Another 2011 AFL thread - still pretending GWS is all just a bad dream

[Axver]

More goodness from Emmanuel Irra:

Damn, that's quality.

It's an incomparable story to Eddie getting pissed off at a Saints flog for saying some none-too-kind things towards Andy Krakeour, as from all accounts they were nothing to do with his race, and more to do with the fact that he's a convicted criminal who nearly killed a man. For Eddie to bring the race card in is absurd and offensive, and says more about himself than the St Kilda perp.

Eddie needs to just shut up and go away, seriously.

 

[bono_man2002]

Interesting last few pages. I too think that Australian Rules Football is the best game in the world. Cricket is the only other sport that comes close to matching it for me, but I never lose interest in the footy.

Over the last few years, probably last year in particularly (before you compain, I know we won the flag, that was great...I'm talking about the sport in general) I've lost a great deal of interest in the the AFL altogether. I can't tell if its the media, the people running the show, the fact that by next year we'll have two new teams? I'm all for expansion so that can't be it. I just dunno, can't say I love going to the footy anymore either.

I can watch both codes of rugby. I think Union is probably the better game. Don't ask me why, I don't watch much of either, but I remember watching the 03 World Cup and getting right into it. But perhaps I say that because Union is truly a world game in the sense that there is a lot of passion for the Wallabies (or there was, until about three or so years ago) and virtually none for the Kangaroos. I love watching State of Origin and I can definitely appreciate a good game of league.

I used to like Union a lot. I was into the end of the '99 cup, the '03 cup when we had guys like George Gregan (I know I've spelt his last name worng, right? whom I admired. But sometime in 2004, I totally lost interest in the game and have never really picked back up with it.

Soccer (I don't care what anyone says, I will never call it football) is indeed fun to play, but I hate watching it for the most part. My main problem is that yes, not much happens. Inte says that a game that ends 0-0 can be fucking brilliant, but I just don't agree. That bores me to tears and it's one of the few sports that I just could not sit and watch for the entire time. World Cup is a slight exemption, as everyone gets into it and there are some damn good skills on display. And I was actually in the States when the world cup was on last year, and let me tell you from my experience, it was pretty huge. Admittedly once USA was knocked out the interest dropped off a bit but it's certainly not an underground sport over there, at least not on that level.

I call it "real" football. Not that AFL isn't football, but soccer, that thing you can only use your feet for, it is Football. Indoor soccer is the funnest game ever to play I go in and out of intrest in this sport all the time, usually because of the lousy timeslot, and the fact that Liverpool seem to play all their games on a sunday night at like 3am.

I think the reason our footy hasn't exploded anywhere else is that it's so exclusive; there is no incentive for an American to watch a full AFL game, really, other than the novelty factor. I would support a NZ team but that is at least decades away. As Ax rightly pointed out a lot needs to happen before that's even considered.

I'm right into Ice Hockey at the moment, I love it. The most intense sport I've ever watched, its soccer on ice on steroids. I just really love the game as a whole.

I'm frustrated free-to-air aren't showing the NBA finals. I've kept up-to-date with the playoffs but haven't seen five minutes of footage. That is a good game, though I think I'd struggle to watch an entire game if I wasn't doing something else. The scoring is so prolific it can get a little boring.

HA. Yeah ONE were at least showing the finals on a 1 day delay last year, I don' think they even have the rights to them this year? Seriously free to air needs to have a good hard look at itself. I know the time zones make things hard and all American sports are pretty much Prime Time for the US, while it might be 10am on Wednesday morning for us, they've gotta understand that they aren't gonna attract massive ratings. At least put a replay of the game on at 7:30 that night, no?

Gridiron I don't like. Apparently if you understand the rules, it's a good game to watch (I know Bonnie is a fan) but every time I've caught it on ONE it seems like there is 30-60 seconds of play, then the ball will go over the boundary line, the swathes of people on the sidelines erupt in either disgust or delight, and then there is a two-minute break in which the last 15 seconds is discussed. I watched the entirety of the superbowl, and enjoyed it, but the game should not take that long.

I can't get into this. Too much stopping and starting. Lets bring out our whole defensive team out, and shit we are attacking now, stop the game for 15 minutes while we change tactics and bring out our offensive team. WTF!!? One game I will never call football.

I feel bad knocking baseball given that I am such a huge fan of cricket, so I feel a bit hypocritical, but it is a boring sport. I saw the Giants take on the Red Sox in San Fran, and aside from the bitter cold weather, it was ordinary to watch. The game lasted three and a half hours, and I was more than ready to go home after two. Even the atmosphere was not as good as I had been told. There was a game last week between the Cincinnati Reds and someone else, which went for 19 innings. From I think the eight inning to the 18th, there was not a single run scored. I'm not sure if that's considered a good game or not, but how anyone could subject themselves to that, with all the downtime of timeouts, breaks, foul balls, etc, is just beyond me.

