NAB Cup Draw 2008 - Round 2 and NAB Challenge Fixture
Now that Round 1 of the NAB Cup is complete here is the draw for next week’s NAB Cup Games and also the NAB Challenge Practise Match Games.
NAB Cup
Friday February 22, 2008
Western Bulldogs v Essendon at Telstra Dome, 7.40pm (Channel Seven)
Saturday February 23, 2008
St Kilda v Geelong at Manuka Oval, 3.40pm (Fox Sports)
Hawthorn v Carlton at Telstra Dome, 7.10pm (Channel Ten)
Sunday February 24, 2008
Adelaide v Fremantle at AAMI Stadium, 4.40pm (Fox Sports)
NAB Challenge
Friday February 22, 2008
Kangaroos v Brisbane Lions at MC Labour Park, 4.30pm
Richmond v Melbourne at Cairns, 7.30pm
Saturday February 23
West Coast v Collingwood at Albany, 2pm
Sydney Swans v Port Adelaide at ANZ Stadium, 7pm
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Look After the 16 Teams We Have Already
Is this a matter of big ego’s or what? An 18 team AFL Football Competition by 2012! This has all the triggers to open up a mine field for the AFL. Listening to some talk back radio yesterday and not one caller had anything positive to say about the decision. AFL fans are outraged at the thought of their clubs struggling financially and maybe even having to merge or fold. AFL Club Presidents had no idea the the AFL were going to announce this. They knew they had plans for the Gold Coast and there was talk about another team in Western Sydney but by 2012? and at what expense to the existing clubs, especially the ones here in Melbourne, some of whom are already struggling financially. Club Presidents are outraged over the plans and rightly so. What are the AFL up too?
Why is it that they are in a race to overtake all other sports at the fastest pace possible? Greedy, Money Hungry, there are a few other that come to mind as well. Once again, like the rule changes in the NAB Cup that has caused the AFL to alienate themselves from the Clubs and the general footballing public even more, the clubs seem to have been left in the dark and the AFL have made the decision on their own when you would have thought their position as the sports governing body was to consult with the clubs they represent.
The Sydney Swans have previously expressed concerns that they didn’t think that there is enough room for a second team in Sydney, OK that may be them protecting their own interest and fair enough, but why put a team like the Swans in that position? All the hard work they have done in the Sydney market is in jeopardy when the new team is put in place. And you can bank on the NRL getting their gloves off now and will come back with a strategy to try and stop the AFL invasion. In Queensland the Lions are working their butt off to reach their target of 28,000 members for this year and the introduction of another side would mean even more competition for member numbers. Can Queensland support another team? That is the question.
The TV broadcasting: The AFL’s current $780 million TV deal will be renegotiated in 2011, with all of the code’s broadcast partners hungry for the content that increasing the competition to 18 teams would bring. Is this the reason for the rush? So they AFL can have
some more leverage when negotiating this deal, I certainly hope this is not their motive.
From a different angle, will this drop the standard of the competition? Think about it, there would have to be 80 more players? Is there enough talent around to accomadate this? I don’t think there is which would mean the standard of football may well deteriorate, which is not what football fans want to see. I wonder if Ricky Nixon got wind of this when he announced his recruiting network in Ireland?
Well there is no doubt there will be some heated and ugly discussion on this issue during the rest of the 2008 season and the AFL are not making themselves look any good at all, that’s for sure!
If this is going to be detrimental to the standard of AFL Football and the 16 clubs that are already in the competition then jam it!
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I Know It’s Early But The Tigers Are In Trouble
After watching Richmond on Friday Night against St Kilda I came to the conclusion that they are in real trouble. The Tigers went into the NAB Cup raring to go and all the talk was that they were going to have a crack and I actually gave them a real chance to win, How mad was I. I thought surely they have improved a bit over summer in the skill department and given that St Kilda were fielding a side that was missing about 10 walk up starts to the side they should win. Everything was going well before the game St Kilda had a host of SENIOR Players withdraw from the game. Let me just go through a few names here - Riewoldt, Hayes, Baker, McQuire, Gram, Ball, Gwilt, Dempster, Schneider. And then the Tigers come out and their skill level was terrible, missing simple handballs and their foot skills to their leading forwards was just not good enough.
