R21 - Hawthorn v Port & Adelaide v Brisbane

Night games for both SA based teams this week.

Unfortunately for the Power they come up against Hawthorn outfit tuning up for another tilt at the flag, and with not much to play for themselves.

Adelaide are still well in the hunt for a finals place, and will be hoping to put together another percentage boosting performance like last week against cellar dwellers Brisbane.

Discuss away....

Adelaide by the length of Flemington straight. Port will struggle, this could get ugly for them.

I'm expecting a tight early game, with Adelaide pulling away after quarter time and winning by around 10 goals in the end.

That said, I reckon there is every chance Adelaide could belt the living suitcase out of Brisbane and make a real statement on Saturday night.

Richard Douglas will come back into an already firing midfield. Our forward line looking really dangerous and working together as a unit really well.

Yea, I think we'll be fine.

We had a shocker for 3 quarters against Brisbane earlier in the season - Phil's final game. Must destroy them, keep that % well clear of Geelong plus hope they lose one of their next 2

Adelaide by 59
Hawthorn by 48

Hawthorn v Port

Well, at the start of the year I pencilled this one in as a must see, perhaps my Melbourne trip for the year, now I’m looking to palm off two tickets for this week’s FNF as the Hawks host the Power in a match up of 3rd and 12th. Drive 1400kms, drink Carlton Draught and blow $500 at the Crown for this? I don’t think so. I’ll sit home and watch it on the box and if standard operating procedure is adhered to I’ll fall asleep just after Hamish interviews this week’s Auskicker of the week and wake up when it’s so cold on the lounge that I can’t bear it anymore.

The Hawks are still striding out towards a Grand Final appearance, everyone expects they are still the team to beat and that’s with very good reason. They’ve just been to Perth and beaten the Eagles, they average the highest goals for in the comp, have the second best defence ( behind Fremantle ) and get more of the ball than any other side and have the best disposal efficiency in the comp. Why am I looking so hard into this? It’ll drive a man to drink. They kept all of this going last week rolling the Catters and bagging 19 goals in the process. It’s no wonder they’re the team to beat with Hodge, Mitchell, Rioli, Burgoyne etc etc all hitting full strap late in the season and going into the finals series in top nick with very few injuries while Hale and McEvoy have formed one of if not the best 1-2 ruck combo’s in the league. They might lose Bolton to the Blues before too long (Seriously, does someone want to coach Carlton?) and the tragedy surrounding assistant coach Brett Ratten makes all parents sick to the stomach. Condolences to Ratten and his family.

Port bounced back after the Bulldogs chewed them up and spat them out last week by getting over the top of the angry little ants from GWS. Port made some big changes and a couple of them paid dividends. Brendon Ah Chee came in and had his best game at AFL level with 25 touches, 3 goals and a specky. Patty Ryder had the most influence he’s had on a game in Port colours, despite bagging 3 goals and 4 on one occasion in previous outings his time as #1 ruckman reaped 46 hitouts, 17 disposals and 3 tackles. I think it showed where his best footy is played and it will be interesting to see how he’s used in the next 3 weeks. Sam Gray backed up his last two games with a third solid outing and half backs Broadbent and Hartlett got some ball in hand and Harlett’s 19 touches came at 90% making an impact with his lethal right foot. Wingard bagged another 3 and two of them were rippers in the last quarter when the game was to be won.

No point sugar coating this one, it’s got the potential to get filthy for Port fans. Mind you, the Hawks get up for the big ones and don’t tend to be quite so ruthless in the ones they’re expected to win.....either way, the Hawks by whatever you want to pick them by. For mine, 40+

Ins/Outs – Hale out for Shoe maker (why?), Trengove out with a clipped wing, Schulz back in.

Adelaide v Brisbane

Adelaide gave it to Essendon last weekend, 100+ points with the “all played well” sign going up as the Lions pulled out the projector and put the club song up on the wall for the boys to belt out. Been a long time between drinks for the Lions, they would have enjoyed the win over the Blues.

