Jeff and Paul discuss all the thrills, spills and dills of round three of the AFL season.

The Demons face Geelong this weekend. Perhaps this is why Melbourne coach Dean Bailey is setting his supporters up for a ‘competitive’ loss. I counted him using the word 27 times in his press conference at the MCG on Thursday. Don’t believe me? Watch the video.

‘The Spray’ is part of the Melbourne Comedy Festival that starts this week. It’s held in the Carlton Football Club change room, which is pretty cool in itself but the show is a cracker as well.

The pontificating is over and we’ve got some footy to dissect. Waleed joins Jeff for an encore performance this week to discuss round 1 2008. Listen for our thoughts on the big winners and losers.

0:18 – Round 1 results.
3:55 – Tigers big win over the Blues. Judd’s first game for the blues, Richo and Brown on fire and Jake King’s breakout game!
8:45 – Collingwood unearth two more good recruits; Wood and Nathan Brown. What’s wrong with Freo?
11:07- Mark Harvey’s un- enlightening post game comments.
12:33- West Coast off to a winning start. Cox and Brown impressive. Leuenberger (Cox’s prototype?!)
14:45- Saints win ugly. Luke Ball and Leigh Fischer exciting. Shneider’s first game against Swans.
17:13- Hawthorn’s commanding performance against the Dees.
18:40- Dean Bailey talks about the Demons shocker.
19:40- Brad Johnson’s fairytale win over the crows. Is he one of the top ten players in the league?
21:50- Easter Monday: Bombers take Kangaroos apart. Lots of good young players for Bombers. Houli superb.
25:40- Spotlight on: Dean Bailey.
29:00- Whizzing in public: Fevola and Johnson. Is this acceptable?
32:05- The key to Hawthorn: will Buddy Franklin stay sain?
35:50- Round 2 fixture.

This weeks episode is co-hosted by Daisy Pearce. Daisy is the captain of the Darebin Falcons who are the reigning VWFL premiers. Daisy is a superstar footballer who played her junior footy with the boys until she was 15 before gaining all Australian selection in the womens league at age 16. She’s probably best recognised as one of the duo of girls (the other Shannon McFerran) who played with the old fellas in the EJ Whitten Legends game in 2007.

Show highlights:

2:16 – Round 1 fixtures
3:57 – Big improvers in ’08. Hawthorn: they have great depth and lots of options up forward. Mark Williams?
6:01 – Bulldogs. Jeff likes Shaun Higgins and Brad Johnson’s 300th this weekend.
7:18 – Eagles. Daisy talks up the Eagles. She likes Priddus and Hurn.
8:33 – Freo. Jeff calls them a pick and mix. Daisy says the moment may have passed.
9:20 – Women’s International Rules. Daisy says the Irish accused them of being soft!?
10:21 – Collingwood. It hurts us to say it but the Pies look like they can improve further this year.
11:04 – Spotlight on: Shannon McFerran. If she was in the AFL she’s be a household name. Amazing VWFL player.
12:40 – Issue of the week: Tanking. Liberatore’s big call on Carlton tanking in 2007… we already knew Libba!
14:50 – VWFL: Daisy ready to unfurl the flag for Darebin’s first game. Check out vwfl.org.au for details.

What did you think of Daisy’s performance on the podcast? As good as her work down the wing for the Falcons last year? Let us know on the blog below and good luck to your team for round 1.

Footy is back for 2008, how exciting. All footy fans can approach round 1 full of optimism, hopeful that new players and established players returning from injury will create the right balance for a shot at September glory.

I’ve never been able to understand why some lament the omnipotence of AFL footy in Melbourne… just embrace it! Thou shalt have an allegiance, thou shalt compete in office footy tipping (no tanking to collect the boobie prize please) and thou shalt cast aside Collingwood supporters.

Waleed jumps the footywrap train two weeks out from the start of the 2008 season to discuss the Saints NAB cup win, Stephen Jurica, Collingwoods new captain Scott Burns and more.

This week author, lecturer, journalist, father, brother lover and fighter, Waleed Aly joins Jeff to host the show. In the table of contents this week:

2:15 – Saints win the NAB cup. How far can they go in 2008?
5:45 – Mike Sheahan’s top 50 of all time. Was Carey the best?
7:00 – Pies name Scott Burns as captain. Who was on the shortlist?
12:09 – The new Eureka theme game between Richmond and the Kangaroos
14:50 – Spotlight on: Stephen Jurica
19:44 – Issue of the week: Paul Roos match fixing scandal
22:02 – Symonds hip and shoulder

What do you think of Waleed’s performance off the bench and how is you team shaping up for 2008. Post a comment below. We’d love to hear from you.

