Coming off their best game of the year the Pies will be looking to continue the momentum against the Eagles who themselves put in a good performance against the Crows at home last week. But it will be a different story this week when they have to travel to Melbourne. Collingwood have made no change while the Coatsters have brought in Daniel Kerr, who announced during the week that he will stay in W.A, and also Beau Waters. Masten and Davis have been omitted. If the Pies can continue that relentless pressure that they put on the Cats last week the Eagles will not get near them. Cloke and Rocca up forward will be far to strong for the Eagles defense and The Eagles just do not have the forwards to kick a winning score. Collingwood by 56 points.

In the game of the Round we see the undefeated Hawks up against the Western Bulldogs down at Aurora Stadium in Tassie. The Bulldogs will come out breathing fire after their heartbreaking loss last week, Brad Johnson especially. Buddy Love again looms as a big threat to the Doggies, as he does most weeks, and look for Tom Williams to get first crack. Franklin has kicked 12 goals in 2 games at Aurora Stadium an he will again be on the goal kicking board this week. The Hawks have made one change, Stuart Dew goes out with a hamstring and Jordan Lewis comes back in. For The Doggies they have made one change as well with Wight beeing omitted and Tiller coming in. Boyd Cooney and Giffen up against Mitchell, Sewell and Lewis will be great to watch and whoever wins that midfield battle will go a long way to determining who wins this game. I am going to tip the upset here and go with the Wester Bulldogs to win a thriller by 2 points.

If the Hawks vs the Bulldogs is the best game of the Round then this would be a close second. The Brisbane Lions take on the North Melbourne Football Club up at the Gabba on Saturday Night and this should be a great contest as well. The Lions have made no change and the Kangas have brough in Urquhart and Daniel Wells will miss with a knee. The Kangaroos are a very consistent team, but the Lions 2 big forwards in Bradshaw and Brown will cause their defense some worries this week. Their defense in probably their weakest part and the Lions will be out to expose them here. The Kangas are coming off a great win last week and will be looking to continue their winning momentum. But I think the Lions will be just that bit to strong for them here ans will win a close one by 21 points.

Look out Carlton, Geelong on the rebound will not be pretty sight. After being smashed last week the Cats will be out to redeem themselves and Carlton will in the gun. Carlton got a first hand look at how to beat the Cats last week and will need to play a similar game style to what the Collingwood team did last wee. I just don’t think they have the players and the discipline to carry that out at this stage. Gary Ablett is Hot as the moment and he racked up 29 touches last week and Nick Stevens also is in some form for the Blues with 28 touches last week. 89 tackles to 49 the Pies had last week and it will be interesting to see how many The Blues can rack up. There has been rumors about the fitness of Chris Judd and whether he will play, I think he will but they will still not get near the Cats. Scarlett on Fevola should be a beauty though. Cats by 49 points.

Up at the SCG on Sunday we will see if The Tigers can get up over the Swans on the small SCG track. The Tigers have had an OK couple of weeks and are coming off a good performance again the Bombers last week. The Swans are the masters at playing this ground and at the moment are ranked No.2 in the clearances department and is an area they will be looking to dominate on the small ground again. Nathan Brown and Matthew Richardson are leading from the front for the Tigers and will need to be playing out of their skin to get the Tigers up here. Sydney have brought in Brennan, Kennelly, and Smith while the Tigers have included Polak, Morton and Tivendale. Tivendale has outstanding in the VFL last week. Up at the SCG the Swans will be to good for the Tigers and should win by 23 points.

This may be a great chance for The Demons to get another win here. St Kilda are on the ropes and playing some ordinary football at the moment. Coach Ross Lyon labeled them SOFT during the week and it will be interesting to see how they come out this week. On paper the Demons should not get near them but in reality they will be giving themselves every opportunity to win this game. Russell Robertson is in some great form and with the inclusion of Jeff White the Demons look a bit stronger than they did against the Hawks last week. Davey, Morton, Valenti and Jamar will miss out and Bode, Dunn, C Johson, Sylvia, Wheatly, White and Yze come into the squad to be finalized tomorrow. For the Saints, well disappointing is all I can say in comes McQualter, Ferguson, Armitage, Gwilt and McEvoy and out goes Fiora and Leigh Fisher. Reiwoldt and Koschitzke should cause the Demon defenders some grief, as should the Saints midfield but they should be causing all sides some grief and they just haven’t been!
I am going to get on the Demons in this one to win by 16 points.

