AFL thread

[Jinxy]

yeah collingwood were good but they are blowing alot of hot and cold. i can't wait for the sydney swans v collingwood game on 5th July that should be a cracker.

on another note wasn't sure whether to start a thread or leave it in here but the world gaelic football championship, aka international rules, is back on this year. any opinions on it? talks of more socialising between the players inbetween the two games. My prediction aussies to win again and ireland to kick and scream and take their ball home. The series will be banished forever and ever.

Have you ever played the game?

[Stevo Da Gull]

yeah collingwood were good but they are blowing alot of hot and cold. i can't wait for the sydney swans v collingwood game on 5th July that should be a cracker.

on another note wasn't sure whether to start a thread or leave it in here but the world gaelic football championship, aka international rules, is back on this year. any opinions on it? talks of more socialising between the players inbetween the two games. My prediction aussies to win again and ireland to kick and scream and take their ball home. The series will be banished forever and ever.

Yeah, I've heard the rules have been tinkered to lean more in favour of the GAA lads. I'd say the games will be closer with Aus still winning probably followed by Ireland's superior athletes kicking and screaming and taking their ball home.

[padjoe]

Have you ever played the game?

actually jinxy i have played the game. i played it in the turkey cup in LA back in 2006 with a local GAA team against a local AFL team both of whom i played with. Apart from the mark, the interchange, two referees, the tackle (which will be gone), six points for a goal and the four posts what really do the AFL have in it.

[Jinxy]

We decided we'd play IR at training one evening for the craic. Everyones natural instinct when they caught the ball (mark) was to play on. This wasn't really punished however as nobody knew how to do the tackle properly and the natural instinct was not to dive in and give away a free. You are trying to get lads to switch off 10-15 years of gaelic football training. Tackling and marking is the Aussies bread and butter. Sure its a round ball instead of oval, but everyone has kicked a soccer ball, or thrown a basketball around at some stage in their life so its not that big of a leap. A good low ball into a forward in gaelic football is a suicide pass in IR. You can't put a pass into space for a man to run onto as the lad behind him can just grab him as soon as he gathers possession. No sidesteps, no dummy solos because they are no use as the tackler is not trying to dispossess you he's trying to get you on the ground. To say it is basically gaelic football is so far off the mark it's not even in the same time-zone.

[padjoe]

We decided we'd play IR at training one evening for the craic. Everyones natural instinct when they caught the ball (mark) was to play on. This wasn't really punished however as nobody knew how to do the tackle properly and the natural instinct was not to dive in and give away a free. You are trying to get lads to switch off 10-15 years of gaelic football training. Tackling and marking is the Aussies bread and butter. Sure its a round ball instead of oval, but everyone has kicked a soccer ball, or thrown a basketball around at some stage in their life so its not that big of a leap. A good low ball into a forward in gaelic football is a suicide pass in IR. You can't put a pass into space for a man to run onto as the lad behind him can just grab him as soon as he gathers possession. No sidesteps, no dummy solos because they are no use as the tackler is not trying to dispossess you he's trying to get you on the ground. To say it is basically gaelic football is so far off the mark it's not even in the same time-zone.

while i can't really disagree with your post... you could always turn around and say your asking lads to switch off 10-15 years of aussie rules. Yes everyone has kicked a soccer ball at some stage but when you are concentrating on kicking an oval ball most days the end result is a banana kick and it is hard to maintain the accuracy.

9 out of 10 an AFL player will run on from the mark. sidesteps and dummy solos are a bane of Gaelic Football just like the short handpass.

It should be take the ball and release the ball long immediately.

If they want to learn to tackle then they need to fly out an aussie coach for a couple of weeks or months.

But having played and watched both games for a number of years I'll always contend that the rules lean more in favour of the Irish lads. But i can't argue with your post either.

if ireland are to beat the aussies they have to have height as their backbone up the middle of the park and they need to start kicking high into the forwards. I'm going to contradicate myself here immediately by saying that need a mixture of Ulster and Kerry style football approach to taking on the Aussies with a handful of Dubs. The likes of Colm Cooper are too lightweight to play.

[padjoe]

Stynes becomes new Demons chairman

FORMER Melbourne Brownlow Medallist Jim Stynes has been installed as Melbourne's new chairman at a board meeting at the MCG.

Stynes was one of seven new directors, with three of the incumbent directors staying on to make up a 10-member board.

Outgoing chairman Paul Gardner said he and the other directors who resigned were happy to make way for the revamp of the board because they were convinced Stynes had the energy and expertise needed to help the embattled club.

