The funny thing is, the author is being racist and he doesn’t even know it.

Just like the people who want to have a separate medal for the best indigenous player.

Indigenous people just want to be treated as equals, it’s as simple as that and all this article is doing is reinforcing how these two are somehow not the norm, something special from their race.

Acknowledge it for what it is, one great player and one potential super star on the horizon. That’s what this is about and I love seeing great players like this going head to head, not the colour of their skin!!!

What interest me more about this game was the style of football the Swans were willing to play.

At this point in time the game as changed very drastically at the top. I have noticed the trend to play through the corridor not just for the brave and fool hearted, but many of the top 8 teams at the moment. Geelong have been playing like this for over a decade and Bommber Thomson took it to a new level in 2007.

Scott I believe has also taken it to a new level this year with the massive running power of this mid field and half forward flankers in his outfit.Truely amazing to watch, but the Swans also played this style of game for what looked like most of the match. This I think was very interesting and I look forward to seeing how Longmire responds to this in the larger grounds in Melbourne.

I also think the team which has set this trend is Richmond. Hardwick has his troops running very hard and fast through the centre corridor also, very exciting to watch and hard to stop if you can get it in fast to tall athletic forwards.

The two teams who are not playing this structure of interest are both Coillingwood and Hawthorne. I think both of these teams are going to get left behind this year if they can not adapt to this new growing trend.

Dude your last sentence makes no sense what so ever.

This is my point though.

England are good enough to compete as England in Soccer, so they do so. England are good enough to compete as England in Rugby Union, so they do so. England are good enough to compete as England in cricket, so they do so. England are not good enough to compete at League, so they do so as GB. They are not good enough to compete in the Olympics as England, so they compete as GB.

I think my point is clear, just as when Andy Murray wins anything in tennis he is a Brit. When he loses he is a Scot, simple as that my friend.

There is more of a chance of a freak of nature coming from Australia that is capable of winning the mens 100 m than building a team to win a team sport which requires far more resources.

So no don’t think winning the mens 100 metres would be harder, because luck plays a big factor in individual sports and countries winning golds from them.

England have also not ahcieved what is stated above, since England don’t compete in the Olympics, they compete as Great Britain simply because they would sux otherwise.

Hmm England and Germany don’t have a cricket world cup.

We have 4 of them and I would say cricket is one of the BIGGER sports in the world now. So no one in the world has the complete set of all the world sporting achievements.

Australia also won the baseball world cup in 1999.

Not sure if Britain has won the Davis cup, they probably have but I’m not 100 percent certain on that. Australia has won the 2nd most amount after the Americans in again one of the biggest sports in the world.

You can come up with what ever stat you like to fit what ever country you like for your supposed heavy weight achievements though.

It’s funny how we all associated sporting achievement with humans.

However, arguably Australia’s biggest sporting event is the Melbourne Cup, the race that has on many occasions stopped the nation.

I would argue that Australia’s greatest sporting moment in the hearts of MOST Aussies was seeing the great mare, Makybe Diva win her 3rd Melbourne Cup. I was living in Ireland when she did this and I can tell you it made the back page of their sports pages in every news paper in the country. Maybe that is because the Irish have a very strong connection with the Melbourne cup but this was just amazing to see her on TV in front of 120000 people cheering for her, absolutely amazing time.

You know your in trouble when you start worrying about the A-League taking fans from your sport, despite the numbers being acceptable.

Acceptable is not good enough though, League already is watching over it’s shoulder from other codes invading it’s turf, but I don’t think at the start of the season the A-League was one of them.

Hmm, not good for the western strong hold if you ask me going forward for league.

Just got home from work and watching the replay now.

Brilliant, just brilliant!

I still can still see my favourite player of all time Nick Faldo dusting off my fathers hero Norman at the masters in 1996. It’s great to see finally an Aussie win this Major, although I still think the best major is the British Open when it is played at Royal Saint Andrews.

It is a true pig of course if anyone has played on it, and those damn bunkers just suck big time if you ever get stuck in one.

I beg to differ.

Football is suppose to be difficult, difficult to win the Premiership. Competing is just mandatory and all should be expected to perform to a certain level or be put aside until they do. Not only is it embarrassing for Melbourne supports, it is embarrassing to the game!

