AFL Football Round 2 - Brisbane vs Collingwood
Friday Night Football this week brings us the battle between the Collingwood Magpies and the Brisbane Lions in Round 2 of the 2008 AFL Season. With Brisbane SUPERSTAR Jonathon Brown in superb touch last week booting 6 goals it is going to be a tough gig for the Pies up at the Gabba. The Brisbane Team has not played a Friday Night game up there for seven years and there is no doubt that the Lions will be primed to tear apart the Pies. Just on a side not this game will go head-to-head against the Brisbane Broncos, who face the North Queensland Cowboys close by at Suncorp Stadium on the same night. So it will be interesting to see how the public of Queensland embrace Friday Night AFL Football.
The Lions were disappointed not to come away with the 4 points against the Eagles last week but they certainly showed some good signs after a very slow start. With Bradshaw back in the forward line and kicking 3 goals, himself and Brown will cause the Magpie Defenders some headaches. I think the young man in Nathan Brown will likely get first crack at his name sake Jonathon but Brown will be way to strong for him one would think and the Pies will need to have Plan B, and probably Plan C and D ready to go. You would think that Nick Maxwell or Shane Wakelin will be next inline. Whoever gets him is in for a torrid night. Read more
The Top 10’s From AFL Round 1 Action
For all you stats fans, Dream Team Players, Fantasy Footy competitors etc out there here is a list of the Top 10 AFL Players for a few popular categories after the Round 1 action: Speaking of AFL Dream Teams, don’t forget to check out DT Talk for the latest on all your Dream Team info.
AFL Leading Goal Kickers
Jonathan Brown - 6
Lance Franklin - 6
Matthew Lloyd - 6
Anthony Rocca - 6
Brett Burton - 5
Brad Johnson - 5
Matthew Richardson - 5
Nathan Lovett-Murray - 4
Nathan Thompson - 4
Scott Welsh - 4
Read more
The Sydney Swans “Tunnelling” Tactic
Will this become the “hot topic” in AFL Football? It will be interesting to see how the AFL handle this because this type of thing is frowned upon in basketball and causes a penalty in Rugby. If you are not familiar with “tunneling” then take a look at the video and see what St Kilda are furious about, basically it is when a player takes the legs from underneath his opponent whilst still in the air. I had never heard of the term in football until I heard Craig Hutchison on SEN Radio talking about the posibility that St Kilda may lodge a complaint to the AFL. You can quite clearly see what Craig Bolton’s intentions are and it is definately not the ball!. Now this could be extremely dangerous and as you can see Nick Reiwoldt landed heavily on a couple of occasions. Now the Swans have a very small defensive group and this may be a tactic that they have been taught to combat their taller opponents. Now there is a correlation between the Sydney Swans and basketball as Pauld Roos is good mates with legend NBL coach Brian Gorgian.
What are your thoughts? Post a Comment and let the readers here at AFL Football Blog hear your opinions.
AFL Football Ruund 1 - Bomber Blitz
Matthew Knights would have been watching new Demon coach Dean Bailey with great interest and hoping like hell that his start to his coaching career didn’t end up the same. During the first quarter it looked as though it may be headed down the same track. North Melbourne outclassed the Bombers in all aspects of the game and came out breathing fire and got of to a flyer. They were harder at the footy and used the ball well and with Nathan Thompson looking ominous up forward all the signs were pointing to a win for the Kangaroos. To compound that Scott Lucas left the field with a knee injury which may keep him sidelined for up to 12 weeks. Then the Bombers seemed to be shocked into action. The Bombers were down by 27 points at one stage in the second quarter and ended the game in front by 55 points. Read more
Will AFL Football Players Ever Learn?
It astounds me that in today’s society and with the media scrutiny that AFL Football Players are under that this type of thing continues to happen. Are AFL Players that dumb and stupid that they can’t realize this?
Kane Johnson, is not just an AFL Player at the Richmond Football Club but he is the Captain of the Club!. He was caught urinating on, of all places, the St Kilda Road police precinct. Does this reiterate the fact that AFL Players are dumb and stupid or what!
“As a captain, I have preached a message I have failed to uphold. Fronting my teammates at the next training session will be the most difficult task I have faced in football.
How can Johnson now turn around and tell his players to behave with any respect now? There had to some tiny part of his brain that was telling him that this was the wrong thing to do surely. His house is right next to the Police Station for gods sake!!!
AFL Football Round 1 - Doggies Do It for “Johnno” and the Demons Awful!
Who said milestone games are finished and don’t mean much? Somebody forgot to tell the Western Bulldogs in their Round 1 clash against the Adelaide Crows. It sure was a fantasy come true for Bulldog 300 gamer Brad Johnson as the Doggies got the biscuits by 3 points. Johnson kicked the last 3 goals to win the game and is something every little kid dreams of growing up aspiring to play AFL Football.
