Round 5

St Kilda 123 Essendon 87

Crowd 46,792

Change was inevitable after the disastrous performances of the last 2 weeks:

Fraser Gehrig, after just 3 comeback games, was dropped. His replacement, Charlie Gardiner, is smaller and quicker. In fact, with his tireless running and presenting he’s almost a mini Nick Riewoldt although clearly less talented. Unfortunately, Gardiner’s weakness is Gehrig’s strength – goalkicking. He did kick 2 but it should have been at least 2 more with a couple of straightforward shots missed.

David Armitage, St Kilda’s top pick in the highly regarded 2006 draft, came in for the hapless Aaron Fiora and was superb. It’s been the source of much consternation amongst the support that Armitage has been given so few opportunities but his committed attack at the ball and 2 goals from midfield made him one of the best players last night.

There were a couple of significant positional adjustments as well. Hard tackling midfielder Luke Ball was sent to the forward line where his pressure game curbed Essendon’s famous run (and he chipped in with 2 rare goals) and St Kilda’s quick defender, Jason Gram, played in midfield where his pace and long kicking ought to work well. However, it was only in the final quarter that he looked at home there.

So far, St Kilda’s season has been characterised by good first quarters followed by total collapse. Because of that, I didn’t get too excited by the three goal lead that we built up by quarter time - the second quarter would be the crucial one. The second quarter was superb – we kicked 7 goals to 3 and led by 81-37 at half time. There was further encouragement as the second half started – the led blew out to 51 points and a big win looked likely. However, it all went horribly wrong. Essendon kicked a couple of quick goals which slightly stirred their hitherto dormant support. When they made it 3 in a row, the huge roar that went up was a real indication that they believed the comeback was on. Brisbane won against Port Adelaide last week having been 48 points down in the third quarter and as Essendon’s 3 consecutive goals became 6, I thought we were in deep, season ending shit. Remarkably, by the quarter end Essendon’s score was 12 goals 1 behind, a display of accurate kicking I don’t think I’ve ever seen matched. St Kilda sat on 14 goal 12 behinds – we’d absolutely dominated the match but it was still wide open. A late third quarter goal from Nick Riewoldt killed Essendon’s momentum just as they’d got the deficit to 16 points and steadied the nerves a bit.

In the early part of the final quarter, it was goal for goal, the lead a not quite comfortable 4 goals. It was only when Armitage kicked his second just after the 20 minute mark, that victory was assured.

A good result, a good performance. The fact is, though, that real Premiership contenders don’t get 6 unanswered goals kicked against them and, although Essendon are the league’s fastest side, they’re not actually all that good.

A morale-boosting win for St Kilda!

How poor are the two WA teams this season? I thought last season was Freeo's "turn" to appear in the Finals, but they are even poorer this season than last. And, as for the Eagles, they are looking woeful considering that they were reigning Premiers not that long ago....

Melbourne Arab wrote:

QUOTE:
Here's the AFL's ad to mark the 150 years:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsaxSpv9lmU

A great series of ads, that.
I like the use of humour which is refreshing in comparison to the overblown and sanctimonious load of cack we have to gag on at this time of year around the 'traditional' Anzac day clash.

I wouldn’t mind the “cack” and the military pomp quite so much if it was confined to Collingwood-Essendon on the day but having it spread over the whole Anzac Round is too much to bear.

The “traditional” (since 1995) Anzac Day game has been an enormous success and the AFL won’t rest until there’s a blockbuster in every round. Currently we have:

The Queen’s Birthday (what happens when the republic gets voted in?) – Collingwood v Melbourne. This is also known as The Last Day of the Season Before the Ski Slopes amongst the Melbourne support. The match is an act of kindness from the AFL allowing Melbourne to play in front of a crowd once a season.

The Eureka Game – introduced this year. North Melbourne and Richmond celebrate the “working classes.” Plans for a “middle class” game between Hawthorn and Melbourne were ditched when it was discovered that the middle classes are all playing soccer now (but they don’t watch Melbourne Victory because there are too many East Europeans there – you don’t see people like that in Toorak and Brighton).

Dreamtime at the G – a great tradition, stretching back to 2005, this is Essendon and Richmond paying tribute to Indigenous Australia.

Good Friday – this hasn’t happened yet. St Kilda and Geelong went to the AFL a few years ago with the proposal which was rejected. Last year, Carlton and Hawthorn did likewise. This time, the AFL described it as “interesting.” St Kilda and Geelong were up in arms so, if Good Friday Footy does happen, expect a big fight about who gets to play.

Rivalry Round (twice a season) – works really well in WA and SA. Sydney v Brisbane doesn’t really cut it but that’s a temporary measure before the rugby states get their new teams. Rivalry round is rubbish in Victoria because Collingwood can’t play 9 games in one weekend.

