The round of rivalries is over and the bye weeks now commence. The round of football included blow outs and nail biters, from the Collingwood-Carlton Friday night showdown to the western derby.
I’ll review my previews and assess my tips as we look forward to the next few weeks of byes.
Who won the ultimate rivalry?
Collingwood. And quite convincingly too, minus the last quarter. The Pies cut the Blues to ribbons. Carlton kicked the first goal of the match, but that was also their only goal for the first half as the Magpies preceded to kill Carlton and score numerous goals through forwards and midfielders.
The game was over by three-quarter time, as the Blues made the result look flattering for them with a cheap eight goals to four last quarter.
A Heath Grundy long bomb on the siren took the Pies past 100 points and rubbed salt into the wounds of the disappointing Carlton who didn’t show up.
The Pies now firm as Premiership contenders as they enter their bye week with a 5-2 win loss ratio and a top-four position on the ladder.
Did Essendon arrest their gigantic slump?
Yes. But only just. After a good three-goal start was run down by the Bulldogs, the Bombers fired in the second half to turn a 14-point deficit to an 8-point winning margin. This was mostly because of Watson.
He never let up as he kicked a couple of crucial goals which buried the hatchet for the gallant Bulldogs side. The win wasn’t convincing though, but the Bombers will take it as they look to rebound, while the Dogs sit back and ponder what could have been after giving up two buffers in the last two matches.
The tippers nightmare: West Coast or Fremantle?
Fremantle. Thank gosh yours truly tipped Freo. A low scoring game was always going to favour the Dockers, especially when West Coast kicked seven goals and twelve points.
West Coast will be kicking themselves after having one more shot as a spirited Fremantle avenged their recent losses to grab a top-eight position as they ran away 19-point winners.
The Eagles now need to win some games quickly as they drop to ninth, while the little brother of the Eagles now rises steadily up the ladder and give themselves every chance of playing finals going into the bye.
Tips: I tipped 7 from 9, with the matches I got wrong being Adelaide-Melbourne and North Melbourne-Gold Coast.
Sidenote: I got the margin correct for the Collingwood-Carlton game and three points off on the margin for the Essendon-Bulldogs game.
Fabes
Guest
Michael, I wouldn't have thought many people were suggesting top 4, so let's ignore that. They could possibly make the 8 and the excitement being generated is fair, considering they are a fledgling club. Despite North being inconsistent, you still have to put them away and 5 wins is 5 wins. Good on them I say.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Nearly 300k spread across 9 games on a freezing cold, wet weekend - I would have thought that was pretty good. Ratings for Friday night game of over 1m (Fox; 5 City metro ch7 and 7Mate).
Michael huston
Guest
I think the GC win is slightly over-stated. North Melbourne are one of those teams that is inconsistent. Red hot against Freo and Port, lucky against the Swans, and lacklustre against the Pies and Essendon. Gold Coast still don't have the polish to really contend, so this win may see them sitting in fifth, but the teams they've beaten aren't much to write home about. There is obviously improvement, but they don't have what it takes to make top 4.
TomC
Roar Guru
Anyway, as for the crowd, you had to stand out there and feel how cold it really was to appreciate the crowd. I think the thermometer briefly crept up to about 11 degrees, with the cold Canberra wind blowing straight into the ground. I forgot my gloves and my hands turned a very interesting shade of purple.
TomC
Roar Guru
I'm sure it's funny for you. Hurts like hell for me. I love my footy club and it's at the mercy of fickle young men like Polec. At least Docherty and Longer had genuine family concerns pulling them home. Polec just couldn't hack it.
Sean Mortell
Roar Guru
If you had actually looked a bit more you would have seen that I wrote a preview to this round. In my review I answered the questions I asked in the preview. Of course those two games weren't big talking points before the round because most people expected adelaide and north Melbourne to win.
Sean Mortell
Roar Guru
I know that, I originally wrote Brodie Grundy but the website changed it.
Franko
Guest
"Brand new teams don’t start with 30k fans" Adelaide, WCE, Freo, Port???? No, GC and GWS are not going to start with 30k fans, but I wonder how many a Tassie side may have started with? In fact, I believe there is a strong argument to suggest Norwood would have pulled greater crowds, just last Friday they pulled 10k+ against low-drawing North Adelaide. Considering the dollar spent on advertising, tv and general media coverage, standard of footy etc etc. a case may well be made. Indeed, there is always a large variation in single round attendances.
Cat
Roar Guru
Brand new teams don't start with 30k fans. 2 new teams were always going to drag down the average. If anything those numbers just show if you look at single rounds in isolation you will get huge variance.
Franko
Guest
Interestingly, before the expansion sides 2010 round 7 total attendance - average: 291,023 - 36,378 2009 round 7 total attendance - average: 245,638 - 30,705 2008 round 7 total attendance - average: 300,023 - 37,503 With all the money that is being pumped in to them, it does beg the question, is there enough R.O.I?
Franko
Guest
When you consider how many fans would have travelled from Sydney (Port and GWS) it really is a worry. I'd love to know how many Canberra residents actually paid for a ticket to the match, and how many of those are GWS supporters. Some display from Polec yesterday Tom ;)
TomC
Roar Guru
Incidentally, there is absolutely no way there were 6,500 at Manuka on Saturday.
Cat
Roar Guru
2013 round 7 total attendance - average: 264,817 - 29,424 2014 round 7 total attendance - average: 297,858 - 33,095
Rob
Guest
So a wrap of round 7 includes nothing about the games you tipped wrong? Gold Coast was maybe the most important victory by any club this round and the demons caused one of the "upsets" of the year but the only mention of those two games is "I didn't pick them"... Perhaps this article should be renamed the review of games in round 7 I actually watched which dosnt seem to be many
Rob
Guest
So a wrap of round 7 includes nothing about the games you tipped wrong? Gold Coast was maybe the most important victory by any club this round and the demons caused one of the "upsets" of the year but the only mention of those two games is "I didn't pick them"... Perhaps this article should be renamed the review of games in round 7 I actually watched which dosnt seem to be many
Franko
Guest
By AFL standards, this was a terrible round for crowds. - Sub 70k for Carlton Collingwood on a Friday night at the G - Essendon, Hawthorn and Geelong playing Vic opposition drawing under 35k - 6k in Canberra, their worst crowd ever to see top of the table Port v GWS The derby in the West and the Crows at the new Adelaide oval were propping things up. Vlad / Gil, what is going on? (well done on the tipping BTW, the dees / GC games were genuine upsets)
Dennis graham
Guest
Heath grundy plays for the swans, not the pies