AFL Round 17
At the MCG:
Carlton 1.5 2.9 3.13 4.16.40
Collingwood 5.4 7.6 8.8 14.10.94
Noice recovery from the Poise after being walloped by Horforn last week, crushing a very ordinary-lookin' Bluie side. The Scraggies' intensity was back and their relentless tackling and pressure forced the Bluesers into an awful kicking display, not just for goal but everywhere about the ground. The Maggies' coaching saga was resolved just yesterday with Mick Malthouse agreeing to take on Nathan Buckley as an assistant next year and hand over to Bucks at the end of 2011, when Mick will become Director of Coaching. In announcing the deal Eddie McGuire invoked John F. Kennedy, the Moon landings and other ridiculous pretensions. So two bosses, eh? That always works out well. Meanwhile the Blues again appeared to consist of Juddy, Fev and a bunch of blokes who are just average. One team change for the Bluies, coming off three straight wins, with Mark Austin returning from suspension to replace Joe Anderson (hamstring). Collywood made three changes following the loss to the Awks, juniors Steele Sidebottom, Jaxson Barham and Chris Dawes were called up to replace Nathan Brown (knee strain) and dropped pair Brad Dick and Sharrod Wellingham.
These rule interpretations confuse me, in the opening minute Bloo Mark Austin absolutely dropped the ball when tackled, right in his defensive goal-square, but play went on and Austin's team-mate Aaron Joseph rushed the most deliberate point you'll see, but that wasn't penalised either. The Blooze bad kicking was a feature from the start, of the first two passes Brendan Fevola received one dropped 10m short and the next sailed over his head and into the arms of opponent Simon Prestigiacomo. Austin's hacked clearing kick went straight to Poi 'Neon' Leon Davis, he snapped a behind, Jordan Russell caused another turnover with an awful, no-pressure pass to Marc Murphy. Eventually the Maggies capitalized on one of these mistakes, Blueser Andrew Carrazzo's attempted handball to Chris Johnson was picked off by Jaxson Barham, who sped clear and slotted. Young Barham's let his hair grow on both head and upper lip, so he's the dead-spit of Dad in his playing days. A bit later Harry O'Brien's crunching tackle in the centre of the ground and good second-effort won him possession, he sent the ball wide to Steele Sidebottom in space and Sidebottom passed to Dale Thomas alone on the 50m line, Thomas played-on and booted a major. The Poise led by 14 points. Fevola took a superb, diving one-handed mark in the pocket but his shot, from a tough angle, hit the post. Even there Bryce Gibbs's ordinary pass forced Fev wider than he should've been. Murphy punted the Blues into attack again and Heath Shaw crashed head-on into Fevola and Prestigiacomo to force a spoil, but Bluie Eddie Betts swept up the pill and bounced a snap for a goal. The Pies answered quickly enough, Bloo Austin turned the wrong way in defence and ran into a tackle, from that there were a couple of ball-ups until Pie Scott Pendlebury managed to get a shot away, John Anthony marked it on the point-line and banana-ed a good kick for a goal. Bloo Chris Yarran postered and from the kick-in the Pies raced downfield, Tarkyn Lockyer got the ball to Davis hard-up on the boundary and Davis dribbly, rolly-snapped a superb Daicosian ripper of a goal, from about 25m out. Right from the exact Wayne Harmes Spot, in fact. Players seem better at those than regular drop-punts from right in front. A bit later Prestigiacomo's smart, long kick found ruckman Cameron Wood in a paddock, Wood helicoptered a punt forward which Chris Dawes read well to mark in front and convert for a major. The Pies led by 25 points over the strugglin' Bluesers. In the final minutes of the korter Bloo Shaun Grigg's accurate shot was touched on-the-line and Fevola had the goal-ump tread on his ankle; seconds before the siren Heath Scotland raced inside 50 but produced yet another awful kick. The pattern was set.
The Poise cleared the opening bounce of the second term, Ben Johnson kicked long, the ball spilled into the pocket where Davis toe-poked ahead, collected it, slipped Ryan Houlihan's tackle and snapped a terrific over-the-shoulder major from another tricky angle. Neon Leon provided all the highlights. The Maggies led by 29 points now and dominated the next few minutes, trapping the ball in attack. Blueser Brad Fisher rushed a point, not penalized, and Leigh Brown sent a snap on-the-full. After a bit the Bluies managed some attacking but Kreuzer, Simpson and Gibbs all missed. The game was played a stultifying pace, there was very little play-on, running footy as the Pies' tight pressure closed it down. Halfway through the korter Travis Cloke rucked at a ball-up in the forward-pocket and tapped it down to Alan Toovey, this week Toovey's quick handball found a team-mate, Cloke again who snapped a noice goal. The Poise led by 33 points. A bit later Fevola wandered up to the wing to receive a handball and lob a kick into the centre of the ground, Gibbs gathered and chipped a pass for hard-leading Betts to mark and at last boot a Carton major. The Bluies trailed by 27 points and that was the half-time margin after Thomas and Judd kicked points.
The Bluies had a free-kick from the opening bounce of the third Mario, Matthew Kreuzer passed for leading Carrazzo to mark but he missed the shot. Very little happened for a long time after that, both sides defended stoutly but the game continued to played at a very slow pace, which the Pies orchestrated with their tough pressure all over the ground. They didn't need it to be sped up. There were a few rushed points at both ends and some poor delivery into crowded forward-lines, we had to wait a long time before a couple of goals were scored. In time-on Carton's Murphy found space to run into the centre of the ground and handball ahead to Greg Bentley, Bentley ran to the 50m line and thumped a long kick which bounced through for a major. The Poise lead was reduced to 18 points but the Blooze couldn't close and the Pies replied presently, Cloke led out to the wing to take a grab and then pass ahead to leading Paul 'Steak Knives' Medhurst, Medhurst manoeuvred Joseph under the ball, gathered and chipped a smart kick for Dayne Beams to hold a with-the-flight grab 25m out. Beams converted and the Maggies led by 24 points, and 25 at the final break. They wrapped it up quickly in the final term, on an early rebound move Toovey's long kick found Alan Didak marking in some room on the forward-flank, Didak played-on, ran inside the 50 with three bounces and the aid of Cloke's shepherd and potted a very good running goal. The first bit of space Didak had enjoyed for over seven quarters and he enjoyed it. A bit later the Blooz found themselves under pressure again in defence and Sidebottom smothered Carrazzo's handball, a second-effort from Sidebottom allowed Steak Knives to collect the pill and handball for Toovey to slot a running major. The Poise led by 37 points and given the Bluies'd scored a total of 31, you'd have got very good odds on a Carton victory at this point. A quiet few minutes followed before, deep in the Bloo backline, Scotland hopelessly dropped a handball from Bret Thornton and after some scrap for possession Poi Thomas got a handball away for Davis to stab a goal. Magpiss by 43 points. The Bluies now scored their fourth and final goal, Poi O'Brien was run down by Betts and dropped the ball, advantage was allowed as Judd scooped the agget and chipped a kick into the pocket for Fevola! to hold a hard-earned grab in front of Prestigiacomo. Fev ran out to the side and hooked it through. But it was a Pie night, Pendlebury had a free at the restart and chipped it wide to Barham, he drove it long where Lockyer marked easily enough in some traffic and converted. A bit later Gibbs hacked a clearing kick straight to Cloke on the Pise attacking 50m line, one of a multitude of awful Bloo kicks as mentioned. Cloke lobbed a punt for Beams to hold decent grab as Simpson bore down, Beams sausaged and the Maggies led by 55 points. Murphy's behind ended the proceedings.
Sprightly forward 'Neon' Leon Davis (28 disposals, 4 marks, 3 goals) was very good for the Maggies. The defenders were great and, as a few people have noted, apparently opponent-free apart from Prestigiacomo. Heath Shaw (28 touches, 4 marks) and Nick Maxwell (18 handlings, 10 marks) galloped about unhindered while Presti (6 touches) kept Fev to the one, irrelevant goal, Harry O'Brien (20 handlings, 3 marks) was also very handy back there. In the middle Dane Swan (38 possessions, 7 marks, a goal) and Scott Pendlebury (28 disposals) did well and junior Dayne Beams (21 possies, 8 marks, 2 goals) impressed again. Best Bloo was probably defender Bret Thornton (26 disposals, 7 marks) with Chris Judd (20 touches, 3 marks) and ruckman Matthew Kreuzer (13 touches, 3 marks, 15 hit-outs) working hard up-and-down the ground, although Judd had some kinda leg injury by the end. Marc Murphy (29 possies, 8 marks) and Bryce Gibbs (30 disposals, 3 marks) weren't bad, Ryan Houlihan (22 disposals) was okay-ish with his ball use. Eddie Betts bagged 2 of their four goals. Brett Ratten read the roll of dishonour. "We had four inside-fifty marks and (ball) usage was, regardless of the inside-fifties, all over the ground, was pretty poor tonight," he said. "(Late in the third, 18 points down) we had the ball around the 50m arc, maybe just inside, we miss the target - turnover. Then it goes down the other end, Medhurst doesn't miss a target to Beams and it's another goal. I think we had our opportunities. Did we play well? No, we didn't play well. We got beaten at stoppages early but we had a little window where we were just grinding away but couldn't get any reward. We lost Johnson in the last quarter and we run out of puff in the end . . . It's an old footy cliché but for us it's really important because we're not looking at finals at all. We're looking at the Kangaroos next week. That was a poor performance and we need to rebound and we need to do it quickly." Malthouse said "We were taken to the cleaners last week. You know, we're still a developing side in many respects . . . (coming off a) six-day break, I guess it was better to get back on the horse as quick as we could. We did a lot of things right. We did a lot of things wrong but we did the majority of things right, which we needed to do." Mick spent most of his press conference praising Nick Maxwell. That's the thing to do when there's internal trouble at the club; get the senior players on-side.
At the MCG:
Geelong 4.2 6.5 10.6 15.9.99
Hawthorn 3.3 8.7 13.10 14.14.98
Jimmy Bartel booted a point after the final siren to give the Pu55ies a terrific win over the Orcs. Key Catter backmen Matthew Scarlett and Harry Taylor (groin strains both) missed the second half and the Katz were 28 points down early in the final term, but huge lifts from Joel Corey and Bartel (both'd been ordinary to that stage) carried the Pu55ies over the line. As in the Maggie game last week, the Awks once again proved they're 'back', mostly. Now they just have to make the finals; handily both Port and the Dons, ahead of 'em on the ladder, lost the next day. Jahlong's win, given the circumstances, was seen in a great light but on Monday Leigh Matthews voiced the thoughts of some when he wondered if this wasn't the Catters' last hurrah, recalling the way the similarly almost-unbeatable Essadun of 1999-2001 faded towards the end of that third year. We'll see. In selection Bartel returned from his rest, er, injury for the Katz as Tom Gillies was dropped. No change for the Awks, Jarryd Roughead played his 100th game.
