kind of two teams, a lot of fans showed up, like I said, 35,000. And I think everyone just thought, this is the one we're gonna win, right? And that happened to North earlier in the year when we played Hawthorne, who I won five, North was I won five. And that did not go well for North at all. But this one was a bit different. It kind of started, North was just disgracefully bad in the first 10 minutes. I thought to myself, you were absolutely kidding me. We're gonna bottle another match against a team that at this point in time, North should be beating, or at least be playing a really, really competitive game with. But it was just such a bad game in terms of skill errors, and I've since re-watched the highlights, joined Montana doing his best to hype up what's happening in the game. But the reality when you're sitting at the game was, it was a deflected handball, steal of possession by the Tigers, then North steals it back. In other words, no team could really get some cohesive football going on. So I think at the end though, North's higher end players all delivered. So he had Larky, kicking five, LDU over 30 touches, three goals. She's all class in the second half. So I think Tristan Sherry, of course. So all the big dogs kind of stepped up when we needed it and just delivered the result. I will say a few interesting observations from the game. Jaden Stevenson, probably the most, or currently the biggest weeping boy in North Melbourne. And you know what, quite a fair enough, because we're playing him out of position in defense. And anyone that's seen this guy play, with all due respect to him, he's not really what you'd call like an intense or strong, physically tough player that should be playing in the defense. So he does a few shitty disposals, kicks it on the fall, the crowd is just moaning and groaning. But then he goes to the wing in the second half, Dylan Stevens gets subbed off. And I must say it from the wing position, where it's obviously a much more outside game, and he can go forward as well. And he had a few scorers, he's kicked that clutch goal on the three quarter time siren to pretty much put the lead. Not gonna say beyond doubt, but he was hard for each one to come back from that point. So well done, Steve, though. I think, yep, did you guys see Dersma's specky man? That kid, I told my father along the way, and he had never seen Dersma play live. I said, he won't give me any touches, but he will jump for everything. And he's likely to take a specky and then give him where he can low and behold. He had a good mark in the first quarter, but then topped it off with that specky as well. So that was absolutely awesome. I will say this though, funny story for you guys. So mother footy sitting third level where the general admin was, and there was a guy, a few rows ahead, right? And you know, I'm sure we've all heard the term plumbers crack, right? It's when typically a plumber, with, you know, fair credit to them. They're helping their hands and knees a lot. Hand slide down a bit, you see a bit too much of what you don't want to see down back, right? There's no excuse for being exposed to this at the football. Now, I hope this guy was a plumber and he was just wearing his work pants. That would kind of justify it. But man, like, I'm not talking one or two centimeters of exposure here. I'm talking like half, half out, half ass out. Completely disgraceful. If you're all listening mate, just come on. Like, how are you not feeling about breeze? I know we're in Marvel and there's no breeze, but you get to feel that cold, right? Anyway, I digress. As is Matt's famous calling the super coach pods. Little bit of out Richmond. I mean, look, their big guns did stand up. Nank played pretty well, Baker. Dusty didn't, but they're on ball as like Toronto and Co. Did a decent job and actually at times had a lot of momentum in the clearance. Against the pretty good clearance team in North. But yeah, the bottom end of their list is just depleted, a lot of young kids playing. So despite North being the younger team on paper, technically still with less games experience, I think we've gotten to a point of our structure and our point in the season where our baseline level is just a bit higher than Tiger. So they did what they've been doing recently, which is a credit to them, keeping themselves in the game. But North was always looking, you know, especially in the second and third quarter, like the better team and the team were likely to go on a bit of a run. Charlie Common played defense again. Obviously Griffin logs out. So I think he's gonna play back the rest of the year. Sanitilizing one, I'd be keen to hear from North fans like, where do you think his best position is? Obviously, his best form has been in defense, but key forwards are hard to grow, man. I don't know, I'm sort of thinking