Carlton play Hawthorn on Friday; if Carlton lose, they will stay on 24pts and will have some of their percentage taken away, and as our nearest competitor, that has an upside for us. However, if the Hawks lose they will stay on 32 points and will only be a game away from us if we beat North. That means that we'd be one win and around 10% away from taking their 6th place. Personally, I'll go for a win for the ball baggers.
Collingwood can beat Freo as far as I'm concerned. We'll never pinch their spot, and Freo are still level with us, despite conceding 9%.
Adelaide and Richmond are next. If Richmond lose that puts us a bit clearer of another of our 24pt neighbours, however if Adelaide lose they already have a weaker percentage to us and their 5th spot would only be 2 wins away, rather than 3. Think I'll go for the Tigers.
Then it's a battle of the coasts in Perth, it doesn't matter what I want here, so let's move on.
Essendon play the dogs on Sat night, while Sydney host their new neighbours in the west. Not much chance of the Bulldogs winning or Sheedy's newbies giving us a little present but we'd all take that I assume, as either opens the gate to the spots 2-5. The only only upside to a win for the favourites is that if we don't beat North, the doggies will still be 4 pts away from us, with much lower percentage. Still, I'm plumping for shock defeats to the high flying Swans and Bombers.
Geelong take on Port Adelaide the next day, and while it's unlikely, a Cats loss would be great for us as it would mean that we could overtake them on percentage with a win. It's true that Port would only be 4 pts behind us if we lose, but that is fine by me. A cats win would keep us rooted at 8th. If we can't finish higher than Port then we deserve to be bottom of the damn ladder. So I'll go for a win to the terriers in teal.
Finally, the Loyuhns lie in wait for Melbourne's Dreamons. If the home town gets the shock loss, that will save us from falling further than 13th for now, if the Dees lose, that puts a bit more pressure on us to escape mid-table embarrassment. Maybe that pressure would be handy actually. I don't really mind either way, but at a push, play safe and go for a big Melbourne victory.
Of course if we keep winning nothing else will matter, and likewise if we keep losing. Where we end up is what we deserve, but anyway in the back of my head, I'll be going for
BLUES
MAGPIES
TIGERS
SUNS
BULLDOGS
GIANTS
POWER
DEMONS
SAINTS
Which is unfortunate, as out of those 9 results, only one is certain, one is probable, 3 are possible and the rest have got no chance. I won't jinx it by telling you which category I put our game in.
At the end of this round, the absolute best we could hope for is for us to be 7th position, 4pts under Hawthorn but with a higher percentage. At absolute worst, we could get overtaken by the Blues, the Roos and Freo and drop to 11th, level with the Bulldogs in 14th place. I'd expect us to stay 8th with only the Blues level with us at 9th, but 4 points and percentage away from 6th.
GO SAINTS!
