Official 2008 (Non-Essendon) Scores and Updates Thread

[Rossoneri]

Freo still piss weak and flakey under pressure. The two periods in the game where they fell off the pace were in the first 15 minutes when it was red hot, and in the last quarter when the game was on the line. Different coach, same old Freo. I think Rusling did his shoulder (again) - he was in tears.

One bloke who i think Freo will miss, having watched today's game, is Shane Parker. He was only ever a solid defender, but he took the best/biggest forward most weeks and usually did a decent job. Now their #1 defender is Grover and a good forward line with 2 or more talls will stretch them.

Spot on with post points.

Freo still struggle in Melbourne on a decent stage. Opening game against a top 4 team, and they crumbled. McPharlin is a good player down bac, but he is even better up front. Pavlich has too much to do on his own.

Jimmy, you are a lawyer to be and Staggy you are a solicitor, I ask you this question.

Does Mark Harvey have any grounds to sue Chris Connolly for stupidly giving up a player and a 1st round pick in a super draft for Chris Tarrant?

[jimmyc1985]

Jimmy, you are a lawyer to be and Staggy you are a solicitor, I ask you this question.

Does Mark Harvey have any grounds to sue Chris Connolly for stupidly giving up a player and a 1st round pick in a super draft for Chris Tarrant?

Well, (thankfully) i'm not a lawyer-to-be any more - i'm working at a finance company next year.

Taking advantage of someone's momentary stupidity doesn't usually give rise to a cause of action.....but in Chris Connolly's case, i suppose you could argue that he suffered from a constitutional disadvantage that led to him being unable to conserve his own interests, which Collingwood took advantage of, hence the transaction was unconscionable and should be set aside . Seriously though, that was another really bad piece of work on Connolly's behalf.

[andrewb]

Freo still piss weak and flakey under pressure. The two periods in the game where they fell off the pace were in the first 15 minutes when it was red hot, and in the last quarter when the game was on the line. Different coach, same old Freo. I think Rusling did his shoulder (again) - he was in tears.

One bloke who i think Freo will miss, having watched today's game, is Shane Parker. He was only ever a solid defender, but he took the best/biggest forward most weeks and usually did a decent job. Now their #1 defender is Grover and a good forward line with 2 or more talls will stretch them.

Spot on with post points.

Would have thought that with Michael Johnson and McPharlane they had a couple of top notch talls down back... What Freo seems to lack is guys that will step up when the game is on the line... unless they're playing West Coast. Bell and Pavlich were the only guys who looked like getting near it in that last quarter. They're still also very undisciplined (and even Harvs is going to struggle to keep six guys like Farmer, J Carr, M Carr, Tarrant, Solomon and Mark Johnson under control!)

[jimmyc1985]

Johnson is not capable of standing a proper FF or CHF because he's not strong or accountable enough - he's either a floating loose man in defence, or a flanker (generally). You can have McPharlane down there, but that's robbing Peter to pay Paul as they need to him to kick goals up forward (particularly when Pavlich is being well contained by the opposition).

[paddyl90]

Saints win in an ugly match. They looked really good first half of the first quarter and look like a threat if they can keep it up.

West Coast over Brisbane by 16. Brown knee injury not sure how bad it is

[BenDoolan]

Saints win in an ugly match. They looked really good first half of the first quarter and look like a threat if they can keep it up.

West Coast over Brisbane by 16. Brown knee injury not sure how bad it is

Whao, forgot about the WC v Brisbane game. Did Brown get carried off or did he limp off?

[paddyl90]

Not sure BD from what I saw he was getting treatment on the bench so I presume he limped off, not sure if its serious or not just saw it on the Fifth Quarter

[bomberdonnie]

f****** Sydney are terrible to watch and the Saints are not much better...

How the Saints can play that shit boring bottled up style of footy with that list is beyond me. Roos taught Lyon eveything he knows I guess!!

[Rossoneri]

That game plan wont work on the MCG. Its ok for Sydney, they will only play there once, St Kilda will play there around 8 times. So boring and pathetic to watch. Any wonder why St Kilda dont have many members.

[ealesy]

Anyone hear Blighty, Quarters and Hudson crap on and on and on about the fact Roos was coaching from the interchange bench, stating that he was a master of innovation and that this was prehaps the future of AFL coaching.

Hey dickwads, Sheedy did that for most of the 2nd half of one season a few years back (2005?) started doing it in a game against West Coast, the week before Adelaide had flogged us by about 90 points and everyone was expecting this to be 100+ point flogging as well but we stuck with them until the last half of the final quarter when they kicked 4 late goals to win by about 20 points.

So Roos doing something a true master on innovation did only 2-3 years earlier and they can't fall over themselves to suck the blokes cock. I'm really sick of all the love Paul "I'm trying to kill the game of Aussie Rules" Roos gets in the media. Sure he's been successful but he also has a responsibility to the game, which he is failing dismally at. He coaching in Sydney, in a growth market that the AFL wants to establish a 2nd team in, but the brand of football he gets his team to play is an absolute disgrace and does absolutely nothing to get rugby league supporters to have any interest in our code whatsoever.

So before you start labelling the bloke a master of innovation, lets wait until he can establish a gameplan which allows his team to regularly kick over 15 goals a game, instead of aiming to kick 10 and strangle and bore the opposition into submission!!

[paddyl90]

NOW THAT IS A GAME OF FOOTY!!! What a ripper got me off my seat. I changed my tip to the Bulldogs at the last minute thankgod i did. Well done Johnno an all round nice guy fitting to win it off his boot. Better than that crap last night. God I feel pumped for tomorrow now !

[Rossoneri]

Hawthorn win by 104 points.

[paddyl90]

Melbourne are a disgrace. Pathetic.

[robrulz5]

Went along to the Dome today and the skills were shocking from both sides, the game was saved by being such a close contest. It was the right result for Johnson as well.

[jimmyc1985]

Hawthorn will be especially hard to beat at the MCG this year. They use the spaces, particularly the wings, very well and have the ability to go from defence to attack very quickly.

As for Melbourne, well, not entirely unexpected. They went for the big clean-out at the end of last year by getting rid of guys like Godfrey, Ward, Brown, Pickett and Bizzell, none of whom are anything special, but all of whom were seasoned and strong-bodied players who could give a contest. Today Melbourne just got out-muscled so easily and so often that i think they'll be made to look like boys against men against a few of the better teams.

EDIT: Oh yeah, they traded away Travis Johnstone as well. May turn out to be a good long-term (3+ year) decision, but they'll miss his somewhat sporadic skillfulness quite a bit over the next couple years.

[paddyl90]

Hawthorn 308% on top of the ladder....

[robrulz5]

Hawthorn 308% on top of the ladder....

The percentage will drop unless they can beat Freo by a big big margin.

[Madden]

Should be a good game between Brisbane and Collingwood tonight - I'll be on Brisbane but it's a tough ask coming off a short week after a trip to Perth.

Thoughts?

[Rossoneri]

While Brown (Collingwood) played well on Pavlich last week, it was also due to Freos pathetic game plan and slow midfield (reminds me of Essendon 2005). Not sure who Brisbane will have on Cloke though?

If Brisbane get on top of the middle, J Brown will kick 10. There isnt anyone at Collingwood to stop him.

[jimmyc1985]

Collingwood outplay Brisbane for 2/3rds of the match, get a match-winning lead in wet conditions in the 4th quarter, then get on the end of a few iffy umpiring decisions and go down by 2 points in what must've broken the hearts of many a Centrelink baby.

Delightful.