Off to the cricket it was for our second day of Test cricket this season.

Beautiful train ride from Edinburgh down to Leeds if you overlook the 6am start.  The vibes of Headingley were so obvious as we got close: loads of good spirit, which would have been difficult for those English folk after yesterday; and absolutely perfect conditions (con-di-shee-ons as the Yorkies say it) for cricket and even a few weddings – barely a cloud in the sky, no wind and mid-twenties. Read the rest of this entry »

Ben Jensen’s day went from bad to worse; first called into a crisis meeting; soon after dropping his 3G phone into his coffee and belatedly finding out the Cats lost to the Blues.

I WAS TORN on whether to wait until I got home or to listen to this one from work.  After a hasty meeting was called and then dropping my 3G phone in a cup of coffee the decision was made for me. It was already going to be one of those ‘too much sport is barely enough’ days with the 4th Ashes test kicking off at around the same time, so I now went on a media ban and waited until I got home to watch the game on the telly. You see, this was the first day of ESPN’s Aussie Rules coverage, having picked up the pieces from Setanta Sports’ demise. At twelve quid a month it was 99P cheaper than the old but unfortunately no Blue Square Premier coverage. So after seeing Melbourne’s ‘Sammy J’ perform in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival it was upstairs to the mezzanine level to watch the Cats hopefully beat my other half’s Blues. Read the rest of this entry »

By Anthony Jensen

On Saturday afternoon I had the privilege of squeezing onto an atmospheric V-Line train, surrounded by the Geelong faithful, and joined them to watch the team I love host the reigning premiers on a clear winter’s day at the home of footy, the MCG, and get home by the barest margin that this great game allows us.
The behind kicked by Brownlow medallist Jimmy Bartel after the siren capped off a stunning comeback by Geelong, who went into the final quarter 22 points down and kicked the last 5 goals. Jimmy’s minor score was the only difference between a resurgent Hawks and a backs-to-the-wall Cats after they engaged in 120 minutes of finals-like football.
GEELONG 4.2, 6.5, 10.6, 15.9 (99)
HAWTHORN 3.3, 8.7, 13.10, 14.14 (98)

GOALS
GEELONG: Rooke 3, Mooney 2, Hawkins 2, Ablett, Chapman, Ling, Selwood, Varcoe, Corey, Hogan, Stokes
HAWTHORN: Franklin 5, Roughead 2, Brown 2, Osborne, Lewis, Rioli, Bateman, Guerra

BEST
GEELONG: Selwood, Ablett, Ling, Mumford, Corey, Mackie, Enright
HAWTHORN: Franklin, Guerra, Mitchell, Lewis, Sewell

INJURIES
GEELONG: Scarlett (groin), Taylor (groin), Bartel (hip)
HAWTHORN: Osborne (foot)

CROWD: 64,803 at MCG
UMPIRES: FIELD: Ray Chamberlain (18), Scott Jeffery (29), Shane McInerney (30). EM: Troy Pannell (28)
BOUNDARY: John Morris, Gerard Large, Shane Jones, Adam Coote
GOAL: Jason Venkataya, Chelsea Roffey EM: Luke Walker

The game has sounded the death knell for Hawthorn who now face St Kilda and Adelaide in their run to the finals, which they will most likely miss. It also showed that this Geelong side has loads of heart and will never give up even when their chips, or key defenders, are down.
It started positively enough for the Cats, who got the jump on their opposition and drew first blood through a Tom Hawkins mark and goal. Hawkins took two other strong “clunk” grabs during the term, as well as getting a few taps in the ruck, and looks to be gaining in stature, quite a feat for the huge man.
Cam Mooney also marked on a lead and kicked truly from outside 50, and when Max Rooke added his second for the term from even further out, Geelong looked set to demolish Hawthorn who had hardly recognised the Sherrin.
And thus began the Lance “Buddy” Franklin Show for the afternoon, as the spearhead marked on a strong lead in front of Harry Taylor and, from the boundary on the wrong side for a left footer, steered one home from the arc and pumped up his responsive team mates. Majors to Jarryd Roughead and Michael Osborne got Hawthorn back to within 5 points at the first change.
From there, not much went right for Geelong including a rare swing and miss handball attempt from Joel Corey which gifted Jordan Lewis a goal, and a crash and bang marking contest between Mooney and Tom Murphy which spilled the ball into the path of Hawks’ runners.
And then, of course, along came Buddy.
The best tall forward in the comp kicked a magnificent goal hard up on that same “wrong” side for a left footer, making supporters and opponents alike shake their heads in amazement. As if to one-up himself, he then dribbled one through from almost the same spot which is clearly his favourite, followed by a more regulation goal minutes later, and Buddy had three for the quarter. He would finish with five and nearly did enough to win this one off his own boot.
Roughead was not as accurate and missed two pretty easy shots, but Geelong’s back six were clearly struggling. Minutes after replacing Harry Taylor on Franklin, Matthew Scarlett limped down the race with a groin complaint and didn’t seem likely to return.
When the rarest of rare turnovers by Joel Selwood, the worst of his otherwise damaging 42 disposals, set up Campbell Brown with an easy goal, Geelong were 14 points down at half-time but it seemed like 6 goals.
Despite an early snapped goal from Paul Chapman, things continued to get worse. Taylor too hobbled off the ground with groin problems and would take no further part. The Cats were down to just two on the bench with Andrew Mackie given the mammoth task on Franklin, and Tom Lonergan lined up on Roughead. With no Josh Hunt nor Tom Harley, the defence had never been so vulnerable.
Both Franklin and Roughead capitalised on the lack of tall experienced opponents and goaled from inside 50. The Hawks were building momentum and always had a reply when Geelong asked the question.

