AFL Football Round 10 Preview
Scott Lucas is back for the Bombers when they tackle the Adelaide Crows at AAMI Stadium on Friday Night but it will not be enough to get the Bombers back on the winners list. Although the Eagles smashed the Crows at Subiaco last week they will be hard to beat at AAMIT Stadium. Expect the Crows to come out hard and I think theor midfield will be far to strong for the young Essendon side. Adelaide has made no change while the Bombers have brought in Lucas and Houli at the expense of Watson and Daniher. Goodwin, McLeod, Johncock, Burton and Johncock will run rampant and will have to much class for the Bombers. Crows to win easily by 50 points.
Coming off their best game of the year the Pies will be looking to continue the momentum against the Eagles who themselves put in a good performance against the Crows at home last week. But it will be a different story this week when they have to travel to Melbourne. Collingwood have made no change while the Coatsters have brought in Daniel Kerr, who announced during the week that he will stay in W.A, and also Beau Waters. Masten and Davis have been omitted. If the Pies can continue that relentless pressure that they put on the Cats last week the Eagles will not get near them. Cloke and Rocca up forward will be far to strong for the Eagles defense and The Eagles just do not have the forwards to kick a winning score. Collingwood by 56 points.
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Memo AFL Clubs: This is How To Beat Geelong
Mick Malthouse was merticulous in his planning and the players carried his plans out to the tee!! It was just about the perfect game for the Collingwood Football Club last night and showed the AFL Football public just how to beat the Geelong Football Club.
The contact tackling, pressure and harassing is something that Geelong has not been subjected to in about 28 games of AFL Football. There were times that on the TV that we saw just how discipline the Pies were in running with their direct opponent during the course of play and that caused Geelong to have time and space and was the reason the Pies won the game and won it so convinsingly.
Alan Didak was outstanding for the Pies and he has added to his game the ability to gain a lot of possessions as well as show his stuff in from of goal. Travis Cloke was grabbing everything in the air and was helped by the game of Anthony Rocca. Rocca, while not collecting a lot of the footy played more of a decoy role and lead Matthew Scarlett up the ground and got him out of the way and he kept doing this all game and allowed Cloke a bit more freedom. Dane Swan again racked them up and was fantastic. Dale Thomas started like a house on fire and continued through out the game and capped the game off with a “Daicos” style goal in the last quarter. Wellingham showed that he is going to be a player to watch and was great against his direct opponent Gary Ablett.
The Cats had a bad night and their stars just couldn’t get into the game and were kept under wraps by some discipline Collingwood players. Everyone will be saying that it is a loss that Geelong had to have but now the other clubs may realize that Geelong are human like everyone else and are quite beatable by playing a discipline one on one style of game that negates their time and space that they have been allowed to have over the last 18 months.
Good for Football.
AFL Football Players Cop A Blogging
Oh Please!, there was an article published by Mark Robinson in the Herald Sun that was titled the same as this article then you may not realize that the AFL Players Association are labeling sites like BigFooty, AFL Online and fan sites such as Punt Road End, Bomber Blitz, and Demonology “Cyber Bullying” and Big Brother blogging sites and the AFLPA General Manager of psychology, people and culture says and I quote
It’s a serious issue, a major issue. If one player gets depression, or his form falls away it could end his career”
A MAJOR ISSUE, give me a break. Players are being told by their clubs to avoid going to such site, I hope that doesn’t include AFL Football Blog !. Although it is easy for people to get onto these forums under aliases and not need to put a name or own up to what they have to say, I put my name to everything that I say here and I couldn’t care less if I say something about a player or club and they don’t like it, it is just my opinion. We have every right to our opinion just as the journo’s like Mark Robinson, Kevin Sheehan, Caroline Wilson etc etc have got a right to theirs.
I am sure that AFL Players are more likely to get depressed about a back page article on The Age or Herald Sun from one of those jouranlists than from Pickles on AFL Online. I agree that the issue of people assuming the identity of a player in a forum like these and making comments as though it is on behalf of the player is wrong and should not be condoned.
