AFL Finals Week 2 preview: Dees' flag defence goes on line as Dockers sail east to take down Pies
There's no second chances in week two of the AFL finals series.
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Please note that as of 2/10/2022 I am no longer active on The Roar. I covered AFL, AFL Women's, NRL, the Supercars and tennis.
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There's no second chances in week two of the AFL finals series.
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Noting that Robbie Fox was also one of the Swans’ best on a horrible day for the club too.
Joel Selwood completes graduation from flag rookie to premiership captain as ruthless Cats dominate
Gut says Swans, head says Cats. I think the Cats will want to win it while Selwood, Dangerfield and Hawkins are still playing. There’s also the redemption factor for Jeremy Cameron, who was part of the GWS side that were humiliated by Richmond in the 2019 Grand Final.
As for the Swans, the incentive is there for Buddy to win a flag while he’s still in the Harbour City.
One Grand Final, so many subplots!
A grand final that's on for young (Sydney) and old (Geelong)
What I must have meant was “third time in six years” (after straight-sets exits in 2017 and 2020).
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If that happens, this would be the cruelest irony given the past two deciders played outside of Victoria featured teams based in the state (Richmond vs Geelong in 2020 and Melbourne vs Western Bulldogs last year).
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Just to clarify – I was talking about 2012 not 2022.
2022 AFL preliminary finals preview: Can the Cats and Pies keep Victoria's flag hopes alive?
CLARIFICATION: “Then, he appeared down and out when he fell behind two sets to one, after failing to win a single point in the third set tiebreak.”
This was in the quarter-final match against Jannik Sinner.
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Sorry I meant “thirty years”.
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What I meant was the first finals clash between Collingwood and Freo, not the Dockers’ first MCG final.
AFL Finals Week 2 preview: Dees' flag defence goes on line as Dockers sail east to take down Pies
Correction – just remembered that the Brisbane Lions finished second in 2019 and then crashed out in straight sets that year.
AFL Finals Week 2 preview: Dees' flag defence goes on line as Dockers sail east to take down Pies
Wouldn’t it be sweet if the Rabbitohs could knock the Roosters out of September… but while I would like to see it happen, I don’t think it will.
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Traditionally, teams that lose their qualifying finals tend to hit back hard in their semi-final matches – look at St Kilda in 2004 as a prime example.
They got smashed by the Lions by 80 points at the Gabba in the qualifying final but hit back the following week, beating the Swans by 51 points at the MCG before bowing out in a heartbreaking preliminary final loss against the eventual premiers, Port Adelaide.
Melbourne will be an angry side this Friday night, they wouldn’t want to bow out in straight sets in consecutive MCG finals. To my knowledge, no top-two side has ever gone out in straights since the current format was implemented in 2000.
Also worth noting, this is the Lions’ first final at the MCG since 2009 and as you alluded to, they have a poor record at the ground and I can’t see that changing this Friday night even with the return of Cam Rayner and Noah Answerth from suspension.
AFL Finals Week 2 preview: Dees' flag defence goes on line as Dockers sail east to take down Pies
I always prefer to refer to the teams by how they are addressed on the television scorecards.
AFL Finals Week 2 preview: Dees' flag defence goes on line as Dockers sail east to take down Pies
CORRECTION: Serena Williams completed seven successful title defences: Once at the AO, and three times each at Wimbledon and the US Open.
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I nearly forgot about that match, thanks for the heads up!
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“He [De Minaur] is more than capable of backing up his quarter-final appearance at Wimbledon with another strong grand slam run at Flushing Meadows.”
He actually just fell short of reaching the quarters at SW19, losing to Cristian Garin in the fourth round after being two sets up and holding a few match points in the fifth set.
He did however reach the last eight in New York losing to the eventual champion Dominic Thiem.
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His withdrawal was confirmed this morning (AEST).
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If North Melbourne wins tomorrow afternoon (and I have a sneaky gut that they might), that would leave the Eagles with the massive task of having to smash a sixteen-year hoodoo of beating the Cats (whose position cannot change) at Kardinia Park just to offload the wooden spoon which they would provisionally carry going into the match.
The stage is set for an exciting final round in the AFL
The only change you had against my predictions was Melbourne beating the Lions tonight.
Intriguing that whoever wins out of the Lions and Dees tonight would (potentially) play the Swans in a qualifying final at the SCG.
The stage is set for an exciting final round in the AFL
Another good question. After Victoria 2026, Hamilton will host the centenarian Games in 2030, after which cities that had hosted it in the past might have to go a second time.
Personally, I would like the Games to keep going until 2038, which would, as I noted in the article, mark a century since Sydney hosted it. While it is worth noting that not many of us were alive when what was then known as the British Empire Games were staged here, we did host the Olympics to such great success in 2000.
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CORRECTION: “ This year’s beach volleyball tournament in land-locked Birmingham proved that it doesn’t need to be held at a beach, like it was on the Gold Coast in 2018 and at the London Olympics in 2012.”
Beach volleyball in London was not held at a beach but rather a makeshift stadium was constructed for it.
What could a Greater Western Sydney-based Commonwealth Games look like? Here's my vision
It was so hard to fit all of the Australian highlights in, when we won 67 gold medals!
Bodes well for Paris 2024 in two years from now and of course Victoria in 2026, where I’d expect we would again top the medal tally, as we have at every home Commonwealth Games in history.
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Let’s face it, the Comm Games are the only world sporting event we have a good chance of actually doing well, without competition from over half of the rest of the world. From about 200 countries, only around 70 of them are Commonwealth nations (that’s 35% of the world).
In contrast with what we’ve achieved at this event over the past century, our highest ever tally of gold medals at any Olympics (Summer or Winter) is 17 at Athens in 2004 and Tokyo last year. And that’s with more sporting events too.
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You said the exact same thing last week about the Pies turning things around under Craig McRae this season in my Melbourne vs Collingwood preview, plus I have also noticed that you have repeated/re-phrased parts of my articles and/or stated the obvious in your comments.
Please stop commenting on my articles if you cannot come up with any original opinions of your own.
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Been impressed by what I’ve seen from the Knights this season – they could so easily have been undefeated if it wasn’t for an Isabelle Kelly intercept try with five minutes remaining in the round four loss to the Roosters.
Otherwise, they’ve done very well to get to where they are now after not winning a single game last season.
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