Absolutely over the moon with this win. Been crying on and off since the final siren.

Travis Colyer re-signs until the end of 2019 after knocking back the chance to head home to WA.
Talk that Heppell announcement within 2 weeks aswell

Reckon Sydney have been the best "recyclers" for a long time. Players like Lockett, Roos and Schwass came as established stars, but Hall, Bolton, Kennedy, McGlynn, Mumford, Richards, Maxfield etc really found new levels with the Swans.
I dont think Lockett was anymore "recycled" than Buddy and Tippett were.

Yeah I kinda said that mate

What must be most concerning for Porties was the form of Wingard and Gray. Gray is one of the best players in the comp and for two weeks in a row now he's resorted to cheap shots off the ball because he's not getting a kick. Sitting on the bench it looked like he just didn't want to be out there. I can't recall Wingard playing so poorly either. This is good because small forwards kill us every time and he tore us a new one last time we played the power.

Lobbe needs support. Who are the ruck back ups? Howard? He must be brought in to help Lobbe not replace him. In our last match against the Power Lobbe was smashed by Blicavs and Stanley and this time round we had Zac Smith as well. Someone else who needs support is Dixon. He's copped a lot of shit but if you are going to have Butcher on your list surely it's time to play the guy. Yeah he can't kick straight but he takes a mark and for a big man he puts good pressure on. At least that is what I have seen going on the (admittedly) few times I've seen him.

The Power appear to have forgetten thier roots. After the Magpies put in a shit one you didn't hear the president or the coach hanging the players out to dry. Magpies knew the game plan and when it was time to play "the Port way" it usually meant hard, direct football. When it came for time to go the biff or fly the flag they backed it up with their football. All the melee and Trengove's retaliatory strike did was fire up the Cats.

I think the key here for Port is to say very little this week. They should close ranks and provide support for the Talls. They should make a "statement" selection like dropping Hartlett who is the least impressive Port leader I can recall and get rid of Toumpas who is diabolical.

regards,

REB

Geez and the Dons won. What a weekend for you! Haha

It's days like today I really wish I knew a Gold Coast supporter... :D
Our back half were great today, kept us in the game during the 3rd quarter. Jake Long certainly didn't look out of place. And Rocket seemed happy to let Zaharakis and Merrett do their own thing for most of it, cheers for that! =D>
My son is a GC supporter and after taking him up there round 1 to watch us get pumped by 10 goals I made sure he sat through the whole game yesterday. Our makeshift defence were awesome yesterday and Zac was just fantastic. A 20yo in his debut game as a skipper and still found it 38 times, has a real good head on his shoulders. Plenty to like and actually looking forward to seeing how we go next year

Nothing better than beating those pricks!
Now the Saints just need to do their bit.
Well done to Zac who broke the all time Essendon record for disposals in a season today

Blues currently 6 wins 5 losses, just looking at their remaining matches as which ones might be winnable and how many games they might win for the year....


saints *
giants (away)
magpies *
crows
eagles
swans (away)
hawks
saints *
lions (away) *
demons *
bombers *

i think they should be favourites to win 6 of these

LOSS
LOSS
LOSS
LOSS
LOSS
LOSS
LOSS
LOSS
LOSS
WIN
LOSS

The bottom line here is that this was an absolutely common sense decision by the SANFL. CEY has missed two SANFL games all season and replaced a suspended player otherwise it would have been one. The permit system is in place for exactly this sort of situation, so it is completely within the rules and by no means an abuse of the system. Absolutely the right and logical call.
The bottom line is there are different rules and different conditions for clubs in the same competition.
The Crows are a lazy club who don't care about alienating people as they have a core group of plastic morons who will always fill their seats.

MW wrote:

Wedgie wrote:One North member I know got free double passes to all the finals as thanks for going to every home game this year.
If everyone with a ticket rocks up we should get approximately 60,000 there!

Are you expecting 60,000 north supporters?

I'm on the Panther bandwagon now mate!

Wandered out to my first APFL GF in years yesterday. Was fun to see some old familiar faces in the Hummocks B grade. I must say Dustin Guthberg must lead a tough life as he looks much older than his 33 years! They put up a spirited effort to come back and almost pinch a victory. I thought they had most of the play but Virginia were more efficient going forward. Some of the off the ball behaviour from the Rams was pretty average.

In the A grade Virginia couldn't hit a target. Big Nicko seemed to do a calf or something which didn't help them. Was pretty disappointed by the atmosphere it didn't seem that there was much of a crowd there. Maybe it's Virginia's set up that makes it seem that way but there was less cheering in the As than there was in the B grade. On the upside I didn't have to line up for a beer.

I hear Jamie Thomas will be coaching the Rams next year.

@carey

Interested in your thoughts re the implications for the Crows if they have to play Hartigan on Buddy?

