2015 AFL Season Discussion

Don't worry everyone, I'm not going to brag about the dockers (Im not that type of fan), in fact I have a few negatives that as fans of other clubs I'd be interested to hear your thoughts...

1. This is our absolute last chance for a premiership. We're not getting younger.

2. FOURTH QUARTERS!!!- I mean what the hell, it is honestly pathetic.

3. We are not there yet- our draw has been fairly easy, so don't start singing our praises.

Still good to see the two WA Clubs on top and arrogant Victorian clubs like Carlton fighting not to get a wooden spoon.

Matty76 said:

This is what I predicted back in October @Scotty_WCE. A touch off, at this point! As a dear friend would say: "He knows as much about footy tipping as I do about flying spaceships!".
1. Port Adelaide
2. Sydney
3. Geelong
4. Hawthorn
5. Fremantle
6. North Melbourne
7. West Coast
8. Essendon
9. Richmond
10. Adelaide
11. Collingwood
12. Gold Coast
13. Carlton
14. Brisbane
15. GWS
16. Western Bulldogs
17. Melbourne
18. St Kilda

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Yeah, just shows how hard it is to predict the ladder pre-season, always going to be some teams jump up and others slide down more than you were expecting! Choosing who these teams are is the hardest part I reckon.

Jesse Dart said:

Don't worry everyone, I'm not going to brag about the dockers (Im not that type of fan), in fact I have a few negatives that as fans of other clubs I'd be interested to hear your thoughts...

1. This is our absolute last chance for a premiership. We're not getting younger.

2. FOURTH QUARTERS!!!- I mean what the hell, it is honestly pathetic.

3. We are not there yet- our draw has been fairly easy, so don't start singing our praises.

Still good to see the two WA Clubs on top and arrogant Victorian clubs like Carlton fighting not to get a wooden spoon.

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WA footy is looking good so far, remains to be seen if the Eagles can keep up this form and if the Dockers can stay focussed and avoid injuries. But so far so good!

Mick Malthouse has been sacked by Carlton. What a ridiculous, self-serving, unnecessary mess this has become.

The football media - mostly gossip columnists by nature - claim another victim through what I believe amounted to bullying. Yet now, of course, will come the eulogising. As Nathan Buckley stated on Monday, there are a lot of journalists who have made this extremely "personal".

What, then, can be said about the Carlton FC board? A select few seem to survive when there is a coaching casualty at that club.

Robbo has been anti-Mick for some time and certainly lead the charge. Amazing how he can then write a column about social media bullies.

Carlton board are a bunch of muppets, only took two rounds of the season for them to crack and call rebuild after all the pre-season bluster.

Loved how Mick lobbed a nice grenade as he left, claiming Trigg knew Betts going to Adelaide was a done deal 18 months before Betts left.

Is anyone really surprised that the guy who cooked the books at Adelaide is now in charge of a club sinking faster than the Titanic. Endorsed by Gillon McLachlan no less!

Worth a read.
http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-05-27/the-players-who-got-away-from-your-team

What a great photo. KB, Fletch and Tucky. All one-club players. After Saturday night they will have played 1229 games between them. 14 Premierships between them.

Welcome to the 400 club Dustin Fletcher!

All legends.

Surprised no-one has mentioned this yet but what are peoples opinions on Adam Goodes' war dance celebration directed at Carlton fans last night? Sure he is a proud indigenous, but to direct something like that straight at the opposition supporters was just asking for trouble. Buddy is a proud indigenous too but you don't see him carrying on like that. I might be a little bias as I really don't like Goodes. Yes he has been a great player, there's no denying that, his record is fantastic, but in the latter part of his career he hasn't done himself and favours. I could go on about the reasons I don't like him but I wont as it's not what this post is about. What are others thoughts on his war dance? Personally, it was over the top and not the right time. Would have been better if it was done before the game with all the indigenous players from both teams maybe, but not when your team is nearly 10 goals up against a team who's supporters are already on edge. Poor form again by Goodes.

BLOWN8 said:

Surprised no-one has mentioned this yet but what are peoples opinions on Adam Goodes' war dance celebration directed at Carlton fans last night? Sure he is a proud indigenous, but to direct something like that straight at the opposition supporters was just asking for trouble. Buddy is a proud indigenous too but you don't see him carrying on like that. I might be a little bias as I really don't like Goodes. Yes he has been a great player, there's no denying that, his record is fantastic, but in the latter part of his career he hasn't done himself and favours. I could go on about the reasons I don't like him but I wont as it's not what this post is about. What are others thoughts on his war dance? Personally, it was over the top and not the right time. Would have been better if it was done before the game with all the indigenous players from both teams maybe, but not when your team is nearly 10 goals up against a team who's supporters are already on edge. Poor form again by Goodes.