Jeff

Soon after, across town, Sheedy was asked to recount his three favourite memories of Hird. One was the 2000 premiership. Another was his courageous return from a fractured skull and the courage he displayed when he charged at the ball ‘no reserve.’ Sheedy’s final recollection sets him apart from his contemporary. ‘Hugging the fan was a big one.’ Some in the room begin to laugh but Sheeds is deadly serious. How absurd that this memory be listed as one of the great Essendon champions crowning achievements I wondered and yet as time passes, it is probably one of my most vivid football memories.

James Hird had plenty of reasons to resent the game that gave him a long list of serious injuries, the worst of which was a fractured skull in 2002. Despite all this, he celebrated the Dons’ final handful of wins in 2007 with conviction. He embraced team-mates like families at Tullamarine embrace loved ones returning from a sabbatical. He celebrated his last game at the MCG by taking his three children onto the hallowed turf for a kick after the final siren. Stoping to smell the roses had never been so perfectly exemplified in footy. For a moment, he reminded us to savour footy.

Since his retirement, there are some signs that Buckley is spending less time red-lining and more time enjoying life. He joined the crew of Hugo Boss II for the Sydney-Hobart yacht race. He’s going to jump behind the wheel of a Fiat 500 for the celebrity race at the 2008 Grand Prix and he enters 2008 as a media personality. He will join channel seven’s commentary team on Saturday night. He is Wayne Carey’s replacement at 3AW.

The day Buckley retired I remember driving home from work and listening to talkback radio holding an open forum on Buckley’s career. The callers bagged him relentlessly. How could it be that a champion who has won a Brownlow medal, six club best and fairests and a Norm Smith medal be reflected upon like this. Hours earlier Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse described him as ‘the grandest footballer I’ve ever seen.’ Talkback callers chose words like ‘receiver’ and ‘over rated’ to describe him.

Buckley has always answered his critics by training hard and dominating games of footy. To be a successful television personality though, he will need to learn to become more relaxed, at ease and likeable. The stony, hard focus approach that he adopted during his captaincy at Collingwood might not apply here. He may need to take a leaf out of Hirdy’s book and learn to enjoy footy like the rest of us.

Paul and I got our name on the list for the media day at the Whitten Oval this year; a chance to train with Rocket Eade and the Western Bulldogs.

Rocket walked over to give us an address before we started our revised training program. I was really excited to hear him speak. I’ve always wished I could eavesdrop on the AFL coaches marshalling their troops. I knew this was going to be nothing like one of his halftime tirades but nonetheless I was intrigued.Before Rocket had uttered his first sentence, he paused. Paul, with his aviator sunglasses and earring in its usual place had caught the coach’s eye. Rocket said: ‘we’ve got a few rock stars playing in our team… we don’t want any rockstars with the media do we?’ Paul offered to remove his earring but Rocket laughed it off. This wasn’t the day for serious discipline, it was a PR exercise.

Later I asked Scott West what Rocket might have done if Paul had been recruited to the club and turned up to his first training session dressed like that. West replied: ‘he probably would have torn the earring out, taken the glasses off and stomped all over them.’ He also explained that eye contact is very important to Eade. Clearly Paul had gotten off lightly but the other thing we quickly learned about Rocket is that he has a great sense of humour.

The legal waiver we had signed hardly seemed relevant as we began with a jog, some stretching and some light runs and hurdling. No doubt our program had been adjusted to reflect the physiques of those in attendance, most notably Tony Jones from Channel 9 and Ricky Olarenshaw from Channel 7. Ricky looked like he could play on a forward flank for the Bulldogs this year if required. Paul asked me if I thought it was weird that he had come down to train with the team at the media day. There were no cameras there and he wasn’t learning anything he didn’t already know. It was a bit weird. Perhaps he just misses being part of a footy club.