A settling 40m snapped goal came from Cameron Ling, who also did a stellar job in keeping gun Norm Smith medallist Luke Hodge to just 11 measly touches. Gary Ablett, at his best and taking a breather in the goal square, got on the end of one but the Hawks replied in spades with late goals to Brown and Chance Bateman.
Seemingly down, but never out, Geelong were 22 points down going into the final term.
When Brent “The Rug” Guerra slotted home a nice goal from near the boundary, the Hawks’ 28-point lead looked insurmountable. But someone forgot to tell Geelong that, in particular Joel Corey who had a sensational quarter including an atypical long-bomb goal. A goal to 5th-gamer Simon Hogan, and a great ruck contest from Shane Mumford to set up a pouncing Travis Varcoe to score, really showed the depth in this side.
Mathew Stokes kept a cool head when he received a handball from Hawkins and nailed a goal home.  Hawthorn had lost its lead but tried desperately to get the win.
A quick bunt on the opposite foot of Corey magically found its way to Bartel on a tight angle close to goal, and the script couldn’t have been written any better. Around 64,000 fans held their breath, half awaiting the inevitable triumph, half hoping for the impossible miss. We watched it sail through the middle of some big sticks, it didn’t matter which ones, and it went some ways to heal the wounds of Grand Final day, 2008.

www.thecattery.com.au

By Ben Jensen

To say myself and the lovely wife were looking forward to today at Lord’s is an understatement.  Last year we lived a stone’s throw from the ground and vowed to do anything possible to get to the Ashes Test.  Anything – even sign up to be a member of the England’s Supporters Club “Twelfth Man” thing.  So despite the dodgy effort at bowling on Day 1, we were looking forward to a speedy wrap-up of the tail, and some world-class batting from the Australians, and we had hopes of seeing the Queen and maybe even Richie Benaud.  We made our way down from Edinburgh on the train before checking out our old neighbourhood to see what had changed.

The entrance ticket puzzled me; a maximum of 750 millilitres of alcohol per person could be taken into the ground.  A maximum!  Gee, back home you’re allowed a maximum of nothing and you’re lucky if you can get full-strength beer.

Despite gloomy forecasts and ominous showers, it was reasonably sunny when we walked from Harrow Road to St John’s Wood.  Our first setback was soon to occur, though; at the body search area they let through amounts of alcohol that far exceeded 750 mils but my Australian flag was confiscated as a prohibited item. I was told to wait until a Green Team manager came over.  He took me to the Confiscated Items Office where said flag was deposited and I was given a number so that I could collect it later; not too bad really. They weren’t this toffy at the Oval for the World T20; flags were allowed there; cans, bottles, etc, were not.  As this was occurring Strauss went out, second ball of the day, bowled Hilfenhaus (sure I saw that name in Germany last weekend).

Went to take our seats in the Compton Stand, top deck.  Fantastic view of the ground, although no cover.  Had to wait to take our seats, and as we did so another wicket fell, this time Swann, caught Ponting bowled Siddle.  This brought groans from the Poms and cheers from the smattering of Aussies, and allowed us to find our seats.  The steward handed us each two feet of kitchen absorbent towelling; a sign of things to come no doubt.

We were smack in the middle of legitimate members of the ECB Twelfth Man club, with a few interlopers like us in between.  Next bay, though, was mainly folk from Australia, mostly “grey ghosts” on package tours, kitted out in various supplied uniforms that did look a treat.  Broad went out the very next over; like skipper Strauss he was bowled by Hilfenhaus.  I felt cock-a-hoop by now; after the Poms had been none-for nearly two hundred, we were going to bowl the bastards out for well under 400.

Unfortunately, three bowlers, Jimmy Anderson, Graeme Onions and Mitchell Johnson, had other ideas.  Every run these guys made was cheered like the Ashes had been won; I mean every run.  Soon the 400 was posted to justifiably immense cheers, as the Aussies bled runs at a rate of five an over.  No cheers were louder than for the bloke who popped his champagne cork into the lower deck, or for any Aussie overthrows.  It actually surprised me how raucous the fans were; I expected a reserved crowd, not one cheering every quick single or popped cork.

