MTO Footy Tipping Comp.

[Phoenix]

EM, what did you make of the game last night?

I picked the Hawks in all 3 of the footy tipping comps I'm contesting.
To my surprise, the Cats were pretty good all night, they played an honest and accountable game for the four quarters.

A couple of shit umpiring decisions nearly ruined the night, especially the alleged interchange infringement (wrong decision that cost us a goal) and to a lesser extent the deliberate out of bounds given against Geelong.

The abysmal goal kicking of both sides was disappointing.

I was really happy with the performance of most of Geelong's young kids, particularly as the game wore on and the pressure mounted.

Buddy is shit, maybe he can fuck over the weak sides but most of the top sides seems to curtail his influence, too much of a downhill skier for my liking.
Lake was very ordinary in the first half IMO and you still seem to have issues down back.

I have a renewed belief in this Geelong side for 2013, after a really disappointing month before a turnaround of sorts after last weeks game against Freo.
Varcoe is ready to come back in after a 3 month injury and he'll inject a shitload of speed coming off half-back and running through the midfield.
We're starting to get on top of our injuries, with question marks only on Hamish McIntosh and Chapman, out of our more experienced players.

I still think Hawthorn and the Swans are the 2 danger sides but like in our 2011 premiership year we've already beaten the 'favourites', Hawthorn twice already and the Swans once with another game later to come in the home and away season, but it's still early days.

At the moment I'm starting to believe that the 'curse' is real.

Speaking of 'curses', did anybody see Richmond's banner before their game against North, they had something about they'll be talking about the 'F' word after their game against North...

[EgejskaMakedonia]

EM, what did you make of the game last night?

I picked the Hawks in all 3 of the footy tipping comps I'm contesting.
To my surprise, the Cats were pretty good all night, they played an honest and accountable game for the four quarters.

A couple of shit umpiring decisions nearly ruined the night, especially the alleged interchange infringement (wrong decision that cost us a goal) and to a lesser extent the deliberate out of bounds given against Geelong.

The abysmal goal kicking of both sides was disappointing.

I was really happy with the performance of most of Geelong's young kids, particularly as the game wore on and the pressure mounted.

Buddy is shit, maybe he can fuck over the weak sides but most of the top sides seems to curtail his influence, too much of a downhill skier for my liking.
Lake was very ordinary in the first half IMO and you still seem to have issues down back.

I have a renewed belief in this Geelong side for 2013, after a really disappointing month before a turnaround of sorts after last weeks game against Freo.
Varcoe is ready to come back in after a 3 month injury and he'll inject a shitload of speed coming off half-back and running through the midfield.
We're starting to get on top of our injuries, with question marks only on Hamish McIntosh and Chapman, out of our more experienced players.

I still think Hawthorn and the Swans are the 2 danger sides but like in our 2011 premiership year we've already beaten the 'favourites', Hawthorn twice already and the Swans once with another game later to come in the home and away season, but it's still early days.

At the moment I'm starting to believe that the 'curse' is real.

Speaking of 'curses', did anybody see Richmond's banner before their game against North, they had something about they'll be talking about the 'F' word after their game against North...

Haha, I was looking out for this post.

Thought it was a rather scrappy game for the most part. Geelong applied a huge amount of pressure which caused us to make a lot of errors. I thought we were very indecisive going forward. We'd either hand-ball to someone who was manned, or we'd try to take on a whole bunch of players to no avail. The delivery into the forward line really lacked that finesse. The cats were the better team on the night and deserved the win.

In regards to the umpires, there were poor decisions for both sides. Buddy was constantly held and man-handled all night long, yet rarely was awarded a free-kick. That's no excuse for his sub-par performance however, and I still think he is an overrated player. Roughy may not be as exciting as Buddy, but I'd pick him any day over Buddy. Roughy's kicking still needs a fair bit of improvement, and it seemed like both teams were lacking in their goal-kicking skills last night.

