Week 1, 2007 finals series

[Dry Rot]

Who is going to win each of the four games and why?

Tonight's game is interesting - why do Port have such an amazing record over the years vs WCE on any ground?

[The Coon Dog]

I have to admit that it's not the same when your team's not in it, but yeah, I'm looking forward to watching them. I usually end up barracking for the underdog, for no other reason that sometimes in sport it's nice to see the underdog prevail.

I reckon Port will beat the Eagles by 3-4 goals & even tho port are favourites I'll support them as I reckon they are doing much better than we all thought (who had them finishing 2nd before the season started?), play a nice brand of footy & I do have a soft spot for their coach. He's a former school teacher & seems to be able to get the most out of the kids. Also, with the way West Coast treated the football public over Ben Cousins, I couldn't support them.

I think Adelaide will look to strangle the life out of Hawthorn, much as Sydney always does to us. I can see this being a dour affair with Adelaide winning & kicking under 75 points.

Sydney & Collingwood is hard to pick. Collingwood has beaten Sydney both times this season & I reckon the Swannies might just turn the tables this time. As a nuetral it's very hard to support the Pies.

I can see the Cats winning by 10 goals (who remembers playing the buggers during the early 90's in the finals?) & booking a PF birth. I hope tho that the Kangas make a game of it & take it right up to Geelong, unfortunately I don't think they will.

My tips:

Port Adelaide by 22 points
Adelaide by 8 points
Sydney by 29 points
Geelong by 58 points

[DOG GOD]

i think port will take the pts especially as its in adelaide. Needs big games from ebert, and will be won out of the centre.

Port by 18 pts

Adel and hawks i think will be the closet game of the 1st week of finals. Adel will strangle the hawks runner as coon dog said, and as i work with 2 hawks supporters who flew over for the game, i hope the crows get up

adel 8 pts

Syd and coll is the hardest to pick imo. Pies have won the last 2, but sydney is a different cattle of fish come finals. If Bazza can have an impact, and barry can hold cloke/rocca then syd should win.

syd 18 pts

Something in my gut tells me the kangas are a chance against the cats at the G on sunday. Is rain predicted? I dont think it will be a whitewash like some are predicting. I wanna see the cats win, as like us, havent won a flag for awhile.

Cats 30 pts

** who do i wanna see win the flag? geelong, coz i dont like the other teams as much**

[LostDoggy]

My tips are mostly out of hope, although I would definitely prefer to see the Hawks win this week.

Port in a fairly close match, between 10 and 20 points, I'll go with 17. They have a good record over West Coast and some of the Eagles are coming off of injuries
Adelaide by about 20-30 points, they'll shut down the Hawks and have a lot of finals experience. My guess is 24 points.
Collingwood by 7 points, they have a good record over Sydney and I think they'll be wanting redemption after their previous Finals appearance
Geelong by 38 over the Roos, but I won't mind which way this game goes.

[GVGjr]

Port answered the challenge and won a close one. Not a lot of finals experience but they stood up when it counted.
Cousins hurt himself and is highly unlikely to get back again and Judd is still not right. With Kerr still on the sidelines they might struggle to get into the last four teams.

[Go_Dogs]

Port play a similar game style to us, except they have 2 quality rucks and a few 'tall targets' in the forward line. Their small forward line and quick delivery is what wins them a lot of games though. After seeing Motlop, Shaun and Peter B, Rodan, all in action last night, doing some incredible things, I cannot wait to see Harbrow, Lynch, Hill and Stack out on the park for us in coming years.

How good was Chaplin?

[Dry Rot]

Gee the cats look good. Can anybody spot any weaknesses?

[The Coon Dog]

Gee the cats look good. Can anybody spot any weaknesses?

Honestly, no.

I was at a selectors table during the season & Chris Grant compared Essendon with Geelong.

He said if you curtailed Lloyd & Lucas, you'll go along way towards beating Essendon, whereas Geelong are far more even & aren't as reliant on one or two players.

[BulldogBelle]

Gee the cats look good. Can anybody spot any weaknesses?

Geelong were awesome today absolutely streamrolled the Kangaroos...I don't feel quite so bad now after the flogging Geelong gave us after seeing them take the Kangaroos to task.

No weaknesses at all they are the real deal, I hope they go all the way and win the Premiership it would be a shame for someone else to pip them at the post.

[LostDog]

This may sound pretty stupid to some, but over the last 20 years we havent been to far away from Geelong we peak when they peak we fall when they fall very similar paths.
Just we havent taken the next step to that 1 day in September and have fallen short the week before.

I sat back in dis-belief on draft day with the talent they grabbed I hope we finally have the same fortunes on this years draft day.

And yay I always like it when there are new teams in the Grand Final sadly I was getting bored with the West Coast Vs Sydney hype,

Hawthorn vs Geelong Grand Final would be nice to see 2 young sides with big game players

[LostDoggy]

Gee the cats look good. Can anybody spot any weaknesses?

Arrogance.
I spotted a cats supporter at the Airport Friday with a Geelong 2007 Premiers jacket.

[Raw Toast]

I'm beginning to hate Hawthorn but if they had to win it was nice that they did in a way that broke Adelaide's heart

Craig doesn't have a good finals record atm, though he's clearly got much more out of the list than Ayres did.

[Mantis]

I'm beginning to hate Hawthorn but if they had to win it was nice that they did in a way that broke Adelaide's heart

Nothing, and I mean nothing makes up for what we went through.

[Raw Toast]

Nothing, and I mean nothing makes up for what we went through.

While I've enjoyed Adelaide losing the last few prelims, last year in a traumatic manner, and this year's elmination final, I'm not claiming that this is enough (far from it). I like to try and enjoy the smaller pleasures that footy offers though, even in a year as appalling as this one.

That said, if we managed to win five or six flags in a row I expect my pain over 97 (and 98) would ease a bit.