I wish I could get into baseball, and I usually do come playoff time. But the season is what 172 games long or something? No thanks.

It's an incomparable story to Eddie getting pissed off at a Saints flog for saying some none-too-kind things towards Andy Krakeour, as from all accounts they were nothing to do with his race, and more to do with the fact that he's a convicted criminal who nearly killed a man. For Eddie to bring the race card in is absurd and offensive, and says more about himself than the St Kilda perp.

Heaven forbid. WE GET IT. Eddie obviously can never do anything right. So why keep yabbering on about him?

 

[Axver]

I used to like Union a lot. I was into the end of the '99 cup, the '03 cup when we had guys like George Gregan (I know I've spelt his last name worng, right? whom I admired. But sometime in 2004, I totally lost interest in the game and have never really picked back up with it.

Nah, you got Gregan's name right - though I must say that he's one of my most disliked players in recent years. I love how the Aussie and English media harps on about Richie McCaw as an allegedly dirty player; he doesn't pull half the shit that Gregan pulled.

I'm right into Ice Hockey at the moment, I love it. The most intense sport I've ever watched, its soccer on ice on steroids. I just really love the game as a whole.

I think I've posted before that I'd love to get into ice hockey since it seems really exciting ... I've never really had a problem with my poor vision and sport, until I tried to watch ice hockey. I just cannot see the puck, even on most telly coverage. The sport's a hell of a lot less interesting when it appears to be guys just randomly skating around for no apparent reason.

Heaven forbid. WE GET IT. Eddie obviously can never do anything right. So why keep yabbering on about him?

Honestly though, for me, ragging on Eddie has nothing to do with the fact he's associated with Collingwood (for the record, I disliked him originally for being a crap TV show host when I lived in QLD and nobody really made much of his Collingwood connection). It's just he's a twat and I'd rag on him no matter which team he were affiliated with.

 

[intedomine]

I wish I could get into baseball, and I usually do come playoff time. But the season is what 172 games long or something? No thanks.

That's the amazing thing about baseball. Imagine that, every second day, your team plays, 80-odd home games a season. And I swear that when I was in Boston, the city breathed the Red Sox on match days. There was some real passion for the team in the city, in spite of what seems like saturation to AFL fans especially, with our 22-26 matches per season. Phenomenal. It really is a full time job to be a player.

While I might not be at all into Gridiron or Basketball or Ice Hockey, it's hard not to be awestruck by the uniqueness of America's sporting culture, from the college level to the elite level.

I reckon I could get into baseball. I'm done with cricket. It's an individual sport to me anyway ( aside from the State side, which no one else cares about anyway)

Majak Daw has almost got more fans on Facey than Dustin Martin. Disgraceful.

 

[cobl04]

Cricket is fucking miles better than baseball.

Majak doesn't look like a thug, Dustin does

 

[bono_man2002]

I think I've posted before that I'd love to get into ice hockey since it seems really exciting ... I've never really had a problem with my poor vision and sport, until I tried to watch ice hockey. I just cannot see the puck, even on most telly coverage. The sport's a hell of a lot less interesting when it appears to be guys just randomly skating around for no apparent reason.

Honestly though, for me, ragging on Eddie has nothing to do with the fact he's associated with Collingwood (for the record, I disliked him originally for being a crap TV show host when I lived in QLD and nobody really made much of his Collingwood connection). It's just he's a twat and I'd rag on him no matter which team he were affiliated with.

Even I can't keep up with the puck at times, I sometimes wonder why a team is celebrating (especially the away teams who have no goal horn or cheering from the crowd) Only to notice the puck has been tucked away in the back of the net. Then watching the replay its like "how did I miss that?"

The ragging on Eddie comes from absolutely everyone. I know people who don't even watch AFL yet still hate Collingwood because of Eddie. In about five minutes time I won't even care, but I guess it just gets to me every know and then.

 

[cobl04]

Love Eddie. Always have, always will. Can be a bit hypocritical, can say some odd things at times, but we're very lucky to have him.

 

[bono_man2002]

Oh yeah, no doubt I cringe at him sometimes. But he's done a lot of the some of the other clubs in Victoria as well.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Majak doesn't look like a thug, Dustin does

Didn't Martin drop out of school when he was 14/15? I remembering hearing that somewhere in the past week. He looks menacing.