Soon after, when the players joined us, we did a couple of drills. There was a noteable shift in pace. Eager to prove myself, at one point I grabbed a loose ball and shaped to handball but all in the one motion I was tackled and the ball spilled loose. What shocked me the most was that I never saw it coming. I’ve played footy before and always thought I had a pretty good awareness of what was going on around me but trust me, with the Bulldogs around, I had no idea. First year players seem to have to come to grips with this very same feeling every year. The disposals and tricks that set them apart as juniors have to be executed with tremendous speed when you reach the AFL.

The final station in our program was some strength work with specialist coach, Tim Smith. He used phrases like ‘drop and give me twenty’ as throwaway lines, apparently oblivious to the enormous task it presented the humble members of the media every time he used them. I carried out his instructions dutifully. Again, he was not giving it to us with both barrels but I got the impression he was not a guy to be messed with (or maybe that was because Rocket had warned us earlier that he had just got out of prison.) Paul asked him who the toughest player he’d ever seen was. Without stopping what he was doing and with little deliberation he named Darren Milane. Paul wasn’t surprised. He later explained that en route to Collingwood’s 1990 premiership, Milane had rebroken his finger in every finals match. Pretty hard to argue with that.

As the session wrapped up, Rocket thanked us for coming down and asked us to ‘take it easy’ on them this year, just as they had gone easy on us, the only exception being Tony Jones who, for some reason, all the players delighted in roughing up.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all our listeners and bloggers. We’ve taken one last opportunity to get together and discuss the latest developments with North Melbourne’s decision to stay in Melbourne and Nathan Abblett’s decision to call it quits (maybe?)

- Ben Cousins sacked by Eagles over new drug alligations
- Former Pie captain, Gavin Brown, named as Collingwoods stand alone VFL team coach
- Sydney have delisted Luke Vogels, Simon Phillips and Jonathan Simpkin
- The Saints have delisted Barry Brooks, Fergus Watts, Phil Raymond and Justin Sweeney
- Former Swan, Pie and Blue; Barry Mitchell will coach the Box Hill Hawks
- Former Crows players Ben Hart and Matthew Clarke have joined Adelaide’s coaching panel
- Hawks delisted players Matt Little and Josh Thurgood have joined retirees Ben Dixon, Joel Smith and Richie Vandenberg exiting the Club
- Lance Whitnall delisted from the Blues
- Matthew Knights has culled off Mark Johnson, Kepler Bradley and Lachlan McKinnon from the Bombers list
- Melbourne’s list has been shortened; Ryan Ferguson, Daniel Ward, Simon Godfrey and Heath Neville have been delisted and veterans Nathan Brown, Clint Bizzell and Byron Pickett have all retired
- Adelaide has delisted Jason Torney, Ian Perrie, Matthew Bode, John Hinge and Darren Pfeiffer
- Jason McCartney and Brett Montgomery have joined Carlton’s coaching panel
- Round 1 of season 2008 will be played over Easter March 20-24
- Collingwood will play an NAB Cup match in Dubai, expected to be  against Adelaide on Saturday, February 9

Will keep you posted, Paul

Imagine the damage my first 22 would do on Grand Final day!

Would love to hear your thoughts…

1. J. Brown (Brisbane Lions)
2. C. Cornes (Port Adelaide)
3. C. Judd (West Coast)
4. M. Pavlich (Fremantle)
5. D. Cox (West Coast)
6. G. Ablett (Geelong)
7. A. Goodes (Sydney)
8. M. Scarlett (Geelong)
9. J. Bartel (Geelong)
10. D. Kerr (West Coast)
11. C. Mooney (Geelong)
12. D. Glass (West Coast)
13. N. Riewoldt (St Kilda)
14. L. Hodge (Hawthorn)
15. S. Black (Brisbane Lions)
16. P. Burgoyne (Port Adelaide)
17. K. Cornes (Port Adelaide)
18. C. Ling (Geelong)
19. A. McLeod (Adelaide)
20. S. Johnson (Geelong)
21. B. Harvey (Kangaroos)
22. B. Johnson (Western Bulldogs)
23. L. Franklin (Hawthorn)
24. S. Mitchell (Hawthorn)
25. J. Corey (Geelong)
26. J. Hird (Essendon)
27. S. Burgoyne (Port Adelaide)
28. B. Lade (Port Adelaide)
29. B. Ottens (Geelong)
30. S. Lucas (Essendon)
31. S. Goodwin (Adelaide)
32. B. Kirk (Sydney)
33. M. Egan (Geelong)
34. N. Dal Santo (St Kilda)
35. T. Lockyer (Collingwood)
36. B. Ebert (Port)
37. C. Jones (Kangaroos)
38. D. Milburn (Geelong)
39. H. Shaw (Collingwood)
40. T. Cloke (Collingwood)
41. B. Sewell (Hawthorn)
42. D. Swan (Collingwood)
43. P. Bell (Fremantle)
44. J. Adcock (Brisbane)
45. D. Fletcher (Essendon)
46. N. Foley (Richmond)
47. B. Harris (Western Bulldogs)
48. M. McVeigh (Essendon)
49. B. Fevola (Carlton)
50. Q. Lynch (West Coast)

