AFL Round 1 Wrap-Up
Footy's back!
TipBetPro started the week boldly declaring that a Deledio and Maric-less Richmond were not the sure thing to take care of Carlton that everyone seemed to think they were. In fact the Blues would have been our Bet of the Week (highest value head to head bet) had it not been for the fact we didn't have access to teams from the other games in order to make our predictions at the point of publishing the Tigers vs Blues predictions. So come 3 Quarter Time on Thursday night, we were feeling pretty smug with ourselves with the Blues in front and with momentum and our $4.25 value bet looking a good thing to start the AFL season with a flyer. Sadly for TBP followers, the Tigers wrestled control of the game in the last quarter and dashed our first bet of the year - albeit the Blues lead at Quarter Time (and 3 Quarter Time for that matter) was enough to ensure a money back return. Not a bad night still with a line margin win and TBP tipsters benefiting from a close margin on the all important first game of the season.
Our perfect tipping start met an end at the hands of an inaccurate GWS and a revitalised Melbourne that look contenders to be a surprise improver of 2016. On the betting front not much action until Saturday night when our Bet of the Week Collingwood took on Sydney. TipBetPro tipped Sydney by the barest of margins and thought the Pies were great value with Sydney taking a host of inexperienced and unproven talent into the game. We were wrong ... spectacularly. There's no denying it - the Swans youngsters were terrific and our prediction of a greatly improved Collingwood looks a long way off the mark. Things aren't going to get any easier for the Pies with the loss of two players ranked inside the Top 50 players in the competition by TipBetPro in Dane Swan (long term, possibly career ending injury) and Steele Sidebottom (two week suspension) set to make for a challenging opening to the season. As TipBetPro is a player based model, we certainly expect the loss of two key players to reduce the Pies ranking considerably.
A good start for TipBetPro followers on Sunday as the Western Bulldogs, the most profitable side of 2015 for TipBetPro (whether betting for them or against them!), continued their trend disposing of Fremantle and recording our first Head to Head win of the year. The good times rolled on throughout Sunday with Port Adelaide and West Coast victories sealing a profitable 5 leg multi which hopefully ensured that TipBetPro AFL followers would still come out of Round 1 with a small profit (depending on how they split their bets between Head to Head, Novelty Bets and BoTW).
No betting action on Monday for TipBetPro but how good was the Hawks vs Cats game! Patrick Dangerfield trails only Gary Ablett and Scott Pendlebury in the TBP Player Rankings but he will be a contender for the number 1 spot in no time based on his exhilarating form to start the season (sorry Crown fans!). Meanwhile, the loss of Luke Hodge promises to continue a challenging start to the season to the defending premiers who for the first time in a long time aren't considered to be the highest rated team in the competition by TipBetPro right at the moment.
Roll on Round 2 - we can't wait!
