ISTS Footy Pools for 2024 - Round 5

So the Matildas had a good 2-0 win against Mexico on Wednesday with Russo spearing a strike through traffic to find the net at 9 minutes and Caitlan Fuld doing some fancy footwork with a deftly controlled shot into the top right corner of the net.

Lots of commentary on who might get rubbed out for dangerous tackles involving the head, and who might not.  Let's see how this plays out.

A few more upsets this week.  Only 8% of us picked the Bombers over the Bullies as we have seen how hard it is to pick the Bombers this year.  And now questions are being asked about the Doggies!  The next least tipped was Adelaide getting over the Blue Baggers by just 11% of us.  But wait, there is more!  Just 15% chose Brisbane to have a win at the MCG against the Demons.  And finally the lesser of the upsets was West Coast getting their first win over the Tigers (who are difficult to predict as well). 19% picked the Eagles which shows a few folks thought they were due for that win.   So a bunch of myths were debunked this week.  And there could have been more upsets has the Sainters gotten over the stagnant final quarter Giants and the Power only just got back to beat the Dockers.

So enough of this as there is only one thing to do!  Let's not gather round but all look together!!

ISTS AFL Pools 2024 - Round 5 Results for Tipsters

This week, you needed to get 7 correct for the round out of 8 matches (picking 3 of the upsets). There were just 3 winners this week each earning $24.03.

Congratulations to David Jones, Kathy Lange and Patricia Coulthard.

This week's ladder is thinning out a bit. All own her own at the top of the ladder, we have Patricia Coulthard on 37 points. She is closely followed by the head-high tacklers of Christopher Blake, Michael Sands, Len Colgan and Alan Brideson on 35 points. Showing no mercy, we next have Neville Rankine, Brett Heritage, Jossalyn Murphy and Marek Pokorny on 34 points. Hunting in packs are Tracey Goode, Anthony Beck, Lisa Morgan, Ian Duncan, Ian Mills, Bruce Thomas, Andrew (Farewell UniSA) Crook, Darren Garbin, Vicki Allen and Scott Ainsworth on 33 points. Running from the back lines are John Boland, Kirsty Rogerson, Gary Wood, Grant Williams, Ben Stevens, Brian Quick, Catherine Nairn, Chris Cox, Adam Mather, Justin Faggotter, Justin King, Bayden Smith, Tristan Bibbo and Dominic Marafioti on 32 points.

This week's big movers and shakers begins with Darren Garbin up 23, Bruce Thomas up 17, Kathy Lange up 16, Les Shalhoub, Chris Sleeman, Anthony McAvaney and Jenny Quilliam up 15, Justin King up 14, Kate Adriaans, Ed Jacobs, David Jones, Si Michie and David Shaw up 12, Lynette Duncan up 11, Bernie McGrath, Ken Sleeman and Anthony Beck up 10, Sam Cooper up 9, Karen Hickman up 8, Tracey Goode and Ryan Tyler up 7, Michael Sands and Alan Brideson, up 6.

The current 32nd last place holder is Randall Kiesewetter who fell 6 places. Last week it was James Lipsham who fell 3 spots.

This week there were 27 distinct tips, 8 less than Gather Round but there was 1 less game to tip. 

The average total score is 29.8 and the average score this round was 4.2.

The Power are currently up to 3rd on the ladder with 4 wins from 5. Port have the Pies at the MCG on Saturday afternoon.  Should be a cracker.

The Crows are still 14th on the ladder with 1 from 5.  Adelaide have the Bombers next week at AO on Friday night.

Round 6 also starts Thursday so remember to tip that first match between the Saints and Bulldogs.  There are only 8 matches to tip this week as the Demons and Tigers have the bye.

Rocky reporting for the ISTS AFL Pools - 2024

ISTS Footy Pools for 2024 - Round 4 - GATHER ROUND 

It was apparently a huge second GAR=THER ROUND in Adelaide and surrounds with 2 matches at Mt Barker, 2 at the Parade and 5 at Adelaide Oval.  Maybe the Barossa might get a chance next year?  It certainly was a boost for the economy with Motel Occupancy at record highs.

Apologies for the late posting of results but it was a big Sunday for me with my little Granddaughter Maeve's Christening and lunch after with the Japanese Grand Prix on mid afternoon.  By the time I caught my Uber home I was in no condition to complete the results then.  I am also babysitting said granddaughter today but she is very good for a 1.5 yo todler. 

So another of this as there is only one thing to do!  Let's gather round and all look together!!

