The Western Bulldogs have been struck down with injuries just two weeks from the finals.
Key player and Brownlow medalist Adam Cooney suffered a torn hamstring in Saturday nights clash with Sydney at the SCG. Its a huge blow for the Dogs with Cooney expected to miss the rest of the year, ruling him out of the clubs finals campaign. (more…)
North Melbourne – 7.16 (58)
Richmond – 13.16 (94)
Well just as people started to point fingers at the Richmond players as well as the coach the team stepped up. On Saturday night North Melbourne hosted the Tigers at Etihad Stadium in what was to be a horror night for the Roos. Losing champion Brent Harvey early to a dislocated elbow, and Michael Firrito to an ankle injury. Firrito later returned to the field only for the Roos to lose Lachie Hansen to a hamstring. The Tigers however were not immune to injury, losing Matthew Richardson to a hamstring injury early in the second. The star forward turned wingman fought through the pain and returned to the field late in the game seemingly not learning anything from Ben Cousins. Richo was lucky and didn’t appear to make things worse though. It was superb performance by youngster Jack Riewoldt who kicked 3 second quarter goals to spark the Tigers in what was to be a decisive quarter. Richmond running out 36 point victors by the end of the game.
Turning points of the match Richmond kicked 4 goals to 2 in the second quarter, three from Jack Riewoldt and one from Robin Nahas. Richmond kicked 4 goals to 1in the third quarter with the Roos only goal coming from a free kick. After the 13th minute of the second quarter, the Roos only kicked 3 more goals for the rest of the match. Key Players for North Melbourne Adam Simpson – The former captain tried to lift his team with 30 disposals, 7 marks and 6 tackles working hard as usual in the midfield. With the departure of Brent Harvey early the other midfielders needed to step up and Simpson did his best. Gavin Urquhart – Playing on the wing Urquhart collected 25 disposals and took 10 marks often driving the ball forward for the Roos. He also managed 3 tackles. Andrew Swallow – Although he only picked up 20 possessions and 4 marks he managed to kick 3 goals to lead the Roos scoring on the night. Picked up 5 frees for and laid 4 tackles which doesn’t hurt either. Key Players for Richmond Daniel Jackson – Collected 33 disposals, mostly by foot, with 11 marks in amongst it to lead the possessions for the game. He also laid 3 tackles to keep some pressure on the Roos. Joel Bowden – Once again an outstanding performance collecting 28 disposals, 10 marks and kicked 2 final quarter goals. Jack Riewoldt – Had his first really good game of 2009. Only collected 18 possessions but as a leading forward target he took 14 marks in amongst those. Kicked 3.1 for the night and also threw in a couple of tackles for show. Musings from the match · Brent Harvey could be in trouble as Beau Waters from the Eagles suffered a similar injury halfway through last season and will miss all of this season as well. · North kicked 1.7 in the last quarter to effectively defeat themselves. · Promising signs from Jack Riewoldt, showing in the absence of Richo he can be the number one target. He probably needs to be able to do that with Richo on the field as well though. · Richmond had nearly 100 more disposals and 17 more marks than North Melbourne. · The Roos kicked more than twice the amount of behinds as they did goals. · Mark Coughlan had a decent first game back collecting 16 disposals and laying 5 tackles. · Once Richmond hit the front they didn’t give it up. Supercoach/Dreamteam news Brent Harvey – Could be out for the season after dislocating his elbow. Watch out for this if he is on your team. Matthew Richardson – Did his hammy so I wouldn’t think he would be playing next weekend but who really knows with Richo. Robin Nahas – Due to go up in price after this game. Scored well in both Supercoach and Dreamteam and could well be a good rookie forward if you need one. 17 possessions, 4 tackles and 1.4 isn’t a bad return from a rookie.
Here is a list of injuries for round 1 of the 2009 AFL premiership season brought to you by ContestedFooty. For a complete list of injuries ContestedFooty recommends Injury Update.
Adelaide Crows
Goodwin got cramps in the final quarter but the Crows have no concerns from their first game.
Brisbane Lions
Simon Black didn’t play in the end, those who did got through fine.
Carlton Blues
Fevola was definitely not 100% and Jamison may have a sore shoulder, both should pull through fine like the rest of their team.
Collingwood Magpies
Didak may have a corked buttock and Anthony needed a lot of work on his back both played on.
Essendon Bombers
Lucas will have a sore elbow and Bellchambers was a late withdrawal.
Fremantle Dockers
Palmer got some work done but played the whole game.
Geelong Cats
Selwood was off in quarter one but came back strong, Rooke was reported for charging and Mackie was for striking.
Hawthorn Hawks
Gilham was a late withdrawal, Brown should have been, Dew got a corky and Hodge was reported twice.
Melbourne Demons
Miller needed work on his ankle but played out the game.
North Melbourne Kangaroos
No concerns.
Port Adelaide Power
Ebert copped a big knock, looked in a bad way, he came back on though. Cornes had his hand tended to a bit.
Richmond Tigers
Ben Cousins out until around week 5, controversial, he was sore at 3 quarter time and was sent back onto the field. Andrew Raines will be out until the same point with a knee injury.
St Kilda Saints
Raphael Clarke went off with a hamstring injury, the Saints are hoping the scans will be positive and he’ll be available this week. Riewoldt ‘cramped’ but keep a close eye on him; it may have been a hamstring injury.
Sydney Swans
Ablett didn’t play, other than that the Swans escaped any concerns.