Stynes said he was yet to fully come to grips with the extent of the club's financial problems, with the Demons believed to be headed for a loss of about $1.5 million this year.

But he said he was certain he and his new board could lift the Demons out of the mire, with driving up the club's membership base his key priority.

An emotional Stynes said he had been driven to throw his support behind Melbourne to ensure the club was never forced to fold or relocate.

"I would like to watch with my son knowing one day he will watch his beloved Demons run out on to the MCG sitting alongside his own children," Stynes said, while pausing several times to hold back tears.

"You never know, he might be playing for his beloved Demons, every father's dream."

Stynes said when he arrived from Ireland as a youngster he never believed he would make it as an AFL footballer, but he said as he entered the chairmanship of the club, he was certain he could make that position a success.

Stynes played 264 games for Melbourne from 1987-98, and won four club best and fairest awards, alongside the 1991 Brownlow.

The Demons are amid a wretched season, having one just one of their 11 games and are last on the ladder.

[padjoe]

Round 12

Essendon 113 v 91 West Coast Eagles
Western Bulldogs 131 v 68 Brisbane Lions
Fremantle 120 v 67 North Melbourne
Sydney 102 v 67 St Kilda
Adelaide 72 v 76 Hawthorn
Geelong 108 v 49 Port Adelaide
Collingwood 89 v 119 Carlton
Richmond 116 v 94 Melbourne

[paul_oshea]

does anyone else think stynes is a bit of a ****?

[Stevo Da Gull]

Adelaide 72 v 76 Hawthorn

Geelong 108 v 49 Port Adelaide
Collingwood 89 v 119 Carlton

Adelaide game was tough viewing, suppose they have to lose some close one's as well. As for the other 2...

[Jinxy]

does anyone else think stynes is a bit of a ****?

Yes. You're either Irish or Australian, not both.
As Stephen Colbert says, "Pick a side, we're at war."

[Stevo Da Gull]

Oops I bet on : Port Adelaide v Richmond - Richmond +20.5 @ 5 - 6,
West Coast v Geelong - West Coast +32.5 @ 5 - 6 and
Brisbane Lions v Adelaide - Adelaide @ 7 - 4

[SilkCut]

while i can't really disagree with your post... you could always turn around and say your asking lads to switch off 10-15 years of aussie rules. Yes everyone has kicked a soccer ball at some stage but when you are concentrating on kicking an oval ball most days the end result is a banana kick and it is hard to maintain the accuracy.

9 out of 10 an AFL player will run on from the mark. sidesteps and dummy solos are a bane of Gaelic Football just like the short handpass.

It should be take the ball and release the ball long immediately.

If they want to learn to tackle then they need to fly out an aussie coach for a couple of weeks or months.

But having played and watched both games for a number of years I'll always contend that the rules lean more in favour of the Irish lads. But i can't argue with your post either.

if ireland are to beat the aussies they have to have height as their backbone up the middle of the park and they need to start kicking high into the forwards. I'm going to contradicate myself here immediately by saying that need a mixture of Ulster and Kerry style football approach to taking on the Aussies with a handful of Dubs. The likes of Colm Cooper are too lightweight to play.

Why do people even bother to discuss this sham of a series. Dont get me wrong the game itself is fantastic - high scoring and fast - but as long as the GAA continue to send amateurs out to do battle with pros - who happen to weigh about 10kg's per man heavier, are faster, more athletic and better prepared - we are going to be beaten. Also any Irish player who happens to perform well will be snapped up by the AFL. The days when this was a fair contest are gone. AFL players are incredible athletes now, and as typical Aussies they will take no prisoners and have no mercy on the field of play, not their fault the Irish boys cant take the physicality of the game you can only play what is put in front of you. They wont even have to put out a team of first rate players to embarrass us.

[padjoe]

Why do people even bother to discuss this sham of a series. Dont get me wrong the game itself is fantastic - high scoring and fast - but as long as the GAA continue to send amateurs out to do battle with pros - who happen to weigh about 10kg's per man heavier, are faster, more athletic and better prepared - we are going to be beaten. Also any Irish player who happens to perform well will be snapped up by the AFL. The days when this was a fair contest are gone. AFL players are incredible athletes now, and as typical Aussies they will take no prisoners and have no mercy on the field of play, not their fault the Irish boys cant take the physicality of the game you can only play what is put in front of you. They wont even have to put out a team of first rate players to embarrass us.

i completely agree and thats why i'd prefer to see the hybrid of the aussie rules and nfl reborn from the second world war which was called austus.

http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/categ...t-hybrid-game/

"American servicemen arrived in Australia shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and by mid-1942, as many as 30,000 Americans were stationed in Melbourne, and more were stationed in Brisbane, where General Douglas MacArthur moved his headquarters in early 1943. The Australian soldiers didn't like the Americans very much, in no small part because they had more money, better uniforms, and much more charm around the local ladies.

