Aussie Rules

[stephenite]

Anyone wanna join an aussie rules dream team comp go to afl.com.au, then fun and games, then enter join league code: crikey.

Tried that Stiffler - doesn't recognise that code, says league doesn't exist?

[stiffler]

sorry stephenite, the league was filled with a load of randoms, u can still join the main league yourself although the next deadline is only an hour away to gain points in this weekends games.

[hitzelsperger]

Result from friday night

Collingwood 115
Richmond 90

Good win for the 'pies coming from 22 points down at half time!

[Aerlik]

I was listening to Collingwood v. Richmond on the radio.  Seems the Tigers self-destructed again.  Rocca is on form this season. That goal v. WCE (one of only two times I go for the Eagles, the other is v. Essondon) was something else but has any one seen the goal the Port Adelaide player scored v. Freo in Round One.  I was sitting about 20 yards from him when he unleashed and it must have travelled at least 70 metres.  We all clapped as Freo were about 30-odd points up by that stage, but that was the beginning of the self-destruction and the last time we had anything to clap about for the rest of the game. 

Tonight is the derby.  If I'm  silent for another week, it'll be obvious why!!

[stephenite]

Just watched the second half of the Carlton Essendon match, awesome display by Fevola. Setanta doing ewll on Lloyd also

[hitzelsperger]

Great win for the Eagles against their Docker rivals by 30pts

St Kilda gave the Bulldogs a trouncing with Riewoldt starring!

Great to see carlton getting a much needed win too!

[mick999]

Swans vs Lions is on live here at the moment..
Colm Begley has just scored his first goal in the AFL, Lions are winning 45 to 35 half waf through the second quarter ..

[hitzelsperger]

Sundays Round 3 results

Swans 96
Lions 69

Geelong 109
Demons 57

Hawthorn 91
Kangaroos 70

Good to see Begley gettin his first goal...long may it continue!

[The Real Laoislad]

Begleys goal not enough to win battle of the Irish down under

THE LIONS have lost their first game of the 2007, going down to Sydney by 27 points.

The contest was tight for most of the day until the Swans ran away in the final term.

Sydney kicked 13. 18 (96) to the Brisbane Lions' 10.9 (69).

The game was billed as the clash between Jonathan Brown and Barry Hall, with the two power forwards delivering early.

It was an old-fashioned shoot out to begin the match with Hall and Brown each booting three goals, including Brown's 200th career goal.

At the half-time break, Sydney led 7.6 (48) to the Lions' 7.3 (45). The Lions got the jump on Sydney in the second half with goals to Ben Fixter, Ashley McGrath and Scott Harding.

With the game in the balance, the Swans took hold and ran away with the match.

McGrath kicked three majors for Brisbane in a lively display, while Richard Hadley did a superb job on Adam Goodes after two years ruined by knee injuries.

The Lions lost to the Swans for the sixth straight time, but Lions coach Leigh Matthews was taking plenty of positives out of the game.

"I thought for three quarters we were really good against a side that is well proven at playing the high-pressure, intense footy," he said.

"I thought we more than matched them for three quarters but our energy levels dropped away and our last quarter was very poor.

"But it proved this group can play in that pressure, not so much skill, but the high pressure game, but you've got to be able to do it for four quarters."

SYDNEY 5.3 7.6 8.10 13.18 (96)

BRISBANE 4.3 7.4 10.8 10.9 (69)

Goals: Sydney: B Hall 4 M O'Loughlin 3 T Schmidt 2 A Schneider B Mathews R O'Keefe L Barry. Brisbane: J Brown 3 A McGrath 3 J Patfull C Begley B Fixter S Harding.

[Great Leap Forward]

What's the craic with the TV coverage this season?

I haven't seen anything on Sky or TG4 this season as yet although I may have missed it.