Channel Ten had Kelli Underwood commentating on this one and she's provoked a chauvinistic backlash from the spectator-world, with blokes saying they don't like her voice, basically. Underwood does tend to talk too much in commentary but that may reflect her background in radio. As Leaping Larry said, is there another caller out there who'd nailed it after two games? The Horks were charged-up and pressed forward early but managed a behind only. The Katters scored the first goal, young Orc Ryan Schoenmakers gathered a loose ball in defence and tried to duck Joel Corey's tackle, he didn't and was forced into a blind handball which Cat Max Rooke swept up and stabbed a low kick for the goal. At the next centre-bounce Hawk Luke Hodge was done for 'bawl' when tackled by opponent Cameron Ling; Ling would go on to win that battle and it was a significant factor in the result. From Ling's free, eventually, Tom Hawkins led, marked and missed. A minute later Andrew Mackie produced a good pass for leading Cameron Mooney to mark, Mooney booted a great long goal from the flank. He's happier shooting from 50. The Cats led by 13 points as some tough footy followed, the Pu55ies struggling to break the Horforn zone. Awk Chance Bateman missed with a free-kick from 30m, a bit later there was a ball-up 55m from the Catter goal and Joel Selwood had a free, he jabbed it short and square to Rooke who played-on and drove it home from just inside the 50. The Cats led by 17 points with three goals to none. Hawks Roughead and Beau Dowler dropped marks within range as the Awkers began to get moving, then Bateman's attempted pass sailed over Brent Renouf's head but Roughead ran onto the loose ball and bounced a great right-foot snap for a major. Grant Birchall's flank-switching kick sent the Sherrin to Campbell Brown in space and Brown passed for leading Buddy Franklin to mark just inside the 50m and boundary-lines, Franklin walloped a terrific kick for a goal. The Awkers won the ball from the following centre-clearance and Brown handballed for Michael Osborne to run inside 50 and boot a goal, the Horks were up-and-about, leading by a point. But Ling wobbled a punt forward from the next centre-bounce and Hawkins clutched a strong grab in front of Stephen Gilham, Hawkins converted and the Pu55ies led by 5 points at the first break.
Early in the second stanza Osborne was clobbered by Cat ruckman Shane Mumford, but the Orcs were soon powered along by a Franklin hot streak. Before then Bateman drove a long kick in and back-pedalling Cat Corey dropped an uncontested mark, then collected the ball in slow-motion and was tackled by Roughead. Corey handballed wildly and Jordan Lewis gathered and snapped a tight-angle major, scores were level. At his next opportunity Corey held a mark deep in defence and was clattered late by Roughead, a 50m penalty resulted. Corey passed into the centre and Kane Tenace, he sent the ball wide towards leading Gary Ablett who marked in front of Tom Murphy, played-on nimbly and stabbed a pass to Hawkins. Hawkins punted a terrific goal from the pocket and the Cats led by 6 points. At the next centre-bounce Brad Sewell booted the Hawks into attack and Dowler flew from behind Darren Milburn, gathered the spilled ball and handballed for Franklin to bomb another great goal from wide on the flank. A minute later Roughead roved his own contest on the attacking wing and lobbed a long handball ahead to Brown, he slipped one to running Franklin who bounced a dribbly-snap through from the boundary-line. Cat fans would've been kinda exasperated but Buddy'd balance out the freakish accuracy later. Roughead missed a shot before Franklin bagged yet another, from a more regulation lead and mark 30m out, right in front. Good passes from McGlynn and Bateman set it up. The Awks led by 13 points on the back of them three Buddy goals and Scarlett replaced Taylor as Franklin's man. But Scarlett was soon gorn with his groin-strain. The Catters rallied a little, Hawkins kicked a behind but Hork Brent Guerra's kick-in was intercepted by Mooney. As Mooney ran in to have the shot he copped plenty of sledging from Hodge, Mooney raised the twin calicoes and then handbagged a bit with Hodge, although both of 'em were laughing. Horforn pressed hard to the break, Rioli, Roughead and Sewell kicked behinds. With ten seconds remaining in the half Cat Selwood punted from the half-back flank into the centre and Brown intercepted the attempted pass to Mackie, Brown played-on, blind-turned through a weak Wojcinski tackle and speared a major. The Hawks led by 14 points at orange-time.
The Cats commenced the third korter with a goal, Paul Chapman roved a pack in the forward-pocket and his dribbly-snap took two very high bounces before bisecting the big posts. A bit later the Catters were running the ball out of defence when Tom Lonergan was mown down by Franklin with a great tackle, Sewell collected the loosed ball and handballed to Xavier Ellis, he jabbed a short pass for Roughead to mark and boot accurately from 35m. The Orcs led by 13 points and the Pu55ies soon lost Taylor with more groin-knack. Lonergan and Mackie were forced into the key defensive roles. The Hawkers began to press ahead, Sam Mitchell produced a noicely-weighted kick for running Guerra to mark in-stride and bomb a punt to the goal-square where Franklin out-maneuvered and out-marked Mackie, Buddy majored and the Hawks led by 19 points. The Pu55ies hung in there, a good move ended with Shannon Byrnes firing a long handpass to Ling in space on the flank, Ling collected it smartly and launched a quick shot which lobbed through with some shepherding from Hawkins. A bit later the Orcs were trying to work the ball clear from their back-pocket, a few handballs before Ellis stabbed a risky kick into the corridor which Selwood nipped in and marked, he converted and the Hawker lead was cut to 8 points. Hawks Dowler and Liam Shiels added to the Horforn point-tally, a bit later there was ball-up 15m from their goal but the Cats appeared to be clearing from it before Corey made a complete mess of a look-away handpass and Shiels intercepted, he lobbed a punt to the goal-square which Rioli gathered and snapped through. Geelong answered from a secondary centre-bounce, Mathew Stokes and Selwood got handballs away and Mooney booted long, Ablett bullocked off Murphy to mark in the goal-square and pop it through. Horforn's lead was 10 points but they got the last two goals of the third, Bartel coughed up possession when tackled in the centre of the 'G and Osborne handballed for Brown to spurt clear and bag a long sausage. Then Guerra executed a slick pick-up in the centre, broke Varcoe's tackle and passed for leading Lewis to mark on the 50m line, Lewis kicked quickly to the pocket where Bateman marked behind Bartel. Bateman's major had the Awks 22 points ahead at the last break.
Cat coach Bomber Thompson exhorted his men to play better in the final term, but it didn't start well. David Wojcinski's clearing kick from the back-pocket went straight to Ellis, he handballed ahead for Guerra to gather and thump a great kick from near the junction of 50m and boundary-lines for a six-pointer. The Hawkers led by 28 points and appeared certain winners. Chapman had a free at the following centre-bounce and his excellent kick allowed Simon Hogan to mark between Murphy and Gilham, Hogan went back and thumped a 50m goal. A bit later the Catz had a ball-up at the top of the goal-square from which Varcoe gathered the ball and slammed through. At the subsequent centre-bounce Byrnes soccered the ball ahead and some lucky bounces allowed Hogan to gather and handball to running Corey, he speared it through and the Horforn lead was cut to 10 points. The Orcs steadied but they couldn't bag the sealer, Franklin missed a couple of shots (goal-kickin' karma!) and Rioli kicked a behind as well. From the kick-in of the second of those Buddy misses Milburn passed to Hogan, he handballed to Mackie who lobbed a kick to the centre where Hodge crashed into Ling but Corey gathered the agate and tumbled a quick punt forward where there were plenty of loose Catters. Hawkins gathered and handballed to running Stokes who ran right in and slammed the ball into the stands. The Awks led by 6 points. Hawk Josh Kennedy kicked a point and eventually the Cats moved forward again, Corey involved a couple of times in a move which saw Byrnes kick to leading Bartel on the flank, Bartel punted quickly forward where running Rooke held a with-the-flight grab, bumped off Murphy and again raced into the goal-square to blast it theatrically through. The Awks led by a point now and a bit later Bartel snapped a behind when he should've passed to Mooney, leveling the scores. As time ticked down there were a couple of ball-ups 60m from the goals the Katz were attacking, from the second the ball was mauled clear to Ablett who whacked a punt forward, it bounced out-of-bounds. The throw-in cleared the ruckmen and squirted out the back to Corey, he twisted, turned and lobbed an under-pressure kick forward which Bartel marked 25m out, 5m in from the boundary. Siren, point, jubilation from the Catters.
A huge game from Joel Selwood (42 disposals, 10 marks, 11 tackles, a goal) kept the Cats in it. Cameron Ling (20 touches, 5 marks, a goal) kept Luke Hodge (11 possies) out of it and Gary Ablett (33 touches, 6 marks, a goal) was handy too. Joel Corey (27 disposals, 4 marks, a goal) had 12 of those touches plus the goal in the last quarter, Jimmy Bartel (23 touches, 10 hit-outs; did some third-man-up rucking) was also very good at the end following three middling quarters. Darren Milburn (25 disposals, 6 marks) played well down the back. Max Rooke bagged 3 goals, Cam Mooney and Tom Hawkins kicked 2 goals each. Hawk skipper Sam Mitchell (38 disposals, 6 marks) played very well for them and Lance 'Buddy' Franklin (20 touches, 7 marks, 5 goals) enjoyed a big game. Brad Sewell (29 possessions, 4 marks) worked hard on-the-ball and Campbell Brown (17 possies, 7 marks, 2 goals) is enjoying being released from the backline. Jordan Lewis (25 touches, 5 marks, a goal) and Brent Guerra (26 handlings, 4 marks, a goal) were both handy. Jarryd Roughead kicked 2 goals. "We were playing a good side and they're always going to come at you, but we just didn't take our chances in the last quarter as much as we could have," Clarkson said. "We didn't move the ball as quickly as we did in the first three quarters. We were really pleased with the way we played throughout the course of the day and just let it slip in the last ten minutes of the game. If you do that against a quality opponent sometimes you might just hang and sometimes you lose and unfortunately for us today we lost. Despite losing the game we were pleased with what we were able to show out there today; we're back to playing our attacking, aggressive footy. We won in nearly every area of the ground except on the scoreboard unfortunately for us, but we'll take an enormous amount of positives out of the game and move on to Port Adelaide next week . . . The Cats nailed some good goals. In different games gone by it's been the other way around where we've kicked straight and Geelong haven't kicked so accurately. It's swings and roundabouts; sometimes they go your way and sometimes they don't." Bomber Thompson said "I was very excited, I was just genuinely excited. We worked hard in the box, and the players just never gave up. There were some individual efforts that were just outstanding; one that comes to mind is Selwood, just an outstanding game. It rates up there . . . it was enjoyable to sing the song, to know that you had a victory like that. I gave them a good bake at half -time - the best one of the year; best one for a few years . . . We were getting smashed in the contested ball, the clearances. We looked like we couldn't defend an under-nine team. They just got through us so easy, and their spread was hard, and they looked faster and more skilful and more aggressive. We turned it around, and it takes a bit of character . . . I thought we were down and out at half time, and I asked for a fair bit. I said to them that when a coach sits there and says that anything can happen in a game of footy, I think now you'll believe them, because to be 22 points down and to have two of your key defenders out, to get up and win is an extraordinary effort. They'll know exactly what that means for the rest of their lives, I think." Yep, beginning of the end.
