A plague on both your AFL houses

AFL is many things. For some it’s a slight distraction for a few hours, for others, it’s the life force that flows through us and surrounds us, overcoming us with emotion and making other trivial aspects of existence seem insignificant (like food shopping). And it’s about this stage of the season, when the teams that had any skerrick of hope left at all, are finally done and dusted, barring a genuine footy god miracle.

Some teams have known their fate for some months now, however with just five games left before September, its official – Richmond are gone. AGAIN. Someone at the Tigers admin has to get a contagious disease expert down at Punt Rd or something because how much pain and suffering can one group of supporters endure before the Zombie gene finally mutates and 40,000 rise as one. Yep, the yellow and black apocalypse may actually come into fruition this week as the Tigers did it again, clutching defeat from the jaws of victory for the third week in a row and as if Satan himself was pulling the strings, this time it was against arch rivals Carlton. The thing is, the Tigers played their absolute guts out and Dustin Martin nearly got his removed several times in acts of pure desperation. But like a dodgy stuntman, you just had a feeling it wasn’t going to end well.

Carlton however are still alive even though it will probably take a bout of the black plague to wipe out the teams directly above them. Clearly, the season is starting to take its toll as there was almighty spankings week, and the young bodies are starting look for injuries that sound really serious.

‘Hamstring related tendonitis’ is in vogue this week, as is the ever-popular ‘ collapsed lung’. Have to mention Hawthorn, as they had probably the most significant win of the round, over Essendon. The Bombers fancied themselves too but it took less than a quarter for the Hawks to completely destroy Hirdy’s men and send their 2012 campaign spiralling towards oblivion. It’s hard to imagine that both the Blues and Essendon were flag favourites earlier on. The Hawks however look the goods and unbelievably look better WITHOUT Buddy. Scary. They face Geelong this Friday in what will be surely the best chance to beat the Cats since the 2008 GF. Surely this time…right?