England were finally all out for 405. It was time for a quick drink and coincidentally the Queen’s arrival, as the St George’s Cross was taken down and replaced with some sort of Royal Standard.  On a tour here last year we learned Prince Phillip had twice been president, so I thought he might have been here today but not his more famous missus.  The tenth wicket ended up costing 47 runs.

The Royal visit combined with Anderson and Onions’ tail-wagging efforts lifted the Poms’  morale sky-high, and the young Aussie opener Phil Hughes was again the first wicket to fall for Australia, this time for just four runs, the wicket taken by Anderson in the third over.  His replacement, skipper Ponting, didn’t last much longer, going out in mildly controversial circumstances two overs later, caught by his opposite number and bowled Anderson.  Ponting wanted the umpires to give him out rather than walk. The decision passed to the third umpire, who ruled the catch had been taken cleanly.

The Aussies were certainly in a bit of a hole now at 10 for 2 and Katich still on nought.  By lunch they had crept to 22 runs for no further loss. It was altogether a disastrous session.

Not a lot of excitement after lunch. Two rain delays at least gave us a chance to engage in a bit of polite banter with our neighbours. I heard one bloke’s story of his cricket trips to the Caribbean and how at The Oval in the 1980s the crowd would be three-quarter West Indians and there was a great atmosphere.  We found the same at the World T20 game against the Windies back in May.  After the first delay, the pompous bloke next to me returned to grab his bag, but seemed in an altered state of mind and hurried off.

On the wireless, Ian Chappell was, as usual, in his element during the rain delay, telling very amusing stories of his time in the Australian side.  Just love the way he tells stories and does his impersonations of others with a bit of an uneducated tone no matter who he’s quoting.  Also for the second game running, Dizzy Gillespie got asked to tell us all about the time he made two hundred for Australia, in case nobody had heard it at Cardiff last week.

Pompous bloke returned sans bag but holding laptop and blackberry. There were still a few spits of rain as he took his seat.  Showed everyone a photo on his blackberry that his mate had sent him, from the MCC bar.  Shortly after the mate returned from his life-changing experience.  Pompous one asked if he had his bag; no he said, so pompous one asked around after said bag.  We had to turn away to hide the giggles.

Lefties Katich and Hussey batting very sensibly, giving nothing but creeping towards fifty runs each to reach 87 for 2 by tea, held late, at 4.20pm, due to the rain delays.  Pompous one eventually realised he’d lost it so he set off at tea, promising to buy the folk behind a bottle of wine (he didn’t come back).

We were then treated to a bit of cricket royalty, as Richie Benaud joined others were inducted into some sort of hall of fame.  If only Richie or his younger broadcasting colleague Shane Warne could roll the arm over and let Nathan Hauritz rest that dislocated finger of his …

Flintoff took the ball first after tea.  The hundred was up shortly after, from 30 overs, as I bet the missus that Katich would reach 50 first.  I soon lost this bet as Katich was out leg-glancing into the deep, caught by Stuart Broad, to the cheers from the Lord Tavener’s stand,  off Onions for 48. Australia was 103 for 3.

Flintoff gave Michael Clarke two high balls to start off with, to “ooohs” from the fans, but Clarke was soon off the mark with a single.  Hussey scored his fifty with a single from the next ball. A few in our area stood and clapped politely.  Next over, however, he left a 95 mile an hour ball from Flintoff that removed his off stump, leaving us on 111 for 4, and the rot set in again.

Clarke was next to go, caught at mid-on by Cook from Anderson, 111 for 5 now.  First talk of Australia needing to follow-on, but the two in now (North and Haddin) each made centuries at Cardiff (then again so did Katich and Ponting).

Haddin got off the mark stylishly — well, sort of — three from a misfield.  But his technique was flawless as he gave every ball the respect it deserved, meticulously counting the number of fielders each delivery so he knew where he could score.  North was similarly conservative, but seemed content to block out each delivery and not make a single run.  After umpteen balls and about half an hour he was out for a duck, bowled middle peg by that man Anderson, who is starting to menace with both bat and ball like Flintoff of 2005.

Started to feel a bit sorry for my clansman by now, as English sportsmanship came to the fore. Anyone in yellow who went for a slash got a rousing “cheerio” on the way out.  It was now up to Johnson to atone for his bowling effort and have a long innings and let Haddin score.  He was out soon, however, playing a shot similar to Katich but in front of our stand, caught near the boundary by Cook off Broad for 4. It was 148 for 7 as “Are you Kiwis in disguise …” was chanted out.

The 150 was brought up before Haddin got himself out, a real shame after such a promising innings, hooking, caught Cook off Broad for 28.  Hauritz now took to the field, dodgy finger and all.  Not surprisingly, an over later when the light was offered the Aussies charged from the field at 156 for 8 at a little before half past six.  On the way out we saw our mate with the lost bag, only this time he was minus his laptop also and really looked in a state.