The Saints on the other hand unearthed some good youngsters in Eddy and Geary while Clinton Jones looks ready to become a permanent fixture of the side. Charlie Gardiner was very impressive roaming the half forward line and looks set for a good year. Their Forward line is shaping up to be one of the best in the comp with Kosi able to spend a lot more time there given the inclusion of the two big fellas King and Gardiner. Mind you Kosi could have been cleaned up a couple of times due to his lack of awareness, it is only a matter of time before he gets really hurt again.
St Kilda look set for a big year while Richmond look set for a long one.
The Wild Wild West Arrogance
Senior Player Arrogance, Underworld links, Drug and Alcohol abuse, bad language in public places. That sums up the West Coast Eagles.
The Internal Inquiry into the West Coast Eagles off field behaviour has been made public. After reading the report it certainly highlighted to me the arrogance that is widely associated with the West Coast Eagles Football Club. The Eagles are well known for their reputation off the field both here and overseas and in particular Ben Cousins, as you can read here and also here. The Eagles now have a very bad reputation and I can’t see them breaking that any time soon.
The senior leadership group which would have included Ben Cousins, Michael Gardiner, Chad Fletcher, and Daniel Kerr had a lot of influence over the rest of the playing group at the time and should have pulled into line much sooner than they were. 35 
separate incidents (involving 13 players) which were highlighted as matters of poor off-field behaviour. Including links between players and underworld figures, assaults, drug and alcohol abuse and inappropriate language in public. It also revealed poor behaviour by two Eagles players during drug tests last year and poor behaviour by some players during AFL education sessions.Yet the Eagles board and coaching staff seemed to have tried to sweep these under the carpet to some extent. They were performing well on the field and I don’t think they wanted to mess with that. As we have seen recently if clubs fail to act in appropriate manner and let these players basically get a way with it then things can get ugly just ask North Melbourne and Wayne Carey who was given basically a free reign at the time. Read more
Friday Night Football is Back !!!
At long last Friday Night Football is back, even if it is just the NAB Cup (check out the NAB Cup
Draw). This Friday will see St Kilda v Richmond at the Telstra Dome at 7:40pm and also Western Bulldogs v Kangaroos at TIO Stadium at 7:40pm.
ST KILDA VS RICHMOND
Broadcast on Channel Seven at 8.30pm (MELB, ADL, PERTH), Live Fox Sport Plus (SYD, BRIS).
You can bet your bottom dollar that the Tigers will be out for a win, while ST Kilda will be missing a few key players and may be just using the game as a building block for Round 1. The Saints look set to play the two 
big fellas in Steven King and Michael Gardiner, it will be good to see Gardiner back out on the park again. The Saints will be looking to improve in that area. The Tigers will be disappointed with the Trent Cochin injury, while the fickle Tiger fans will be exited at the inclusion of Superstar Nathan Brown.
As mentioned The Saints are going to be missing a few including CO-CAPTAIN Nick Reiwoldt who hasn’t come up after his corked thigh resulted in knee tendonitis and will be rested. Others too be ruled out at from the released team will be Steven Baker, Sean Dempster, Andrew McQualter and James Gwilt. They will join Luke Ball, Leigh Fisher, Brendon Goddard, Lenny Hayes and Matt Maguire who will all miss because of injury or limited preparation. Read more
Alarm Bell’s Ringing for the GAA
News is spreading across the world at the moment after Ricky Nixon outlined his plans for a recruiter to be placed in each of Ireland’s 32 counties reporting to a national co-ordinator. Under his plan the young players, aged from 14 to 20, would be identified and their information placed on a central database that clubs could access for an annual fee of about $30,000. We all know that the games of Gaelic Football and Australian Rules Football in quite similar and the Irish tend to pick the game up quite quickly this is why the clubs are so keen on joining the recruiting network. And it looks as if they are queing up to fork out the $30,000.
