Race for eighth ON but Tigers let off hook: Run Home after Round 18Max Laughton
Fox Sports
July 18th, 20228. RICHMOND (9-8, 115%)Remaining gamesRound 19: Fremantle at Marvel Stadium
Round 20: Brisbane Lions at the MCG
Round 21: Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval
Round 22: Hawthorn at the MCG
Round 23: Essendon at the MCG
Historic chance of playing finals from current record: 46%
Remaining fixture difficulty: 9th-hardest
Oh dear.
An almost automatic win against North Melbourne has been baked into Richmond’s projections for a while; they should’ve won (on expected score they won by four-plus goals), but poor goalkicking and more late-game brainfades cost them another close one.
This is why we had been saying Richmond was the strong favourite for eighth... as long as nothing went catastrophically wrong. Well, losing from 40 points up one week, then losing to one of the worst teams since the competition went national, counts as things going catastrophically wrong.
The only good news was Gold Coast’s loss to Essendon, which makes it much harder for anyone below the Tigers to reach 13 wins.
The Tigers are still our favourites for eighth, but barely, facing the same equation as the other nine-win teams St Kilda and the Bulldogs - two games against the bottom six, then three tough ones.
Getting to 13 wins would now be an accomplishment - they would either need to beat two top four teams, or one and a Port Adelaide side in Adelaide, where they’ve beaten the Swans, Suns and Dogs at home.
But they probably don’t need to reach 13. It’d help. 12 may be enough, as long as the wins are by big enough margins, and the Suns don’t blow out North Melbourne by 100 in the final round or something crazy.
The Tigers have the edge. We’d still be surprised if they missed the eight from here - but not shocked. It’s a genuine race.
Fox Footy’s projection: 11.9 wins, finishing 8th
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PROJECTED WEEK 1 OF FINALSFirst Qualifying Final (1st hosts 4th): Geelong Cats vs Fremantle at the MCG
First Elimination Final (5th hosts 8th): Collingwood vs Richmond at the MCGSecond Elimination Final (6th hosts 7th): Sydney Swans vs Carlton at the SCG
Second Qualifying Final (2nd hosts 3rd): Melbourne vs Brisbane Lions at the MCG
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-news-2022-the-run-home-after-round-18-predicted-ladder-top-eight-finals-ladder-predictor-analysis-fixture/news-story/86fc0ba0c3f5024897209175dcbabe32