Johnson ended the game with 5 goals all of them coming in the second half. One can only imagine the emotional speech by best mate and former teammate Rohan Smith before the game and there is no doubt it had an impact on the playing group. Scott Welsh was eager to impress and showed the Bulldogs may have found a good avenue to goal with 4 goals against his former club. Jason Akermanis was very good after a slow start and lifted when it counted and was the standout skill wide in a game that was packed full of errors, as was Scott West playing his 321st game. I have spoken about Adam Cooney of late and how he needs to step up a bit more and learn how to break the hard tags he is receiving and he certainly did just that and was great for the entire game. Read more
AFL Round 1 - Saints, Pies and Eagles Take the 4 Points
I thought Anthony Rocca may play a bit of a decoy role this year as Travis Cloke took over the mantle. But Rocca showed on the weekend that there is still some footy left in him as he still can be a damaging forward. He was outstanding with 6 goals and a Best on Ground Performance in the Pies hard fought win over the Dockers at the MCG and gave the Pies a great start to their 2008 campaign. At the other end of the scale youngster Nathan Brown was superb in defence and proved to the footballing world that he is ready to fill the void left by James Clemment. He forced Matthew Pavlich up the ground to get a touch and Pavlich’s influence on the game was next to nothing. Heath Shaw gave the Pies great run from the back half and Dale Thomas stood up when needed after a slow start. Cloke and Rooca will have to carry the burden in the forward line alone with Sean Rusling going down with a shoulder injury and looks like he may miss a while. Fremantle were disappointing and Mark Harvey went with a more experienced line up to try and get the 4 points, but may have cost him in the end as the Dockers looked to run out of legs when it counted. Their reliance on Pavlich to kick goals was evident and they must find different avenues to goal if they are to compete with the best this year. David Mundy was my best for the Dockers he gave good drive and knocked up getting the footy and ended the day with 26 touches. McPharlin was the best in the forward half finishing with 3 goals. Read more
AFL Football Round 1 - Tigers and Cats take the Points
Richmond coach Terry Wallace has certainly had his critics over the pre season, me included. But his young Tiger team showed that they may just have improved enough to suggest they are better than the 15th or 16th team that many are suggesting. Although we shouldn’t get to carried away it was a battle of the 15th and 16th teams on the ladder in 2007. A good sign for the Tigers was the fact that Carlton got of to a good start and the Tigers didn’t fall in a heap as they probably would have last season, they just kept battling away and eventually got the points. The Tiger fans would have come away feeling a bit happy than they have done in a while.
The Richmond Energizer Bunny
The Energizer Bunny Jake King was good for the Tigers as was Nathan Foley. Richo didn’t let me down with his SHOCKING first 2 shots at goal but ended with 5 and exploited the young Carlton defence. I thought Nathan Brown was outstanding when he moved into the middle and should spend some more time there. For the Blues, it looked very good early with Stevens, Simpson, and Murphy relishing a bit more freedom as the taggers went to Judd. But the lack of experience an strength in defense was a big difference. The were missing a few and desperately need them back to strengthen the side. Read more
AFL Football Hall Of Fame Tribute Match - Victoria vs The Dream Team
I have had a lot of emails regarding the ticketing information about the AFL Tribute Match - Victoria vs The Dream Team and I had replied saying I would post the this information when it became available.
Well the AFL have released the information and here it is.
Tickets go on sale April 2nd @11am through Ticketmaster
Victoria vs The Dream Team - AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match Ticket Prices
CLUB MEMBERS - PREMIUM | PRIME | STANDARD
ADULT: $45.00 | $35.00 | $20.00
CONCESSION: $30.00 | $20.00 | $15.00
JUNIOR (Under 15): $10.00 | $5.00 | $5.00
FAMILY (2 Adults, 2 Juniors under 15): $97.60 | $77.60 | $43.60
GENERAL PUBLIC - PREMIUM | PRIME | STANDARD
ADULT: $50.00 | $40.00 | $25.00
CONCESSION: $35.00 | $25.00 | $20.00
JUNIOR (Under 15): $15.00 | $10.00 | $8.00
FAMILY (2 Adults, 2 Juniors under 15): $117.60 | $93.60 | $59.60
Should be an outstanding specticle and if you can get a ticket it will be well worth it. I am sure as hell going to try!
AFL Football Is Back For 2008 - Round 1
It has certainly been a long time coming but the AFL Football Season is finally here, and as I mention in another article Lets Talk Some Football, It’s a tipping nightmare Round 1 and all of you that are in a comp like I am where you have to pick one winner each week then good luck. My certainty last year in Round 1 lost and that was it for the year!! I talked about The Blues vs The Tigers and also Geelong and Port in that article so check it out if you haven’t already.
Collingwood Tackle The Dockers
OK lets get it on, Collingwood tackle Fremantle at the MCG and we will see if the new Fremantle traveling regime will have in ampact on their ability to win games away from home. New coach Mark Harvey has started the mind games early.
“They’ve obviously been playing, as we’ve read, all over the world, so it’s been a fairly hectic campaign … we don’t complain when we travel,”
I love it, he has learnt form the master Kevin Sheedy. Both teams will enter the game with strong lists with only Haselby to miss for the Dockers while the Pies have Jaxson Barham (shoulder/5 weeks), Simon Prestigiacomo (foot/indefinite) and Brad Dick (knee/season) out of the lineup. Scott Pendlebury, Rhyce Shaw and Travis Cloke have enjoyed some good practice game form and with new skipper Scott Burns eager to shine in his new role all is positive for the Pies. Rocca needs to compete up forward to allow Cloke a bit more freedom and if he can that then the smaller forwards will benefit. For the Dockers new coach Mark Harvey will be looking to exploit the inexperience of the Collingwood defence and will rely heavily on Pavlich and Tarrant and with Farmer lurking around they have the more potent of the two forward lines. But I think the Pies have been working towards Round 1 and being in Melbourne I think the Pies can get up. Read more