ISTS AFL Pools 2024 - Round 4 Results for Tipsters

This week, you needed to get 9 correct for the round. There were 35 winners this week each earning $2.06.

Congratulations to Brian Simpson, Lisa Morgan, Catherine Nairn, Adam Mather, Peter Kiley, Ian Mills, Chris Cox, Brett Heritage, Amy Challans, Bob Ellis, Scott Ainsworth, Darren Garbin, Grant Williams, Bill Verrier, Leonie Challans, Gary Wood, Dale Grigg, Paul Sherlock, Christopher Blake, Ian Duncan, Garth Challans, Anthony Beck, Michael Sands, Jason Allsopp, Justin Faggotter, Alan Brideson, Malcolm Parsons, Andy Duncan, Sandy Ellis, Marek Pokorny, Vicki Allen, Michael Nettle, Tracey Goode, John Whittaker and Juris Wulfius.

This week's ladder is very interesting. At the top of the ladder, we now have the Gather Round Crowd of Patricia Coulthard, Christopher Blake, Neville Rankine, Brett Heritage, Len Colgan, Jossalyn Murphy and Marek Pokorny on 30 points. Next we have the bunch of John Boland, Michael Sands, Lisa Morgan, Alan Brideson, Ian Duncan, Ian Mills, Andrew Crook, Vicki Allen and Scott Ainsworth on 29 points. They are followed by the plethora of Tracey Goode, Kirsty Rogerson, Gary Wood, Grant Williams, Anthony Beck, Ben Stevens, Brian Quick, Catherine Nairn, Chris Cox, Adam Mather, Justin Faggotter, Bayden Smith, Tristan Bibbo and Dominic Marafioti on 28 points.

This week's big movers and shakers begins with Peter Kiley and Darren Garbin up 24, Brian Simpson, Malcolm Parsons, Sandy Ellis, Jason Allsopp, John Whittaker and Dale Grigg up 23, Leonie Challans and Amy Challans up 22, Justin Faggotter, Andy Duncan, Paul Sherlock and Juris Wulfius up 20, Bill Verrier, Bob Ellis and Chris Cox up 18, Catherine Nairn up 17, Michael Nettle up 16, Brett Douglas up 14, Adam Mather up 13, Garth Challans up 12.

The current 32nd last place holder is James Lipsham who fell 17 places. Last week it was Ken Sleeman who fell 7 spots.

This week there were 35 distinct tips.

The average total score is 25.6 and the average score this round was huge at 7.7.

The Power are currently 6th on the ladder with 3 wins from 4. Port have the Dockers at AO on Saturday evening.

The Crows are currently 15th on the ladder with none from 4.  Adelaide have Carlton next week at Marvel Stadium on Saturday afternoon (twilight).

Round 5 starts Thursday so remember to tip that first match between the Demons and Lions.  There are only 8 matches to tip this week as the Pies and Swans have the bye.

Rocky reporting for the ISTS AFL Pools - 2024

ISTS Footy Pools for 2024 - Round 3 

A big shout out to Paul Sherlock for his birthday today!  I won't tell you which decade he is embarking on now but the App for the TV station with the same number has a "Plus" in it!  After all, it is April Fools Day!

Despite the BYEs for this round for the Suns and Giants, there were some big upsets in half of the matches.  Brisbane's loss to the Pies on their home dung hill was only predicted by 8% as both teams were looking for their first win of the season and most of us picked the home team.  The next closest was the Demons getting over the Power at AO which was only predicted by 11% of us.  Almost as close were the Tigers prevailing over the Swans in a thriller with just 12% of us picking Richmond.  Lastly, Essendon edging out the Saints was only chosen by 18% of us.  So how many could anyone get right this week to win the money?

There is only one thing to do!  And that is....  Lets all look together!!

ISTS AFL Pools 2024 - Round 3 Results for Tipsters

This week, you needed to get 6 correct out of 8 for the round.  That means tipping two of the upsets essentially.  There were just 4 winners this week each earning $18.03.

Congratulations to Karen Teague, Michael Sands, Christopher Blake and Neville Rankine.

This week's ladder is evolving ready to gather in the next round!. At the top of the ladder, we now have John Boland, Patricia Coulthard, Neville Rankine, Len Colgan and Jossalyn Murphy on 22 points. Closely folllowing are Christopher Blake, Kirsty Rogerson, Brett Heritage, Andrew Crook, Marek Pokorny and Kristy Johns on 21 points. Still within striking distance are Michael Sands, Brian Quick, Lisa Morgan, Alan Brideson, Ben Stevens, Ian Duncan, Heather Mander, Ian Mills, Stephen Stone, Bayden Smith, Tristan Bibbo, Vicki Allen, Dominic Marafioti and Scott Ainsworth on 20 points.