Speed isn't one of our strengths, and we saw the likes of Motlop and a few of the other Geelong kids run our players off their legs. You've got a lot to look forward to with that mob. Lake had a poor first half, but I thought his second half was solid. He was able to take a number of composed marks down back, but too many times Geelong had free players running everywhere. We still have a number of key players to come back into the side, especially in the backline.

Make no mistake, Geelong are genuine contenders for the flag. They've shown they can beat the best and that could very well make them the best come September. I'm not too concerned with last nights loss though. Many Hawks fans have gone into meltdown, but I was rather calm. This is not the way we will play in the finals. I think both teams are hiding their respective strategies for the finals. It's a matter of not showing one's cards too early. Even Clarkson was not too fussed with the loss. Yes, it would've been nice to beat the Cats and achieve our all-time winning streak record, but at the end of the day the game was somewhat meaningless in the sense of the ladder.

The possibility of a Hawks v Geelong GF is enough to make any footy fan jump about. It's a scenario that would complete the epic fairy tale should the Hawks win. Yet to lose would render the 08 GF excuse for the past 11 defeats as invalid. Part of me wants the Hawks and Cats to face off in the GF, and another part hopes for Geelong to get knocked out before we can even meet them. That said, the hatchet must be buried sometime, and what better match than the GF.

[EgejskaMakedonia]

Oh ye, and 85,000 at last nights match. More than the Collingwood v Carlton game on Friday night. Both Hawks and Cats fans should be very proud of that turn-out. It's evidence that we have a genuine rivalry between the two teams, which is what we want in footy.

[Phoenix]

...The possibility of a Hawks v Geelong GF is enough to make any footy fan jump about. It's a scenario that would complete the epic fairy tale should the Hawks win. Yet to lose would render the 08 GF excuse for the past 11 defeats as invalid. Part of me wants the Hawks and Cats to face off in the GF, and another part hopes for Geelong to get knocked out before we can even meet them. That said, the hatchet must be buried sometime, and what better match than the GF.

Hawthorn is still the team I fear most, even though we've had the better of the Hawks for the past 11 games I've never been comfortable watching any of those encounters.

[lavce pelagonski]

Jezza leads Multicultural Team of Champions

By David Schout2:35pm AEST Tuesday, July 9, 2013


Alex Jesaulenko has been named captain of the Multicultural Team of the Century
Related

Dipper's culture club

THE AFL/VFL's best 22 multicultural players since 1896 have been selected in the first Australia Post Multicultural Team of Champions.

Some of the game's best-known international stars, including three current players and one coach, were announced in the team as part of Multicultural Round celebrations.

A selection panel including AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou, Carlton coach Mick Malthouse and TV commentator Dennis Cometti picked its best 22 players with international ties to have played the game from 1896-2013.

It is a team that possesses sublime skills, dash and daring, with a defence as balanced as any ever assembled, a hard-edged, attacking midfield and a forward line loaded with scoring power.

To be eligible, players must have either been born overseas or have at least one parent born overseas.

Ukrainian-born Carlton legend Alex Jesaulenko was named as captain while Jock McHale was named as coach.

AFL deputy CEO Gillon McLachlan paid tribute to the various cultures that make up the game at a special event at Crown in Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon.

"Multicultural players have made an enormous contribution to the history of Australia's game and this team importantly celebrates multicultural talent and diversity in the AFL," he said.

"Among the Multicultural Team of Champions are 12 AFL Hall of Fame inductees, three players who have Legend status, and together 44 AFL premierships have been won."

Nick Riewoldt (Germany), Simon Black (New Zealand) and Daniel Kerr (India) were the only current players selected in the team, and John Worsfold (England) the only present-day coach.

The most represented countries were Italy (six selections) and England (four), while Ireland, New Zealand and Greece all had two players in the multicultural 'dream team'.

While the majority of names in the team are familiar fan favourites, two selections on the interchange bench will not be as recognised by many.

The first is Frenchman Allan La Fontaine, who became a Melbourne legend when he captained the club during its hat-trick of premierships from 1939-41.

The elusive midfielder died in 1999, less than a year before being named in the centre in Melbourne's Team of the Century.