in an ideal world, logs back, stick with a common up-forward situation, but I mean, that wouldn't have an intercept defender. Jeez. It's hard to ignore and hard to sort of stay away from that. Shout out Luke McDonald as well, 200 games. Wasn't his best game. I don't think he's best football's ahead of him, unfortunately, but he's been a great servant of the club. Obviously a father's son as well. And speaking of father's sons, Jackson Archer, man, this kid, it's gone from what looked like maybe a pity father son pick. Didn't show much in his draft year, but man, the way this kid's developed and he's only played a handful of games. Once he puts on a bit more muscle, he'll be even better than he already is, but he's already sort of leaving his man taking intercepts in tense takala, great body work. So North's really got, I'd say probably 10 to 12 of our team, maybe 70% if you'd speak to Damien Hardwick. Maybe 70% of our team's actually looking like the team of the future. It's just all about really getting that 30% sorted over the next two or three years. And success is always linear. So you never know, I'm not gonna say as soon as next year, but maybe the year after that, we can go maybe from mid-table to potentially finals and be amongst all the chaos that every other team's in. But yeah, what on North? Let's talk about the next game. So Jelong sort of made a meal with this one, then. Jeremy Cameron, one of his best games, probably actually his best game of the year. And anyone that was watching it saw that this guy was, he had to look in his eye like he wanted to kill somebody. Like he was as intense as I've ever seen him. And that's a guy that's played in grand finals and, you know, prelims and big matches. Obviously goes to show like teams in that final sound really know that there's no room for error. And Jelong Cameron, yeah, kicks six, he was awesome, but he kind of had to save the day in the end because the crows came hard and fair play to the crows and some of these other teams over the last few weeks, they're making these teams fighting for those top eight spots to earn it. And they've had a disappointing year, the crows. I mean, they've had some shining lights like Rankin when he's been in, has been electrifying. I think Fogarty's had a really good year. The beard Thorpe has been awesome since he's come back, but, you know, to really stay strong in the contest against Jelong at GMHBA, he's a really impressive feat. But yeah, the cats in the end, Lawsome Humphreys kicked that awesome goal to sort of get them back in front. And then, as I said, Jelso just did his thing, but interesting to see as well. I mean, Stengel, let's talk a little bit about that, right? So, in the news comes out that, if I'm not mistaken, he's had a night out and left a club or night club scenario unconscious and he's ended up at the hospital to get checked and apparently he's okay, which is good, I'm glad he's okay. But really interesting to me, I'm not expecting the AFL to intervene here, but I'm really surprised Jelong hasn't just said hey mate, you're not like abiding by the standards of the club or an AFL footballer for that matter. You know, internally suspended or just take the week off sort of thing, maybe you can do it in a nice way. But to sort of just say, yeah, but he's back at the club on Monday running laps, he's all good, and then he plays and plays pretty well. I don't know, I just think it's a bit questionable, especially in the day and age where we sort of want the place to set the right examples. You know, to have him clearly doing the wrong thing, taking things a bit too far in a night out, don't know what he did, but, you know, not shouldn't end like that. And then he's, yeah, just in without sanction, again, not from the AFL, I'm not expecting a big, you know, big deal out of it, but I'm surprised Jelong didn't do like a internal thing. You know, it just seems like the right thing to do. Set's a good example for the other younger players at the club perhaps as well, especially a big money signing, they've just re-signed him. So yeah, a little bit poor, I thought, from the cat on that one, they're usually a pretty classy club in the way they deal with things, but yeah, yeah, big questionable on that end. But anyway, the next game, so the reason George isn't on the pod, 'cause he's, again, like I said earlier, just sick and tired of the blues letting him down, man. I don't know what to say about this team. I mean, if George was here, he'd probably have some profound thoughts about big picture stuff and trying not to overreact too much, but he sort of flagged it last week, George, he said, "We just don't beat Collinwood." And I don't know, I mean, I don't know what doesn't have like an intense rival like that, so I have nothing to really speak on, but as an outside fan looking