Newcastle Report

[Bas]

I thought I'd start a new thread so the people that were at the game today could fill in the blanks instead of having to sift through the score updates thread.

Warm day today. Breeze was blowing across the field so hardly favoured either team. The ground seemed to be in immaculate condition and was lush and green.

VB's and Carlton Draught's were $3.50 and hot dogs $3.00. For those that were wondering.

I have to say that I find watching footy difficult from ground level (being spoilt watching from Brewongle) but tried my best. We were sitting under a tree to hide from the sun so we were about 100 metres away from the action for most of the game.

The atmosphere at the ground today was very casual. So casual most people hardly cheered or clapped after a goal. The players seemed casual throughout most of the game as well.

I'll just make notes as I remember so things might be out of order.

The backline was very relaxed and Leo had a shocker. James started at full back and seemed to go OK. I was impressed by Dempster playing there at the end of the game. He's a pretty big fella.

Leo crunched Tarrant. That was good. Free kick and goal though. Many pies goals were from free kicks.

I was very impressed with Nick Davis. He has spent a bit of time in the gym instead of KFC over Christmas. Kicked the first two and I had him 5.1 for the match. I hope he has a great year this year. He looks serious about it this year.

The goal kickers I wrote down ( I missed one and wasn't sure if James kicked one) were: Davis 5, Hall 2, Doyle 2, James? 1, Buchanan 1, Schneider 1, O'Keefe 1 and someone else.

Maxfield was busy, I saw Williams with the ball a few times. Ruck interchanged between Ball, Doyle and Jolly.

Bolton's crunch on Buchanan was impressive. I though he'd broken his nose. LRT played OK at CHB. Goodes did a bit. Both he and Davis played for most of the game so they would have had a good run.

Spriggs had the ball but made a few mistakes. O'Keefe and C. Bolton played very well. Hall tried hard as usual.

Sorry I can't be moredescriptive as I was so far away.

The standouts today for me were - great return by Nick Davis, Goodes looked fit, Dempster was impressive at fullback, Moore has a very long kick.

Otherwise everyone else seemed to be in cruise mode awaiting the start of the season.

What did losing by 2 points mean today? I don't know. Our side seemed stronger than the pies but then they would have had more players trying harder for a first grade spot.

Finally, good thing was that there wasn't any major injuries.

[BonBon]

Re: Newcastle Report

Originally posted by Bas
The goal kickers I wrote down ( I missed one and wasn't sure if James kicked one) were: Davis 5, Hall 2, Doyle 2, James? 1, Buchanan 1, Schneider 1, O'Keefe 1 and someone else.

I'm glad Ryan booted one.

O'Keefe and C. Bolton played very well. Hall tried hard as usual.

Even happier!

What did losing by 2 points mean today?

It means Prac Matches shouldn't be played

[Bas]

Forgot to mention, crowd was 3246 and half of which were collingwood supporters. The ground announcer kept making references to people and streakers not to run onto the ground until after the second siren.

By 3/4 time, I thought he was going to beg a streaker to run on to lift the excitement.

JF was there with his merry group and waived their flags but not even they could stir the crowd.

Aus Kick at half time had a big turn out.

Yes OKeefe was good today again and should have a big year. I'm sure Dempster will get a start in Rd 1.

Bevan was good. To me it didn't seem that our defence was outplayed but rather the goals came from free kicks and long range goals. Having said that, the defence was casual but then many of them were playing only their 2nd game for the season and they wouldn't have forced themselves to play harder.

LRT was on Rocca for some of the game and did very well. Presti was on Hall. I don't know which game the bloke from th e AFL website was watching to say Buchanan kicked for goals. Although he might have got confused between 32 & 2.

Hopefully someone else who attended today will give a better report on the midfield. Didn't see Powell, Fixter. Willoughby was running around the sideline so he was there. I'm sure that Spriggs will get a bagging from supporters this year. Jolly had some good thumps at centre bounces.

I had the binoculars on OKeefe when he went down and I thought he was concussed because he had the staggers badly and was helped off by the Dr and trainer. I think he was on again later.

That's all for now.

[Charlie]

Channel Eddie reported that Monty kicked four?

[ugg]

Old Royboy on the other thread gave Buchanan 4 goals and Davis 3.

Nice to hear LRT got a run against one of the 'gorilla' forwards and did well.

Also, are you sure Moore played because IIRC he wasn't named in the squad.

[liz]

Originally posted by ugg

Also, are you sure Moore played because IIRC he wasn't named in the squad.