[mick999]

Good to see Setanta is making a good start to the season ...
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/tim-lane/ohailpin-raises-the-standard/2007/04/15/1176575680491.html
O'hAilpin raises the standard
Tim Lane | April 16, 2007

SINCE Kevin Sheedy took up permanent residence at Windy Hill more than a quarter of a century ago, there's been a unique dynamic to matches between Carlton and Essendon.

Tim Watson once said that, as a player, he invariably found Sheedy more urgent than usual before games against the Blues. This attitude was born, no doubt, of the great Carlton-Richmond rivalry of Sheedy's days with the Tigers.

Hatred is not too strong a word to describe the feeling between those clubs in the 1960s and '70s.

That a vivid aspect of Sheedy's past would make such an impression at Windy Hill says something for the power of history to shape future events. In his early years there, when Carlton was winning premierships, Sheedy's Bombers inflicted some terrible beatings on the Blues.

The pain of those defeats was subsequently conveyed to a new generation of Carlton players, such as Stephen Kernahan. Many years later he, and others, are conveying it to players of the present. Even to an Irishman who came to Carlton not with a pedigree from Gaelic football, but from hurling.

In Carlton's great comeback win on Saturday, Setanta O'hAilpin played as though he understood all of this. Early on, with his team losing both the game and its football dignity, he kept the navy blue flag rammed into the turf at one end of the MCG.

His head did not drop and his aggressive attitude didn't falter. When an O'hAilpin risk let Matthew Lloyd in for a goal, the Bomber skipper turned on a rare display of triumphalism. It was a sign the Essendon spearhead knew he was in a fight even if his team wasn't. Amid the first-half avalanche, Lloyd managed only two goals.

O'hAilpin's refusal to yield was manifest: a message to all around him. A man who had not played the game three years ago was stating, in front of nearly 65,000, that defeat wasn't countenanced, let alone conceded.

If the Carlton charge ultimately came in the second half, the hurler from Cork showed in the first that it was possible.

His opponent joined the all-time top-10 goalkickers' list on Saturday. It was not presumptuous to imagine he would be way too much for O'hAilpin. This is, after all, a full-back who doesn't know where to place the capital letters in his name, let alone set up a defence in a tough football match.

Yet, while Brendan Fevola was kicking eight goals against two of the best full-backs of the past decade, the Irishman, against the best full-forward of the same period, was unlucky to concede five.

Carlton and Essendon have differing tastes in many things, not least bookends. The Bombers might have picked theirs up at a Sotheby's auction, whereas Carlton's could have come from an Op shop.

Fevola isn't quite the polished product that Lloyd has long been, while O'hAilpin's 15 senior games leave him well short of either Mal Michael or Dustin Fletcher, who boast a collective five premierships. On Saturday, though, the odd couple were central to a classic win.

Fevola's second-half brilliance was such that his name will be associated with the match in the way Neale Daniher, Kernahan, Michael Long, and Fraser Brown are with earlier Carlton-Essendon epics.

And it was a day to stamp the name Setanta O'hAilpin as that of a real footballer, not just a curiosity.

[Declan]

That sounds good for Setanta - fair play to him. Wonder did Fevola headlock any barmen in his post match celebrations!!

[Dinny Breen]

This is, after all, a full-back who doesn't know where to place the capital letters in his name, let alone set up a defence in a tough football match.

Can someone explain what this means, as I find it offensive or am I over-reacting?

[Declan]

Can someone explain what this means, as I find it offensive or am I over-reacting?

I can only assume its the fact that the educated Aussies aren't familiar with the Gaeilge and that his surname is spelt O'hAilpin whereas they'd expect it to be O'Hailpin. Snide humour but not worth getting upset about.

[hitzelsperger]

fair fcuks to setanta, has took a rite bit of flack in the past, and i must admit myself that i doubted him kaing it at the level due to the fact that his footballing ability isn't the best but what he lacks there he makes up in athleticism and more importantly a bit of balls to keep at it! He has to try and fill the void, which has been filled since the retirment of the legend that is steve silvagni, hope he cements his place and shows all what he can do!