The View from Shepparton – Round 18

The question is, will the Bulldogs move forward after their win against North Melbourne or it all come to a ghastly end if not on 21 August then some time in September? Will the Bulldogs fortunes be in sync with those of their number one ticket holder? I think that it is fair to say that Bustling has secured his full forward position against all challengers. He is doing better than Fevola, perhaps the PM should have a go at playing full forward for Brisbane, in terms of the last few rounds she could scarcely do much worse. Would love to see the Bulldogs actually get up and win the flag, they have been waiting for long enough.

So to the rest of the round.

I came late to the St Kilda Essendon game and could not believe my eyes to see that the Bombers were 5 goals up. Another tipping disaster, I had tipped the Sainters to win by 70 points. How good was that play of Fletcher’s when he fell down whilst hand balling and whilst still down and completely unbalanced received a handball back and instantly handballed it on for a second time for Essendon to maintain possession. How the bloke still plays the game is beyond me. Riewoldt is taking a long time to get back into touch, but anecdotally l can understand that having had major knee surgery 6 weeks ago. You can’t trust yourself to really let go in case the whole thing falls to pieces again. And it hurts all of the time just wondering around, let alone for an elite player trying to regain his form. Having made that observation I see that according to one scribe St Nick was one of St Kilda’s best players. Can’t win em all.

St Kilda though are showing that they are vulnerable to a quick side which is strange in a way because as I recall they were supposed to in theory have a speed advantage over the Cats when they played a few weeks ago.

Geelong pretty much regained momentum with their win over Sydney. Sydney won’t make the eight on current form which is not good for interstate football. Can’t believe how they have fallen off the pace in the last few weeks. And you worry about where up and comers might come from particularly with the new teams joining the competition.

The Powerless were powerful as they rolled Hawthorn, certainly wasn’t expecting that either. Footy tipping is a mugs game, fair dinkum. Schulz is one player who has gradually built into Port’s team. I always expect that those who have transferred from another club will be a risk but he is doing really well. The same I suppose goes for Burgoyne, he has fitted Hawthorn like a glove.

Brisbane lost again, what excuses can be made? Everyone knows that Voss was a great player but as coach he has done the club no favours at all by persisting with Fevola. Voss the boss has directed that criticism of Fevola must cease so as a loyal acolyte will try to adhere to that instruction except to say that if he doesn’t get any more games for Brisbane there will be no need to carry on about him week after week. Oh well next year for the Lions I suppose. It was though a great win for Melbourne and I would love to see them in form and in the finals.

I don’t think that Mr Ratten was too impressed with his team but let’s face it Collingwood were by far the better skilled team and thus all of the moaning about lack of guts and so on doesn’t mean much to me. I have used this analogy before but it appears to be worth repeating and that is this. In chess where the two players are grossly mismatched it is only a matter of time before the inferior player makes a mistake no matter how good that player is. The same here, Collingwood were always going to win because they had better skills and as such were able to create more pressure at all times.

Not for the first time, Adelaide blew a golden opportunity to prove something. I reckon that the turning point occurred in the third quarter when Dangerfield missed the sitter from out front. Would have seen the Crows 12 points ahead and with a bit of momentum. As it stood the Tiges were able to take advantage of this and by the end they were clearly the better side. Hail Richmond!

Somewhere in the west of the country a local derby occurred with Freo prevailing. Just as well too because they are now the only decent interstate side going around. Unfortunately even they will be fortunate to go beyond two games in the finals. Just have to hope that they can have some good solid if not  to say inspiring wins for the rest of the season so that they go into the finals with momentum. They have been crueled by injuries and it looks like Tarrant is another.

The Wallabies missed out again. I suppose that by the law of averages they must beat the All Blacks. Make that 2015.