It is already raising concerns in Ireland and it looks as if the GAA will need to act fast in order to protect losing the up and coming youngsters from their country. The Irish Newspaper the Intependant IE ran a story on it and mentioned that it is bound to cause concern for the GAA. Probably the most well known Irish export, Jim Stynes has weighed in on the situation:
“I know a lot of clubs are cashed up. This could do a lot of damage to Gaelic football in general,” he said.
“It’s a recipe for disaster with people (AFL recruiters) falling over themselves in Ireland.”
I just wonder know if the GAA and especially the Dublin County will still be so keen on the exercise that Eddie and the Collingwood Football Club are trying to tee up. Our Clubs are salivating at the thought of unearthing another player of similar quality to Marty Clarke (pictured above) or Tadhg Kennelly and it seems everyone wants a piece of the pie.
But I don’t think the GAA and the Gaelic Clubs are not going to take this all that favourably. With relationships already under strain this will not be helping the cause. Especially in terms of ressurecting the International Rules Series.
Let’s Get It On: Coaches v The AFL
AFL Coaches think they ignored and the AFL say that they are not. It is real He Said She Said stuff.
We have in the Red Corner the AFL who “Don’t trust coaches in their views on the game because they think they’re only interest is their own team’s performance and can’t be trusted.” and then we have the AFL Coaches in the Black Corner, some of whom think they own the game and should be consulted on every decision that is made regarding the game of Australian Rules Football. All this childish behaviour over a rule that is being trialled, let me say that again in case you didn’t hear it, or should I say read it, TRIALLED. I have not heard the AFL ever say that the rule will be definately in in 2009 have you?.
As much as I don’t really agree with the rule at least we have the opportunity to test it as see how it goes and then get feedback which the AFL will hopefully consider. I guess that is where the coaches are getting their back up. What will the AFL do if the majority of
coaches give negative feedback about the rule?
Will the AFL bring it in anyway? Part of me thinks that they will and that is the reason coaches like Mick Malthouse have been extremely outspoken on the issue. Malthouse says that the coaches were not consulted with bringing the rule in for the NAB Cup, but then you have Adrian Anderson saying that there was a memo sent to ALL Clubs and
“About seven or eight of the clubs responded, so every club had the opportunity to respond to that, and every coach had the opportunity,”
Why then did all the other 10-12 coaches not respond? My guess is that they think along the same lines as Malthouse. Regardless of how they responded the AFL would make their own decision anyway. Read more
Bolton Named Swans 3rd Captain
I wonder what Nick Davis thinks about this? after getting on his high horse and publicly announcing he is ready for the Swans Captaincy. It was announced today that Craig Bolton will join Brett Kirk and Leo Barry as the Swans 3rd captain for the 2008 AFL Football Season. Paul Roos said of Bolton:
“Craig has shown outstanding leadership qualities around the club and also the community for many years and we believe he brings to the table attributes which will complement those which we already have through the other two captains, Leo Barry and Brett Kirk.”
Bolton was averaging 15 possessions, 6 marks, and just under 2 tackles per game in 2007 and from all reports is avery well respected person amongst the players. A better choice than outspoken Nick Davis in my humble opinion!
Improve Your Football Performance With These Simple Tips - Part 2
Welcome to Part 2 of our series on IMPROVING YOUR FOOTBALLING PERFORMANCE. In Part 1 we spoke about simple nutritional tips during the pre season that could improve your fitness and hense performance. In Part 2 we are going to focus on Pre and Post Match dietry guidelines and also a few basic steps to undertake if you sustain an injury during the game. By following these SIMPLE guidelines then you will without a doubt improve not only your sporting performance but your general health as well.
PRE-MATCH HYDRATION GUIDELINES:
1) You need to load up on water 48 hrs prior to competing. On Friday you should aim to consume 3-4 litres and 1 litre on match day (2hrs prior). Within 2 hours of competing you want to sip water regularly
rather than consuming large amounts of water at one time.