You could argue that Adelaide are one of the form teams of the competition at the moment. They’ve won four of their last 5 with the loss to Sydney in Sydney. No shame in that. More so they are finally getting some reward from their forwards for the great work the midfield is doing. Jacobs leads the way and he, like many of the top ruckman, is very durable, hardly missed a game for three years and Adelaide know what they are going to get from him week in, week out. Does he get the credit he deserves? Maybe, maybe not. It’s his work that creates the opportunities for Dangerfield, Thompson etc and they are now getting some help from the forwards, the big men especially. Walker and Jenkins are in really good touch and Eddie keeps getting his 3/4/5 while Cameron can snaffle 2/3 in no time at all. They could, if they make it, cause some sides in the bottom half of the 8 some headaches.

Not often I’ve had some good things to write about the Lions this year! ( Keep in mind, it was Carlton and they were 4 goals down at one point ) 12 goal kickers, they’d be happy with 12 goals most weeks. Ex-Blue Stitch, I mean Mitch Robinson had a field day against his old team 30 touches, kicked a major, pissed off some old team mates and took home the choccies. He’d have been chuffed with that one. The midfield though had a field day, over 400 disposals and Stef Martin got them going, Zorko, Rich, Rockliff, Redden all got plenty of aggart on the back of Martin leading from the front. If they lose him in the off season it will be a killer blow. He’s been a standout for them this year. Can you believe former skipper Adcock is on the market, Luenbuerger isn’t wanted, Stef Martin might go home? Crikey, Lions fans thought 2015 was bad!

Saturday night at AO and the 19th man/woman/children will be out in force. With good reason. I expect Adelaide to keep their high scoring form going and win, win big. Might be really big. Can I tip a 80 point win? Why not, who do I have to answer to? Adelaide by 80+.

Ins/Outs – Shaw and Douglas replace Lever and McKay at Adelaide, Brisbane lose Rich to a glute and Green comes in.

Good reviews as usual Booney.

The Ryder situation is interesting. He was drafted as a key forward and back up ruckman but with Lobbe woefully out of form and Ryder doing well at rucking have their roles been reversed? Perhaps Port could look at having Ryder as the No 1 ruckman and trading Lobbe for a forward / backup ruckman.

Port look like they are giving the game to Hawthorn with some silly turnovers

Young players learn from their mistakes hopefully

Got the Adelaide tip spot on Booney!

Went along to the game on Saturday night and it was a pleasure to watch.

I know they were just beating up on a cellar dweller, but when you have Walker loading up from outside 50, Betts kicking them from the boundary, the usual suspects carving up in the middle - yep, lovely stuff.

Adelaide are playing irresistible footy at the moment, it's crazy to think that they haven't actually qualified for finals footy yet with the brand of footy that they are playing.

Boy have we got a game on our hands this weekend!

Adelaide's back 6 haven't been tested for a month now, when it was (Sydney) they failed.

They face the competitions most in form and potent attack this weekend, how will it hold up? IMO, not very well if Shaw and Hartigan both play. Cheney and Lever in for Shaw and Hartigan.

It will also be a huge test for Jenkins. He'll have to do some heavy lifting in the middle this week as there is no way Jacobs goes with Naitanui all game. Jacobs is good, very good against the Goldsteins, Hales, Lobbes etc, but doesn't tend to fare as well against the Naitanui, Tippett leaping types.

My early tip, the Eagles by 4-5 goals.

I think the main concern for Adelaide is the midfield, and mainly the ruck. When Jacobs doesn't give our midfield first use, we seem to get horribly exposed.

Lever a certainty to come back in for Shaw this week. I would be brining in Cheney for Hartigan too personally, but Hartigan seems to be in favour with the selectors for some reason. He is the only main weakness I see in the side at the moment.

What is it with Hartigan? I think we all watch the games pretty closely, what are we missing with him?

Missing nothing with him. Built like Tarzan, plays like Jane.

Weagles have had a big last 3 weeks playing the other sides in the top 4 with them. Reckon we might get them.

Paul wrote:Missing nothing with him. Built like Tarzan, plays like Jane.

Weagles have had a big last 3 weeks playing the other sides in the top 4 with them. Reckon we might get them.

Yep tend to agree with this. Tries hard and does have the occasional good moment, but generally lacks the footy smarts to be a 200 game defender IMO.

I'd rather sacrifice his size and back in Cheney personally.

Hartigan does try hard when he's made a few mistakes. Definitely not my favourite player but I've seen him fight back after an ordinary start to a few games. I do agree that Cheney looks a better prospect in the backline though. Easy to overlook Hartigan's solid efforts though as his clangers tend to be pretty big ones.