AFL Football Round 4 Review - Part 2
Port Adelaide are in real trouble! The Brisbane Lions staged one of the biggest comebacks in their history in AFL Football to win by 20 points and AAMI Stadium. The Lions were 47 points down 23 minutes into the third term and ended up winning. Port Adelaide now sit 0 - 4 and their will be some calls for some heads to roll this week.
David Rodan started like a house on fire for the Power and had 12 touches in the first quarter and the Lions just couldn’t stop the little man. But enter Simon Black, Travis Johnstone, Jonathon Brown and Daniel Bradshaw. These 4 players were the reason the Lions won the game. Jonathon Brown even spent some time in the middle against Chad Cornes to give the Lions of grunt and presence in the middle considering that Jamie Charman withdrew late and youngster Matthew Leuenberger was left to tackle probably the best ruck division in the comp Dean Brogan and Brendan Lade. Brown ended the game with 4 goals as well and was arguably best on ground, although Simon Black could plead his case as well. What was more remarkable is that they were able to do this during a torrential downpour and watching this on TV you could hardly see the players, it was and amazing effort. Read more
AFL Football Round 4 Review - Part 1
Well Round 4 of AFL Football saw to of the upsets of the season with Carlton winning their first game for the year and after 14 consecutive losses. The other was the Richmond Football Club defeating Fremantle over in the West.
Brendan Fevola was in outstanding form at the MCG on the weekend booting 7 goals and was the main reason Brett Ratten had his first win as coach of the Carlton Football Club. Young mid fielders Bryve Gibbs and Marc Murphy were also brilliant for the Blues and Jarryd Waite was rock solid in defense. The Collingwood big guns in the forward half failed to fire and they just couldn’t find a target up forward. It was left to the small guys in Leon Davis, Dale Thomas to try and get the job done. They finished with 2 goals each. The inexperienced Blue defense were outstanding in shutting the Magpie forwards down and Shaun Grigg, Paul Bower and Michael Jamison in particular were outstanding.
In a strange move Magpie coach Mick Malthouse left defender Harry O’brien on Fevola for most of the day refusing to make a change and may have cost them the game. Why Nathan Brown didn’t get the gig I don’t know? The pressure from the Magpie midfield was non existent and the Blues were allowed to much free reign. A great day for coach Brett Ratten and captain Chris Judd. Read more
What Was Barry Hall Thinking?
I have just witnessed one of the most remarkable things I have seen in AFL Football for a long time. In the Round 4 game between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles, Big Bad Barry Hall has absolutely smashed the living daylights out of West Coast Eagles defender Brent Staker. The sight of Staker’s eyes rolling back at Barry Hall landed a big left hook on his jaw was sickening to say the least. What on earth was he thinking. If that game was in Perth he would not have left the ground alive!
You would think that Hall will get at least 4 weeks as an absolute minimum but deserves more than that. It was a disgraceful incident and Hall deserves everything he gets. I am not sure that any of the West Coast Eagles players or supporters would have had much sympathy when Hall crashed through the fence and smashed his arm and head against the steel posts of the stand. That in itself was an ugly incident and the AFL will no doubt be looking at that.
The Eagles are in all sorts of trouble at the moment and with Daniel Kerr being well held by Kieran Jack and Dean Cox not really having any influence they were well and truly smashed in all areas of the game. The only highlight would have been the performance of second gamer Ben McKinley who kicked a goal in each quarter backing up his 3 goals last week. He has a big body and looks to have what it takes to hold a spot in the Eagles side. At the other end of the scale the Big Q would probably get my votes for the worst on the ground. Read more
AFL Football Round 4 - Fremantle vs Tigers, Carlton vs Collingwood, Adelaide vs Hawthorn
Both Fremantle and Richmond will be disappointed with their starts to the season and Richmond were shocking against Collingwood last week and their game plan (if they have on) was non existant and the amount of handballs they had was laughable. In contrast the Fremantle side were impressive in their defeat of the West Coast Eagles last week. Docker fans and the coaching staff would have been impressed with the form of Rhyse Palmer last week which gained him a NAB Rising Star Nomination.
