General footy chat #AFL Round 9 Weekly Discussion Thread

[stevoswan]

Game of the Round? Have to wait until late Sunday afternoon for that one. Should be a beauty in the West. Norf v Giants could be ok but in Tassie.....maybe another Giants loss. Most other games are either potentially boring or one sided. Will the Saints lift and beat Collingwood? I sincerely hope so! Will China give a rats about the Port/Suns game......I don't think so. That 'experiment' is a complete waste of time.

......and how many will Buddy kick tomorrow night? Or should that be 'how many will Ronke kick'? .....and will Clarkson's 'sookie la la' to anyone who cared to listen and those who stupidly chose to (Gil the Dill) have any effect on how our defenders are umpired? We shall see.......

Have a great weekend everyone! Go Swans!

[Beerman]

A lot of dud games this weekend, unfortunately. If I were a neutral fan I wouldn't be cancelling any plans to watch Swans vs Freo for a start. I can't tell you how much I would like Brisbane to beat Hawthorn though.

Ronke is in form and Buddy is due for a bag, but can the Swans forward line work with two superstars?Only time will tell.

I expect the first soft blocking call that gets made on Friday night, will result in commentators and fans will throwing their arms in the air - "Rule of the week! That was never paid in the first 8 rounds!" By Saturday night, everyone will have settled down and over the weekend, there won't be much difference, except in the minds of fans of the losing teams.

[aardvark]

Ronke is in form and Buddy is due for a bag, but can the Swans forward line work with two superstars?Only time will tell.

I just hope Buddy doesn't get in his way.

[stevoswan]

Just a quick summary of the Tigers season so far. They are sitting pretty at equal top of the ladder and everyone is talking them up. Really? They have seriously had the easiest first 8 week draw of probably any reigning premier in history......Adelaide and to a lesser extent, Hawthorn and Melbourne are the only decent teams they have played so far. The other five games have been 'gimmie's'.

On the other hand, we have played WC, Adelaide, Port Adelaide, Hawthorn, North, Geelong, GWS and the Dogs.....really only one 'gimmie' game there and that team were 'premiers' less than two years ago! In the meantime, Richmond has been able to build momentum and confidence with their 'kindie' draw but I predict it may all come crashing down at Optus Stadium on Sunday.......lucky we played the Eagles so early.

We'll find out just how good the reigning premiers are this Sunday.... I suspect, not as good as the Vic media and Tigers fans think they are. I've tipped the Eagles.

[707]

I just hope Buddy doesn't get in his way.

Nah, Buddy will know he has to play second fiddle to the kid! Ronke will actually have opposition plans made for him this week, Freo will pay him respect.

Hope Norf can really put GWS away, in our interests for Norf to finish as high as possible so potentially they can do less damage to us at the ND!

Brisbane, please, please beat the Hawks, and make James Silly (oops forgot a ci) get reported :-)

Looks to be a weekend where a gap could finally start to appear between the top teams and the also rans.

[dejavoodoo44]

Looks like Clarkson's foul mood has continued to the selection table. Six outs, with only one forced change through injury. Hope he's genuinely losing the plot.

[707]

Mentioned elsewhere, I think by Meg, today's article in The Age by the best AFL journo Caroline Wilson is excellent and worth a read. Google using longmire clarkson Wilson and you can get past the pay wall. Expands on the VFL centric administration, heavily bags Fitzpatrick etc, an article that's good for the soul!

We've gone hard on Clakson's petulant display and on the McLachlan meeting and subsequent memo on blocking. Love this club, does it so well.

Tonight's game will be an interesting watch for the blocking memo results.

[Sandridge]

Mentioned elsewhere, I think by Meg, today's article in The Age by the best AFL journo Caroline Wilson is excellent and worth a read. Google using longmire clarkson Wilson and you can get past the pay wall. Expands on the VFL centric administration, heavily bags Fitzpatrick etc, an article that's good for the soul!

We've gone hard on Clakson's petulant display and on the McLachlan meeting and subsequent memo on blocking. Love this club, does it so well.

Tonight's game will be an interesting watch for the blocking memo results.

Thanks for posting 707! Great article! Caro certainly let Clarkson and Fitzpatrick have it!

[stevoswan]

Titus at his best yet again.....

