Close first term. Sydney players fell over a lot 'cause they had the
wrong boots on. They got the first goal, Goodes with a nice grab from
Mathews's kick. Richmond got on the board when Nicks, who didn't have a
good day, played on from a kick-in and lost it, Rogers goaled. Tiger
Mills clobbered Schauble as the latter marked, Mills got reported and
Schauble limped off, O'Loughlin converted the free. Cresswell marked and
majored from Crouch's centering kick and it was Bloods by 13 points.
Daffy created consecutive goals for the Tiges, roving to Ottens and
Dunkley he snapped a goal and saw an almost identical effort soccered
through by Rogers. Jon Stevens marked and golled, Syd by 8. Ottens
sausaged when Dunkley fell over. Dunks had a miserable day. Ahmat roved
for a good major for Siddey, Ottens tied things up at the first break
following a big grab from Biddiscombe's long kick. Mathews did well to
create the first sausage of term two, for Nicks. Torney did equally well
to attack the ball and pass for Ottens, who was whacked by Nicks as he
marked and received a 50m penalty. Gol and the Tiges led by a point. Now
Sydney spurted, Stevens's good snap was followed by a centre clearance,
mark and goal for Goodes, a turnover in Richmond's forward line led to
Stafford booting a nice running goal, Goodes led and scored six again.
Sydney by 22 points. But the Tiges hit back late with Benny Gale going
to full forward and Ottens rucking. Daffy kicked twice for good marks
and goals for Gale over Dunkley, a nice tap-on by Knights allowed Rogers
to snap truly and the Tiges went in just a goal down.
Just before the halftime siren O'Loughlin, who'd been good, went down
after being hammered in a marking contest. To general surprise he
returned for the second half and to even more surprise he stayed.
Because he could barely move Schauble was back too. Richmond pinched an
early lead when Gaspar, playing at CHF, converted a free for being hit
high by Nicks, again. Stevens answered for Sydney after marking
Schauble's wobbler. But the Tiges forged ahead thanks to committed
defence, many free kicks and Brendon Gale. Gale won a dodgy ruck free
and dobbed it, then he marked Bourke's long kick and dobbed it. TV man
Roos bemoaned the mounting Tiger free kick tally but reader, being a
veteran of these SCG Sundays in front of the teev I simply recalled a
phrase about things going around and coming around. Dragicevic was
upended by Nicks (him again!) while marking and KO'd as his head smacked
the turf, Nicks was reported at last and Rogers converted the free plus
50m. Harrison blasted a six-pointer from a standing start and it were
Tigers by 19 points at the last change. McAvaney sounded mildly shocked
by Dunkley being benched for the start for the last quarter. Perhaps it
was the seven goals he'd conceded, Bruce. The Tigres' lead became 24
points when Hilton majored from Andy Kellaway's pass. Goodes ended
Siddey's barren spell, recovering from his own spilled mark, but Daffy
replied for the Tiges after some awful dithering by Mathews. Ahmat
snapped one for the Bloods, Rogers found Ottens on the lead to preserve
the 4-goal lead. Time ticked away and the unhappy TV folk mumbled
backhanded compliments for Richmond. With about 4 minutes left, the
Bloods made a belated attempt. Cresswell converted a free and from the
restart O'Loughlin roved Goodes and majored. O'Loughlin's brave contest
allowed Goodes to rove and goal, suddenly the Tiggers were only a goal
up. But they hung on.
Many champion performances from the heroic Tiger conquerors (is that too
much?). Brad Ottens booted 4 goals from full forward and also rucked
well for13 hitouts. 'Old' midfielders Daffy (14 kicks, 2 goals) and
Knights (26 disposals, much gamesmanship) were very good, even older
Gale bagged 4 goals too although he went off during the third term with
a sore back. The ricketty backline held up with Mark Chaffey (23
disposals, 6 marks) almost BOG in a great performance, Bourke and
Holland also very good. Clint King tagged Schwass into oblivion while
Andy Kellaway was an excellent attacking flanker again with 20 disposals
and 8 marks. Rogers kicked 4 goals from 11 kicks, he weren't bad either.