At Subiaco:
Fremantle 3.4 6.8 9.7 10.11.71
West Coast 1.4 5.9 6.14 8.18.66
Tanking took a holiday in Freo as Mark Harvey's Dokkers maintained a perfect record in Derbies - four outta four. In the build-up both Harvs and Weegle coach Woosha Worsfold came out strongly against the idea of tanking, after watching this game the viewer may have recalled an old saying; they couldn't play that badly if they tried. It was not a good game at all but the spirit was willing and the Dockulaters lifted in the last korter to claim the victory. Once again Weevil fans were driven to distraction by some perfectly awful goal-shooting from their lads. The Weegs have scored a combined 17.38 in the two Derbies this season. There's a bloke in their side who's kicked over 200 goals in his career, including 50+ in a season, twice, including in a premiership-winning year but he's not played in the forward-line all season. But the Eegs are not tanking, oh no. Freo did something concrete to combat the t-word by recalling Aaron Sandilands and Matthew Pavlich following injury, along with a debutant in West Perth's Jay Van Berlo, younger brother of Camry Nathan. They replaced Andrew Foster (rolled ankle), Luke McPharlin (calf strain) and the dropped Adam Campbell. Chris Tarrant was okay after appearing to do serious damage to a knee in the flood last week. The Weegs recalled juniors Tom Swift and Scott Selwood while dropping Eric Mackenzie and Adam Cockie. Just yesterday Chad Fletcher announced he'd be retiring at the season's end and Woosha suggested Adam Hunter might like to follow him.
The Eegs started as they meant to go on, with Patrick McGinnity and Mark Seaby kicking points. Freo's Nick Suban marked the kick-in of the latter and chipped ahead to Pavlich, Pav dished off a handball to running David Mundy whose long shot dropped through for a goal, with some help from Antoni Grover's shepherding. Grover was playing at full-forward, as he ended last week. The game soon settled into a pattern of scrappy rubbish, but the players were going in hard; except maybe Weeg skipper Darren Glass, given an opportunity to knock a back-pedalling Dokker junior Tim Ruffles into orbit, Glass pulled out at the last minute. Weak! Woosha would've killed the kid. A bit later Dockulater Dean Solomon was reported for barreling through Andrew Embley, although 'Solly' gets reported every other week. Halfway through the stanza the Eegs managed a goal, Tim Houlihan booted a kick 'round the wing and a handy bounce allowed Embley to gather, he handballed to running Brad Ebert who went inside 50 with a coupla bounces and steered it through, the Weegs led by 2 points. More behinds, one each from Dokers Kepler Bradley and Brett Peake, before a couple of late Freo majors. Their ruckman Aaron Sandilands was already the game's dominant figure and he was twice involved in a move which sent the ball wide where Grover leaped to take a great grab over Bradley and Eagle Brown, Grover went back and booted a very good goal. A minute later Suban's good centering kick found Solomon marking in space, he played-on and lobbed a kick into the pocket where Sandilands lumbered out to mark ahead of Seaby and convert. Freo led by 12 points at the first break as handbags between Solomon and Embley threatened to develop into a melee, but it didn't quite kick-off. Slow start again to the second term before Embley's clearing kick found McGinnity in an ocean of space on the wing, McGinnity kicked long and smartly for Mark LeCras to hold a decent with-the-flight grab about 35m out, right in front. LeCras sausaged and the Freo lead was cut to 6 points. From the following centre-bounce Wiggle Matt Priddis won the agate and handballed to Embley, he sent it wide to LeCras who floated a pass for leading Josh Kennedy to take a diving grab just inside the 50m and boundary-lines. Kennedy thumped a superb drop-punt for full points to level the scores. But a minute later Kennedy missed a relatively easier shot, team-mate Quinten Lynch also kicked a point, sandwiching one from Shocker Stephen Hill. Dokka Paul Duffield passed the kick-in of Lynch's point to Steven Dodd, his well-executed look-away handpass allowed Scot Thornton to punt the Dokkerz forward where Hayden Ballantyne nudged Scott Selwood under the ball, gathered, ran inside 50 with a bounce and slotted. Freo led by 5 points. Lynch missed another shot for the Eegs - he was the bloke to whom I was referring in the intro paragraph, maybe I was talking out my rear. Duffield played-on from this kick-in and passed down the middle to Suban, he passed ahead to ruckman Zac Clarke who handballed for Solomon to kick long. First-gamer Jay Van Berlo held off Wirrpanda, gathered the bouncing ball coolly and snapped a noice goal. An 11-point lead for Freo deep in the half but we had some late action as Solomon assisted a Weegle rally, firstly Solly shoved Adam Selwood meatily in the back at a ball-up 20m from the Weeg's attacking goal and Selwood duly converted his free-kick. As the Weegs 'thanked' Solomon for his gift the Freo hard-man shoved Matt Rosa in the face and the Weeg plummeted dramatically to the ground. A free-kick and Rosa raised two fingers to Solomon to indicate the upshot, a double-goal as Rosa majored. The Eegs led by a point but soon Dokker Ruffles kicked a behind and Wirrpanda's telegraphed kick-in to Brown was spoiled by Bradley, Suban collected the crumb and bagged a goal. Houlihan missed with a free-kick from distance after the siren and Freo led by 5 points at half-time.
The Age's reporter Tim Clarke made a crack about the third Mario being 'the premiership quarter' and the subsequent display here demonstrating just how far these two sides are from winning one. No goal until the 23-minute mark as the sides fumbled 'n' bumbled around, the Weegs continued to spray behinds from mostly low-percentage shots, including designated forwards Kennedy and LeCras and a poor effort on-the-run from young Houlihan. Finally Dockerator Mundy gathered Greg Broughton's kick near the boundary on the forward-flank, managed to slip diving Embley's attempted tackle before passing for leading Ruffles to mark and boot a goal. Fremandle led by 7 points after that. The Weegs replied quickly, McGinnity was allowed to stand in a tackle for a long time before getting a handball away to Nick Naitanui, he lobbed a nice one for Priddis to gather and stab a low, tight-angle kick for full points. Freo's lead was the smallest possible at the final change. In the opening thirty seconds of the ultimate stanza Weegle Ash Hansen managed to miss an absolute sitter with a dribbly-kick into the post. Kick a freakin' drop-punt! Naitanui followed up with a point as Weegle fans went mad. Finally they saw a goal as Houlihan roved Kennedy's contest at pace and passed for leading LeCras to mark, LeCras kicked truly and the Weegs led by 7 points. A bit later Freo man Pavlich collected the ball in defence and exchanged a somewhat slow-motion pair of handballs with Sandilands before booting long and straight, Clancee Pearce marked just inside the centre-square, played-on and kicked long, over the heads of Ballantyne and Shannon Hurn where the ball bounced and rolled through for a goal. Weegs by a point. Freo men Bradley and Pavlich proceeded to kick behinds but between those came another appalling Weevil miss, from Embley. You'd think he'd be better. Sandilands raised himself for a big final effort and just inside time-on he tapped a ball-up 30m from the sticks down for Van Berlo to gather and snap a terrific over-the-shoulder goal, bouncing through. The Dockers led by it. A bit later there was a throw-in on the Dokkerz' half-forward flank and as Sandilands and Lynch wrestled to the ground the ball bounced out the back, Ballantyne gathered and his snap-as-tackled slewed to the opposite pocket where Ruffles collected the ball and banana-snapped a terrific major. The Dockers led by 12 points and in either kicking the goal, or celebrating after it, Ruffles ruptured a knee ligament. He had to be stretchered off and it'll be a reconstruction, helluva first year for the Ballarat boy. Still five minutes remaining but in the next four Rosa's point was the only score. As time ticked down Naitanui got a very good handball away from a pack which Rosa collected, his kick from 50 curled to the top o' the 'square where Hansen read it well to mark and quickly boot the goal. The Weegles were 5 points down with 1:05 left, but that was the final score of the game.
Freo giant Aaron Sandilands (30 disposals, 5 marks, 31 hit-outs, a goal) was a deserving winner of the Glendinning Medal for best afield. Other Freo leaders Matthew Pavlich (36 touches, 5 marks, 8 tackles) and Paul Hasleby (33 disposals) worked very hard midfield and rebounding backman Greg Broughton (24 touches, 6 marks) has been a find this season. Nick Suban (18 possessions, 6 marks, a goal) has also hit form recently and Stephen Hill (24 disposals) was handy, he's definitely a dry-tracker. Chris Tarrant (15 touches, 3 marks) was solid at full-back. Juniors Tim Ruffles and Jay Van Berlo, four games between them, kicked 2 goals each. Better Weegs included Adam Selwood (28 disposals, 6 tackles, a goal) and long-limbed wingman Tim Houlihan (26 touches, 5 marks). Chris Masten (26 possessions, 7 tackles) has developed pleasingly this season and I 'spose Quinten Lynch (23 possies, 10 marks, 9 hit-outs) is useful midfield. He'd be much more useful at the spearhead, is all I'm sayin'. Andrew Embley (26 disposals, 6 marks) was okay as was Matt Priddis (23 possessions, 4 marks, 8 tackles, a goal). Mark LeCras kicked 2 goals. Worsfold said "We went out to win the game, threw everything into it, made every move possible down to the last twenty seconds and there is absolutely nothing we could have done to try any harder to win the game. Smothered kicks and handballs must have been an all-time record with players not making good decisions under pressure. We want to become a very good side again, to get back in the finals and attack premierships, and that's our absolute focus . . . The two misses I remember were Embley's set shot in the last quarter and Houlihan running into one, and then there was Hansen's one along the ground that hit the post. You have to kick those. We've given McGinnity a go up there and a few other players, but we are still looking to see who it is (who can kick goals). . . if they are on our list they are hiding pretty well. That quick, balanced and poised player who can kick goals or set them up is what we need (quick, poised, Lynch!) . . . Our ball movement going inside-50 has to get better, and we have to make more of the chances we create." Harvs stated "It was an unfashionable win. It wasn't pretty. We've been in a number of situations like this in the last quarter and we haven't been able to do it . . . It holds us in good stead if we can start to win these games when it's close." Might blow a priority pick, Harvs. "That word: tanking. When you go and play like that, it should be thrown straight out the window," he said. "You only have to come to games like this to see . . . what both clubs are trying to do - they are trying to make sure their teams, leading into the future, have a winning mentality and gain experience and get better as each game goes on. And that's what we're all trying to do." Well, that's not exactly denying it, but whatever. Harvs went on to give Sandilands a big wrap.
At the Gabba:
Brisbane 5.2 7.8 14.9 17.14.116
North Melbourne 3.2 5.4 8.6 11.9.75
Big Jon Brown bagged 8 goals as the Lyin's dismissed a tepid Kanger challenge at the Gabbatoir. Things get decidedly tougher now for the Lyin's with away games against Collywood and Essadun before the Bulldogs and Port at home, so as a must-win the Brians did well here. Since the game was played the Kangers have been burned by Nathan Buckley signing with the Poise, although the embarrassment was all Norf's as their keenness for Bucks outweighed his for them. Former Roo player and current Siddey assistant John Longmire is now favourite although the Kanga job will be a tough one for anyone taking it on. On Monday former skipper Adam Simpson announced he'll be retiring following the Ruse game against the Bluies on Friday night, Simmo's been a tremendous clubman and performer for Norf, we'll give him a eulogy next week. In selection here the Lyin's made just one change, young Irish backman Pierce Hanley replacing hamstrung spearhead Daniel Bradshaw, Jared Brennan was apparently okay after appearing to suffer a serious ankle injury last week. Three changes for the Kangers with Leigh Adams, Nathan Grima and Daniel Pratt dropped following the draw with the Tiggers, they were replaced by fit-again Gavin Urquhart and Matt Campbell and recalled Ben Ross.
