After a third of the season, each AFL team reviewed A Set the default text size A Set large text size
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A third of the home-and-away season is in the books, and it’s time to take the temperature of the competition.
Football lore suggests that not much changes in the make-up of the top eight from this point on apart from swapping of positions within, and it’s an easy case to make this time too.
Melbourne Demons
The Demons are flying along at 8-0 but are reaching the point where they are due a loss. It could happen against any team without creating undue concern, and arguably the sooner the better.
Safe predictions for AFL Round 9 A Set the default text size A Set large text size
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I’ve decided that it’s too risky to make predictions only about the margin of victory for a particular team, possibly the most veiled of all outcomes to forecast.
So in the interest of increasing my odds of success for each game, I will also be presenting ‘safe predictions’ for the games as well.
Mind you, the forecasts we’ve been making have been fairly safe already. With seven more correct last weekend we’ve now picked 47 winners out of 72 for the year, and the ELO-Following Football rating system is a more impressive 51 of 72 on its own after I made some rather unsafe overrides of the system early in the season.
At 27 points down deep into the third quarter, the Western Bulldogs would have been forgiven for thinking that this was just another one of those days against a Carlton side that has had the Dogs’ measure in recent times.
Why it is quite alright to be patient with Ugle-Hagan
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There has been a great deal of talk surrounding reigning No.1 draft pick Jamarra Ugle-Hagan.
Many people are wondering when we are going to see the talented young forward unleashed at AFL level, but the Western Bulldogs appear as though they are taking a patient approach.
And that’s the way it should be.
There is no rush to blood a youngster who has been described as a “generational talent” with “freakish ability”.
You just need to take a look at recent history to learn that giving games to developing forwards is not the be-all and end-all.
Where Moore struggled and the question marks over De Goey
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2021-05-03T08:30+10:00
It was another disappointing weekend for Collingwood as their season crumbled around them, slumping to a fifth straight loss.
The Magpies were at times completely listless in their 24-point loss to the Gold Coast Suns at the MCG, kicking just two goals in the first half and struggling to keep up with their more youthful opponents.
Dissecting such a loss would no doubt be a difficult task for coach Nathan Buckley who next faces a must-win fixture against lowly North Melbourne in Round 8.
One of the aspects for Buckley to consider is what to do with Darcy Moore, who again started in the forward line, but was bereft of ideas according to Garry Lyon.