Swans had spasmodic contributors. Adam Goodes kicked 5 goals from 8
kicks, just 4 marks. Ben Mathews ran hard and did well for 21 disposals,
Jon Stevens was handy in attack with 3 goals. Luff looked interested and
took 9 marks with 23 possies, shifting from the back line to CHF later.
O'Loughlin had a big first half with 14 possessions and finished with
19, but he shouldn't have been on after the main break. He also kicked 2
goals. Ahmat and Cresswell kicked 2 goals each. Cresswell did not have
22 disposals. That cannot be right. Eade said "I think the disappointing
thing was training all week to go longer (with kicks), mentioning it at
quarter-time, half-time too and we proceeded to go shorter in the third
quarter than we had in the rest of the game...we made too many mistakes.
The loss throws us back into the middle of the pack and we've got some
issues to address..." Frawley didn't cry this time. "We deserved to win
the game. We'd love to have Richo, but I think the other guys have stood
up and taken the next level." Huzzah Spud.
At Kardinia Park:
Geelong 3.6 6.12 11.16 15.19.109
Melbourne 3.2 6.5 7.6 12.11.84
Another good Cat win put 'em exactly where they were at this stage last
season, 5-1. Thompson continues to portray his lads as honest battlers
but they're getting plenty of media attention. You can't open a paper
without seeing Bomber being hailed as a genius or some spotty Cat
teenager being described as a footballing god. I'd thought Melbourne
were going well. Then I realised all they've dome is thrash St. Kilda
and that's not so much. Mind you they hadn't won in Geelong for 10 years
or something, so what the heck do I know? Two Cat changes in selection,
in-form Ronnie Burns suspended a week for hitting Read last Saturday and
Milburn withdrew with a foot injury, but Garry Hocking returned and
Arnott got a run. Melbourne swapped one big galoot for another, Seecamp
out and Nicholson in.
After a few good weeks from the Cat kids a couple of oldies took charge,
Hocking and Riccardi winning in the middle to drive the Cats on. The
Demons did alright for the first quarter-and-a-bit, Woewodin (he's also
in the meedya every time you look) and Yze winning plenty of kicks.
Farmer was busy early too, with three goals by midway through the second
term including a beauty snapped from the pocket after spoiling for a
mark, then recovering and wriggling out of two tackles. The Dees led by
16 points at this stage, but the advent of Paul Lynch reversed things.
Despite missing a few shots he sparked the Cats into action. Into the
third and Geelong booted five consecutive goals to kick clear. Graham
thwarted all Demon attacks, Houlihan was busy on flank and Danny O'Brien
bobbed up with 2 goals. Melbourne's normally busy midfield was gorn.
Just before 3/4 time Leoncelli broke their goal drought, but the Catters
kicked the first two goals of the final quarter to go 47 points clear.
Melbourne mounted a belated challenge, booting five consecutive goals
with the aid of the breeze and their fitness. With Anthony McDonald
firing in the middle Rigoni, Neitz (playing at full forward for the
first time this year), Schwarz and Farmer sausaged to cut the margin to
a scary 15 points, before Mensch and Clarke steadied the Pivotonians for
a comfortable win.
Big comeback for Buddha who battled all day against his younger Dee
opponents for 27 disposals and a goal. Forward flanker Houlihan,
apparently Geelong's leading mark-taker so far in 2000, had 17
possessions (just 4 marks) and booted 3 goals. Former rookie-listee
O'Brien came off the bench at quarter-time for 17 disposals and 2 goals,
Lynch got the ball 12 times for 2 goals. In defence Graham stood Schwarz
and had 25 disposals - 19 kicks - with 7 marks while Tom Harley did well
on Neitz, conceding just one goal. Mensch was value again with 3 goals
from 6 kicks, Clarke kicked 2 goals. Handy efforts too from Bizzell and
Riccardi (21 disposals, 6 tackles). Melbourne were led by the ambitious
Shane Woewodin in the centre (31 disposals, a goal) but he received
little support. Normal stat-machines Leoncelli and Powell were quiet.