 

[The Sad Punk]

Heaven forbid. WE GET IT. Eddie obviously can never do anything right. So why keep yabbering on about him?

Sorry about that, just felt Eddie really dug himself into a corner with that one. I mean no offense to the club itself and know that most Collingwood supporters aren't like the select few that tarnish the image, and Eddie's a damn fine businessman. But I'm still allowed to be disgusted by him.

 

[Axver]

Obviously the Eddie hate in Melbourne has a lot to do with his Collingwood association, but my experience in Queensland was quite different. Sure, people don't like Eddie - but that's as a TV personality. I wasn't aware of his Collingwood affiliation for quite some time. Occasionally people would say "hey you know he's Collingwood's president, right?" and you'd be like "ha yeah that's funny" and forget about it within 10 seconds. I remember telling somebody that once and thinking to myself "shit, I hope that was right and he's not just some high profile supporter ... or that he's actually the president of another club like Carlton".

 

[bono_man2002]

Sorry about that, just felt Eddie really dug himself into a corner with that one. I mean no offense to the club itself and know that most Collingwood supporters aren't like the select few that tarnish the image, and Eddie's a damn fine businessman. But I'm still allowed to be disgusted by him.

Of course you are! Your entitled to your own opinion, I was just having a little sook

 

[Axver]

Going to just do my picks now:

St Kilda vs Dogs
Adelaide vs West Coast
Gold Coast?! vs North Melbourne
Geelong vs Hawks
Carlton vs Brissie
Sydney vs Richmond (but an upset would be even better)
Freo vs Essendon (surely our losing streak's got to end?)
Melbourne vs Collingwood

 

[The Sad Punk]

No worries Daniel.

Yeah why not

St Kilda vs Dogs
Adelaide vs West Coast woop woop
Gold Coast vs North Melbourne
Geelong vs Hawks
Carlton vs Brisbin
Sydney vs Richmond
Freo vs Essendon - hard to tell who can get out of a slump here
Melbourne vs Collingwood

 

[cobl04]

Isn't it funny how our smiley looks so innocent, but the non-smileyfied one looks seedy as?

St Kilda. West Coast. North Melbourne (still yet to tip GC this year!). Geelong. Carlton. Sydney. Essendon (if Saints can do it over there so can Essendon). Collingwood.

 

[cobl04]

Player manager Paul Connors says Taylor Walker "for mine is going" to GWS, Rhys Palmer "I would have some money on going".

 

[Vlad n U 2]

St Kilda
WCE
GC
Geelong
Carlton
Sydney
Essendon
Collingwood

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Player manager Paul Connors says Taylor Walker "for mine is going" to GWS, Rhys Palmer "I would have some money on going".

Damn this shit.

EDIT: But then again, this Paul Connors is not the most reliable guy around.

 

[Axver]

Freo vs Essendon - hard to tell who can get out of a slump here

Jobe Watson's back for the Bombers so that helps, but I'm still pretty nervous. Honestly I'm almost inclined to change my pick to Freo, just because of their homeground advantage, but I won't.

Isn't it weird how St Kilda vs Dogs is a "clash of the minnows" now after they both made last year's top four?

 

[The Sad Punk]

I'm tempted to change my tip to the Dons, but... no! Go you Dockers! Purple power!

... I suddenly feel so dirty.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

I like the Dockers.

 

[intedomine]

Better than Essendon

 

[cobl04]

my article on Trentham footy club, 70ks northwest of Melbourne, where a lot of my mates play.

Trentham’s breeding ground revealed | Football Nation

 

[The Sad Punk]

Nice article Danny.

Just for anyone to answer, but I shouldn't have a problem getting a couple of tickets to the Crows v Eagles game on-site at AAMI, yeah? I've only ever ordered tickets in advance before.

 

[cobl04]

There is a full-scale war going on on my facebook between the blokes that play at Trentham and the ones that stayed in Werribee.

You shouldn't have any trouble.

 

[cobl04]

Anyone know why Lloyd was called the velvet sledgehammer?


Big show tonight, Ricky Nixon in, and Sam just flat out denied she-who-will-not-be-named's claims she stayed at his house.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

I'm hearing rumours that Scott Burns will be at the Crows in some coaching role (assistant/senior don't know) next year. I like the sound of that if it eventuates.

I don't know, would be nice.

 

[intedomine]

St. Duthie
Gold Coast
Sydney
Fremantle
Collingwood
GeelonG
Carlton
Adelaide

 

[Axver]

Bought tickets yesterday to my first Essendon game (and Charlotte's first AFL game). We're going with Alison the Hawks supporter to Essendon vs Hawthorn in a couple of weeks. Should be good times.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Hope you enjoy it.