The Kangers began well (or the Lyin's poorly) and after Lindsay Thomas snapped a point Michael Firrito booted a goal, a free-kick after Lyin' Tim Notting punched Scott Thompson in the throat about 40m off the ball. Notting has since accepted a two-game suspension, the fourth time this season a bloke's been suspended for punching Thompson. He'll be great coach one day. The Lyin's replied after James Polkinghorne was picked out by running Mitch Clark's pass and converted. But soon Norf got two more goals, Gavin Urquhart's low, speared pass was marked by Corey Jones and he was grabbed afterwards by young Lyin' Daniel Rich, who was certain he'd touched the ball in flight. But no, the ump decided and added a 50m penalty for his trouble, Jones popped it through. Then Thompson's clearing kick was marked by Liam Anthony just inside the boundary, Anthony handballed into the 50 and Lachie Hansen, who steered a very good punt for full-points. Norf led by 12 points but the Lyin's appeared to shift up a gear in time-on. Justin 'The Shermanator' Sherman sped through the centre on a typically bullish run and handballed ahead to Notting, Notting fired one wide to Simon Black who lobbed a considered punt for a goal. Then Luke Power produced an excellent pass for Sam Sheldon to mark on the attacking side of the centre-square, Sheldon punted into the pocket where Notting clutched a good mark over Thompson - the early fisticuffs had started the adrenaline moving, perhaps. Notting threaded it through from the tight angle. From the following centre-bounce Black handballed for Clark to lob a kick forward and Jonathan Brown used his body to hold out Josh Gibson and mark on his chest, Brown did that is. Brown majored. Hansen missed a shot before Brown booted his second, Norf's Drew Petrie played on after marking on the wing and his centering kick went directly to Lyin' junior Jack Redden, he played-on and booted long where Brown held a with-the-flight grab and thumped it through. The Brians were 12 points up at korter-time. Following a handful of behinds early in the second term the Lyin's scored their fifth unanswered sausage, Black won the pill from a ball-up and handballed to Power, he to Sherman who sped clear, sold a dummy and handballed for running Redden to boot a long goal. A 19-point lead for the Lyin's and things weren't going well for Norf, but they rallied. Following a rushed Lyin' point the Kangers advanced unsteadily until Firrito's handball found Petrie in some room in the centre, his long kick found Jones alone 20m out and Jones marked, played-on and slammed it through from point-blank. Tight for a few minutes before the Ruse advanced with a steady series of chipped foot-passes, eventually Brady Rawlings's centering one found Gibson running forward and he bombed long, the agate spilled from Hamish McIntosh's contest and fellow ruckman Todd Goldstein snapped a left-footed sausage. The Lyin' lead was reduced to 8 points and the tough stanza petered out with a string of rushed behinds, mostly from Brisbun but their Redden did kick a goal, a cool piece of roving to Brown's contest at CHF. The Lyin's led by 16 points at half-time.
The locals kicked away in the third quarter, something Brisbun have done often this season. Vossy must give a helluva half-time speech. Or found some very special Gatorade. North scored early though, Adam Simpson did well to gather a poor pass from Anthony and 'Lethal' Leigh Harding ran and kicked long, Ruse Hansen and Jones collided going for the same mark but Hansen gathered the spillage and handballed for Lindsay Thomas to snap it through. The Lyin' lead was 10 points but Brown and the Lyin's stamped themselves on proceedings. Lyin' Rich had a free at the following centre-bounce and kicked long where Jared Brennan had a run-up and leaped in front of static Gibson to mark easily and convert. Brennan missed a subsequent shot but a minute later the Lyin's did very well in clearing their defensive goal-square, long kicks from Clark to Sherman on the wing and his to Polkinghorne caught the Kanger backmen hopelessly out of position and Polkinghorne chipped a centering pass for Brown to mark 15m out right in front, he popped it through and the Lyin's led by 23 points. The Kangers hung in there, Firrito smothered a Black handball and quickly kicked long where Jones marked in front of Joel Patfull, Jones bagged his third goal. Brisbun scored the next three goals but, they cleared the following centre-bounce and Black kicked forward where Polkinghorne marked too easily in front of Scott McMahon. Polkinghorne majored. Then running Ash McGrath thumped a long kick forward and Brown held a tremendous with-the-flight grab, shoved off-balance by Petrie, who'd replaced Gibson, and virtually taking the ball out of team-mate Polkinghorne's arms. You'd think Polkinghorne might've called him out of it. Brown kicked truly from close range. A bit later Notting won a scrap for possession at half-forward and handballed to Michael Rischitelli, he gave to the ball to Power who stabbed a cross-field kick for Sheldon to mark 40m out and convert. The first goal of back-pocket Sheldon's career as the Lyin's led by 34 points. Norf pulled one back, a classic piece of roving from Thomas as he sat directly in front of the ruckman at a forward-pocket throw-in, the tap came straight to him and he whacked it through instantly. A goal-sneak's goal. Brown snaggled two goals in the final ninety seconds, for the first he led out to mark Joel Macdonald's pass and was shoved in the back afterwards by frustrated Thompson, who'd replaced Petrie. A 50m penalty and Brown majored. Chest-bumping between Brown and Thompson; that Norf bloke must have a death-wish. A North punt forward from the restart was marked by Lyin' Josh Drummond, the ball went wide to Rich and he passed to hard-running Clark on half-forward, Clark booted to the goal-square where Thompson and Firrito clambered all over Brown. A free which Browny converted into his sixth goal and the Lyin's were a healthy 39 points ahead at the last break. No respite in the final Mario, Brown's seventh arriving two minutes in as he led to mark Drummond's long pass and thump it through from 50m. Petrie was back on Brown, now. The Lyin' lead stretched to 47 points before Norf managed a goal, Petrie kicked into space ahead of Anthony and he gathered and placed a kick cleverly for Jones to mark behind Macdonald. Jones converted. Brown deigned to miss a shot before Norf's Campbell bagged a goal, good work from Urquhart and Thomas got the ball to Campbell who sold a smart dummy before spearing it through from 35m. Brown missed again, tiring perhaps, before no. 8 arrived from a comfortable mark in the forward-pocket as out-of-position Gibson flapped at it. The Ruse won the following centre-clearance with a free-kick to Urquhart and he kicked wide to Sam Power, he lobbed a kick for Brent Harvey to take a with-the-flight mark on the flank and convert. Lyin' Sherman kicked the game's final goal, a strong mark against Rawlings who nearly pulled Sherman's guernsey off.
Jonathan Brown kicked 8.2 from 12 marks and 18 kicks (3 handballs), he jumped to the top of the Coleman Medal race with 65, two ahead of Fev. Mitch Clark (22 disposals, 10 marks, 31 hit-outs) won much praise for his performance in the ruck, when Jamie Charman and Matthew Leuenberger went down early in the season many thought Brisbun's season would go with them, but Clark's been very good. Simon Black (30 disposals, a goal) and Luke Power (26 possessions) were as good as ever, Daniel Rich (18 possessions) was as good as people have come to expect, following a slow start and Justin 'The Shermanator' Sherman (22 disposals, a goal) found some space to run about. Tim Notting (13 touches, 5 marks, a goal) did some handy things. James Polkinghorne and Jack Redden (22 disposals, 10 marks) bagged 2 goals each. Ol' Adam Simpson (34 disposals, 11 marks) worked hard for the Kangers and Brent Harvey (26 touches, 5 marks, a goal) did well about the ground, couldn't get forward to kick many goals though. Corey Jones (18 possessions, 8 marks, 4 goals) pressed his claims for a new contract and Levi Greenwood (13 touches) did alright against Rich. Liam Anthony (27 touches, 7 marks) and Josh Gibson (31 disposals, 8 marks) weren't bad, the latter when freed of the Brown job. Lindsay Thomas kicked 2 goals. David Hale didn't kick any, took one mark and had two disposals including a kick on-the-full. He's gotta go. "All our indicators would suggest that we should have been right in the game a hell of a lot more than a 40-point loss," Darren Crocker said. "I think a lot of those possessions didn't take us in the direction we wanted to. We fell in the trap of over-possessing the footy just for the sake of it and didn't play the brand of football that we know will take this club forward. They're (the Lions) well structured, their setups around the stoppages were very good and allowed them to take the ball from stoppages cleanly and quickly into their forward line." What about Hale? "David really battled with the extra numbers that Brisbane were getting back in support but in saying that David by his own admission would come away and say that was a poor game from him," Crocker said. It's true the Lyin's did double-team him a lot, but still. Mick Voss was asked if the Lyin's were too dependent on Brown. "For him to be able to kick the goals he did was pretty important to us, (but) we had to try and get some other guys to join in too," he said. "We've got to have other players up there that can join in so we're not so centrally focussed. I thought we had a pretty reasonable balance as the game went on . . . We started a little bit on our heels but after that we built into the game. Across the game I would have thought was pretty consistent . . . When it's slow, we play slow, when it's fast we play fast, when it's frantic, we play frantic. We probably have to get a bit of control about how we want to play a bit more rather than let the opposition determine how the style of game should be played. That's perhaps where our stage of development is. Whereas Geelong and St Kilda make you play their style, they make you play that real, contested, hard football and that's something I think we're till evolving as a group." He looked forward the Lyin's next game, against Collywood. "We're four points away (from finals)," he said. "Doesn't this game become critical? When you're playing against a side that's on the same points as you and fighting for the same spot, takes on a whole new meaning. We go to the MCG and play in front of a pretty good crowd and this becomes a really crunch game for us and tests us a bit with what our form is like currently and whether it stacks up."
At Docklands:
St. Kilda 4.3 9.5 10.7 16.10.106
Footscray 2.2 4.4 7.7 9.7.61
Onwards marched the Saints, now "seventeen and oh" as celebrity supporter Eric Bana told David Letterman the other night. Their biggest worry ahead isn't even losing a game, but their lack of experience on the MCG where the finals will be played but the Saints won't have, not until round 22 against the Dees. Once again the Docklands specialists crushed the life out of an opponent, the normally free-running, free-scoring Bullpups. The Bulldogs were a nominal chance at three-quarter-time but a ridiculous interchange stuff-up cost them a goal at the start of the final stanza and the Stainers romped away from there. To complete the evening Shaun Higgins and Robert Murphy suffered hamstring injuries, pretty untimely as the Bulldogs are in a real battle for a top-four spot now. The Bullies have a couple of relatively easy games coming up with the two WA teams both at Docklands, but then face Brisbun (away), Geelong and Collywood in the last three. Their fate's in their hands. In selection the Sainters lost both Justin Koschitzke and Zac Dawson to suspension, for punching Richard Douglas and barreling Brad Symes respectively. In came Max Hudghton, back from injury and James Gwilt. No place for Luke Ball, who'd been dropped because he violated 'The Trademark', some mysterious set of performance indicators they have at Moorabbin. One late change for the Bullies, Lindsay Gilbee withdrawing for personal reasons and replaced by Dylan Addison. Brad Johnson played his 341st game for the Bulldogs, equalling the club record of former team-mate Chris Grant.
