AFL Grand Final Week

We’re up to the second half of the month of September and we all know what that means don’t we? That’s right, footy finals and to be more specific, AFL footy finals time.

The Grand Final combatants have been decided and Geelong are going to try to make it two in a row when they take on Hawthorn. I’m very pleased to point out that in our local tipping comp at the start of the season we were ask to nominate our two grand finalists and I picked them both. What I probably shouldn’t point out but will in the spirit of full disclosure is that the majority of tipsters also picked Geelong and Hawthorn as their Grand Finalists.

So after 22 rounds of AFL football this year plus 3 weeks of finals, we’ve reached the point that most people knew we’d be at half a year ago.

Each year you sort of get a feel for the teams that look as though they are building up to becoming forces in coming years. Hawthorn gave this impression way back when they were plumbing 12th – 14 places on the ladder. This year I reckon that team is Richmond. They were a little unlucky to miss the 8 and appear to have a team of young, talented footballers who are starting to display the ability they have only hinted at in previous years. It will all depend on how they fare during this year’s draft.

Apart from that little prediction I won’t do anything so crass as to give my own rating on each team’s performance during the year. All I will say is that I have enjoyed the way both Geelong and Hawthorn have gone about their games, both of them are highly entertaining teams that make the ground admission price more than worthwhile, which is more than I can say for some of the teams who made the final 8. The crowds during the final series reflected that, I think.

Tip for the grand final on Saturday is Geelong. (Surprise, surprise)