Another selection is Charles Henry 'Charlie' Pannan, whose name was shortened from Pannamopoulos after migrating to Australia from Greece.

Pannam became a Collingwood legend after 179 games from 1897 to 1906, but perhaps his greatest link to modern football is as the grandfather of another Collingwood legend, Lou Richards.

The AFL last week selected a squad of 50 nominees for the team, from which the final team was named.

Some notable names to miss the final cut include Brownlow medallists Jason Akermanis and Tony Liberatore and former St Kilda forward Stewart Loewe.

Sixteen of the 22 players selected made their debut on or after 1980, reflecting a greater influence of multicultural talent in the modern game.

Hawthorn legend Robert DiPierdomenico, today named in the final 22, last Thursday picked his best multicultural side on AFL.com.au.

The Australia Post AFL Multicultural Team of Champions:

B: J. Worsfold (England) S. Silvagni (Italy) M. Scarlett (England)

HB: W. Schwass (New Zealand) G. Jakovich (Croatia) A. Koutoufides (Italy, Greece)

C: R.DiPierdomenico (Italy) I. Stewart (Italy) P. Matera (Italy)

HF: A. Jesaulenko (Ukraine, Russia) N. Riewoldt (Germany) D. Brereton (Ireland)

F: P. Bell (Korea) A. Lynch (England) P. Daicos (Macedonia)

Foll: R. Cazaly (England, Scotland) S. Black (New Zealand) D. Kerr (India)

I/C: A. LA Fontaine (France) C.H. Pannam (Greece) S. Rocca (Italy) J. Stynes (Ireland)

Coach: Jock McHale

Captain: Alex Jesaulenko

Selection panel: AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou, Australia Post managing director and CEO Ahmed Fahour, AFL general manager national and international development Andrew Dillon, Carlton coach Mick Malthouse, Seven Network commentator Dennis Cometti, AFL national talent manager Kevin Sheehan and AFL historian Col Hutchison.

[makedonche]

Lavce
Well spotted! Absolutely priceless, can't wait to buy the official framed team!!!

[EgejskaMakedonia]

Just going to leave this here. Possibly the biggest flog going around in the AFL at the moment. Oh, and his brother of course.

[Phoenix]

If it's flogs that you want, you can't go past this bloke...





The biggest FLOG ever...lying farken bastard...

[Big Bad Sven]

Just going to leave this here. Possibly the biggest flog going around in the AFL at the moment. Oh, and his brother of course.

I cant stand the Scott sisters, biggest cry babies in the league. They have no coaching ability as well. Lucky he inherited a good side from bomber thompson (a essendon GOD who turned a village club into a AFL powerhouse).

Doesn't surprise me a scumbag coach leads a team of scumbags

[Phoenix]

I cant stand the Scott sisters, biggest cry babies in the league. They have no coaching ability as well. Lucky he inherited a good side from bomber thompson (a essendon GOD who turned a village club into a AFL powerhouse).

Doesn't surprise me a scumbag coach leads a team of scumbags

Thompson played a very small part in the success at Geelong, his contribution has been totally overrated.
Nobody seems to remember that the so called "Essendon God" was almost sacked after 7 years of 'rebuilding' with very little to show for it.
Only after the 'review' and putting in place a proper functioning football department overseen by Neil Balme that things began to improve.

The footballing dynasty and powerhouse that we know today and so often envied by many Essendon and Hawthorn supporters is the result of the work of many people, least of of all that bullshit artist Thompson.

[lavce pelagonski]

[Big Bad Sven]

Malceski is a modern day Macedonian marvel. What a legend.

I hope he inspires more Macedonians to play

[Macedonian_Nationalist]

Happy for Essendon to finish in the top 4 and for Richmond to finish 5th. When Essendon get stripped of points and finish last we'll make the top 4

[makedonche]

Malceski is a modern day Macedonian marvel. What a legend.

I hope he inspires more Macedonians to play

Here...here!!

[EgejskaMakedonia]

Here...here!!

Now if only he was playing for the brown and gold in last year's grand final...