Paul and I have hand selected some of our favourite moments from season 2007, including Trevor Nisbett’s meltdown, Paul’s Brownlow red carpet interviews and lots of other funny moments from the year.

The implications for the trade period are huge. With the retirement of Clement and Buckley, the Pies must have freed up some serious cash. Paul is convinced that they will pursue Darren Jolly to satisfy their Ruck dilemna. They can probably afford him and a couple of others now.

 -Jeff

I guess we aren’t dealing with brain surgeons when it comes to footballers – but if you had a choice between playing for (a) a club that hasn’t played finals since the year you were drafted to the AFL or (b) a club that was 5 points away from a Grand Final appearance 10 days ago – where would you go?!?!

Perhaps the Captaincy was the sealer???

The All-Australian midfielder, 41, collapsed at his home in Cottesloe and was taken by ambulance to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. It has been reported that he died from a heart attack.

Chris Mainwaring played 201 matches for the Eagles between 1987 and 1999. He was a member of the club’s premiership teams in 1992 and 1994. He was also a member of the first ever Eagles’ team, named on the wing. He was an All-Australian in 1991 and 1996.

Mainwaring was most recently on the selection panel for this year’s all-Australian team. The football champion also worked as a sports reporter and newsreader for Channel 7.

Chris Mainwaring will be sadly missed by the football public. He will be remembered as one of the modern games’ most naturally gifted players. Few could forget his many electric runs up the Subiaco wing.

Paul

 

Celebrate all you Cats fans. What a dominant performance in season 2007 culminating with the premiership. In the last footywrap of the year we dissect the Grand final and reflect on our first year in Showbizz.

Congratulations to all those long suffering Geelong supporters who must be over the moon about their record breaking premiership of 2007. Paul and Jeff pick over the biggest game on the AFL calendar and give their thoughts on the game, the pre- match entertainment and the moments that shaped the history making win. Also, don’t miss Paul explaining why Mark Williams, losing Port Power coach, still somehow manages to receive his ‘backslap of the week.’

Thanks to everyone who has listened and left us a message on the blog. We hope you have enjoyed our contribution each week. If you have, or if you have an observation on season 2007, please leave us a message. If you thought the show was rubbish, then we’ll thankyou very much to keep your opinions to yourself.

All the best,

Jeff and Paul

Geelong 24. 19. 163
Port 6. 8. 44
Norm Smith Medallist: Steve Johnson
Highest goal kicker: Cameron Mooney (5)

Add to to this 9 All- Australians selections and Bartel’s brownlow medal and it’s hard to see anybody in Corio Bay going to bed for the next week!

Weel done Bomber and the ferocious Geelong Cats- 2007 premiers. It’s been a pleasure to watch your attacking brand of footy this year. Stay tuned tomorrow for our final podcast, with all the wash up from the grand final day and our thoughts on the game. Paul and I are going out to have a couple of drinks tonight to celebrate the Cats win!

Knights has been a development coach at Windy Hill and is believed to have beaten Damien Hardwick, former Bomber and current Hawks assistant.

Knights played 279 games for the Tigers and captained the club from 1997 – 2000. He was also named on the bench for Richmond’s Team of the Centuary.

Jeff and Paul hit the red carpet at the Brownlow and talk to all the stars. Andrew McLeod, Jonathon Brown, Nick Riewoldt, Tim Lane, Dermie and you won’t want to miss when Paul offers his own Mum as Adam Goodes date to next years Brownlow. Also, we look at the grand final and discuss all the preliminary finals winners and losers

Geelong 13.14 (92) d Collingwood 13.9 (87)

The Cats saw off the Pies in front of 98,000 (biggest crowd since the ’97 grand final.) It was a classic.

