Will Someone Call Carlton's Bluff?

So Fevola is on his way out of Carlton, is he?
Not likely.

Fevola is a key ingredient in that team – arguably THE key ingredient – and for a team that is entering its premiership window in the next two years, an 80 to 100 goal full-forward will be worth his weight in gold.
Make no mistake – Carlton don’t really want to get rid of Fevola.
It’s simply the threat of being traded that they hope will be the rocket that makes him change his ways.

Any team that does fancy Fevola will have to offer something good to get him – a very high draft pick (probably below 10) or a top line player.
Only problem is, clubs will be extremely reluctant to do that because of his chequered past.
He has so much baggage that for most young teams, his influence will be more trouble that he’s worth.
His worth is also a stumbling block – he has two years left on a contract worth something in the order of $700,000 a year.

So by the end of next week’s trade period, Fevola will still be a Blueboy, Carlton’s board can say “well, we tried to offload him” and he’ll be back in time for pre-season training.

What will really rattle Carlton is a club willing to come to the party and offer something of value. Then they’ll really have a decision to make.

Saints Blew Their Chance

St Kilda had Geelong on the ropes.

At half time in yesterday’s epic Grand Final, the Saints had racked up 37 forward 50 entries to just 15. That’s the kind of statistic normally associated with a thrashing.

Yet they lead by just a goal, thanks to costly misses by Stephen Milne and Andrew McQualter and two from the normally reliable Adam Schneider.

You can’t afford to miss those kinds of chances in a Grand Final.

Geelong learn that lesson in similar fashion 12 months ago – they kicked 11.23 last year.
They weren’t going to make the same mistake twice.

Implored by their coach Mark Thompson – who captain Tom Harley would later reveal “hates losing” – to treat the game as if it was the last they would ever play, the Cats responded.

They won most of the key stats in the second half and you could argue they deserved the win based on what happened after half time.

Ross Lyon was full of praise for his charges, but admitted it might have been one that got away.
“We left the door ajar,” he said. Geelong burst through it.

Saints fans can take some small solace in knowing that they lost to one of the best teams of the last 20 years.

Not that that will erase the pain of the last 40 years for St Kilda. The wait goes on for a second premiership in their 113 year history, although they are better placed to win one now than ever before.

It is often said that you have to lose one before you win one. Geelong discovered that a year ago. If St Kilda can manage that in a year’s time, it will have been well deserved.

They will retain most of their list for next year, minus Max Hudghton who announced his retirement this afternoon. St Kilda’s problems will come in a year or two when one or both of Steven King and Michael Gardiner hang up the boots. Anyone can tell you that you can’t win a premiership without two good ruckmen.

The Saints’ premiership window is wide open. It can shut quicker than you think.

Rules Committee to Blame for Franklin Fiasco

Once Lance Franklin was charged with rough conduct, it was only going to go one way.

Credit to the Hawks for fighting the good fight and challenging the suspension, but to the letter of the law he was guilty and his challenge and subsequent appeal were always going to fall on deaf ears.

Indeed it took a panel of three QCs just five minutes to throw out the appeal last night, after a hearing which lasted nearly two hours.

The problem started when the rules were changed after Nick Maxwell’s successful challenge to a suspension during the nab Cup.

And herein lies the blame – it’s in the rules, not in the player.

Franklin did nothing wrong. Even the tribunal agreed his actions were reasonable. He didn’t leave the ground to bump Ben Cousins, he didn’t aim for his head, and he had his elbows tucked in. By anyone’s definition it was a perfect shirt-front.

Cousins’ injury was incidental, or accidental. And it is there that the rule is hopelessly inadequate. Surely a player can’t be blamed for an accident? Well, that’s exactly why Franklin will be watching from the stands this weekend.

The bump might be frowned upon, but it isn’t dead … yet.

One can only hope that the reckless people who created this rule will look at Franklin’s situation and change the rule again to absolve players of suspension when their intentions are good.

It’s no wonder Nathan Buckley left the rules committee a couple of years ago, admitting he felt compromised by too many rule changes.

“I believe there should be a moratorium of sorts on rule changes and I have felt that for a while. I think constant changes if they are not halted in the near future will (damage the game)," he said at the time.

Footy ten years ago was great – contested footy is what people want to see.

If the law-makers really want to outlaw the bump, we are getting closer and closer to ‘that basketball crap’ Kevin Sheedy spoke about a couple of years ago.