The last game, one that I couldn’t really give two hoots about the Fremantle Dockers take on the Port Adelaide side at Subiaco on Sunday. Fremantle have lost 6 on the trot and have lost the last 4 games after leading at 3 quarter time. Port Adelaide still sit 2 games outside the eight and if the Dockers are up during the later parts of the game you can expect The Power to back themselves in. The Dockers have brought in Drum, Warnock, J Carr and Mark Johnson and out goes Dodd who is injured. Only Brett Ebert, a huge loss, is out of the Port Adelaide side at this stage. The Cornes boys against J Carr should be entertaining and I think the Power will be far to strong and win by 34 points.

AFL Football Blog is currently seeking 2 PEOPLE to join the Blogging Team…..If you have a good knowledge of the game or even if you have strong opinions and views on AFL Football then you are what we are after.

If you already have your own website, blog or forum then you will get guaranteed links back to your site from AFL Football Blog, which has a Google Page Rank of 4 and hundreds of daily readers.

Your writing will be re numerated appropriately and you will be required to write at least 2 articles per week of around 500 - 600 words. These could be anything from your opinion on current happenings in the AFL, Game Previews, Match Reviews, Opinions on how players and or teams are traveling.

Just to make you aware these positions are PAID and it is a great opportunity for you to add some extra cash into your sky rocket. So if you think you have what it takes to take AFL Football Blog to the next level then email me at daniel@aflfootyblog.com

Alan Didak was outstanding for the Pies and he has added to his game the ability to gain a lot of possessions as well as show his stuff in from of goal. Travis Cloke was grabbing everything in the air and was helped by the game of Anthony Rocca. Rocca, while not collecting a lot of the footy played more of a decoy role and lead Matthew Scarlett up the ground and got him out of the way and he kept doing this all game and allowed Cloke a bit more freedom. Dane Swan again racked them up and was fantastic. Dale Thomas started like a house on fire and continued through out the game and capped the game off with a “Daicos” style goal in the last quarter. Wellingham showed that he is going to be a player to watch and was great against his direct opponent Gary Ablett.

The Cats had a bad night and their stars just couldn’t get into the game and were kept under wraps by some discipline Collingwood players. Everyone will be saying that it is a loss that Geelong had to have but now the other clubs may realize that Geelong are human like everyone else and are quite beatable by playing a discipline one on one style of game that negates their time and space that they have been allowed to have over the last 18 months.

Good for Football.

It’s a serious issue, a major issue. If one player gets depression, or his form falls away it could end his career”

A MAJOR ISSUE, give me a break. Players are being told by their clubs to avoid going to such site, I hope that doesn’t include AFL Football Blog !. Although it is easy for people to get onto these forums under aliases and not need to put a name or own up to what they have to say, I put my name to everything that I say here and I couldn’t care less if I say something about a player or club and they don’t like it, it is just my opinion. We have every right to our opinion just as the journo’s like Mark Robinson, Kevin Sheehan, Caroline Wilson etc etc have got a right to theirs.

I am sure that AFL Players are more likely to get depressed about a back page article on The Age or Herald Sun from one of those jouranlists than from Pickles on AFL Online. I agree that the issue of people assuming the identity of a player in a forum like these and making comments as though it is on behalf of the player is wrong and should not be condoned.

Is there is going to become a time when the moderators of these sites are going to be liable for what is posted? In today’s day and age then probably.

Hey I still reckon that St Kilda were wrong in re drafting Fraser Gehrig because he was to old to slow and couldn’t play anywhere else than at the Telstra Dome!

I am sure Fraser is not going to lose any sleep over that comment now is he?

Daniel Anderson
AFL Football Blogger + Cyber Bully????

The Bombers are certainly not in great shape at the moment and there has been a lot of off field talk with board members getting involved in on field issues, not a good thing. Also on talk back radio the other day on SEN there were a huge number of fans calling for Knight’s sacking! Give the guy a go!

