The Roar
The Roar

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Oh AFL tipping, you're unpredictable

Are the West Coast Eagles on the brink of decline? (AAP Image/Joe Castro)
Roar Rookie
2nd May, 2017
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This unpredictability of the 2017 AFL season is exciting for fans but annoying, irritating and infuriating for tippers.

On any given day, at any given venue, any team can take away the four points.

A few years ago you if Sydney were playing at the SCG, the Cats were playing at the ‘Cattery’, West Coast and Fremantle were playing at the ‘House of Pain’ and the Hawks were playing just about anywhere you already had four tips you could back your house on.

On the reversal of that came the cellar dwellers: St Kilda, Melbourne, Carlton, GWS and Gold Coast so if you tipped the top teams and tipped against the bottom teams you were already on your way to what looked like a pretty good round score no matter what happened in the middle.

In 2016 you had six of the top eight (Sydney, Geelong, Hawthorn, GWS, Adelaide And West Coast) all notching up 17 and 16 wins out of 22 games while on the reverse Essendon, Brisbane and Fremantle all won four or under.

In 2015 you had Fremantle, Hawthorn, West Coast and Sydney again all notching up 17 and 16 wins out of the 22 games while on the reverse Carlton, Brisbane and Gold Coast won four or under.

Josh Gibson Hawthorn Hawks AFL 2017

In 2014 you had Sydney, Hawthorn, Geelong and Fremantle all notching up 17 and 16 wins while St Kilda and Melbourne won four games each.

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And in 2017 the uncertainty shows on the table where there are only three teams (Adelaide, GWS and Port Adelaide) at the end of Round 6 that have a current streak of two wins in a row.

One win separates eighth and fifteenth!

Geelong seemed to be a certainty this round but throw in the poor form of Collingwood and the question marks of Nathan Buckley – and the bloke that bet his house on the Cats is now camping under the Westgate Bridge.

Essendon look great one week breaking their four year Anzac Day drought and playing under the ‘Comeback Story’ slogan, then they come out against a Melbourne team with no ruckman and a missing Jesse Hogan and end up with a loss.

The Swans (like the Hawks) have been so good for so long, and still have so much firepower on the park each week that we are waiting for that game to propel them back into form. We are holding our breath until they get back onto the winners list and back into contention and out of their slump.

This week against Carlton was surely that week but again the swans go back to Sydney dejected, rejected with another big L.

While on the Hawks they were back to their fortress in Tasmania, a happy stomping ground where they were going for a record 20th win at the venue which stretched back to 2012.

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They had only lost once at that ground in the last seven years and take a loss at the hands of St Kilda who along with Melbourne, Essendon, Fremantle, Collingwood, Gold Coast you could put a blanket over to finish anywhere from sixth to 13th!

So it looks like, at least for this season, gone are the days were there are any certainties or locks for the week and at any oval, park or cricket ground, in any conditions, after any length between games.

It matters not if a side is missing any players out of their best 22, with or without a point to prove on any particular milestone game, playing to beat any record can beat any other team in the comp and for the greater good of the competition and the sport that’s a great thing!

But for a tipper like myself – who rocks up to work every Monday morning and Debbie from accounts, who still think the Brisbane Bears are a franchise and likes the Dockers because of the colour purple, has no idea that she’s leading the footy tipping comp while I cuss on each and every final siren- I’m not sure it is!

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