The Doggies played well in the first twenty minutes but like many sides before them, found the Stainers' backline tough to crack. Key forwards Minson and Welsh struggled. Sinkilda managed the first goal, Sam Gilbert executed a slick pick-up and kick for leading Nick Riewoldt to mark 70m out, Riewoldt lobbed a kick into CHF where James Gwilt made the most of a nudge in the back from Tom Williams. Gwilt free-kicked a major. Riewoldt soon led, marked and missed and Eade quickly swapped Brian Lake away from 'Rooey' for Williams, the initial match-up a risky one as Lake is happiest within 30m of the goal he's defending. Matthew Boyd powered a decent spell for the Pups but they couldn't score until about halfway through the term, Mitch Hahn bullocked clear of a pack in the centre and quick handballs involving Daniel Cross, Callan Ward, Jason Akermanis and Nathan Eagleton ended with Boyd himself booting a running goal. The Saints led by a point. The Dogs continued to hammer on the closed gates, scoring a couple of behinds before Higgins roved his own spilled mark and handballed for Brad Johnson to kick across the 50m line where Dylan Addison marked 45m out, Addison booted a good long goal and the Bullies led by 7 points. The Stainers proceeded to boot three goals in time-on, the first came as Bulldog Murphy's kick towards back-pedalling Minson was punched clear by Sainter Jason Blake, Gilbert roved, had a bounce and kicked to Brendon Goddard on the wing whose arms were chopped in the contest by Higgins. Goddard had 15 touches in the first quarter. Anyway, Goddard's free-kick went inboard to Steven King and then to Lenny Hayes who passed for leading Riewoldt to mark, he was pushed over by Williams and it should've been 50, but wasn't. Riewoldt converted anyway. Jason Gram marked 55m out and thundered a huge kick for a goal from inside the centre-square. Let's see him do that at the 'G, eh? A minute later Goddard's flank-switching kick found Blake galloping forward and he attempted a pass to leading Gwilt, Lake'd read it and got into position to intercept but the ball skimmed off Lake's outstretched hands and Gwilt gathered, snapped truly. Bah! Sinkilda led by 13 points at the first break, frustrating for the Pups.
The second quarter was a different story as the Saints played some tremendous pressure footy. Early on Boyd was tackled at half-back by Nick Dal Santo - one of those girly slung-round-by-the-jumper tackles. Boyd handballed indiscriminately straight to Saint Andrew McQualter, a couple more and Hayes was passing towards leading Stephen Milne. It was a bit too high for Milne who got his fingertips to the ball, but wheeled and gathered the crumb and, while Adam Schneider shepherded off Lake, Milne bagged a goal. A bit later King roved a big pack on the wing and soccered the ball ahead, Schneider collected and fired a long handball meant for McQualter but Riewoldt galloped onto it, raced into the pocket and drew Jarrod Harbrow away from Milne so to handball over-the-top and Milne snapped another. The Saints were 25 points ahead following those two Milne goals - another Docklands specialist! The Bullies conjured a reply, Akermanis won a hard ball at half-back and passed to Murphy, his centering kick went to Minson who found Johnson in space and Johnno bombed to the goal-square, where Hahn roved the clattered Josh Hill's contest and stabbed a backwards pass to Murphy, he majored. The Stainers replied presently, a woefully telegraphed, floated Higgins kick from the back-pocket was intercepted by Gilbert who passed smartly for Sean Dempster to mark 40m out, Dempster converted. Higgins may've been struggling with his groin/hamstring thingy already. The Stainers missed a couple of shots before the Dogs blundered in defence again, Harbrow played-on from a kick-in and hesitated fatally, trying to draw Riewoldt in so he could baulk 'round him. Except Riewoldt caught Harbrow by the back of the guernsey and the Bulldog man's wild handball was collected by Saint Robert Eddy, he handballed back to Riewoldt who snapped the goal. The Satiners led by 33 points after that and the Bulldogs were crumbling under the pressure. Soon more good work from Gilbert, on the wing, enabled Leigh Montagna to pass to leading Eddy on the 50m line, Eddy dished a handball for Schneider to pass to Milne, alone 20m out. Milne converted and the Saints led by 39 points. Higgins limped off for good about this stage, twanging a hamstring as he stooped to try and collect the ball. The Dogs responded late, scoring a pair of behinds before Akermanis roved a ball-up and got a handball away to Ward, who booted a good, long goal. Sinkilda led by 31 points at the long break.
To the Bulldogs' credit they gave it go in the third Co-stanza, but as in the first quarter found it difficult to score much as the Saints went from 'scoring' to 'stopping' mode. The Pups did manage an early goal, good work from Ryan Griffen saw him gather the ball on the boundary at half-forward and handball ahead to Johnson, his attempted handball to Hahn was intercepted by Sainter Clint Jones who gave one in turn to Blake, but Blake only ambled clear and was well-tackled by Hahn. 'Bawl' it was and Hahn free-kicked a sausage. The Saints' lead was 24 points after that but not much happened in the next eight-or-so minutes, save Murphy suffering another hamstring injury. He has a lot of those. After a while there was a throw-in in the Saints' forward-pocket, Hahn collected it but his handball was either smothered or inaccurate, it was hard to tell, and Eddy snaggled a goal. Sinkilda led by 30 points. The Bulldogs were rewarded for effort at last with two handy goals in time-on, Ward spoiled Steven Baker's marking attempt and roving Hahn's long handball found Akermanis, Aker chipped a high flank-switching kick for Griffen to collect in much space. Grif accelerated towards the sticks but just got his shot away before Dempster tackled, it bounced through for a goal. A bit later Scott Welsh missed a shot and Dempster's kick-in was stabbed to Montagna in the pocket, Welsh leaped to smother Montagna's kick and Sainter Sam Fisher dived on the loose ball, and stayed there. 'Bawl' it was and Eagleton free-kicked the goal. The Bullies were hanging in there, 18 points down at the final change. Unfortunately, when the ball was bounced to commence the last quarter, the Bullies had 19 men on the ground. Welsh was the offender and the Saints had a free-kick in the centre plus 50, Riewoldt took it and popped it through. Doh! Five minutes later Sinkilda's Jones collected Schneider's soccer-kick and punted towards leading Milne, it dropped short but Milne gathered on-the-bounce, exchanged handballs with Riewoldt and then snapped truly. Stinkilda led by 30 points as the Bulldogs clung on, Liam Picken harassed Baker to win the ball, Picken rode a Blake tackle and handballed for running Ward to drill a good sausage roll. The Dawgs trailed by 25 points but that proved to be their last hurrah. The Saints galloped clear, Riewoldt's attempted dribbly-snap from the forward-pocket was gathered by Lake in the goal-square but Lakey's attempted pass to Harbrow went straight to Schneider. As you can imagine the Bulldogs' several defensive clangers had brought us much 'Rocket Vision', in which the TV cuts to Eade and shows us his highly emotional responses to such events. Directors must love Eade. In this case Rocket sat perfectly still and simply dropped his clip-board to the floor, before launching his usual routine of f-bomb-laden screaming, with arms a-flailing. He plays up to it, does Rocket. Anyway, Schneider kicked a goal and from the following centre-bounce Hayes waved clear and handballed to Goddard, his punt went over Milne's head but Eddy tapped-on nicely for Milne to collect the ball and produce some prime lairizing, a running banana-shot from the 'wrong' side. For a goal. Schneider broke through some weak tackling and wobbled a kick forward, the agate took a handy bounce for Riewoldt to collect it and produce a very good 'round-the-body snap for a goal. Another Sainter centre-clearance followed and Gram tumbled a punt forward, Schneider marked on the 50m line and sent a pass out wide for leading Riewoldt to mark and convert with a good kick. The Sainters led by 49 points after that and it stretched to 51 before a consolation goal for the Dogs, Hahn's tired left-foot hack from 40m took some erratic zig-zag bounces before finding its' way between the big posts.
Brendon Goddard (37 disposals, 9 marks) wandered about the field at will. You wonder where getting suspended sits in The Trademark as the Saints didn't miss Koschitzke for a second, with Nick Riewoldt (19 touches, 8 marks, 5 goals) and Stephen Milne (18 possessions, 7 marks, 5 goals) doing more than enough scoring. CHB Sam Gilbert (30 possessions, 9 marks) has been very good all year and Nick Dal Santo (39 possessions, 8 marks) did well, as did 'extra defender' Jason Blake (31 disposals, 12 marks) and centreman Lenny Hayes (31 possessions, 5 marks). James Gwilt played in Kosi's regular spot and kicked 2 goals. For the Bulldogs Matthew Boyd (39 possessions, 6 marks, a goal) worked very hard and Daniel Cross (26 touches, 9 marks) was solid, Ryan Griffen (26 touches, a goal) provided a cutting edge. Ryan Hargrave (31 possies, 9 marks) and Nathan Eagleton (23 disposals, a goal) played well and Will Minson (7 disposals, 2 marks, 26 hit-outs) was far more effective as a ruckman than a forward. Callan Ward and Mitch Hahn kicked 2 goals each. Did the interchange stuff-up cost you the game, Rocket? "We hadn't played well in the first half, but the third quarter was good and we had a bit of momentum," Eade said. "It was always going to be tough with two quality players off and being short, but having said that we were still confident enough at three-quarter time. It certainly wouldn't have changed the result. They played extremely well and they thoroughly deserved winning by as much as they did . . . It probably took the wind out of our sails a little bit. If that hadn't happened, we might have got a little bit closer but I don't think it had an impact on the result." What did he say to Welsh? "[After the game], I asked him if he'd read the match-up board and he said he didn't. I said, 'At 30 years of age, you might have learned something' . . . Their pressure was good but I think there was a lot of inferred pressure. I thought our guys didn't handle the situation at all. In the first half there were a lot of unforced errors, a lot of fumbles, making incorrect decisions. You've got to give full credit to the opposition. We were another one of the teams to fall into their pressure, so obviously we've got some work to do." Ross Lyon said "I really thought the stage was set at three quarter-time for the Dogs . . . they got a late one and Montagna turned it over in defence and pulled it to 18 points. Doggies [had won] 14 out of 16 last quarters and [are a] really strong finishing team. I reckon if you had have asked the Dogs at the break, they would've taken that and thought they were in a really good position. [I said to Saint players], 'The win-loss doesn't really mean anything to us at this point, but you've answered every challenge and you're off a six-day break and you're playing the best last quarter team - let's just really get hold of the ball and take it on. When we get it, attack and don't try and save the game - we're going to have to win it and I'd be really proud if we give maximum effort'."
At Manuka Oval:
Melbourne 1.2 2.6 4.11 6.14.50
Sydney 3.4 6.6 7.6 10.8.68
A very ordinary game of football, the Swans breaking through for a win courtesy their better conversion of chances. They're a mathematical chance of making the finals but not a realistic one, if this is the best form the Swarns can produce. Sinkilda, Geelong, Collywood and Brisbun in the next five weeks could make their season's end pretty miserable. You've gotta love Paul Roos; when it was pointed out afterwards that Sinkilda coach Ross Lyon had flown in to watch the game, Roos said "He wasted a day he could have spent with the kids, to be honest. If we play like that against St. Kilda we might be lucky to score." The Dees worked hard but it's clear they desperately need a working forward structure. Bailey'd made a hefty seven changes in selection, some of them towards that end as Brad Miller and Michael Newton were recalled for possible last-chances while Russ Robertson was dropped. The other six Dees absent from the side which faced Jahlong were all injured, apparently; Brock McLean (knee), Mark Jamar (thigh strain), Brad Green (fractured wrist), Jack Grimes (back), James Frawley (back) and Neville Jetta ('flu). Green won't play again this season. The other five 'ins' were Kyle Cheney, Paul Johnson, Shane Valenti, Matthew Whelan and a first-gamer, long-legged flanker Jordie McKenzie from Terang-Mortlake. The Swans made three changes following their final-quarter capitulation to the Bluies. Paul Bevan and Pat Veszpremi were dropped while poor ol' Ted Richards (broken ribs, punctured lung) won't be playing again this year. Jarred Moore, Kristin Thornton and Mike Pyke were recalled, so was Amon Buchanan but he hurt a knee in the warm-up, so Craig Bird earned a very late reprieve.