A perfect day’s cricket for the English fan; the tail wagged, the Queen appeared, and Aussie batsmen were shaking in their boots.  And for many folk the £125 charge for a magnum of champagne was no object, so why wouldn’t you be happy!

I didn’t think it could have gone much worse from an Australian’s point of view.  But I will not forget today and I will make sure that there is similar sportsmanship next time I make it to an Ashes test at the MCG.

I still think we can save this game, or even win it. We just need the top four to get a century each in the follow-on and then the bowlers to skittle the Poms for under 200 in the fourth innings.

By Ben Jensen

This is the clash of the season. Although both sides are unbeaten, the Saints have been smashing sides with such regularity that they’ve got a percentage of 177.5%, to the Cats’ 149.7%. The Geelong back six will be tested by St Kilda forwards led by Nick Riewoldt, Justin Koschitzke, Stephen Milne and Adam Schneider, while the ‘Big Hairy Cat’ Cameron Mooney will be desperate to atone for recent performances, and should enjoy the confines of Etihad Stadium. Gary Ablett, Paul Chapman and Joel Corey similarly will be keen to ‘tear up’ the former Telstra Dome in front of a package house and live Channel Seven telecast.
The match has been seemingly ranked up there with the 2000 Sydney Olympics opening ceremony, such is the hype. Damian Watson on the Footy Almanac website has written a great piece on ‘big match’ precedents over the last ten years (http://footyalmanac.com.au/?author=158.)
UK-based Geelong fans, in the absence of Setanta, will be able to watch the game live thanks to the AFL and Telstra ( http://bigpondtv.com/aflliveuk).
Meanwhile viewers in NSW, Queensland and the ACT will not be able to see the game unless they tune into Foxtel’s ‘Main Event’ channel, Seven/Southern Cross and Fox Sports 1 choosing to telecast the other two non-blockbuster games in Sydney-Kangaroos and Fremantle-Carlton.  Read on for further review of key match-ups and players, full team listings and a review of the last clash between the two sides.

GEELONG -   In: Wojcinski, Hogan, Stokes, Gamble     Out: David Johnson (calf)
ST KILDA  -  In: R. Clarke, R. Eddy, J. Gwilt, L. Miles     Out: M. Hudghton (inj)
UMPIRES – TBA
TIP – Cats by a whisker; 3 points
KEY MATCH-UPS
RUCK
Former Geelong skipper and premiership ruckman Steven King will miss through suspension, as will Cat Brad Ottens, who hasn’t played all season. The Saints have former West Coast ‘bad boy’ Michael Gardiner backed up by 19 year old Ben McEvoy to lead their ruck division, with forward Justin Koschitzke more than able to do the job if it comes to that. The Cats rely on Mark Blake, whose form hasn’t been terrific, and cult figure Shane Mumford. As if to emphasise this, the Geelong selectors have named Mumford in the ruck with Blake on the bench.
Verdict: Cats hold the edge, just; if they get too far on top, Koschitzke may get diverted from the forward line, making the Cats’ defence job even easier.

MIDFIELD
The Cats easily have the ascendency here. For what it’s worth, the Geelong midfield rotation of Gary Ablett, Jimmy Bartel, Joel Corey, Cameron Ling, Joel Selwood and Paul Chapman, Corey Enright, James Kelly, Travis Varcoe, Max Rooke and Shannon Byrnes will also have something to say about it. The Saints’ team of Lake Ball, Nick Dal Santo, Leigh Montagna Lenny Hayes, former Bulldog Farren Ray and Sam Fisher are all quite capable but not in the same league as the Cats just yet; maybe they will be come September. Verdict: Cats to control the midfield.
FORWARD – DEFENCE
One cannot question the potency of the St Kilda forward line this season; interestingly it is the Cats who have kicked by far the highest aggregate score, with 1509 points (116 per game) to the Saints’ 1356 (104pg). The more intriguing aspect is what the Geelong defence has let through this season: 1008 points (78pg), to St Kilda’s measly 764 (59pg).
For the Cats Cameron Mooney has been generally perceived as misfiring most weeks with 23 goals so far, in his only game at Etihad Stadium he kicked a bag of four against Essendon. Steven Johnson is certainly the pick of Geelong’s forwards, although in the past fortnight it was Shannon Byrnes booting bags of five and four goals. If the Cats get into serious trouble they can usually rely on Ablett to drop into a permanent forward role and kick a few. The Saints have lost tall defender Max Hudghton to an ankle injury, Sam Gilbert filling his spot at full back. He and the other Sam, Fisher, are likely to match-up on Mooney. Zac Dawson was tormented by Anthony Rocca all those years ago but it is often forgotten that he towelled up Geelong forward Kent Kingsley the next week, so the boy can play. He will probably take Tom Hawkins, who is about due for a good game. Paul Chapman loves Docklands, and should get either Brendan Goddard, who will try to exploit his pace by running off half-back, or tough nut Steven Baker. Stokes is an outside chance to play but will probably miss out in favour of Wojcinski, while Gamble simply won’t play.
Nick Riewoldt has tormented Geelong players and fans alike over the past decade; those long arms, well before the ‘chopping’ rule came in, seemed just too strong. Tom Harley’s back up and running, however, and with Harry Taylor should be able to handle him. Matthew Scarlett may get a shot at Riewoldt but may find himself on Koschitzke instead. Andrew Mackie is another capable of playing on talls. Someone like Enright, Milburn or maybe even Wojcinski should pick up Stephen Milne. Adam Schneider is another small forward capable of kicking a few in a row, Max Rooke might be suited to him if he doesn’t start up forward.
INTERCHANGE
Geelong – Blake, Shannon Byrnes, Darren Milburn, (1 of) Ryan Gamble, Matthew Stokes, David Wojcinski
St Kilda – McQualter, Miles, McEvoy, Geary, R Clarke, Gwilt, Eddy (3 to go)
Comparing the benches, the Cats certainly have the more experienced if not potent line-up. Aside from the two ruckman in Blake and McEvoy, the Cats bench is skewed towards defensive players in utility Darren Milburn, half-back David Wojcinski, key defender Harry Taylor but they’ve also named forward-minded Matthew Stokes and Ryan Gamble. Simon Hogan, the seventh benchman named, is not a realistic chance . The Saints went for Andrew McQualter (tagger), Jarryn Geary (half-back/midfield), Raphael Clarke and Ben McEvoy. Robert Eddy and Luke Miles seem to be on the outer while James Gwilt could return.
THE COACHES
Not much more can be said of Geelong’s coaching team. Mark Thompson, newly reappointed, is the best coach going around and has a strong team behind him, mostly ex-players. St Kilda has Ross Lyon; clearly a talented tactician, man manager and motivator. They also have former Geelong VFL Premiership coach Leigh Tudor, who knows a thing or two about the Cats. Wouldn’t have expected either box to have much influence on the game this Sunday.
Story on Herald Sun website re- Tudor (http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25714598-19742,00.html)