I simply can't wait to go to work Monday.

Brodlach wrote:Here we go again with the bloody stupid puns

Toucan play at that game. Go Swallow some Wild Turkey ya Tit!

Crows would also be the proud holders of the current biggest losing streak in prelim finals.
Maybe both clubs should have history in the making in their song.

The more you think about it the more you realise what a shit club Adelaide are. Their supporters have absolutely no right to be arrogant like they are. Just take a moment and consider that Richmond and Adelaide are the only 2 clubs that havnt played a grand final since 99.
Just shows what you can get away with when you have thousands of blind sheep following you that believe everything you feed them.

AFL has determined it will retain the week's break introduced this year between the end of the Home & Away Season and start to the Finals.

Patrick Keane

Of course they have. Another week the AFL can cut in to other sports' time in the sun is always a good thing to those flogs running the comp. :evil:

Why in the **** what that be a consideration? They just had an awesome finals series so I think they might be thinking of not the bloody A League.

regards,

REB

I don't think for one second their thinking of the A-League but could it not just be a coincidence that it was a great final series and there was no out and out standout side and the top 7 teams were as close as ever at the end of the minor round rather than the break before the finals

While the break before finals could be could good for the finals entertainment value I'm not sure if it shows a true reflection of finding the best team in the competition

Reid is seriously unimpressive

That is always a consideration in this day and age for the AFL apparently. Not just the A-League, but cricket, racing etc just lose another week to the Might and Power ( ;) ) that is the AFL. As if it isn't enough to stagger/drag out all the post and pre-season "events" out like they do. I love Australian Rules footy, but not at the expense of the other sports mentioned above. Something about the golden goose...

Yes, I'm sure the AFL sit around and instead of pondering what would improve them, they simply wonder what would disrupt other sports. If the rest of the sporting calendar is so weak that it needs the AFL to give them a break then they're already in trouble.

Kidding yourself. Of course they're thinking of extending their reach as far as possible. They're in competition with all other codes/sports for the mighty dollar. If they could, they'd make them play all year. Women's comp Feb/March? No worries. The fact that a bye before finals extends the season another week would've been very much top of the "pro" list.

Lol. I think you'll find their motivation is mostly how to best expand. If that also happens to impede other codes they won't lose any sleep. Largely because it isn't their responsibility. Every one of those things you mention would have been put in place because it had benefits for the AFL and not because it hurts cricket, or rugby or soccer.
Just like Woolies and Coles?

cennals05 wrote:Wasn't exactly a unanimous vote for Cotton as coach either. He won 3-2 with Hocking being runner up.

Did Cotton get a vote as D.o.C?

Both Marsh and Stokes are batting 6 when they aren't good enough to own it as a batsman and are just playing because it's handy to have an extra bowling option. I stand by my point that Stokes can't keep that position if England are going to have long term success.

And yes, as you say England lack batting. Hence why Ballance is in no real danger. The bloke actually averages nearly 40 in tests and 47 in first class cricket. You wouldn't be dropping him and keeping the all rounders at 5 and 6.

If you have watched england over the past year you would know Stokes is their most important player. Forget his average which is much worse due to his first few years in test cricket. Since the New Zealand series 18 months ago he has been good with the bat and excellent with the ball. He is much better then Marsh with the bat, if you saw his 258 against SAF you would agree.

Ballance on the other hand dominated weak teams early on his career and average in the 50s over his first 15 tests. Since then he has been incredibly useless and should not be in the team. I agree Ali shouldn't be batting 5 (He doesnt in england) but he is one of our better players of spin so he bats up the order in the subcontinent.

Young Hameed or Butler will come in for the India tests for ballance and rightly so.

You're wrong Graham knows best ;)

Warnie talking about Steyn bowling at 145km/h.

He said ( something like ) "Go outside for a bit, watch the cars go past and imagine what that's like over 22 yards"

Seriously, the bloke who used to be Shane Warne, SHUT THE **** UP! Despite all of them growing up listening to Richie not one of them learnt a ******* thing from him, if you don't need to say it, ******* don't!

Channel 9, you suck.

SA on "Richie" at stumps

Essendon leak goals, 4th worst back half in the league. Port have had the least scored against us in the league.

As such Essendon get more of the ball than Port, lots more, but mostly in their back half. Ports press is only currently being countered by the sides at the point end of the ladder with more convincing systems and structures.

Port by about 5 goals.

Hmmmm...I'm a bit worried about young Boon. Hasn't been seen lately. ;)

regards,

REB

Some players are really thick in the brain They were warned just last week that jump punches would be penalized. Duh!!!!
Don't complain if you are pinged
Hawkins shouldn't have done it... MRP really inconsistent. But Crouch has form as pictured below

http://static.fjcdn.com/gifs/When+you+need+some+extra+income+fake+that+injury+girl_5d6146_3481692.gif

Worst part is the changing of interpretation mid season. Cotchin gets a fine of $1500 3 weeks ago, Hawkins gets a week this week for the same thing.

