AFL Results R23 - Blues do a Bradbury

As well documented on Twitter, the Blues did a Bradbury last week thanks to Hirdy & co, then almost threw it away in a thrilling weekend of footy where the permutations experts were going haywire.

Malthouse does a Bradbury

There was Ross Lyon keeping half his team in cotton wool and expecting the Cats to easily put Brisbane away. He was almost made to look silly by forfeiting a home final when the Lions scared the bejeezus out of both the Cats and Blues supporters. The Lions should've taken the points to temporarily nab 8th spot but for Ryan Lester's shot being touched on the line. At this same point in time the Power had jumped the blues booting the 1st 3 goals and looked well and truly home and hosed by midway in the 3rd quarter, leading by 39 points. While the unlucky Lions wouldve been feeling sick and sorry for themselves, this paved the way for the Crows who were taking on a decimated Ducks team at Subi, meaning they only had to win by a few goals to bridge the % gap Carlton had on them. And Norf were waiting in the wings on Sunday, needing a win over Collingwood which they duly delivered in a game where both teams wore teflon the tackle count was so low.  But somehow the Blues came back as Port ran out of puff, and yet still the Blues were incredibly lucky Broadbent's shot hit the post with seconds remaining.

Norf, the Crows, the Lions and Carlton all showed they would've put up a better show than a emotionally shot and dispirited Essendon in the finals. It was just a matter of which one.

Let's take a look at the AFL's top ten moments of the weekend, featuring the boundary umpie from 1979 who assisted Eddie Betts with a goal of the year nomination, and Jeremy Howe's usual array of screamers. One day he's gonna jump clean outa the stadium.

Roll the tape Oligarkis, then read on for the latest in Uglybustards tipping results.

Uglybustards Tipping Comp...

That was the end of the season for 10 AFL teams, but Uglybustards tipping continues right through to the Grand Final!  Now we move into the business end of the season and the last 9 finals games of tipping for 2014.  Tipping continues as normal.

Round 23 proved tricky for the leaders on the Uglybustards Tipping Ladder. Most managed 6/9 but by picking different teams. As such positions didn't change much with Sam Griggs still six in front of powerful who remained 2 in front of Craig Nettlebeck who in turn stayed one point in front of the bunch. Arnold Layne snuck past Anthony Aiello into 4th overall and 3rd place on the prize pool podium, while Mik Barley climbed from 8th to 6th and Simon Williams from 11th to 7th. Dropping back a point this week were Amy Jones, Billycat, Longee and Jack McPhee.

On the footytips.com.au site ladder Sam Griggs shot another 21 places up the ladder into the coveted 69th position and is four points off the leader.  With such an average round he could just as easily be right up the leader's clacker this week. The least picked winners were the Saints against Freo, and Norf against the Magpies, both very tippable in 20/20 hindsight.

In the Margin comp some feathers flew as the Magpies went down to Norf by 11 points. However The Lace showed her complete and utter disdain for her competitors by being only 6 points off the margin, and has cleared out by 37 points after being under severe presha last week.  Mik Barley was the only other tipster on the right side of the ledger. DrBB moved back into 2nd while glen mcphee dropped to 3rd. However with just 4 finals rounds to go its getting very close for the minor prize pool positions. Sam Griggs is 52 points behind The Lace, 4th overall and 2nd in the prize pool.  Andy has caught up to be 13 points behind Sam and level with Simon Williams, and Quokka is further 2 points back.

More details on the Tipping Ladder page if you scroll down to the Margin ladder.

In the Trivia comp I've muddled along with another average 8/10 leaving the door wide open for Griggsy if he's good enough. All he needs is two perfect 10s to draw within a point with two remaining rounds to shoot it out.  Meanwhile Rotten Ronnie might just take out 2nd place if Griggsy can't stomach the presha.

To join the electrifying Trivia comp, login to footytips.com.au then go to http://www.footytips.com.au/tipping/afl/trivia.

The Weekly Prize didn't go off this week.  Only two tipsters got anywhere near it in Beerman and yours truly. Norf did me in while Beerman missed the Saints. D'Oh!  We now have $10 up for grabs with only four games to pick this week.

All the best in the first week of the finals, and may the tipping Gods go with you.
Uglybustard.

Disclaimer: these posts are the work of an Ugly Bustard late at night after the odd tsipouro or three and are prone to contain erroneous errors.