Following an invitation from Taber Talk, Chris Batchelor – winner of the Vietnam Swans AFL Tipping Comp – has just announced his tips for the first week of the finals (the Goose has given them to us even before we know the teams).

Ex-president Taber has thrown down the gauntlet and invited me, as the yet to be officially crowned Swans tipping supremo, to provide the winners for this week’s finals. And what a HUGE challenge it is! All quality games that could go either way.

Before sticking my neck out though, I’d like to commiserate with Kutch but also thank him for falling at the last hurdle. Rumour has it that he did so as a result of firstly, his aversion to picking Adelaide and secondly, his liking for the Dogs. It begs the question: Will Geelong do the same thing – that is lead all year then lose the Big One?

Thanks also to the competition manager and all other tipsters whose ongoing participation has helped make this year’s footy season more interesting and enjoyable.

One other question unrelated to the tipping but linked to the blog picture of our esteemed ex-president: How big is Taber’s nose? I reckon we could invite estimates and provide the closest one (to the nearest metre) with a bottle of JB. Just a thought.

Now for the tips. All usual guarantees though: 

• Port Adelaide to beat West Coast at home by 13 points on Friday night. Attendance 43,901
• Adelaide to upset the young Hawks by 18 points in a goal fest at Telstra Dome on Saturday. Attendance 43,075
• Sydney to beat Collingwood by 15 points in a low scoring game at the MCG on Saturday night. Attendance 83,173
• Geelong to win a close one, by 5 points, against North Melbourne at the MCG. Attendance 72,421

Depending on how I go this week, I suppose next week, if invited, I could provide quarter by quarter scores, first goal kickers for each match and estimated pensioner train fares from The G (Richmond) to Nar Nar Goon.

Go Pies!!!

Belated news from the hard hitting, opinionated Taber… 

Please accept my apologies for this week’s brief, late report. The fact is I took an extra day to show my full respect for the Monday National Holiday here in Vietnam.

I was too busy to catch up with a lot of AFL news over the weekend but was amazed to read Scotty Lucas bagged 7 goals in the last quarter to nearly bowl over the Eagles, who led by 40 points at ¾ time in Perth. Equally shocking was the performance of the whole Hawthorn team against Sydney.

The race for the last finals spot ended Friday night when the Crows minced the pies. Can the Hawks and Pies bounce back this week in do or die matches? And all Blues supporters would like to say ‘Tanks’ to Andrew Demetriou for rewarding  their poor performances  over recent years and allowing Carlton to gather the prized 1^st round draft pick!

Most elite athletes place a lot of importance in timing. Not our esteemed President Mr Phil Johns. Fifteen minutes before the first bounce of The Vietnam Swans v Hong Kong Dragons game he’s just finishing filling his belly with the biggest Burger ‘n’ Chips imaginable.  He only moved then because Coach Stacey was bellowing at him over the phone while his guest paid the bill! And then he let’s his mate take the rap for being late with the gear!

I will pay Phil some dues though. When he headed deep into the forward pocket in the 1^st quarter I thought it was to regurgitate his late breakfast but instead he produced a magical Daicos-like dribbling goal!

It’s a very interesting 1^st round of finals. Let’s see if recent history repeats itself with the 4 teams in the bottom half of the 8 dropping out after week two.

In closing I’d like to challenge our winning Swans tipster, Chris Batchelor, to allow the public into his way of thinking and publish his tips for this week on the blog. Well done Chris! I reckon Kutch deserves a huge huge bottle of JB to drown his sorrows after leading the tipping for most of the year only to just get pipped on the line. It was a great effort from Sri also, with only the points margins separating our top three tipsters.

DT