Looking for some common ground, the Americans decided to reach out to the locals with a series of football exhibitions to help support local war charities. The local, though, didn't like American football very much -- too much time in between plays, too many strange rules and formations, etc. Observers seemed to enjoy watching forward passes, but they just didn't happen enough to keep people's interest

The Australian soldiers saw that as an opportunity to introduce their form of football to the visitors, and the Americans suddenly understood why the Aussies seemed so bored by American football. Australian football had much more freedom of movement and nonstop action than their game. They decided to try competing with their Australian hosts at Australian football.

That proved to be a bad idea. Aussie Rules is a kicking game, and by the early 40s, kicking had already become a relic in American football. The shape of the football changed in 1934 to help quarterbacks improve the accuracy of their forward passes, and drop kicking had been replaced with placekicking. So the Aussies were using their kicking skills to kick the Americans' butts up and down the oval pitch.

Clearly, something had to be done to fix this crisis in competitive balance. That's when Ern Cowley, a former Aussie Rules hero who at the time was baseball editor of the Melbourne Sporting Globe, came up with a brilliant idea...

One of the central tenets of Australian football is the mark. Any player who catches a kick that's 15 yards or longer can "mark the ball" and take a free kick from behind the spot of the catch. Cowley, who knew that the Americans were much better at passing the ball than kicking it, created a game based on Aussie Rules that allowed players to mark the ball after catching a forward pass.

Thus was born Austus, a hybrid of Australian and American football games that allowed the servicemen from different countries to play football against each other. Austus matches began to draw big crowds in 1943, in part because of the game's novelty, but also because of the much more balanced competition. The Australians continued to kick, but the Americans proved highly accurate with the pass, which wowed the spectators and made for very close and very exciting matches. Austus matches allowed both countries' servicemen raise large sums of money for various war charities and helped bring the two countries a little closer together.

There was hope that Austus matches would continue after the war, but alas, that was not to be. Once American forces returned home, they resumed playing American football, and the Australians went back to playing Aussie Rules. Austus faded into a remote corner of history and was forgotten."


At the same time i am looking forward to this year's compromise rules series but mainly because the irish lads are stopping off in NSW to play a local selection in a gaelic football exhibition.

[Stevo Da Gull]

Great game just ended on Setanta 2. Port Adelaide 74-76 North Melbourne, Port had a great chance to win the game with 30 seconds to go after a forward (I think) took a mark at an angle but it was still a great chance but he kicked a behind. That was a tight game!

[padjoe]

Great game just ended on Setanta 2. Port Adelaide 74-76 North Melbourne, Port had a great chance to win the game with 30 seconds to go after a forward (I think) took a mark at an angle but it was still a great chance but he kicked a behind. That was a tight game!

Yeah that was a great game. I watched the swans v hawthorn game yesterday incredible game. Hawthorn are surely favourites to win the grand final. they just have so much fluency and consistency to their game. Tadgh Kenneally is such legend and an incredible player. Well earns his 200,000 a year. Dislocated his shoulder three times against Hawthorn and just popped in back into place and kept playing no problem to him. I'm trying to find it on youtube but it aint there.

[Stevo Da Gull]

I got to see the weekend round-up today, Dean Solomon's elbow on Ling was a bit nasty. Plenty of good games this weekend, hopefully Adelaide turn their form around against Port Adelaide next weekend... more injuries again this weekend though, it looks like they'll suffer in the play-offs at the end of the year if they make it. Burton will be a loss but I hear he's considering some new special surgery.. read here : http://www.afc.com.au/tabid/4417/Def...x?newsid=63246

[padjoe]

Watch out GAA the Sydney Celtics are coming for your best players. Yes the new Sydney franchise which was to be aim primarily at west sydney's asian and arabic communities is set but not confirmed to be a club with irish connections. it hasn't been greeted with a warm response here and the new gold coast club could be shelved because of the recession kicking in here.

http://news.smh.com.au/sport/afl-con...0712-3dwo.html

[Stevo Da Gull]

Well, it's finals time folks!!

[Stevo Da Gull]

I didn't get to see Adelaide's decisive game, thankfully http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/s...016212,00.html

Semi's:
St Kilda - Hawthorn
Geelong - Bulldogs

Gotta say Geelong to win, not exactly a bold prediction though.

[Rebel11]

Have my ticket for the game on Sat come on the Hawthorns i will win a nice few quid if they win. Should be a great game