The footy's back!! Well, at least the pre-season is, starting this weekend. Just like last year, the Wizard Cup is a knock-out style competition, much like the F.A. Cup or the NCAA basketball tournament, pitting all 16 AFL teams in a draw with the strongest surviving at the end of the month-long competition. The opening draw is as such: Code: Week One Friday, 18 February Venue Time 6. Collingwood v Richmond Telstra Dome 7.40pm 5. Fremantle v West Coast Subiaco 7.40pm Saturday, 19 February Venue Time 2. Western Bulldogs v Sydney Telstra Dome (Double-Header) 2:40pm 1. Hawthorn v St Kilda Telstra Dome (Double-Header) 6:10pm 3. Brisbane v Melbourne Cazaly Stadium (Cairns) 7:40pm Sunday, 20 February Venue Time 7. North Melbourne v Geelong Manuka Oval (Canberra) 2:40pm 4. Carlton v Essendon Telstra Dome 5:10pm 8. Adelaide v Port Adelaide AAMI Stadium 7:10pm Times listed are local times. I think there will be some rules variations on the competitions, such as last year. But with the nine-point "super goal", for a goal kicked from 50 metres and beyond, not only will it count for nine points on the scorebaord, but the teams and the AFL will contribute $1,000 (I think) for each one kicked to the tsunami relief benefit. With the fixtures above, feel free to make your tips by the start of the weekend... if you dare! Also, with the nature of the competition being what it is, with 15 total matches, perhaps we should keep this thread going for the entire competition, through to the Grand Final.
The pick of the news, from Tuesday's papers and web sources: Carlton Kouta ready to take on Bombers -- The Herald Sun Collingwood Magpies confident Buckley will be back -- The Herald Sun Buckley's problems likely to recur -- The Age Debutant football -- The Age Richmond Richmond to be an excitement machine -- The Herald Sun Western Bulldogs Rocket plays it cool -- The Herald Sun On Rodney Eade, the Doggies' new coach, and a return this weekend to his old stomping grounds in Sydney St Kilda Riewoldt keen to be Hird -- The Herald Sun From the Saints' new captain Hamill's unfinished business -- The Age Geelong Pain of failure drives Scarlett -- The Herald Sun Funny, as I was serving him beers in one marquee at the Geelong Cup, he was telling me the same thing Kelly comes out hard and fast -- The Herald Sun As the Cats' midfield turns... James Kelly's coming back as Joel Corey might be out for a month Cats ready -- The Age Adelaide No rift with Ayres, says McLeod -- The Herald Sun Fremantle Is Sandilands the next big thing? -- The Herald Sun Hawthorn Young Hawks ready to leave nest -- The Herald Sun Fall of famers -- The Herald Sun Club legends (and current board room employees) Dermott Brereton and Jason Dunstall have been asked to stay away from the club's practice sessions this season North Melbourne Laidley hails new Roo generation -- The Herald Sun Port Adelaide Tredrea keen on Port's prime post -- The Herald Sun Veteran 'recruits' boost Port -- The Age Sydney Schneider lines up for midfield run -- The Herald Sun
Not all of them. Essendon, I think, is one of the biggest offenders, but they seem to do well come Round 1 of the home-and-away season... I don't think Kevin Sheedy would let them get away with it, otherwise. Sheeds, however, seems to be of the belief that his team can accomplish just as much with a Round 1 loss and playing games in country locales (such as Bendigo, Shepparton, Ballarat, and so forth) against other competition the following weeks as they can on a good preseason cup run. But the proof was in the pudding last year, as last year's preseason grand finalists, St. Kilda and Geelong, did finish in the top four of the home-and-away season proper. So a good run in the Wizard Cup, and taking the competition seriously, can indeed prepare a team for a good season ahead.
Wednesday's news roundup... Richmond Tigers will be fighters: Wallace -- The Age Bowden gets first crack at captaincy -- The Herald Sun Fremantle Josh Carr already a Docker leader -- The Age North Melbourne The new #18 -- The Age Melbourne Daniher hopes to defy the odds -- The Herald Sun Granted it's not much, but it's still an update, ahead of the start of the competition on Friday night.
