Kicking With The Wind: Round 6

Regardless of how many AFL matches are played on ANZAC Day, the thing that really matters is that the result does justice to the fighting spirit of ‘our’ Anzacs.

While three fixtures on Friday seemed a little beyond the pale, that each result was in question entering the final five minutes of the games did credit to all teams involved – and provided a real boon for the League.

For the record, next ANZAC Day is on a Saturday – so we might expect as many as four fixtures on the biggest day in the home and away calendar.

Problem? Nope… just as long as they’re all good, competitive matches.

 

Trouble at Bomberland
Say what you will about Essendon in 2014, they’re no more top four contenders than they have been for years.

They flattered to deceive during the opening rounds of the season, but the way they turned their toes up against the Pies after quarter time on Friday was a disgrace.

To kick three goals in three quarters after five in the first smacks of a side unsure of how to adjust beyond the original game plan.

When ‘Razor’ Ray Chamberlain and his mates stopped whistling every time an Essendon player had to deal with a block at the stoppage the soft clearances dried up and there was barely a whimper from the Bomber forwards as Collingwood’s kids repelled forward foray after forward foray to get the game moving their way.

Jobe Watson and his boys want to be grateful the Pies didn’t turn up until the second quarter because the margin would have been far more than 23 points if Nathan Buckley’s team had played four quarters.

For Collingwood fans, the wait for some kind of form to emerge must have been excruciating.

For fans of Travis Cloke the wait continues.

 

Freo, way to go
Poor Ross Lyon.

The week he chooses to pick on the umpiring – and actually gets a succession of favourable decisions for his side as a result – the famed Freo strangle couldn’t contain an under-strength North Melbourne at Subiaco.

Sure, Ross, whinge about the game turning into some kind of rolling maul, but please have the dignity to recognise your role in popularising the congested stoppage and ‘hinder-at-all-cost’ mentality that would appear to be causing the maul.

And once you’ve acknowledged your part in the (d)evolution of the game to this point, turn around and have a huge go at your charges for not executing your game plan properly and allowing the Roos to come back from a four-goal first-quarter deficit.

That just shouldn’t happen under the rules of ‘Rossball’. And it wouldn’t happen to a genuine Premiership contender, either.

 

Mo money mo problems
Who said lightning can’t strike twice?

Sydney car owners are reportedly reaching for the phone book to dial insurance companies and double check their individual policy wording and whether or not there are exceptions written in to account for Lance ‘Money’ Franklin’s arrival in the Harbour City.

Franklin’s most recent bingle appears to have been self-inflicted, as opposed to the Dan Hanneberry-inspired first automotive incident, but this one is weirder, too.

Perhaps it was ego that dictated ‘Money’ should smash into a handful of parked cars – rather than just the one – but it may well have been a lack of concentration, too.

There was an initial suggestion Franklin’s ability to drive properly was impaired by some kind of medical ‘episode’, but this has been vehemently refuted by the Swans.

It seems far more likely ‘Money’ was distracted by a particularly important SnapChat message and/or a scramble for small change to be prepared if-and-or-when he was able to find the proverbial ‘rockstar park’ in Rose Bay.