Port Adelaide 20.13 (133) d Kangaroos 5.16 (46)

Kangaroos did not fire a shot against Port Power who ran them off their feet. Archer’s last game was one to forget

GRAND FINAL

That year I was part of a TV audience of over 30 million people worldwide that watched the game. I was careful to ensure I didn’t miss out. The weekend before I had bought entry tickets to the Aussie theme pub which could not accommodate all the interested ex- pats. Like many other Australians working at my English language school, I had called in sick from work. My severe case of finals fever had all but cleared up by Monday.

The owner of the bar provided Aussie beer to authenticate the experience. Streamers in teams colours stretched across the ceiling. Speakers had been set up so the commentary was audible. Pies were provided at a cost of 700 yen each. A little expensive but it had been so long since I had eaten one it was worth the premium.

Despite all this, the TV on which the game was screened was quite a modest size. The Colonel, who played for the Tokyo goannas as a rover, battled for a vantage point. He commented on how he had forgotten how tall Australians were. No longer were we peering over the tops of heads like we had done in the train on the way down.

Hundreds of thousands of ex- pats living overseas will face the same dilemna on Saturday the 30th Septmeber. Where to find a TV showing the AFL grand final. I asked the question on an footy forum, ‘where have you watched the Grand final?’ and the responses were diverse. Imagine how Daniel felt in 1998 when he flicked through the channels in his New York hotel room only to stumble across his team playing the Kangaroos in the Grand Final. The crows finished 5th and lost their first final but the complicated finals system that year meant that depending on other results, the crows could get a second chance. This permutation had escaped Daniel, who placed a quick call home to confirm the details. There must have been some shouting in the hotel that night. I wonder if the neighbours would have been more forgiving if they had understood the gravity of Adelaide taking the premiership cup home for the first time.

There will barely be a country on the globe that doesn’t have an AFL fan frantically searching for coverage of the game this weekend. Even the troops in Iraq will scream and shout when the national anthem draws to a close and the umpire bounces the ball

Two years ago, the grand final did not disappoint, the Swans beating the more favoured Eagles by four points. It made me miss home. Mum sent me smarties and vegemite while I was living in Japan. My Dad sent me newspaper cuttings about the Tigers which I carefully read and pined on my corkboard but nothing will made them feel closer to home than sharing the moment of the Grand Final.

Jeff Wortman

We have a look at the two finals this week including Collingwood’s amazing extra time win at Subiaco. Paul presents his 2007 All- Australian team and the we go off on our usual tangents which, this week, include body cavity searches, John Howard clubbing and Top Gun.

Paul and Jeff go live outside the MCG straight after the Kangaroos vs Hawthorn match. We discuss Collingwood’s extra time win and the Kangaroos return to form as well as the turmoil at St. Kilda. Watch for Jeff to get attacked by some feral supporters right at the end!

I’ll be looking to an outsider that still fits my winning criteria such as Kane Cornes, who some betting agencies have listed as high as $13. Worth a flutter if you ask me!

Paul  

First Elimination Final: Hawthorn (105) d Crows (102)

Second Elimination Final: Collingwood (125) d Sydney (87)

First Qualifying Final: Geelong (156) d Kangaroos (50)

Next week – West Coast vs Collingwood at Subi on Fri Night and Roos vs Hawks at the ‘G’ on Saturday.

The home and away season is over and Paul has ‘Finals Fever.’ All loose ends are tied up including Corey Enright getting his pants pulled off, the MCG hiring a bird of prey to frighten off the pidgeons and the Channel 7 debarkle

Collingwood captain Nathan Buckley is set to return to the football world through Collingwood VFL affiliate Williamstown, this Saturday afternoon.

Not even ‘Roos coach Dean Laidley can convince his champion defender Glenn Archer to play on in 2008. Archer announced this week that 2007 will be his final season.

Eagles coach John Worsfold admitted captain Chris Judd almost certainly needs surgery to fix his groin problem, but said the skipper won’t go under the knife until the conclusion of their finals campaign.

This weekend Melbourne star forward David Neitz will celebrate his 300th game against the Pies on Friday night.

Pul and Jeff take a look at the Hawks big win, the big losses of Collingwood and the Bulldogs and Jeff’s unhealthy obsession with Nathan Foley