West Coast Eagles
Brett Jones was a late withdrawal, the rest of the team got through okay.
Western Bulldogs
Akermanis and Lake had some concerns but played out the match.
Richmond See other results for round 1 here
Carlton – 23.12 (150)
Turning points of the match
From the Mathew Kruezer goal towards the end of the first quarter, the tide was all one way. Carlton’s pressure on the man with the ball stepped up and that was that from then onwards.
Key Players for Richmond
Brett Deledio – Had a mare.
Matt White – One player who tried to constantly make plays.
Nathan Foley – Tried, tried and tried.
Matthew Richardson – Same as Foley but had no where near as much influence as usual.
Mitch Morton – The only likely forward target as you can see by the forward spread.
Key Players for Carlton
Matthew Kruezer- Dominated the ruck.
Bryce Gibbs – 24 kicks and 6 marks for the match.
Jarrad Waite – Dominated Richo’ in the first half, kicking some important goals whilst on him.
Apart from that, it was an extremely even performance by Carlton.
Mitch Robinson – Looks a’ beauty. He was always around the ball.
A couple of unfortunate and football unrelated setbacks have hindered the preparations for two of Essendon’s players over the last couple of weeks. The first being Star ruckman David Hille becoming the unfortunate target of a stingray attack, and the second being new recruit Michael Hurley being diagnosed with a “non-functional gall bladder” and requiring surgery to have it removed.
Hille was down at the beach on Sunday 18th of January holding his own extra recovery session when he was stun by the stingray. As a consequence he spent the night in hospital and required surgery to remove the stingray barb from his leg. He missed most training sessions in the week following and only returned on Friday to do some light running. Fortunately Hille did not experience the same pain at training that previous players (Daniel Kerr and Jarrod Grant) have felt following their attacks. This setback comes on top of his mild hamstring injury which had forced Hille onto a modified training program for the previous four weeks. Hille has been positive about the incident stating that the sting probably gave the hamstring a few extra days to rest which would have been good for it. He will likely miss the first round of the NAB cup and Matthew Knights has suggested that Tom Bellchambers will be given the majority of the ruckwork for this time also with the likely absence of Jason Laycock.
Hurley on the other hand is likely to miss most of the NAB cup after having keyhole surgery to remove his gall bladder. This means that he will not get the desired preparation for the season that I am sure he and the coaches want. He is expected to be fully recovered in four weeks time, which is long after the NAB cup commences.
The loss of these two players means that the Bombers could be up to 12 men short from their best 22 for the NAB cup. With players like Jobe Watson, Patrick Ryder and Courtney Dempsey all recovering from shoulder injuries and Mark McVeigh having just returned to training after a fractured toe the door is well and truly open for some of the youngsters to get a few games under their belt. Coach Matthew Knights does expect that his team will be close to full strength for round one of the 2009 Home and Away season, but with many players with modified pre-seasons it will be interesting to see what team is picked come selection time.
See Also:
Hille ‘sting’ rules him out of NAB Cup
Hille puts positive spin on stingray bite
Hurley pre-season setback
Bombers depleted ahead of NAB cup
AFL players are a lot like elephants. Some of them act badly because they’ve had a hard life, or have been mistreated…but, like elephants, some of them are just jerks. Fans of The Simpsons may recognise this adage, which in my opinion could not be more appropriate to the issue of players who repeatedly misbehave off-field.
Just this week, Aaron Edwards was thrust onto the back pages of newspapers for all the wrong reasons, after being caught travelling at 98 km/h on Queens Road and subsequently refusing a secondary breath test. Of course, it’s not this first time Edwards has been involved in controversy off-field, with the former West Coast forward being implicated in a police investigation, and more recently being found passed out at a Lionel Ritchie concert (although being found conscious at the concert would have been damning enough).
There have been numerous other repeat offenders over the years, including Alan Didak, who found himself in the press for separate off-field discretions in each of the last three years. Incidents such as these have led clubs to introduce a host of player welfare programs addressing issues such as responsible alcohol consumption and appropriate treatment of women. The AFL has also just proposed a new alcohol policy which would include a published “league table” of clubs’ alcohol-related incidents, as well as increased emphasis on alcohol education.
The vast majority of AFL players have never been caught driving whilst over the blood alcohol limit, or been observed in the CBD with marital aids protruding from their pants (hello, Mr. Fevola), but there will always be a minority who can’t help but do such things over and over again. I’m sure both Didak and Edwards received numerous hours of ‘education’ following their first and second indiscretions, but it didn’t stop problems from arising again. Ultimately, you can’t teach people who aren’t willing or able to learn, and that undoubtedly applies to a small percentage of AFL players. Unfortunately for the remainder of players, they are forced to waste their time being educated in things that ought to be self-evident. At only 18 years of age, Western Bulldogs recruit Ayce Cordy admitted as much in a recent interview with afl.com.au, stating that he feels “undermined” by the constant spoonfeeding that occurs at his club.
All this being said, I don’t believe the average football fan has the right get all pious with players who make a one-off mistake with alcohol. After all, you only need to look at the line in the Locker Room bar during half-time to see that many of us like to binge drink every once in a while. However, the same does not apply to players who make mistakes and do not learn from them. We really ought to stop acting so surprised every time these guys show their true colours.
- The Hairy Maggott
See also:
Ayce Cordy article- afl.com.au
AFL alcohol policy article- Realfooty