He was named yesterday as a replacement for the sickly Nicks.

[Bas]

Originally posted by ugg
Old Royboy on the other thread gave Buchanan 4 goals and Davis 3.

Also, are you sure Moore played because IIRC he wasn't named in the squad.

Moore was definately playing. I'm sure Davis kicked 5 but I was a long way from play.

[Tooth Fairy]

You would think they';d stick the bweer tent closer.

Sorry for typos,. brokje my finger today

[BAM_BAM]

Thanks for the report Bas & others (on other threads). I guess the main thing we take out of this is, it was a good hit out for those who played.

Obviously Roos will not be showing his deck yet and just getting the team to where he and the coaching staff think we should be at present. It's very hard to tell where we're going, and by that I mean who will or will not play come round one.

Everyone needs a bit of run in their legs, some more than others.

I'm very happy (as most will know from previous comments) that Nick D did well. But He's that sort of player, Makes the most of situations when he can.

I'm not worried about the result as it was a trial and it's a long season to come.

[robbieando]

Originally posted by BAM_BAM
But He's that sort of player, Makes the most of situations when he can.

Agreed, thats why I think he can be so important come finals because even when he seems to have a dog of a game he will still bob up with 3 or 4 goals and basically change the result of a match.

Personally I think his major problem isn't committment to playing the game or even training, but committment from coming back from injury. The fact is is offen injuried means he gets down on himself and that can effect his output on the training track and at time on the field of play.

[Old Royboy]

Just got home ? trousered but compiled these notes while events still reasonably fresh. Apologies for the style, I guess a hangover from spending too much of my childhood in the 60?s reading game descriptions in the pink paper with the punch. i

Q1
ND gets ball to Monty in traffic, snapped goal
ND judges ball better than scum defence in the wind, takes easy chest mark and goals
Good kick from ROK to BBB?s advantage. Mark and goal
Charity free against Tiger, goal to Burns (1)
Scum followed up with another straight from the ball up
Swan?s turnover, downfield to Tarrant ? goal
Scum hardball get in pack kick under pressure luckily finds Walker for a goal.
Monty kicks to Doyles advantage, but he misses sitter.
Doyle takes contested mark, no mistake this time
Quarter time Collingwood 5-2 Swans 4-4

Kicking into the breeze Sydney had the better of the midfield but were wasteful in disposal, several turnovers, also wasteful in front of goal. Monty and JB going well in the packs.

Monty, great read off the pack, 50+ metre goal.
Controversial 50 metre penalty (to us!!) ROK converts with long bomb.
McVeigh ? great snap.
Good hard ball get leads to Doyle mark and goal.
Charity free to Rocca, Leo gives a gobfull to maggot 50m penalty ? goal.(2)
ND ? good mark and goal.
Another free to scum. Walker goal. (3)

Half time Swans 9-6 Collingwood 8-4

Jolly ? terrific pack mark and goal
Rowe snap and goal after, scum player awarded around the neck when it was patently HTB.
Silly in the back against Leo gives Tarrant gift goal. (4)
Jolly ? great work tapping throw in to hot spot gives BBB a snap goal.
Ruck infringement. Ball gets free and goals. (2)
Dodgy free against Tiger. Gift goal to Caracella. (5)
Rocca lead, mark,goal.
Same again 65m bomb.
Williams, terrific pass to ND ? goal.

Three Quarter time: 13-6 each.

Monty coat hangered, goal from free. (3)
Schneider ? gets spill from contest and goals.
L Davis reads ball flight better than defence, marks and goals.
Swans blow goal ? Goodes not confident from 50, passes off to Maxfield, His shot is rushed for point. Where?s your kick penetration gone Stewie?
Goodes has brain fade. Takes good mark, goes to play on but instead handballs to himself over the boundary. From throw in scum get ball forward & easy goal to Licuria.
Tarrant out bodies Leo in marking contest ? goal.
Schneider, great 50 m pass to Monty within range, but he handballs to BBB under pressure, goal blown.
Hall passes to Monty, similar distance out but no mistake this time. 50 m goal.

Final Swans 16-7 Collingwood 16-9

Goals

Swans Monty 4, ND 3, Doyle 2, BBB 2, McVeigh, Schneider, Jolly, Ball, ROK (sure about them)
Scum Rocca 3, Tarrant 3, Davis, Woewodin, Rowe, Caracella, O?Bree Walker, Cole, Burns, Richards, Maxwell, missed one. Not gospel, pies numbers small and hard to pick up.