in, all I can really say is, when you are the better team on the year, like forget history, history is for those players that maybe have been involved in the last few years or long-term stuff that are sort of defined in the club's history, but that shouldn't matter. I mean, Carlton's been the better team this year. Collinwood's got their injury concerns and issues, and look, they had a lot to play for the prize. Scotty boundary, mad respect, got the card in front of me here. 400 games, absolute champion of the game, really classy go. And Collinwood looked, to be fair, they're fighting for their season, too. It's not like they're just some bottomate team with no chance. Like, they're still the chance to make it. But if you're Carlton, I just don't see how this isn't the time you just pounce, right? They had the opportunity a couple of years ago to make finals, blew it, and just countless times over the years, they just don't seem to have the mental ledge over this team for some reason. And classic example during the game, like Collinwood's obviously fired up, Collin's just not matching their intensity enough, and then capitalizing on the mistakes they're causing, unlike Collinwood, who was happy to defend for large portions of the game, it just kept on or attacked quickly, and just punished the Blues. Heaps of behinds for Collin, I know there was a few restaurants in the beginning there, but zero goals eight to start with, it's not really a way to start a big game and really sort of announce yourselves on the contest. But look, it was all about the ending of the game, right? So, just bringing up the old school room here. So the Blues, where are we at? So the 19th minute of the quarter, so about 10 minutes to go, they're down by 14 points. But before that, sorry, they were down by 26 early in the last quarter, and you're thinking, forget about it, it's over, right? Couple goals spaced out, and then we get to that point, right, where it's Martin, Akers, Hollins, three goals, plenty of time left on the clock, and this is I guess the disappointing thing for Collin is, when you've got the momentum and you've kicked a few goals, and then all of a sudden, it gets to that point, a few minutes to go, and you just kind of get over the line to the very end when Mitch McGovern marks that ball, matches flagged in the chat. Was he concussed? He's a potential concussion controversy around this one. He did get a shin to the head there on that one. Carlton sort of mishandled potentially the Harry Mackay situation, maybe a bit of karma on that, I don't know. But he's got the ball, army of Collinwood fans behind the goal, and he's lining it up, and look, it's shades of Logan McDonald, unfortunately, where he's not even come close. And I think in that moment, not a hard angle, well within his distance, you just want to get close, man. I feel for the guy, and it's a shattering way for Carlton to lose, a lot of boys in the chat were saying, "It's the hope that kills you." And you know what, would they rather have just lost by 26 points and not mounted any sort of comeback? I don't know, I'm more of a fan of than ever give up attitude as hard as it is to take, but really shocking kick on the siren. You know, you just want to focus on the basics in a moment like that, drop the ball straight on your foot, and you know, drive it towards the goal, but unfortunately he's miskicked it. And the Blues, season hanging by a thread, man, let's actually reflect on the latter here. So the Blues have dropped to eights now, right? The doggies equal points with them, but much better percentage. And now with the bombers win, which we'll talk about, only two points safe from the eight are the Blues. And Lucky Hawthorne didn't get over the line, otherwise they'd be tied with him. So, I mean, look, George seems pretty confident in the chat still that the Blues will make finals. I can't trust them right now, is all I can say. I think, you know, we've given a lot of shit to us it in, and we'll talk about them pretty soon, give them some flowers, but there's some parallels there. Unfortunately, and personally, I think Carlton has the better team. Obviously, they've got the common guys up forward, couple stronger defenders, and the midfield, I think, is more consistent and got some better, more experienced players, but in terms of season trajectory, I mean, what's really different? Starting from a bit higher and ending up a bit higher is pretty much where we're at right now. So, I know, Georgie and a lot of Carlton fans won't like me saying it, but you gotta differentiate yourself from the bombers somehow, not just being a freefall like them, and a great opportunity for Carlton next week, they're playing the Hawks. So, it's really like a, if you lose that one, I don't know, a couple games to go, they do have an easier run, I believe, the Blues, but actually who they got? They've got Hawthorne Eagles. Where's the last game? Hawthorne and the Eagles. So, they should beat the Eagles, right? I mean, surely. And then in their last game, I think they've got the Saints. Yeah, they've got the Saints. I mean, look, the Saints are out to ruin some parties. I know they played like shit today, but I mean, the Lions are just massively informed. I can easily see the Saints making it difficult for Carlton in that last game, and guess if you're a Carlton fan, you don't wanna be going into that game with the opportunity of like a, if you win, you're in, if you're out, if you lose, you're out. 