The first draw of the year, bad bouncing, goal kicking forwards and big scores were the highlights of round 5. St Kilda and Essendon have no answers of their soft tissue injuries. Round 5 saw St Kilda lose Steven King and Michael Gardiner again, as well as the Bulldogs losing Brad Johnson. The problem is the Telstra Dome, all teams who have a bad run of soft tissue injuries play majority of their games at the Dome.
St Kilda defeated Essendon by 36 points
Mathew Lloyd went missing and for the second time this year went goalless and Essendon was more dangerous with him out of the goal square. As reported by Kick2Kick they look more dangerous without the G-Train. Essendon look exciting but they go missing for long periods and they have to waste all their energy playing catch up footy. 1 of out 10 you will catch up but most of the time as seen in this round you will loose.
Geelong defeated Sydney by 42 points
Gary Ablett outplayed Sydney and was the difference
Sydney went with Geelong for 3.5 quarters but after that went missing and Geelong (Gary Ablett) blitzed them. O’Loughlin went goalless and if Sydney are to cover while Hall is out, he must fire or Sydney will struggle. Gary Ablett has been quite so far this year but he turned it on and showed why he is one of the best of the competition.
Adelaide defeated Fremantle by 17 points
Adelaide were serviceable and while Burton and Goodwin will kick goals, they will miss the regular goals from Scott Welsh. If they want to seriously challenge the teams above them, they need to find a goal kicker.
Fremantle looked good for periods especially when their young guns (Ibbotson, Palmer etc) ran and carried the ball. Pavlich simple must pull his finger out, twice in two weeks have I seen him carry on like a selfish baby when his team mates did not kick the ball to him. The team does not consist around him!
Hawthorn defeated Brisbane by 12 points
Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin, is their anything this 21 year old cannot do? Brisbane tried everything to stop him and even with Bradshaw kicking 7, it was not enough to see them win. Brisbane will be their abouts this year but they simply came against Buddy Franklins Hawks.
Kangaroos defeated Collingwood by 7 points
Does one bad bounce in the last 10 minutes change the result of the game? Depends on how you ask? Malthouse (who always deflects their looses onto some ‘other’ non-magpie reason) yes, others? Well, no. If the Magpies who were 20 odd points up in the last quarter continued to play it would have not made a difference.
Carlton defeated Melbourne by 33 points
What a difference one player makes. One team is now last and lifeless while the other who used to be lifeless are now winning. Fevola kicked 7 and with Buddy and Bradshaw also kicking goals, we may see 3 players kick 100 goals in a season which would be the first time since the early 90s (Dunstall, Lockett and Ablett).
Western Bulldogs drew with Richmond
McKinley is the one shinning light for the Eagles and won the round 5 NAB Rising Star
Bulldogs are really showing guts, even with being out played they still manage to get points. The previous two weeks (St Kilda and Essendon) they also came from behind. Brian Lake (Harris) did an old trick and played sore to get someone else to kick the goal to draw. It almost back fired with Minson taking the kick who is not much better.
Port Adelaide defeated West Coast by 24 points
Port showed that while 1 - 4 they have the talent to move up the ladder. They have pace and an exciting forward line and while win more games. Beating the Eagles at Subiaco even though they are useless is no mean feat.
West Coast are lifeless, slow and predictable. McKinley has been outstanding (12 goals from 3 games) but apart from that I am predicting that they are ‘tanking’ to pick up WA young gun Daniel Rich in this years National Draft.
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April 21st, 2008 at 5:27 pm
How about the bulldogs. They kicked themselves out of the game very early. Were outplayed, outclassed and out of the game. But i don’t think Richmond’s lack of anything was the reason the dogs came back. The dogs had courage and guts to kick the last three goals of the game and it makes you think, If they can play four full quarters and kick straight…how dangerous can they be? In saying that they were disapointing because they should have won that game, and by alot. But a draw is better than a loss, and two points better than none. GO DOGGIES
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:14 am
How good are Garry Ablett and Lance Franklin.
Here is a question Germ. Who would you take at the moment into a Grand Final. Gary Ablett or Chris Judd
Jonathon Brown or Lance Franklin?
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April 22nd, 2008 at 8:52 am
@Ando - Right at this moment looking at this years form I would take Gary Ablett over Chris Judd and Lance Franklin over Jonathon Brown.
Chris Judd is still recovering from his groin and I do not expect him to fully recover until next year.
Jonathon Brown has been a bit quite so far, maybe playing midfield has something to do with it. However Franklin is still only 21 and has improvement were I don’t see any in Brown.
In saying all that, these four are definitely the best in the AFL.
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