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Post by weststigersbob on Jul 12, 2020 1:15:35 GMT
I think Canberra are shot - they’ll make the finals but like you say they look like a 5th-6th place finisher behind the Roosters, Panthers, Eels and Storm ATM. Cronulla are a frustrating side to watch. They seem to lack a bit of fight and desire. The more I see Penrith, the more impressed I get in 2020. Koroisau has made them a force to be reckoned with. As for the Broncos, a win is a win, but on that performance the only side they are beating is the Dogs - who gifted them 3 tries.
The Demons, like the Broncos, shouldn’t be popping the champers just yet. They beat the Suns, admittedly a Suns in a modicum of form, but it’s still the Suns. And a bad day was had by all in the South East of Melbourne.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 12, 2020 15:19:41 GMT
Dragons destroy Manly in seriously our best performance since 2018 while Parra out defended Newcastle to win a dour scrap 10-4.
Port consolidated top spot with a win over GWS (this looks like the year from hell for Crows fans as they sit 0-6 while their hated cross town rivals are sitting top), Richmond continued to look far too slow in an unconvincing win over the struggling Swans, and Carlton cracked the ton (might be the first team to do so this year) in thrashing the wildly inconsistent Bulldogs.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 13, 2020 7:03:28 GMT
And delusional coach of the week award goes to Damien Hardwick for blaming Sydney for Richmond's low score. Dimma, that's the 4th time this year your team has been held to under 40 points. Your consistent problems are 1. Lack of pace in the mid field, 2. your #2 forward Jack Riewoldt is hopelessly out of form and 3. The decision to make the game 20% shorter has taken away your advantage of superior fitness leading to red time goals. No red time, you score fewer points.
Rather than blaming your opponents, get some pace into the middle and try to play Jack deeper so you can isolate him and play him into form. Can't do much about red time goals apart from scoring more in green time.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 14, 2020 18:41:40 GMT
Dean Pay leaves the Bulldogs. Poor bugger never had a chance and neither will whoever replaces him. Expected to be Trent Barrett. I hope for his sake he doesn't do it.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 16, 2020 16:36:12 GMT
Looks like I've two replays to watch this morning. Jordan de goey kicked 62.5% of Collingwood's goals in a comfortable win over the Cats and, in even better news, Canberra defeated the Roosters. Of course I will need to wash the egg yolk smeared all over my eyeballs and the rest of my face to be able to see the second game. Looks like that was one for the True Believers.
If the Knights win then the Roosters will temporarily drop out of the top 4.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 16, 2020 23:36:44 GMT
The Collingwood game was the typical scrappy "we're not going to let you score" Collingwood performance with de Goey putting the cherry on top with 5 goals.
Canberra just out worked the Roosters in the middle. Deserved to win and would have by more if not for Morris.
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Post by weststigersbob on Jul 17, 2020 2:33:34 GMT
Neither games were terribly good, but the Raiders deserved their win, as did the Pies. I’m struggling to get a good read on the Cats, they are all over the ship this year.
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Post by weststigersbob on Jul 17, 2020 12:23:26 GMT
Massive wins for both Melbourne and Wests tonight in the NRL. That stadium up on the Sunny Coast looks a ripper. I’m a massive fan of NRL expansion into Queensland. Western Corridor and Central QLD seems so obvious. Sickening injury to Corey Oates - compound fracture of the femur. Could be a career-ender. Bulldogs defeated the Dons n the AFL by 7 goals Sydney FC defeated the Nix by 2 goals in the A-League return Queensland Reds beat the Western Force in the utterly meaningless Rugby Union whatever it is by 7.
Fox Sports was the place to be tonight - 4 football codes plus Test Cricket from England.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 17, 2020 16:03:53 GMT
When you said Corey Oates had a compound fracture I was expecting to see a sickening incident, not a routine tackle. Poor bugger. I'd call Seibold a poor bugger too, except he's pretty hard to feel sorry for. Brisbane are just playing un-football at the moment. Some of the tries they gave up were...well...I don't have words.
Won't be any QLD teams in the finals this year.
Western Bulldogs are the most inconsistent team in a league of inconsistent teams. While most clubs you have some idea what they're going to try to do each week, with the Bulldogs you have absolutely no clue. They could come out and look like their backline, midfield and forward line have no awareness of each other's existence or they could completely dominate their opposition all over the ground. Essendon are a top 8 team, but not a flag contender.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 18, 2020 5:50:25 GMT
Oh FFS. Fucking useless Dragons. I'm done with this one. Just not putting myself through it.
Edit: Apparently we won, but the potential heartbreak wasn't worth it.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 18, 2020 9:40:26 GMT
Suns bounced back with a good win over the Swans in the AFL.
In what will likely prove a metaphor for their season, Souths gave up a big start to Newcastle and just failed to reel them back in. Loss leaves the Bunnies at 5-5, while the Knights have usurped the Roosters in the top 4 by the 1 competition point gained from drawing with Penrith.