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couldnt agree more, he is a real flog. 1 week he complains about supporters booing him and then he does that??? Great player but carrying on like that and he's australian of the year. No thanks.

Opposition fans are booing him because of the perception he is a flog/diver/stager. No doubt he was a great player, no denying that. I also think it's a bit rich to generalise that all Hawthorn and Blues fans are booing him because of the colour of his skin.

Yeah f--- that noise, I don't buy it for a second.

Here's a thought...

West Coast fans booed Judd, and they were criticised for it.

West Coast fans booed Watson, and they were criticised for it even more.

But fans boo Goodes and suddenly everyone is leaping to the defense of the fans' freedom to boo who they want.

And they hide behind the old "he's a stager/diver" argument. There's plenty of stagers and divers in this game, but Goodes gets singled out and booed from first touch to final siren. Because he dares to use his status to create change within football and society. Because he dared to single out a supporter, singling him out with racial epithets over the fence.

There's two things Australia loves; cutting down successful people, and cutting down anyone who tries to elevate indigenous people beyond an underclass. It upsets their comfortable status quo. You only need to see all the twits making pathetic arguments against the Indigenous round.

As someone who grew up in the Kimberleys and someone who works in an all white environment where people still throw around terms like "coon", I've seen this s--- all my life.

So good on him for giving us a bit of theatre, and giving a little back to the people that boo (and probably more) him. People are acting like he spat in their faces or punched one of them.

And I'm sick to death of hearing a bunch of white guys in suits on Channel 7 and Fox Footy, who rarely leave the comforts of their privileged upper class lifestyle, analyse it like they have half a clue.

Those feigning offense at Goodes being "threatening" need to harden the f--- up.

Lazlow said:

Yeah f--- that noise, I don't buy it for a second.

Here's a thought...

West Coast fans booed Judd, and they were criticised for it.

West Coast fans booed Watson, and they were criticised for it even more.

But fans boo Goodes and suddenly everyone is leaping to the defense of the fans' freedom to boo who they want.

And they hide behind the old "he's a stager/diver" argument. There's plenty of stagers and divers in this game, but Goodes gets singled out and booed from first touch to final siren. Because he dares to use his status to create change within football and society. Because he dared to single out a supporter, singling him out with racial epithets over the fence.

There's two things Australia loves; cutting down successful people, and cutting down anyone who tries to elevate indigenous people beyond an underclass. It upsets their comfortable status quo. You only need to see all the twits making pathetic arguments against the Indigenous round.

As someone who grew up in the Kimberleys and someone who works in an all white environment where people still throw around terms like "coon", I've seen this s--- all my life.

So good on him for giving us a bit of theatre, and giving a little back to the people that boo (and probably more) him. People are acting like he spat in their faces or punched one of them.

And I'm sick to death of hearing a bunch of white guys in suits on Channel 7 and Fox Footy, who rarely leave the comforts of their privileged upper class lifestyle, analyse it like they have half a clue.

Those feigning offense at Goodes being "threatening" need to harden the f--- up.

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@ozguy3825 @BLOWN8 @jefferson @Billyhoyle @Scotty_WCE thoughts?

Hmm, I'm generally don't get fussed about this sort of thing. His explanation after the game, about being taught it by the U16 Indigenous team, seemed fair enough to me. The media seems to be making a mountain out of a molehill in my opinion. I heard Lumumba did it as well today though? That seems a bit bizarre, given as far as I know he's Brazillian and not Indigenous...

Also congratulations to Dustin Fletcher on his 400th tonight, what a huge achievement. I've really been hoping he'd make it and the best part is he has been earning his spot in the team. Also quite underrated as a backman in my opinion, his kicking and speed is incredible for a defender.

Folks, this might be a bit of a lengthy post, however events since Friday night's "drama" have got me thinking.....

Putting the Adam Goodes incident to one side, on a broader scale I am saddened by the increase in personal abuse directed towards players and officials (and even the media) over the last five or so years.

I'm not talking about crowd abuse - although from a personal viewpoint I will probably never again attend an AFL match as I would be unable to bite my tongue at certain comments made by supporters of my own team about perennial whipping boys Matt Suckling and Ryan Schoenmakers, or indeed about opposition players. It probably puts me in the very low percentage, however I have never understood how purchasing a ticket "entitles" someone to say "whatever they want" to a player whilst hiding in a crowded area. Honestly, it's only footy.

