2014 Grand Final - Flopalot Delivers Daily Double

On behalf of Ugly Bustards Footy Tipping and its esteemed Board of Directors, it's my honour & privilege as Uglybustard, your humble footy tipping administrator, to announce Flopalot as the well-deserved fifteenth Uglybustards Premiership Titleholder in 2014!!!

Flopalot takes home $265 cold hard cash, the inaugural Uglybustards footy guernsey, and two first choice picks of official Uglybustards merchandise; a cap, t-shirt, executive pen or coffee mug. He'll almost have a full Uglybustards kit to strut around town in!

Read on for final 2014 standings and an assessment of the Top 11 GFs since 1966 by Brutas the Barber Mudcake...

AFL Results R21 - Freo Firm Favourites To Top Table

Get on your nearest AFL Ladder Predictor - the Fremantle Dockers can finish top. Yes that's right, and you heard it first here on Uglybustards.  All it takes is Hawks to lose to Norf and Swans, Swans to scrape home against the Cats and Hawks, Cats to lose to Swans then beat Brisbane, and for Freo to thrash Port and St Kilda.  This puts Freo on top, same points as Swans but with a healthier percentage. The top 4 finishes up Freo, Swans, Cats, Hawks with a couple of very interesting Qualifying Finals in week one of the finals series.

Ladder Prediction R21

The bottom half of the 8 is also looking very interesting. Richmond should beat Essendon and the Giants comfortably, keeping its percentage above Collingwood who face the Ducks and Norf.  The Dons will probably stumble into 7th with six losses on the trot, with Carlton and Port to play off in what could well be an Elimination Final at Aami Stadium before the real thing happens.  The winner will most likely play the Tigers, which I'm sure they'd prefer over Collingwood.  The Pies should pumble Essendon in the other Elimination Final as the Dons scandal-plagued season splutters to an end.

What's your prediction?

On to the highlights tape and Cyril celebrates the start of the EPL with some exquisite soccer skills, he played the oval ball as it were round, beat two defenders and got past the goalie to slot a major. Casboult's wasn't too bad either except he was offside.  Roll the tape Zenon, then read on for the latest in Uglybustards tipping results.

R15 AFL Results - Farcical Frees as Umps Interchange Error Cannot Curtail Kennett Curse

What a weekend of footy. The Kennett Curse continues for the 11th time despite the ridiculous interchange error by the AFL steward, not to mention the outrageous 'deliberate out of bounds' call against Kelly. The Cats overcame what looked like the Kennett Curse in Reverse for a while there, proving they'll be hard to beat in September, perhaps securing yet another flag in an odd year.

In other news Norf have come storming back into finals contention, karma is served on Jobe Watson, the Giants were denied their first win, pipped by the Bulldogs in a thriller, Josh 'the stutterer' Kennedy beats the Crows off his own boot, and the Harry O / Buckley rift seems to be on a much deeper level for Harry than if your team mate is called a lesbian by his coach. Oh yeah, and Carlton got flogged again.

Frees Against Ladder

With so many controversies this season, headed up by Essendon's Performance Enhancing Drugs saga, it is clear the current ladder must be scrapped in favour of Exhibit A, the "Frees Against" ladder.  This is only fair as the top teams on this ladder are the teams that have been crucified by Razor Ray and co., and so would have been top anyway if the umps were even half-way fair.

This ladder is bound to be far more palatable to AFL fans as the Ducks are placed where they should be - stone motherless last wooden spooners!  And the top 2 teams are those most deserving in a throwback to the late 60s - the Saints and the Blues.  It is also a timely ladder as these two play for top spot this weekend in round 16, so I can only hope the umps bring their form and penalise both teams repeatedly for absurd deliberate out of bounds and interchange errors akin to what the Cats suffered against the Hawks. It should be an intriguing affair and I'm confident Carlton can claim top spot based on current form.

And here's a special treat for success starved Blues fans; Open Mike with the Dominator. May as well live in the past cos the here and now is totally  #$%^&^%$#@.   Part 1 http://bit.ly/1aiqAMg  Part 2 http://bit.ly/16kI2YZ

Roll the round 15 highlights reel Spiros.  Read on for the latest in Uglybustards tipping results.

AFL Results R11 - Bombers Blitz Blues from Behind

The rubber-band effect was in full swing over the long weekend where two teams in the Blues and the Saints were reeled in by the Bombers and the Ducks respectively. Some very controversial umpiring decisions especially Garlett's non-goal, but the Blues only had themselves to blame for missing too many easy shots when 5 goals up. As for the Saints, when the umps got going in the last quarter the Ducks were never going to lose. 22 - 14 free kick count for the Ducks. They've lost only 2 counts to round 11 this year and top the "ladder" for free kicks. At this time last year they'd lost just one free kick count. Not much has changed in Ducks games, whereas other matches were deemed to be well umpired in general by both winning and losing coaches.

The Gold Coast Suns are on fire and the Giants put on a bold display against the Cats, and they too will be a force - it is Demetriou's main objective to get these two teams in the finals asap, and win a Premiership. That leaves a team like Melbourne with just about no hope whatsoever.

The other talking point for the round is the ramp up of the Swans. Get your hard-earned on them now for the Flag. Two years ago when the Juddy Blues beat them in the wet at the SCG I could've sworn they were on the downhill slide to mediocre mid-tableness. Now, in two weeks time, I'm sure they'll absolutely slaughter the Blues, who are looking very mid-table indeed. Who would've picked it?

Let's roll the tape for round 11. I can't watch this week.  Too many Bomber highlights. Hit it, Aris, then on to the Uglybustards tipping results.

AFL Grand Final Review & Tipping Prizes

What a Grand Final. Gotta be the best one I've seen in 40 years. Pips the Swans own classics Vs the Weagles a few year back, and even both drawn Grannies in 1977 and 2010. It left me with the feeling that any team can win it, you don't need high draft picks, its about working with what you've got. Try to name the Swans star forwards to compare with Roughhead, Buddy and Cyril, and you'll see what I mean.

Read on for more on the GF, the video highlights, then the final results and prize winners for 2012 Uglybustards Tipping.