Round 21 Match Reviews

[Bluey]

Will appear here soon...

[Danny Chook Fan Club]

The worst thing about Carlton vs Collingwood games is that someone has to win them. So the only consolation for the impartial observer is for the loser to suffer more misery than the winner experiences joy.

As such, today's result was a most satisfactory outcome. Carlton merely confirmed their superiority to Collingwood, and kept their chances of a top four finish alive. It was just an average victory for the Blues, no cause for great joy.

The Magpies, on the other hand, had thirty-five weeks of training, preparation and matches come to a crushing conclusion, with their pathetic performance rendering their entire season's work useless as they fell out of their finals race. The pain on the faces of the Collingwood players and fans as the day wore on made for enjoyable viewing for the rest of us.

The better team definitely won this game. Carlton dominated from the start, and but for some ordinary delivery into the fifty metre zone in the first half, and the tenacity of Collingwood, the game might have been decided before the long break. As it was, the Blues complete dominance of the first hour could only yield an eleven point lead by half time.

The game was put beyond doubt in the third quarter. While Nathan Buckley, James Clement and Jarrod Molloy battled manfully for the Woods, the remainder of the side seemed resigned to the impending loss, folding up rather alarmingly and allowing the Blues to get right on top. Matthew Lappin, Jim Plunkett and Lance Whitnall took over the forward half for the Blues, and while Carlton could manage only four goals, they restricted Collingwood to one and led by a comfortable five goals at the final change.

The last quarter was highly symbolic. Carlton took great pleasure in embarrassing and humiliating its old rival to the tune of eight goals, while Anthony Koutoufides tuned up for his finals campaign. Sadly for Pies fans, it was a familiar story as Buckley tried but the rest failed, consigning the 2001 season to the scrapheap.

The Blues are looking dangerous again. If Hawthorn lose to Adelaide tomorrow, and the Tigers go down to Essendon next week (both likely occurances), then Carlton need only defeat Geelong to secure the double chance and face off against the Bombers in the first week of the finals. Given their 2-0 record against the reigning premiers this year, the Blues will be on pretty good terms with themselves this evening.

While Collingwood fans have only the very familiar feeling of desolation.

- Mark O'Connor

[Hawkforce]

Ahhh... Danny Chook!

You always find a way to cheer someone up!

[GOALden Hawk]

Communism, New Coke and Colonial Stadium. All these ideas sounded great in theory. In practice however things can turn out a lot different. Hopefully this is the lesson the Hawthorn Football Club learnt this afternoon after suffering a 38 point loss at Football Park to virtually end their top 4 hopes, whilst the Crows guaranteed themselves a berth in the finals.

The idea was for the Hawks to kick against a howling wind in the 1st quarter. Sean Rehn, captaining the Hawks for the first time, called correctly and stunned everyone by pointing his lanky arm into the stiff breeze. The plan was for the Hawks to hit the outer boundary at all costs, slow play down as much as possible and contain the Crows in the 1st quarter.

But this defensive mindset backfired and at quarter time the Crows had 5.2 on the board, the Hawks failing to trouble the scorers.

Compounding the problem was heavy rain falling in the 2nd quarter, preventing Hawthorn's chance of making a comeback with the gale. The Hawks could only manage two goals in the 2nd quarter to be effectively out of the match at half time.

Hawthorn put in a better effort in the 2nd half, but just couldn't get a run on to catch the Crows. Several controversial umpiring decisions to Adealide certainly helped, but Hawthorn never really looked like getting in the game. Especially with a game plan that meant Adelaide knew where the ball was going to be kicked every time. Mark Graham gifted the Crows a goal when he kicked 30 metres across goal without looking to a totally unmarked Eccles, who strolled in and kicked a goal.

Andrew McLeod was fairly well held by Richard Vandenberg, but Hawthorn's midfield struggled all day, with Crawford out, Chick a late withdrawal and Harford reinjured by half time. Simon Goodwin was best on ground with 35 possessions and 4 goals in a superb performance on a day that made quality football very difficult.

Brett Burton had a good 1st half, and Andrew Eccles was more than handy off the bench. Unheralded defender Nathan Bassett also had a day out, beating Nathan Thompson and sweeping the ball out of Hawthorn's forward line.

For the undermanned Hawks, few players were able to get enough of the footy, and this showed on the stats sheet with the Crows having over 80 more possessions. John Hay continued to show why he should be All-Australian full back as he gave Darren Jarman a comprehensive thrashing. Trent Croad was also good in patches, and Jade Rawlings took plenty of courageous marks. Shaun Rehn battled hard in his return to Football Park, and rookie Michael Osbourne impressed in his league debut with a goal and some good play.

But it was a fairly ordinary matched marred by dreadful conditions, and the main talking point will no doubt be Hawthorn's decision to kick against the wind in the 1st quarter. Adelaide continue to build and will be dangerous in September, as the Hawks limp into the finals - a mounting injury toll showing on the scoreboard.