The bigger problem though - in my view anyway - is what occurs on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, as well as online forums like Bigfooty. In essence, what exists is a vicious cycle. I (like a lot of you probably) subscribe/follow pages for various newspapers (Herald Sun) and media outlets (Triple M, Fox Footy etc) and a huge part of their business is the ability to encourage fan interaction/responses/opinions relating to footy issues (such as Adam Goodes' war dance).

Unfortunately, we live in a somewhat bitter, jealous, spiteful, angry society in general. I lived most of my childhood during the 1980's and although I didn't follow an actual VFL/AFL team until 1990, I grew up loving the players as well as the sport. My school diary would contain stickers of anyone - I even had the "cuddly" Brisbane Bears foil logo sticker! Whether it was a premiership captain or a second year player, it didn't matter to me. If I could fill the album - or even collect their footy card too! - I was a happy as Larry.
I can't recall a single "flog" or "spud" (or even someone who was "gutless") amongst them.

Today, everyone is a critic. Whilst some are reasoned, a lot are vindictive, uneducated, agenda-driven and callous. The Adam Goodes incident is a classic example. Initially, I felt that his war dance was overly theatrical. Outside that casual observation, I couldn't give a stuff what he did, because it didn't affect or threaten me. However, some saw fit to launch personal, hate-filled attacks on him once again using social media platforms. Why? Does it really affect a casual viewer THAT much? Really??

I reckon there is an "8/10" theory in play here. If you look at almost any general footy-related news item where online reader feedback is facilitated (though message board or via the "reply to post/tweet" function), 8 out of every 10 comments will be negative and you can bet "leftie" that some of those will be personally abusive. We need to take a big step back (to quote Eddie McGuire) here. The fun is being sucked out of the sport by an often deceitful media who hound and harass and harangue players, coaches and officials to an unhealthy degree. The minutiae of every bloody thing is picked apart and analysed to an extent that inevitably generates "the story".

The supporter is no longer trusted to make his or her mind up. We are fed half-truths and concocted rumour-based "stories". Your club bias then dictates which particular version you follow. The Essendon ASADA investigation is a classic example of this. In the Red and Black corner, you had Bombers supporters defending their players, accused on a daily basis of being "undeniable" drug cheats. In the other corner at supporters of 17 clubs, pointing an accusing finger and demanding a myriad of punishments. The Age (Fairfax) became the prosecution and the Herald Sun (News Limited) the defence. Today, we still have no f**king idea who is up who, or who did what....or even if who's on first still!

My point (elongated as it has been) is that it is still OK to enjoy footy. Last night I watched a game between Adelaide and Fremantle, neither of whom I support. The game saw three phenomenal goals (Eddie Betts x 2 and Michael Barlow at the end) and a head-to-head battle for the ages between Patrick Dangerfield and Nathan Fyfe. It was the game at its purest and most exciting. In fact, I actually leapt (poetic licence here folks!) and clapped the Michael Barlow goal.

Adam Goodes performing a ten second war dance as a once-off during a round celebrating indigenous players - and the ensuing vitriol - is not what I will take from the weekend, or comment on whilst using my social media account. Instead, I will recall the sportsmanship of Gary Rohan on Friday night, the beauty of Fyfe, the bullocking of Dangerfield, the audacity of Betts, the glee of Bob Murphy following his left-foot snap yesterday, Dusty's 400th and Richmond's new-found discipline.

We need to take our game back!!

Matty76 said:

Instead, I will recall the sportsmanship of Gary Rohan on Friday night

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A very good post, as usual Matt, but I just wanted to highlight the bit above.

Sportsmanship is severely lacking in sport today. I am too young to know what things were like more than 10 years ago, but the fact I can't remember the last time a player helped an injured opponent like Rohan did says it all.

In my opinion winning should never come at the expense of sportsmanship. A few weeks ago in the Port Adelaide vs West Coast game, Hamish Hartlett had a shot at goal, which brushed the inside of the post. The goal umpire didn't see it and was about to call it a goal, to the protests of Eagles defenders. However, Hartlett himself was pointing out that it hit the post the moment he saw the goal umpire hesitate. He easily could have started celebrating with his teammates in the hope of deceiving the umpire, but instead he did the sportsmanlike thing. He gained a lot of my respect from that incident.

