Just to let you know as we review each game, the Kick2Kick authors are at the moment writing up the previews for the 16 clubs. If you want to help, get in touch with us or just review what we have written with your own views. Last week we previewed Collingwood, Fremantle, North Melbourne and the Bulldogs. This week we will preview another four or five clubs including Richmond and the Sydney Swans.

This week Melbourne had a freak storm so all the Melbourne games were affected in some way. This week we also saw several key injuries to players that will have an effect on their premiership chances.

Semi Finals Wrapup

The romantic chooses for this years NAB was the Bulldogs and Fremantle, the Dogs managed to keep up their end of the bargain but Fremantle?

The Telstra Dome was empty with many turned away with the wild weather

Western Bulldogs defeated Port Adelaide by 3 points

Last week all the talk was on Barry Hall with his 6 goals with five first half goals, Aker said something interesting in the game wrapup about how he now needs to run the game out and stand up in the last quarter when its needed. Guess what? Hall did it with a pack mark in the last 2 minutes 20 meters out which enabled Brian Lake to goal which gave them the win.

This win meant that for the first time in 40 years they have gotten in a Grand Final including the regular and night/ pre season competitions.

Gray for Port Adelaide looked good and he showed his potential that Port have talked about for the last year or two. With Westhoff playing midfield their forward line looks less potent as Cloke & Tredrea are limited at best.

St Kilda defeated Fremantle by 70 points

Fremantle was missing Sanderlands, Des Headland (injured), Chris Mayne and Hayden Ballantyne (injured) and the Saints was missing Nick Riewoldt and Brendon Goddard however the Saints smashed the hapless Dockers and even if the game was at Subiaco I doubt it would have changed much.

Lenny Hayes calf injury will half worry the Saints as he does have a history with soft tissue injuries but he has three weeks to get over it. What will please the Saints was some of the lesser lights in Clinton Jones, Jarryn Geary, Armitage, Zac Dawson and Stanley (2 goals) continue to improve which increases their depth.

Pavlich was quite and with no Sandilands tapping the ball to their midfield they struggled even more than normal.

Regional Challenge Games Wrapup

We all know you cannot read too much into these games but a win is a win especially if your a struggling club.

Magpies where all over Richmond, if only they could kick straight

Collingwood defeated Richmond by 28 points

Both teams played their second string midfields however that did not stop Collingwood monstering Richmond in this game with twice as many scoring shots (35 to 17), yet only got away with a 5 goal win. Mitch Morton continues to be the shinning light for Richmond down forward with four goals, while Collingwood’s young kids in McCarthy, Wellingham & Blair shinned.

West Coast defeated Carlton by 39 points

The West Coast Eagles came out fast and opened up a five goal lead in the first half with seven goals between Mitch Brown, Lynch and Nit Nat. For Carlton they struggled to kick a winning score for the third week in a row, Judd again was amongst the best along with Waite and Murphy playing their first game for the year.

North Melbourne defeated Hawthorn by 40 points

North continue to be (to me) the surprise packet of the pre season with a big win over Hawthorn. However for every Hawks fan its not the loss but rather the ongoing injury concerns that will be troubling them, with Cyril Rioli still struggling with OP and Burgoyne their off season recruit suffering a hamstring during the week. On top of that this game they lost tough nut Brad Sewell with a collarbone and number one ruckmen Simon Tyler with a broken leg.

North on the other hand kept Hawthorn goaless for a half of football lead by Daniel Wells who managed to kick 3 goals himself in a dominate display.

Brisbane & Geelong game cancelled due to the freak storm in Melbourne

Adelaide defeated Melbourne by 2 points

Melbourne were struck with the bad luck in this game instead of Adelaide who had a horror pre season, not only did they get victory snatched from by a late goal by Kurt Tippett who finished with 5 goals but they themselves now have their injury concerns. Daniel Bell did his ACL and will miss 8 weeks while their one shinning forward Liam Jurrah dislocated his shoulder.

I wonder if Craig is yet worried about his sides inability to show anything yet?

Sydney defeated Essendon by 28 points

Sydney nearly had a full strength side while the Bombers rested skipper Jobe Watson, David Hille, Paddy Ryder, Brent Stanton, Jason Winderlich and Dustin Fletcher. You can tell Sydney’s coach Roos is setting his team up for a big finish to his coaching career…

For the Bombers Zaharakis kicked three goals and Jay Neagle showed something down forward and Ben Howlett toped the Dons’ possession count.

NAB Grand Final and Regional Challenge Games for week 4

NAB Grand Final Match up:

• Western Bulldogs v St Kilda – Saturday Night (Dome)

Challenge Games (Local Time):

Friday March 12th

• Brisbane Lions v Hawthorn at Southport, 3.30pm
• Carlton v Adelaide at Visy Park, 4pm
• Sydney Swans v North Melbourne at Narrandera, 7pm

Saturday March 13th

• Melbourne v West Coast at Casey Fields, 2pm
• Richmond v Essendon at Morwell, 3.30pm
• Port Adelaide v Collingwood at Mt Gambier, 4pm
• Fremantle v Geelong Cats at Subiaco, 4.30pm

NAB Semi Finals Talking Points

I am sure we all have many issues, point of views and arguments we want to jump on the soapbox and talk about. Well this is your chance…

Please give us your thoughts in the comments section below or add your own talking points. The questions will be asked in bold and my response will be un-bold under them. Your input and comments help us make Kick2Kick a better website, so please express your opinions.

1. Channel 7 continually muted discussions between umpire and player for fear of bad language. However does that not defeat the purpose of miking the umpires up?
   • You either have the discussion or you do not, it disturbs the flow of the conversation and you cannot follow it when its muted in parts. Is not that the whole reason why they are miked up? Channel 7 again has failed their viewers time and time again (we wont get started on the delay for Better Homes and Gardens).
2. Will we see our first sighting for a player staging for free kicks? Towards the end off the first quarter on Friday night we saw Griffen stage for a holding free kick and he got it.
   • I very much doubt the umpires will pull Griffen up and it will show that this new rule is just a meaningless rule.
3. Again in the first quarter we saw Will Minson play on after a free kick and goaled but the umpire pulled him back to take the kick again. What about the new rule of allowing the player to decide whether he can play on or not?
   • Another fail by the rules commission and the AFL, I have watched limited game time so far this year but in every game so far I have seen the umpires get it wrong again and again. Just more gray areas added to a game that is getting more confusing every year.
4. Have the injuries killed off Adelaide and Hawthorn for the year?
   • I think so, the Hawks have a hard first month (Melbourne, Geelong, the Western Bulldogs and Collingwood) and will now not have any established ruckman to lead their midfield. Skipper and Brent Renouf will have to be one of the weakest (if not the weakest) ruck combination in the competition. I still wonder if they regret not picking up a ruckman in last years trade period?