Parra Divers

I find it funny that Parramatta Eels players are being labeled as divers after last weeks Preliminary Final clash against the Melbourne Storm.

The Jared Hayne incident got most of the attention. Apparently he deliberately went to ground to try and milk a penalty. But hello he was hit in the head with a forearm. Last time a checked the forearm is a relatively hard part of the body and would do more than sting once impacting upon the skull.

The other incident was with Nathan Cayless you pulled a pectoral muscle after having his arm hyper extended by a tackler. Yes, Rugby league is a contact sport but No, grabbing someone by the arm and wrenching it away when the player is already on the ground is surely, at the very least, poor tackling technique, and at the most, mere thuggery.

And the Strom players have the hide to claim they are being victimised by other clubs.

I have another reason to cheer for Manly

The Theory That I Never Stick To

I have stated on public record that I am always nervous for my team the week after they flog an opposing team. I have found two things happen the week after a flogging:

1. The 'Flogger' appears a bit flat and is slow off the blocks. Depending on the opposition they might still win.
2. The 'Flogee' players inspired footy after the embarrassment of the previous week and either have a hard fought win or an 'honourable loss'

Recent Evidence

• Kangaroos: First week of finals against Geelong get flogged by 106pts only wear out a fired up Hawthorn the week after by 33pts
• Hawthorn: Flogged by Sydney in Rnd 22 by 72pts. They looked out of their depth in big matches yet came beck from a 30 pnt deficit to down Adelaide in the first week of finals by 3pts
• Sydney: As stated they flogged Hawthorn in Rnd 22 and looked the red hot favourite with momentum on their side. Not to be however as they let Collingwood in the first week of the finals skip out to a 31pt head start, ultimately winning by 38pts

This has happened countless time but do you think I follow my own theory. No, and as result I get 1 correct tip out of 4 in the first week and 1 out of 2 in the second.

Beware the embarrassed team, unless it is Carlton.

Unfair Finals System

I find it very ironic that Rugby League commentators are displaying concern over the unfair nature of their finals system (The McIntyre Final 8). A specific example this year was how can the 6th place Bulldogs lose in week one and have a second chance against 4th place Parramatta in week two. Luckily results went the way they should and the Bulldogs were consequently eliminated by Parra. In years gone by teams haven't been so lucky. St George were once eliminated after week one despite finishing the season in 5th place.

The irony lies in the fact that the AFL abandoned the McIntyre Final 8 many years ago for exactly the same reasons. One or two years later the ARL (now NRL) take it up. Did they ignore the AFL's concerns with the system?

Mark Geyer on the NRL Footy Show apparently knows better than everyone else as he proclaims "find a better system...there isn't one." Mind you, he strikes me as the type who would shrug off anything the AFL does (or any other sport for that matter) as not as good as Rugby League.

The AFL has a much fairer Final 8 system where the top 4 play each other and the bottom 4 play each other. That way the bottom 4 have to win to stay alive. At least we had some sense from, of all people, Paul Vautin. He actually stated that the NRL needs to adopt the same system that the AFL has in place as he thinks it is much fairer.

Thanks for your common sense Vautin. Pull your head in Geyer.

The Australian Convicts

Ever fancied playing for your country but never had the talent or drive to make it?

Or ever wanted to travel and explore other countries?

Well with The Convicts you can do both.

In about 2 weeks I ( along with other from all over Australia) will depart on the USA/Canada tour. None of us have met, let alone trained together and we have a game against the Canadian National Team 2 days after we touch down (ie not much time to recover from the flight).

Later on we play the USA National Team and watch their national championships.

Cities to visit include: Toronto, Washington DC, Louisville, New York, Las Vegas.

Moving On

It's the only thing I can do now as one of the two teams eliminated from the first week of the finals. It has been a hard year to watch the Swans play. As the preamble on Channel 10 illustrated, it has been a roller coaster and just when you think they have some momentum and some decent form, players go missing. Same thing happened last night against Collingwood.

Against Hawthorn the previous week we were unstoppable and playing very clean footy. Against Collingwood Nick Davis was probably the most notable disappearance (to digress, can you believe Magpie fans are still booing him?), along with Barry Hall while Peter Everitt needed to do a lot more for the team to win.

Collingwood just out tackled us and that pressure showed for most of the game as it became implied pressure as we couldn't get clean hands on any hard ball possessions.

Ah well, already looking forward to 2008, it's the first year our players will get a decent rest in the off season and a proper pre season.

While we don't need a player clean out there needs to be some difficult decisions made about some players if we're not to bottom out as some clubs have done (eg Richmond, Carlton). Players like Ben Matthews and Stephen Doyle have been good servants of the club but may be on their last legs and the speed of the game may cut short their careers.

We have blooded some young players, most recently Ed Barlow, but we never get a real good look at them and what they are capable of on a consistent basis. Heath Grundy has been given a few games here and there, Tim Schmidt, Jared Moore and Simon Phillips have also made brief appearances this season. I hope to see more of them as the years go on. Let's face it, Barry Hall and Michael O'Loughlin aren't getting any younger.

AFL Finals

We are in for a classic finals series. All games could realistically go either way and none can be tipped with any great confidence.

Friday Night - Port Adelaide Vs West Coast (AAMI Stadium)
Port Adelaide have exceeded everyone's expectations this year. That's not to say they don't have a quality side. They are firing at the right end of the season. But so are the Eagles. They are injury depleted but Judd is back and should be able to contribute more than he has in previous weeks. The game is played in Adelaide but will that be enough to counter the class from the west.