TEAMS

GEELONG
IN: D Wojcinski, S Hogan, M Stokes, R Gamble
OUT: D Johnson (calf)
B: Tom Harley – Matthew Scarlett – James Kelly
HB: Corey Enright – Harry Taylor – Andrew Mackie
C: Joel Corey – Jimmy Bartel – Travis Varcoe
HF: Gary Ablett – Cameron Mooney – Steve Johnson
F: Paul Chapman – Tom Hawkins – Max Rooke
FOLL: Shane Mumford – Cameron Ling – Joel Selwood
INT (FROM): Mark Blake, Shannon Byrnes, Ryan Gamble, Simon Hogan, Darren Milburn, Mathew Stokes, David Wojcinski

ST KILDA
IN: R Clarke, R Eddy, J Gwilt, L Miles
OUT: M Hudghton (inj)
B: Jason Blake, Sam Gilbert, Zac Dawson
HB: Steven Baker, Sam Fisher, Brendon Goddard
C: Farren Ray, Luke Ball, Nick Dal Santo
HF: Jason Gram, Nick Riewoldt, Adam Schneider
F: Lenny Hayes, Justin Koschitzke, Stephen Milne
FOLL: Michael Gardiner, Clint Jones, Leigh Montagna
INT (FROM): Raphael Clarke, Robert Eddy, Jarryn Geary, James Gwilt, Ben McEvoy, Andrew McQualter , Luke Miles

CATS INJURY LIST

Player (Injury) Onset; Estimated Return; Notes
David Johnson (calf) – 3-4 weeks NEW
Tom Allwright (knee soreness) – 1 week NEW
Brad Ottens (knee) – 1-2 weeks
Steven Motlop (shoulder) – 2 weeks
Ranga Ediriwickrama (hamstring) – 4-6 weeks
Scott Simpson (fractured ankle) – 5-7 weeks
Josh Hunt (ACL) – season
Mitch Brown (broken leg) – season

ST KILDA INJURY LIST
Leigh Fisher (hamstring) – 1 week
Max Hudghton (ankle) – TBC
Jarryd Allen (torn hip muscle) – indefinite
Xavier Clarke (ACL) – season
Matthew Egan (foot) – season

LAST TIME
AFL 2008, FIRST QUALIFYING FINAL
SUNDAY 7 AUGUST 2008, 14:40 EST, MCG
GEELONG POWERS INTO PRELIMINARY FINAL
Ben Jensen

8 September 2008
By Ben Jensen (In London)

GEELONG stamped their authority over this year’s finals series, dispatching St Kilda summarily at the MCG in front of a crowd of 71,653.  The Cats barely turned up in the final quarter but still won by fifty-eight points, although the win did come at a cost with the likely loss of Brent Prismall for the rest of the season with a knee injury. Out of contract Prismall, who had just about cemented a spot in the side after playing ten of the last twelve, is to have a scan to confirm what is believed to be a dreaded ACL. The Cats play the winner of Friday night’s elimination final between Sydney and the Bulldogs at the MCG, in a Preliminary Final likely to be the following Friday at the MCG.

