Crikey’s AFL & NRL Hot Form Charts

I need an ‘F’ word - not the one you’re thinking of - to attach to the Friday night action kicking off round 6 of the NRL tonight, writes Crikey's resident footy nerd.

NRL Hot Form Chart

I need an ‘F’ word – not the one you’re thinking of – to attach to the Friday night action kicking off round 6 of the NRL tonight.

Saturdays are “Super”; Mondays “Mad”; what can Friday be . . . Freestylin’ Friday? Faustian Friday? Forgive and Forget Friday?

Whatever. The superlative is needed, of course, because of tonight’s massive double header.

The south-east Queensland derby features two red-hot outfits and is this week’s Crikey’s Hot Form match of the round.

The team from the Tweed has surprised just about everyone with their polish. Tonight they host the big brother from Brisbane at the fortress that is Skilled Park. Despite being slight underdogs with the bookies, the Hot Form Chart is dipping its lid to the Titans in a close one.

For Manly and Parramatta, the result of their round 6 clash could prove pivotal for the season. Both teams will be dismayed by their early form, but for one of these highly fancied clubs things will only get worse after tonight. The loser will slump to two and four, and lose touch with the top teams.

The Cowboys and Raiders have both clawed their way up the Crikey Hot Form Charts in recent weeks. The Cowboys aren’t exactly moving like Gene Kelly but have shown signs that the groove is coming back. They must fancy their chances against a Warriors mob who do the travel thing poorly.

Canberra, though, run into Melbourne, who put some pedestrian early season form behind them with an outstanding display against the Sea Eagles last week. When the Storm play this way they are a class above every other team in the competition. No wonder coach Bellamy is demanding a pretty penny on either side of his state of origin.

For Souths, stone motherless last on any chart, table or star map you care to consult, Sunday’s match against the almost as unimpressive Tigers will surely be as good a chance to break their duck as any. But we’re still not tipping them.

And Crikey’s Hot Form team de jour, the Roosters, play Newcastle — a club that, sadly, are beginning to look all shining armour and no knight.

Form over last 5 games	Team	Last week	NRL ladder position	Sequence
1	Roosters	1	2	W-L-W-W-W
2	Cronulla	2	4	W-W-L-W-W
3	Titans	3	3	W-L-W-W-W
4	Melbourne	4	5	W-L-L-W-W
5	Brisbane	5	1	W-W-W-L-W
6	Warriors	9	7	L-W-L-L-W
7	Canberra	12	6	L-W-W-L-W
8	Cowboys	14	14	L-L-L-W-W
9	Newcastle	6	9	W-W-L-L-L
10	Manly	7	8	L-L-W-W-L
11	Penrith	8	12	L-L-W-W-L
12	Bulldogs	10	11	L-W-W-L-L
13	Parramatta	11	13	W-L-W-L-L
14	Tigers	13	10	W-W-L-L-L
15	Dragons	15	15	L-W-L-L-L
16	Rabbitohs	16	16	L-L-L-L-L

Crikey’s Hot Form Tips for round six are:

Titans
Manly
Bulldogs
Cowboys
Sharks
Roosters
Tigers
Storm

Last week: 8
Season: 19

AFL Hot Form Chart

Football it seems, like fashion, moves in cycles. Round 4 gave us Richmond winning easily in Perth, Carlton winning, and Barry Hall flattening someone in back play.

No, we haven’t all magically travelled ten years back in time, it’s just that footy has gone retro: flood-free and full of fisticuffs. The only thing that reminded us that, yes, this is actually 2008 was the umpires paying 50 metre free kicks for having their dignity impinged.

So if everything old is new again, that should make looking forward to this weekend’s games easy, right?

In the good ol’ days:
Essendon flogged St Kilda and it’s tempting to think it will happen again tonight. Don’t worry about the Bombers’ outs, they can run and the Saints – now shrugging back into the “pretenders” garb they have worn so comfortably over the years – can’t.

In the good ol’ days:
Carlton entered most contests against Melbourne as red-hot favourites. Now that the Blues are off the bottom of Crikey’s Hot Form Chart for the first time since Moses wore short pants, we can safely assume that norm.

In the good ol’ days:
Sydney had a brilliant but ill-disciplined key forward capable of frustrating and delighting in equal measures. Now, it’s smaller hair and larger shorts but the Swans are still certainties to lose away to Geelong.

In the good ol’ days:
Hawthorn were good — scary good — and were monties to fix up the Cararra Koalas. Of course, that was before the Fitzroy merger; “merger” meaning to swap you marsupial mascot for something a lot scarier.

In the good ol’ days:
Suburban battles between clubs like Collingwood and North, and Richmond and Footscray, were torrid affairs in which the outcome really mattered. No, honestly.

In the good ol’ days:
Port Adelaide were grand finalists, the Eagles were a powerhouse, Fremantle were the next big thing, and Adelaide were the most methodical team in the competition . . . hmmm, I guess this ruins our retro theory. Of course, in the really good old days, teams from South and West Australia weren’t allowed to play.

Form over last 5 games	Team	Last week	AFL ladder position	Sequence
1	Geelong	1	1	W-W-W-W-W
2	Hawthorn	2	2	L-W-W-W-W
3	Bulldogs	3	3	L-W-W-W-W
4	Sydney	5	4	L-L-W-W-W
5	Richmond	11	8	W-W-L-L-W
6	St Kilda	7	10	W-W-W-L-L
7	North Melbourne	10	7	L-L-W-L-W
8	Brisbane	12	9	L-L-W-L-W
9	Adelaide	4	6	L-L-W-W-L
10	Collingwood	6	5	L-W-L-W-L
11	Essendon	8	11	L-W-L-W-L
12	Carlton	16	12	L-L-L-L-W
13	Fremantle	9	13	L-L-L-W-L
14	West Coast	13	14	L-W-L-L-L
15	Port Adelaide	14	15	L-L-L-L-L
16	Melbourne	15	16	L-L-L-L-L