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
Dream Team To Tag Vic Stars
Mark Williams can’t be serious can he? He is going to tag Victorian players in this game in order for them to win the game. It’s great that he is taking the game seriously but do we really need to see tagging? Who wants to see Chris Judd, Garry Ablett (if he plays) or Jimmy Bartel not get a kick because they are being harassed, scragged smashed by a tagger. I reckon tagging should be banned from this game and just let both teams go head to head.
“So there’s going to be some players playing run-with roles”
The passion the man brings to the table though in unquestionable! He hates Victoria and it shows, which is what you need to make these type of games great.
“The passion and strength of commitment the players have shown, the fact is they’re coming, and we’re coming to beat the Vics, without any doubt, and 80,000 people will be very disappointed to walk away and see they’re not as good as they think they are.”
Wounded Tiger, I must be unfashionable as well then because I am looking forward to this game as well, Chocko get rid of the taggers!!!!
If you want to take a look back at some old State of Origin vision and history then check out these articles I wrote a while ago.
AFL Football State of Origin - Part 1
AFL State of Origin Football Part 2 - EJ Whitten & Foss Williams Medalists
AFL State of Origin Football Part 3 - Graham Moss and Alex Jesaulenko Medal
AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match - My Final Line Up
OK here we go, as you may remember I jotted down my starting line up for the Victoria vs The Dream Team game a few weeks ago when the initial squads came out. There have been a lot of changes to that list because of injury and some with a few niggles that would rather have the week off, which is a shame.
So here is my final list and line up, all baring people pulling out later in the week, if that is the case then I will amend my side. Even though there have been a host of players pull out both teams look great on paper and it promises to be an entertaining game and one that you may never see again.
If you think you can do better then put in your team or just voice your opinion in the comments section below.
Victoria:
B: Darren Milburn, Matthew Scarlett , Campbell Brown
HB: Heath Shaw, T Croad , B Sewell
C: Adam Goodes, Jimmy Bartel, S Pendlebury
HF: Steve Johnson , Jonathan Brown(C), Ryan O’Keefe
F: Paul Chapman , Brendan Fevola, Daniel Bradshaw
FOLL: Josh Fraser, Chris Judd, Gary Ablett Jnr
I/C:
Brent Harvey (Nth Melb), Sam Mitchell (Haw) Nathan Foley (Rich), Luke Power (Bris), Jarryd Roughead, Joel Selwood, Brad Johnson (WB) Nick Dal Santo (St K), James Kelly (Geel), Robert Murphy (WB), T Simmonds, J. Waite
Dream Team
B: G Johncock, B Rutten, N Bassett,
HB: Peter Burgoyne, Craig Bolton, Joel Corey
C: Andrew McLeod, Kane Cornes, Adam Cooney
HF: Simon Goodwin, Matthew Pavlich, Matthew Richardson
F: Leon Davis, Lance Franklin, D Motlop
FOLL: Dean Cox, Shaun Burgoyne, Daniel Kerr
I/C:
Brett Kirk (Syd), Jamie Charman (Bris), Nathan Bock (Adel), , Brett Burton (Adelaide), Corey Enright (Geel), Darren Glass (WCE), Tadhg Kennelly (Syd), Cameron Mooney (Geel), Mathew Stokes (Geel), Luke McPharlin (Frem), Ryan Griffen (WB), D Cross,
GO VICS!!! - Stick it UP EM
AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match Squads Mark 2
Well the big Hall of Fame Tribute Match between Victoria and the Dream Team is on this weekend and here are the final squads for the game. I will be sitting down with my coaches hat on shortly to finallise what I reckon the line ups should be. Give it some thought and come up with your own starting line ups. You can view my initial line up here
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VICTORIA
J Brown (capt), G Ablett, J Bartel, D Bradshaw, C Brown, P Chapman, T Croad, N Dal Santo, B Fevola, N Foley, J Fraser, A Goodes, B Harvey, B Johnson, S Johnson, C Judd, J Kelly, D Milburn, S Mitchell, R Murphy, R O’Keefe, S Pendlebury, L Power, J Roughead, M Scarlett, J Selwood, B Sewell, H Shaw, T Simmonds, J Waite
DREAM TEAM
A McLeod (capt), N Bassett, N Bock, C Bolton, P Burgoyne, S Burgoyne, B Burton, J Charman, A Cooney, J Corey, K Cornes, D Cox, D Cross, L Davis, C Enright, L Franklin, D Glass, S Goodwin, R Griffen, G Johncock, T Kennelly, D Kerr, B Kirk, L McPharlin, C Mooney, D Motlop, M Pavlich, M Richardson, B Rutten, M Stokes
AFL Football Round 7 - That’s a Wrap! - Part 2
To a game that caused the most controversy of the round it was St Kilda who came away with the 4 points over a gallant Richmond Football Club who may have been robbed! The AFL has confirmed a time-keeping error cost Richmond 11 seconds of play during the dying sages of the game. Time-keepers failed to stop the clock late in the fourth quarter after a signal from umpire when Kelvin Moore hit the post in the dying minutes of the game. The Tigers losing the game by 4 points and it cam down to the last kick of the game when Jack Reiwoldt failed to make the distance.
The Tigers dominated play for most of the game and deserved to win the game and it was only their poor skills in the first half that kept The Saints in the game. Stephen Milne was back to his brilliant best, bagging seven goals in a match-winning performance and probably earning himself some Brownlow votes. Again the tall timber for the Saints failed to fire and Nick Reiwoldt left the ground with a medial ligament injury and may miss up to 2 months. It was a hard fought win for the Saints and their supporters and coaching staff would be taking a big sigh of relief after their less than impressive start to the season. Once again Matthew Richardson was the star for the Tigers kicking 5 goals and getting plenty of it and Nathan Brown also hit some form. Disappointing for the Tiger and their supporters but they must keep the faith as they are starting to show some very good signs don’t you think Wounded Tiger?