'Cause the pressure will mount and the Saints have nothing to lose. So, I don't know, I'd be very uncomfortable if that's where it ended, if I was a Carlton fan. But, now, well done to the Piers. Who can we shout out here? Jeremy Howe had a bit of a monster super coach game. Man, Hoskin Elliott just gets it done. Doesn't he? Two goals, 20 touches, 10 marks. That's insane. Daikos, he was classy. 40 heat outs for Cameron. What was that pin in it? 25 heat outs to 40. Man, Cameron's not even a tap Rockman per se, like getting monster heat out numbers. That's crazy. To go, he did his hammy as well. So, the Piers, man, even if they do make finals by some miracle, yeah, they're not at their best. So, I personally would rather not see them make the finals because I want all the best teams in the finals, of course. But, yeah, thrilling game, classic. Actually, shout out to friend of the pod, JL, who's messaging in the chat. I don't know whose house he was at, but whoever he visited that night was insistent on watching Olympic tennis instead of the footy and he was just dying inside, being tortured, having to watch the Olympics instead of the classic game. As it turned out, he did get her on in the end. So, well done, JL. Bit of an awful move to ask for the remote. Man, this next game, bloody hell. I just want to apologize to the Port Adelaide Football Club. Not for any other reason other than, I'm sorry no one watched your most impressive victory of your club's history, beside your grand final, of course. Man, my only memory of this game, and I must admit I didn't really watch any of it because I was watching the Carlton Collingwood game, but the score is just not in the bottom corner. And it's just ticking over, ticking over, ticking over me and my wife. She doesn't really care about footy at all, but I'm just sort of saying to her, like, you know, it's 45-kneel, it's 64-kneel, it's 71-kneel. And she's at a certain point, even she's like, are you kidding me? Like, what's going on right now? That's cooked. But I'll just repeat that. At one point in time, in the second quarter, it's 71 to zero. And we're talking about the top team in the AFL, albeit very clearly not in their best form, or any particularly good form, or not even mediocre form at the moment, horrible. But for any team, even the bottom team, even the North, even at Richmond, West Coast, to be down 71 to zero, he's dead set embarrassing. Right, full credit to Port Adelaide. I'm not gonna sit here and say, oh, I seen he's out of form, no, no, no, no. I don't care how out of form you are. There is no way you allow this to happen. Completely disgraceful, long now after the game. He's got nothing to say. He said it's not up to stand, it's disgraceful and so on. But what do you say after a performance like that? These are grown men, AFL professionals, top of the table. You know, you have a bad quarter, a bad half. Where's the pride? Where's the standing of the flow? And just saying, okay, this is already embarrassing. Let's not lose by 100 points. And that's the funny thing to me is, as bad as it got, there was scope to at least get it within 60 to 80 points. But blown out, and in the end, what was it? 112 points, man, that is disgusting. I was thinking to myself, what's the, when's the last time a team top of the ladder has had a spanking like this at this point in the season? And then I got this post come up. So the biggest wins by side is taking on the team, sitting on top of the AFL ladder, right? So it only happened five times, this was the fifth. We had one in 1983, Fitzroy versus North, 150 points. Then we had this one here, 112, so the second biggest loss for a team first ever, Port V Sydney. Then you had Geelong V Fitzroy in 1933. West Coast V Essentials 99 points in 1988. And then you had Geelong V Collingwood in 2011, 96 points. So basically, this is unprecedented, like once in a lifetime, almost experience. So if you're the Port Adelaide Football Club, just well done, like cherish the day. I mean, seriously, it's one of these things where to play at such an elite level across the board, like all the players play ball. It must have been like a pinch myself moment. Like that is