A good read, this is a mouth watering contest and if I take out last weeks performances I think Hawthorn will win quite well. The thing with the results last week, particularly Hawthorn is the point that was mentioned in the article! They will take nothing for granted.

Think back to that first final against Collingwood, the Hawks all the way for me.

Go Gazz!!

We have had a wonderful finals series so far and it looks to continue. The intensity of the games this series was set with the Hawthorn – Collingwood game last Friday night and has not abated.

Now, I really look forward to seeing the Suns there next year! 😉

I was going to go to this match as it is in my backyard. I made the decision after watching the insipid win against the Boks last week that the it was not going to be good value for money watching these guys run around.

I was proven right, we seem to be bumbling from mistake to tactical error back to another mistake. I do not know how we won this! Although I am happy we won this.

I guess we have finally got the excuse of injuries but this still does not make up for the basic errors, fragmented defence and bone head tactics.

I have been a long time supporter of Quade and still am but since he has come back from his knee injury he has not been the same player, perhaps a good pre-season will do him some good whilst missing the Wallabies tour of the Northern Hemisphere.

Also the constant need for our players to drift wide constantly when in possession of the ball was annoying, when they did straighten up we got the try through McCabe! It is always risky to run full pace into a defensive line against the grain, you can get smashed if you do it wrong but when it works you generally hit a hole and burst through.

The last point I have to make is what sort of boots was Alexander wearing, did they have any studs in them? From memory 3 times he slipped flat on his belly in the scrum, also from memory the flanker was not on his arse either so that would not have helped but jeez!

I am not sure what is going on with our National team but at the moment I do not like it one bit.

I agree with David that Douglas was a bright point in the game but other than that – Meh!

I agree with your reasoning David, I believe that we have the backs but we need to get some fast aggressive ball out of the forwards first.

The AB’s are always on the front foot because we let them be on the front foot. Think back to the only games we have won against the AB’s in the past and you will see that our forwards were manic and super aggressive.

The likes of Cooper and Barnes have got no time at all, by the time they get the ball they have a black wall in front of them. We really need to fix that.

Let’s find our mongrel!

Brilliant match, could not have asked for any more really.

Agree, Pocock is epic!

Great wins like this against very good opposition sets the rest of the season up nicely I think.

Thanks Sage,

It is funny how some from the other side of the ditch get easily upset.

Anyway, looking forward to the next game, moving on unlike some others in here 😉

I agree, AFL is an awesome game but the AFL media is horrible.

It has got to the point that the identities in the AFL media have to have at least one strong controversial opinion a week. Each week in the AFL we have hyperbole and Histrionics in spades, some of the stuff that gets scrutinised is unbelievable by these so called experts.

Another thing that I see happening is that these ex-players are turning into clowns, trying to be funny, they are ex-footy players, put away your balloons and knives fellas, get back to talking footy.

I say the so called experts as most of them are just trying to sell ratings including Mick Malthouse. The worst of them are Tony Shaw whose opinion is quite often way out of synch to reality and is proved wrong consistently. Then you have David King who goes hard at the man, never the ball. Before Ablett it was the Melbourne Football Club he was after.

Another thing driving this is the advent of the Fox Footy Channel with it’s media driven AFL 360 and Insders are trying hard to critique every facet of life in and around the AFL. Most of the content of these shows is drivel and quite literally scraping the bottom of the barrel.

In saying that there is a couple of good ex players the best being Leigh Matthews, he is quite often right on the money and actually is ahead of the news cycle, not just following the news cycle and getting ratings.

The AFL is the worst in this country for this type of tripe, lets hope it eases up because the circus running around the game can wreck the game.

This is shown by what happened to my beloved Gold Coast Suns this weekend. Why and how did Gary get only 20 possessions?

Psst: It was a different team on Saturday to the one that played on Tuesday, literally.

This is a point I made after the game, the Scotland test side was anything but and it was obvious that we had to keep our powder dry for Saturday night.

I really hope everyone can keep this in mind whilst comparing the two games.

(just in reply to your comments on the swimmers)

I think too much has been made of the photos really, I saw an interesting tweet last night that brings things into perspective.

“So apparently posing in photos with instruments that are actually USED in a sport in the OLYMPIC GAMES is a no no. #michaeldiamondispissed”

And another

“Would the Olympic shooting team get in trouble for posing in speedos by a pool?”

Perhaps we are addicted to Histrionics? We are quick to judge these days.

Not sure what happened with David Gallop but think he was good for league, he will be missed. Perhaps the ARU may look at him.

