Thursday night review
Geelong 119 defeated Adelaide 81
Say what you will about Adelaide. It seems that everyone, Patrick Dangerfield included, has stuck the boot into a club which has gone from within a kick of a Grand Final to a bottom 8 team in a few short months. The club did the impossible at the trade table, in a deal that saw it donate Kurt Tippett to the Swans and cop a fine for its generosity. Left completely bereft of draft picks, a forward line or even the faith of their own captain - at least the Crows have a sense of occasion.
Abandoning the general custom of having a defender at least in the general vicinity of your oppositions best midfielder - a former Brownlow winner to boot - Adelaide did everything they could to ensure Jimmy Bartel had a 250th to remember. Watching on as he casually wandered into an unmanned goal, the Crows defenders did their best impressions of a tired father feigning effort before letting their plucky toddler run all over them. That they stopped just short of breaking into rapturous applause for Bartel's goals was the only thing sustaining the facade of competitiveness.
Weekend Preview
Tonight's reheated marshmallow derby is our match of the round, two teams of which big things are expected despite being prone to outbursts of football so fast and attacking that they abandon any notion of defense. Tonight should therefore, hopefully, two poorly built slingshots flicking mid at each other from metres apart until one collapses in a heap. Thrilling stuff.
At the other end of the table we have the Demons and the Saints, a game which is as intriguing for its equality as for the promise that at the end of its 120 minutes, someone will be really, really upset. Whether it's St. Kilda, who left little room for these roadblocks on their Melbourne Star Observation Wheel plan for 2018, or Melbourne, who have spent the off-season building the biggest petard from which they will ever be hoisted, remains to be seen.
There's also a pointless match in Launceston where the Hawks may well require a 4th digit in the total score column on the Launceston scoreboard - a thousand points is not unlikely against the Lions. And finally a Sunday night match between the Eagles and Bulldogs that we'll probably watch for an hour before flipping over to Rake.
In the news...
Teams are out, with a number of newbies and oldies and intermediaries named for their respective sides this weekend.
Tania Hird has come to the aid of her husband after his TV promise not to be a distraction became quite the distraction. Tania has abandoned all pretence and come out swinging against all and sundry in an explosive interview with ABC's 7:30. The segment, which also featured Hird's lawyer calling the AFL a bunch of cashed-up bogans, has caused some uncertainty regarding Hird's re admittance to the league and left us wondering whether their next PR strategy could be run by Malaysian Airlines.
And finally for the week, the AFL has decided to step in on clubs interrogating potential recruits in the draft. The league must now be notified of any interviews with young talent, although The Age reports that most recruiters would rather pay the fine than unearth their secrets. Tasty stuff...
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