Brown and Black to be rested in NAB Cup
There hasn’t been much talk coming out of the Brisbane Lions camp this pre season, just going along their business nice and quietly out of the spotlight. But Lethal Leigh Matthews has indicated that the Brisbane superstars Jonathon Brown and Simon Black will miss at least the first 2 games of the NAB Cup. Really is there any point these two playing at all during the NAB Cup?
Black is recovering from a groin injury and has only done stationary skills work prior to Christmas. Black only missed one game last year even though he was struggling a it with what they say was “heavy legs”. He is the key in the Brisbane midfield and certainly is one you don’t want to be missing come Round 1. Brown on the other hand isn’t injured but will be rested just as a precautionary measurement. He is a big man Jonathon Brown and he has said the his training regime has been different this year in that he has been doing 2 hard weeks followed by 1 light week to try and reduce the risk of any stress related injuries.
In another positive sign for the Lions is the progression of a nearly forgotten man, Daniel Bradshaw. He will be like another draft pick addition to the Lions this year, he also will not play during the NAB Cub and from all reports probably will not play until the end of March. it doesn’t look like the Lions will be taking the NAB Cup all that seriously and Matthews has said that he will only have about 30-35 players available, which he was quoted as saying “That forces us to play our rookies and players who haven’t played much senior football. And that’s probably what you want to do in the NAB Cup.”
Provided these two can stay on the park and Bradshaw can make an impact when he returns the Lions will feature in September I think.
Cats and Tigers unbackable !
Can anyone challenge the Geelong Football Club and the Richmond Football Club for the honours of Premiership and Wooden Spoon respectively? Don’t you just love this time of year in the AFL world, I mean really how can we give an accurate answer to who will win the flag in 2008. At best we give our opinions and read into them what you will. There is not much to talk about other than that at this time of year. If you go on what you read in the main stream media during the pre seasons every team is going to finish in the eight and if you follow one of the AFL Football Forums, every team is going to win the flag.
My 2 bobs worth
I may as well join into the debate because it is always a good discussion topic and raises a lot of passionate talk. Well the Cats are odds on at the moment paying $3.20 for the flag with Collingwood, Fremantle, Port Adelaide and Hawthorn the next in line. I have already expressed by opinion
about who I think is most likely to challenge the Cats in 2008 and I think the Pies will give Geelong a run for their money. I can’t really believe that Fremantle are so heavily backed I just can’t see them being anywhere near the top five or six in the comp. They alway promise a lot Fremantle but don’t deliver much, if you are in a footy tipping competition they are the most frustrating team to try and tip! I personally think that they will struggle to make the eight let alone win the flag.
Long year ahead for the Melbourne Football Club
As I continue my thoughts on each sides chances for the 2008 AFL Premiership Season, today’s focus is on the Melbourne Football Club. In what was a very disappointing year for the Demons they finished 14th on the ladder only above Richmond and Carlton. This year I am tipping that the Demons are going to struggle again.
Let’s take a look at who has gone and who the Demons have picked up.
ADDITIONS:
Exchange period – received: John Meesen (Adelaide)
Rookie elevation: Jace Bode
NAB AFL Draft: Kyle Cheney (North Ballarat Rebels), Jack Grimes (Northern Knights), Adam Maric (Calder Cannons), Tom McNamara (South Adelaide), Cale Morton (Claremont)
DELETIONS:
Retired: Clint Bizzell, Nathan D. Brown, Byron Pickett
Exchange period – traded: Travis Johnstone (Brisbane Lions)
Delisted: Ryan Ferguson, Simon Godfrey, Heath Neville, Daniel Ward, Daniel Hayes (rookie), Daniel Hughes (rookie), Shane Neaves (rookie)
Where do I start with the Demons, well simple they don’t get enough of the football and they don’t have the firepower to kick a winning score. The Demons were 14th on the list of kicks per game and 12th for handballs. They were also ranked second last in the league for points scored in 2007 which highlights these facts. I just don’t see where they are going to generate that goal kicking power in 2008? David Neitz is on his last legs, a great player he is but I just don’t see him being able to carry the burden of still being the Number 1 big man in the forward line. Russell Robertson was their leading goal kicker last year with 42, even the Tigers leading goal kicker had more than that. But it is the fact they fall away after that which is an issue as well, you have Neitz second with 26 and then Aaron Davey with 24. Just not enough if they want to be competitive on the scoreboard.