As mentioned this one was a bit of a shocker, not only the poor disposal skills but the decision-making was awful. The venue matched it, a paltry 7,300 turning up on a freezing Canberra day to see what might be the last AFL game Manuka Oval hosts for a while. It was a tough afternoon for all. Siddey ruckman Darren Jolly was one of the few class acts on display and he booted the opening goal, a free-kick from a throw-in after Dee Stefan Martin held Jolly's arm. It's not clear what the Deez are trying to do with Martin, he plays a different position every quarter. Martin started in the ruck here. Some scrappy rubbish followed for the next few minutes. New Swan spearhead Jesse White missed after marking but a bit later under-pressure Dee Aaron Davey soccered the ball across half-back and directly to Jarred Moore, who ran inside 50 and slotted a sausage. A bit more slog, both sides very slow and erratic in moving forward, before Jolly got his hand to a ball-up 30m from the Bloods' goal and directed it down for Jarrad McVeigh to snap truly. The Swans led by 19 points and the Deez hadn't scored, they now managed a point from Liam Jurrah and the Bloods got a couple of those (um, points). The Demuns scored a late major, Jolly tapped a ball-up in the Swans' back-pocket down to Ryan O'Keefe but it took an eccentric bounce and Brent Moloney slipped on through to soccer a six-pointer. The Swans led by 14 points at the first break. Jolly rampaged through the centre-square at the start of the second term and got a handpass away to Moore, his punt forward bounced out for a throw-in. Jolly won that too, tapping down to Bird who handballed for O'Keefe to snap a major and the Swans led by 20 points. The Dees began to get moving a bit, Miller running about to take a few grabs. But his kicking for goal was pretty bad and so was Newton's, both of 'em missed set-shots (Newton's a shocker) before Cale Morton, who was playing on Goodes, spoiled the Swan man's marking attempt, gathered and kicked forward where Liam Jurrah juggled a one-handed mark behind Pyke. Jurrah converted. "He's nicknamed the Port Pirie Wizard or something," said Danny Frawley. Keep up, Spud. Siddey replied soon enough, Goodes led up to mark on the wing and centered the ball to Ed Barlow, he passed to the opposite flank and Jolly who jabbed a short pass to Kieren Jack, who stabbed a short one to leading Martin Mattner, who goaled. Swans by 19. Jurrah sped onto a loose ball but missed the shot, a minute later Jurrah suffered a rolled ankle when tackled by Brett 'James Tee' Kirk and the Jurrahcane struggled thereon. Goodes departed temporarily to change his boots and threw the old ones aside, he was a grumpy bloke all day. With a minute remaining in the half Bird roved a throw-in on the wing and passed to leading Goodes, he dished off a handball to running Barlow who kicked long and Jolly out-marked Matthew Warnock 20m out. Jolly booted truly and the Bloods led by 24 points at half-time.
Melbun had a bit of a crack at the start of the third Mario. O'Keefe was forced to rush an early point for the Deez and as the Swans tried to run the ball out from the kick-in Rhyce Shaw was tackled and lost the ball, Dee Nathan Jones tumbled a quick punt which Miller marked 15m out - and missed! He was on a 45-degree angle, a weak excuse. The Swans managed to move forward from this kick-in and Moore was tackled 'round the head on the wing, Moore punted his free-kick to the forward flank where Goodes roved the contest and kicked for White to hold a strong grab in front of Dee Jared Rivers. White majored and the Swans now led by a healthy 28 points. But that flattered them, really. The Deez kept working in another ordinary patch of footy. Eventually Clint Bartram extracted the ball from a pack and passed inboard to first-gamer Jordie McKenzie, he had a long go from 50 and was knocked down afterwards by Lewis Roberts-Thomson. A downfield free-kick was taken by Miller, who hooked a great left-foot shot through from a very tight angle. A minute later Shaw was penalized for running too far as he failed to interpret Goodes's movements ahead of him, it led to a fairly angry exchange between the two. Cam Bruce's quickly-taken free went wide to Jurrah, he passed down the wing for Lynden Dunn to mark and Dunn jabbed a centering pass for leading Davey to mark. Now Swans McVeigh and Mattner argued as Davey booted a goal and the Dees cut their deficit to 16 points. A better side would've gotten a run-on against the rabble-like Swans at this stage, but the Deez couldn't do it. Ricky Petterd marked 45m out but his mis-hit shot was touched off-the-boot, Miller came up with another poor behind after marking and Matthew Bate had an admittedly difficult chance after the three-quarter-time siren, he missed too. The Swans' lead was 13 points at the final change and coach Paul Roos, almost always a laid-back character, gave his lads a deserved tongue-lashing during the break. In the early final term Sidderney's Luke Ablett pulled the ball free of a pack at half-forward and handballed to Jolly, who booted a great goal off a step or two. Mick O'Loughlin missed with a free-kick following his terrific tackle on Bruce, but a bit later Ablett roved a ball-up 40m from the sticks and handballed to McVeigh, his quick snap bounced through for a major with some useful shepherding from White. The Bloods led by 26 points and the Dees'd lost their chance. Melbun's Paul Johnson hit the post with a free-kick, his team-mate Bruce intercepted Mattner's kick-in, played-on and also speared a kick into the post. A minute later Dee Shane Valenti roved a ball-up and punted forward, Roberts-Thomson collected the ball but ambled clear and was tackled by Newton, 'bawl' it was and Newton free-kicked a major. But of course Newton missed a moment later with another free-kick, for slipping over apparently so maybe there was some natural justice there. Drizzly rain started falling. Barlow rode team-mate Heath 'Reg' Grundy to take a terrific mark deep in defence, but Barlow's clearing kick was marked by Davey as Swan Thornton fell over. Davey passed to James McDonald in the pocket and 'Junior' stabbed a centering kick for leading Matty Whelan to mark as Goodes and Barlow watched. Whelan goaled and the Demuns hovered about, 11 points down. But the game was soon settled when Swan Jude Bolton took a fantastically gutsy grab, running with the flight of Bird's wobbly kick and copping Bate's elbow in the head a fraction after clutching the ball. Bolton's low mongrel-punt from 50 took a sharp in-swing and went between the big sticks, the Bloods were home.
The Bloods could thank big Darren Jolly (14 disposals, 2 marks, 26 hit-outs, 3 goals) for covering a lot of rubbish, Jarrad McVeigh (31 touches, 5 marks, 2 goals) also worked hard about the ground along with Ryan O'Keefe (25 possessions, 3 marks, a goal). Craig Bird (24 touches, 5 marks) made the most of the late chance with a tough effort in packs and Rhyce Shaw (29 disposals, 5 marks) ran a bit from the back. Heath Grundy (26 disposals, 7 marks) slotted into Richards's role in defence and Marty Mattner (21 possies, 5 marks, a goal) was alright. Better Dees included Aaron Davey (22 disposals, a goal) and centreman Brent Moloney (21 touches, 6 tackles, a goal) while Clint Bartram (18 possessions, 5 marks) was probably their best ball-user. Matthew Warnock (10 touches) did some tough spoiling in defence and Ricky Petterd (20 disposals, 6 marks) worked hard from a forward-flank. Cale Morton (10 kicks, 4 marks) did reasonably on Goodes, in the first half particularly. Brad Miller kicked 1.3 and Newton 1.2. There's your margin of victory there. Dean Bailey was asked if the loss in a poor-quality game represented a 'backward step'. "I don't think it was a backwards step - if anything it was probably almost stagnant with maybe a little bit of movement forward just because of the players who we gave some really valuable experience to in the game," Bailey said. "We did miss some opportunities and our goal kicking probably did let us down, but I thought the effort was still there. We were able to hang into a game that was really about congested and contested ball around the stoppages. I thought we hung in there and we created some opportunities, but unfortunately we were unable to kick the goals when we needed them. We'll have a look at goal kicking again, we'll keep working on it; we have for the whole year." Roos said "We don't talk about (finals). What we are trying to do is what you saw today (they were trying to do that?) There's a lot of really positive signs and that's what we've got to concentrate on for the next five or six weeks." Roosy complimented the games of Jolly, Grundy and juniors Nick Smith and Dan Hannebery before saying "Our biggest concern at the moment is the difference between our best and our worst . . . we need to work as hard as we can on that in the next six weeks." Tough run home? "I think it's good because there's a lot of debate about the tanking issue and for us it's really good to play some good quality teams," Roos said. "It's an opportunity for our blokes to play some good players and it gives them a snap shot going into the pre-season as to how close or how far they are from the top and what they need to work on.
At the MCG:
Essendon 2.5 5.5 10.9 14.12.96
Richmond 3.2 8.4 12.9 15.11.101
Galling loss for the Bommers, of their remaining six games (prior to this round) this appeared the easiest but the sluggish Dons blew it. Losses by the Hawks and Powder kept the Dons in the eight for now but they've a tough run from here. The Tiges benefitted from the return of Ben Cousins and Trent Cotchin to the side, and a career-best six goals from Jack Riewoldt. The Tiggers got the staggers towards the end again, but held on. In selection the Bombouts recalled Nathan Lovett-Murray and Angus Monfries, they replaced Sam Lonergan and Heath Hocking who were dropped following the loss to the Dogs. Four changes for the Tiges, interim coach 'Jade the Blade' Rawlings lived up to his nickname by cutting regular Shane Tuck along with Angus Graham, Mark Coughlan and Alex Rance. Rawlings is serious about team rules, especially tackling. Nathan Brown, Cousins and Cotchin returned from injury and Adam Pattison was recalled. Rawlings wants the Tigger coaching job now.
