2008 NAB Cup Round 2 Preview – Game 3
Carlton vs Hawthorn – Saturday Telstra Dome, 7.10pm
Another interesting game is this one. Arch Rivals and a battle to see who has the better young brigade. The young Blues were impressive last week 
but will be without Brad Fisher and Jason Saddington. Ex Lion Richard Hadley looks like he may make an appearance. The Blues will be looking to improve in the stoppages around the ground as Brett Ratten has indicated that is an area they need to improve on. Mark Murphy will be determined to improve on last weeks ordinary start and is a key at these stoppages. Nick Stevens will again captain the Blues as Chris Judd is still a few weeks away. Look for a blinder from him after the disappointment of being overlooked as skipper. Darren Pfeiffer is another one that needs to back up last weeks great performance and will Brendan Fevola turn up in those Orange Boots again?
For the Hawks the youngsters Jarryd Morton, Garry Moss, Beau Muston and Tommy Murphy made a good start last week and will be determined to prove to coach Alistair Clarkson that they are worthy of a position in the side. Hawks fans would have been rapt with Mark Williams return and he 
will only get better with each game he plays. The New Dermie “Buddy” Franklin had a game he would want to forget in front of goal finishing with 5 behinds and an out of bounds on the full (thanks Molly) and will be out to reverse that form, look out whoever plays on him, probably Waite you would think. That should be a good tussle. Another highlight will be the midfield battle. The Blues midfield is developing quite nicely with Stevens, Murphy, Scotland and co going head to head with Mitchell, Hodge, Sewell and the like. That is where the game will be won or lost and also whether big Buddy can be held. Grant Birchall is one player the Blues will have to watch, he was outstanding last week and look set for a big 2008.
The Blues are certainly improving, but I think the Hawks will win the midfield battle and come away with the points.
Is this why the AFL are in such a rush?
A NEW A-League team in the Gold Coast before the AFL’s proposed plan. Is this part of the reason the AFL is in such a rush to expand the game of Australian Rules Football? You betcha.
It seems the A-League is a step ahead of the AFL in the Gold Coast market and is set to have a team there by 2010 at the latest. But as early as 2008-2009 if the interested parties are able to satisfy the financial criteria. It could be a big blow for the AFL and there is no doubt that the NRL will be planning some sort of action plan to thwart off the AFL steam train from flattening every sport in it’s path.
One of the main things the A-League is mind full of is that they want to make sure that the expansion can be absorbed by the existing clubs. Maybe the AFL can take a leaf out of their book on that one!
Let the expansion battle begin !!!
2008 NAB CUP Round 2 Preview – Game 2
St Kilda v Geelong – Manuka Oval Saturday 3.40pm
This should be a cracker! Eventhough the much antisipated bout between Mark Blake and Steven King will not eventuate in this game as King is going to be rested along with veteran Robert Harvey.
. I heard Cameron Mooney suggest he may give King a clip around the ears if King plays, but I guess that will have to wait. The Geelong side were in great form last week demolishing the Demons and there is no sign of the dreaded premiership hangover. The word is that the elder statesmen in Scarlett, Chapman, Ottens, Harley, Johnson and Jimmy Bartel will all be rested and obviously Ablett is out. Max Rooke, Corey Enright, Joel Corey, Joel Selwood and Travis Varcoe have been selected and will have their first hit outs. Brent Prismall was a standout player last week and is another player that was disappointed at missing the Grand Final and has pushed himself to the limit during the summer. Read more
2008 NAB CUP Round 2 Preview – Game 1
Essendon vs Western Bulldogs – Friday Night
Both these sides were pretty impressive last week and would be happy with their performances. The Bulldogs had a good win in tough conditions and are likely to rest some players from last week including Lindsay Gilbee, Jarrod Harbrow, Farren Ray and Ryan Griffen. Eade looks like injecting some more youngsters in including Paul O’Shea for his first game and Jarrad Grant is a chance to play also. Tough ask for the Doggies to recover from the Darwin conditions.
