Roar Guru
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A New South Welshman, supporting a West Australian team, living in South Australia, formerly studying in Germany. Unashamedly a Freo fan (and member!). Budding writer, and do a bit of live-blogging.
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Eddie Betts, Patrick Dangerfield, Nat Fyfe and Jack Riewoldt have picked their teams for AFLX 2019. Check out the full result below, including which players from your club were snapped up.
AFLX 2019, the Australian Football League’s mid-summer event featuring all the players you’ll recognise (but all of the rules you won’t), begins tonight with the inaugural AFLX player draft. Join The Roar for live coverage and updates from 7pm (AEDT).
Happy Monday! My final Power Rankings (for the year). Enjoy, and thanks for following along this season.
Sunday afternoon football is to be played in Victoria, as a poor Carlton outfit host a striving-for-finals Hawthorn. Join The Roar for live scores and a live blog from 1:10pm AEST.
Friday night football takes us to Melbourne, as a (sorta) resurgent St Kilda Saints take on the fearsome Richmond Tigers. Join The Roar for live scores and a blog from 7:50pm (AEST).
Ah, what a wild (and pretty bloody good) weekend of footy. Lots of surprises. And, yes, sometimes surprise wins (and losses) might cause a bit of shuffling of the rankings. Let’s do it.
Match result: The return of Josh Kennedy and Jack Darling proved crucial in a big win for West Coast, but the result has been marred by what could prove to be a serious knee injury for Nic Naitanui.
Friday night footy takes us to Melbourne, as the St Kilda Saints host a struggling Carlton Blues outfit. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 7:50pm (AEST).
Power Rankings! Come get your freshly printed Power Rankings! Also, before anyone asks, yes, it feels weird seeing Brisbane feel so high.
The home of football sees a 2017 grand final replay, as the Richmond Tigers take on the Adelaide Crows at the ‘G. Join The Roar for live commentary and scores from 7:50pm (AEST).
I don’t think one round has ever made ranking these eighteen teams agonisingly harder than this one. What a round, though, amirite?
We head to MCG for a Sunday arvo footy clash, as the Melbourne Demons host a disappointing St Kilda Saints. Join The Roar for live commentary and scores from 1:10pm AEST.
Port Adelaide have defeated a surprisingly gallant Carlton outfit by 21 points in a fine game at the MCG, but the result will leave a lot more questions than answers.
Match result: Port Adelaide have defeated a surprisingly gallant Carlton outfit by 21 points in a fine game at the MCG, but the result will leave a lot more questions than answers.
Thursday night footy takes us to Melbourne for a top of the table clash between the Richmond Tigers and the Sydney Swans. Join The Roar for live commentary and scores from 7:20pm AEST.
Another bye round. A last-gasp win. A disgusting act from a Giant. Two surprisingly gallant stragglers. A bit of everything, really.
Sunday’s only game takes us to the ‘G, as traditional rivals Collingwood and Carlton do battle. Join The Roar for live commentary and scores from 3:20pm AEST.
Match result: Jeremy Cameron faces a long spell on the sidelines after a sickening hit on Brisbane defender Harris Andrews which has blighted Greater Western Sydney’s 27-point AFL victory at the Gabba.
Ugh. The bye rounds. Annoying. Still, plenty of intriguing results. Let’s get into some good ol’ Monday morning rankings.
Yeah, I was thinking somewhere along those lines. Unless Cam has another controversial surprise up his sleeves!
2019 AFL Season Preview: Fremantle Dockers
So I presume St Kilda’s next on the predictions list, at 15th? You’d cause some heated discussion if you had them above that!
2019 AFL Season Preview: Fremantle Dockers
Happy Friday Cam, and I’ll admit it was disheartening to see Freo as the main feature on he front page cause I immediately knew that meant they were 16th in your predictions! It’s a good writeup, as always, though. I can’t necessarily disagree with much of your thoughts, but I think you’ve (naturally, cause it’s Freo) gone a little pessimistic when you’ve put all the variables together.
I notice you don’t mention Connor Blakely in your piece, when he’s widely been considered as the heir-apparent to Neale in the team. Connor’s been steadfastly improving in the past few years, producing a fine 2018 at half-back. I reckon he’ll slot in well at the midfield. His hamstring injury rules him out of the first few rounds from memory though, so he’ll miss out of the crucial stage of team cohesion.
Personally we’re a strong(ish) side that will benefit from the first few weeks of ‘easy’ games (god forbid I’ve just jinxed us!), and we’ve got a nice suite of games in Perth. We should be finishing far above 16th, but I’m not expecting any finals miracles. I’ve thought that we’ll be closely matched with Brisbane – I reckon Freo will finish fairly close to where Brisbane will end up. If that’s a good or bad thing, I’m not sure.
2019 AFL Season Preview: Fremantle Dockers
Macca, I saw on 9News (from memory) that Marc Murphy has injured himself in the scratch match, or that there were concerns that he had. Knee problem supposedly.
Not entirely ideal, hey?