MATCH RESULT AND REVIEW – GEELONG POWERS INTO PRELIMINARY FINAL

GEELONG 3.7, 7.10, 16.15, 17.17 (119) DEFEATED
ST KILDA 1.1, 3.2, 5.5, 8.3 (61)
GOALS
GEELONG: Ottens 3, Mooney 3, Bartel 2, Lonergan 2, Varcoe, S Johnson, Stokes, Ablett, Rooke, Chapman, Ling
ST KILDA: Milne 2, X Clarke, Montagna, Riewoldt, Schneider, R Clarke, Goddard
BEST
GEELONG: Bartel, Ablett, Corey, S Johnson, Taylor, Selwood
ST KILDA: Hayes, Montagna, Fisher, Goddard, Gram
CROWD: 71,653 at MCG
UMPIRES: Kennedy, McInerney, Meredith
INJURIES: GEELONG: Brent Prismall (knee – out for season); Paul Chapman (described as ‘hamstring / quad’) ST KILDA: Jason Blake (thumb)
REPORTS: Lenny Hayes (St Kilda; by emergency umpire Jeffery) for allegedly striking Joel Selwood (Geelong) in the third quarter.

By Ben Jensen

Sometimes I hate being a footy fan outside Australia.

I had it all worked out last year; got myself a Setanta Sports subscription; at only £9.99 a month I was supposedly going to get four games live a week. That’s almost better than back home!  By the time the Cats and Port kicked off the 2008 season at Footy Park that had been reduced to three live games, but still not bad.  And if the Cats weren’t screened live, there was always the weekly highlights show hosted by Craig Willis (also broadcast by another pay TV channel, British Eurosport).

Now, though, we’re left with nada; Setanta UK has gone “arse up” and while rights such as English Premier League, FA Cup and England games will be snapped up pretty quickly, there’s little chance of anyone wanting AFL or NRL rights. And the poor old Scottish Premier League, Gaelic Athletic Association and others may end up with no coverage at all.  Let alone the various incarnations of poker.  Given that I’ll be in Leipzig, Germany (I hadn’t heard of it either) this weekend I couldn’t have watched the much-hyped clash with the Saints this weekend anyway, but it still hurts!

I actually had most of last year for free as my provider, Tiscali, forgot to start billing me in November. (Tiscali incidentally is another company gone broke but it had a brilliant product – in addition to being your phone and internet provider, you got a set-top box that received digital TV signals and plugged into your router for pay TV delivered over your ADSL line!)

Accompanying the Aussie footy on the Setanta channels were two Premier League games a week, often featuring my team (Arsenal), various GAA sports (Gaelic football and hurling); lower level, ‘non league’ football; Indian Premier League cricket; a bit of rugby and much more.  Sports I never watched include PGA Golf (they even had a dedicated golf channel), NRL games, US Baseball, NBA and ‘UFC’.  When I moved to Scotland towards the end of 2008 and started taking a keener interest in the SPL, they covered that, too.  In other top level football they had England’s away games, and FA Cup.

Come 2009, and the Aussie footy coverage had dropped to two games a week with no explanation.  Having moved to Scotland, where it was just all too much for Setanta to figure out, I was now watching it via Sky, and it was up to £12.99 a month.  I had obtained their full range of channels, however, the gems being Setanta Ireland, Setanta Sports News, Arsenal TV and Liverpool TV.  Also throw in Celtic TV, Rangers TV, ESPN America and ESPN Classic.  Too much fringe sport is barely enough!

About three weeks ago it was first flagged that Setanta were passing around the hat to staff in order to stump up a £20 million payment to the EPL.  They were also due a smaller £3 million to the SPL, but that could be postponed, the SPL not having vultures waiting in the wings to secure cheap rights to the (self-declared) best football league in the world.  I was in Belfast last weekend so didn’t catch the news until the Monday, but when the EPL confiscated the rights on the Friday due to a lack of payment, it effectively sealed the death warrant of the company, in the UK at least.

Last Monday, it was announced that ESPN, the Mickey Mouse (Disney) owned global sports media giant had indeed picked up the EPL rights Setanta had.  Fresh from ruining Cricinfo’s simple website layout, ESPN have been keen to get into the UK football market for a while and bid for the EPL rights last time round, but lost out to Setanta and Sky, and have picked up a bargain here, with a to-be-announced package and pricing to come some time in the future.

Naturally, the official Setanta.com website borrowed from the infamous Iraqi Information Minister (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Saeed_al-Sahhaf) or perhaps the Dead Parrot sketch by John Cleese (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Parrot) and claimed everything was fine, and that they were, in fact, still accepting new subscriptions.  That’s good then!  Well, perhaps not, as the next morning they did in fact go into administration, and by the time I got home that night none of the Setanta-branded channels (except the Setanta Ireland channel) were working.  ArsenalTV, LiverpoolTV and the ESPN channels were working, although the Old Firm Celtic and Rangers channels were, perhaps mercifully, offline.

