Just to emphasise how hard it is to establish an era of dominance in the AFL, the all conquering Geelong have blown the chance to win back to back premierships by losing their second game of the season – their 3rd defeat in 45 games.

The signs were there in the second quarter – Geelong absolutely dominated but found themselves 3 points behind at half time after kicking 1 goal 9 behinds. The trend continued into the third quarter with Geelong recording a remarkable 11 consecutive behinds. Hawthorn kicked 6 goals in a row and won the match.

Overall, Geelong had 62 inside 50s to Hawthorn’s 43. They had 9 more scoring shots. Geelong have beaten themselves.

The crowd was the biggest since 1986 – 100,012.

1 Hawthorn 40 – there's not much to like about this mob. Their president is Jeff Kennett, former Liberal premier of Victoria; their coach, Alistair Clarkson, is an obnoxious bully; their playing group, on the field, are a bunch of thugs; off the field, they are even worse but, for legal reasons, nobody's allowed to talk about it even though we all know about it. Oh, and they play in brown. Will not win this year's premiership; in fact, I'm not convinced they'll even make the grand final.

2 Geelong 40 – 10 wins out of 11 despite rarely reaching the heights of last season. Should make it 2 in a row......


Normally, I would be crushed by disappointment and consumed by frothing rage after an afternoon like that. There’s no point, though. Geelong are simply miles ahead of everybody else - as close to 100% certainties to be Premiers as it’s possible to be and, with Hawthorn probably about 95% certain to be their Grand Final opponents, we are left with what feels like a very flat finals series.

Sorry, MA, hadtadoit.

It’s amazing the difference one result can make. Much of the talk this season has been of how history will look upon Geelong. Had they won on Saturday, they would have been elevated to the status of second best side in AFL (not VFL) history behind Brisbane’s triple premiership team of 2001-2003. Then, of course, we would be discussing the possibility of a third title and elevation to best team since Melbourne 1955-1957.

The remarkable thing about Brisbane is that they never finished top of the ladder during their 4 in a row grand final appearances (2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd). Geelong have won the last 2 minor premierships at a stroll – 12 points clear in 2007, 16 points clear in 2008.

Unless Geelong bounce back next year, they will be just another one-off premier, better than West Coast, Sydney or Port Adelaide, on a par with Essendon. Essendon had a 21-1 win-loss record in 2000 and won a second minor premiership in 2001 but they only ever got the one flag as Brisbane steamed past them. Perhaps it’s Hawthorn who will turn out to be the new Brisbane.

QUOTE:
It’s amazing the difference one result can make.

Couldn't agree more! I remember being on another message board ahead of the 2007 season and many people were talking about how West Coast would build a dynasty that would run for years, based on the foundations of Cousins, Judd and Kerr.

Look at them now!

Roy and HG made a good appraisal of Lance Franklin, possibly the first playerto bring up 100 roots and 100 goals in a season!

I missed the Grand Final for the first time in years... couldn't watch it whilst I was on a flight to Sydney. Heard the result at the airport when I landed, and can't say I was hugely surprised. After Chapman's injury a few weeks ago I'd thought that they may be vulnerable.

What a way to end your winning streak, though. Poor bastards.

Given all the hoo-ha about the Eagles' Premiership being diminished by the subsequent exposure of Ben Cousins' drug problems, it is a mighty relief that no such problems have ever existed at Hawthorn. Oh dearie me no. Absolutely not. No sirree, none at all.

If there had been any I am sure that those fine, completely independent and in no way at all supplicant Melbourne journos would have exposed it.

If I was a West Coast fan, I would be livid at the unfairness of this, about the sheer hypocrisy involved. I don’t think it’s entirely the fault of a “supplicant” Melbourne media, however – it’s the extreme bullying from AFL House that has caused the silence. After Channel 7 broke the story, the media were gleefully all over it. Within hours, the AFL had obtained a court injunction. Initially, 7, The Age and 3AW indicated they would challenge it. The AFL informed them that, if they did, they would have no access to players, coaches and AFL press conferences. Channel 7 paid hundreds of millions of dollars for the AFL rights; 3AW gets huge ratings from live commentaries; The Age sports section is 95% AFL. Everyone quickly fell into line because they didn’t have much choice.

I still don’t believe we’ve heard the end of this. At games I’ve been to this season, I’ve heard plenty abuse directed from the crowd at certain players. There have also been quite a few raised eyebrows at the choice of Norm Smith Medallist on Saturday. Dylan Howard, the 7 reporter who uncovered the revelations, is a bitter man, ostracised by the AFL community. I’m sure he’d love to get revenge. Most interesting, though, is The Age’s Caroline Wilson who regularly has a subtle dig at The Club We’re Not Allowed To Name. She has a well known loathing for their Chairman – I get the impression she’s keen to blow this wide open.

Just managed to see this game, which I'd Vplused. I thought it was fascinating. A study in The Yips, in fact: an object lesson in how things can go wrong when self-doubt starts to spread.

Just to let people know that Aussie Rules football is alive and well outside of the all-powerful AFL:- there was a crowd of over 34,000 at yesterday's SANFL Grand Final at AAMI Stadium in Adelaide for the Centrals vs Glenelg clash.

The contrasting pedigrees of the two clubs could not have been greater. Centrals, who play in the red, white and blue "Dogs" colours, had played in the previous eight Grand Finals, winning six of them. Glenelg, who play in the black and gold "Tiger" colours, had not won a premiership since 1986.

Also, the class divide in Adelaide in probably better illustrated by the difference between these two clubs, than by the contrast between the Crows and the Power. Glenelg is Adelaide's oldest suburb (the first settlers landed there in 1836). It is a middle class area, dominated by wealthy retirees, coffee shops and resort hotels. Centrals are based at Elizabeth, a northern satellite town which wasn't built until 1955. It is dominated by factories, cheap housing, working class (and underclass) people.