Adam Goodes has found hinself in some great form, he was The Swan’s best player 2 weeks ago and was amongst the Vics best last week. He is the player the Bombers need to shut down. Bachar Houli continues to impress for the Bombers and with Fletcher, Mc Veigh and Rama back in the side suddenly the Bomber get some experience back. Sydney at ANZ Stadium is a tough ask at the best of times but the Bombers are down at the moment and I don’t think this is a game they can win.

The Kangaroos take on the West Coast Eagles up at Gold Coast Stadium and this game could break the world record for the least amount of people to a game! For the Kangaroos Riggio, Gibson, Obst and McMahon come in for Pratt, Brown, S.Thompson and Josh Smith. Over in the West Davis, Priddis, Seaby and Staker at the expense of C.Jones (ankle), Waters (thigh), McNamara (thigh) Armstrong. The Eagles have some big outs there but Matt Priddis will be welcomed back. He is a much needed asset in the middle.

The Eagles are in real bad shape and their midfield looks even more depleted now that Kerr is out as well and I just don’t see Priddis being able to take the number 1 role on his own. Goals kicking is another huge issue. Looking at their side on paper and they have named Ben McKinley on the bench. I thought he was the only forward that has been looking dangerous! Brent Harvey is in great touch and will need to be watched closely by the Eagles as will live wire forwards, Thomas and Campbell. The Ruck duel between Cox and McIntosh should be a good one but you would expect Cox to win, he just doesn’t have the cattle around him to take advantage of it. Kangaroos for me easily by 42 points.

AAMI Stadium this week will host the game between the Adelaide Crows and the Melbourne Demons. In Adelaide you would expect The Crows to win quite comfortably but you never know, stranger things have happened, like the Demons actually winning a game! A couple of big INS for the Crows McGregor, Maric, Jericho, Reilly and Rutten and at the moment only Douglas has been omitted. For the Demons in comes Buckley, Bode, P.Johnson and Valenti and out goes only Wheatley at this stage.

Austin Wonaeamirri’s four goals against Fremantle was the talking point in The Demons come from behind win against the Dockers as they broke through for their first win. He is certainly an exiting player and a goal kicker. Brad Miller finally did something for the Demons last game, but if they have to rely on him as their best player to win games then they will not win to many. Robertson was OK up forward and looks dangerous now that he and Kate Cebrano have parted company. The Crows midfield of Van Berlo, Thompson, Mackay, McLeod, Edwards, Porplyzia and Goodwin should run rampant over the Demons. The Crows for me quite easily here by 52 points and the Demons to come back to earth with a thud.

The under siege Fremantle Dockers tackle one of the in form sides in the competition this week in the Western Bulldogs. I like the look of the Doggies this year and they are playing some great footy. But the Dockers, well what more can you say than they got run over by the Demons!

In comes Bradley, Warnock, Campbell, Peake, Black, Duffield and Hayden for the Dockers and out at this stage are Mark Johnson, Gilmore, O’Brien and Murphy. For the Doggies in comes Ray, Skipper and Ward but there are no outs as yet. The Dogs midfield of Boyd, Cross and Cooney have been instumental in their efforts this year and Adam Cooney is in Brownlow Medal winning form. Jason Akermanis is also in great touch up forward and his ability to kick goals from anywhere inside the forward 50 is a great asset. Robert Murphy is another one that is in rare form and was again in good touch for the Vics last week.

What can we say about the Dockers? Well apart from Pavlich there is not much form in their side, really Sandilands should DOMINATE most weeks given his size and the mid fielders should be hungry to play underneath the big man, but he just can’t seem to get any consistency in his football and is a big worry. Even at Subiaco I can’t see the Dockers winning this one and Mark Harvey will again have to face the media attention after another loss. Doggies by 45 points.

This could be the ugliest game of AFL Football for the year down there and both teams will probably play numbers behind the footy. Who will line up up Buddy? that is the question that is asked every week, but this week I can’t see anyone that can go with him? If Toby Thurstans get the job Buddy will have a field day! Port have quite a few outside players I reckon and I think with the conditions going to be the way they are then the Hawks may be to strong over the footy. Kane Cornes will probably go with Mitchell you would think and the Hawks will need to watch the Burgoyne brothers closely. Motlop is another one that will need to be kept quiet. Down there in these conditions I think The Hawks will get up by 32 points.