absolutely ridiculous. Georgiades, four goals, Rioli, four goals, Dickson III. I mean, who didn't score a goal? And he's kind of far out. Radigaleo, be a bit stiff. He's kicked one, got four. It could have been even worse. But really, yeah, I mean, this one's completely, it is disgraceful. And I just want to say like Mulesie's back now as well. That's the funny thing. So Mulesie's back, the captain, Parker's back, another leader of the club. So it's not like, they do have a couple outs, but in no way am I excusing them whatsoever. Every other team in the league has even more outs. But Port, just by what I hear and read is completely shut out everything they were doing. Skillier is a galore for this one. They couldn't get it in their 50s. They couldn't get it up the fields. Complete not a domination from Port. So, hats off to them. But again, I'm very sorry that no one watched it. One of the most epic moments of your history and no one's gonna recall it that well. And that puts Port. If I can just go back to the ladder for a second, yeah. That puts Port up to third on the ladder. Obviously, Brizzy is just in great form. And Sydney, all of a sudden now, there are two points behind the lions. And at this current rate, you're thinking Brisbane somehow are gonna finish first after being starting the ridiculous way, poor form, bottom eight for most of the year. They've just risen so quietly up the ladder that they're probably gonna pinch first, which is absolutely ridiculous and poor in third place. Let's go to Sunday. So, that's earlier today. We had JWS for your Hawthorn, man. Steve, if you're a Hawks fan. 20, what was it? 29 points up, start of the last quarter. And then JWS, seven goal last term is actually crazy. They were gonna do it. They were always gonna do it. I mean, JWS are a team that can move the ball quickly. They can play that sort of reckless brand football if they need to. And it just seemed like for the longest time in that game, they weren't gonna kick a winning score. Like Hawthorn was defending well, capitalizing on their chances and had their lead deservedly. But tell you what, you've probably got the common medalist there, Jesse Hogan in great form again. You've got Toby Green preparing for September in some of his best form of the year. And their big players just stood up and again, like if your Hawthorn, you're thinking, "Geez, there was opportunities to kill that game off." And even in that last quarter, they did stem the run of JWS at one point. It was three early goals for the Giants, but then the Hawks get two of the next three. And they back up by 16 points. So you're thinking, okay, you know, they'll get it done, but three light goals. I mean, three goals in four minutes at any point of the game is disappointing for it to happen at the end of the game. And then end up losing it by two points. Yeah, what can you say? Stiff on the Hawks. I mean, some other results didn't go their way, but obviously they've got Carlton next week. And if they had just won today, then they would've actually had a chance of jumping into the eight. So unfortunately, even if they win next week, they're not going to get into the eight due to percentage. So might get a bit difficult for them to make it now at this point. Obviously they've got North in the last round. And over the next two weeks, they've got Carlton and Richmond. So look, if they beat Carlton next week, you'd imagine they'd beat Richmond and North. It'd be very, very unfortunate if they still didn't make it. That would probably mean that Acetans finish the year really strongly, which is unlikely, and the Blues recover in their other two games. So this sort of out of their hands a little bit now, I mean, they can win their games, but they are officially at that point where they need results going their way with only three games to go. But Giants in fourth place, and if the finals started right now, it'd be Sydney V, the Giants in the first qualifying finals. So interesting stuff. It's not going to stay that way. I can't see Sydney staying first at this point. The GWS might even finish on top of Sydney. There are only four points behind them, so we'll see how that goes. But yeah, really, really cracking game of football. I think real day, I mean, Matt's commented on the party last week when he wanted more real day talk. Well, I'll give it to you now, Matt's up. He was not good. Real day, 14 disposals. And ever since he's been back in the team, Hawks have been a great team. So I think these guys, the definition of barometer for the Hawks. And clearly, yeah, when he's been kept quiet, Hawks didn't have that extra edge over them. But in saying that, the Hawks did still kick a score that was capable of winning the game. So the credits of the Hawks were sort of working around that. Guns then winding back the clock with four