The Bulldogs showed good intensity last week and their tackling and their willingness to put their head over the footy was evident and looks like it has been a focus over summer. While over at Bomber land new coach Matthew Knights would have been impressed with the youngsters last week
after they had a good win over Brisbane. Knights is set to bring back a host of big names for the Bombers including Dustin Fletcher, Andrew Welsh, Adam Ramanauskas, Brent Stanton, Mark McVeigh, Scott Lucas, Alwyn Davey and Jobe Watson. Out from last weeks side will be Adam McPhee, Courtney Johns who both have little niggles and Scott Gumbleton who tore his hamstring. Also being rested will be Courtenay Dempsey, Jay Nash and Heath Hocking. Read more
8 Players To Watch in This Weeks NAB CUP
While we saw some pretty ordinary and scrappy football during Round 1 of NAB Cup action, Round 2 should see the cobwebs dusted off and some better skills being displayed. We did though get to see some youngsters step up to the plate and show us that they are capable of matching with the big boys. Here are 8 Players that I will be keeping a close eye on this week to see how they perform. All of them had impressive starts last week and look to have had a ripping pre season.
1. Bachar Houli (Essendon)
Houli is one of the youngsters at Essendon that has a big opportunity to become a regular in the Bombers side. From all reports he has had a brilliant pre season and judging from what I witnessed in the intra club game a couple of weeks ago he is not afraid to put his head over the pill while he also has great foot skills. Houli was very good last week is Essendon’ s sin against the Lions mainly playing through the middle of the gorund. He gathered 25 touches last week at it will be good to see him match up against the likes of Scott West, Daniel Cross or Matthew Boyd this week. Read more
Everything You Should Know About AFL Dream Teams
As the 2008 AFL Football Season comes closer all the talk from the footballing public turns to AFL Dream Teams. Dreams Teams are becoming more popular than the regular tipping competitions around Australia. To shed some light on the the latest craze I have enlisted the help of Warnie from Dream Team Talk to take you through how it all works and also talk about their site and how it can help you become the Ultimate Dream Team expert. They run a great site and provide an entertaining weekly vidcast show. You can view the latest episode at the end of the article. So take it away Warnie.
AFL Dream Teams – Written by Warnie from Dream Team Talk
Fantasy sports are taking over the world. Not that long ago the footy talk my mates and I would have was all about who we’ve tipped and how our favourite team went. Now its all about who we have selected as ‘captain’ and how our dream team went on the weekend.
What is AFL Dream Team?
In AFL Dream team, you need to select a squad of 30 players – 9 backs, 8 centres, 4 rucks and 9 forwards – under a salary cap. Your 22 starting players gain points for your team based on the official AFL stats. Kicks and marks are worth 3 points each, handballs are worth 2, a tackle will get you 4 points, a goal is 6 points, a behind will get you one point and a free kick for is worth one, but giving away a free will cost you 3 points. Each week you pick a captain who will get you double points. You can trade players 20 times during the season with a maximum of 2 per week. Players prices are based on form, so if players scores are improving, their prices will increase… and vice versa! Read more
Chris Judd Named Captain
Well I didn’t think it was going to be any different but Carlton have officially name Chris Judd as Captain for the 2008 Season with Nick Stevens as Vice Captain.
“Chris has demonstrated tremendous leadership qualities throughout the pre-season period, and the Board concurred with the Match Committee’s view that he, together with Nick Stevens as Vice-Captain, was best placed to lead our young playing group into the future.
It was a decision that they had to make, quality player, quality person and will be the prefect face of the Carlton Football Club going forward. The others in that leadership group are Andrew Carrazzo, Brendan Fevola, Heath Scotland and Kade Simpson. Let’s hope Judd can get on the park soon.
Clubs Struggling to Find New Talent
It staggers me that recruiting officers from AFL Clubs have the opinion that clubs are running out of areas to unearth new talent now let alone in 2012, yet the AFL are going to be AGGRESSIVE in their attempts to expand AFL Football anyway. This is the area that I am most concerned about with the leagues decision to move to an 18 team competition. I certainly do not want to be watching games of AFL Football that is of a lesser standard that it is now! To me it all seems a bit blasé and rushed in order to get ahead of the competition (NRL).