Edit: a quick twitter search sees that it’s not that serious. he sat out the fourth term icing his knee, it’s probably best to chalk this one up to an eager journo sensationalising the story.
2019 AFL season preview: Carlton Blues
It appears normally after you refresh the page after the comment is posted, I believe. So don’t get to freaked by a giant slab of text after you write a long comment.
How 2019's AFL rule changes will play out on the field
How is having only ‘one good stadium’ a limitation? Isn’t that, quite literally, what they need?
Coopers Stadium and nib Stadium are fine, and I can’t see why Perth and Adelaide shouldn’t be in any potential bid?
FIFA confirm process for 2023 Women's World Cup hosting rights, FFA confirm bid
Agree with that. Barring any major flops from the likes of Saints, Freo and Brisbane, the Blues and the Suns are virtually guaranteed bottom two. I can’t convince myself to believe any possible other scenario.
2019 AFL season preview: Carlton Blues
Yeah, I’d be betting the Lions push the Eagles right til the final siren, or they’ll snatch a surprise win. They won’t be an easy beat.
The Round 1 fixture the AFL got wrong
Oh, come on. You’re back at Optus a week later, have the GF rematch the week after that, and get a derby against us another week later!
There’s no discernible reason you cannot travel to Brisbane to face them, because you’ve got an irresistible fixture in the weeks after that. Hell, I’d include the Lions as part of that irresistible fixture too.
The Round 1 fixture the AFL got wrong
Nice piece! Welcome to footy, arguably the best sport in the world. ‘Your’ Lions might have a great season, so that’s gonna be good.
Enjoy the season!
A letter of intent to the AFL
Brisbane’s a basket case organisation? News to me.
Also, you’ve hit the nail on the head, Rob.
Fremantle 2019: Purple reign, or Purple rain?
Well, that’s just false. He played 22 games in purple last year!
Unless that was a typo and you meant 2019?
Fremantle 2019: Purple reign, or Purple rain?
This makes me feel sad. I’m happy for the dude – super happy that he’s happy – but also sad all over again that he’s gone.
Fremantle 2019: Purple reign, or Purple rain?
I have zero comprehension of what you mean.
Fremantle 2019: Purple reign, or Purple rain?
I think this is important to note. I loved Neale, but it’s true that his possessions occasionally had much less of an impact than you’d expect.
Looking forward to seeing what our rejuvenated group could do with Hogan leading the forwards!
Fremantle 2019: Purple reign, or Purple rain?
Use the reply button, I beg of you!
Also, Bell couldn’t keep Neale to stay, but Neale’s departure also allowed the dominoes to fall so we could get Hogan. I feel like we’ve gotta keep that in mind – Bell’s not a miracle worker, and realistically, simultaneously keeping Neale and poaching Hogan probably wasn’t going to happen.
Fremantle 2019: Purple reign, or Purple rain?
I don’t live in WA. Unless you were talking to Don and Dal? The formatting of these comments gets confusing sometimes, hah.
Fremantle 2019: Purple reign, or Purple rain?
From my view, it’s the Perth media that’s been the toughest on Ross. And trust me, there’s been a helluva lot of Freo fans calling for his head in recent years. He’s not immune to criticism like you’re making it out to be.
Fremantle 2019: Purple reign, or Purple rain?
This might end up being a double reply due to moderation, so (potentially) apologies in advance.
10 years ago Sandilands was slotting into the AA team and winning 20-odd votes in the Brownlow. 5 years ago, he was still making it into the AA team. And four and three years ago, he was playing full seasons and leading us into our first grand final. That sort of experience doesn’t just go away after two injury-ruined seasons, anon.
Obviously he’s past his peak, and that’s the natural progression of a footballer. Thus, he ain’t going to be leading our ruck-men brigade or being a permanent best-22 fixture this year. Rather, he’ll be playing ruck when necessary, and will continue to influence our young ruck-men throughout the season.
As for Bennell, everything that needs to be said has already been said. I’m of the opinion that this season is likely a make or break season.
Fremantle 2019: Purple reign, or Purple rain?
Amen to that. I need to do the same thing, particularly when commenting from my phone.
Fremantle 2019: Purple reign, or Purple rain?
Yeah, we get it. The Eagles are a better team than us.
And thanks for repeating literally what I just said in that every team has injuries. You’ve cherry picked the Eagles in being a team that was still successful, and good on ‘em. Most teams with a severe amount of injuries don’t casually win a premiership, like Freo in recent years.
Sometimes injuries are a legitimate excuse. Not that you understand legitimacy, given you’ve never revealed what team you support or anything close to it.
Fremantle 2019: Purple reign, or Purple rain?
Uh, nope. Not an excuse, anon. Just saying that injuries are inevitable (in any team) and that it’s a problem I forsee, and one that might dent my optimism if we have an influx early, god forbid we do.
Fremantle 2019: Purple reign, or Purple rain?
I gotcha, but once again, we’re yet to see whether those stats correlate with whatever will happen this year. Gotta be careful about broad proclamations when a ball hasn’t even been bounced in pre-season matches yet.
2019 AFL Season Preview: Fremantle Dockers