You will always have this issue with one of these Melbourne teams. If it’s not the Demons, it will be the Bulldogs. If it is not the Dogs, it will be the Kangaroos. There are far to many Melbourne based teams and the AFL will always be asked to support one of these teams in times of crisis.

This is a cut throat business where dog eats dog and if you can not compete off field, then there is no way you will compete on field.

I have said it before and I will say it again. Within the next 10 years one of the above football teams will not be in the competition. St Kilda and Hawthorne you can throw into that mix in the next 50 years.

Most people do not get how sports work around the world. As the game becomes bigger, it cost far more to run a football club. It already costs over 30 million a year to run an AFL club, in 20 years time it will probably double. This means JIm Stynes charity efforts along with Gary Lyon self donations will never get the job done when you are 20 plus million in debt. It happens fast and massively, just like Leeds United inflicted upon themselves in the English Premiership when they went 160 million dollars in debt over a two year period. They were relegated and eventually went into administration and this was one of the oldest clubs in England.

You don’t see New York with a population of 10 million supporting 9 NFL teams. Hell they only have 5 professional top level elite teams across four sports playing in this city. The Giants, Mets, Yankees, Nickerbockers and Rangers.

The EPL only ever has 4 maybe 5 teams at tops playing in it from London and this is with a population of over 8 million. I could go on and on around the world but I think my point is made.

As the game grows, irrespective of population growth in Melbourne, more teams will struggle. There may well be a salary cap, but there is no limit on football department operations spending and when clubs like Collingwood are turning over 85 plus million a year, that is the force these smaller clubs are going to have to deal with for ever.

It’s dog eat dog and Essendon, Carlton and Collingwood are the big dogs, everyone else in Melbourne may well get eaten themselves in 50-100 years time.

All the people asking for the Melbourne Football club to be booted from the competition have a fare argument. All those asking for them to be relegated also have a fare point, but considering this is not how the AFL system works, it just isn’t going to happen. The very fact the TV rights deal means we must have 9 games each week also means they won’t be going anywhere any time soon.

HOWEVER, in my opinion this club has 4 years left to prove it self. It has had 10 years now at the bottom, resulting in a lot of 1st round draft picks including many concessional picks due to tanking, which is not only disgraceful, but embarrassing for this club to be were they are after this 10 year period.

4 years, that is it, because after this period will be the new TV rights and I would tear shreds off the AFL commission if they continue to prop this pathetic football club up after this. They have done nothing to help themselves, the coach doesn’t need to go (although I do believe he is a useless coach), but the CEO and president of the club first. Appoint a new board and then let them decide on a whether the coach should stay. If not a new coach is brought in and then a new FRESH beginning can occur.

Should this occur then I might be sympathetic towards the romance of keeping one of the OLDEST football clubs in the world alive in the AFL. Saying this, I am a firm believer of capitalism and survival of the fittest. If the Melbourne football club can not stand on its own two feet after 150 plus years of football, then they are a dinosaur that deserves to become extinct in the modern world of football, simple as that.

I would much rather the AFL sink perfectly good money in Tasmania, North Queensland, hell even NZ football development with the hope of a team arising in the next 5-10 years. Sinking money into a club with 150 years of history is very noble and touching, but the reality is this game needs to keep growing and become the true pre-eminant power of Australian sport.

The not so Mighty D’s I do not see as part of that landscape.

Well I’m going to give the counter argument, since most here tend to agree with the poster.

Now firstly, I’m not totally disagreeing with what has been said, but there is a very important thing which isn’t in those stats.

As one poster has mentioned above, Buddy is not necessarily a consistent or even big game player, he is a big moment player. He tends to come and go in bursts, which for a opposition coach is nearly impossible to coach and match up against. Now your stats show that indeed Hawthorne are a better team across the board without him, but are they a better team agains the other top 3 teams???

This is where your theory will break down in my opinion, because in 2008 when Geelong were next to invincible, this also just happened to be Buddies best year. Hawthorne were nothing compared to Geelong and some could say that poor kicking cost them the Grand final. Well guess what, poor kicking is poor football, something Buddy better learn fast because this is his main issue.

Players like Buddy are what you need to win premierships against the best. Teams like Hawthorne without Buddy are what you need to get into the final to win the premiership. There is a stark difference between the two and Clarkson knows this.

Buddy is worth every cent they pay him and he wont be going anywhere if Hawthorne what to win future premierships.

