W-League Predictions – Week 1, 2018-19

Being the firm supporters of women’s sport we are, it’d be remiss for us not to cover the leading women’s soccer league in Australia. And so, we’re using almost the same prediction system as we do for the men’s league, with one exception. Given the shorter seasons, including home and away results led to some crazy predictions – like the reigning champions, Melbourne City, having a 3% chance of winning in Week 1. So we took them out.

Here are our tips for the first week:

Hopefully they’re slightly more accurate than our men’s ones were for Week 1.

A-League Predictions – Week 1, 2018-19

So, here we go. Back into the swing of making weekly posts after our absence (sorry, but the trade period talk doesn’t do it for us).

By the look of it, we’ll have much less competition for our A-League predictions than we do for our AFL ones. After a bit of research, the only one we could find were the GRAFT Ratings. Compare and contrast our predictions with theirs, with the caveat we have draws and they don’t.

Most of our predicted games are quite close, with Perth the only team we tip as more likely to win than not. Our ‘most exciting game’ is the Wellington-Newcastle one, with both teams having a good chance of winning and a draw being unlikely – which comes from having plenty of goals.

A-League Predictions – How They Work

Hopefully, if you’re checking in on this page, you’re a reader of our weekly A-League predictions. Hopefully by now the system is up, running, and tipping with remarkable accuracy. If that’s the case, then you’ve probably come here to ask “How do you spit the numbers out?”

That’s what this little post is here for. It’s technical, and may seem extremely badly held together, but it seems to work for us, and hopefully it’ll continue to do so.

A-League FADR – The Grand Final

It all comes down to this, a final between Melbourne Victory (who you may have expected at the start of the year) and Newcastle (who you definitely wouldn’t).

Despite what you would have thought six months ago, the first semi-final finished as expected. Although Bruno Fornaroli (who else) scored an early goal to give Melbourne City a 1-0 lead, teenager Riley McGree scored an incredible goal (and yes, it really is as good as everyone’s saying it is) to equalise, and Jason Hoffman’s goal in the 75th minute earned the Jets their first Grand Final spot in a decade.

A-League FADR – Semi Finals, 2017-18

The two elimination finals went largely as were expected. On Friday night, Melbourne City had a comfortable win over Brisbane Roar, Stefan Mauk scoring the first goal on the hour mark and Nick Fitzgerald making it 2-0 in stoppage time.

Two nights later, it was Melbourne Victory’s turn, in a much closer game. Adelaide United got a surprise lead, but Victory pegged back quickly through Leroy George. Extra time beckoned until the 89th minute, when (who else) Besart Berisha not only scored, but scored with style:

Embed from Getty Images

That goal took Victory to the semi-finals, and a chance to get revenge on Sydney FC.

A-League FADR – Elimination Finals, 2017-18

After 27 rounds, 135 games, and 408 goals, we’re finally up to the finals of the 2017-18 A-League season. And it built to a big game, when the first ten-goal match in A-League history took place – Newcastle thrashed the Central Coast Mariners on Saturday evening, winning the F3 Derby 8-2 with a Riley McGree hat-trick.

Newcastle had no need to hold back – a second-place finish was guaranteed, and so they’d have an extra week to recover before their next game. They’ll be playing off against an elimination final winner – the two games on this week are Melbourne City v Adelaide and Melbourne Victory v Brisbane. It’s finals time, y’all.

A-League FADR – Round 27, 2017-18

The last round of the A-League before the finals. There’s a logjam near the middle of the table, with three teams all competing for the final finals spot. Here’s how it’ll work:

• if Western Sydney beats Adelaide, they’re guaranteed to make the finals.
• if Western Sydney loses to or draws against Adelaide, then the winner of the Brisbane v Perth game will make the finals.
  • if the Brisbane v Perth game is a draw, then Brisbane will qualify on goal difference.

Saturday night’s game is set to be a cracker.

A-League FADR – Round 26, 2017-18

Here we are, nearing the end of this long and frenzied A-League season. Sydney FC have won the Premier’s Plate again (the first back-to-back in history), and five teams have guaranteed finals spots – they, Newcastle, the two Melbourne sides, and Adelaide.

The most important game for the week is set to be a finals-deciding clash between Brisbane and Western Sydney. If Brisbane win, they’ll guarantee themselves a finals spot, while if the Wanderers win, they’ll be in the box seat for the last round. Let’s go.

A-League FADR – Round 25, 2017-18

The last round was kicked off with the most exciting game of the weekend, with Adelaide United scoring five goals in an upset win over Newcastle (who managed two of their own). The other results weren’t as interesting, but we’ve ended up with an extremely close ladder position.

The Western Sydney Wanders have 30 points and a goal difference of -9, which currently puts them in sixth place. Close behind them are Brisbane Roar (one point less, but a better goal difference) and Perth Glory (the same points as Brisbane, but a lower goal difference than Western Sydney). The last three rounds are set to go off.

A-League FADR – Round 24, 2017-18

Sydney FC are, for the first time in years, showing that they’re not all-powerful. The loss to Newcastle could have been written off as just a bad day, but their 1-2 loss to Brisbane last week means they’ve lost two A-League games in a row, for the first time since 2015-16.

Fortunately, they should be able to bounce back against the Central Coast Mariners, who are sitting in ninth place and just had their manager, Paul Okon, resign. Other important games for the week include Melbourne City v Western Sydney and Perth Glory v Melbourne Victory.