It is not like they need to only get a few players here, we are talking about 80 odd additional players! This is what North Melbourne Recruiting Officer Neville Stibbard had to say.
“I wouldn’t have thought the talent pool is strong enough to make up a couple of extra teams. I can’t see what the new teams are going to get (from the AFL). Would they get the first 10 picks of the draft?”
This is coming from people that should know, they do it for a living. You can see already that the clubs are recognising this and experimenting in the South African and Irish Markets to try and recruit some new talent. Australian Rules Football is the centerpeice of Australian Sport and we don’t want to get into a situation that sees the standard of the game deteriorates.
There is always two sides to the argument and people that would be in favour of this move would certainly be the aspiring AFL Players. I tell you if you are 10-15 years old at the moment and are aspiring to play AFL Football then the moons might be lining up at the right time for you. Get out there and train hard!!
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Injuries Confirmed From The NAB Cup
Shocking news from the west as scans have revealed that Docker midfielder Paul Haselby will be sidelined for the entire season with an ACL injury. The Dockers will be very disappointed as I think they were only expecting a medial ligament injury which would have only kept him out for about 6. Also Sydney made it official that Nick Malceski will miss the season as well with an anterior cruciate ligament tear as well. Also on the injury front Blues forward Brad Fisher will miss 6-8 weeks with a broken thumb which he sustained in the Blues impressive win over Port Adelaide. Really bad news for the Blues as they made a great start to 2008 and Fisher is a key member of their forward line on the back of a top ten finish in the Blues best and fairest in 2007.
Other news to come out of the NAB Cup Round 1 was that 2 players were given reprimands from the match review panel – Kieran Jack has been charged with a level one offence for making forceful front-on contact with Hawk Luke Hodge at Aurora Stadium on Sunday, while North Melbourne defender Leigh Harding has been charged with a level one offence for engaging in rough conduct against Bulldog Jason Akermanis at TIO Stadium on Friday.
I am sure that would have been a retaliation from Harding, The mouth from the West would have gotten under his skin!
That’s a Wrap – NAB Cup Round 1
Skill Errors, that probably sums up Round 1 of the NAB Cup for 2008. All games seemed to be riddled with them as you would expect I guess. There is no sign of the “Premiership Hangover” down at the cattery as they began their 2008 campaign in brilliant fashion against the Demons. Brendan Fevola has announced to the footballing public that he thinks the Blues will play finals footy (can you take him seriously when he wears those boots though?), and Richmond looks like they are going to be in real strife in 2008. Let’s have a look back at what transpired over the weekend.
The Doggies in Darwin
The Darwin doggies proved they have had a good pre season with a good win over the Kangaroos, who I thought would be right 
up there to take out the NAB Cup. It was a pretty ordinary game until the last quarter when the game broke open and we saw some free flowing footy. Not all was lost for the Roos with Nathan Thompson getting through the game OK. Finally we saw the doggies tackle well and throw themselves at the pill and I thought Akermanis was good and Adam Cooney looked in great shape racking up 26 touches. On ballers Boyd and West were also outstanding. Ben Hudson was very good in the Ruck and looks set to deliver for the Doggies in an area that they need to improve in. It will be interesting to see if the Dogs can play some consistent footy from here on in. Eade looks like he may be forced to rest a few this week after the conditions may take their toll.
Tigers In Trouble
It started on Friday Night with the Tigers and the Saints as I have already mentioned the Tigers are in trouble, while the Saints looked the goods with a side that was missing at least 10 walk up starts. Richmond’s skill level was just not up the waht it should be and their forward line was dysfunctional. They had to move their best 2 forwards – Brown and Delidio up the ground because the midfield was just not up to it. I know it is early but it is looking like it may be a long year ahead for the Tiger fans. While the Saints were pretty good, the 2 big ruckmen, King and Gardiner were good which now gives them the luxury of being able to play Kosi close to goal. At least 10 too come back in and all is looking pretty good. You can see why they are the most heavily backed side for the flag at the moment. Read more
