Starved

I am wasting away here waiting for interesting news on my team, the Swans. The player movements keeps me interested during October and then the anticipation of the draft holds me over till the end of November. Since then the biggest news stories have been Steve Johnson from Geelong being caught speeding and Nathan Ablett, also from Geelong prematurely giving the game away.

I want to here about pre season. I'd even be happy to find out what number changes there have been with new players coming to the fold. Anything, please!!

Kangaroos Sent To Possible Death

The Kangaroos rejected a great offer preferring to remain in Melbourne and regain their North Melbourne name. So what does this all really mean?

1. If Kangaroos fans don't put their money where their mouth is and become members and show up to more games then the harsh reality will come back to bite them on the arse. There is the strong possibility that they could now die a slow and agonising fall from grace. I'm sure the AFL is not going to be as generous if the Kangaroos board comes looking for a hand out. Think of how dirty the Fitzroy fans are that the teams history ceases. At least old South Melbourne fans have their team in existence and the history continues to grow.
2. The AFL will get their team in the competition one way or the other. Talk of a 17th team is interesting and may help to push the Kangaroos to the outer.
   

Draft & Trade

I don't know what to make of the Swans draft and trade performance this year. On the one hand we got rid of two premiership players which can act as a destabling influence as premiership players tend to form a bond that is hard to break. On the other hand we made space in the salary cap and created some opportunities for young players now that some fringe players have left.

A Geelong fan friend does not rate Henry Playfair. I've never seen him play but being unable to crack into that fantastic Geelong team is not necessarily a reflection on your performance. I was at the game where Martin Mattner ripped Sydney apart at the SCG so I'm hoping he can now do the same to other clubs. He's another left footer and you can never have enough of them.

As for the draft, well time will tell. I was glad to see Nelson Bay (NSW) local, Craig Bird, drafted via the NSW Scholarship system.

We have another Irishman in the squad who has already been compared to Chris Judd. More by his athleticism I suggest as he is only on the rookie list for now and is very new to the game. But it is exciting, if he's anything like Tadgh then we have superstar on our hands.

This Annoying Lull

Footy season officially finishes end of September. If your team won the grand final then you can extend the fun for maybe another week. After that all we have to look forward to is trade week then another month to the draft. In between it seems to be stories of off field incidents thank to Ben Cousins and friends.

To add to my pain at this time is the intense national interest in the horse racing, specifically The Melbourne Cup. I have been interested in this race in the past but now I really couldn't be bothered and try (in vain) to avoid mention of it.

Cricket is starting very soon which at least gives some relief from the horses but nothing beats the footy for me. I get excited around February when we hear about pre season matches as I enjoy watching our youngsters get a run. Then the real thing come March/April.

mmmm perhaps I should pace myself otherwise I'm in for a long summer.

Australian Convicts Vs USA Revolution

The ground was hard and dusty and most of our team was under the weather after a week of partying. Probably a good thing that we were only playing 20 minute halves. Some of us were very concerned that the would get flogged and perhaps if the game was regulation time we may have as they appeared to be a young fit team. What let them down was their disposal and decision making. Our boys were more experienced in where to place themselves in contests and where to place the ball in disposals.

As for me, I was too concerned with my man as I was playing defense. I almost finished with the duck egg in disposals but I managed to get a quality handpass in the second half. Ah well, when you're dominating it's hard to get a touch in defense.


Note sure what the final score was but we won by about 4 goals.

Austrailian Convicts Vs Canadian Northwind

After a rough start to the trip we were flung into our playing strip and unsurprisingly were slow out of the blocks. Due to flight cock ups we had no chance to train prior as a team, plus all of us hadn't played for a couple of months. You could start to see us click during the second quarter.

Parts of the Canadian play was quite impressive. It was good to stand back as a spectator and see what the Canadians can do.

We were worn out by the third quarter and it appeared like the youth and freshness of the Canadian line up would run over the top of us as they came as close as one goal after the margin got out to 8 goals.

Experience won out in the end as late goals saved the day and pushed the margin out to a comfortable distance.

As far as individual statistics, not much to talk about: couple of kicks and a couple of handpasses, not much niggle either.

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.