2) Your urine should be clear if you are adequately hydrated – ‘IF IT’S WHITE YOU’RE RIGHT!’
PRE- MATCH MEAL - Morning
Your pre-match meal should be:
- High in carbohydrates (low GI, not sugary foods)
- Low in fat
- Low in fibre
Your meal shouldn’t be too large. It should be easy to digest. Fat takes longer to digest so avoid fatty foods prior to the match.
Suggestions:
- Cereals such as Rolled Oats, Toasted Muesli, Sultana Bran, All Bran, Porridge are a great source of high
carbohydrates, used with skim low fat milks. - As are barley and wholegrain breads with baked beans, spreads such as jam, honey, marmalade – NO BUTTER
or MARG! = Fats! - Fruits are great, such as banana, apples, oranges, kiwi fruit, peaches, pears and sultanas.
PRE-MATCH MORNING MEAL GUIDELINES
1) Try to have this meal 2-3 hours before you play.
2) Consume 1 litre of fluid with your morning meal
3) Your meal must be high in carbohydrates and low in fat.
4) Top up your energy levels, but try not to overeat.
5) Choose Low G.I. carbohydrates rather than High G.I. this will give you a steady flow of energy for the game.
DURING THE MATCH GUIDELINES
1. Bring a sports drink with you to consume during the breaks. These have higher sugar (carbohydrate) content and will provide you with added energy.
2. At half time consume high G.I. foods – pineapple, watermelon, jelly beans, honey, jam piklets (white bread) and sports drinks.
AFTER THE MATCH
- To maximise recovery, you should follow the same rules as after your training sessions.
- If you have bruising or other soft tissue injuries:
YOU SHOULD NOT DRINK ALCOHOL – ALCOHOL WILL INCREASE INFLAMMATION AND DELAY RECOVERY FROM INJURY SIGNIFICANTLY!
If you are injured follow these guidelines for the first 48 – 72 hours.
R – rest
I – ice
C – compression
E – elevation
R - referral
NO
H – heat
A – alcohol
R – running
M - massage
A pool session, which includes gentle lap swimming and walking in varying depths of water is ideal to reduce recovery time after the match,
This should be done either immediately after the game or the following day.
Take your body seriously, take your sport seriously and reap the rewards of a successful year.
Don’t entertain the thought of what could have been.
Every Day until Grand Final Day should be dedicated towards helping your mates win a flag! You can only do this by doing something each day to make sure your ready.
A big thanks to Mark Simpson from Pace Health Management for providing some fantastic advice for all the footballers out there looking to improve their performance. If you would like to know anymore on Sports Nutrition or other Training Guidelines then email Mark at mark@pacehm.com.au
He Certainly Doesn’t Lack Confidence
Nick Davis has never been lacking confidence and these couple of quotes are indication that he thinks he is traveling alright leading into the 2008 AFL Football Season.
“I have been pretty good. Yeah, I’ve been all right”
- Speaking about his performances during pre season
“I announced to the team I was available for the captaincy,”
- Just letting everyone know he want the Captaincy
He would want to get a kick this year as these type of comments tend to attract some good sledging attacks. The boys from Collingwood will be reading these comments with interest I bet!. It is a pitty Nathan Buckley still isn’t playing as I hear he has had a couple of good episodes with Davis.
These comments are on the back of other comments he has made about everyone writing the Swans off for 2008.
“I can’t see that we’ve got any worse than last year and I think we’ll get better, so dismiss us at your peril,”
I am not sure the coach would be all that happy with the latest comments from the prospective captain.
The Swans meet Hawthorn in their NAB Cup opener in Launceston, the look like they will be missing skippers Brett Kirk and Leo Barry. They will also be without Adam Goodes and Craig Bolton, one of whom will be announced this week as the third captain. Barry Hall who is recovering from his Extreme Makeover will also be missing making Davis the oldest and most experienced player in the side.
God help the Swans!!!