Is there is going to become a time when the moderators of these sites are going to be liable for what is posted? In today’s day and age then probably.
Hey I still reckon that St Kilda were wrong in re drafting Fraser Gehrig because he was to old to slow and couldn’t play anywhere else than at the Telstra Dome!
I am sure Fraser is not going to lose any sleep over that comment now is he?
Daniel Anderson
AFL Football Blogger + Cyber Bully????
Big Guns Back For The Bombers
Well the Bombers have made some big inclusions this week Fletcher, Laycock, Lonergan, McVeigh, Ramanauskas, Reimers and Winderlich come into the side and McPhee (suspended), Lovett-Murray (suspended), Atkinson and Nash come in. It is a welcome return for Bomber fans and heck don’t The Bombers need it! For the Swans in comes Ablett, Brennan, Malceski, Smith and out goes Matthews. As this game is on Sunday the final teams are not finalized yet.
The Bombers are certainly not in great shape at the moment and there has been a lot of off field talk with board members getting involved in on field issues, not a good thing. Also on talk back radio the other day on SEN there were a huge number of fans calling for Knight’s sacking! Give the guy a go!
Adam Goodes has found hinself in some great form, he was The Swan’s best player 2 weeks ago and was amongst the Vics best last week. He is the player the Bombers need to shut down. Bachar Houli continues to impress for the Bombers and with Fletcher, Mc Veigh and Rama back in the side suddenly the Bomber get some experience back. Sydney at ANZ Stadium is a tough ask at the best of times but the Bombers are down at the moment and I don’t think this is a game they can win.
AFL Footy – Good Old Fashion Footy Weather !
There will be some cold men running around down in Tassie this weekend as The Hawks take on Port Adelaide down at Aurora Stadium on Saturday. Obviously the Hawks are in great touch and the Power are starting to find some form and everyone keeps saying they are the best team outside the eight. Chance Bateman comes in for the injured Luke Hodge, while there is no change for the Power.
This could be the ugliest game of AFL Football for the year down there and both teams will probably play numbers behind the footy. Who will line up up Buddy? that is the question that is asked every week, but this week I can’t see anyone that can go with him? If Toby Thurstans get the job Buddy will have a field day! Port have quite a few outside players I reckon and I think with the conditions going to be the way they are then the Hawks may be to strong over the footy. Kane Cornes will probably go with Mitchell you would think and the Hawks will need to watch the Burgoyne brothers closely. Motlop is another one that will need to be kept quiet. Down there in these conditions I think The Hawks will get up by 32 points.
Can The Saints Win?
Let’s get back into the real stuff after a weekend of Victoria v The Rest which I did enjoy, even if Kick2Kick didn’t. Friday Night will see the Saints take on the Collingwood Football Club and Shane O’bree will play his 200th AFL Football Game.
The Saints have lost 3 out of the last 4 games and only just beat the Tigers by 3 points in their last outing. Mind you The Pies lost the last game by 60 odd points at the hand of the Hawks. Josh Fraser failed to train this morning but on the bright side Anthony Rocca completed training and looks likely to make his return from an ankle injury. Look for Chris Bryan to come in if Fraser does not come up. Nick Riewoldt, Xavier Clarke and Matt Maguire won’t play for the Saints and there’s doubt over Steven Baker, Max Hudghton and Steven King. Stephen Milne was in brilliant form in the round seven win over Richmond with seven goals, but the Saints can’t rely on him to string 2 games in a row together so they had better have another plan.
I am not really convinced about the Saints at the moment I think they are playing some ordinary football and no where near where they should be at. It is a really hard game to pick this one, both sides are low on confidence I reckon and their form is not that great. I just think with the return of Anthony Rocca and in Shane O’bree’s 200th the Pies can get up.
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The Vics Stuck It Right Up Em!
Update: I have included a highlights package at the end of this article.