This week's big movers and shakers begins with Michael Sands up 52, Karen Teague up 38, David Shaw and Nicole King up 24, Robert Smith up 23, Tristan Bibbo up 21, Kate Adriaans and Adam Mather up 18, Sam Cooper and Grant Williams up 17, Stephen Stone, Bayden Smith and Brian Quick up 16, Christopher Blake up 14, James Lipsham, Melissa Williams, Anne Petrie and Michelle Ah Matt up 13, Chris Sleeman up 12, Jenny Butler and Craig Jones up 11 and Jo Tonkin up 10.

The current 32nd last place holder is Ken Sleeman who fell 2 places. Last week it was Kate Adriaans who rose 18 spots.

This week there were 23 distinct tips for 8 matches while last week there were 37 tip patterns for the same number of matches.

The average total score is 17.9 and the average score this round was 4.1 down 1.3 from last week due to the upsets. 

The Power are currently 8th on the ladder with 2 wins from 3.

The Crows are currently 15th on the ladder with none from 3. 

We still won't get an accurate reading of the ladder until each team has played 5 times and had a Bye at the end of Round 6.

Next week is GATHER ROUND with all matches played in SA and it starts early on Thursday night with the Crows vs Demons at AO.  On Friday evening, the Lions take on The Parade and at 7:40pm, the Power tackle the Essendon Edge.  At least it finishes on Sunday evening with the Pies vs Hawks at AO.

Rocky reporting for the ISTS AFL Pools - 2024

ISTS Footy Pools for 2024 - Round 2 

I was seriously busy at the Grand Prix because the track invasion never happened and while we packed everything away in record time, we took the opportunity to debrief over a few convivials which still stopped me doing these results until now.

So when I turned my computer off and told them to go away for a while, I finally got this done.

So now there is only one thing to do!  And that is....  Lets all look together!!

ISTS AFL Pools 2024 - Round 2 Results for Tipsters

This week, you needed to get 8 correct for the round - believe it or not! There were 2 winners this week each earning $36.05.

Congratulations to Patricia Coulthard and John Boland.

This week's ladder is very interesting. At the top of the ladder, we now have John Boland, Patricia Coulthard, Len Colgan, Kirsty Rogerson, Brett Heritage and Jossalyn Murphy on 17 points. Next we have Neville Rankine, HeatherMander, Lisa Morgan, Alan Brideson, Ben Stevens, Ian Duncan, Andrew Crook, Marek Pokorny, Ian Mills, Vicki Allen, Kristy Johns, Dominic Marafioti and Scott Ainsworth on 16 points. Next we have Christopher Blake, Tracey Goode, Joanna Sundstrom, Steven Burnett, Gary Wood, Anthony Beck, Paul Sherlock, Clifford Sleeman, Anthony McAvaney, Brian Quick, Bruce Thomas, Les Shalhoub, Bernie McGrath, Karen Hickman, Ed Jacobs, Chris Cox, Stephen Stone, Bayden Smith, Scott Gage, Catherine Nairn, Trudi Bishop, Mary Taylor, Lisa Holloway, Tristan Bibbo, Justin King and Justin Faggotter on 15 points.

This week's big movers and shakers begins with Patricia Coulthard up 48, Ed Jacobs up 36, Scott Ainsworth up 34, Chris Sleeman and James Lipsham up 30, Vaneet Dhiman up 28, Dominic Marafioti up 27, Chris Cox, John Boland and HeatherMander up 23, Kristy Johns up 22, Vicki Allen and Grant Wigley up 20, Adam Mather up 16, Jason Allsopp and Brett Douglas up 15, Selene Stone Ainsworth, Peter Kiley, William Johns-Thompson, Kate Adriaans, Sandy Ellis, Randall Kiesewetter, Si Michie and Michelle Ah Matt,

The current 32nd last place holder is Kate Adriaans who rose 13 places. Last week it was Heather Mander who rose 23 spots.

This week there were 37 distinct tips.

The average total score is 13.7 and the average score this round was 5.4.

The Power are currently 3rd on the ladder with 2 wins from 2.

The Crows are currently 10th on the ladder with none from 2. 

We won't get an accurate reading of the ladder until each team has played 5 times and had a Bye at the end of Round 6.