Travis Cloke is key to Collingwoods success. Power forwards do not grow on trees and even if they are playing bad then the structure around such a player provides predicability and therefore a contest at the ball, even if Cloke does not fire.

This is where Hawthorne need to change Buddy I believe. Buddies biggest asset is the fact he is unpredictable and inconsistent. Perhaps they could change this slightly by making him provide a more consistent contest at the ball, rather than him doing the lone ranger efforts, which dazzle us all, but quite often result in a rebound attack that can seriously hurt against the best teams.

I don’t have the answers, if I did I guess I would be an AFL coach, but Buddy is a valuable asset and I wouldn’t be letter him go under any circumstance.

Remember, Hawthorne were one kick away from winning the premiership, so they must be doing a lot of things more right than wrong.

The biggest problem is the ego of personalities like Kennet. He seems to believe this current Hawthorne team full of talent should easily with a premiership. What happened to him and Hawthorne last year is the same thing as what happened to Geelong. A premiership was stolen from them, but tough sh…t , he needs to eat it up and move on because Flags were suppose to be tough too win.

I disagree entirely with both the article and what has been said thus far.

The Bronchos have been one of the most successful and more importantly one of the most consistent teams in not only the NRL but all sporting landscapes throughout the world.

You can take any snap shot in time when things are bad and come to any negative conclusion you like, but great clubs do not make knee jerk reaction decisions to current events until they become a trend. This is how you build powerful football clubs and you only have to look around the world and within our own country to see this. This is not to say great clubs do not reform club policy to go with the times, but weak clubs react very differently and never maintain good consistence discipline and structure with in the football club.

The Bronchos just like Manchester United and closer to home Collingwood have always made it policy to never pay over the odds for ANY one, despite who they are. They have always considered junior development the corner stone of sustained success. When you make this policy you can never be held to ransom by mercenary warriors who come and go (Sonny Bill comes to mind). If someone does not want to play for the Bronchos then so be it, out the door. If a suitable replacement is not found at the time then a junior is asked to step up to the plate. Of course recruiting staff will always look for talent outside the system, this is a given in a modern football landscape, but this is always going to happen to EVERY club. The difference is players WANT to play at the Bronchos. Juniors WANT to play at the Bronchos. Great players WANT to play at the Bronchos because they have such great history and tradition of treating their players the right way.

You can not under estimate the Lochyer factor. I defy anyone to come up with a player who has had a more illustrious career than this man. He has won everything that is possible at club level, along with captaining his state and country to victory in everything also. This man is irreplaceable in quite possibly the most important position in the game. He WILL become an immortal in 10-20 years time and if he was a NSW man he would probably be considered the best of all time.

Hunt and Folou, the two best players in their respective positions at the time of defection were both pillaged from the same club. Both players had achieved everything in the same at such a young age, can you just imagine what type of records these guys could have broken had they stayed in the game. These two players a match winners, and ONE club suffered the loss of both in a matter of two years. My goodness, people wake up and look at what you are saying. This club is what other clubs in the NRL should be striving to become and I’m not even a NRL fan.

The Brochos will be fine. They may not win the premiership, hell they may even with the wooden spoon this year, but one thing is for certain… They will challenge for the premiership again in the next 5 years. They always have and they always will.

This is a hard one because Gary Jnr HAS the potential to knock his old man off.

Gary Senior is GOD and always will be GOD. He is the best to ever play the game in my opinion. Perhaps I’m biased being a Catties fan, but in my era of football during the 80’s and 90’s growing up as child, GOD was it. Wayne Carey was exceptional as was Lethal Lee and I don’t think you could split these three for who is the greatest in the modern era of football.

Lethal Lee would be the best the VFL/AFL has ever seen all round simply because he is a 4 x premiership coach also, which is just AMAZING!

Tony Locket was also amazing, but the thing about Plugger was you expected him to kick 100 goals every year, but he never did the impossible. Gazza just did things that you had to rewind and replay to simply believe it happened. Carey took a game by the scruff of the neck and turn it in North’s favour, a totally dominating figure on field. Carey also did twice what Gary could not and that is CAPTAIN is team to 2 premierships, the ultimate honour in any sport.

Therefore the only way in this bloggers opinion that Jnr will surpass his father in the all time greats list is if he captains the Suns to ultimate glory in September. Should he achieve this then I will say it now, he WILL be the GREATEST of all time.

