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.

The Kangaroos take on the West Coast Eagles up at Gold Coast Stadium and this game could break the world record for the least amount of people to a game! For the Kangaroos Riggio, Gibson, Obst and McMahon come in for Pratt, Brown, S.Thompson and Josh Smith. Over in the West Davis, Priddis, Seaby and Staker at the expense of C.Jones (ankle), Waters (thigh), McNamara (thigh) Armstrong. The Eagles have some big outs there but Matt Priddis will be welcomed back. He is a much needed asset in the middle.

The Eagles are in real bad shape and their midfield looks even more depleted now that Kerr is out as well and I just don’t see Priddis being able to take the number 1 role on his own. Goals kicking is another huge issue. Looking at their side on paper and they have named Ben McKinley on the bench. I thought he was the only forward that has been looking dangerous! Brent Harvey is in great touch and will need to be watched closely by the Eagles as will live wire forwards, Thomas and Campbell. The Ruck duel between Cox and McIntosh should be a good one but you would expect Cox to win, he just doesn’t have the cattle around him to take advantage of it. Kangaroos for me easily by 42 points.

AAMI Stadium this week will host the game between the Adelaide Crows and the Melbourne Demons. In Adelaide you would expect The Crows to win quite comfortably but you never know, stranger things have happened, like the Demons actually winning a game! A couple of big INS for the Crows McGregor, Maric, Jericho, Reilly and Rutten and at the moment only Douglas has been omitted. For the Demons in comes Buckley, Bode, P.Johnson and Valenti and out goes only Wheatley at this stage.

Austin Wonaeamirri’s four goals against Fremantle was the talking point in The Demons come from behind win against the Dockers as they broke through for their first win. He is certainly an exiting player and a goal kicker. Brad Miller finally did something for the Demons last game, but if they have to rely on him as their best player to win games then they will not win to many. Robertson was OK up forward and looks dangerous now that he and Kate Cebrano have parted company. The Crows midfield of Van Berlo, Thompson, Mackay, McLeod, Edwards, Porplyzia and Goodwin should run rampant over the Demons. The Crows for me quite easily here by 52 points and the Demons to come back to earth with a thud.

The under siege Fremantle Dockers tackle one of the in form sides in the competition this week in the Western Bulldogs. I like the look of the Doggies this year and they are playing some great footy. But the Dockers, well what more can you say than they got run over by the Demons!

In comes Bradley, Warnock, Campbell, Peake, Black, Duffield and Hayden for the Dockers and out at this stage are Mark Johnson, Gilmore, O’Brien and Murphy. For the Doggies in comes Ray, Skipper and Ward but there are no outs as yet. The Dogs midfield of Boyd, Cross and Cooney have been instumental in their efforts this year and Adam Cooney is in Brownlow Medal winning form. Jason Akermanis is also in great touch up forward and his ability to kick goals from anywhere inside the forward 50 is a great asset. Robert Murphy is another one that is in rare form and was again in good touch for the Vics last week.

What can we say about the Dockers? Well apart from Pavlich there is not much form in their side, really Sandilands should DOMINATE most weeks given his size and the mid fielders should be hungry to play underneath the big man, but he just can’t seem to get any consistency in his football and is a big worry. Even at Subiaco I can’t see the Dockers winning this one and Mark Harvey will again have to face the media attention after another loss. Doggies by 45 points.

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.

The Tigers will certainly get a gauge of where they re at when they take on the might of the Geelong Football Club at the MCG on Saturday afternoon. While the Tigers have been playing some OK footy they have not been getting over the line for the 4 points and it will be hard to see them getting them here. With Hail and thunderstorms expected, the Cats are masters in the wet. In their last 2 encounters the Cats have beaten the Tigers by a combined total of 227 points. I don’t think it will be that one way in this game but I think the Cats will win easily.

Matthew Richardson has been in career best form up through the middle of the ground and still managing to score some goals at the same time. Where do you start with The Cats their entire midfield needs to be closely checked and, according to Glenn Archer they have the best Fullback in the game Matthew Scarlett. Joel Bowden has earned a call up and rumours are that his days are numbered as a defender and will find himself up forward and Graham Polakk also returns at the expense of Jackson and Schulz. For the Cats, Ablett has been named but is still in doubt and Stokes is out suspended. Geelong for me in this one, to many big guns.

Saturday Night sees the game between the Carlton Football Club and the Brisbane Lions Football Club at the Telstra Dome. Carlton have won 3 of their last 4 games and go into this game with their tails up while the Lions have not been able to string 2 winning games together. Andrew Carrazzo was outstanding with 42-possessions last game. Daniel Bradshaw is in great form for the Lions and it is hard to see the Blues matching up on him and also the Victorian skipper Jonathon Brown. Cameron Cloke is out for a couple of games with a wrist injury and Cain Ackland comes in to fill his spot. I do not rate Ackland at all and his inclusion alone will make me pick the Lions. Richard Hadley also comes in at the expense of young Ellard.

For the Lions there are some big inclusions, Roe, Drummond, Johnstone, Black and Brown come in and Leuenberger, Henderson, Stiller, Proud and Copeland miss out. The midfield battle should be a good one with Black, Power and Adcock up against Judd, Stevens and Murphy. Daniel Merrett will probably get the job on The Big Fev and that match up will go along way to determining who wins this game. If Fevola does not get 4 - 5 goals it is hard to see who else can kick them. Lions for me in this one.

