AFL 2012

[Troy]

It was ugly but it was a win. Defeating Gold Coast by only 7 points was disappointing but at this stage I am happy that North walked away with four points. 11.21 is a terrible conversion rate and it shouldnt have been close at all, so many easy shots missed. The number of turnovers was too high and unfortunately the key forwards, other than Petrie, didn't do much. Harvey was awesome again and we really need to use him closer to goal more often. Run him of the HFF rather than trying to get him to run out the entire game in the middle.

GWS were good yesterday against Richmond as well. They lost by 12 points in the end but for a lot of the last quarter they were within a goal. Patton debuted and looked really solid, Cameron was great as well and in a few years time that is going to be an unstoppable forward line.

 

[Heisenberg]

Wow Sydney are just dominating Geelong so far at the SCG. 7.0.42 to 1.1.7 at 1/4 time.

And Sydney are also leading the free kick count at 10 to 4.

 

[Troy]

Was a good finish by Geelong but Sydney held on for a six point win. When Geelong hit the lead with less than five minutes left in the last I thought that Geelong were going to do it but Sydney did well to hold on. It means that Geelong may drop out of the eight this week which I never would have predicted at the start of the season.

Collingwood held off West Coast by only three points in a top of the table class. Brisbane shocked me by beating Bulldogs by 58 points with defenders McGrath and Merrett kicking nine goals between them.

Fremantle are playing Essendon right now and it is a close match with Essendon leading 58-50 in only the second quarter, surprisingly high scoring for a Freo match.

 

[Troy]

Mitch Clark has been ruled out for the rest of the season due to injury. Really bad news for Melbourne since he has probably been their best player this year with 29 goals up forward with terrible supply from the midfield. Going to be tough to replace since there haven't been any other key forwards that have been consistently good for them this season. Garland is back this week and he will go there but other than that it seems like they will have to use a defender. They could always use their number one pick from four years ago that was drafted as a key forward, Jack Watts, but I doubt they will move him there.

 

[Troy]

Strange game at AAMI Stadium today. Richmond came out of the blocks firing kicking eight goals to three in the first quarter but then only kicked five more goals for the rest of the match. Adelaide did well to gradually chip away at the 33 point lead to eventually win by 19 points. Collingwood beat Fremantle as well today in a match where Collingwood were never really challenged. Last night Hawthorn smashed Carlton, Carlton's season keeps going from bad to worse and they have lost 7 of their last 8 games. They were premiership favourites after Round 4 but now may not even make the eight.

Saints vs. North tomorrow is a massive game after Fremantle, Carlton and Richmond all lost. If North win they go into the eight and if Saints win they give themselves a game in hand against the bottom ten.

 

[Andrew]

Woo, Bulldogs sure are fucking shit. Got flogged by 84 points.

Yay for me going for them, not that I'm a huge fan of AFL, I know my team sucks but we seriously need a forward line to develop with and we don't.

In other news, WCE by 126 points over Gold Coast.

 

[Troy]

Sydney also smashed GWS by 94 points. Terrible night of football with three one sided matches. Tomorrow should be better, maybe not the Geelong vs. Port game, but the other two games should be reasonably close.

 

[Troy]

North have had a good run whilst I was overseas, frustrated by the 2 point loss to West Coast after we were leading by so much but other than that it was good. Nice to be on a bit of a streak and finally back in the right. I just hope that North's three games that they lost by 2 points each don't cost them at the end of the season.

I like the Collingwood have delayed contract talks with Travis Cloke he is asking way too much especially when he is in terrible form. They may as well wait and see how he goes for the rest of the year before offering him another deal. I think that four years at $700k a year is more than enough, anything more is ridiculous.

 

[Heisenberg]

Yeah it's ridiculous. Cloke is asking for way too much and especially since his form as of late has been very poor. If he was in the top 3 goal kickers, then sure I'd give him 700K but he isn't. I'd say $500k a year is fair for him. I don't think even our top stars such as Swan and Pendlebury get 700k a year. We are also at risk of losing key players if we give him too much which is worrying.

Needs to get rid of his money grubbing father David.

 

[Aniking]

Cloke needs to put this in perspective. The holy grail for an AFL footballer is a premiership, and with the current team and crop of talented youngsters coming through their VFL team, Collingwood have a team to press their claim of another premiership for a further 5 years or so. Cloke needs to put the team ahead of the money and do whatever it takes to stick with this group. It's exactly what Geelong did back in 2007 and look at how dominant they were - 3 premierships , 5 or 6 consecutive preliminary finals, and regarded as one of the greatest teams in the game's history.

 

[Troy]

Yeah he needs to think about where can he win another premiership and not many of the clubs that are chasing him are near that stage of development. He does need to get his dad away from negotiations because he is another that has a deluded price in his mind. I just don't like how Cloke has been holding Collingwood to ransom that is why it was so great Collingwood pushed contract talks back to the end of the year.

Hawthorn playing Essendon right now and Hawthorn are smashing them. Essendon are missing some key players but Hawthorn is missing Buddy and yet still are close to 200 points. Incredible last couple of months for Hawthorn who are finding top form at the right time.

 

[Troy]

Nice win for North against Melbourne to boost the percentage a little bit.

West Coast and St Kilda both had massive wins which both teams needed after poor recent form. Gold Coast and GWS are still getting thumped each week and it is going to be so hard for them to get fans if they keep losing season after season. Gold Coast really need to improve next season because they went backwards a bit this season after three wins in their first season.

 

[Andrew]

What a game!

Geelong beats Hawks by 4 points with Tom Hawkins kicking the goal right on the siren!

 

[Andrew]

BREAKING NEWS: Matthew Primus from Port Adelaide has been sacked as coach.

 

[Troy]

I don't see much point in not having him coach out the season. The team is better than last year and they do have a good group of young players they just can't get them healthy. Their fitness coach should be gone at the end of the season because he has done a poor job. For the full time job I wouldn't mind Nathan Bassett getting a senior gig next year because he has easily been the beast coach in the SANFL the past few years. I see them going for someone like Eade for a couple of years and then he will groom an assistant to take over, like Roos did with Longmire and Malthouse with Buckley.

North continued their great run with a gutsy win to make it eight wins from nine games. When Adams and Wells were injured in the first term and Hansen KOed I was worried that Essendon were going to run all over North but North managed to stay in it and then kick away. Harvey's three goals in three minutes was fantastic to watch and turned the game.

Still plenty of spots up for grabs and the fight for home finals is going to be a close one as well. I can't wait to see what the ladder will look like in three weeks time.