goals. It certainly helps. But yeah, they just sort of lacked the know-how in the final moments of the game. And they've had some fun pounding on some teams lately. But I guess in the close games, that's where a lot of experience shines through. And unfortunately for them, they didn't have it. And the Giants did so well done to them. Essendon, the bombers. Flowers to you, my friends. I mean, I'm not going to lie. I'm sitting, watching very heavily in freer's corner, hoping you'd lose. I mean, I actually am willing to say this is probably the first time or year I was actually impressed by. I said I'm beating a good team. Other times, we sort of thought maybe they had. But turns out the teams were always out of form or, you know, in hindsight, looking back on the win that we thought were impressive. Turns out maybe the team wasn't in their best moment or in a bad run of form. So this is the first time they're playing a team that was in the top four. And they were down and looking out the bombers. I mean, in that last quarter-- so we've got-- where were we at? We were 25 points down. And then Nick Martin gets a goal. But then it was like another seven or so minutes before the next goal. And it was Caddy Martin again, Gresham Langford, within five minutes. They've kicked four goals and taken the lead, not only by a point, but by seven points. Completely turned the game on its head. And then when Jaimus kicks that goal and ties the game, it was about 30 seconds to go. You're thinking, geez, this clearance is one of the most exciting clearances you'll have all year. Tied game, 30 seconds, one clearance. And what a clearance it was. Zach Merritt stands up, escapes to the ball, handballs it to Dara, who gets a point. And then, obviously, Freo runs out of time. They didn't have that heave up the field. And then Draper with an impressive mark on all people. So while onto the bombers, I mean, did you guys see Dermot Berrit? And during the-- I think it was the three quarter time briefing they did in the studio. Fox Footy was-- he showed footage of Nick Cox helping up a Freo player after a tackle. And he's basically like, if you're wanting to have the edge, he's a great kid, Nick Cox. But if you want to give the team the edge, you can't be helping him up. You've got to give him hell the whole time. And then he actually gets on the floor and wants Dico to show him what he would have done. And Dico sort of moves his arm away and pretends to pick him up and does it. And I'm just thinking, these guys are clowns. It was actually really funny, but bloody hell. But back to that greater point is the bombers finally, again, showed their acid and edge. I'd say in quotation marks for those not watching the pod. Look, I think it's-- sometimes teams just play with more intent and effort. And I think the bombers don't do it enough. But when they have done it, they have shown they can be a pretty overwhelming offensive team. The question then is, where the hell's that been over the past few weeks? And now that you've been in Freo, let's not forget what happened over the last couple of weeks, where you've almost sealed your fate of not making finals. But of course, they're back in it now. There are only two points behind the blues. Percentage is the poorest of the lot, so that's going to be important for them. But if we look at their last couple games-- so they've got the Suns at home, and Suns can't win away. So you'd think, well, imagine the Suns get there first of waving against the bombers. That'd be classic. But then they've got the Suns at home, Marvel, though. And then they've got Marvel again against Sydney. Who by then, who knows what they'll be up to? And then their last game, the bombers, is actually against the Lions at the Gabba. So we've got to be honest, and probably pencil that one is in as a loss. Gold Coast, can they finally win away? Geez. If I'm being honest, bombers should win that game. And then who did I say? They've got the Swans, and then the Lions. Geez. It's going to be tough. Bands are a side, I don't think they'll do it. But hey, a game like this is crucial for them. So well done. Like, honestly, Frito gave it to them for most of the game. Not in a way where they ever blew them out too, too far, clearly, but there was a hard team to beat Frito and to win in the middle, and that's when all the momentum started turning. He's just clear enough to clearance. That's the most impressive thing for me, because you've got Breschel, Young, Serong, knowing for this sort of stuff. And you know, great Rockman as well for Frito. So yeah, well done to the bombers, man. You did it, finally. Good to see the fans up and about. I mean, you want to see a team not giving up and just rolling over. And look, if they really are learning the lessons from last year, that's one way to show it. And then there was