What they should have done is give Hawkins a $5000 fine and let players know they'll get hit in the hip for the remainder of this season and next year it'll be a game.

Just posted on Facebook "Only Cats fans will be defending him"

^^^^^

Rance got 2.

Crows supporters top 3 comments (also was my grandpa's only "expert comments" he ever threw out watching his beloved Cows):

"Aww just kick the ball long!"
"Dont piss fart around with handballs, just kick the bloody thing!"
"Baaaaaaaaaaallllll!!!!"

:D

JUST KICK IT. MAN UP. BALLLLLLL

I said to a mate last friday - i wonder how long it will take for the old farts to realise that nobody "mans up" anymore and it is all about zones etc. reckon it will take years

Being an Adelaide Oval member ive heard a few funny comments by the Crows supporters. 2 that I can remember were The first one was from some old chook who sat in front of me at a Crows v Sydney game. Buddy kicked one from about 60 in front of us and this old chook yells out You're no Eddie Betts. I just happened to mention to her how many premierships and coleman medals he's won.

The other one was when I was at the Crows v Essendon game this season and some bloke got stuck into James Kelly. Calling him a Geelong reject. Probably calls Davis, Gunston, Danger Crow rejects aswell

If he gets through SANFL this week, McGovern has to come back in

Yeah at Jenkins expense.
Even though he has kicked a couple of goals, he is a big girl!

Any chance, and I mean any chance he might put his 100+ kg body on the line for his team?

He tried that last time they played the Hawks... #didntendwell

Oh was that when he squibbed the contest and bruised his tummy? :lol:

How good are Fridays at work when Port or Crows lose a Thursday night game?

All I heard today was Crows would win by 10 goals, 20 goals.... blah blah

What are the odds of that type of review happening 2 games in a row?

Look you can all debate the Eagles v Glenelg game all you like but who cares.


Westies won!!!

Some Titus gold


Sydney (86) v Essendon (85)

In a week the AFL started talking up AFLX as a ‘high octane’ and ‘exciting’ version of the sport, this game proved they are building a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.

In fact, ‘building a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist’ could be the AFL’s slogan.

This was a truly breathtaking game, and it snuck up on us. In the fourth quarter, it seemed the Bombers had wrest control of the game from the Swans, who appeared to have stuffed things up royally.

Essendon though were determined to prove that snatching defeat from the jaws of victory was not something reserved for Richmond.

In a display of slapstick comedy not seen since the silent movie era, the Bombers proceeded to let Sydney score the last 20 points of the game in the final eight minutes.

In a scene unlikely to make his epic movie, Brendon Goddard managed to make a couple of huge mistakes in the last minute. They were so bad Goddard didn’t even try to blame them on a teammate.

When Gary Rohan took a mark in the goal square on the siren, Bombers fans looked on in horror. How had they managed to stuff this up? How indeed.

I’ve watched the last few minutes a few times, and like a magician’s trick, I still can’t figure out how it was done.

After the game, there was controversy when the Swans didn’t allow Brian Taylor roam around their rooms. BT lost it on air as a result.

What struck me as strange, was that BT seemed surprised a group of people didn't want to spend time with him. I would have thought that was an iron-clad law of the universe.

The most surprising thing to me is it took until Round 14 for a team to put an end to the footballing equivalent of the drunk uncle annoying everyone at Christmas.

Joe Daniher signs on for 3 more years

I hope Clayton Oliver the pastey white dog gets weeks too. F**kin whities!

Funny how the world we live in has no problems with this statement... change the word white and you would have earned yourself a sit on the bench.

I must have been asleep in history class where they discussed the historical global oppression of the the white race at the hands of other races :roll:

Try and move Jenkins and his contract and use those extra funds to pay them both should be the move.

I'd be on the phone to Collingwood, Richmond etc. all the clubs in need of a tall forward almost every day shopping Jenkins to them.

Thank god for Fantasia and Walla. We have far too many that butcher the ball

A great day at the footy.
A great send off to Schmidt and Caire. Two outstanding players for our football club.
Farewell to Rubbers, he bows out as a Premiership Coach.

Glenelg miss the finals Woooo Hooooo!!!!
North get the spoon. Woooooo Hooooo!!!!!

carey wrote:

MW wrote:Geel v syd. In geelong or mcg?

MCG

Is next year's fixture out already?

Win or lose make sure all you Crows fans get to Adelaide Oval on Sunday for a huge day welcoming home the players.
AO are putting on most of their staff to cater for it. Bars open from about 12.30.
Official announcement coming soon.

Seems silly. They should have held it at the clubs home base where fans get togethe....actually, never mind.