Women’s Round – remarkably, has been scrapped this year. Andrew Demetriou is being very mysterious: ” we're planning a significant event as part of the 150 years that will involve women as we should and we didn't think a themed round this year was the appropriate way to do it.”

I like that Indiginous round idea. Pick a couple of clubs with a few indigenous players and make now the year dot. Unless the Bombers and the Tigers have a specific tradition of using indigenous players more than other clubs. Does this mean these 2 clubs are kind of obliged to keep up a Koori quota? I guess not. History can always be rewritten with a press-release and a few ads.

.... And don't forget "heritage round", when the clubs get to wear their traditional jumpers, and Collingwood tells Port Power that they are not allowed to wear black and white stripes...

Instead of manipulating the fixture list to ensure big crowds in Melbourne, and inventing themed rounds, why don't they just organise a normal league competition, where each team plays every other team home and away over the course of a season?

Essendon are involved because the idea was Kevin Sheedy's. Sheedy has always been a passionate campaigner on behalf of the Indigenous people and a pioneer in bringing them into the AFL. In 2004, Essendon legend Michael Long did The Long Walk from Melbourne to Canberra to raise awareness of Indigenous issues. Essendon are also financial supporters of the Tiwi Island team which competes in the NT league.

Richmond are involved, believe it or not, because if you combine the strips of Essendon and Richmond you have the black, red and yellow of the Aboriginal flag.

Here's an interesting piece on Sheedy from The Age recently:
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/a-legacy-of-brotherhood/2007/07/25/1185339081328.html

trimster wrote:

QUOTE:
why don't they just organise a normal league competition, where each team plays every other team home and away over the course of a season?

In fairness to the AFL (did I just say that?), a 30 game season would be too long especially as you couldn't possibly ditch the finals series in a competition without promotion, relegation or Champions League places at stake. The problem is the way the 7 fixtures are allocated after the 15 games where everybody plays everybody else once.

Take Collingwood, for example. It's written into the draw that they must play Essendon, Carlton and Richmond twice each season to maintain "tradition." Collingwood also get Anzac Day, the Queen's Birthday and, during the split round, a game against Sydney at ANZ Stadium which stands alone on a Saturday night. Collingwood do not have to play at Geelong because of the restriction that would place on the attendance (the same applies to Essendon, Carlton and, surprisingly, St Kilda but not Richmond). Collingwood will never play in Darwin, Launceston, the Gold Coast or Canberra for the same reason. In fact, they hardly ever leave Melbourne. This year, they have 18 fixtures in Melbourne, 16 of them at the MCG!

Every year, when the draw comes out, everyone complains about Collingwood's fixtures and, every year, the AFL say the same thing. Each club is asked to submit a wish list prior to the draw and, every year, 15 clubs put the same thing on their wish list – 2 games against Collingwood.

While Collingwood get treated as a special case, North Melbourne, the Western Bulldogs, Melbourne and Hawthorn are prostituting themselves all over Australia to make ends meet. Both Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs have actually "sold" home games in recent years because they can make more money playing away.

What is this "tradition" that the AFL affords Collingwood the right to maintain? I knew that they rarely travel interstate, but had no idea about some shitty tradition of playing the Dons, Carlton and Richmond. That is a joke.

A 2nd Melbourne poster finally?
Welcome Havencheese.

Cheers RB. Used to pop in here many, many years ago, back then there was a total of about three otf posters on this big brown contitnent and definately no thought of a thread involving footy, and if brought up usuallty the words "shit", "game" and "convict" came up. All fun n' games though.

Well it is a shit colonial game, but it is an entertaining and dramatic shit colonial game. Good to have another Bombers fan on board. Were you one who was happy to see the back of Sheeds (for all his value as an entertainer) or sad to see him go?

Sentimental, but also optimistic. The non renewal of his contract seemed realistic after a very short time. He'd ceased to run a meritocracy for starters, and perhaps felt he could still outwit other coaches with the old tricks. Even if it doesn't eventuate that Knights is the man to deliver us a flag, it definately feels as if the planning is right and we're heading in the right direction.

Hello.

I start my AFL contributions with a prediction. Melbourne will have the worst season in AFL history since Fitzroy final hurrah (95?). In fact they could go the one betterby not even winning a game.

After Round 20 in 2006, Melbourne were 3rd on the AFL ladder. Only a shock defeat by Carlton in Round 21 kept them out of the top 4. It's hard to believe how quickly they've fallen and how far. They lost the first 9 games of 2007 but recovered sufficiently to finish 14th. Now, with Carlton and Richmond improving, they look like wooden spoon certainties. I'm not sure that they will go all season without a win though. In fact, they might get a victory in Round 7 at home to another crisis club - Fremantle.