Farmer did some extraordinary things for his 4 goals from 5 kicks, Yze
battled away with 24 disposals and back-flankers Peter Walsh (14
disposals) and Steven Febey (26 disposals) were OK. Their big men are
struggling. Schwarz was serviceable, kicking 2.3 and taking 11 marks,
mostly well away from anywhere dangerous, while Neitz and White did
little. Robertson had a big last quarter and kicked 2 goals. "It was
probably in the third quarter that we lost it...I was happy with the way
we fought it out, but at the end of the day they were too good for us,"
was Daniher's take on proceedings. Thompson said "There was a bit of a
scare, I thought we'd stopped...to our credit the areas we wanted to
work on before the game for three-and-a-half quarters we executed those
areas very, very well. We haven't got a Carey or a Lloyd or an Ottens
(actually I inserted that third one) up front but what we have got is
some honest toilers."
Ladder after Round Six:
Pts. % Next week
Essendon 24 160.6 Collingwood (MCG, Tuesday)
Geelong 20 130.3 Sydney (SCG, Sat. night)
Collingwood 20 120.2 Essendon (MCG, Tuesday)
North Melbourne 16 101.8 St. Kilda (Colonial, Saturday)
West Coast 14 129.9 Melbourne (MCG, Sunday)
Melbourne 12 117.9 West Coast (MCG, Sunday)
Sydney 12 106.2 Geelong (SCG, Sat. night)
Carlton 12 105.4 Richmond (MCG, Monday)
-------------------------------------
Footscray 12 101.4 Hawthorn (MCG, Saturday)
Brisbane 12 101.2 Fremantle (Subiaco, Tues. night)
Richmond 12 93.1 Carlton (MCG, Monday)
Fremantle 8 76.5 Brisbane (Subiaco, Tues. night)
Hawthorn 8 75.6 Footscray (MCG, Saturday)
Adelaide 4 85.5 Port Adelaide (Football Park, Saturday)
Port Adelaide 4 67.2 Adelaide (Football Park, Saturday)
St. Kilda 2 70.2 North Melbourne (Colonial, Saturday)
Cheers, Tim
e-mail: t.murphy@rmit.edu.au
wrong boots on. They got the first goal, Goodes with a nice grab from
Mathews's kick. Richmond got on the board when Nicks, who didn't have a
good day, played on from a kick-in and lost it, Rogers goaled. Tiger
Mills clobbered Schauble as the latter marked, Mills got reported and
Schauble limped off, O'Loughlin converted the free. Cresswell marked and
majored from Crouch's centering kick and it was Bloods by 13 points.
Daffy created consecutive goals for the Tiges, roving to Ottens and
Dunkley he snapped a goal and saw an almost identical effort soccered
through by Rogers. Jon Stevens marked and golled, Syd by 8. Ottens
sausaged when Dunkley fell over. Dunks had a miserable day. Ahmat roved
for a good major for Siddey, Ottens tied things up at the first break
following a big grab from Biddiscombe's long kick. Mathews did well to
create the first sausage of term two, for Nicks. Torney did equally well
to attack the ball and pass for Ottens, who was whacked by Nicks as he
marked and received a 50m penalty. Gol and the Tiges led by a point. Now
Sydney spurted, Stevens's good snap was followed by a centre clearance,
mark and goal for Goodes, a turnover in Richmond's forward line led to
Stafford booting a nice running goal, Goodes led and scored six again.
Sydney by 22 points. But the Tiges hit back late with Benny Gale going
to full forward and Ottens rucking. Daffy kicked twice for good marks
and goals for Gale over Dunkley, a nice tap-on by Knights allowed Rogers
to snap truly and the Tiges went in just a goal down.
Just before the halftime siren O'Loughlin, who'd been good, went down
after being hammered in a marking contest. To general surprise he
returned for the second half and to even more surprise he stayed.