The Victoria vs Dream Team Match certainly did not disappoint. A game that had star studded line ups, even with the host of players that withdrew was not only a great demonstration of Australian Rules Football but a thoroughly entertaining game. I wonder if Dave caught it on Setanta Sports?
Brendan Fevola, the Allan Aylet Medalist for best on ground, would have been rubbing his hands together with the standard of delivery into the forward line. Rarely did the Victorians miss a target going into the forward 50. Much was spoken about the big 4 forwards of the Dream Team and how the Victorians would struggle to match them up, but the Vics negated the clear possessions from the middle just enough to get over the line. You could tell that at no stage was the game over such was the quality of both sides at the speed at which both teams could score goals.
Classic match ups of Scarlett on Mooney, bragging rights go to Scarlett, Buddy Love on team mate Trent Croad, Buddy can gloat during the week at training there. It is quite scary to think how many goals Buddy could kick if someone could teach him how to kick straight. He is averaging 9 shots on goal a game at the moment!. Adam Goodes enjoyed the freedom of not being tagged heavily and Kane Cornes did a great job of not only negating Chris Judd but showed that he is not just a negative player by raking up the touches along the way. The Dream Team jumped out of the block kicking 5 of the first 6 goals and it looked up and about early, but the Vics then started to get some good footy out of the middle and the game started to turn in the favor of the Big V.
Victoria vs The Dream Team – Match Preview
As we all should know by now the AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match between Victoria and the All Dream Team will take place on Saturday Night and it is certainly a game that I personally am looking forward to!
The game promises to have mouth watering match up all over the ground and has there ever been a more talent ridden forward line than what the Dream Team will have? Buddy Franklin, Matthew Pavlich, Matthew Richardson, Cameron Mooney, Brett Burton. And what about the midfield of Victoria Judd, Mitchell, Bartel, Goodes then again the Dream Team midfield is not to shabby either, Cox, Kirk, K Cornes, Kerr, Griffen.
It has been almost 10 years since we have seen the Big V run out onto the hallow turf of the MCG and with two line ups like this, who would not be excited? What about this for a passage of play. Simmonds taps to Mitchell, hanballs out to Judd, chip kick to a leading Jonathon Brown, gives it off to a running Jimmy Bartell who puts it lace out on the chest of Brendan Fevola!
or
Cox taps to Kerr who squeezes a handball to Richardson kick towards Pavlich who takes a strong grab dishes off to a running Ryan Griffen who drills a pass to Buddy Love on a long raking lead.
I don’t think the Victorian side can blow the Dream Team out of the water but I think the Dream Team have the potential to do so with their forward set up. If the Victorian midfield can get on top then the Big V forwards are quite capable of kicking the winning score. Victoria for me by 1 point, What better game to showcase the game of Australian Rules Football, I was reading today that it will be even broadcast in America on Setanta Sports .
STICK IT UP EM!!!
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No Carey in the AFL Hall of Fame…….Yet
Surely no one really expected Wayne Carey to be inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame this year did they? It was a huge talking point leading up to the AFL’s night of nights last night but really he was never going to be inducted. He will have to bide his time as Gary Ablett has done.
There were however 8 inductees into the AFL Hall of Fame last night and all of them certainly deserve their position. They were:
Kevin Sheedy - Coached Essendon 635 times, 1981-2007 (386 wins, 242 losses, 7 draws), Essendon premierships 1984, 1985, 1993, 2000. Played 251 games, kicking 91 goals for Richmond, 1967-1979, Richmond premierships 1969, 1973, 1974
Geoff Motely - Premierships 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1965 Port Adelaide best-and-fairest 1958, 1959, 1963, 1965, Port Adelaide captain 1959-1966. SA state representative 28 times.
Noel Teasdale – Played 178 games, kicking 71 goals for North Melbourne, 1956-1967 North Melbourne pre-season premierships 1965, 1966 North Melbourne best-and-fairest 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, Brownlow medallist 1965. Read more
