Round 8, 2008

Boys versus men, of all the things the new age AFL competition delivers, this ….

and umpiring…

Shhh, don’t start on that, the readers will leave in droves

but the umpiring…

They know how you feel about the umpiring standards, leave well enough alone.

can’t I at least mention I just think its not on that certain umpires seem to need to be involved in the game for the sake of their own egos…

No you can’t.

can I just mention that when discussing umpires ego IS a dirty word?

No hush, now, rock yourself in a corner, and think about lillies or daffodil. So back on to the point for this week.

I hate the bloody umpires that…

Enough! We all do but it doesn’t make any difference, umpires are our sacred cows.

mooo…

Quiet.

bloody umpires…

One more word and I’ll cut off your nose to spite my face. Now where was I? Ahh yes, the thing I hate most about this New Age, softer, gentler, run free, as free as the birds, football we endure now is that the drafting system means we regularly dish up boy teams to face men teams.

I don’t like where this is headed.

Oh go have a round of golf will you.

is a boy team like a boy band?

At the moment we are a boy team. Brisbane is not. We have talent but it’s young and light and yet to solidify into a team of men. Brisbane are as solid as they come. To me it isn’t a fair contest. It took them about ten minutes to squash us with their muscle and a single quarter to end the contest then the game was played out as if it we were gentry shooting pheasants in a mild autumn evening. ‘Oh look at that, bang! bang!’ ‘Jolly good show Jonathon, but watch this one bang! bang! ‘ ‘oh very good young Brendan I must say.’

this has gone completely wacky…

Well you must feel at home then.

look whose talking…

We supporters must accept this. Our team is young, extremely young, especially where it counts most. Our rucks are kids, which is why Hampson was not played - why let his body get smashed by the opposition thug? Ratts confirmed this on the couch the other night. We must protect the boys from the men as best we can. You cannot expect to win every game when that is a priority and yet it must be.

We all want The Kruise or Hampson to be ten-year players for the mighty Bluebaggers. To achieve that we must be careful. And so with other players also. The club is compromised because it is a young list. It is compromised because the AFL demands we pick the talent as 17 year olds and then let them play against men and cope beltings week after week until they are men and the men have been replaced by boys and now they do the belting…

I didn’t follow that…

Shhh reread and be quiet.

but men become boys become men…

I am now officially ignoring you.

pity we can’t same the same about umpires…

So, we played as well as we could given they were bigger, stronger, more experienced. But we are improving. That loss would have been a belting last year.

And that brings us to this week’s game again Freo. For some time now they has been another club whose older bodies have enjoyed belting the slight bodies of our kids. Not this week. No way. Where Brisbane are bigger and committed to the task, Freo have lost the plot. They thought the window was a door and all they needed to do was stroll through and claim the cup, but there are windows and then there are windows…

What????

I can’t hear you!

Sadly I can hear you, ‘there are windows and then there are windows’…

Just let me get on with it will you.

I would if you’d just make sense.

That’s never stopped you.

ohhh, is that cyber bullying? Coach, coach, he said nasty things about me…

Oh for love of Mary, please, just zip it.

there are zips and then there are zips…

ahhh

ahhh

Okay, (breathing deeply) where was I? Freo have tumbled, crumbled and bumbled through their games. We at least have discipline, we have a team that does play together. This week, our team of boys will beat their fractured mob of men. Apart from Pav they have no one.

Pav? The dancer or the dessert?

Neither Pav the footballer. A good one, though Thomas thinks he’s a tad selfish.

much like you.

Oh get a grip! Pav is good but he will not be enough to get them over the line. Sandilands is tall but if we play Hampson (hear that MC. Sandilands is not a Charman)

MCs, Chairmen?

MC is the Match Committee. And I said Charman, not chairmen, oh why do I bother?

beats me.

I’d love to.

huh?

Beat you.

sticks and stones…

Enough! Look, the Match Committee must pick Hampson and let him jump over the top of the beanpole. And if I had my way we’d play either Jacobs (elevation through injury permitting) or Aisake and let the Kruise play as our permanent tall option in the forward line. Give Fev some backup.

We are kids, lets accept the fact and smash this ageing, broken team of lost souls and heavy anchors with youthful energy, with the team’s zest for life, for a chance to prove themselves. We will win, Fev will bag eleven and young Murph, the young lad with the old head

is he ugly?

No, no, that’s not what I meant?

has he been in an accident, or what, too much sunburn or something?

No, no I just meant he plays the game beyond his tender years.

tender, oh so he is sunburnt.

Oh why do I bother?

got me, I can understand neither hair nor head of any of this.

I know I sit with you each week. You haven’t got a clue.

you can talk.