NRL ON THE ROPES

As if Rugby League needed any more bad news.
Greg Inglis’ charge of assaulting his girlfriend Sally Robinson is just the latest body blow for the NRL.
In the space of just a few months, the game been battered from pillar to post – and the question must be asked – is the game on its knees?
On the eve of the new season, Manly fullback Brett Stewart was suspended for four games for his drunken behaviour at the season launch, which led to sexual assault allegations against the Australian star, for allegedly assaulting a 17-year-old girl.
He and Inglis were the faces of the new ad campaign for the NRL.
The ad ran with Stewart edited out.
Now a new ad promoting this week’s indigenous round in the NRL has been canned, costing the league about $250,000.
The costs could well be higher in the long term.
For Inglis, whose court case has been adjourned until August 26, the future does not look good.
Today he was stood down as the NRL’s indigenous ambassador.
Among all that, one of League’s brightest stars in Karmichael Hunt – a Queensland State of Origin player and Australian representative, no less – jumped ship to the AFL, signing on to the new Gold Coast team for 2011.
It is a rat jumping off a sinking ship?
Former Essendon premiership coach Kevin Sheedy said a couple of years ago that he couldn’t see Australia sustaining four football codes.
Football (or soccer) is growing by the day, with the success of the Socceroos and the new A-League a triumph. And if we host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup, soccer will really explode.
AFL is unshakable, the nation’s biggest and most popular sport, played in all states, and with two rivalries brewing in Rugby League’s heartland.
It’s no wonder the next television rights deal is going to push the $1 billion mark.
And Rugby Union will survive simply because it’s international – the World Cup features strong and passionate representation from New Zealand, South Africa, England, Wales, France, Ireland, Argentina and many other nations.
Rugby League has no such luxury.
It’s crunch time for League – the players have to lift their game if they want their children to be playing the game they love.
And it has to be said, the poor crowds that frequent (and I use that word very loosely) Rugby League matches – particularly in Sydney – are doing nothing to help their code.
The average NRL crowd this season is just 16,000.
And in total, 100,000 people Australia wide hold an NRL club membership. That’s an average of just 6250 per club.

CATS' COURAGE IS CHAMPION HALLMARK

If there’s been a more courageous win this season than Geelong’s effort against Hawthorn last weekend, I haven’t seen it.

When Brent Guerra kicked the first goal of the last term, the Cats were 28 points down and gone.
The Hawks had their swagger back.
Lance Franklin, who epitomises so much of what Hawthorn is about, had kicked five, and Sam Mitchell and Brad Sewell were dominating in the middle.
With Matthew Scarlett out with a groin strain and Harry Taylor also off the field injured, it looked a lost cause.
The Hawks, had they won, would have been in the eight today.

Instead, the Cats, perhaps driven by the heartache of that last Saturday in September last year, continued to attack.
Perhaps it is this which is most commendable about the win.
Down on personnel, down on the scoreboard, they played the only way they knew how – flat out.
Joel Selwood – the oldest, wisest and toughest 20 year old in the competition – along with the imperious Gary Ablett, hauled their team over the line thanks to Jimmy Bartel’s last gasp point.

It was a victory for the ages, and no wonder Cats coach Mark Thompson was glowing in his praise for his team after the match.

"When a coach sits there and says that anything can happen in a game of footy, I think now you'll believe them, because to be 22 points down and to have two of your key defenders out, to get up and win is an extraordinary effort,” he told the post-match media conference.
"They'll know exactly what that means for the rest of their lives, I think."

High praise from a man who is known for not saying a great deal.

The Cats play with that burning desire to right the wrongs of last year.
They have injury problems, but it’s only great sides who can overcome the losses they’ve suffered this year.
Leigh Matthews has likened Geelong to Essendon in 2001 - injured, stumbling, on the ropes even, ripe for the picking by a young team hell-bent on reaching the summit.
It’s hard to argue the point, and Geelong’s win is eerily similar in nature to that famous comeback by Essendon against North Melbourne in 2001.

But the Cats will most likely get their big names back before the finals come around.
And it is that which will hold them in good stead come September.
Make no mistake, the Cats will be there on the last day of the season.
Only problem is, there’s a small matter of the unbeaten Saints waiting for them in September.
They are mostly injury free, in red hot form and beat the Cats a month ago.

The finals will be epic.

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