The Multicultural AFL Football TV and Radio Show – Week 25

CONGRATULATIONS to our presenters: Vanessa Gatica, Habir Singh Kang and Gabriel D'Angelo on being nominated for Best Culturally and or Linguistically Diverse Personality for the 2019 Antenna Awards;

Finals week 1

By Fiv Antoniou

3/09/2019

  

Starting Thursday night, the 2019 Toyota AFL Finals series comes to life from Perth’s Optus Stadium where the West Coast Eagles host the Bombers in the first elimination final. The four finals matches this week are played from, Western Australia, Victoria, NSW and Queensland. Yes, only one game in Melbourne – Ouch! That must hurt the League’s box-office revenue stream because of the smaller interstate grounds.

In the meantime, congratulations to a couple of Blues: Patrick Cripps for his MVP and Sam Walsh for winning the Rising Star Award. In the last 5 years, the MVP winner has gone on to win the Brownlow Medal in the same year. News out this week heralded Brendan Bolton’s return to the Hawks as Director of Coaching, Jarryd Roughead joining the Saints in some sort of coaching capacity, strange - unless the Sainters name his ex-Hawk buddy, Brett Ratten as their coach next Wednesday - and Jack Steven has asked for a trade to Geelong! Brad Scott looks likely to be working for the AFL and ‘fast’ Eddie Betts may find his way back at the Blues – if you followed our NEMBC AFL blog, we predicted that move 6 weeks ago!

Back to Thursday night’s final, the West Coast Eagles look better on paper than the Bombers. If you follow statistics you would be aware that the West Coast Eagles have never beaten Essendon in a finals game ever. The one thought to keep in mind is that all those finals were played in Melbourne and the current final is, for the first time, being played at the Eagles’ home ground in Perth. So the dynamics of what favours one side over another have changed this time, as well as the fact that Essendon have not won a finals match since 2004.

Overall the two sides have played in 5 finals over the years with the Dons winning all 5 and, although Essendon will field their best side including, Heppell, Fantasia, Hooker and Stringer all back from injuries, they will be no match for the West Coast who are also getting players back from their croc list, namely star ruckman Nic Naitanui and defender Shannon Hurn both will bolster their back line along with Jeremy McGovern. The Eagles star forward, Josh Kennedy, facing a big occasion game, will most probably find form and kick a bag to sink the Bombers on his own. I envisage the match to be quite a free-scoring game and the West Coast Eagles, to win by 36 points and advance to the semi-finals.

Friday night footy comes from the MCG and what a game it’s shaping up to be! A huge Blockbuster! The Geelong Cats face up to the Collingwood Magpies. There is no love lost between these two sides, having played each other in 23 finals with Geelong winning 12 and the Magpies 11. In what is expected to be a capacity crowd of over 95,000 spectators they will play off for the right to march into the preliminary final, while the loser goes into a sudden death semi-final next week. Both Collingwood and Geelong have had a rocky time recently losing as many games as they have won, throw in some inclement weather on the night and it makes selecting a winner even more difficult than normal.

Their very last encounter was round one at the beginning of the season, where the Cats just managed to beat the ‘Pies by 7 points – that was 25 weeks ago and not a very good performance indicator for the present. Geelong still look very good in the mid-field led by Patrick Dangerfield with Tom Hawkins and Gary Ablett Jr. always a danger in the forward line, but Collingwood have their star players returning from injury including Jordan De Goey, Steele Sidebottom and Jaidyn Stephenson which will fortify the Magpies playing stock. Although I am in two minds about the result, I am picking the Magpies to win by 1 point after extra time!

Mid-afternoon Saturday from the Giants Stadium in Western Sydney, the Giants are set to challenge the Western Bulldogs in a knock out elimination final. I have a feeling that we will witness a full Giants stadium for the first time – a spectacle all on its own! Sarcasm aside, these two sides have only played one final so far in which the Dogs emerged victorious.

Recently, the GWS Giants have not been playing well, losing twice in their 3 games before the finals and that one win came by beating the AFL’s denizens of the dungeon, the Gold Coast Suns. Not a very good record and the only two things going for them is their Coleman Medal goal scorer Jeremy Cameron and a home ground advantage. In contrast, the Western Bulldogs won their last 3 games by an average of 64 points on their way to decimating Essendon, the Giants and Adelaide. You cannot overlook that type of dominant form leading into a final series. The Giants will make a game of it and will have the superior speed around the ground, however, they do not possess the Bulldogs experience nor their winning streak. The Giants are capable of turning the game, but will they? Bulldogs to win by 28 points!

Sunday evening will see Brisbane at their home ground take on the in-form Tigers in what is shaping up to be a hard-tackling game for the right to enter the preliminary final and a week’s rest. The Tigers defeated Brisbane at the MCG in the last home and away round, but that game was almost a dead rubber. This time the game is for high stakes and played at the Gabba which has been a fortress for the Lions, in as much, of the 11 finals games they have played there over the years, they won every one of them against all opposition.

Last year this time the Lions were in the bottom half of the AFL ladder with only 5 wins to their name, a year later they are playing finals footy from a coveted top-four position. Richmond was there and this time last year did not impress. It has taken the Tigers almost half a year to shrug off the injuries and apathy, but they are now almost favourites to win the Grand Final. Favourites or not I don’t think they can defeat the Lions at home. These two sides have met once before in a final in 2001 where the Lions won by 68 points – Not as generous this time though, the Brisbane Lions should come out on top by 18 points.

Here is another ‘finals’ valuable tip: Did you know that most of the teams who score the first goal in a final, lose the game!..........And on that thought that’s all from me, catch you next week for more Finals action, reviews, news and tips!

By the way did you follow my tips this season?– If you didn’t, you missed out on a top score of 136 not a bad effort beating the top tipsters from the AGE (129) and FOXTEL (123).

WEEK 1 FINALS TIPS: West Coast Eagles, Collingwood, Western Bulldogs & Brisbane

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