Quick start by Essadun, prior to the opening bounce Tigger tagger Daniel Jackson slung Brent Stanton to the ground, a free-kick which Don ruckman Paddy Ryder punted forward and Scott Lucas clutched a decent grab against Jarrod Silvester. Lucas booted a sausage roll. The Dons also won the next centre-clearance with a free and Andrew Lovett's long go was rushed through by Silvester. The low-confidence Tiges began by playing some keepings-off and attacked via a slow series of stabbed short-passes. "It's like watching a yacht tack into the wind," suggested commentator David 'Ox' Schwarz. The Toigs were jittery in general and were lucky not to slip further behind early, Luke McGuane's hospital pass set up Nathan Brown to be clobbered by Matthew Lloyd and Bomma Kyle Reimers collected the spillage, but snapped a point. Along with his day-glo boots Reimers was sporting some odd new tatts. What's that on his shoulder, a curly fish? Commetti suggested the Tiges had "post drawmatic stress" but they got moving soon enough, Brett Deledio grabbed Cale Hooker's wayward handball and handballed for Cousins to chip a kick which Jack Riewoldt marked in front of Michael Hurley, Riewoldt dobbed it. Robin Nahas missed poorly but a minute later Jake King booted a great goal, King collected the ball at half-back and ran and passed for leading Riewoldt to mark right in the centre, Riewoldt lobbed a handpass ahead into the on-running King's path and King gathered, raced inside 50 and speared it through. The Toigs led by 5 points. Essadun replied presently, Jason Winderlich produced a smart pass to find Ryder on the attacking side of the centre-square, Ryder's pass dropped short of leading Lloyd but he gathered and handballed to Alwyn Davey, another handpass and Mark McVeigh was snapping truly off the left boot. The Tiggers had the final say of the korter though, the speedy Nahas chased down Jobe Watson and forced a turnover with a great tackle, Cousins handballed for Jordan McMahon to kick long where Mitch Morton juggled a grab over team-mate McGuane. Of course Morton played-on and hooky-kicked a major. Ryder's late shot from 40m was touched by the man on-the-mark and the Tiges led 3 points at the first break. The Dons bagged a goal early in the second stanza, Ryder slapped a ball-up 20m from the sticks into the path of Winderlich who gathered and snapped it through. The Bombouts led by 3 points but the Tiges began to produce that slick running footy which only occurs in second quarters. Brown stabbed a fairly ordinary pass over Nahas's head, but Nahas wheeled about, chased down the loose agate and handballed for Riewoldt to snap it through. Riewoldt missed a subsequent shot before Cotchin ran through the centre, exchanged handballs with Brown and then fired one ahead to Matt White, which put him under a bit of pressure but White got a kick away as he was tackled by Reimers and it took a handy bounce to score full points. "Lucky!" exclaimed McAvaney. If it'd been Cyril Rioli who'd done that, Brooce would've ejaculated praise for the next minute. A Cotchin handball also led to the next goal, he gave it to running Nahas who swapped handballs with Deledio before kicking to the 'square, young Tige Jayden Post should've had a free but roving Brown stabbed a goal anyway. Soon Richard Tambling sped away from half-back and had six bounces right 'round the Members' wing, running inside 50 before jabbing a short pass to Riewoldt. Riewoldt booted a major. A bit later Jackson gathered a loose ball at the back of the centre-square and sent a kick wide into the path of Nahas, he sped away from Lovett, no slouch himself, before passing for Deledio to mark 50m out and thump a long a goal. Five unanswered sausages from the Toigs and they led by 29 points, with 3:30 remaining in the half. The Dons managed two goals late, Lloyd dropped down to half-back to take a mark, Bronx cheers for his second touch, and kick for Hooker to take a decent grab over Dean Polo, Hooker played-on and passed down the wing to Winderlich and he placed smart kick for Ryder to mark 30m out, Ryder converted. Stanton missed following a terrific one-handed grab but Tige skipper Newman's kick-in was recovered by Andrew Welsh, he passed inboard to Stanton who handballed wide for Adam McPhee to race inside 50 and spear a major. A very handy late one as the Tigger lead was reduced to 17 points at half-time.
After the break we discovered the Bummers had injury worries, Lloyd was hampered by a heel problem and Welsh with hamstring tightness. But the momentum carried them forward as the Tiges began to fade again. Lloyd was in fact limping off the ground when he broke off to receive a handpass and kick for leading Lucas to hold a grab, Lucas played-on and drove a long kick in which Tigger Thursfield punched away from Reimers, but Ricky Dyson gathered and snapped a major. A bit later Polo's clearing kick set up White to be ridden by Lovett for a very noice speccie. Shortly McPhee roved a big pack on the wing, ran ahead and punted long, Bommers Lucas and Lovett-Murray managed to spoil one-another but Gus Monfries's roving handball allowed Lucas to snap accurately from 15m. The Dons'd scored the last four goals of the game and trailed by just 3 points now. The Big Pu55ies scored against the run, they managed the next centre-clearance and Newman passed for Tom Hislop to mark 55m out, Hislop slipped a handball to running Jackson who booted truly. Morton and Jackson kicked points before Post led up to the wing for a mark but his subsequent handball went behind Cousins and Lucas gathered the ball, he passed to Hooker who passed in turn for leading Lovett to mark and boot a major. 'Dustbin' Fletcher had a torpedo-punt go from 60m which Polo punched through for a point, but Morton's clearing kick (yes, he was down there) went to a two-on-one and Don Henry Slattery collected the ball, he gave it to Davey who kicked wide where Lovett had a free-kick for hands-in-the-back against King. Lovett steered a terrific punt, from 50m out on the boundary, for full-points and the Dons led again at last, by a point. A Hislop behind leveled the scores but soon Dyson had a free for McMahon's guernsey-tug, Dyson played-on and punted long and Reimers juggled a terrific grab over Newman. Reimers sausaged and the Dons led by 6 points, having scored seven of the game's last eight goals. It was déjà-vu all over again but the Tiggers rallied late in the term. Don Welsh coughed up possession when tackled and Nahas handballed to Newman, the turnover caught the Dons out and Newman lobbed a punt into a paddock ahead of Riewoldt, he collected the agate and tumbled a kick for a goal. At the restart King was decapitated by Ryder and won a free, King sent the ball wide to Tambling who passed for leading Post to mark 30m out. Post steered his kick for a career-first goal, following five points over his first two games. King also had a hand in the next centre-clearance with a crushing tackle of Lovett, White hacked a kick forward which Bomma Courtenay Dempsey collected and then attempted to crash-though or crash. Dempsey achieved the latter, tackled by Riewoldt and done for 'bawl'. Riewoldt free-kicked truly and the Tiges led by 12 points, the margin at the final rest.
Lloyd was done for the day by three-quarter-time and now McVeigh was limping about. The Bommers won the pill from the opening bounce of the ultimate stanza with a free to Lovett, he kicked forward where Lucas also had a free but he missed. A bit later Winderlich's risky kick down the corridor was picked off by King, he kicked out wide where leading Brown gathered on-the-bounce and drew tacklers before handballing to running Cousins, Cuz lobbed a kick into the goal-square where Riewoldt arrived to mark it and pop through. A minute later Cotchin did well to win the pill from a ball-up and tumble a kick forward, Riewoldt gathered and handballed for Post to slot a major. The Tiggers led by 23 points and the hammer was directly above the Dons now. Richmun hung onto the lead for a while as the Dons tried to get the ball moving, they had a break when Toig ruckman Tyrone Vickery caught the ball cleanly from a throw-in at half-back and was tackled by Ryder, 'bawl' it was and Ryder free-kicked a goal. McVeigh, limping heavily, missed poorly following a strong mark in front of McMahon. Then Newman intercepted a Bommer kick and handballed off to running McMahon, his pass dropped short of leading Brown but Brown collected, wheeled and passed for leading Morton to mark in the pocket. Morton was on the wrong side for a hooky-kick but he steered the regular drop-punt for full-points and the Tiggers led by 22 points, Cotchin's behind a bit later made it 23 again with six minutes remaining. Fletcher thumped the kick-in from the Cotchin point straight down the guts and Welsh marked inside the centre-square, he chipped ahead to Monfries who handballed inboard to running Dempsey, he cruised inside 50 and completed a brilliant 'coast-to-coast' goal. The Tiges hung on for a minute before Winderlich's terrific tap-on allowed Stanton to run inside the 50 in space and slot a running sausage, the Toig lead was down to 11 points. Reimers dropped what became an uncontested mark, just 20m out, as Thursfield slipped over behind him, eliciting a huge groan from the Bommer supporters. But a minute later Reimers had another chance as Slattery collected Cotchin's hacked clearing kick, Slattery centered to Tayte Pears, a long kick to the pocket where Stanton hooked a centering kick for Reimers to hold the grab this time and boot a major. The Richmun lead was 5 points with 1:15 to go. Jackson won the following centre-clearance for the Tiges and kicked long, either Morton or Nahas should've kicked a goal between them but they messed it up and the Dons cleared, ultimately a good spoil from Tambling and Shane Edwards's late grab in defence saved the Toigs.
Tige forward Jack Riewoldt (19 disposals, 8 marks, 6 goals (6.1)) managed to kick straight at last. The skills of Ben Cousins (31 touches, 5 marks) and Trent Cotchin (23 possessions, 6 tackles) were handy and Brett Deledio (26 disposals, 5 marks, a goal) also played well; 'The Blade' threatened to drop Deledio a fortnight back, too. Chris Newman (14 touches) kept Monfries very quiet and Daniel Jackson (22 handlings, 6 marks, a goal) worked into it, Jake King (14 handlings, a goal) provided some passion. Robin Nahas (18 handlings, 7 marks) was useful, Jayden Post and Mitch Morton kicked 2 goals each. For the Dons Brent Prismall (34 disposals, 9 marks) is proving a ball magnet and Paddy Ryder (10 touches, 6 marks, 29 hit-outs, 2 goals) has struck form in the ruck. Andrew Lovett (19 possessions, 5 marks, 2 goals) did some useful things and Dustin Fletcher (20 possies, 3 marks) was very good in defence. Knights was criticized for not switching Fletcher onto Riewoldt until mid-way through the final term, too late. Brent Stanton (25 possies, 5 marks, a goal), Jason Winderlich (20 disposals, 4 marks, a goal) and Andrew Welsh (25 touches, 9 marks) were solid, Scott Lucas and Kyle Reimers kicked 2 goals each. "We let a big opportunity slip today, and that's a fact. We're not going to hide away from that," Knights said. "If we don't smarten up, we'll find those teams behind us will bypass us so we've got to get back to work pretty quick and get a win . . . It's a terrible disappointment today to drop an opportunity, and drop a game like that, when at different stages, we gave ourselves an opportunity to win. When you look at it statistically and you've had 80 more disposals and 12 more inside 50s and in excess of 20 more marks, it's very, very frustrating and disappointing. We copped our right whack today. Our skills weren't good enough; our hit-the-body skills without kicking, our handballs, weren't up to scratch. We didn't respect them as much as we should, and that's why we're a middle of the road side that can't push much further past that at the moment. Jade Rawlings said "I think the last six weeks we're starting to show what we're trying to do. I think we're a better tackling side just because its our intent to do it . . . and I'd like to think people come and watch our style and say, 'That's how they play', and we're just going to keep building on that . . . He (Riewoldt) showed today that he can be the main man and thankfully he was able to kick straight and get the rewards he deserves from where he marked it. I think he needs another forward (alongside him) definitely and I think Post is trying to be that and I couldn't be happier with his work-rate or development. There is a bloke who wears No.12 that might be able to give him a bit of a chop-out when he comes back for a little while - we'll see how long that is." Unleash the Gies . . . Blade!
At Football Park:
Adelaide 2.5 9.7 12.15 19.18.132
Port Adelaide 4.0 4.4 8.5 9.8.62
The Camrys recovered from their mauling at the hands of the Saints to dish one out to the Powder in Showdown XXVII. Observers thought they detected a bit of the Sinkilda style in the Corollas' performance as they clamped down ruthlessly on the defending Power players, and Port struggled to clear their backline all evening. Oh, and Port are no good. Did I mention that before? In selection Adderlayed regained Nathan Van Berlo from injury and recalled Robert 'Please Stop Calling Me' Shirley. Outgoing were David Mackay (hamstring strain) and the dropped Richard Douglas. Port had two big ins with Shaun Burgoyne back for his first game since the very early season and Troy Chaplin returning from injury, they replaced Dean Brogan (corked thigh) and the dropped Nick Salter. Coach Mark 'Choco' Williams signed his new, cut-rate 2-year contract during the week.
