Marty Clarke to make debut

[Aerlik]

Collingwood totally hammered by Brisbane, so much so that I turned over and started watching a show about sandstorms in China.  Reminded me of life on the east coast of Japan and you'd wake up to find your car covered in fine dust.  And the bloody Gobi Desert is thousands of miles away.

Sydney hammered Richmond

and...Geelong hammered Freo.  Ah well, that's it for Freo for this year.  No finals.  Feck it. There's always next year.   Damnit last year we said we were going to get to the bloody final "next year".

[stephenite]

Was at the Swans game, good performance albeit against the weakest team in the league, amazing how exposed their defence is when Kennelly goes off for a breather.

[clarshack]

sydney's buchanan came in very late on marty today. disgraceful stuff - even the aussies were saying it was bad. fair play to marty for coming back on again.

[zoyler]

Super game today. Again Clarke made no mistake apart from the very doubtful free for over carrying the ball.  The late hit was a disgrace and the experts reckonit will cost Buchanan a 4 game suspension!  In fairness there is no messing with the disaplinery committee out there!!! I don'tthink they have a Frank Murphy!!
It will be a bad blow to Sydney as they are already so short with injuries.

[orangeman]

Pity the Aussies didn't have similar disciplinary rules in the international rules series - there would less late hits / assaults form them.

[Carmen Stateside]

Any clips of this game? must have been a nasty hit on Clarke when the Aussies didnt like it!

[Aerlik]

The final round of the league is next weekend.  Basically Clarke is the only Irishman assured of playing finals footy this year, and Tadhg and Swans should join him.  Begley's Brisbane and (my) Freo are set to battle it out for the 8th. place on the table.  I'm just a wee bit optimistic, mind you, the way Port Adelaide beat Geelong today was pretty impressive and as Freo play Port Adelaide away next week, to be realistic it'll be too much seeing as Port will need the win to ensure they finish second behing Geelong who have already won the "minor premiership".

Setanta scored a very good goal yesterday, again featured on the Sunday footy show, more for his exhuberance than the quality of his strike.  He took a diving mark in front of his man and pinged it from about 50m or so.

Big send off for James Hird and Kevin Sheedy in the last game of the season at the MCG for Essendon Bombers.  Talk is Sheedy could be coming to the West to help coach Freo.

Watch out for Port Adelaide in the Grand Final this year.

[clarshack]

it was a harold schumacher type challenge.

[Tiger Craig]

1 week suspension for the bump on Clarke - fair enough, not much in it

[Our Nail Loney]

Any clips of this challenge yet lads??

[orangeman]

He's a tough cookie is Clarke - but would he have survived the Dubs yday in Croker ?

[hitzelsperger]

fair play to marty, took the hit, got his recovery and came back on and give it everything...roll on the finals, lets go eagles!!

[Gabriel_Hurl]

The hit on Marty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pl-lrr-76M

It's here too - about 7 minutes in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_SajgFZtio

[Aerlik]

I think Martin will have to keep the premiership aspirations on hold for another year as the way Swans annihilated Hawthorn on Saturday was excellent.  Adam Goodes' individual goal in particular caught the eye.  He' 6'4" and shifts along.  Swans, if they play like that consistently will be very hard to beat, however I have a sneaking feeling Port Adelaide will be the winners. They were close to losing to Freo on Saturday, but had too much in the tank in the end.

Begley will have to wait for another year and the signs are good for the Lions after this year.  Setanta and Carlton, well...not much to be said.

I'll only be shouting for the Eagles if they play Collingwood in the final.  Actually, I won't even bother my arse watching the game. 

[parttimeexile]

Sweet jesus that was some tackle alright. :oFair play to him for taking a hit like that and not letting it effect him!