Ruck Dominance
One area that the Demons need to be trying to capitalise on is their dominance in the Ruck. The Demons big men in Jeff White and Mark Jamar are forming quite a formidable combination, they were ranked 4th in 2007 for the most hit outs per game. This may be great for those two but the Dees just don’t have the talent in the midfield to use this. Cameron Bruce and Brad Green are probably their best ball getters but they just have 
got to much responsibility, players like Brock McLean and Colin Sylvia need to take the next step and start getting the ball and hurting the opposition. Now that Nathan Jones has had another year he needs to step up another level again this year, he is a hard tough player and looks like he will develop into the Demons main man in the middle. They have decided to let Travis Johnstone go, probably the Demons most gifted and polished midfielder so someone needs to take that mantel now and provide some class through the middle.
Is this the toughest coaching gig in the AFL?
Has Matthew Knights got the toughest assignment in the AFL Coaching ranks in 2008? Well I think he has. Replacing the “Master” Kevin Sheedy will be no mean feat for “Knighter” as the Bomber players are already calling him. There is a wave of changes in the style of coaching between the two and it sounds like the players are welcoming the change.
It sounds to me like the old fashioned and sometimes weird coaching techniques from Sheeds were wearing a bit thin on the players, there were a couple of remarks in a report that I was reading in the Herald Sun a while ago that made me think that his ways were maybe a bit to far from left field for the new bread of footballers. Things like the fact that Sheedy used to sit in the corner of the room as the players came in for a meeting studying clipboards alone whereas Knights would be part of the group. I guess this is the way of the modern day coach. I remember 10 years or so ago when coaches would say that they would totally separate themselves from the players and not become to close to them individually. Nowadays it seems like the coaches are doing a full 180 degree turn and being part of the playing group and becoming a friend as well as a coach.
This is the comment that brought a smile to my face though.
Players are enjoying the fact the message is crystal-clear, where before there were mind games and mental puzzles to work through, successful as they were.
For people who have followed Essendon and more importantly Kevin Sheedy, you could just imagine what his type of meetings would have been like. I can just see the new baby faced draftees leaving one of these meetings scratching their heads and thinking “What the hell is he on about?”.
Although Knights is in no way trying to emulate Sheedy there is no way he will escape being compared to the master. That will be something I am sure he is aware of and is just going to add extra pressure in his first year as senior coach. As Assistant Coach Gary O’Donnell has pointed out , Knights will enjoy a “Honeymoon Period” where players will get a boost from the change in leadership and style of coaching, for some like Matthew Lloyd, this will only be their second senior coach. And Although the Bombers are going through a bit of a rebuilding phase I think their results next year a looking quite promising.
It will be an extremely exiting year for Matthew Knights and it will be fascinating year from a football supporter’s perspective to see how Knights breaks out of the Sheedy comparison and makes his mark in the coaching world with his style of play. He is a very confident coach both with his style of play and also the decisions he makes. He has a strong belief in his own abilities and sounds like the players are bursting with a new found enthusiasm.
Can the Hawks win 2 Flags by 2012?
Well they have publicly stated that their premiership window is officially open and want to win 2 premierships by 2012 but can the Hawks achieve this goal?
First let’s take a look at the Additions and Deletions from the Hawks list:
ADDITIONS:
Rookie elevation: Luke McEntee
NAB AFL Draft: Stuart Dew (Port Adelaide), Cyril Rioli (St Marys), Brendan Whitecross (Zillmere)
DELETIONS:
Retired: Ben Dixon (veteran – outside list), Joel Smith, Richie Vandenberg
Delisted: Matt Little, Josh Thurgood, Brett Collins (rookie), Sam Gibson (rookie)
Going over these, the retirements of Dixon, Smith and Vandenberg will be quite easily covered in a laying sense. I don’t really think Vandenberg and Dixon gave the Hawks much in 2007, and Smith was a good player for them but I think will be easily covered.
The Extractors
AFL Players need to evolve as people
This is quite a common theme coming form the AFL Clubs and Coaches at the moment. AFL Footballers are so caught up in the intense nature of AFL Football that they forget about life outside football. Mark Harvey is just one of many coaches that is going to give his Fremantle Dockers players some experiences that will be “fairly traumatic”. AFL Clubs are all about giving their players life experiences these days but does this really have an impact on the players?
Recently John Worsfold and the West Coast Eagles made a trip to South Africa to promote the game of AFL Football and also to give the players
an “understanding about what opportunities they have delivered to themselves, regardless of being footballers, by living in Australia,”. I guess the Eagles are trying to change the culture and behavioral issues they seem to have. Worsfold was quoted as saying:
“I think it was eye-opening for them, and some of them were probably shocked by what they saw and smelled and heard, but they all coped with it extremely well.”