To just go off an a bit of a tangent (I have been thinking about this a lot recently and wanted to see what others think), AFL and cricket are the two sports which I love. Cricket has been suffering from issues regarding sledging and on-field behaviour in the last couple of years. In my opinion sledging is a blight on the so-called "gentleman's game". I have no problem with friendly banter between opponents, there's nothing better than seeing two opponents chuckling at something that's been said on the field. But when it gets nasty (e.g. Michael Clarke's infamous expletive-laden "broken arm" rant at Jimmy Anderson) the game just loses all its fun. The same applies for AFL in my opinion.

I guess what I'm trying to say is sport should be played in the right spirit and enjoyed, whether viewing or playing, and while a win is great it's not the be-all and end-all. Respect the game and your opponent, just like Hartlett and Rohan did. I believe if this attitude was more broadly adopted, the vicious personal attacks on players such as the ones on Goodes would be mostly avoided.

I guess I have accepted that sports have changed to reflect society these days. Everything is driven by the media and what we see in social media, and I don't have a problem with it. Media doesn't influence how I feel about a subject. I base my own views on how I feel about something, not how many times the media can exploit it on facebook etc. An issue I have is we are all told to treat all races as the same, yet special treatment and acknowledgment are given to some and not others. Why can an aboriginal man call me white but I cant call him black? Isnt that the same thing? If I get upset about being called white no-one cares, but if an aboriginal man gets upset about being called black its racist? I think if we are all to move on from dividing different races we need to drop all the double standards. I have no issue acknowledging anyone who makes a contribution to sport, but when does it stop? I think we all have made a contribution to this great game, not just white and black, but from all over the world, everyone has left an imprint on the game, and I love that fact. But when we start acknowledging one group but not another, that's where I see an issue. I think we could go on all day about it. Just a quick view id like to express, I truly think everyone in this country this day and age has the same opportunities as anyone else, regardless of origin or race, it's what you make it and how you take these opportunities.
Back to Adam Goodes and his war dance, how did he truly think it was going to be viewed by the public? He directed it right at the opposition supporters, the dance depicted throwing a spear at someone, honestly! If he really thought deep down that if would'nt cause a stir or upset anyone he isn't a very smart man.

The whole thing for me with Goodes is (altho not Goodes problem) u can call people/players weak, fat, ranga etc but a young girl who probably didnt even know what she was saying was singled out by Goodes and booted from the ground. I feel imo that he is happy to give but not take. At the end of the day he is an AFL player and paid well to play a game for a living. I was actually a Goodes fan as a player but am no longer a fan of him on or off field. My thought on racism is that we cant move forward if we keep looking back. Happy for the culture and education going forward but in my experience is racism is a 2 way street, i've been racially taunted and im white. We as a country have said sorry for the past, if aboriginals and other races want to move forward then stop digging up the past and lets move ahead and grow as a country. The media do blow these things up way to much. But do u ever hear in the news that a white person has been called all these racist name from a non white person??? no, lets all move on. 1 more thing that got me tho is he wasnt happy about being booed so he goes out and does his dance at the carlton supporters which would insight angry from them. After all it was a "War" dance. I dont condone racism but it does go both ways. If i can brush it off easy enough then why cant other if its not to bad of course.

Goodes? Yep over it. Storm in a teacup.

Essendon? Sick of this play on handball to whoev er at all costs and cough up the under pressure rushed kick bullshit!! We could learn a lot from the way the Tigers calmy and methodically chipped around at times until a forward thrust beckoned. Underwhelming game overall though. Best Ellis, Deledio and Fletcher just for getting 400. Never thought I'd see another one. Bloody champ footballer and champ bloke to top it off.

Kangaroos? Dispeciable 3rd quarter wasteful forward entries then magpies swooped amazingly, kicking their highest Quart score in 3 years. I'm supposed to hate the Pies but hey, I used to live near Collingwood and Its a cool place!

thats my 2cents worth on this freezing bloody morning.

What are your thoughts?

http://thesportport.com.au/2015/06/01/the-good-the-bad-the-ugly-8

HUGE match for us this Sat evening Vs Cats. Will be a near-capacity 50 000 80% bombers crowd.

Had a couple of punts one $6 on Essendon to win by over 15 I think. Its likely we'll bounce back strongly, though Zakka and Fletch missing will REALLY hurt. Hooksy #1 for intercept marks in league but also gives away lots of clangers.

Carlsile needs a big game. SHocking set shot kicking last weekend.

Cats are a bogey team for us though like a lot of teams. They beat us in a close one around the same time last year. Tough to pick a winner. Bartel missing for them is huge he is a very very good footballer......

thoughts?