The Tigers will certainly get a gauge of where they re at when they take on the might of the Geelong Football Club at the MCG on Saturday afternoon. While the Tigers have been playing some OK footy they have not been getting over the line for the 4 points and it will be hard to see them getting them here. With Hail and thunderstorms expected, the Cats are masters in the wet. In their last 2 encounters the Cats have beaten the Tigers by a combined total of 227 points. I don’t think it will be that one way in this game but I think the Cats will win easily.

Matthew Richardson has been in career best form up through the middle of the ground and still managing to score some goals at the same time. Where do you start with The Cats their entire midfield needs to be closely checked and, according to Glenn Archer they have the best Fullback in the game Matthew Scarlett. Joel Bowden has earned a call up and rumours are that his days are numbered as a defender and will find himself up forward and Graham Polakk also returns at the expense of Jackson and Schulz. For the Cats, Ablett has been named but is still in doubt and Stokes is out suspended. Geelong for me in this one, to many big guns.

Saturday Night sees the game between the Carlton Football Club and the Brisbane Lions Football Club at the Telstra Dome. Carlton have won 3 of their last 4 games and go into this game with their tails up while the Lions have not been able to string 2 winning games together. Andrew Carrazzo was outstanding with 42-possessions last game. Daniel Bradshaw is in great form for the Lions and it is hard to see the Blues matching up on him and also the Victorian skipper Jonathon Brown. Cameron Cloke is out for a couple of games with a wrist injury and Cain Ackland comes in to fill his spot. I do not rate Ackland at all and his inclusion alone will make me pick the Lions. Richard Hadley also comes in at the expense of young Ellard.

For the Lions there are some big inclusions, Roe, Drummond, Johnstone, Black and Brown come in and Leuenberger, Henderson, Stiller, Proud and Copeland miss out. The midfield battle should be a good one with Black, Power and Adcock up against Judd, Stevens and Murphy. Daniel Merrett will probably get the job on The Big Fev and that match up will go along way to determining who wins this game. If Fevola does not get 4 - 5 goals it is hard to see who else can kick them. Lions for me in this one.

The Saints have lost 3 out of the last 4 games and only just beat the Tigers by 3 points in their last outing. Mind you The Pies lost the last game by 60 odd points at the hand of the Hawks. Josh Fraser failed to train this morning but on the bright side Anthony Rocca completed training and looks likely to make his return from an ankle injury. Look for Chris Bryan to come in if Fraser does not come up. Nick Riewoldt, Xavier Clarke and Matt Maguire won’t play for the Saints and there’s doubt over Steven Baker, Max Hudghton and Steven King. Stephen Milne was in brilliant form in the round seven win over Richmond with seven goals, but the Saints can’t rely on him to string 2 games in a row together so they had better have another plan.

I am not really convinced about the Saints at the moment I think they are playing some ordinary football and no where near where they should be at. It is a really hard game to pick this one, both sides are low on confidence I reckon and their form is not that great. I just think with the return of Anthony Rocca and in Shane O’bree’s 200th the Pies can get up.

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The Victoria vs Dream Team Match certainly did not disappoint. A game that had star studded line ups, even with the host of players that withdrew was not only a great demonstration of Australian Rules Football but a thoroughly entertaining game. I wonder if Dave caught it on Setanta Sports?

Brendan Fevola, the Allan Aylet Medalist for best on ground, would have been rubbing his hands together with the standard of delivery into the forward line. Rarely did the Victorians miss a target going into the forward 50. Much was spoken about the big 4 forwards of the Dream Team and how the Victorians would struggle to match them up, but the Vics negated the clear possessions from the middle just enough to get over the line. You could tell that at no stage was the game over such was the quality of both sides at the speed at which both teams could score goals.

Andrew McLeoad lead from the front for the Dream Team and provided his customary dash from the back line, Matthew Pavlich and Matthew Richardson also were very good. Peter Burgoyne was the stand out though and just ran amok and collected touches at will, you could see that these type of players were relishing not being tagged as they normally would be in the home and away games. Nathan Foley was the surprise for me, he definitely did not look out of place and proved he can match it with the big boys on the big stage.