Foxtel commentator Brian Taylor pointed out the person tossing the coin had a mullet and was wearing flares. "It seems appropriate," commented BT. Port were wearing their new black-with-vee guernsey again while the Camrys had a commemorative jumper which featured the names of a hundred Camrys who'd played in Showdowns, including such legends as Bryan Beinke and Anthony Ingerson. Port, with the aid of a breeze, started very well. Ruckman Brendon Lade punted 'em into attack from the opening bounce, Camry defender Graham 'Stiffy' Johncock gathered the ball and gave an under-pressure handball to Michael Doughty, which he fumbled before paddling the agate back to Johncock who was promptly tackled by Robbie Gray. 'Bawl' and Gray free-kicked a goal. A bit later Kane Cornes had a free from throw-in at half-forward, held back by Simon Goodwin. Cornes dished off a handball to running Danyle Pearce who curled a great left-foot kick for a major and the Power led by 12 points. The Cows' midfield was soon running but Pat Dangerfield and Kurt Tippett hit the post and Tippett missed another shot before a goal came, a soft free-kick against Shaun Burgoyne allowed Johncock and Nathan Bock to run and clear for the Camrys, Chris Knights lobbed a punt forward and Brett 'Birdman' Burton got a great, hovering, classic Burton ride on Paul Stewart to take a grab and boot truly. That fired-up the home crowd. A bit later Goodwin kept a boundary-bound ball in play and Port's Salopek gathered, he handballed to Matthew Broadbent who went for a run and passed to leading Warren Tredrea, Tredders bombed a kick to the goal-square where Gray roved the pack and stabbed a major. The Powder led by 9 points. The Cows replied from another big Burton leap, jumping across in front of wrestling Chaplin and Stevens to mark and hook a great kick for a six-pointer. The Flowers replied again, Justin Westhoff had a free for arm-chopping and passed for leading Gray to take a diving mark, Bernie Vince fell on Gray and gave him an elbow to the head which cost Vince a 50m penalty and Gray popped it through. Port led by 9 points again and the frenetic pace of the game slowed down a bit now. Camrys Knights and Andy McLeod missed tight-angle shots prior to the break.
The second term settled it. Early doors a fairly insipid clearing kick from Port's Nathan Krakouer was picked off by Goodwin, he passed into the centre and Vince who kicked wide to the opposite flank where Doughty marked, played-on and drove it through. A point each before Nathan Van Berlo lobbed a kick into space ahead of Knights who collected the agate, ran into the 50 and slotted. Lotta space in the Cows' forward-line. The Cressidas won the following centre-clearance and Jason Porplyzia booted a point, a fraction before a heavy shower drenched the ground. The wind, now behind the Cows, picked up. Goodwin drove a long kick in and Tippett bullocked Alipate Carlile aside to hold a decent grab and stab one from close range. A bit later Burton had a soft free-kick for hands-in-the-back and chipped it wide to Doughty, he passed ahead for Brent Reilly to mark and immediately handball for Goodwin, who'd started the move from the defensive wing, to steer one through from the pocket. It was all pretty slick stuff and it kept coming, as the rain petered out. Brad Symes roved a ball-up 60m out and handballed to Dangerfield, he gave one to Goodwin who raced clear and banged another six-pointer. Tredrea managed Pord's third point of the quarter, a wind-deflected effort. A bit later Port's Jacob Surjan hacked a clearing kick straight to Reilly, the Camrys chipped a few passes around as you better believe the Powder were flooding back now. Eventually McLeod slipped a handball to Doughty who booted another long sausage. From a throw-in Chad Cornes soccered the ball into the middle of the ground where Camry Doughty gathered and handballed to Porplyzia, he booted long and Dangerfield roved the pack to produce a terrific over-the-shoulder snap for a major. Seven straight from the Cows and they led by 34 points, a soccered Tredrea behind made it 33 at half-time.
The Flowers had a bit of a go in the third stanza. The Camrys scored a handful of points in a tough opening period, before Flowerman David Rodan found space for a three-bounce run and passed to leading Chad Cornes, he had a long shot and it was goin' through but Toby Thurstans tried to mark in the goal-square and fumbled it through for a point - bah! Chadley's every touch was booed by the Camry supporters, they didn't get to boo much. The Chad had a sore knee, apparently. A minute later Salopek drove a long kick forward and Bock spilled a mark, the ball rolled out-of-bounds. From the throw-in Pearce got a handball away to Kane Cornes and his quick shot was carried through by the wind for a major. The Camrys' lead was 30 points. Chad Cornes snapped a point before the Coronas replied, a terrific running rebound completed by Van Berlo's handpass to Knights, he passed for leading Burton to mark and convert with a good kick. A bit later the Cows' suffocating Sainter-style pressure forced the Power to cough up possession in defence, Surjan the guilty party and Porplyzia scooped up the ball, he lobbed a kick for Knights to take a decent grab and boot truly. Addleaid led by 41 points now. Port lifted, Pearce bumped the larger Rutten off the ball, handpassed to Shaun Burgoyne, he to Gray and another set up a tap-through for Jason Davenport. Port locked the ball in attack for a while, a coupla throw-ins and then a ball-up at which Westhoff hurled himself forward from a slight nudge in the back. Westhoff free-kicked a 50m goal. From another throw-in at half-forward Lade directed a tap down and gathered the ball himself, bullocked clear of the pack and handballed for Dom Cassisi to slot a noice one. Three goals unanswered by the Pooer and the margin was down to 25 points. But Camry Reilly worked clear of the following centre-bounce and his good kick found Porplyzia marking on a lead, Porplyzia chipped a pass for lurking McLeod to mark and bag a major. A handy one, the Cows led by 31 points and after some missed shots and rushed points, 34 at the last change as more rain arrived. The Corollas romped away in the final term. Burton and Porplyzia missed set-shots and Dangerfield snapped a difficult chance on-the-full. Port's free-kick from that was gathered by McLeod, he handballed to Goodwin and thence to Vince who booted a goal. The Cressidas led by 42 points as Port's Chaplin limped off after being kicked in the shin. The Flowers replied after Bock punched the ball away from Tredrea, Gray roved and a coupla handballs later Travis Boak snapped a decent major. The Power clung on for a bit but the floodgates disintegrated in the final ten minutes. Burton hooked a tight-angle goal after accepting a good pass from Reilly, backman Bock slipped forward to receive McLeod's handball and thump a major from 45m on the flank. Goodwin booted the Cows into attack from the restart, Stevens over-ran the ball but Knights gathered and slotted. From a ball-up 20m out Porplyzia and Goodwin funneled handballs backwards until McLeod had some time to snap truly. Good work from Johncock and Scott Thompson set up a goal-square mark and conversion for Tippett. A terrific solo effort from Porplyzia brought about the final goal, in the act of kicking Port's Nick Lower shoved him in the back and soccered the ball away in frustration, the free and 50m penalty allowed Porplyzia the simple conversion. Big 70-point win for the Camrys.
Much talk about the Camrys' younger players this season but the veterans stood out here, CHB and wife-beater Nathan Bock (27 disposals, 7 marks, a goal) took the Showdown Medal but Simon Goodwin (26 touches, 9 tackles, 2 goals), who was very good, Michael Doughty (27 possies, 2 goals) or Andrew McLeod (30 disposals, 9 marks, 2 goals) would've been equally deserving. Brent Reilly (32 handlings, 9 marks) kicked the ball superbly in the greasy conditions, Bernie Vince (30 possessions, a goal) played well and Graham 'Stiffy' Johncock (28 touches, 5 marks) was a handy running foil to Bock. Brett Burton (13 kicks, 5 marks, 4 goals) showed some of his best and Chris Knights bagged 3 goals, Kurt Tippett kicked 2 goals. Port captain Dom Cassisi (25 touches, 10 tackles, a goal) worked hard to win the contested ball again but Port never had any running play. Kane Cornes (28 disposals, a goal) won his usual share of possession and Brendon Lade (10 possies, 2 marks, 28 hit-outs) was another hard worker in the ruck, Chad Cornes (17 disposals, 5 marks) was moved about the field but never really got into it, battling a knee problem. Robbie Gray (12 touches, 3 goals) made the most of limited chances and Steven Salopek (22 disposals, 6 marks) won some ball. "It was a pretty poor game today. We probably looked into it for the first ten minutes, but apart from that I thought the Crows controlled most of the game," Williams said. "We couldn't create any turnovers in the first half and they were doing it really easy to us, so all credit to them. I think the kick in the bum from St Kilda last week really got the Crows going. They certainly learned from last week and finished the game off well today." Williams was asked about the Powder's ruck stocks, 33-year-old Lade going solo here with Brogan out. "We thought pretty seriously about what to do with the ruck situation. Our younger rucks either aren't playing particularly well or aren't ready to play yet," Williams said. "Toby (Thurstans) can pinch-hit and Lade's a great ruckman, but we're looking seriously at our ruck stocks and who might be available [for draft or trade]. If there's a ruckman out there that's not playing, we're thinking we need to look at them." Finals? "The Hawks will come over here keen to get a win, but our crowd will be back here, and a week's a long time in football," Choco said. "You can rebound, and we have quite a few games left at home. We hope to be able to get on a roll. You're only one week away from doing it." Neil Craig reckoned "You have to give credit to the playing group for rebounding, because it was a big loss last week. Our playing group certainly didn't get down on themselves, and we learnt a lot of good lessons out of it as in the standard we still need to get to. To come out and play like we did tonight is great credit to our playing group, and it shows they have belief in themselves. Last week was good for us, and obviously tonight was good for us as well . . . Certainly the playing group have made a very clear decision to put another layer on their performances to be able to compete with the top four sides in the competition." Craigy went on to single out ruckmen Ivan Maric and James Sellar for praise, along with Birdman.
Ladder after Round 17
Pts. % Next Week
St. Kilda 68 170.0 Sydney (SCG, Sat. night)
Geelong 60 136.3 Adelaide (Kardinia Park, Saturday)
Footscray 44 123.7 Fremantle (Docklands, Saturday)
Collingwood 44 115.6 Brisbane (MCG, Sat. night)
Adelaide 44 111.9 Geelong (Kardinia Park, Saturday)
Brisbane 44 111.4 Collingwood (MCG, Sat. night)
Carlton 36 108.4 North Melbourne (Docklands, Fri. night)
Essendon 32 101.0 West Coast (Subiaco, Sunday)
------------------------------------------------
Hawthorn 32 93.0 Port Adelaide (Football Park, Sunday)
Port Adelaide 32 90.9 Hawthorn (Football Park, Sunday)
Sydney 28 91.2 St. Kilda (SCG, Sat. night)
Richmond 18 80.4 Melbourne (MCG, Sunday)
North Melbourne 18 78.0 Carlton (Docklands, Fri. night)
West Coast 16 87.0 Essendon (Subiaco, Sunday)
Fremantle 16 73.2 Footscray (Docklands, Saturday)
Melbourne 12 73.0 Richmond (MCG, Sunday)
Cheers, Tim.
Cheers, Tim.
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