Frolicking with the footy gods

I don't believe in God, the one who loves me and has a personal plan for my salvation, but is quite happy to send me to eternal damnation if my reason (given by Him) leads me to conclude that He doesn't exist.

I'll believe in the footy gods though; they love no-one but the game, they are as capricious as the bounce of the Sherrin. They love the great spectacle, but understand that it must be given sparingly. I give praise that they bestowed a spectacle yesterday, and wore a red & black scarf whilst they did so!

They slew Hille in the opening minutes then steeled Ryder with the spirit that the day is about, to step in for a fallen comrade. They slighted Rocca, then took the dream of a boy called Zakaharis and made it true.

All to the good, but a small god took the time to play a little trick on Boarking, who thought himself 5 out of 5, after tipping all yesterday's upsets, who thought himself on for 8, a collection of the work comps' $250 jackpot, and the kudos of tipping 8 when few can. But the little god has messed with his tips, or else he forgot to save his changes, and finds he hadn't tipped the tiggers after all. Amid much gnashing of teeth, there was a powerfull whiff of deja vu.
Oh well...

Some bemoan the mixing of footy with the ANZAC sacrifice, and the depiction of players antics with the terminolgy applicable to real soldiers in real wars. I don't mind. Football and other team sports were founded in the English public school system as a preparation for war. I, for one, am quite happy when sport becomes a replacement for war.

Don't pay out before correct weight

It seems a long time ago now.
Round one and one of those nasty Collingwood types down the pub goaded me into accepting a $20 wager on whether Pies or Dons would finish atop the home&away ladder. The Dons had started brightly but little was expected of them whilst much was expected in Pie-land.
----
At around round eleven the season was going to plot and then some; the Pies were on fire, polishing off the mighty Cats by a 14 goal margin before following up with a shellacking of the Eagles; the Dons, meanwhile, had lost 8 on the trot including beltings by such powerhouses as Richmond, as well as an ANZAC Day to forget (fortunately, due to my alcohol consumption that day I largely had).
Well, I was heartily sick of the subject of this wager by this stage of proceedings and insisted against strong opposition on paying out my twenty in a vain attempt to put the matter to bed.
----
Now it is haunting me.
The Pies are losing games and players, off-field dramas suck their morale and President Eddie has jets of steam exiting his ears. Whilst Essendon are coming home with the wet sail, four point and percentage behind the disintegrating Pies with four games to go.
Back in June you'd have got about 1000/1 with a bookie on our wager, now it is probably at about evens.
----
It is to my eternal shame that I will never get that $20 back, nevermind the $20 I might yet win, at least in an alternate universe where I am a man of faith.
----
What of this weeks tips you ask: Cats & Hawks, of course; Port to upset the Blues; Saints over the Collywobbles; Swans over Freo possibly; North over the Dogs (who are in September mode); Crows & Dons to finish off.

18 tips

All the home teams, therefore two upsets: Collingwood & North.

I have an irrational feeling about the former and cannot figure why the latter could be an upset.

Lunacy & footy tipping

I better take a break from politics or I'll blow a gasket.

Back to footy, it is, where the Boarkinger is throwing out the rule book. There's no point in finishing the tipping in 20th place, therefore it's time to fly high or crash and burn in the process. We're going on gut feeling and half-hunches, we're tipping away teams and avoiding favourites.

We're tipping: pies, doggies (over cats at the cattery!), bombers, lions, hawks, carlton, port & freo.

We Trust that God is With Us.

Turning into the home straight...

Still recovering from Sunday's horror. I've barely had a wink of sleep since.
Now as the Council tipping comp turns for home at round 15, I find myself a bit off the pace, cracking the whip with fury.
In this somewhat strained analogy, "cracking the whip" means tipping underdogs. The best u-dog to be tipping of late, is my Dons who are coming good. The Bombers have had a decent run of late at the 'Dome against Brisbane. 2001 was a long time ago.
Lots of close games this week according to the bookies. I'm going for the home teams apart from the Tigers. They've got form at Subiaco and can continue the Eagles losing streak, I hope.
My apologies to Blues fans: my tipping against the Saints will likely ensure they win.
STOP PRESS: Just heard on the radio that Richo is out. Maybe I should go all home teams?
Oooh, indecision creeping in.