Now I need to make a comment on the TV Coverage on Channel 10. They tried a couple of new camera innovations, one of which was the camera on the field umpires. Besides them looking lie they were pregnant, I didn’t want to see the stubble on the cheek of the umpires, what about you?. And what about the pictures of when they were bouncing the ball! All you could see was the grass! There were a couple of new camera shots that could take off though, the one that was on the goal post was OK and the one that looked at the interchange area was good. What I was NOT IMPRESSED with was at the end of the game just after the players were swapping their jumpers, they went to an add break and never came back, instead the coverage of the Turkish Grand Prix started, meaning I along with all the other viewers missed all the Presentations! Shame on you Channel 10 Shame.

Now let’s get back to the real stuff this weekend and there are some great games coming up. SUBSCRIBE to the RSS Feed so you don’t miss any of the action.

The game promises to have mouth watering match up all over the ground and has there ever been a more talent ridden forward line than what the Dream Team will have? Buddy Franklin, Matthew Pavlich, Matthew Richardson, Cameron Mooney, Brett Burton. And what about the midfield of Victoria Judd, Mitchell, Bartel, Goodes then again the Dream Team midfield is not to shabby either, Cox, Kirk, K Cornes, Kerr, Griffen.

It has been almost 10 years since we have seen the Big V run out onto the hallow turf of the MCG and with two line ups like this, who would not be excited? What about this for a passage of play. Simmonds taps to Mitchell, hanballs out to Judd, chip kick to a leading Jonathon Brown, gives it off to a running Jimmy Bartell who puts it lace out on the chest of Brendan Fevola!
or
Cox taps to Kerr who squeezes a handball to Richardson kick towards Pavlich who takes a strong grab dishes off to a running Ryan Griffen who drills a pass to Buddy Love on a long raking lead.

I don’t think the Victorian side can blow the Dream Team out of the water but I think the Dream Team have the potential to do so with their forward set up. If the Victorian midfield can get on top then the Big V forwards are quite capable of kicking the winning score. Victoria for me by 1 point, What better game to showcase the game of Australian Rules Football, I was reading today that it will be even broadcast in America on Setanta Sports .

STICK IT UP EM!!!

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There were however 8 inductees into the AFL Hall of Fame last night and all of them certainly deserve their position. They were:

Kevin Sheedy - Coached Essendon 635 times, 1981-2007 (386 wins, 242 losses, 7 draws), Essendon premierships 1984, 1985, 1993, 2000. Played 251 games, kicking 91 goals for Richmond, 1967-1979, Richmond premierships 1969, 1973, 1974

Geoff Motely - Premierships 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1965
Port Adelaide best-and-fairest 1958, 1959, 1963, 1965, Port Adelaide captain 1959-1966. SA state representative 28 times.

Noel Teasdale - Played 178 games, kicking 71 goals for North Melbourne, 1956-1967 North Melbourne pre-season premierships 1965, 1966 North Melbourne best-and-fairest 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, Brownlow medallist 1965.

Des Tuddenham - Played 251 games, kicking 317 goals for Collingwood and Essendon, 1962-1977. Collingwood captain 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1976 Essendon captain 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975

Gavin Brown - Collingwood premiership 1990, Collingwood best and fairest 1989, 1994, 1997, Collingwood captain 1994-1998, E J. Whitten medallist 1989, 1997.

Glen Jacovich - Played 276 games, kicking 60 goals for West Coast, 1991-2004, West Coast premierships 1992, 1994, West Coast best-and-fairest 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000.

Garry Hocking - Played 274 games, kicking 243 goals for Geelong, 1987-2001, Geelong best-and-fairest 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, Victorian state representative eight times All-Australian 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, Geelong captain 1995, 1999

Tom McArthur - Umpired a national record 502 senior games over four decades from 1959-1985, Officiated in 14 senior QAFL grand finals, Officiated in 10 Queensland state representative matches

A great achievement to all of the above! Alex Jesaulenko was one of the original inductees in 1996 and he became the 22nd man to receive legend status last night