At Tiger land coach Terry Wallace has lost patience with Joel Bowden sending him back to Coburg. Jake King has been a shining light for the Tigers and the little man gives his all every time he goes out on the field, a few of the senior players need to take a leaf out of his book. Kane Petiffer will be missing due to suspension leaving the Tigers with 1 less option up forward. Nathan Brown has been disappointing to say the least and may find himself in the same boat as Bowden if he doesn’t pull his finger out. The Tigers just need to find some different avenues to goal and stop being so predictable with their entry into the forward 50. Read more
AFL Football Round 4 - North Melbourne vs Melbourne, Port vs Brisbane and Sydney vs West Coast
The Kangaroos have had an up and down start to the 2008 AFL Football Season but I was impressed by their performance last week against a strong Hawthorn outfit. Brent Harvey has been in outstanding form for the Kangas and will be hard to contain, but the Demons must if they are any chance of winning. With Nathan Thompson gaining in confidence and Shannon Grant and Corey Jones kicking some goals the Demon defense will have a hard day. Nathan Jones has been great for the Demons and has been a shining light in an ordinary start to the year. Cale Morton has showed that he has some fight and determination and has been another to impress. Melbourne’s competitive mindset needs to continue and they were good in that area last week. Read more
AFL Football Round 4 - St Kilda vs Geelong
The two heavyweight of the competition will take to the ground on Saturday. St Kilda and Geelong will be out to flex their guns and prove to the football world that they are both contenders to take out the flag in 2008. St Kilda have certainly not hit their straps and after last weeks dismal performance against the Western Bulldogs will be out to ressurect their form. While on the other hand the Cats have certainly started well in the quest for back to back flags. Brendan Goddard made a good return last week after his knee reconstruction, but The Saints need to do some work on their forward structure which is causing more problems than it should. They have a potent forward line that will trouble most sides when it is on song. It just hasn’t been yet. The midfield looms as a worry for the Saints with Bartel, Ablett, Ling, Kelly etc all on fire and the Saints were chasing bum last week against the quick Doggie midfield. Read more
AFL Football Round 4 - Friday Night Footy
Well Friday Night footy this week is shaping to be a belter, fast, explosive and free flowing should be the nature of this game that 
is for sure. The Western Bulldogs strength in their pace and running ability and the Essendon Footy Club has developed into a speedy unit.
There will be no holding back from these two teams and the Dogs have improved out of site in the last few weeks. I reckon played them into some form a few weeks ago. Adam Cooney and Ryan Griffen are in outstanding touch and Jason Akermanis is in dangerous form around goal. Scott West is a big out for the Doggies and the midfield will need to do some extra work to cover his loss. You would think that Damien Peverill will get the jog on Adam Cooney and leave Mark McVeigh to play his own game through the middle. McVeigh has been brilliant for the Bombers in the first 3 rounds and may be given special attention by the Western Bulldogs this week. Read more
The Footy Show - Masters of Controversy or Violent and Vulger
Well The Footy Show boys were at it a gain last Thursday Night when Sam Newman used a staple gun to attach a cutout picture of Wilson’s face to the forehead of a mannequin. Now this doll was then dressed in a skimpy bra and underwear. Well, Well, Well did this cause a heated response from Caro or what! Check out her response in a video below.
‘GARRY, it was degrading, it was humiliating, it insulted me … it insulted a lot of women.”
This was her response on Footy Classified on Monday Night.
In Today’s Age Newspaper, her friend and collegue Samantha Lane has had a huge swipe at the boys on The Footy Show
He flicked the top of the knickers, he put his hands squarely between the doll’s legs and he thrust it into the face of Craig Hutchison, who sits alongside Wilson on Monday nights. It was violent and vulgar.
AFL Football Injury List After Round 3
ADELAIDE
Taylor Walker (calf) - available
Greg Gallman (ribs) - test
Nathan Bassett (heavy knock) - TBC
Jonathon Griffin (heavy knock) - TBC
Jason Porplyzia (shoulder) - TBC
Nick Gill (hamstring) - TBC
Kris Massie (hamstring) – doubtful
Luke Jericho (sternum) – 3 weeks
Aaron Kite (knee) - 3 weeks
Chris Knights (quad) - 3 weeks
Brad Moran (finger) - 3-4 weeks
Brent Reilly (wrist) - 5 weeks
Trent Hentschel (knee) - indefinite
Rhett Biglands (knee) - season
Read more
How Is This For A Stuff Up
The Sydney Swans were planning to run a competition to celebrate the one millionth fan to attend a Sydney Swans match at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night, when they take on the West Coast Eagles. They even posted the details on their website. Sounds like a great marketing idea right? Well it would have been if they had got their numbers right. Now according to the Swans they have had a total of 964,540 people through the turnstiles at ANZ Stadium in 21 previous Swans games. Which is why they were planning this competition. But, according to a list of attendances submitted by the AFL to AAP on request gives an overall figure of 1,025,106 over 21 matches.
Ah, that is more than 1 million fans…….The 1 millionth person wandered in at the last ANZ Stadium game against St Kilda in round 19, 2007
The Swans are now going to “celebrate the fact that more than one million AFL patrons have gone through the gates at ANZ Stadium …” Steve Brassel said the Swans would now look at subtracting the figures from three finals games from the overall record and come up with a new competition for later this year, which looks likely to be when they play Collingwood or Geelong later in the year
There are certainly some red faces at the Swans over this one……
