Ouch

West Coast v North Melbourne in the 2012 First Elimination Final at Patersons Stadium, Subiaco, from 13:15 09Sep12.

Oi! Pick on someone your own size!
And age!! Adam Selwood and Brent
"Boomer" Harvey size up at Subi. 

North has not been in a finals series since 2008 so it was time for the Shinboners to step up. But it appears that this was not to be their year.Slow out of the blocks (2.8 for the first half, vs 11.8 from the home-side) they bounced back in the third with 6.2 to 4.3, but the Eagles put that all behind them, with a staggering 9.7 to 1.2 in the last.

Arden Street will be left to assess the ruins of their finals campaign for another year, a little earlier in the year than they would have wanted, but later than some other clubs which should have been in there but simply capitulated... Half of the league has started trimming the fat, but North aren't one of them .. just yet.

Final Scores
West Coast 7.4 11.8 15.11 24.18 (162).
Scorers Kennedy, Darling, Embley 4; Lynch 3; Hill, MacKenzie,  Hurn, Kerr, Nasten, Natanui, Shuey, McGinnty, Cox.

North Melbourne 0.3 2.8 8.10 9.12 (66)

Scorers Campbell, Harvey 3; Petrie, Hansen, Cunnington.

The  Weagles  travel to Melbourne next week to face the Magpies in a do-or-die battle to see who plays Sydney at the Olympic Stadium in the qualifying finals the following week. It's all shaping up to be an excellent Finals Series!

AFL Round 20 (to COB Sunday); AFL Round 21 tips

Three matches today, comments on two of them, both as close as you can get; the third as lop-sided as yesterday's.


Brisbane's Lions reached 100 points within 15min of the last. The urban-myth is that first to 100 wins the match. But not today! And weren't Crows' fans ecstatic! That has new / caretaker Mark Bickley batting 1.000 for his coaching career!
Brisbane 5.1 11.6 14.7 16.9 (105)
Adelaide 6.3 9.5 10.11 16.14 (110)
Brisbane
Cornelius 4.2; McGrath 3.0; Karnezis, Clark 2.0; Rockliff, Polkinghorn 1.1; Leuenberger, Banfield, Hanley 1.0; Dyson 0.2; Redden, Raines, rushed 0.1
356 Possessions: Rockliff 34; Black 26; Raines 23; Redden 22
79 Tackles: Stiller 8; Redden, Buchanan, McGrath, Leuenberger 7; Black 6
45 Hitouts: Leuenberger 31
12 Frees: McGrath, Leuenberger 2
Adelaide
Walker 4.1; Gunston 3.3; Wright, van Berlo, Johncock 2.0; Jacobs 1.1; Riley, Henderson 1.0; rushed 0.3; Petrenko, Reilly, Dangerfield, Sloane, Thompson, Vince 0.1

76 Tackles:  van Berlo 8; Thompson 7; Reilly, Wright, Riley 5

43 Hitouts: Jacobs 30; Maric 13 

26 Frees: Jacobs, Thompson 3; van Berlo, Wright, Talia 2

Full ¼-by-¼ stats at http://j.mp/p3EgZg

Hawthorn and North went toe-to-toe at Launnie this arv with an unexpected result. OK, it was expected that Hawthorn would win, being a top-4 side against a bottom-8 side, but not the way it went! North were actually leading with not-very-long to go: Matt Campbell booted 5 (4 in the last quarter) and had the Roos' noses just ahead. But with just seconds to go, bang bang - one from Smith and one from Buddy sealed the Roos' fate and the four points for Hawthorn. 

Hawthorn 2.1 6.6 9.8 15.13 (103)

North 3.7 5.7 9.7 13.8 (86)

Hawthorn

Franklin 3.2; Smith 3.1; Breust 2.0; Rioli 1.2; Hale, Ladson 1.1; Whitecross, Lewis, Sewel, Burgoyne 1.0; rushed 0.3; Hodge, Suckling, Shiels 0.1  

340 Possessions: Mitchell 31; Suckling 26; Sewell 25; Hodge 24 

76 Tackles: Shiels 10; Mitchell, Breust 7; Guerra, Whitecross, Ladson 6; Franklin 5

62 Hitouts: Bailey 26; Birchall 23

26 Frees: Lewis 4; Sewell, Birchall 3 

North

Campbell 5.1; Petrie 2.0; Petersen, Harvey 1.1; Goldstein, Ziebel, Wells, Richardson 1.0; rushed 0.3; Harper, Garlett 0.1  

301 Possessions: McMahon 29; Ziebell 27; Harvey 26  

78 Tackles: McMahon, Garlett, Petrie, Thomas 6; Ziebell, Rawlings, Goldstein, Swallow 5

48 Hitouts: Goldstein 37

27 Frees: McMahon 5; Goldstein 4; Petrie 3 

Full ¼-by-¼ stats at http://j.mp/pcm6Z7

So, in a nutshell

• St Kilda def Fremantle 113-72
• Geelong def Gold Coast 188-38
• Carlton def Melbourne 134-58
• Essendon def Sydney 100-99 (Actually, it was Adam Goodes who lost the game for the Swans with the very last kick)
• Port def by Collingwood 21-159
• Brisbane def by Adelaide 105-110
• Hawthorn def North 103-86
• Eagles def Richmond 147-90

Ladder is at http://www.afl.com.au/ladder/tabid/74/default.aspx although there is a round-by-round ladder somewhere else...


Next week we have (my tips):

#AFLSaintsPies

#AFLHawksPort

#AFLFreoBlues

#AFLDogsDons - tough call 

#AFLLionsSuns - I called it the other way around last time ... won't happen again

#AFLDeesEagles

#AFLTigersSwans

#AFLCrowsCats

#AFLNorthBye

Buenos noches