Saturday Afternoon - Hawthorn Vs Adelaide (Telstra Dome)
Hawthorn will be excited about being in thier first finals series for many years. They will also want to avenge their deplorable performance against Sydney last week. That's usually not the way you like to go into a finals campaign. Although I have always suggested that the flogged team usually bites back while the flogging team can be a bit flat the next week.

Adelaide is wanting to extend the playing career of arguably their best player ever in Mark Ricciuto. He deserves to go out with a bang but will they progress much further? My gut says they will at least for one more week.
Saturday Night - Collingwood Vs Sydney (MCG)
Remember what I said about the flogging team being a bit flat? Well Sydney flogged Hawthorn by about 70 points and were never really challenged except for a small period in the third quarter where Hawthorn decreased the margin to 40 instead of 70. The margin went straight back up in the 4th quarter anyway. However. I would rather go into finals with a good win like the one against Hawthorn.

Collingwood played Sydney a couple of weeks ago in an emotionally charged match with Nathan Buckley making his big return. They won fairly convincingly then, but this time I think they won't be as cocky after the Swans performance against the Hawks. It was infinitely better so they will be facing a different side this time.

It will be close, and my tip is that I will have a coronary prior to the finish.

Sunday Afternoon - Geelong Vs Kangaroos (MCG)

Geelong should win, that's the plain and simple truth. But the Kangaroos will go into the match with a 'nothing to lose' attitude. They have already over achieved this year anyway so a loss to the top side will be no disgrace, unless they lose by 100 points.

Geelong has lost key defender Matthew Egan. Filling this void will be crucial to their momentum through the finals and potential premiership glory.

Are The Swans Any Chance?

My team, the Swans, are playing a young and firing Hawthorn this week. No doubts that the Swans playing at their best will beat Hawthorn at theirs. Problem is that they haven't been playing anywhere near their best. The last few weeks have been embarrassing although coming across an emotionally charged Collingwood for Buckley's big comeback match was supreme poor timing.

Sydney now have cemented a place in the top 8. However I've read that we won't finish any higher than 7th and no lower than 8th which makes life difficult as no team has ever won the premiership from that low before. Hawthorn are on a role and currently sitting in 4th spot and I think it is fair to assume that they will be keen to stay in the top 4 (or better still to move even highter).

The only aspect going in the Swans favour is that the game will be played at the SCG and is already a sell out. It will be a sea of red. But is that enough to get the Bloods over the line? I have tip them to win but that's only because I rarely tip against my team (only when times are really bad). If I went with the head bet then I would tip Hawthorn. They are the form team of the competition and have shown tremendous flair all season barring the odd occassion of inconsistency. Plus don't forget that the swans are talking of resting Barry Hall amongst some others.

Time will tell. I hope I'm wrong.

Sydney V Collingwood

Some thoughts:

• First we play West Coast when Ben Cousins makes his big comeback and now we play Collingwood when Nathan Buckley makes his big comeback. Obviously there was a lot of hype surrounding the game and motivation for the players to do well.
• With that loss I am doubtful that we can make any significant inroads into the finals. Our place in the finals is now in jeopardy. We have almost lost control of our destiny and need to rely on these around us to lose. Still hope with a good win over Hawthorn next week.
• Thanks to Fordy for pointing my attention to my previous blog about Collingwood being unimpressive. I shall stand by these coments and try to stand on the notion that they were that inspired to 'do it for Buckley' that they played above themselves. Unimpressiveness to return within two weeks.

Collingwood Unimpressive

Watched the second half of the Melbourne v Collingwood match on Friday. I was impressed with the fight in the Demon players despite having only one interchange player for most of the second half. The magpies squandered a 40 point advantage to limp across the line in the end to win by about 10.

Collingwood will be lucky to make the top 8. I'm glad they are coming up against my team, Sydney, this week as i think they will be a bit flat against quality opposition after having to really work hard against second rate opposition. On top of that, if Ben Johnson doesn't get at least 3 weeks suspension then I will be very surprised.

Sydney Vs St Kilda

Sydney 12.10(82) def St Kilda 9.11 (65)

This was first game I have attended in Sydney this year so it was exciting to finally get to game. Here are some thoughts:

• Not a good spectacle
• I took a non footy fan friend along to this game and I was feeling for him as it was a difficult for me to watch, some one who was actually interested in the result. You hear some fans get frustrated at the way Sydney plays, and I feel their frustration but I think a lot of it comes from a lack of knowledge about how the game works. St Kilda was doing so hard core flooding and neither team could get much drive from their half back line. So what do you expect a player to do when he sees no space in front of him in which his forwards could lead yet luckily there is someone available short due to the flood or someone free for a switch. Gone are the days of just booting it long to a pack and hoping for someone to pull down a mark or at worst force a stoppage
  
• Goals from dodgey frees
• I feel I am able to take my parochial glasses off and talk about umpires from a relatively neutral position. St Kilda kicked 9 goals and I can say that at least four of them were a direct result of dodgey free kicks. They didn't work hard for them at all. You cannot touch Nick Riewoldt because he must be considered a protected species. He's the new Matthew Lloyd where the slightest graze of his jumper results in a whistle and a free kick.
  
• The Pink Ladies
• I arrived to see the pink silhouette on the field. It was a sight to behold. I'm usually a bit adverse to the colour pink but for this cause it is ok to wear pink. For my game we wore pink armbands while another team in my comp had pink jerseys made. It's a big deal as it is hard to find someone that hasn't been in some way affected by breast cancer.