Rocky reporting for the ISTS AFL Pools - 2024

ISTS Footy Pools for 2024 - Round 1 

I am setting up the the Australian Grand Prix next week so there is only one thing to do!  And that is....  Lets all look together!!

ISTS AFL Pools 2024 - Round 1 Results for Tipsters

This week, you needed to get 8 correct for the round. There were 9 winners this week each earning $8.01.

Congratulations to Joanna Sundstrom, Tracey Goode, Len Colgan, Kirsty Rogerson, Steven Burnett, Jossalyn Murphy, Christopher Blake, Brett Heritage and Neville Rankine.

This week's ladder is very interesting. At the top of the ladder, we now have Len Colgan, Kirsty Rogerson, Brett Heritage, Jossalyn Murphy, Christopher Blake, Tracey Goode and Neville Rankine on 11 points. Next we have Joanna Sundstrom, Steven Burnett, Lisa Morgan, Alan Brideson, Ben Stevens, Sam Cooper, Brian Quick, Ian Duncan, Andrew Crook, Bruce Thomas, Les Shalhoub, Marek Pokorny, Ian Mills, Bernie McGrath and Karen Hickman on 10 points.

The current 32nd last place holder is Craig Jones. Last week it was HeatherMander who rose 41 spots.

This week there were 38 distinct tips.

The average total score is 8.3 and the average score this round was 6.3.

The Power are currently 5th on the ladder.

The Crows are currently 10th on the ladder. 

We won't get an accurate reading of the ladder until each team has played 5 times and had a Bye at the end of Round 6.

Rocky reporting for the ISTS AFL Pools - 2024

Welcome to the ISTS Footy Pools for 2024 . 

This competition is in its 14th year using a web site to help with the tips entry and results production!

I am still heavily involved in motor racing and Lions this year so match reports might be briefer at times.

We have the extra Round 0 this year with just 4 matches just to confuse everyone.  The Fantasy league doesn't even include that as a scoring round probably because it is the shortest round this year.  The 8 teams that play in Round 0 get a Bye (2 teams at a time) in Rounds 2, 3, 5 and 6.  Round 4 is that Gather Round where all matches are played in South Australia.   Got it?   The usual Bye rounds are later in the season so let's worry about that then.

So we effectively have 25 rounds of footy for the Minor round part of the season and hence the fee is up to $25 this year.  It feels like the AFL don't want Rugby League to have a much longer season than AFL.

Also - I did put in the original message that the web site has been updated so that when you tap or click your team and it is instantly recorded.  If it goes green it was seen!

There is no submit button for tips anymore.

In 2023, we had 109 punters.  This year we have 103.  The prize money looks like this.

Based on our tipsters, there was one upset.  It wasn't the defeat of reigning Premiers, Collingwood by the Giants.  That was actually 50/50 but the Blues' wafer thin win over the Lions at the Gabba!   It was only predicted by 2% of us so it is feeling like getting all 4 tips correct in this round might be a bridge too far!

ISTS AFL Pools 2024 - Round 0 Results for Tipsters

This week, you needed to get 7 correct for the round.   ll matches except the upsets!  There were 4 winners this week each earning $19.08.

Congratulations to Anne Petrie, Patricia Coulthard, Brett Heritage and Si Michie.

This week, you needed to get 3 correct for the round. There were a plethora of 33 winners this week each earning $2.18.

Congratulations to Grant Williams, Marek Pokorny, Karen Hickman, Pat Sleeman, Heather Mander, Kirsty Rogerson, Neville Rankine, Sam Cooper, Alan Brideson, Ian Mills, Bernie Hoffmann, Clifford Sleeman, Lisa Morgan, Brian Quick, Les Shalhoub, Jossalyn Murphy, Tracey Goode, Brett Heritage, Andrew Crook, Bill Verrier, Bruce Thomas, Gary Wood, Ryan Bailey, Len Colgan, Bernie McGrath, John Boland, Christopher Blake, Ben Stevens, Anthony McAvaney, Paul Sherlock, Jenny Quilliam, Ian Duncan and Anthony Beck.

This week's ladder is not worth worrying about too much because so many people are on the same score.  

The current 32nd last place holder is Robert Smith.

This week there were 9 distinct tip patterns.

The average total score is 2.0 and the average score this round was 2.0.

As usual, it looks like for most of us, it will take a while to get our heads around this year.

Rocky reporting for the ISTS AFL Pools - 2024

 The Grand Final!

Results for the Grand Final Round 4 of ISTS AFL Footy Pools for the year 2023!