Because he could barely move Schauble was back too. Richmond pinched an
early lead when Gaspar, playing at CHF, converted a free for being hit
high by Nicks, again. Stevens answered for Sydney after marking
Schauble's wobbler. But the Tiges forged ahead thanks to committed
defence, many free kicks and Brendon Gale. Gale won a dodgy ruck free
and dobbed it, then he marked Bourke's long kick and dobbed it. TV man
Roos bemoaned the mounting Tiger free kick tally but reader, being a
veteran of these SCG Sundays in front of the teev I simply recalled a
phrase about things going around and coming around. Dragicevic was
upended by Nicks (him again!) while marking and KO'd as his head smacked
the turf, Nicks was reported at last and Rogers converted the free plus
50m. Harrison blasted a six-pointer from a standing start and it were
Tigers by 19 points at the last change. McAvaney sounded mildly shocked
by Dunkley being benched for the start for the last quarter. Perhaps it
was the seven goals he'd conceded, Bruce. The Tigres' lead became 24
points when Hilton majored from Andy Kellaway's pass. Goodes ended
Siddey's barren spell, recovering from his own spilled mark, but Daffy
replied for the Tiges after some awful dithering by Mathews. Ahmat
snapped one for the Bloods, Rogers found Ottens on the lead to preserve
the 4-goal lead. Time ticked away and the unhappy TV folk mumbled
backhanded compliments for Richmond. With about 4 minutes left, the
Bloods made a belated attempt. Cresswell converted a free and from the
restart O'Loughlin roved Goodes and majored. O'Loughlin's brave contest
allowed Goodes to rove and goal, suddenly the Tiggers were only a goal
up. But they hung on.
Many champion performances from the heroic Tiger conquerors (is that too
much?). Brad Ottens booted 4 goals from full forward and also rucked
well for13 hitouts. 'Old' midfielders Daffy (14 kicks, 2 goals) and
Knights (26 disposals, much gamesmanship) were very good, even older
Gale bagged 4 goals too although he went off during the third term with
a sore back. The ricketty backline held up with Mark Chaffey (23
disposals, 6 marks) almost BOG in a great performance, Bourke and
Holland also very good. Clint King tagged Schwass into oblivion while
Andy Kellaway was an excellent attacking flanker again with 20 disposals
and 8 marks. Rogers kicked 4 goals from 11 kicks, he weren't bad either.
Swans had spasmodic contributors. Adam Goodes kicked 5 goals from 8
kicks, just 4 marks. Ben Mathews ran hard and did well for 21 disposals,
Jon Stevens was handy in attack with 3 goals. Luff looked interested and
took 9 marks with 23 possies, shifting from the back line to CHF later.
O'Loughlin had a big first half with 14 possessions and finished with
19, but he shouldn't have been on after the main break. He also kicked 2
goals. Ahmat and Cresswell kicked 2 goals each. Cresswell did not have
22 disposals. That cannot be right. Eade said "I think the disappointing
thing was training all week to go longer (with kicks), mentioning it at
quarter-time, half-time too and we proceeded to go shorter in the third
quarter than we had in the rest of the game...we made too many mistakes.
The loss throws us back into the middle of the pack and we've got some
issues to address..." Frawley didn't cry this time. "We deserved to win
the game. We'd love to have Richo, but I think the other guys have stood
up and taken the next level." Huzzah Spud.
At Kardinia Park:
Geelong 3.6 6.12 11.16 15.19.109
Melbourne 3.2 6.5 7.6 12.11.84
Another good Cat win put 'em exactly where they were at this stage last
season, 5-1. Thompson continues to portray his lads as honest battlers
but they're getting plenty of media attention. You can't open a paper
without seeing Bomber being hailed as a genius or some spotty Cat
teenager being described as a footballing god. I'd thought Melbourne
were going well. Then I realised all they've dome is thrash St. Kilda
and that's not so much. Mind you they hadn't won in Geelong for 10 years
or something, so what the heck do I know? Two Cat changes in selection,
in-form Ronnie Burns suspended a week for hitting Read last Saturday and
Milburn withdrew with a foot injury, but Garry Hocking returned and
Arnott got a run. Melbourne swapped one big galoot for another, Seecamp
out and Nicholson in.
After a few good weeks from the Cat kids a couple of oldies took charge,
Hocking and Riccardi winning in the middle to drive the Cats on. The
Demons did alright for the first quarter-and-a-bit, Woewodin (he's also
in the meedya every time you look) and Yze winning plenty of kicks.