Q1 Q2 Q3 F inal
Adelaide 5.2 6.4 10.7 13.13 91
Hawthorn 0.0 2.3 4.5 8.5 53

Goals: Adelaide: S.Goodwin 4, K.Johnson 2, A.McLeod 2, M.Stevens 2, R.Biglands 1, A.Eccles 1, D.Jarman 1 Goals: Hawthorn: A.Lord 2, J.Barker 1, K.Barlow 1, S.Greene 1, N.Lonie 1, M.Osborne 1, N.Thompson 1

Best: Crows: Goodwin, Bassett, Eccles, Burton, Ricciuto
Best: Hawks: Hay, Rawlings, Rehn, Barlow, Croad

- Dominic Milesi

[Darky]

MELBOURNE vs FREMANTLE

Met up with old mate and fellow BigFooty poster BT before the game and proceeded to the Locker Room bar. Was met inside by other fellow posters dee_girl9 and dees01 shortly thereafter. A lot of training and preparation went into this game, and we weren't about to let the old Redlegs down.

Siren goes for the start of the game. BT races off to the bar for a cup each, and a pie. Darky ups the ante with a "chicken and chips" and a pie. Having built up a 5 pot to 4 lead at the Locker Room, Darky takes a narrow lead into the first break, as did the Freo Barry Crockers.
QUARTER TIME SCORE : Darky 7, BT 7.

Come the second quarter, the balance was restored in the game as Melbnourne regained the lead. Similarly Darky steadied with a few more cups of Carlton Draught while BT was going flat out, and somehow kept up. Just as Melbourne led uncovincingly at half time, Darky's mental superiority over BT in the drinking stakes over the years, appeared to have some effect. Darky by a cup at the main break, with the Dees following the master's lead and heading the Sh*tfish by a few goals.
HALF TIME SCORE : Darky 10, BT 9.

The third quarter started with BT making a trip to a bar (somewhere). Fair dinkum, he could have gone to Perth, I wouldn't have known any better... waited 25 minutes for a pot each, while he appeared to circumnavigate the globe. Just as well he didn't miss too much of the footy - the game was very pedestrian in its process between lame and sh*tful.
3/4 TIME SCORE : Darky 12, BT 11.

The last quarter was a tense and tight struggle as BT made several attempts to claim the lead but was deprived every time. His efforts were valiant but a 2 pot deficit was never going to be made up, realistically. A last dash to the bar was in vain, as all outlets had shut by 10 minutes into the last quarter. The contest looked like it had been won.
FULL TIME SCORE : Darky 12, BT 11.

After the match, the lead was extended as Darky sunk 5 pots to 3 at the after match function. There was a clear winner on the day, and no white maggots to blame, as Darky took the winner's prize while BT cowered in the corner craving a chicks' beer (Carlton Cold). FINAL SCORE : Darky 17, BT 14.

By the way, apparently there was a footy game on at Colonial while we were getting drunk. If you want to know about it, check out some sport or news sites, because they will have written up a report on a match I basically couldn't give a stuff about watching, even though I was there.

[Darky]

RICHMOND vs KANGAROOS MATCH REVIEW

When you get a free kick paid against you before the game has started, you just know it's not going to be your day. Yes, Jason McCartney did give Broderick a shove in the face, but be honest... the victim was a Richmond player so it doesn't count.

McCartney must have caught the early bus to the G, as the rest of the Kangaroos team didn't turn up until the 20 minute mark of the first quarter. By that time Richmond had already registered 5 goals. Sitting in the AFL members, I saw Denis Pagan arrive at Gate 8 midway through thge last quarter, with a Melways and a puzzled look on his face. I mean, this "MCG" place is foreign territory for the Rooboys, and the team could have done with a compass and a few Sherpa mountaineers to help them scale the grassy eastern face of the MCG playing surface. It must have been a steep climb to the Punt Road end, but once managed, it seemed easy as the Roos piled on five goals to almost level the scores at quarter time.

The second quarter provided another series of burst performances with Richmond skipping away first, but the Roos seemed to enjoy playing chasey - counting to 20 and kicking a few goals to keep the Tigers within close range. As at quarter time, the Tigers half time lead remained at 2 points.

After half time, the Roos once again failed to show up for the resumption of play. Maybe they popped out for a smoke and lost their passouts. What will their sponsors, Smokefree, think of that? The Kangaroos kicked only one goal for the quarter, whicle the Tigers kicked three, and looked to be securing a victory, taking a 15 point lead into the final break.

Never ones to knock back a good game of chasey, the Kangas realised lunchtime 2001 was nearly over and the bell would go soon (hang on, didn't he go last year :mad:?). Reversing the scoring trend of the third quarter, the Roos kicked three goals to temporarily take the lead until Matthew Richardson marked in time on to get yet another shot at goal. He'd marked everything in sight that night, but had sprayed a lot of easy shots to make his Mona Lisa performance look like a Pro Hart job, but when the pressure was on and the game had to be won, he kicked his second goal of the night to get the Tigers home by 4 points.

Richmond should have won by more, but Richardson's inaccuracy cost them at least 6 goals. It's a pity Richo can't practise by hitting a golf ball with a cricket stump (he'd struggle to hit a beach ball with a tennis racquet, I reckon). He might make a century one day if he sorts out his co-ordination.

[Appleyard]

Good to see only two people slacked off while I was away...