Shut up will you. So this week, Fev for a bag and Murph for BOG.

Go Blues!
go blues!

Last week’s game may have disappointed us all, but the disappointment extended further at Mike & Dan Incorporated during the week when not one of us could come up with an outstanding piece of play by the Blues. Perhaps the Bears/Lions just had our measure and controlled the game too well, but apart from some great leads and grabs from Fev, a brilliant all-round game from Murphy, a fine three quarters from Jamison and a lovely centre clearance by Matthew Kreuzer, we couldn’t really come up with much at all. The problem was exacerbated when we chose Kreuzer, asked him about the clearance and even he couldn’t remember it…..

Matthew, great clearance in the second – nice tap and then gather, bomb out of the square…

Ahh…I really can’t remember that…

OK…the Play of the Week can be awarded for general excellence too y’know. We make up the rules as we go along. Tell us about the game? Why did we lose?

Well, Brisbane got the jump on us for sure, and took the game away. The other quarters we felt as though we pegged them back and did better. I thought our skills weren’t as good as previous weeks, so we’ll just have to keep practicing it.

Not many first year players are thrown in to ruck contests week after week. Are you finding it draining on your body?

Well the week off for the Hall of Fame Game helped a lot – I’d only played the 4 full games before that but the break was good for me. It might not sound like a lot but I was sore at the end of the West Coast game – nothing specific, just sore from the matches.

Tell us about West Coast and playing against the man universally acknowledged as the best ruck in the land…

Cox is awesome. Great ruckman, runs all day and his skills were just perfect. On the night my role is as always just to beat them, but I tried to learn as much as I could against him.

Which ruckmen have you found the most difficult to play against? They say Charman is hard at it – have any set out to hurt you?

Definitely Cox. Charman is a great ruckman too, but no one has really been out there to hurt anyone.

How did you feel when the Krooooze chants first started going up in the crowd? Did you get any feedback from teammates about it?

I didn’t notice it at the start to be honest, but in the last few weeks it’s really become noticeable. I hear it every now and again during the game now which is great.

You began the first quarter deep in the forward line, yet were taking some centre rucks within a few minutes. Was that all planned or just a change given how well Charman was going?

No, the moves were all planned. We were expecting to get swapped around and the Runner came out to get me after a few minutes.

Is it still hard to believe that you're playing useful AFL football in your first season?

It’s a bit difficult to believe, but I’m loving it. I’m learning heaps all of the time – I’m learning a lot from Steve McKee as Ruck Coach and also a lot from Cameron Cloke who I do a lot of my rucking practice with. I often line up on Cam at training and he’s great with his advice and all the hard work he puts in.

In 5 years time do you see yourself as first ruck or a ruckman/forward ala Koschitske?

I wouldn’t have a clue at the moment!

Is there any talk about giving you a rest or 2 throughout the season so you don't burn out? We believe that you & Hampson are the future, we want you to grow and lead the way....

Ratts has said a bit about that at the start of the year actually – he said to see how the body is feeling and if we need a rest, to say so, and just take it week by week. The bye though has worked out really well for me.

You work so hard when the ball hits the deck - is it just your hunger for the contest, or is it something you focus on? Were you always tall?

I’ve been tall all of my life! So I’ve played ruck all of my life and then having more and more time up as a forward.

Jamie Charman is a monster... when you see how much bigger your opponent is, how do you plan for that? For instance, this week you'll be opposed to Sandilands - how do you plan on combating that?

I’m not too sure yet to be honest, we are having some more training tomorrow and later in the week on that. Maybe I’ll try to run around him, but for sure he is the tallest out there. I know Hampson did well in the pre-season match, but Hampson has a much bigger leap than me – I’ve got to keep working on my leap at training.

This was your first game partnered with Ackland - how is he different from Cloke, and how does your partnership work differently than the Cloke/Kreuzer team?

Pretty much the same plan, really. Ackland has been helpful as well – he’s the oldest and most experienced of the rucks on the list, and he’s been helpful.

Did the coaching staff play-up the weekends milestones?

They were recognized – Ratts put up some video of both Fev and Stevens. They were both big achievements.

So tell us Matthew, which Number 8’s in Carlton’s history do you know?

Well there’s the 3 on the locker- Keogh, Blackwell – Luke’s father, and Whitnall.

For all players to have worn this jumper number over the years, check out the Blueseum

With Kreuzer refusing to name a fellow Blue who needed to cop a bucketing for his off-field behaviour, Mike & Dan had to ditch the question. Next time perhaps we’ll have to ditch the question about this week’s Play of the Week if the player nominated can’t remember it too! But we’ll keep persevering, to give you 22 player interviews even in weeks that are a bit tougher to watch than most…