Late tipping news

The hypothetical reader was shocked at the failure of this blog to get in the tips before last weekend. What could be distracting Ernst? Not romance, surely?

The weekend proved challenging for the tipper, the three out of six on the Boarking sheet, assisted by the Dons getting over the line in Subiaco, looks pretty reasonable. I missed out on Carlton and kicking myself on it; I’d never have tipped Richmond if I’d known about all the centenary hype surrounding their game, you just know they muck up games like that. Can’t work out the saints, my tips suffer accordingly. Like everyone, I missed Melbourne.

This weekend I’m fairly confident on Geelong and going for the Pies over Swans. The Swans are rightfully favourites, however:
Pies have excellent record in Sydney,
They’ve a few good Ins,
Their form is not as bad as recent results might suggest,
They need the win more.
It’s painful, but I must barrack for Collingwood this weekend… urgh!

Lucky rd. 13 (and use of semi-colons)

I keep having good ideas for writing decent blog posts but never manage to finish them lately; so it's back to the footy where even I'm losing interest after a disatrous last round of 4 miserable ticks. Now, suddenly six off the pace at work, I find myself looking for the upset each round to play myself back into contention. This week is easy, the upset is my nice bombers.

(Did you notice that semi-colon in the first sentence? Neat, huh? I got complimented this week for my use of a semi-colon in an email; it's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me, but now I'm a bit scared to use them in case I muck it up. No point in being timid, I guess)

FREO are back, especially against the SAINTS
HAWKS, PORT, DOGGIES and SWANNIES, no worries
LIONS over CROWS, but bit worried
DONS to do to BLUES what Blues did to Pies.

ate a dozen

The Boarking readership is plummeting but I'm determined to persevere, especially tonight, where I'm tipping my Dons for the 1st time since rd.3.

In other news, for this juicy round: North over Freo, Doggies over Lions, Crows over Hawks, Swans over Saints, Cats over Port, Pies over Blues, and for their 2nd win of the season; Dees over Tigers who are giving indications of losing the plot.

It's good to have a round, where there are a few games to think about, rather than going with all the faves.

Footy 11

Was looking okayish for 8 at 3/4 time on Sunday evening last week, but bloody, bloody Freo, what a shower of's...

Hard to tip against the faves this week, to wit: NORTH, CROWS, HAWKS, SWANS, LIONS, DOGS, PORT, PIES.

If I was tempted to go for an upset, it'd be the SAINTS, a possibility, especially with the outrageous suspension of in-form doggie Murphy.

Also, I've this vaguely good vibe about my Dons (up against the Hawks), it's probably just heart ruling head.

Eight out of ten ‘aint bad…

Here’s my 8 for 10:
CROWS over DONS, Scotties back but it’s not likely to save us, alas.
Hot PIES
DOGGIES to upset HAWKS, going on an uneasy gut feeling here.
LIONS, CATS, SWANS, SAINTS & FREO to round it off.

aflate

Apologies to my imaginary reader who awaits the Boarking tips b4 putting in their own. Though it might not do you much harm... I'm watching CATS vs PIES on tele and the pies are three big ones up. Like most, I'm going for geelong.

For the rest, FREO over BLUES, the dockers can't keep chucking games in the last qtr.
SYD over PORT, though would be more confident if it was in sydney.
CROWS over WCE, obviously.
TIGERS over my BOMBERS who seem to have given up.
LIONS over SAINTS, no worries.
DEES are paying $11, could be worth a $1 bet at the bookies, but we tip the lucky bastid HAWKS in this rd.1 rematch.
DOGS over ROOS, not massively confident.