The AFL Record is out and it has got everything you need to know. So those who are living in Australia can go to their local Newsagency and get the record that costs $7
Wizard Cup Round 1 provisional squads This time around, in some cases, it's a bigger story as to who's out as opposed to who's in. As mentioned in the news of the week, Collingwood's Nathan Buckley will miss out with a recurrence of his hamstring problem from last season, and Geelong will hold out Steven King (arguably the best ruckman in the competition), and those are just a couple of the key names. The above squads will be cut back again on Friday. Some news from Thursday's media sources (as well as a newly-revamped AFL website)... Geelong Young Cats among those braced for bruises -- The Age Talking tough -- Geelong Advertiser Making his mark, and simply loving it -- Geelong Advertiser About new Cats assistant coach Andy Lovell Melbourne Demons name three most likely -- The Age To replace the late Troy Broadbridge, lost in the tsunami Wheatley praises Cairns -- afl.com.au Brisbane We're weaker: Leppitsch -- afl.com.au We can beat the Demons: Notting -- afl.com.au North Melbourne Roos, Cats missing a few -- afl.com.au Sydney Swans missing big names -- afl.com.au Essendon Dons close to full strength -- afl.com.au St. Kilda Newcomers in for Saints -- afl.com.au Carlton Carey offers forward thinking -- foxsports.news.com.au (via relay from The Australian)
As much of an exercise in futility it might be, here are my tips for Round 1 of the Wizard Cup (picks in bold): Collingwood v Richmond Fremantle v West Coast Western Bulldogs v Sydney Hawthorn v St Kilda Brisbane v Melbourne North Melbourne v Geelong Carlton v Essendon Adelaide v Port Adelaide Not that I'm going to run to the nearest TAB SportsBet parlor to any of these.
No worries, always glad to help. And by that above reasoning, I think I'm being consistent in picking against the Bombers. Even if it means tipping Carlton on Sunday.
For tonight's Collingwood v Richmond match, and for our footy faithful outside of Australian borders... There's live audio on the AFL's website as well, from Melbourne's 3AW, and options of a couple of other stations as well. Triple M, the best radio callers in footy, start their coverage next week, I think.
Collingwood v Richmond = Richmond Fremantle v West Coast = Fremantle Western Bulldogs v Sydney = Swans Hawthorn v St Kilda = Hawks Brisbane v Melbourne = Brisbane North Melbourne v Geelong = Kangaroos Carlton v Essendon = Carlton Adelaide v Port Adelaide = Port Adelaide
Live audio links, Round 1 These are from the revamped AFL website -- and it took some effort to try and find them, too...
Full time, at Telstra Dome... [Result] (highlight to reveal): Collingwood 3.12.16 (115) Richmond 5.9.9 (108)[/result] (With no TV of these matches as of yet in the U.S., I was debating as to whether or not to have the result tags in, but for safety's sake, I decided to keep them in.) And thank god the footy's back! Great game tonight... very exciting stuff, especially in that final term... [result]Anthony Rocca and Josh Fraser leading Collingwood back, after they had trailed by as many as 25 points midway through the third quarter.[/result] And even better news, with the eight nine-pointers kicked, that equates to $24,000 that the AFL will be donating (so far) to the tsunami benefit fund. Also, quarter-time score at Subiaco Oval in Perth, where the season's first western Derby is taking place within this competition... [result]Fremantle 0.3.2 (20) West Coast 0.3.1 (19)[/result] Very close game, between two rivals in the west...
Post-match report -- afl.com.au And a ding-dong affair at Subiaco Oval, where two western rivals are busy trading leads and thrills as well... [result]Fremantle 0.6.3 (39) West Coast 0.7.2 (44)[/result] [result]Mark Seaby kicks a goal from 48 meters after the siren to put the Eagles in front at the main break. Ashley Sampi is the game's leading goal-kicker, with a pair of six-pointers.[/result] And speaking of Ashley Sampi, if you're able to view highlights on the AFL's site, don't miss the highlights of this match. Sampi took another "speckie" -- reminiscent of the forever-hanging mark he took for the league's mark of the year against Melbourne last season. He didn't stay in the air for as long as he did for that one, nor did he quite show off the type of athleticism as he did then, but man, this one was very, very close.
And for those of us living outside Australia, it would cost more to post it to the states than it would to buy it, wouldn't it?
Late match last night, final from Subiaco Oval in Perth... [result]West Coast 0.12.8 (80) Fremantle 0.11.7 (73)[/result] Post-match report -- afl.com.au Post-match report -- The Age Post-match report -- The Herald Sun I wanted to get a post-match report from the Perth-based daily The West Australian, but apparently, their site is now a completely pay service. So two close games last night, with lots of drama and showmanship... great stuff, to open the competition with.
Post-match report -- The Herald Sun Post-match feature -- The Herald Sun Post-match report -- The Age Post-match analysis -- The Age
babytiger, tipping on the wizard cup is like playing darts blindfolded, isn't it? btw, now that i am back in the states, let me say, i already miss reading all the reports/articles for all three codes from the various papers.
Now that's one good way of putting it! About the same as tipping preseason NFL games, too, for that matter... But I did go 1-1 last night, and was basically one straight kick away from going either 2-0 or 0-2, depending on your view of either game. No worries, that's what you have me here for. And I'll even sift through the stuff, to spearate what passes for in-depth information from the so-called "journalism" we call "sensationalism" or "info-tainment" in the Aussie press.
Alert -- Western Bulldogs vs Sydney, about to start in about 45 minutes from this writing... Live audio links, Round 1 -- afl.com.au