another game that no one really watched, which was like Kia ora V, Bruzy. Especially when you're watching the end of the asset and game, which is awesome. And then you've got the score in the bottom corner of this game, and you're just saying it's already over. But it was actually quite similar to the poor game in this way, where the score at one point is 77 to 10. I don't know, it seems like every year, this becomes like silly season of the AFL, where you'll get these really cracking games, obviously with a lot of the line. And then you'll get these games where you're just like, well, what is going on? Why is this team losing by 100 points? You know, why are they losing by 80 points? And I don't know if the Saints haven't been good this year, but if you look at their form recently, this isn't a result you'd expect, even against an informed Brizy team. A couple of their standout performers, Amanda Lyons. Can we just talk about Joe down here for a second? This guy here, he's probably obviously being in Queensland, doesn't get all the media high. But if we're being honest, he's impact on games for Brisbane. He's up there with the impact that any other player has on any other team. He's a handful, he's huge. He's got a really penetrating kick. And his goal scoring's been really consistent. So shout out to him, Bailey and Raina with 3H. I think if you look at Brizy and you say Raina, Bailey, at their best. And then you've got Lowman, who's been really good. That's sort of underneath your downer her and what's his name? Underneath the hipwood and downer her, if you've got these really electric skillful, small forwards kicking a couple goals or capable of kicking three to four goals on any given day, that's the Brisbane of old, that's like scary in their attack. Now, the defence is a different story, but quite clearly, I mean, Saints aren't any high scoring team generally, but I wonder how they'll go in September. I mean, they form clearly suggest that as a team, they're defending well, even if a lot of their names aren't there. So, I mean, you'd be stupid to write off the lines just because of a few injuries when their form's been the best in the comp over the last couple of weeks. So, you know, hats off to them. But yeah, don't have too much else to say about that game 'cause I didn't watch it. So, man, what a round. Look, to be honest with you guys, I think I figured out, like, we're saying how competitive the league is. It obviously is. I'm starting to think now, instead of saying like, there's so many good teams, I think there's just a lot of mediocre teams and they're all just beating each other. 'Cause if they were really a lot of good teams, I don't think there'd be this many actual good teams, you know, in any given year. I think there's actually no great teams. Let's put it that way. No teams where you're saying, that's the team I'm scared of. You can be worried about every team's strengths, of course, but maybe we need to rethink how we're reflecting on this year instead of saying there's so many good teams. I think there's just no real great teams. But anyway, that's about it, guys. Let's do a bit of tipping. And this is an interesting one because the boys aren't here to tell me to not tip north. So, I'm definitely gonna tip them when we get to that spoiler alert. But Friday night, man, this is a huge one. Sydney at the SCG against Collingwood. Usually these two teams are playing in close games, right? Sydney has just been, a pants would be like the understatement of the year. They've been absolutely embarrassed, obviously, by port. And they're back at home, you know. Not gonna say must win. Obviously, they're playing finals no matter what, but you can't not respond to that. And I don't mean respond and compete. I mean, like, respond and beat Collingwood comfortably. But the thing is this, Collingwood most likely might roll over and they've got a lot to play for. Collingwood, if they win this game, depending on other results, they'll be tied with the Blues on points. And then they're obviously relying on a lot to go their way, but this is one here of the pies being, they've got two more games to go. Who are they playing in the last two? They've got the Lions, RGs, that's gonna be hard. And then last round is against the Ds. So Swan's Lion Ds. Yeah, look, Collingwood's probably not gonna make it. It'd be a miracle. But in saying that, you know, reigning Premier's, we can't write 'em off. We can't say and just assume they're not gonna make it so they won't put in all their effort. So, geez, who am I tipping now? I'm not gonna tip Sydney, stuff 'em. You can't get pants like that and expect me to tip you. You have to earn the tip back. So let's go Collingwood. I think they're on a bit of a high as well. So let's see if they can back it up. Then we go to second game of the round, which