AFL Football Round 2 - Brisbane Hold On, Hawks Flying High, The G Train is Back!
The game of the Round this week in AFL Football was certainly Friday Nights clash between the Brisbane Lions and Collingwood Football Club. In conditions that we are not that familiar with anymore the Lions were brilliant in winning by 2 points and that could just set their season up well an truly. That is the type of game that will lift the confidence of the group and they will draw inspiration from for the rest of the year. Mick Malthouse has at his best after the game by attacking the quality of the umpiring. I think he may well have been better off aiming that anger at his teams lack of skill and the turnovers that cost his side the victory.
Daniel Bradshaw again took a giant step forward in his return and showed that he will be a dangerous forward playing second string to the big fella in Jonathon Brown, who had a quietish night by his standards. But the good thing for the other lion forwards is that he command 2 nd 3 defenders at every marking contest. Leigh Matthew threw Jarrod Brennan into the midfield and he showed that he is more than capable of playing there and had a great game. I haven’t really watched Jed Adock that much but he is a quality player and on Friday Night in those conditions was outstanding! Not to be outdone the Magpies had their fair share of winers on the night with skipper Scott Burns showing why he was chosen as captain while Dane Swan again had a ton of the ball. Opposition clubs just do not respect Swan as a player, they refuse to man him up and he just runs around on his own gathering touches at will. Ryce Shaw provided good run and Travis Cloke was also a good target up forward. Brisbane tackle Sydney this week at the Gabba again while the Pies take on the Tigers.
The G Train i Back in Town
With the beard and all the G Train was on fire for the Saints in round 2 and was the pick of the tall forwards for the Saints in their win against the Blues. No know as a number 57 draft pick Gehrig finished the night with 4 goals. The Blues started like a house on fire and I thought my certainty tip for the week was in trouble. Marc Murphy was getting plenty of it and I think is enjoying the fact that the taggers all gravitate to Chris Judd. At times though the Saints forward line looked unable to handle the 3 talls of Riewoldt, Koschitzke and Gehirig and they need to do a bit of work as a group down there. The onball brigade of Hayes, Montagna, Ball, Harvey were again in great touch and Luke Ball’s tackling was fantastic.
For the Blues, Judd was pretty quiet and was followed by Leigh Fisher, and as I said before Murphy was good and enjoying a bit more freedom. Brett Thronton won his battle with the big man Koschitzke and Bryce Gibbs was also pretty good. Eddy Betts looked very lively up forward and I reckon he needs to spend some more time on the ground, he kick the “GOAL OF THE YEAR” with a left foot checkside kick from the boundary. Brendan Fevola had an ordinary night as was well covered by Max Hudgton.
The Blues are up against the Bombers this week, while the Saints will be pitted against the Western Bulldogs on Friday Night. Don’t miss the game Preview, SUBSCRIBE to the AFL Football RSS Feed.
The Buddy and Roughead Show
The Hawks continued their impressive start to the 2008 AFL Premiership Season with a good solid win against the Fremantle Dockers at Subiaco. Sam Mitchell must be leading the Brownlow after 2 Rounds as he was outstanding again for the Hawks. He was backed up by Travis Tuck and Brad
Sewell. Tuck had 25 touches while Sewell had 27. The Hawks forward line of Roughead, Franklin, Cyril Rioli and Tim Boyle are quickly becoming the most formidable in the comp I reckon, Franklin and Roughead finsihed with 4 each while Rioli and Boyle 2 a piece.
While the Hawks have started well the Dockers have some concerns. A big one is the the form of Chris Tarrant who may well find himslef in the WAFL this week after putting in 2 shockers to start the season. The mainstays of the Docker Team Pavlich, Headland, and Josh Carr all lead from the from for the Dockers and Aaron Sandilands was pretty good in the Ruck. Reece Palmer in his first game was also quite impressive and showed that he deserves another crack next week. The Dockers need to pull their fingers out this week as they tackle the Eagles in “derby”, while the Hawks will be up against the North Melbourne Football Club.
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I think some congrats should go to Collingwoods Nathan Brown. He has a spectacular start to his AFL career playing on Pavlich and Brown and holding them to two goals each. Considering the calibre of those two, probably close to two of the most damaging forwards, it is encouraging to see young players playing with confidence and skill.
Brett
Nathan Brown certainly has had a fine start to the year and his career. He is a big boy already! It was interesting to hear Jonathon Brown give him a big wrap after that game saying that he is a start of the future.
Ando