Australian Sports thread (NRL and AFL)

Correction.

Geelong lost to the Suns.

Yes, the Suns.

Yeah I've got a question: WTF are your Tigers doing disgracing the memory of our Diggers by putting two American soldiers on their ANZAC jersey?

In all seriousness what a ridiculous nontroversy that is. A mistake so glaring that almost no one would have noticed had someone very nit picky pointed it out.

Brisbane Lions defeat the Collingwood Magpies 116-83 in the AFL, the premiership favourites shown to have a few flaws. Not knowing the rules at a restart was one of them - 3 times the Pies were pinged for it, 2 of them leading to Brisbane Goals.

In the NRL - Melbourne were far too good for a sloppy Sydney Roosters 28-8 in a rain sodden southern capital. Xavier Coates had 3 tries, but the combination of Munster at 6, Hughes at 7 and Grant at 9 showed that the Storm are in this premiership up to their ears. For the chooks, far too many dropped balls, too many penalties and a definite defensive weakness on their right edge was brutally exposed.

Well, that was brutal. Souths all business against an insipid Bullogs. Carlton were challenged for the first half by the Kangas, but have now got a 20 point leas late in the 3rd quarter. Sell out crowd. Amazing what happens when you add a team with a fan base into the mix.

Dolphins at Cowboys the late Good Friday game. Cowboys should win and continue the Dolphins slide. If they don't then the Townsville team is in big trouble.

Penrith cruise past the Sea Eagles 44-12, a score line that flattered Manly. Penrith were sublime, especially in the first half.

Canberra upset the previously undefeated Broncos 20-14 with a gritty and gutsy performance in an entertaining game.

Adelaide and Western Bulldogs had wins over Freo and Richmond in the early games. Sydney up by 19 in the 4th over Port, and Saints are home against the Suns up by 8 goals in the final term too.

Go Raiders! NRL really taking shape now. Penrith, Melbourne are the big contenders, Roosters and Souths are the maybes who are probably a rung below those other 2, Broncos and Warriors are the fair to middling teams who're going to be in the mix because they banked early wins and might even get enough momentum to challenge those other 4. Dolphins we don't really have enough information. Bulldogs starting to look like garbage along with Wests. Everyone else is fighting for the other two spots in the 8.

AFL is much harder to get a read on. We know St Kilda, Melbourne and Carlton are good. We know Hawthorn are bad. There's teams like West Coast and North who you expect to suck as the year goes on. There's teams like Geelong and the Bulldogs who you expect to get their shit together. Everyone else looks a week to week proposition. Collingwood jumped a few teams to start the year, but is their bull at a gate approach sustainable and, if it is, will the better teams work it out as the tear goes on?