It’s that time of year. We are down to the last four and there are only two weekends left in the season.
It’s been a strange and truncated season, the likes of which we haven’t seen before and hopefully will never see again. Judging by the activity on BigFooty.com the enthusiasm for AFL has waned in 2020 but this was probably to be expected.
If your team isn’t still in the running then you are not reading this to hear me wax lyrical about how impressive Geelong were vs Collingwood last weekend, even though they were! Geelong taught a master class to a Pies team that looked like they shouldn’t have bothered showing up. To be fair to Collingwood they haven’t been firing this year and only scraped into the top eight. The Pies were relegated to a warm up session for Geelong in their bid for the flag. Coach Nathan Buckley said the players were spent. It has been a short but hard season on the pies.
St Kilda came to their match ready to play a hard game and they did but Richmond are just too strong this season. Let’s face it they have been showing that consistent strength the last few years. Shane Edwards rejoined Richmond after the birth of his first child played a pivotal role along with Shai Bolton. The early goals served up by these two had St Kilda on the back foot early and the Saints never really recovered.
It’s not all bad for the Saints, they had a good season and coach Brett Ratten has combined the old guard and the new recruits into a formidable team that I predict will feature again at the finals end of the 2021 season. Watch this space.
Port Adelaide v Richmond
This Friday Port Adelaide and Richmond will go head to head. Port Adelaide beat Richmond in round 11 but Richmond have seven players on the field that didn’t play in that round. Richmond feels the stronger team but Port have rarely put a foot wrong this season so this will be a hard-fought match. It’s a shame that one of these teams will be knocked out in this round as Richmond and Port have never faced off in a Grand Final.
Brisbane v Geelong
The other match this weekend is Brisbane vs Geelong and if you were going to play the odds you would have to give it to Geelong. They have won eight of their last nine matches versus the Lions but Brisbane did win the last one so maybe we shouldn’t write them off too quickly. Both teams are fired up and looking strong this game should prove to be a proper Prelminary Final.