A highly unhelpful guide to Round Nine | Titus O'Reily

Some choice cuts......

Crows v Dogs.....

"The Bulldogs though are riding high, knocking off a bunch of terrible teams to prove they are the best of the terrible teams."

Cats v Bombers....

"Luckily, sacking Mark Neeld will have fixed everything. Don?t get me wrong; I?m a huge fan of sacking Mark Neeld, for me, it?s the first step towards anything good." Titus barracks for Melbourne....

Suns v Power....

"The Power are coming off one of their greatest ever Showdown wins and have been planning for China for some time.

They?re even taking their own food and drink, which I can only assume means Farmer?s Union Ice Coffee, West End Draught, pie floaters and frog cakes.

The Suns have been planning for this too, in their case, they are planning to at least arrive in China this year."

Eagles v Tigers....

"The Tigers though are so organised, you can?t write them off.

Man, I?m writing sentences I never thought I?d write. It?s doing my head in."

.....and the Franklin/Ronke dilemma....

"For some strange reason, the Swans have brought back Buddy Franklin, despite the fact he?ll just clog up the forward line and get in Ben Ronke?s way.

I?m looking forward to Ronke screaming at Buddy ?See this 50-metre arc? This is mine. Stay out of my way.? "

Gotta love Titus.....

[AB Swannie]

When watching The Front Bar, Barry Hall was asked whether he considered himself a Saint, Swan, or Dog now and it was nice that he said that he is a Swan - if I turn the TV on now it?s for the Swans.

[dejavoodoo44]

Titus at his best yet again.....

A highly unhelpful guide to Round Nine | Titus O'Reily

Some choice cuts......

Crows v Dogs.....

"The Bulldogs though are riding high, knocking off a bunch of terrible teams to prove they are the best of the terrible teams."

Cats v Bombers....

"Luckily, sacking Mark Neeld will have fixed everything. Don?t get me wrong; I?m a huge fan of sacking Mark Neeld, for me, it?s the first step towards anything good." Titus barracks for Melbourne....

Suns v Power....

"The Power are coming off one of their greatest ever Showdown wins and have been planning for China for some time.

They?re even taking their own food and drink, which I can only assume means Farmer?s Union Ice Coffee, West End Draught, pie floaters and frog cakes.

The Suns have been planning for this too, in their case, they are planning to at least arrive in China this year."

Eagles v Tigers....

"The Tigers though are so organised, you can?t write them off.

Man, I?m writing sentences I never thought I?d write. It?s doing my head in."

.....and the Franklin/Ronke dilemma....

"For some strange reason, the Swans have brought back Buddy Franklin, despite the fact he?ll just clog up the forward line and get in Ben Ronke?s way.

I?m looking forward to Ronke screaming at Buddy ?See this 50-metre arc? This is mine. Stay out of my way.? "

Gotta love Titus.....

Excellent. I think that I'll steal a quick witticism from the comments section, "So many great lines! Ben Cousins would approve."

[ugg]

Bulldogs back to their throwing best.

[YvonneH]

Mentioned elsewhere, I think by Meg, today's article in The Age by the best AFL journo Caroline Wilson is excellent and worth a read. Google using longmire clarkson Wilson and you can get past the pay wall. Expands on the VFL centric administration, heavily bags Fitzpatrick etc, an article that's good for the soul!

If you go to the Canberra Times website you can read a lot of the articles from the Age (by passing the pay wall).

[stevoswan]

Bulldogs back to their throwing best.

Completely agree. Getting away with 'blue murder' they are, in the wet......and I see Stevic is just as bad as usual. Dogs first goal was a complete joke....should have been 'in danger' to Talia almost but somehow Stevic pays it 'below the knees' to Footscray as the Dogs player threw himself over the top. Stevic as an AFL umpire.......a complete joke!

[dejavoodoo44]

Completely agree. Getting away with 'blue murder' they are, in the wet......and I see Stevic is just as bad as usual. Dogs first goal was a complete joke....should have been 'in danger' to Talia almost but somehow Stevic pays it 'below the knees' to Footscray as the Dogs player threw himself over the top. Stevic as an AFL umpire.......a complete joke!

Yes, it was an odd interpretation of a dangerous slide, when the penalised player was actually sliding away from his opponent.