A.F.L Thread

[FaaipDeOiad]

Crows = awesome. Best they've played in a fair while.

Goodwin and Hart are having huge seasons, and McLeod had his best game in a fair while, and didn't get smashed by a tagger when he went into the middle for once. Rutten played a big game at full forward, only kicked one but was the target for almost every forward entry and set plenty up. Reilly was also very good, and got plenty of the ball.

Craig coached brilliantly too, and killed the Dogs run with defensive midfield play, and man on man pressure.

 

[benchmark00]

Crows = awesome. Best they've played in a fair while.

Goodwin and Hart are having huge seasons, and McLeod had his best game in a fair while, and didn't get smashed by a tagger when he went into the middle for once. Rutten played a big game at full forward, only kicked one but was the target for almost every forward entry and set plenty up. Reilly was also very good, and got plenty of the ball.

Craig coached brilliantly too, and killed the Dogs run with defensive midfield play, and man on man pressure.

Loves a bit of man-on-man, does old Craigy

 

[oz_fan]

Mine was going well until Laidley took Thompson off.

So was mine.

 

[ash chaulk]

Is Hurny playing this week? Damnit, he's on my Dream Team bench.

yerrrrrp.....

wooden in for Kerr aswell

sydney looking good against cats

 

[Hoggy31]

Haha, Jon Hay.. seriously, what a disgrace. Jade Rawlings>Jon Hay.

Tis time to start playing some kids I think, Chad Jones is a very promising centre half foward i've heard and he couldn't do any worse than Petrie. F*ck Hay off, get young Bennie Schwarze down there. McConnell's a good kid also - could hold down a key defensive position. LeCras probably needs to be tried on a more consistent basis.

 

[Jono]

Good win by Sydney. Barry Hall annihilated Scarlett.

Tips are doing well right now, only got the Kangas vs. Dees game wrong.

 

[pasag]

No way the lions are going to make the finals this year. Feel sorry for all those people that jumped on the bandwagon from 01-03. This pattern is starting to really annoy me, you have a dominat team for a couple of years and then the whole thing gets turned on its head. In two years WC and Stk will be down the bottom, its so predictable. What happened to dominance. Like the hawks in the 80's, a team needs to stand up. Everyone was going on about how brisbane of a couple of years ago were the team of the century. What crap is that when more or less the main players are still there and cant win a game.

St Kilda, WB and Geelong also annoy the hell out of me. So much potential, but cant win consistently. There is no stability in football anymore. Look at everybodies tipping from the past few years, its shoking. Some will say it makes for more exciting football, but I disagree, its annoying for the fans and everyone else.

The state of football is going down the drain, its partialy becuase of younger football that is based on athleticisim but not brains. Its no longer a thinking sport but a game where the fastest team wins. Another thing I blame is salary cap constraints that brake up teams. It was only 10 years ago it was rare for players to move from team to team, not its common place. There is no team identity or loyalty. There are no real rivalries and no real spirit. There are no legends either. Its just a bunch of 19 year olds who just started to shave running around with a football not entirley knowing what to do with it.

Maybe I am just annoyed because my team sucks, I have a proud Carlton supporter my whole life, I went to my first game when I was two years old and have always rambled on to anyone who would listen about what a great game this is. The best in the world. But now its like a different game, flodding, running down the clock, constant umpire involvment. It is a different game to the one I grew up with and I dont like it at all.

 

[benchmark00]

No way the lions are going to make the finals this year. Feel sorry for all those people that jumped on the bandwagon from 01-03. This pattern is starting to really annoy me, you have a dominat team for a couple of years and then the whole thing gets turned on its head. In two years WC and Stk will be down the bottom, its so predictable. What happened to dominance. Like the hawks in the 80's, a team needs to stand up. Everyone was going on about how brisbane of a couple of years ago were the team of the century. What crap is that when more or less the main players are still there and cant win a game.

St Kilda, WB and Geelong also annoy the hell out of me. So much potential, but cant win consistently. There is no stability in football anymore. Look at everybodies tipping from the past few years, its shoking. Some will say it makes for more exciting football, but I disagree, its annoying for the fans and everyone else.

The state of football is going down the drain, its partialy becuase of younger football that is based on athleticisim but not brains. Its no longer a thinking sport but a game where the fastest team wins. Another thing I blame is salary cap constraints that brake up teams. It was only 10 years ago it was rare for players to move from team to team, not its common place. There is no team identity or loyalty. There are no real rivalries and no real spirit. There are no legends either. Its just a bunch of 19 year olds who just started to shave running around with a football not entirley knowing what to do with it.

