Thooper Thaturday
Well that’s what Romel from My Kitchen Rules is calling it and thooper it will be.With daylight saving now over the first game starts at 11:45 which is a far more respectable time time start drinking. We will have wall to wall football until 9:30pm when the Eagles and the Dockers meet for four points for the first time since that incident.
There hasn’t been this much continuous football since Grand Final day used to kick off at midnight with the Grand Final marathon followed by U19s, Reserves and Senior Grand Finals. Throw a few post match celebrations and it’s no wonder I passed out on the kitchen floor with my inexplicably stubbed big toe bleeding profusely into a pizza box.
Cats at the Cattery
The Cats get the first of their nine gimme games at the Cattery this year against GWS. Despite looking reasonably giant against the Tigs (see below), GWS will battle as they always do when they visit the boutique stadium. My recent weekend on the Bellarine Peninsula certainly led to some boutique locations however the Cattery will be anything but.
There won’t be much SSB sipped in the stands and the fans won’t be friendly – this place is as hostile as Victoria Park in the 70s, hopefully without the racist taunts. It’s no wonder Geelong want to play finals here, despite it only fitting 40 odd thousand.
Lions 2019 chapter 4
Hasn’t this been an exciting read so far? It’s like all the inspirational sport books you’ve ever perused. Underdog comes charging unexpectedly out of the blocks and surprises everyone. Unfortunately for Brisbane, some calamity then inevitably befalls the underdog before they come good again.
So we are all waiting for the calamity. Hopefully if there is one it will just be a mid season slump from which they will recover and nothing more sinister. For now though, they are riveting. Frenetic ball movement, superstar kids, dash and risk.
They take on the Bombers who do this pretty well too, alas the Bombers’ backline is all attack and not much defence. This is not a great defensive strategy and results in high opposition scoring. Essendon trying to control the myriad of scoring options possessed by Brisbane will be like trying to put an octopus into a string bag.
Tiggers
This is the friendly name many give to Richmond, or just the Tigs. Tigger of course is the friendly Tiger from the A.A. Milne’s Winne the Pooh stories (and coincidentally Nick Vlaustin’s nickname). Port Adelaide take on the Tiggers this weekend who will be extra friendly given they are missing a few big names – actually all their big names.
They were accused of being lucky with injuries in 2017 and 2018, which they were, but no-one saw this coming. No Rance, no Riewoldt, no Cotchin and to rub salt in, Dusty has a little lapse in concentration (curiously downgraded to one week). Even some of the good second stringers are missing. Someone at Tigger Land (aka the 100 acre wood) must have kicked Eeyore after the Preliminary Final loss and the Karma bus is doing donuts around Punt Road.
It’s pronounced Darby – not Duh-by
Despite having a high number of English immigrants and their descendants like the rest of Australia, WA has a real penchant for mispronouncing relocated English place names. So we come to the Duh-by. Eagles are flying high, the Dockers not quite so but both should be 3 from 3.
These games always have some spice. The Dockers have returned to some of their high risk fast ball movement courtesy of Brad Hill and Michael Walters et al. This is despite having Ross Lyon as coach. Cam McCarthy has stood up beyond expectations (but not beyond ability) and is benefitting from Fremantle’s deeper forward line.
Still they have been unconvincing against Gold Coast and St Kilda – two teams widely predicted to finish close to the bottom of the table. The Eagles have a very deep backline to contend with the Dockers with Hurn, Barass, McGovern, Shepherd and will be good enough to bat away anything the Dockers can throw at them.
OK – Six things
Hard to get excited about the North Melbourne vs Adelaide game. Suffice to say both teams big underachievers to date. Hopefully they prove me wrong and it’s a cracker but whatever the outcome whoever loses will be under a lot more pressure than they are right now.
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