AFL Round 7 – That’s a Wrap!

May 5, 2008 | Filed Under AFL News

Well what an amazing weekend of AFL Football! First of all to a game that I turned off at half time. The Demons were 8 goals down at half time and not a single person in the world would have thought they could have staged one pf the biggest comebacks in their history.

Melbourne were absolutely shocking in the first half and were subsequently booed by sections of the crowd, all 10 of them, at half time as they walked form the ground, they amazingly won 17.17 (119) to 15.23 (113). I think The Dockers may have just taken a bit of heat and media pressure off the West Coast Eagles after that second half performance. Brad Miller and small forwards Austin Wonaeamirri and Aaron Davey were the play makers that won Melbourne the game in the second half and played some inspiring football. Davey especially showed what he can do by kicking two freakish goals in the 3rd quarter. They then went on to kick an astounding 9 goals in the last quarter to run away winners and bring up their first win for the year.

Skipper Mathew Pavlich again lead from the front with 5 goals and Rhyse Palmer showed what a talent he is and will be a super player in this competition. Chris Tarrant also deserves a mention and I thought he was actually quite good in the first half but fell away with the rest of the team in the second half.

At the other end of the scale the Hawthorn Football Club lifted their game to another level again and reiterated to the footballing public that they are genuine contenders to take on the might of Geelong this year. They have the best and most potent forward line in the competition and it showed out on the weekend against he Collingwood Football Club who many still believe to be a premiership ontender. The Hawks EASILY accounted for them by 65 point. Franklin 6, Roughead 6, Williams 5 goals a peice were unstppable. The Pies have a lot of sole searching to do and were handing a big reality check in their 2008 aspirations. Surely they can’t be complaiing about being tired and weary now can they? Lockyer, H Shaw, Pendlebury, and Scott Burns were the best for the Pies and a bitterly disappointing finish to Burns’s 250th game.

On Friday night we saw a Chris Judd conscious West Coast Eagles outfit really put an end to their season by losing to the Carlton Football Club. It is fair to say that The Eagles are GONE. They do have a host of players on the sidelines with Daniel Kerr, Adam Hunter, Matt Priddis, Shannon Hurn and Ashley Hansen all missing but there a lot of players that need to have a good hard look at why they are playing the game. Now I heard on Triple M radio over the weekend that the Eagles have employed the services of an ex AFL Coach from Melbourne to head over and have a look at the playing list and make a judgment on players that should be given the old heave ho. The Eagles are very lucky that The Dockers were shocking and lost to Melbourne as that may take a bit of media hype off them this week. The Blues on the other hand, although not being super impressive, did show enough to prove to their supporters that there is a lot to look forward to and that they are on the way up. Andrew Carrazzo was outstanding with 42 touches and I think he had about 24 during the 2nd quarter! He was supported by Heath Scotland and Nick Stevens who were also dominant. Despite being heavily tagged by Selwood, Chris Judd still did his thing and had some very important touches when it counted as all good players do.

Another side to impress in round 7 of AFL Football was the Western Bulldogs outfit who defeated the Sydney Swans at the SCG by 3 goals, which is no mean feat! and now must be considered up there in contention for the top 4 if not the GF. The form of Adam Cooney is outstanding and is a major reason the Doggies are in such HOT form. Cooney booted 5 goals and had 25 possessions in what was a 3 vote Brownlow Medal game. The Smiling Assasin Brad Johnson was great up forward booting 4 as well. Robert Murphy is playing some great football at the moment and things just tend to happen when he gets the pill. Ryan O’keefe worked tirelessly all day and Michal O’Loughlin did his best work late in the game to try and get the Swannies over the line, but it was the skill errors and ordinary kicking for goal that let the Swans down they had 24 scoring shots to 22. I thought the Dogs would struggle to find the space they needed to get their running game going but adapted very well and worked hard to generate the run and carry that they have been doing all year. A great win.