Maybe I am just annoyed because my team sucks, I have a proud Carlton supporter my whole life, I went to my first game when I was two years old and have always rambled on to anyone who would listen about what a great game this is. The best in the world. But now its like a different game, flodding, running down the clock, constant umpire involvment. It is a different game to the one I grew up with and I dont like it at all.

Hmmm I agree with that except for the 'no brains' part. If anything, football has become a smarter game, and it's being over taken by academics, such as Neil Craig, which has resulted in this keepings off style of footy we see today.

Rocket Eade has alot to answer for, introducing the flood.

I dont mind the big teams taking a tumble, imagine if it were like soccer where the top 5 teams were there for like 50 years.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Not every team that does well has a massive decline. Take Adelaide for example. Two flags in the late 90s, then a couple of average years in 99 and 00 where they missed the finals, then they were back in the mix, made the finals in 01 and finished top four or thereabouts in 02 and 03, then minor premiers in 05. Still pretty much the same core players, just the usually ups and downs as certain guys get better and worse and others retire or come into the team. It's really only some sides that have a fast decline.

And also the "finish bottom for a bit then have a power side due to draft picks" thing hasn't really worked that way yet either. St. Kilda have a lot of good young players from finishing near the bottom for so long, but it's not won them a flag yet. It just ensures that the competition is more even, which it has been in general since the mid 90s, even though Essendon and Brisbane had some dominant times.

I don't see why it's better having one or two teams up the top every year anyway, and even the dominant sides like Hawthorn in the 80s had competition. Carlton and Essendon won flags and competed well in that time as well.

 

[Jono]

I'd rather this then how the Premier League works where its pretty much a core 3 or 4 teams every single year. I like the eveness of the AFL competition, and I think Brisbane's decline isn't that sudden really, and even so its a one-off.

Look how long Essendon dominated for. They've only missed the finals twice in the past decade or so (97 and 2005) so teams can dominate. At the same time look how crap Richmond have been for ages. Made the finals twice in the past decade (95, 2001).

Its not all seesaw stuff as some make it out to be.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Look how long Essendon dominated for. They've only missed the finals twice in the past decade or so (97 and 2005) so teams can dominate. At the same time look how crap Richmond have been for ages. Made the finals twice in the past decade (95, 2001).

Its not all seesaw stuff as some make it out to be.

Yeah. It's not just Essendon either. There are four teams (Essendon, Brisbane, West Coast and Sydney) that have made the finals in 8 of the 10 years since 96. At the other end of the scale, Richmond and Freo have only made it once, Collingwood twice and Hawthorn three times. There are obviously teams that are consistently good and others that are consistently poor, the draft and salary cap systems just ensure that the teams on the bottom have a chance to improve over time, rather than just staying at the bottom because they are broke.

Incidentally, only six teams have won flags in last decade, and 7 of them have been won by three sides (Brisbane, Kangaroos and Adelaide), so it's not as if we have a new team on top every year either.

 

[Jono]

I dont mind the big teams taking a tumble, imagine if it were like soccer where the top 5 teams were there for like 50 years.

I didn't even notice this part of your post but its exactly right! This is what turns me off the Premier League and one thing I love about the AFL.

 

[cameeel]

It's a grand old flag
It's a high flying flag
It's the emblem for me and for you
It's the emblem of
The team we love
The team of the red and the blue

Melbourne 13.12 - 90
def
Kangaroos 12.14 - 86

Yze 4
Thompson 5

Well Benchy, i think we've settled that particular argument eh?

 

[vic_orthdox]

Never seen Scarlett play worse. Ottens' mark was awesome.

WRT someone mentioning Ablett's selection for the Team of the Century in '96, I'm pretty sure 96 was his last year of football (maybe '97), and had been around for 14 years before that.

 

[pasag]

Fremantle decide to run the clock down and play keepings off with 8 minutes to spare. What is that? Pathetic.

 

[pasag]

Turn On Channel 9 Now

 

[pasag]

This Is The Most Amazing Thing Ever

 

[Jono]

THIS IS PATHETIC!

Why the hell are St Kilda getting a free kick?!!! The siren should have gone with Freo up by a point!!?!?!?!?!?!

 

[pasag]

Mass confusion

 

[pasag]

Noone Knows Who Has One. I Ahave Never Seen Anything Like This. Is It A Draw???????????