Round three of the AFL was another interesting week. My tipping was again spectacularly unsuccessful but by this stage everyone should be getting used to it. As usual I name a team of the week plus I’ll take a look at the issue developing between Des Headland and Adam Selwood and give my take on how rivalry round should be run.
RIVALRIES
The concept of the rivalry round is not a bad thing but I think the AFL could have executed it better. Some of the matchups could have been a little better but it is always hard to find the perfect combination of rivalries for all sixteen clubs. If I was the man in charge of the fixture* here is what I would do. The first step is to run rivalry round in the same week of the season that contains the Anzac Day matches. My plan would give us the following encounters:
ESS vs. COLL � Traditional rivals playing on Anzac Day.
MELB vs. SYD � As Melbournians we should hate Sydney so this encourages this type of behaviour plus they are playing Anzac Day night every season now.
WC vs. FREO � Traditional Derby.
ADEL vs. PORT � Traditional Showdown.
HAW vs. GEEL – A more recent rivalry from the 80’s but plenty of stuff to be dragged up plus we would get to see the Yates hit on Dermie a million times which is never a bad thing.
CARL vs. RICH � Plenty of history here.
BRIS vs. WB � Playing for the Jason Akermanis Cup.
KANG vs. STK � Would need to start a tradition but unfortunately they are the odd teams out. You could swap the games so it was St Kilda and Geelong and Hawthorn and North as there is a bit more in those two matchups recently but that would mean missing out on the footage of Dermie getting smashed which is not going to fly with me. I think we need to get the North and St Kilda boys to box on at a pub one Saturday night and everything would be fine from then on.
*Note: The AFL is paying some Canadian firm a huge amount of money to do the fixture for them. Mark and I have offered to do it for fifty large but have yet to hear back. We are both maths nerds and figure if you gave us a list of the clubs requests, the TV network requirements and then locked us in a room with a computer, two notepads, some pens, the Entourage box sets, a boat load of KFC and about 10 slabs we would have it done inside of two weeks and everyone would be happy.
DES HEADLAND & ADAM SELWOOD
Big Des has always seemed like a bit of a strange cat to me. His latest blow-up does not look good but neither do the alleged comments mate by Adam Selwood. It will be interesting to see how this pans out but in general I am a fan of letting what happens on the field stay on the field. I know that racial abuse is no longer tolerated but where does the line get draw after this and should Selwood’s comments be considered inappropriate?
I have been abused in a myriad of fashions on the football field in my local competition about issues ranging from my size, weight, what my family linage is and a host of other things. I also had a guy call me a homo once which was quite amusing. I laughed it off but then, after a bit of egging on from one of the other boys, I proceeded to grab the guy that made the comments on the arse at every chace I got and it put him completely of his game. I am as straight as they come, a married man and would never have done what I did had the guy not made the comment that started it off. I got a great laugh from the rest of the lads at my club, my girlfriend at the time thought it was hilarious and my opponent played terribly so in the end the comments had a negative effect on the guy making them.
I guess the biggest problem with on field comments are that you can say whatever you like as long as it doesn’t offend the person they are directed at too much. If I had a daughter and I was spoken to in the manner that Headland was allegedly spoken to I wouldn’t care, in fact to this day I have never been bothered by comments on the field in any fashion. However, what may be water off a ducks back to me could be deeply offensive to someone else but until you say it to them you will never know.
It is interesting that Selwood is proclaiming his innocence in this case and is apparently prepared to go to court to defend his honour. The following is a press release from Gary Stocks the communications manager from the Eagles that gives an indication of where he stands on the issue.
“West Coast Eagles player Adam Selwood and the West Coast Eagles strongly deny allegations that Adam made certain comments to Des Headland during last Saturday’s football match between the West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Football Club. Those allegations have appeared in numerous media reports.
Adam Selwood emphatically denies that he made the comments attributed to him in the media and will give evidence at the AFL Tribunal tomorrow evening as to what was actually said.
Adam Selwood has an impeccable record as a person and a player and stands by his record.
There will be no further comment until the tribunal hearing.”
TEAM OF THE WEEK
B Sewell Glass McLeod
HB Gram Cornes Braun
C Lockyer Harvey Scotland
HF Hird Hall Chapman
F Tambling Fevola Rocca
FOL Jolly Swan Mitchell
INT FROM Murphy Braun Brown Baker Kirk Adcock Bassett
TIPPING
Another terrible week in the tipping as I was massacred on Saturday and finished with four in total for the week. That was still enough to put me two ahead of Mark but I slipped further behind the wife as she picked up five. I’m now on 11 in total and in 41st position. If you had been tipping the opposite to me you would be on 13 an in a tie for 17th position. This week my winners were Collingwood, Sydney, Hawthorn and Geelong. Thus far I have not tipped correctly in any game involving St Kilda or Essendon. Hopefully that changes this week.