97 Punters, 9 finals matches, who will be the top 5 punters of the Finals for 2023?

Welcome to the Grand Final round of the ISTS AFL Pools Finals competition for 2023.  Well - this was a Grand Final of Epic proportions.  Only a full time draw with extra time on offer would have exceeded the excitement level..

This year, we had just Adam Mather and Bernie Hoffmann in the Grand Final.   Lachie Neale won the  Brownlow on Monday night and there was some controversy about how he scored 3 points in a couple of matches where plenty of other players appeared to have performed so much better.  But it is what it is and it didn't work for the Lions in the wash-up.

The Grand Final was won by the Magpies over the Lions by a thilling tight 4 point margin.

So which of these two managed to take the 1st prize of $194  Well it was Bernie who tried to sit on the fence and jagged the lowest Pie margin which put him ahead of Adam!

Congratulations to Bernie Hoffmann for 1st prize of $194  but Adam Mather gets a tidy $97 for his effort and 2nd Prize. Working backwards to last week, the 2 who made the prelims but only got one tip right get 3rd and 4th prizes.  Congratulations to Anna Parente for 3rd (finished 48th for the season) and adding $50.44 to her haul and David Shaw for 4th who finished 52nd and added $27.16 to his winnings - also his send straight 4th place!  Prior to that, the 5th placed punter was Brett Heritage was the highest minor round finisher eleiminated in the Semis (or Qualifying Finals if you prefer) and added $19.77 to his kitty.

This year we had 97 punters in the finals and the 1st to 5th prizes are:

So thanks for having some fun with us this year. Messages will come out shortly for those of you with large amounts to collect. I prefer to pay these using bank transfers.

If you would like to donate your smaller winnings, it will be the Australian Lions Childrens Cancer Research Foundation next year.  This was my wife's special project when she was a District Governor in Lions for 2009-2010.   I feel it may be used more effectively as I now find the Breast Cancer Research donation go the The Hospital Research Foundation as they keep sending letters and requests for donations monthly and even offers for expensive (free) dinners so they can get more donations from me.  SO I want to move the donation to another of her passions that she actually raised many thousands of dollares for when she had the opportunity.  As Corinne said, no child should have cancer at such a young age and suffer the treatments.

I'd like to thank Brett Heritage for being on standby this year and for Pete Kiley for caring for and feeding the web site.    

I hope all of you sign up again for next year's ISTS Footy Tipping competition. If you know of anyone who would enjoy being part of the competition next year, please get them to email, me at stonesw@internode.on.net as Internode are reducing the emails I can have.

Until 2024,

Rocky reporting for ISTS AFL Footy Pools - Finals Edition  

(ps - in the table below - the web site does not calculate the prize money for 1st to 5th so please use the commentary above as the prize payout information for the finals)

The Finals!

Results for the Semi Finals Round 2 of ISTS AFL Footy Pools for the year 2023

97 Punters, 9 finals matches, who will be the top 5 punters of the Finals for 2023?

And then there were 4!

We were down to just 25 punters left in after last week.  Given the predictions for the wins were 25% and 40% respectively, what do you imagine happened?   How many are left?

After Friday's match where the Blues got up over the wayward Demons, there were just 6 punters left.in.  Of those 6, 4 of them tipped the Giants and so they go through to the Preliminary Finals!   They are Anna Parente, David Shaw, Adam Mather and bernie Hoffmann..

Legend of the game, Ronald Dale Barassi AM, diedon Saturday at the age of 87.  He played in 6 premiershps for melbourne, was the leading goalkicker in the VFL in 1958 and 1959, Melbourne's Captain from 1960 to 1964. coached Carlton to two premierships in 1968 and 1970, coached North Melbourne to two premierships in 1975 and 1977 and was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1987.  He even coached the Swans from 1993 to 1995 where they won 1, then 4 and finally 8 matches as they improved over those three years.  Vale Ron Barassi.  

The next week of the Preliminary Finals are as follows:

The Pies will host the Giants on Friday night at the MCG at 7:20pm and GWS get a 6 day rest while Collingwood have had the week off.

The Lions will host the Blues at the Gabba on Saturday evening at 4:45pm.  Is it possible that it could be an all non-Victorian team final?  Well ti is but the odds are slim.   Unlikely but we will all look together!

If there is a sneaky upset in the prelims we might all be back in for the Grand Final!  I guess if they each choose  a different combination of winners, that could mess the rest of us up. So stay tuned to see what happens with the 4 punters who a left in and tipping for next week!

Rocky reporting for ISTS AFL Finals Footy Pools