I just wonder if when the players get back from these sort of “life changing” trips and camps they actually do appreciate where they are and the privlidge they have. I mean a couple of weeks after being back and doing another 10-15 gruelling pre season sessions do they even remember the reason of the trip they were on or are they back to their old self and tangled up in the hype of being an AFL Footballer?
It will be interesting to observe the impact these types of trips have on, not only the Eagles, but also the Dockers because they themselves have some off field cultural issue they have to deal with.
What we don’t know about AFL Footballers
I remember the incident like it was yesterday. I remember thinking I can’t believe I just saw that!. Round 5 2007 when Adam Goodes barrelled into the back of Simon Godfrey behind the play, I am sure most of you would remember the incident as well (if you don’t then I have included the footage at the end of this post).I immediately thought that is so out of character for Goodes, and he completely out of sorts.
I was reading an article on Adam Goodes where he was talking about that incident and the personal issues he was dealing with at the start of the 2007 season. It made me think about how little the general public know of what AFL Football players go through outside of football. I mean all we see as AFL Football supporters is what the players do out on the ground every weekend and the odd interview or press conference they do, which is usually the stock standard answers anyway unless you are Jason Akermanis or new Western Bulldog draftee James Mulligan.
You would be MAD to miss these 2007 highlights
First of all let me wish all the readers of AFL Footy Blog a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, there is going to be some interesting and fun editions to AFL Footy Blog in 2008 especially in terms of Grass Roots Footy from local leagues around the country.
I know a lot of you may have seen these highlights packages before on You Tube, but I know there a lot of readers that don’t sit at their computers and search You Tube for footy highlights. So I have sifted through and pulled out some of the better videos for you. It’s great to watch some footy action when there is nothing to watch on the TV.
Here we go, enjoy and once again have a great Christmas. The first 2 are all footy the other are some funny ones.
General 2007 Highlights Package:
Are Magpie Fans loosing patience with Pebbles?
Anthony Rocca is a player that opposition teams love to hate and it appears some factions of the Magpie army may be loosing patience with his on field performances. Coach Mick Malthouse was forced to defend the big fella after he was asked by a member why he was still being selected despite his inconsistent performances.
Malthouse correctly pointed out that “It’s not just a matter of possesions”. This is something that the general football public don’t seem to understand because it is something they do not see. Rocca may not get a lot of the footy but it is his efforts in other areas that make him a very important part of that Collingwood forward line. When you look at his 2007 stats he was still the leading goal kicker with 54 goal, 15 goals clear of Travis Cloke. Malthouse also quoted another important fact that would probably go unnoticed by supporters “He had the most effective tackles inside 50 by a big man.” And from memory he was pretty high up on the contested marking stats for 2007 as well. The tackling stat is an interesting one and indicates maybe the small orwards need to lift that area of their game.
Although I don’t think Rocca will be the main focal point for the pies going forward, which you would think would be Cloke, he still provides some much needed team based 1% er type acts that the players are well aware of even if the people watching the games are not. I reckon the Magpies will get great value from Rocca if he is playing more of a decoy role and creating some space for the other forwards like Cloke to lead into. He is also very good in a contested marking situation, even if he doesn’t take the grab he must still be able to bring the ball to ground and provide some crumbs for the small forwards like Didak and Davis. These small forwards rely heavily on this sort of contest from the big guys.
Post you thoughts below on whether you think Rocca has still got something to offer the Pies.
No finals for Carlton and Chris Judd in 2008
The third team on my hit list is Carlton, last position in 2007, new coach in 2008, gun recruits. What does the 2008 season hold for the Blues, lets take a look.
Big Expectations
Reading the AFL Footy Forums that are around there is a lot of expectation on the Carlton Football Club this year because of the recruitment of one C Judd. Does this automatically make them finals contenders? Improvers yes but I still think they are a couple of years off being finals contenders. Yes they have a couple of prized draft picks in recent years, but they are going to take a few years to develop and will not make an immediate impact you wouldn’t think.
Let’s first take a look at the additions and departures
ADDITIONS
Richard Hadley (Brisbane Lions), Chris Judd (West Coast)
Rookie elevation: Ryan Jackson, Aisake O’hAilpin
NAB AFL Draft: Dennis Armfield (Swan Districts), Steven Browne (West Perth), Matthew Kreuzer (Northern Knights)
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