Ironically, that night Geelong’s thriller with Freo was on TV, on the Eurosport2 channel that gets two games a week.  Terrible picture quality mind you, but at least it was on, even if it was two days late.  An interesting thing happened during the game: quite a few ads for their highlights show trumped the fact they were the “only place” you could watch the AFL, and during the show proper a graphic flashed up advertising an AFL Magazine show on the Sunday afternoon.  So perhaps Eurosport have seen an opportunity for a new niche market and are ready to run with it?  Wouldn’t want to get our hopes up!

On Friday morning my time, there was some good news: Telstra and both the AFL and NRL had agreed to stream all games of this weekend over their respective internet sites, ‘free’ to anyone in England, Scotland and Wales.  Not sure why they didn’t just say UK; perhaps this is to highlight that Northern Ireland will be left out.  I did give it a crack from work on the Friday; I could hear comedian Dennis Cometti carrying on about soon-to-be-beatified Chris Judd but could not see any vision.  Gave it another shot on Saturday but got nothing; regretfully I stayed up a wee bit too late on the Saturday night so didn’t get up by 5am to see if it was working for the Cats game but by the sounds of it I didn’t miss much anyway.  Hopefully it’s working (and still free of charge) for next week’s game with the Saints, or punters may be drawn into a bloke called Justin who provides a similar service for naught.

Hats off to the AFL for their work so far; I certainly didn’t expect any commonsense whatsoever to prevail for the round just gone.  From my own selfish perspective, given I get Eurosport for only £1 a month from Sky, I hope they pick up a couple live games a week, but who knows?

Now to find a pub in Leipzig this Sunday morning with a don’t ask-don’t tell live feed of the game at 6am local time. It’d be such a pity to miss the Cats taking top spot from the Aints.

By Ben Jensen

Another chance to watch the Cats on Setanta this weekend — that’s two in a row! Unfortunately we had a prior engagement so had to “tape” the game and watch it the next morning. Due to an idiot neighbour hooking into our sat dish we’d had a few problems of late, so we were dismayed to see “partial recording only” when we got up to watch the game. It appeared most of the game had recorded, possibly without Channel Ten’s post-match coverage (we hoped). Most predictions were for the Cats to easily win this one ahead of their higher-stakes clash with the Bulldogs at Etched Stadium next weekend, and that’s pretty much what happened, the Cats running out winners by 70 points.

GEELONG 5.3, 12.5, 15.9, 18.11 (119)
NORTH MELBOURNE 1.2, 3.3, 6.6, 7.7 (49)
GOALS
GEELONG: J Bartel 3, S Byrnes 3, A Mackie 2, T Varcoe 2, C Mooney 2, M Stokes 2, T Hawkins, C Ling, M Rooke, D Wojcinski
NORTH MELBOURNE: D Hale 2, H McIntosh 2, A Swallow, L Thomas, S Wright
BEST
GEELONG: (Cattery) Mackie, Johnson, Kelly, Bartel, Taylor, Byrnes; (afl.com.au) Johnson, Bartel, Kelly, Mackie, Selwood, Byrnes, Scarlett, Taylor, Blake.
NORTH MELBOURNE: Hale, McIntosh, Harding, Petrie, Ross, Gibson.
CROWD: 20,873 at Skilled Stadium, Geelong
UMPIRES
FIELD: Hayden Kennedy (7), Justin Schmitt (17), Jacob Mollison (32). Emergency: Damien Sully (12).
BOUNDARY: Matthew Payton, Chris Gordon, Justin Bennison, Mitch Lefevre.
GOAL: Mark Canning, Adam Wojcik. Emergency: Peter Nastasi.
INJURIES
GEELONG: Milburn (ankle), Paul Chapman (back) replaced in selected side by Tom Lonergan.
NORTH MELBOURNE: Daniel Wells (hip) replaced in selected side by Ed Lower, Brady Rawlings (calf) replaced in selected side by Nathan Grima.
REPORTS: Nil
PREMATCH ODDS: Cats $1.02 to $1.08; Roos $8.50 to $9.00
One late change for the Cats, Paul Chapman pulling out with a sore lower back. His replacement, Tom Lonergan, lined up in the backline, with Joel Corey lining up in the midfield instead of down back. The Roos had two forced changes of their own, tagger Brady Rawlings and Daniel Wells, replaced by two debutants. One of those debutants, Sam Wright, hails from Katamatite, a wee town near Cobram that gave the Cats Darren Flanigan. Of course, other fairly famous recruits from the big smoke in Cobram were the Hocking brothers and John Barnes.
After a couple misses from Mathew Stokes and Cameron Mooney, Travis Varcoe opened up the goal scoring for the day, getting on the end of a string of handballs, goaling from about forty out. At the other end, David Hale, who caused massive problems last time with eight goals, kicked North’s first halfway through the quarter. Cam Mooney made amends for his first miss, converting a set shot from 35 out. Hawkins played a role in both goals.
With just under four minutes to go, Varcoe kicked his second goal, this time playing on from the most uncontested of uncontested marks at centre half-forward to slam it home; Andrew Mackie picked him out. Bartel kicked his first a minute or so later. Johnson brought the ball inside fifty, Hawkins was unlucky not to take a mark before the ball spilt to Bartel. Bartel had a second less than a minute later, on the end of a string of handballs, the goal looking inevitable, the margin now out to 25 points, where it remained at quarter-time.