People have gone too far in worshipping a horse?

This country was built on thoroughbred horses, we are a gambling nation having more racing tracks than the USA and Europe combined. We have a public holiday for a HORSE race for Christs sake with the rest of the nation who don’t, well… they just take either the entire day off or a good few hours just to watch the Melbourne cup each year.

The Melbourne Cup is the pinnacle of sport on our calendar each year (all be it for only 3 minutes).

So I actually beg the question. Why would a horse not be revered by the public, especially one that captured the nations heart so enigmatically as the great Black Caviar did?

I don’t use the word great that often, but she is certainly worthy of this title and more than worthy of the best personality of the year award.

great defense will always defeat great attack Gremlin, well most times anyway 🙂

The old saying, “Premierships are built on defense” is soooo true my friend.

Winston,

Sewell, Gunston and Hale are not getting paid $900000 + either!

Buddy is paid to kick goals or assist in goals.

That goal Gunston missed in the fourth quarter came from a direct lay off from Franklin. He could have run onto his left and wound a shot off himself, but he decided he would leave it in lesser hands. Maybe this was confidence, maybe it was doing the team thing, one thing is for sure it didn’t work when it counted most.

Buddy is a liability and there is no reason why a guy that important should be kicking balls consistently out of bounds on the full 40 metres out on a slight angle in a grand finals.

I think Clarkson will seriously look at the offensive structure over the summer because they were disgraceful on Saturday. People can cover it up all they like but this wont help Hawthorn improve.

and that will be their downfall reality

port adelaide power do not have a history this long and if they do that is the problem.

port need to rebrand when they ultimately move to adelaide oval in 2 years time.

if they continue to lose money hand over fist, the AFL will rebrand them to the Southern Power I’m guessing to capture a larger market.

Port Adelaide is to niche, it’s days are number I’m afraid.

Well I called it here yesterday the Storm by 10-14.

Pretty much on the money. In all honesty it wasn’t even a contest, Storm really should have won by 20-26 but they wont be thinking about that.

great job boys, congrats to you all on a job well done.

As a Geelong fan I agree.

2008 all over again except this time it was the Hawks who wasted their opportunities.

Fanklin needs to seriously have someone now have a look at his kicking technique.

poor kicking = poor football = hawthorn football club 2012

no one is better than Billy the kid.

Go the Storm!

Sorry to give you a lesson on facts again oikee but Genghis Kahn along with his empire was not the greatest of them all, the British Empire sh…ts all over them at it’s peak.

I can’t say Genghis Khan has given to much to the world either apart from a mountain riddled waste land with third world living conditions situated between two Empires which squashed it like a bug over time.

History shows all empires crumble to some extend, but the truely great ones give us profound history we carry with us forever. I don’t need to ask you what language you speak my friend, but Britains greatest legacy in my opinion is giving the world the English language. The roman empire gave us some of the most spectacular engineering achievements which still to date are used in modern architecture. Most modern warfare again is based on the discipline the Romans used along with training and I don’t even have to mention art, culture and being the first modern democracy as their major achievements.

The mongels have given us very little and will be remembered as nothing more than a bunch of brutes who got put in their place. They have no legacy that will remain through out time, so when you say Genghis is the greatest of them all, well I just have to laugh at this.

What has this got to do with AFL. Well simple, AFL may well have a tough time (I would expect nothing less of league), but it will leave a lasting legacy on childen and families. This is already being seen through Sydney and again will be highlighted this Friday night.

Understand one thing okiee if anything. Your wandering band of mauraders you call Qlders is an entire state watching 3 games a year which you refer to. When you get to the point where you have an entire competition doing this over 26 weeks and hundreds of games then I think the AFL might start worrying.

Your notion it is a televison game, does not wash either. If this was the case it would have beaten the AFL because according to everyone on this board it far outrates the AFL. Even Ray warren admits that had the commission not comprimised with the grandfinal, not going live with all games, still not having a complete fixture and giving fotel all 8 games LIVE like the AFL did would have cost the NRL between 200-300 million less in revenue. If you don’t believe me then ask anyone here who listens to his talk back radio show during the day and any media commentator that is non biased.

It’s simple, the AFL beat the NRL by a comfortable margin. They did the deal a year before hand so with a CPI of 3 percent last year you can even add on an extra 30-40 million here the NRL is further lagging by. You did the deal last time a year before and still stuffed big time by the AFL.