is the Lions via the Giants at the Gaba. Look, interesting game. Second to be fourth, has top four implications. I think I have to go Lions at the Gaba. Northly the Eagles, Blondstone Arena at Hobart. Like I said earlier, the Eagles played a brutally physical game. And they're traveling all the way to Tazu. I think that a Lauren should give North the upper hand, even though we've lost Griffin Logan, when apparently not gonna have Warlord again due to this. Man needs to report his concussions on game day 'cause he's reporting them later in the week. And then North's without him for two games instead of one due to the concussion protocol. So, look, we aren't as fit as we've been all year. We've had pretty good luck, besides the beginning of the year with Goater and CCJ. I have to tip North. I would really love to win two in a row. I mean, we're probably not gonna finish on top of the Eagles due to percentage, but when you're playing teams in and around your quality level, they're the ones you wanna win. I think the Eagles might be a bit banged up from all the effort they've put in last week. So let's go North on that one. Free OV, the Cats at Optus Stadium. Gotta be free O for me. Jelong sort of got overlining an impressive way against the Crows, but free O, despite their loss, I think at Optus, they have to be the bet. Bombers vs Huns. I really wanna tip the Suns, but I would be a hypocrite for calling George. I kind of remember what I called the Port guy, but Georgey tipped Suns away against North, and I ridiculed him for it, so I can't tip the Suns. I'm gonna have to go to the Bombers on that one. D's V Port at the G, interesting. Gotta be Port. Actually, that's not interesting. At all, Port's just pants the League leader, so it's gonna be Port. It might, if they can do it at the G as well, and completely embarrass Melbourne, I might start getting serious about what I think about Port come final time, especially with the Radagalier up forward. It's given them, like, you've got your Giardis, Dick's, and Radagalier. That's a lot of power in the forward line, so, no pun intended on that one, but yeah, let's go. Port, calling would be Hawthorn at the G, far out. Far out. Who do you tip on this one? If Hawthorn wins, like I said earlier, they're equal points with Carlton. Carlton could go out of the 80% of wins, if that happens. Blues must win to stay in finals. I'm gonna go Hawthorn though. I think Hawthorn losing to GWS away just by two points. That's a harsh loss, and they could've easily won, if a few things went their way. So, I'm gonna go Hawthorn. I don't think Carlton's deserving of a tip right now. They're in poor form. Hawthorn plays that reckless attacking footy, so you know that even if they go down a bit, blues are gonna have a hard time keeping up with them, I think, the way they're going. But in saying that, Carlton's only advantage is exactly what GWS took advantage of, which is the key forward. Hawthorn has been known for a while, wanting a key defender. Carlton has Mackay and Colonel. Now, I don't know actually, did Colonel get injured? That might change things, but I'm still gonna go Hawthorn. I think they'll find a way. And Carlton, yeah, not deserving of a tip at the moment. Tigers v. the Saints at Marvel. Jeez, now Rich one was pretty bad. Besides some short spurts against North, skills will weigh down. I think the Saints should just run away with it. And then the crows hosting the dogs at a late oval. Crows have been putting up a fire lately, but I think for the first time all year, I actually feel confident that the dogs are legit and will show their form away from home. The only time they really disappointed was against port, but I mean, you're looking at ports form now and you're thinking, okay, getting smashed up by them in Adelaide might be, you know, we might come to expect that over the next year round. So I'll have to go the dogs on that one, I reckon. But anyway, yeah. Hope you guys enjoyed that one. I know solo pod, obviously, there's not a lot of discussion, just a lot of Dino rambling, but yeah. Like I said, the boys sort of carried the pod while I took a few weeks off when my daughter was born a few months ago. So I thought I'll repay them. I will surprise them with the solo Dino pod. But yeah, hope Georgie gets better soon. Hope Mazzo is enjoying his, probably at this point he's second or third or a special of the day. So enjoy boys. Thanks a lot to the enjoyers community as well for listening and watching. Yeah, like sub all that stuff. We don't ask for it often, but yeah, would mean a lot, I guess, we're trying to grow the channel slowly, but yeah, let us know what you think. Hopefully Georgie will be back next week with me. Yeah, enjoy the footing in the meantime and see you in another time. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]