Great result last night. Fremantle's shock win over Collingwood means St Kilda will definitely have a home final if we beat Essendon tomorrow.

Call me naive, but what a pity Jason Porplyza is not an honest young man. This afternoon, St Kilda were absolutely screwed by the umpires again and we weren't even playing.

In today's early game, North Melbourne blew 4th place by somehow managing to get thrashed by Port Adelaide. This meant that Adelaide would finish 4th by beating the Western Bulldogs and that, if the Bulldogs won, St Kilda could finish 4th by beating Essendon. In the 4th quarter, with the game on a knife edge, Jason Akermanis conceded a behind. Unbelievably, the goal umpire motioned to give a goal. The boundary umpire who, like everybody else, clearly saw what happened ran over shaking his head. The umpire consulted with both and awarded the goal presumably because the goal umpire was standing nearer. Jason Porplyza, who was credited with the "goal" said nothing. It's true that the final margin of victory was slightly more than that goal but the controversy it created clearly shifted the monentum for the next few minutes and won the game. Despite this, I will be supporting Adelaide against Geelong.

The goal umpire must be sacked.

Sydney thrashed Brisbane tonight leaving 4 possible outcomes tomorrow:

1. St Kilda beat Essendon by 94 points and finish 4th. We then play Geelong in the finals with a "second chance" after we get thrashed.

2. We beat Essendon by less than 94 points, finish 5th and play Collingwood.

3. We lose to Essendon, finish 8th and play Sydney away.

4. We draw with Essendon, finish 6th and play North Melbourne.

Don't be too harsh on Porplyzia... it is, after all, a footballing tradition not to own up to the fake dive, or being offside, or handball resulting in a goal, in a certain other code of football....

Don't sack all goal umpires.... it is a special role, unique to Australian Rules Football... they should be a protected species.

On the subject of the battle for fourth spot- perhaps the AFL should investigate North Melbourne's tame capitulation to Port Power. Pity the people who paid good money to watch that farcical performance...

Round 22
Essendon 39 St Kilda 147
Crowd 46,161

Melbourne Arab wrote:

QUOTE:
Despite this, I will be supporting Adelaide against Geelong.

Although I support teams who are consistently shite, I love sport. This weekend's momentous events are the reason why. Last night, I saw an interview with Nathan Bassett of Adelaide in which he spoke about Adelaide's finals match with Geelong next week after they sealed 4th place. I didn't think "you presumptious, arrogant bastard" because, as far as I was concerned, Adelaide were going to finish 4th. You just don't go to a game thinking you can win by 94 points as St Kilda needed to do today.

In the first minute, Essendon kicked the opening goal and St Kilda defender Sean Dempster went off with a season ending knee injury. There are unconfirmed reports he could miss the whole of 2009.

After that, St Kilda dominated but kicked like idiots in front of goal. We led by 20 points at quarter time after kicking 5 goals 5 behinds. Nick Riewoldt was taking his usual number of marks but kicking the ball everywhere except between the sticks.

In the second quarter, it got worse. We led at half time by 42 points having kicked 8 goals 12 behinds. It was at this stage I felt there was a glimmer of hope but only if the accuracy improved.

By three quarter time, we led by 61 points - 14 goals 15 behinds. It was still unlikely but there was a definite feeling in the crowd that we had a chance.

There was no scoring in the early minutes of quarter 4 but, gradually, the goals (and behinds) started to come. With 4 minutes left, Stephen Milne's 7th goal put us in the top 4. Just as the wild celebrations were dying down, Adam Ramanauskus took a mark 25m out for Essendon. If he kicked it, St Kilda would need 2 more to restore the percentage. This was Rama's last ever game for Essendon after announcing his retirement following a 5 year battle with cancer. I could just see the headlines. I could hardly bear to look. He hit the post. St Kilda kicked the next 2 goals and we finished top 4. Fucking unbelievable (21 goals 21 behinds).

Just to add to the fun, 4 rows in front of me sat Collingwood captain Scott Burns along with several of their coaching staff. They were armed with laptops and cameras assessing next week's opponents. They left before the end realising they were now going to play Adelaide in Adelaide. Fucking hilarious.

The finals draw:

QUALIFYING FINALS

Geelong (1st) v St Kilda (4th) MCG, Sunday
Hawthorn (2nd) v Western Bulldogs (3rd) MCG, Friday

ELIMINATION FINALS

Adelaide (5th) v Collingwood (8th) AAMI Stadium, Saturday
Sydney (6th) v North Melbourne (7th) ANZ Stadium, Saturday

The winners of the qualifying finals go straight through to host the prelminary final. The losers get a second chance hosting a semi final against the winners of the elimination finals. The losers of the elimination finals are eliminated.

For the 3rd time in 4 years, the AFL has set a new attendance record getting over 6.5m spectators for the first time – an average crowd of 36,996.

Average club attendances:

1 Collingwood 59,213
2 Essendon 46,352
3 Carlton 46,193
4 Richmond 45,962
5 Adelaide 40,678
6 Hawthorn 39,976
7 West Coast 37,653
8 St Kilda 37,034
9 Fremantle 35,877
10 Sydney 32,827
11 Melbourne 30,962
12 Western Bulldogs 30,275
13 Geelong 29,473
14 Brisbane 28,128
15 North Melbourne 27.667
16 Port Adelaide 23,842

Wow, that's a seriously impressive figure, particularly North, with those circa 10000 attendances up at the GC.

It vindicates the AFL tactic of aggressively targeting memberships as a way of keeping strong attendances throughout. The other codes are trying to do that too now. If people aren't members, it's too easy to find an option out of going to a game when the weather's not nice or when one doesn't particularly feel like going to a game or whatever.

Well done St Kilda, I too thought that a 14 goal victory was too much. I certainly couldn't have seen the Crows winning by that much had they been in St Kilda's position.

Am I right in saying that if Adelaide beat Collingwood, they will go to Melbourne to play the loser of the Hawthorn/Bulldogs game for the right to play Geelong/StKilda in the Prelim final?

The winner of Adelaide v Collingwood plays the loser of Geelong v St Kilda.

Just before Michael Voss was about to start a 2 year contract as assistant coach at West Coast, he's got the big job at Brisbane after Leigh Matthews resigned yesterday. He's never coached and he's only just turned 33. Seems like a huge gamble.

How good is that old footage they're showing today of Lethal Leigh in his playing days? I love those old images of blokes that don't look like today's super-fit, ultra-buff specimens. He just looks like a hard bugger, with a moustache.

There are a couple of organisations here called OzPunt and ProKick who are acting as scouts for NFL clubs. Barry Hall of Sydney was offered trials by Seattle, Oakland, Arizona and San Francisco this year but knocked them back. He's got 1 year left on his contract but is widely expected to move into boxing. He's been getting his training in on the football field this year.

Anthony Rocca wants to play on at Collingwood for another year before trying his luck in the US and there's apparently considerable interest in Carlton's Brendan Fevola although he has just signed a new 3 year deal.

On a similar theme of moving codes/countries, the AFL recruitment of Irish players is being stepped up. Last week, in Castlebar, the first club funded training camp for potential AFL players was held and Richmond, St Kilda and North Melbourne have each invited players over for trial. Three more camps are to be held this year. The draft restrictions brought about by the 2 new clubs have led to a surge in interest in finding overseas players.

ursus arctos wrote:

QUOTE:
Three Australian punters to start in the NFL this season.

I've never heard of Mat McBriar... can anyone remember what AFL club he played for?