The facts are quite simple. The AFL did not get any extra money for the two extra teams, but the seed is planted and WILL grow. They could do this BECAUSE they have the resources. The NRL depspite sacrificing coverage still does not have the resources to match the expansiion plans of the AFL. If they did they would have announced this but they are not because they don’t have the funds.

This is a scary thought for you to ponder okiee. Noty only does the AFL for the next 5 years have a superior TV deal money wise, it has a VASTLY superior TV deal coverage wide. Hell I can watch more AFL here in Sydney than I can NRL, now thats sad, it really is for the NRL. It also has two teams which have been guaranteed 220 million over the next 10 years to stay afloat with one of those already turning a profit and in the process contributing in the destruction of one of your so called strong hold QLD clubs.

I don’t think the AFL will be to worried by your Genghis Kahn threats my friend, but like I said, people pray on you because the fear is just oooooooozing out of your keyboard.

You have been weighed, measured and found wanting my friend.

oikee it doesn’t really matter how you want to spin it, the fact is you want this so called war to end, you can smell the fear a mile away in your comments.

i will give you a lesson in business. if you want to expand then expand into your competitions market and make them defend, not the other way around.

I will give you a lesson in war also straight from probably the greatest strategist of them all, Sun Tzu which many of his principals are still used in modern warfare. Defend if you can, attack if you must be always take the fight to your enemy away from homeland. The further away the more protected your citizens become. This is the basic premises and reasoning for our security forces being overseas. They die for our country (and I’m very proud of all our service men and woman) so we do not at the hands of our enemy.

If you want to see it as a war then go ahead, but don’t think it is a good sign you might just pip the swans by a few thousand in your home land this weekend. If this was a war then I would be concerned for you and it is obvious. People pray on the likes of you oikee, they really do.

I personally see this a a business myself. Dick Smith employed this policy in business and to date many other great business men have done the same thing. Find a good product, put your business next to is and do it better. That’s all I will say on the matter, good business my friend, good business!

firstly oikee are you serious?

you sound like you want the war to end (if indeed there is one) which I honestly believe you think there is.

Secondly if there is a war do you really think the NRL has won if they outsell the AFL Saturday night? You really need to stiff what you are shovelling my friend because just on revenue alone the AFL is going to be laughing all the way to the bank. Right after that they are going to take those same funds and probably bribe juniors with it out west. As much as you may despise it, this is a valid tactic at winning the hearts and minds of Sydney folk and you can bet the AFL is going to continue to do it.

Let me correct you on a few things also.

These are not the two biggest clubs, Collingwood and Essendon are. The Crows, West Coast Eagles, Carlton and Richmond are all bigger clubs than the Swans by a fare margin.

Your comments about Qlds being the ultimate supporter even over Collingwood fans. Well you do like doing mismatches dont you. Saying that 2 of the largest NRL clubs playing in Sydney vs your so called 2 largest AFL clubs is a fare match and if the AFL doesn’t win then the war is over really is naive at best.

It is a bit like comparing an entire state vs 1 local AFL club, the fact Collingwood could probably rival the supporter base of an entire state (even if it just lost out) I think is a pretty BIG statement about Collingwood, not SOO as you mention.

I agree Cam Smith is a real gentleman and a great embassador for the game in Melbourne. Being a huge Storm fan I may be biased in saying this but I think he will go down as the very best hooker Australia has seen.

I also think one day he will make an incredible coach and it wouldn’t surprise me if we one day see him at the helm of the Storm leading them to glory.

Back to the aricle at hand. I mentioned the AFL does not have one advantage when it comes to out selling the NRL this weekend. Well I forgot one thing, Collingwood. As much as I hate them, Collingwood have an army of supportes that would put both the Bunnies and Bulldogs combined to shame. They will literally walk no less than 30000 toothless mongrels across the border to watch this game, you have to admire that type of passion for a sporting team.

for those who are saying the storm is limited by the capacity of their stadium, thus wont exceed 31k.

Well I heard Cameron Smith on MMM last night and they asked him if the Storm were disappointed they are not playing at Etiad stadium because the higher powers do not feel it will sell out, hence risk the extra cost.

Typically he answered it politically correct, but if they do get a full house then you can blame the NRL heirachy for not have any confidence in their own product down south and I think that really is the main difference between the AFL and NRL. Confidence!