AFL Round 9: The View From Shepparton

by Peter SchumacherSydney and Adelaide. How I fervently wish that Brisbane and Western Bulldogs had been in that list. Can’t blame the umpies for Brisbane‘s loss, though as one correspondent was quoted as texting on Jon Faine’s (ABC Melbourne) program this morning  Brown doesn’t have a back apparently or words to that effect.Tasmania has officially said that they are sick of being conned by the ridiculous notion that Hawthorn is “their” side. ALSO IT IS NOW RAINING HERE IN SHEP!Richmond is hardly the sternest test these days. I was proud to be an Australian though the way that the AFL presented the indigineous round “Dreamtime At The G”, and how well those blokes play. Talking about exciting players what about that chap “Nahas” for Richmond. And I have to give Lloyd a mention as well, how much better he looks when he is coming further up the ground to help contribute to his team’s effort.Adelaide would be belted by Carlton, but was wrong (again). It’s hard to understand how a side with such a good percentage (third on the ladder) could have suddenly gone so sour. Do they have a future at all this year, now? As for Adelaide, who knows. We keep being told that they are a rebuilding side. Perhaps they are.Brisbane really but their atrocious goal kicking kept the Lions in the game. All the same given that they were playing at Etihad meant that they probably had a 3 goal advantage before the game started. I suppose that it would be a bit churlish to call a couple of the goals scored in the last quarter by Montagna and more particularly Milne flukes but that was the way I saw it. Brisbane must win against North Melbourne this week or they will lose the momentum that they have built up. As it is another away game nothing is certain. Winners are grinners, nine from nine and top of the table, can’t do much better than that.

In the view of “The View” the winners for Round 9 were definitely Collingwood,

And in late news apparently

On Friday night Brad Johnson should have got that goal, oh sure he had already kicked 4 and one can say what one likes about the game hinging on more that one kick but the stark truth is that it did, can only imagine his disappointment. What with Fev and about others before him missing these crucial shots it makes Eels’s conversion all of those years ago as Bruce McAvaney might have said, “something really special”.  I think that the game was as well, I for one thought that the ‘Dogs were well and truly out of it. As for Yakkermanis, I have to admit that he really walked the walk on Friday night. I would just prefer it if he did it for Brisbane, can’t make up my mind from this distance if his loss was poor man management  by Leigh Matthews and others or whether it was just Aker. Thought that his comments re Voss were pretty cutting, still let’s see how his coaching career takes off when he has to manage a whole host of different egos and personalities. His comments about who did or didn’t attend his wedding were just sheer petulant minutiae.

Essendon are looking OK now, they are a fast side but then again

A great win by Collingwood over the West Coast Eagles but sadly, the way that the Western Australian sides are travelling this year the currency in these away wins over there is being devalued week by week. Footy over there is a mess, perhaps their parochialism has got the better of them.

I thought that

Notwithstanding my previous comments re Western Australian sides,  Freo gave a decent account of themselves this week particularly in the first quarter but after that some shin boner spirit was called for and obtained.  For a while I held out real hopes for Freo in this game.

Great to see Muston finally make it and make it well for Hawthorn, now there is a fellow with real guts and determination. Just love to see players who can pick themselves up off the canvas, for those not in the loop, this Shepparton player should have played two of three years ago but had to suffer two knee reconstructions on the way. Melbourne never really looked like it, thought that Franklin would get a bag having kicked three goals in the first quarter but by then he had probably done all that he needed to do but he did get a fourth.

St Kilda, despite my whinging should have won against

The Powerless were hopeless, can’t understand the hype that Mark Williams gets as coach, his side hasn’t done anything for years. Meanwhile Sydney who are supposed to be a hopeless grafting team scored 8 goals in the first term, can only imagine what might happen when they really get going in a game.

Another round where the ‘Rules lived up to its potential as the best code of all.