Wow…. Perhaps I should crawl back under my rock.

Scotland won, yep…

Not taking that away from them.

All I am saying is that when it is hard for a country to put up its top line-up for a test match then there is something wrong. We have two test matches within a week and one a few days after a super Rugby.

All the while Scotland have had eons to prepare.

Anyway, I will move forward an look forward to another competitive game this weekend.

PS: If you follow the AB’s your opinion does not really register with me so move on 😉

The Wallabies that played were far from full strength and we only had 2 training sessions before the game. Plus some of the boys playing had only a few days rest from the last game.

On top of that the worst conditions for a test match that I can remember that suited the Scots more that it would the Wallabies.

Remembering we cannot put our best team out to face Scotland if we want our best team ready to go for Wales on Saturday.

I have to ask, who sets these schedules, should have been set as a friendly or a ba-ba match – Not a test match.

Anyway, it will be a different team on Saturday against the Welsh and it will be wet, but I think the result will be with us.

Good article, I did enjoy it.

You know nothing Westie!

The Titans problems are due to their off-field program standing next to Skilled Park.

The Suns will succeed, the AFL has ensured that with a massive cash injection.

The Gold Coast Blaze are going strong..

Gold Coast United did not engage the COMMUNITY

On your comments of no community and no grass roots sport in any code you have your head up your ***.

Do you live on the Gold Coast?

Good article, I also think we have to ask questions of the authors or certain articles which are seemingly designed to incite a code war.

Is it true, that some authors are just after lots of comments?

At the end of the day though, we all know Curling is the superior sport!

I hope you are not saying I am part of that Chardonay set, I do prefer and good Shiraz or Pinot… Just in case you are saying that 😉

🙂 You are right on both counts, I do not watch league and I am probably in denial but I am not too sure which yet.

As I said, It does not worry me if one does not like Rugby or the way Rugby is getting played: Just don’t watch it, simple.

BTW: Stacks on? Are you serious, 73.674% of the QLD Reds rucks have two red shirts in them, hardly stacks on..

There is so many sports globally and locally screaming for our attention why waste your time with something that frustrates. Just move on and watch what floats your boat, that could be AFL, bball, NFL, Darts, Union or league…

Oh and on the use of statistics to back up arguments on either side, remember this! 98.76% of statistics are made up on the spot.

Bruski.

I watch Rugby and AFL.. League has no comparison to Rugby except they pass the ball backwards. League is more a one dimensional game, 5 tackles kick, 5 tackles kick.

Rugby has many more levels and facets to it and simply cannot be compared to league which seems similar to one day or 20/20 cricket, each game is very similar to the other and they become one big blur.

I do agree that our teams have had a slow start but we only get two trial games due to the season starting so early, it does take a while for things to gel. I think this week will be more polished.

It is simple though, if you don’t like the game, turn it off. That is what I did to league a 18 months ago and have never looked back. I am sure the 40,000 people at tonight’s game in Brisbane will have a differing opinion to yours David.

What a great article Chris, very insightful. Lets hope Cadel does the same again this year.

He sure did show some balls last year when he dragged a bunch of riders and the Australian people up Galiber with him.

I will never forget that last week of Le Tour, it was gripping to say the least.

Good article, some interesting points have been made. I did not know about the One deal and that the amount of games in the years ahead will increase for the NBL, this is good news.

I go to a handful of GC Blaze games a year, it is always a good experience and I think the level of play is pretty good. I guess if you look back at the state of the NBL a few years ago they were in dire straights, they are pulling it together rather swiftly.

I think as long as the crowds remain healthy and continue to grow then the bigger money will follow through sponsors which will roll through to better junior development (which is pretty good here on the coast) and perhaps better players being imported.

These things take time and I would think that the NBL is in a far better spot than the A-League at the moment even without the massive TV air-time…

9 is the worst channel in Australia by far, nuff said.

Noted, he does find himself at the back a bit more than a small percentage of time. I do think that he would handle it ok if they did decide to bomb him all day too.

I have a feeling that the Wallabies are going to come out ultra aggressive and play a fast attacking game. This is the only way for us to win in my opinion and obviously on QC will have to be in the middle of all that happens.

I have also got to wonder how much of a game changer SBW is. He seems to do well against average teams but I have never seen him fire against good opposition. I do believe that Mr Lord has a man-crush on SBW!!

Not that there is anything wrong with that of course 🙂

Cooper is often the last line of defense so I am not really sure what you are getting at.

It is amazing how many people can jump on and off a bandwagon, can’t wait to see Cooper have a blinder against the AB’s to shut everyone up.