The Glenelg club joined SANFL in 1921, won its first premiership in 1934, then had to wait almost 40 years for the next one, which came in 1973. It won two more in the eighties, in 1985 and 1986. The Bays were a powerhouse in the seventies and eighties, and indeed once kicked 49 goals in one match against Centrals in that era! They faded badly with the advent of the Crows. Indeed, some claim that Glenelg were the driving force behind the foundation of the Crows, with the Crows' first coach (Graham Cornes); first captain (Chris McDermott) and first champion to return home from a Melbourne club (Tony McGuiness)- all ex-Glenelg players.

Centrals did not join SANFL until 1964, and had to wait over 30 years for its first Grand Final appearence!

Yesterday's match was close and hard fought until half time, when Centrals were clinging to a mere four point lead. The floodgates opened early in the third quarter. Centrals, lead by the incredible Gowans twins, James and Chris, who have played in all the previous six Grand Final wins, swamped the Bays and went to a 37 point three quarter time lead; which they were easily able to increase to 42 by the final siren. Matthew Bode was one of the few Glenelg players left on his feet by the end.

So now Centrals, so long the underdog in the past, have made it seven Grand Final wins this century, and have equalled records set by the great old Port Magpies in decades gone by.

Great post, Trimster - that's a phenomenal crowd. This year's regional league grand finals in Victoria, most of which were played last Sunday, attracted total attendances of more than 300,000 and I see more than 32,000 showed up at Subiaco yesterday for a charity match honouring the late Chris Mainwaring.

We had some questions further up the thread about how the draft works. Today, is the start of trade week which normally has a fair influence on the draft. Representatives of the 16 clubs will spend the week in a room at Telstra Dome trying to thrash out deals for trades involving player for player swaps, players for draft picks and even, in exceptional cases, the swapping of draft picks.

This year's draft is the last uncompromised one for several years with Gold Coast and West Sydney set to snap up all the best young talent from 2009 onwards so there's a feeling that clubs may be reluctant to trade their first and second round picks this year. However, Port Adelaide have said they will enter the room, put picks4 and 22 on the table and see what they get offered.

The draft camps were held last week testing speed, agility, endurance, standing and running jumps, etc. The feedback from recruitment managers is that the top 25 picks will be high quality and that this is an unusually tall draft with lots of ruckmen featuring prominently.

There are several players already up for trade – Andrew Lovett (Essendon) is linked with Sydney; Robbie Warnock (Fremantle) and Mark Seaby (West Coast) are 2 ruckmen available; Farren Ray
(Western Bulldogs); Daniel Harris (North Melbourne); and Sydney's Ryan O'Keefe has been hawking himself around the Victorian clubs. Most interest, however, will be in what happens with Sydney's Barry Hall. The Western Bulldogs, desperately in need of a big forward, are said to be chasing him hard.

Does the AFL not do transfers? The system MA describes sounds very "American", with the "trade week" analogous to baseball's "winter meeting" and the "draft camps" very similar to the NFL "combine".

And since all I do on this thread is ask questions, is there a formal link between the regional leagues and the AFL? I know that there isn't promotion and relegation, but do players move? Are there any links (formal or informal) between AFL clubs and the regional ones (whether similar to North American "farm club" arrangements or not?).

There are no transfers. The best chance a player playing in the state leagues has of making it is to be picked up as a rookie. Rookies can’t play in the AFL but they get full time training and usually a couple of years to prove that they might be worth a contract. Rookies have to be 23 or under. The chances of anyone over 23 being given an opportunity are very slim.

There is no national reserve league – most clubs have an affiliate in the state leagues. Geelong and Collingwood run their own reserve teams in the VFL – the other 8 teams have contractual links with sides which are often changed. The VFL is promoted as “where the elite meets the community” – the teams being a strange mixture of semi-professionals, AFL rookies and fringe players and, occasionally, the odd appearance by one of the sport’s genuine superstars just back from injury or dropped after a loss of form. Some of the VFL teams, most notably Port Melbourne, have a very long and proud history and passionate supporter base. The VFL is mostly made up of suburban Melbourne teams but the regional centres of Bendigo and Ballarat are represented.

Interestingly, the VFL tends to attract smaller crowds than the WAFL and SANFL – probably a reflection of the fact that WA and SA are represented in the AFL by new franchises whereas all the traditional big clubs in Victoria are in the AFL (even if 2 of them are in Sydney and Brisbane).

There were 20 deals in trade week in 2007. This year, there were just 6, 5 of them coming in a typically frantic last couple of hours. Nobody gave up a draft pick higher than 24. The most high profile prospective trade, Ryan O'Keefe from Sydney to Hawthorn, fell through because Hawthorn weren't willing to give up pick 16 and the clubs couldn't agree on a player exchange.

The week long saga involving Fremantle and Carlton was resolved with about 5 minutes to spare. Fremantle wanted Carlton's pick 6 for Robert Warnock. Carlton offered pick 24. An independent arbitrator was brought in as relations between the two clubs deteriorated. In the end, Carlton just about got what they wanted.


Richmond get Adam Thomson from Port Adelaide for pick 42.

Collingwood traded Rhyce Shaw and their fourth-round pick (No.61) to Sydney for the Swans' third-round round selection (no.46).

Brisbane traded Anthony Corrie to Collingwood for a seventh round pick (No.93).

Western Bulldogs traded Farren Ray and a third-round pick (No.48) to St Kilda for a second-round selection (No.31).

Geelong traded Brent Prismall to Essendon for a round three pick (No.39)

Fremantle sent Robert Warnock and round five pick (No.69) to Carlton for three draft picks: round two (No.24), round four (no.56) and round 5 (no.72).