Farmer was busy early too, with three goals by midway through the second
term including a beauty snapped from the pocket after spoiling for a
mark, then recovering and wriggling out of two tackles. The Dees led by
16 points at this stage, but the advent of Paul Lynch reversed things.
Despite missing a few shots he sparked the Cats into action. Into the
third and Geelong booted five consecutive goals to kick clear. Graham
thwarted all Demon attacks, Houlihan was busy on flank and Danny O'Brien
bobbed up with 2 goals. Melbourne's normally busy midfield was gorn.
Just before 3/4 time Leoncelli broke their goal drought, but the Catters
kicked the first two goals of the final quarter to go 47 points clear.
Melbourne mounted a belated challenge, booting five consecutive goals
with the aid of the breeze and their fitness. With Anthony McDonald
firing in the middle Rigoni, Neitz (playing at full forward for the
first time this year), Schwarz and Farmer sausaged to cut the margin to
a scary 15 points, before Mensch and Clarke steadied the Pivotonians for
a comfortable win.
Big comeback for Buddha who battled all day against his younger Dee
opponents for 27 disposals and a goal. Forward flanker Houlihan,
apparently Geelong's leading mark-taker so far in 2000, had 17
possessions (just 4 marks) and booted 3 goals. Former rookie-listee
O'Brien came off the bench at quarter-time for 17 disposals and 2 goals,
Lynch got the ball 12 times for 2 goals. In defence Graham stood Schwarz
and had 25 disposals - 19 kicks - with 7 marks while Tom Harley did well
on Neitz, conceding just one goal. Mensch was value again with 3 goals
from 6 kicks, Clarke kicked 2 goals. Handy efforts too from Bizzell and
Riccardi (21 disposals, 6 tackles). Melbourne were led by the ambitious
Shane Woewodin in the centre (31 disposals, a goal) but he received
little support. Normal stat-machines Leoncelli and Powell were quiet.
Farmer did some extraordinary things for his 4 goals from 5 kicks, Yze
battled away with 24 disposals and back-flankers Peter Walsh (14
disposals) and Steven Febey (26 disposals) were OK. Their big men are
struggling. Schwarz was serviceable, kicking 2.3 and taking 11 marks,
mostly well away from anywhere dangerous, while Neitz and White did
little. Robertson had a big last quarter and kicked 2 goals. "It was
probably in the third quarter that we lost it...I was happy with the way
we fought it out, but at the end of the day they were too good for us,"
was Daniher's take on proceedings. Thompson said "There was a bit of a
scare, I thought we'd stopped...to our credit the areas we wanted to
work on before the game for three-and-a-half quarters we executed those
areas very, very well. We haven't got a Carey or a Lloyd or an Ottens
(actually I inserted that third one) up front but what we have got is
some honest toilers."
Ladder after Round Six:
Pts. % Next week
Essendon 24 160.6 Collingwood (MCG, Tuesday)
Geelong 20 130.3 Sydney (SCG, Sat. night)
Collingwood 20 120.2 Essendon (MCG, Tuesday)
North Melbourne 16 101.8 St. Kilda (Colonial, Saturday)
West Coast 14 129.9 Melbourne (MCG, Sunday)
Melbourne 12 117.9 West Coast (MCG, Sunday)
Sydney 12 106.2 Geelong (SCG, Sat. night)
Carlton 12 105.4 Richmond (MCG, Monday)
-------------------------------------
Footscray 12 101.4 Hawthorn (MCG, Saturday)
Brisbane 12 101.2 Fremantle (Subiaco, Tues. night)
Richmond 12 93.1 Carlton (MCG, Monday)
Fremantle 8 76.5 Brisbane (Subiaco, Tues. night)
Hawthorn 8 75.6 Footscray (MCG, Saturday)
Adelaide 4 85.5 Port Adelaide (Football Park, Saturday)
Port Adelaide 4 67.2 Adelaide (Football Park, Saturday)
St. Kilda 2 70.2 North Melbourne (Colonial, Saturday)
Cheers, Tim
e-mail: t.murphy@rmit.edu.au
