Why I’m talking about the Bulldogs, or, Abletts, cars, captains and testicles

Believe it or not, but it’s been kind of tough for me to come up with something interesting to write this week. Sure, Geelong won and all, but something just seems right about keeping it low key; about things standing as they are; about incidents passing without comment; about, and I don’t want to sound like a bad horoscope here, maintaining the status quo.

I was originally considering writing one of those, there’s this many games to go, Geelong needs this many wins, and they could get them against these teams type of articles, but really, it’s a little early for that (translation: gimme about 4 or 5 weeks).

I thought it might be interesting to have a look at the tribunal, especially since Lovett-Murray was responsible for the first thrown punch in about last 15 years of AFL, only to be outdone by Daniel Kerr giving Sam Mitchell the Johnny Cage treatment. But then, that gets enough media attention as it is. And besides, no matter how they arrange the tribunal process, there is always going to be inconsistencies. Life’s like that.

There was the return to form of Steven King, who at halftime was the leading possession winner on the ground. It was good to be reminded of how much influence he can have on games when he’s going alright, regardless of how much criticism I may or may not have thrown at him during the first quarter. I wonder if he’ll keep the captaincy next season and whether we’ll ever see Mrs Watson’s argument for Ling as captain. [Stay tuned! – Mrs. Watson]

There was, of course, the rebirth of the Matthew McCarthy Era; 5 goals straight, a big target for the midfield and that almost hanger. I considered telling you all about how I saw this coming, and asking what took Lips so long (Playfair, Nablett, Kingsley, Gardiner, Lonergan et al), but the test will be next week for him. And just quietly, I don’t like his chances as much as I did against Carlton.

Then there was Ablett Jnr. running out of petrol before kicking 3 on Andrew Walker before we were halfway through our over priced, mid-strength Carlton Draughts, Ablett Snr.’s car-yard attacker committing suicide, the continued impressive form of Matthew Stokes, James Kelly getting dropped, Mrs. Watson predicting Cameron Ling would seemingly be doing nothing but end up with 25+ possessions again, Matty Scarlett kicking a rare goal and Cam Mooney impressing us all at CHF again. But, as I said in the beginning, it might be best to just keep my mouth shut this week… Ah, what the Hell.

Geelong has left themselves plenty to do to make the finals this season. And even if they do make it, we can not expect a higher finishing position than 8th, or, counting on the usual Richmond and/or Collingwood collapse, possibly 7th. And you’d think, (according to our target market research) being a reasonably intelligent, AFL and history aware, partially environmentally conscious, male aged 22-35, that not much damage can be done in the finals from there. No second chance you’d say. And you’d be right, and I’d agree with you, being a reasonably intelligent, AFL and history aware, partially environmentally conscious, male aged 22-35.

The thing is, however, the team finishing in 8th position plays 5th in the first week of the finals. And the winner of that game plays the loser of 1st vs. 4th. Confused? Of course not! But for those imbeciles who have just clicked over from JB’s blog, (kidding, kidding) let me attempt to clarify.

In the first week of the finals1st plays 4th, 2nd plays 3rd, 5th plays 8th and 6th plays 7th. The winners from the two top 4 games both get a week off and the losers from the bottom 4 games go home. So, the bottom 4 winners play the top 4 losers to see who gets into the preliminary finals against the two winning top 4 teams who have had a week off. More confused? Shit…

Lets put it this way; with the top 8 as it currently stands (except Geelong in 8th spot in place of Richmond, which is inevitable, really), the Cats would play the Western Bulldogs in week 1 of the finals, with the winner of that to meet the loser of Adelaide vs. Collingwood.

And I know I said I shouldn’t and wouldn’t, that it’s too early and all that, but I’ve looked ahead at the draw, as most of you would have, and it’s doable. They could finish in 8th; their first final could be against the Western Bulldogs and, assuming they win that, then Collingwood. Not too shabby, eh? Better than finishing 4th and going back to Adelaide. Ugh.

Of course, I may have just jinxed the entire rest of the season right there by mentioning all this but I figure it’s gonna be a bare coupla weeks here at Big League Little League if they do get eliminated from finals contention, so what the hell, right? Plus, it was either that or Mrs. Watson telling us all about how Cameron Ling should be captain. [Bastard! – Mrs. Watson] Yep, thought so.