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.
Tigers Smash Fremantle
In a bigger upset I reckon was The Tigers knocking off the Fremantle Dockers in Western Australia by 64 points! This game cost me my footy tipping certainty competition!!!!! Matthew Richardson was the catalyst for The Tigers and he played on a WING would you believe and finished the day with impressive stats 25 possessions, 15 marks and 4 goal 3. A masterful stoke from coach Terry Wallace. The other Tiger mid fielders some how ran rampant Kane Johnson had 36 possessions, Nathan Foley seven scoring assists and Jordan McMahon 32 possessions.
Mark Harvey has come out and said it is his worst loss as coach of the Fremantle Dockers and has put all his players on notice after what he described as an insipid performance. Would not like to be training there this week that is for sure!. There will be two players that could be excused of the barrage that Harvey will no doubt give his players in the coming days and that is superstar Matthew Pavlich who again showed why he is such a great leader by putting in a good fighting game and ended with 3 goals and also Luke McPharlin who kicked 2 goals. The Dockers have some real worries at the moment and with a ruck man of Sandilands size they should dominate that area, but The Tigers used his dominance to advantage and smashed the Dockers through the middle of the ground. Richmond and coach Terry Wallace decided to go with a side that was full of pace and try and expose the Freo tall and sluggish big men and it worked a treat.
Good Luck this week Freo boys!.
Hawks Continue To Impress
In another impressive display the Hawthorn Football Club defeated the Adelaide Crows down in Tassie by 44 points. The Adelaide side was in some good form and the Hawks EASILY accounted for them and may just be the team that could challenge the Cats this year. I can’t wait for that game! The Hawks tackling and pressure on The Crows was outstanding and one the main reasons for the win. The Crows have been a skillful fast side of late and were not allowed to play that game due to that pressure and caused a lot of turnovers that turned into attacking situations for the Hawks.
The potent Hawks forward line of Lance Franklin, Jarryd Roughead and Mark Williams were in great touch and working very very well together, again the Saints coaching staff need to look at this tape. Brent Guerra was allowed to do as he pleased amassed 38 touches and I think he was playing in a back pocket! What was even more impressive was that they did this without skipper Sam Mitchell and Tim Boyle who were late withdrawals. And my god Lance Franklin, if not a superstar already, will be the pin up boy of AFL Football very soon. He is a very smooth operator and he played on Ben Rutten, an All Australian and took him to the cleaners by booting 6 goals in another very impressive display of football.. In an interesting stat the Hawks were clearly beaten at stoppages 38 to 21 but the Crows just couldn’t use that to their advantage.
Tim Clarke did a great job shutting down the dangerous Andrew McLeod and Mark William found some form ending the game with 3 goals. Cyril Rioli again showed some great signs and he has that knack of being a brilliant tackler and chases from behind to sneak up on players which is something that the coaches love and is becoming a trademark of small forwards. A great win for the Hawks and that sees them sitting on top of the AFL Ladder by percentage after Round 4.
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One Response to “AFL Football Round 4 Review – Part 1”
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2 HUGE questions have come out of this week.
1) Are Freo cooked? The window looks closing. Teams become washed up very fast in this league.
2) Ditto Port? You can’t keep making excuses every week, even if you do have a tough schedule.