Impressions:

We dominated the midfield for much of the game, dropped off in this respect n the last quarter. Scum appeared to have much higher efficiency in F50 ? better foot passing in and a lot of free kicks for easy goals. (Tiger and Leo were our main offenders)
Encouraged by three goals from pack marks by Doyle (2) and Jolly (1) We need this.

ND is ready to rock and roll.
ROK was in good form ? hope his injury is not too bad.
Goodes needs another run. Was too loose in defence, much better up the ground in second half, and found a lot of the ball. Couple of brain fades.
Willo is looking good, Stewie not so bad either.
JB and Kirk, solid games but not standouts.
BBB ? missed a couple of marks he could have taken but generally lead and marked well. Still being victimised by maggots. On track.
Jolly: Ruck work 100% on North Sydney ? feel much happier about him now.
Doyle: Good marks in FP encouraging.
Ball looked OK, not a heap of game time.
LRT seemed OK in first half, decision making better this year.
Sorry, didn?t notice Dempster much.
Spriggs got plenty of ball but erratic disposal. Some were good and he had many mates, our disposal overall was not up to standard.
Monty was our best. Early on was great in the packs and up forward reads play brilliantly. Faultless goalkicking.
Bevan, same as 2004, still needs to work on tackling technique.
Schneider did some good things, getting there.
Leo and Tiger: less said the better.

[BAM_BAM]

thanks (not so) old roy boy,

looking forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks..... same place same time

[JF_Bay22_SCG]

Rocca called me "fat"

Agree with a lot of what Bas had to say about proceedings. After meeting at strathfield at 10, we got to the ground at around 12:45pm. we took it pretty leisurely, and stopped at Doyleson for a drink where Stephen Brassel happened to be in the queue to get a drink. We managed to far a car park just around the corner from the ground, which i will admit was somewhat of an eye-opener.

On the way up we played tapes in Benny_W's car. I haven't listened to my old tapes since I got my first discman. So we relished the chance to listen (AND sing along to) Icehouse's Man of Colours as well as Dead or Alive Koo Deh Tah (remember "Too young for promises" anyone?) Rozala and Noiseworks. Was great fun. We were all relaxed and in good spirits once we arrived, even if Scatch was driving all madwith his rabid muttering about nothing.

We got to the ground and I swear there was 500 peple in it. We saw a few Collingwood flags down the city end of the ground, so opted for the other end. I expected a crowd similar to the one when the swans played the Lions up there a few years ago. And was shocked to see not only one but TWO empty park benches for us to sit on. The flags were duly set up and placed on the grass behind us. One person who noted their prescene with a smile (as always) was one M Baron-Hay, who I assume ended up sitting in one of two cute little coaches huts on stilts at either side of the main grandstand.

To our left filling one seat were several swans who were it appears were lurkers on RWO and who had been on the look out for the flags because of my post here. Another on the lookout for me was Northern Swan. Sorry you didn't get to see more of the game mate. Was good to meet and chat with you. Old Royboys came up for a chat and even had a bit of a kick to kick, despite his sandals.

It was MEGA relaxed. a real country feel. You would give players crap and they'd either laugh or in the case of Anthony Rocca, give it back! I mean cars were even parked IN the ground. Including one SAAB that had "ROCCA TARGET" written all over it.

To be honest it was a completely PATHETIC attendence. To see such a high standard contest by near full-strength teams attended by a 70% empty ground is an inditement on the level of token interest and promotion of not only the Swans but grassroots footy in the Newcastle area. Apparently only the local footy clubs found out of about it. Hence nobody else bothered to turn up. A real shame that, as it was a perfect opportunity to advertise the great aspects of OUR game to a city than may never get a better chance to watch it at its highest level live. (Northern swan, do tell us more about what was happening there. You gave the impression you weren't happy with the level of promotion either.)

You can find out who played well etc etc from reading what Old Royboys had to say. In short the wind changed direction from heading to the city end to across the ground in the last quarter. And as a result the Pies scored several several goals down the other end. we had more than enough chances to win it, but didn't. Again poor kicking proved costly on several occasions. Doyle who had a horrid looking bandage thing on his legs missed a sitter from 20 metres out. And I think it was Barry in the last quarter who played on after taking a mark within goalkicking range only for us to kick a point when a goal was on the cards. No injuries apart from Heath James, yet again. And a solid hit out again a team who played a near full-strength side.

