At a press conference today, Nathan Buckley essentially drew a line through Collingwood's finals chance, by conveying the message, that was more or less; yeah, we've had a good run with finals recently, but now we're resetting. Which had me wondering, who else might be saying goodbye to their finals hopes this weekend.
Tonight's match between Brisbane and Richmond, only has an indirect influence on that scenario; in that, if Richmond win, the bottom team of the eight will be on 6/4. Which will be hard to bridge the gap to, if you've slipped to 3/7. Don't really know who I'd prefer to win that game. On the one hand, if Richmond win, we have a chance of overtaking Brisbane. On the other hand, I'm a bit over Richmond's success.
The early match on Saturday is Carlton v Hawthorn. About ten days ago, Kennett drew a line through Hawthorn's finals chances, by reminiscing on the success of past rebuilds. The players then responded by losing to North. Though of course, if the players have been stung enough by that loss, to come out and produce an upset win over Carlton, then that would probably be an end to Carlton's hopes. Almost enough to have me barracking for Hawthorn. Almost.
The next game is Geelong taking on Gold Coast at the cattery. Don't know what's happened to the Gold Coast side that beat us convincingly, but they better come back this weekend, or else they'll also be at 3/7 and another line will be drawn. While Geelong are short priced favourites at $1.07, I think there's some chance of an upset. Or more accurately, I think the two most likely results are either a Geelong win by 50 plus, or a narrow and stirring Suns victory: depending on how overconfident the Cats are and how desperate the Suns are. Actually, I could probably write almost the exact same thing for the Saturday twilight game: Adelaide v Melbourne.
On Saturday night, we venture to Perth to play Fremantle. The Perth weather forecast for Saturday is rain, rain and more rain. Which might suit us. What I've been most impressed with recently, is our forward pressure. So in the wet conditions, I can see Wicks, Heeney, Papley, etc, keeping the ball in the forward fifty, until we get a score. Alternately, at the other end, for a long time, we've been pretty good at scrambling the ball away from trouble.
The other night game is Western Bulldogs v St Kilda. Earlier in the week, Beveridge made some odd comments about holding the ball. So let's just hope, that the rule of the week is a crackdown on illegal disposal.
The first Sunday game is GWS v West Coast. Should be an absorbing struggle. Can GWS win without Greene? Can West Coast beat a decent side away from Perth?
The next game is Collingwood v Port Adelaide. Maybe Buckley was trying some reverse psychology, by writing off their finals chances? If so, I doubt it will work. Perhaps a better motivator would have been a little wager on the game? As in, the winner gets to wear black and white next season. While the loser has to wear the Hawthorn charity jersey of a few year's back: the one where they boldly mixed their traditional brown, with lurid pink. I think the official shades of that monstrosity were bubblegum and turd?
The final match is Essendon v North. Can't really see North winning two in a row, but if they do, it will be time to get out the texta again. Actually, do people still use the term, texta?
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