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 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.

Andrew McLeoad lead from the front for the Dream Team and provided his customary dash from the back line, Matthew Pavlich and Matthew Richardson also were very good. Peter Burgoyne was the stand out though and just ran amok and collected touches at will, you could see that these type of players were relishing not being tagged as they normally would be in the home and away games. Nathan Foley was the surprise for me, he definitely did not look out of place and proved he can match it with the big boys on the big stage.

Now I need to make a comment on the TV Coverage on Channel 10. They tried a couple of new camera innovations, one of which was the camera on the field umpires. Besides them looking lie they were pregnant, I didn’t want to see the stubble on the cheek of the umpires, what about you?. And what about the pictures of when they were bouncing the ball! All you could see was the grass! There were a couple of new camera shots that could take off though, the one that was on the goal post was OK and the one that looked at the interchange area was good. What I was NOT IMPRESSED with was at the end of the game just after the players were swapping their jumpers, they went to an add break and never came back, instead the coverage of the Turkish Grand Prix started, meaning I along with all the other viewers missed all the Presentations! Shame on you Channel 10 Shame.

Now let’s get back to the real stuff this weekend and there are some great games coming up. SUBSCRIBE to the RSS Feed so you don’t miss any of the action.

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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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.

Des Tuddenham - Played 251 games, kicking 317 goals for Collingwood and Essendon, 1962-1977. Collingwood captain 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1976 Essendon captain 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975

Gavin Brown - Collingwood premiership 1990, Collingwood best and fairest 1989, 1994, 1997, Collingwood captain 1994-1998, E J. Whitten medallist 1989, 1997.

Glen Jacovich - Played 276 games, kicking 60 goals for West Coast, 1991-2004, West Coast premierships 1992, 1994, West Coast best-and-fairest 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000.

Garry Hocking - Played 274 games, kicking 243 goals for Geelong, 1987-2001, Geelong best-and-fairest 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, Victorian state representative eight times All-Australian 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, Geelong captain 1995, 1999

Tom McArthur - Umpired a national record 502 senior games over four decades from 1959-1985, Officiated in 14 senior QAFL grand finals, Officiated in 10 Queensland state representative matches

A great achievement to all of the above! Alex Jesaulenko was one of the original inductees in 1996 and he became the 22nd man to receive legend status last night

“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

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

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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

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?

In a game that I was expecting to be much closer the Adelaide Crows defeated the Kangaroos by 33 points at AAMI Stadium. Adelaide probably should have set the game up in the first Q but were let down by some shocking kicking for goal and went in at quarter time 1.8 to 2.2. Brett Burton and Jason Porplyzia were great up forward for the Crows with 4 and 3 goals respectively and Goodwin chipping in with 3 as well. But the defense of the Crows was the reason they won the game, lacking Ben Rutten it was Graham Johncock and Nathan Bassett who provided plenty of run and created most of the scoring opportunities. When the Kangaroos midfield players like Daniel Wells, Shannon Grant and Brent Harvey started to get some of the pill the Kangaroos looked half a chance but they just didn’t get enough of it and there were not to many more blokes that helped out. Simpson worked hard as always Harding, Pratt and Drew Petrie were also good contributers. Back to the drawing board for the Kangaroos now in readiness or Round 8 after the break.

With late withdrawals to Jonathon Brown and Simon Black, you would have expected the Lions to be belted by the Cats at Skilled Stadium but they were very good and only went down by 27 points. Geelong also had a late withdrawal in Gary Ablett but such is their depth they were able to cover him quite easily. Jed Adcock, Tim Notting and Jared Brennan were fantastic for the Lions, but as was the case in a few games this weekend, poor kicking at goal cost the Lions what could have been a handy lead during the second quarter. In the absence of Ablett, Jimmy Bartel, young Joel Selwood and Paul Chapman were the ones responsible for winning the pill out of the middle. One could only think what may have been if the Lions had Brown, Black and Johnstone, the Lions actually made The Cats look a bit slow at times and moved the footy pretty well in patches but it was just that, in patches and were not good enough to get over the line.

Well Port Adelaide flexed their muscles at The Dome and ran away easy winners by 64 points in another disappointing game for Bomber fans. Daniel Motlop kicked 7 goals and earned himself a call up for the Victoria vs Dream Team game. The Power showed again that they are a front running side and considering they were a long way up it was hard to find a bad player. They come up against The Hawks after the break and that will tell everyone where they are at as a football team in 2008. David Rodan, Domenic Cassisi, Travis Boak and Shaun Burgoyne dominated the clearances. There are some worrying signs for The Bombers and although they are missing their best 3 players in Scott Lucas, Dustin Fletcher and Mark McVeigh the Bombers are hand balling far to much and are coming unstuck for often than not. Houli and Monfries got the ball a lot but hand balled more than they kicked and Matthew Lloyd at least got 5 goals from not many opportunities. The Bombers need to do some thinking about their game plan I reckon as I don’t think it is sustainable with the cattle that is on the field at the moment.

Big weekend this week with the AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match which will see Victoria take on The Dream Team. SUBSCRIBE to the AFL Football Blog’s RSS Feed to stay up to date with all the ins and outs and latest news on the game