From my vantage point the better players were Jude Bolton Amon Buchanan and Nick "goals from a two step run-up" Davis. They NEVER blew the final siren by the way. We were razzing a Pie out of bounds shot at goal and were on the rebound down the field. Then up comes "Good old Collingwood forever" over the loudspeakers. Oh well, they played a better last quarter and won. Them's the breaks, I guess.

Had a few encounters with species of the black and white kind. Collingwood supporters either come in two forms:

-A) covered in tattoos, missing teeth, wearing mullets and wearing gold jackets and brandishing "Game over" banners even at practise matches.

and B) being arrogant knobjockeys who have such an overrated opinion of their players that it is verging on the delusional. There was this tosser going end to end with whom i became involved in a rather feisty verbal stoush in the 2nd quarter. I was teasing Chris Tarrant that his haircut looked like he'd stuck his head in an electric socket. Ben quipped that his fro made Guy Sebastian look serious. Said tosser smuggly came out with the comment that we 'would never have ever seen a forward of Chris Tarrant's quality in the swans team". My quick reply, "Um, Barry Hall, Tony Lockett, even Warrick Capper, all 100+ goalkickers." ...........Silence from the idiot......... Then he went on the say that Tarrant was so good that he wanted to give him a rub down in the showers after the game *HUH* and then said, "well, wouldn't you?" (My reply, But he is from Collingwood, so you don't know where he has been." *INSTANT LAUGHTER FROM ALL AROUND US, INCLUDING THE GOAL UMPIRE*)

The same bloke started digging into Nick Davis, bagging him saying that Collingwood only wanted players who would "play for the jumper". Then he went on a big tirade as to how Davis just wanted to "go home to Mummy". Being the BIG Nick Davis fan that I am, I then offered the suggestion that Davis moving home to Sydney was in no way different to either Lucuria of "Cazzo Piccolo" Rocca wanting to do the same......again no reply.

I also had a bit of fun with a few of the players as well. I yelled at " Shane "Woe Woe Woe your boat" woewodin that he had a head like a tennis ball. I got an evil glare as the legend goal umpire I spent the 1st half talking to laughed. *YEAH* Rocca was fatter and uglier than ever before. He bent over right in front of us, to which I replied "Hey Rocca, do we have you see that fat ugly arse up this close? People are eating". He then turned around and came up close to me looking at my slender waistline saying "Yeah, I can see that."

In the last quarter with the breeze favouring the city end, we opted for a move down there. A dumb move as it proved. Situated there were a rather nasty looking group of people who looked like they had just escaped from Long Bay (or should I say Pentridge..). They were the Sydney Collingwood Supporters club http://sydneymagpies.magpies.net/ , who apparently had all come up on the train that morning (what is the bet all without tickets too). One guy yelled out "Oh look, the **** has arrived." My reply after a 5 second wait "come on Spirit, come on Spirit". It was Steve, the guy who used to start the chants in the Bob stand at Northern Spirit matches. He tried to work out who I was was for about 5 seconds, then came over for a chat for about 10 minutes, even whilst the game was unfolding.

We actually got on wth the Pies lots pretty well, despite the fact they were galavanting around in gold jackets brandishing a "Game over" banner after the match. They apparently are part of a legion of interstate AFL club supporters clubs who have met on occasion to discuss what their club gives them etc etc.

http://www.magpies.net/nick/bb/viewtopic.php?t=16732

They had already heard of RWO, with a couple even lurking on it!


Numbers were exchanged. We mused over things that we could do as supporters of the GAME in Sydney. I suggested that we use the SFL Grand Final as a change to all get to meet the interstate Supporters clubs and to support local footy at the same time. Living in the same city as the team I support, I'm not sure what I can help give to procedings, but if it is in the name of footy AND a good social time, I'll be all for it.

That pretty much summed up today. A pleasant (but long) day at the footy with good mates. we ended up going back to Benny's place in Blaxland to watch the Wizard Cup GF. Sadly I got a bad case of sunstroke and was nearly burnt to a crisp. and was in rather poor shape after the epic Kings Grand final win the night before.
(LESSON ONE KIDDIES-not wearing sunscreen not only does not help you from avoiding sunburn but give you horribly unscenely tan lines-lucky it is the week AFTER Mardi Gras LOL.)

I'm nackered, will chat more about things later. We looked ok today. It was a good competitive hitout.

JF

[ROK Lobster]

http://www.blogger.com/start please.

[Jeffers1984]

afl.com.au reported that Heath James had an ankle injury. Can anybody clarify this? How bad is it?