I've got the footytips.com.au page up as I type, showing Geelong paying $8. This is either an error, or I've done my tipping dough tonight, bearing in mind I'm watching an hour behind...

Bugger!

afl8

Club footy is back and the Boarking tipping machine is right on it. Only going for one upset this round, and that's tonight, the team I can't tip gets my tip of death: SAINTS over PIES. The Saints have some serious outs but a couple of alright ins too. It's nice to tip against the Pies even when it's not sensible.

For the rest we go with the bookies:
CATS over Tigers. I'm going to this game and I'll support the underdogs who will be alright, but I won't tip'em.
LIONS
HAWKS
NORTH
CROWS
SYDNEY. Rd8 and my mighty DONS are already "playing youngsters" and presumably thinking of draft picks. I won't be tipping them much for the rest of this season.
DOGGIES.

Go lock'em in!

afl 7 roundup

What's wrong with the universe? AFL timekeepers, which might explain my continuing Saints tipping hoodoo for this week.
As for the other fail: you could tip Melbourne? In fact, my brother BoarkingJnr did... he thought "they were due". He is a prescient fool!

Rd. 4 tipping notes

Still clear on the work ladder, but not playing it too safe this week. Let's face it, playing safe resulted in my worst tips of the season.

The answers are;

DONS Forget the $3.15 outsider status, this is tipping with the heart and head. We've a reasonable record recently against the SAINTS flaky superstars. I'm feeling good about it, and if I were better organised, I'd go to the game.

CATS Expect no thrashing, but doubt there'll be an upset either.

ADELAIDE After last week's thrashing by the Tiggers I, slightly perversely, crown FREO the Richmond of the West, sucking in talent, churning out mediocrity. Crows, no worries.

LIONS Very unsure. However, it's many a year since HAWKS won at the Gabba. If in doubt, home team.

PIES Should bounce after last weeks embarrassment, but it would be no surprise either should NORTH prevail.

BLUES Because DEES are so hapless.

EAGLES Great to have so many hopeless interstate teams this year. If in doubt (and indeed, there's much to doubt about both these teams), home team. Apparently, there's a heap of dosh gone on PORT, so maybe someone knows something I don't.

Tipping Rd.4

Much exulting at Boarking mansions. After 7, 7 & 8 in the first three rounds the Boarking punditry takes an outright lead atop the work ladder, whilst those in the know are starting to follow this blog closely (in my dreams).

Now, like an ordinary team with two goals up at the first break, the temptation is to try and hold out for the rest of the game. In tipping, that means go conservative. So this week, it's all the favourites, and tipping against my own Dons (which will result in confused allegiances in front of the box tonight)

So we go: DOGS, NORTH, CATS, SWANS, PORT, HAWKS, PIES, FREO...
If this lot get up, the tipping 8 pie will be divided many a way.

However you never get all 8 faves home, do you? A case can be made for several of the underdogs and if I was languishing in the pack and prepared to take risk for potential reward, I might have a look at: CROWS, LIONS, BLUES, DONS &/or DEES, probably in that order.

May luck favour the timid!

Round 2 footytipping with Boarking

Your favourite boar got seven in round one, so listen up:

LIONS Not sure, so go with home team and against PIES ‘cos we hate them

DOGS Will absolute maul the hapless DEES. Might take a financial interest in this game it’s money for old rope

CROWS Another when in doubt go home team

SAINTS Another no brainer, but a very slight chance they could muck it up

HAWKS FREO slight favourites, but you can’t argue with a 300+% can you?

SYDNEY Should all be shot for their hideous game plan, however should account for PORT at home

ESSENDON Go bombers! Heart ruling head here a bit, but we are a genuine chance (say about 25%)

NORTH After last week, my “always tip against TIGERS” policy is under review. However I’ll stick with it this week, I go with the majority that the Kangas will bounce back (though not massively confident)