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Hmm.....I had Smooch slated in to mind the buzzsaw .. wonder who he will be on now. Sorry to miss out on seeing Ballentyne play? not really. There are 21 others to watch over.
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If you've never jumped from one couch to the other to save yourself from lava then you didn't have a childhood -
I can see all this working against Ballantyne. Clubs will now plant someone right on his tail and antagonise him into giving away dumb frees. i would think the opposition players will now give this bloke as much crap verbally as they can without crossing the line. On the radio one commentator said at the end of the game that Johnson from Geelong said something to Ballantyne that took him aback quite some. Appears Johnson reluctantly shook his hand as the little man walked up grinning, but the expression soon changed. From the tweets from players you could suspect that he already crosses the line and has little respect from the playing fraternity.Comment
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Here's another useless bit of trivia for you (just so you can dislike him even more). His grandmother won a shed load of $$$ a few years back in lotto and her beloved grandy copped himself a 10% share. His WAFL club Peel Thunder have, at their home ground in Mandurah, a big sign on the outer wing stating "Haydn Ballantyne Wing".I might have a slight drinking problem. My husband asked me to toast some bread for him...so I raised my wine glass and said "Here's to bread!"Comment
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I've just finished watching AFL360 (the later re-run) and Robinson was getting stuck into the Geelong players for being selfish and arrogant by letting themselves get sucked in. While I don't disagree that Scarlett, in particularly, was silly for getting himself suspended like that, Robbo was also lauding Ballantyne for how he niggles and the success he has. I don't care about the verbal niggling, but why wasn't he also getting stuck into Ballantyne for getting himself suspended for two weeks for what was probably an even more undisicplined act than Scarlett's?
And on both 360 and OTC, the panellists were skirting around the real issue with Ballantyne. It is not the in-your-face niggle. It is the blatant diving when he gets a mild reaction from an opposition player. He comes across as someone who likes to give the crap but can't take anything in return without making sure mummy is there to give him a hug (and a free kick). He's certainly not the only player who has taken a dive, but he is one of the most regular offenders. And while commentators invariably call out players when they blatantly dive (or over play contact to a significant degree), too many of them seem to laud Ballantyne for it. He is a talented footballer, no doubt. I wish he'd just gain some self-respect and let his actual football ability do the talking.Comment
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I thin he can take it, he is probably the most hated player in the leagueComment
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You couldnt hold that tag and be soft , he's a tough cookie. He'd cop plenty verrbally and physically week in week out, don't worry about that. I agree his hit on Chappy was Poor though but to say he's soft or weak or he cant take it or whatever, I think your kidding yourself there.Comment
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For me, diving in front of the umpire, or severly over-reacting to a completely trivial physical reaction from an opponent is soft and weak. I'll caveat that with the view that any player who makes it to the elite level of AFL (or pretty much any similar sport) is not soft and weak in an absolute sense. I cringe whenever I read comments labelling any AFL player as soft. But within the context of the AFL, I think his actions to milk free kicks are weak and soft. Go back and look at his reaction to a minor push in the chest he received from one of our defenders in last year's game - I have a feeling it was Reg but I am not entirely sure. He went down like a sack of potatoes and predictably won a free kick for it that had most in here up in arms.
As I said in my earlier post, many players - if not most - have done it on very odd occasions and have been rightfully lambasted for it. But he just keeps on doing it and I can't respect him for that, even if I can respect his pure football ability.Comment
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He gives it to people every single week without provocation. As soon as they retaliate he is diving all over the place milking frees. His own teammates fined him once becasue of it, didn't they? That's pretty weak in my eyes. Not soft, I'll give you that, but pretty weak. He's a capable footballer without all his bull@@@@.
The antagonism towards him probably doesn't affect him as much as other players. A few reasons for that. He knows exactly why people can't stand him firstly, but also becasue his ego is so huge he doesn't give a @@@@.Comment
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...there is a godComment
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I'm glad we don't have someone like that in our squad - call me old fashioned but there is still a place for sportsmanship in AFL and no matter how good he is, Ballantyne is not the sort of individual I would ever want involved in this club. We are better than that...Comment
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His off the ball hit on Chapman was pretty poor, no matter what you think of he general niggle.Today's a draft of your epitaphComment
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I guess all opinions are valid, personally, I think if he's got a bulls eye painted on him now, it's going to work against him eventually, oh, hang on, he's rubbed out for 2 weeks, well there u go, Other players obviously dislike the guy, not a nice place to beYou can't argue with a sick mind - Joe WalshComment
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I hate nigglers in general, but Ballantyne goes beyond that. Its downright cheating. To pretend to go someone so that they put their arms up in defense and then take a dive is so despicable and such a blight on the game I'd like to see Demetriou to empower the umpires/mrp to make it reportable.
Any player that is found guilty of pinching, hair pulling or hitting someone in the nuts should be put on notice that if it happens again they are banned for life, because there is no excuse for it. Ballantyne now has the trifecta.Comment
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