Brisbane beat GWS to leave the Giants a long way out of it at 3-4.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 18, 2020 20:41:50 GMT
And Souths set a trend. In the late game it was Parra's turn to give up a start and just fail to reel in Manly. Bit of justice for earlier in the year where the Sea Eagles were robbed by that nonsense forward pass call against the Eels.
Dimma must read my posts. Injected some pace, isolated Riewoldt and voila! Much improved. Weren't playing against much unfortunately. After a decent first 3 games, North are really struggling.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 20, 2020 9:05:46 GMT
Sad news today with Shane Tuck dying. AFL has no cause of death, but the lifeline number at the bottom of the article makes it pretty obvious it was self inflicted. An increasingly prevalent event sadly.
Played 173 games for Richmond. His old man Michael is an all time VFL/ AFL legend who played 420 odd games for Hawthorn.
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Post by weststigersbob on Jul 20, 2020 9:30:54 GMT
I’m completely lost in the AFL. I’m not the closest of followers in the best of times, but this year I’m simply not seeing any sort of continuity week to week at all. It’s all over the shop. Clutch kick by the Port #9. Robbie Gray ? I can only imagine how good a kick after the siren to win it must feel, in any code.
The NRL - I think the top teams aren’t as far ahead of the pack as may think. There is a genuine bottom 5 though. Canterbury, Nth Qld, Gold Coast, New Zealand and Brisbane aren’t making the finals this year. Hosko’s Dragons, looking like wooden spoon candidates not that long ago, have started paying decent footy and look poised to make a finals tilt to me.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 20, 2020 19:30:59 GMT
The Dragons have improved markedly, but we run into a Cronulla in good form in the local derby and then the Roosters.
On the NRL injuries have caught up with the Roosters and, apart from the Storm, the 4 ahead of them have come back to the field a little.
And THAT Robbie Gray goal would have been a difficult kick with your team 50 in front in the third quarter. To slot that 50m out just inside the boundary with the game riding on it was a high class finish from a high class player.
As for the AFL overall: let's just say no team should be making long term decisions on players or coaches based on 2020. It's a crap shoot. Charlie Dixon and Tom Papley are leading the Cokeman with 15 goals in 6 and 7 games resoectively: nuff said.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 20, 2020 22:52:43 GMT
I'm thinking in the AFL we'll probably end up with Port, West Coast, Richmond, Collingwood, Brisbane and Geelong top 6, though not sure of the order. I think Port, Brisbane and West Coast have the rail's run due to getting to play a lot at home. Of the three Victorian teams Collingwood are the best traveller's traditionally and Geelong the worst.
Essendon will probably play finals. Anyone of half a dozen clubs could take the remaining spot.
The NRL is tight.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 22, 2020 17:54:18 GMT
Barrett signs on the dotted line with the Bulldogs. Not a smart move by Trent in my mind. He's on the same hiding to nothing Dean Pay was on. Roosters are going to sign Sonny Bill Williams (yawn).
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 24, 2020 12:18:44 GMT
Pretty good game of AFL. Gints beat the Tiggies by 12. About the third or 4th time this year Richmond have been held goalless in the last quarter. Something missing from their game this year, and yet some betting agencies had them as premiership favourites going in to this game. Hosko shrugs shoulders I guess... Giants controlled the ball well in the last 10 minutes or so. Toby Greene is a superb footballer and was B.O.G with 5 goals.
Broncos slipped into the 7th circle of hell, as predicted, losing 46-8 to Melbourne. Cowboys lost 24-12 to Manly which is the best they could have hoped for. For about 35 minutes Nth QLD had conceded more tries than the Broncos this year, but no more.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 25, 2020 10:49:16 GMT
We have this week's winner of Most Delusional Coach award and it's Alistair Clarkson. Criticising your opposition's best player after the fact when you've lost to a good team and you're firing up the troops might make sense, doing it when you've just lost to one of the worst teams in the comp and fallen behind them on the table is something else. Sore loser-ing and trying not to talk about what a moron James Sicily is.
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Post by weststigersbob on Jul 25, 2020 11:54:01 GMT
We have this week's winner of Most Delusional Coach award and it's Alistair Clarkson. Criticising your opposition's best player after the fact when you've lost to a good team and you're firing up the troops might make sense, doing it when you've just lost to one of the worst teams in the comp and fallen behind them on the table is something else. Sore loser-ing and trying not to talk about what a moron James Sicily is. Sorry, but Clarkson only went “half-retard”. The prize must be given to Broncos coach a Anthony Seibold. 15th, and on the back of consecutive 40 point drubbings, he’s talking up the Broncos finals aspirations. “While there’s life there’s hope. Until it’s mathematically impossible, we will continue to look toward playing finals” - yeah, good luck with that one....
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