Mooney slammed home his first from a free kick 35 out, slamming home not only the kick but perhaps his critics.
Mackie playing well, along with Varcoe, Bartel and Corey about Geelong’s best. Kelly, Mooney and Johnson also had plenty of impact, Johnson sitting around centre-wing rather than his customary role roaming with intent inside fifty. The backline hadn’t had a lot to do but Scarlett, Taylor and Lonergan were really tearing it up. Milburn and Wojcinski had spent a bit of time on the bench.
Max Rooke finished off another team goal for the Cats, the boy from Casterton another beneficiary of Johnson’s architecture from outside fifty. Stokes nearly had a contender for goal of the day, smothering an opponent’s handball, stepping around him, skirting the boundary line before firing in a shot from thirty out for a behind. Stokes did have his first a few seconds later, Hawkins again involved in a chain of possessions before Stokes out-smarting everyone to kick it on his left from the goalsquare among ten other players.
David Wojcinski slammed home another goal for the Cats thirty seconds later, accepting a handball from Corey just outside the centre square, slamming it home from 55 out, Mooney shepherding it through, the margin now 56 points. As a sideshow, highlighted by the commentators, Mooney had a third run-in (that we know of) with opponent, former Geelong VFL player Scott Thompson, this time appearing to give him a little nudge to the guts after the goal was given. After Stokes’s first goal Thompson sat on top of Mooney, who made have held him to him. Towards the end of the first quarter Mooney missed the ball by miles in a marking contest, and while from our view should escape sanction that may not stop him being investigated.
Lindsay Matt Thomas finally awakened the Kangaroos cheer squad, pouncing on a loose ball from a stoppage to cleverly dink home to an open goal square from just on fifty. Almost straightaway after the next ball-up, Mackie continued his good game, caressing a goal from outside fifty with the wind behind him. Hard to tell who Mackie has been playing on, whenever he has the ball there seems to be no North player near him. He AGAIN drifted down from half-back at the next ball-up, this time taking a mark just inside fifty. He may have rushed the kick but put it through the middle, just clearing the pack for his second. The margin now stood at 62 points. A charitable-ish free kick to Hale against Lonergan made the margin 56 points. By this stage Harry Taylor, who’d really had a good game, was having a spell on the bench with Joel Selwood having a spell down back, and actually had his own tagger despite playing in defence.
What is it with ordinary players getting heaps of tattoos? Today’s target is Edwards of North, but so far this season other candidates include Collingwood’s Dane Swan and former Hawk-Roo Jonathan Hay. No doubt plenty down at Freo, Melbourne and the Tigers but we don’t see them play often enough to know. Be that as it may, the Cats led 12.5 (77) to 3.3 (21) at the main break, Geelong scoring seven goals to North’s two, increasing their lead by thirty points.
Some more injury worries for the Cats; at half-time when Milburn emerged, it was to sit on the bench with his right foot bare and elevated, obviously taking no further part in the match. As always though, Dasher wore that trademark smile of his (possibly John Newcombesque, in that he really isn’t happy). Byrnes finally had his goal a couple minutes in, Ling pouncing on a mistake by North and Byrnes fed the handball by Enright to run into an open goal. The Roos dominated goal-scoring in the next ten minutes or so with two goals, one to ruckman Hamish McIntosh. The game then really took on boring status, neither Geelong nor North troubling the goal recorders until Wojcinski and Bartel made something out of nothing for his third. The Cats had just had a let-off after Hale missed a sitter of a set shot for his third, Geelong creating another “team goal” to push the margin back to 56 points. This really brought the game back to life, the Cats nearly scoring another after putting the North defenders under enormous pressure in their own forward line next passage of play, the Roos escaping with a touched behind.
Johnson continued to spend most of his time in the centre of the ground, his labours helping Byrnes to his second goal and should have got Mooney his second but he missed a set shot. Thompson continued his relaxed demeanour in the box (and why wouldn’t you?). His main problem will once again be who’s going to play down back, this time veteran Milburn being the injury worry. David Johnson may well make another appearance, or perhaps Kane Tenace will get a run, with Corey/Bartel playing off half-back and Tenace the extra midfielder.
Didn’t see much of Adam Simpson; Selwood too wasn’t that prominent (for him), he and Corey attracting the attention of taggers. The boy from Katamatite, Dale Thomas lookalike Wright, had his first AFL goal towards the end of the term, trimming the Cats’ lead to 57 points, which stood as the margin at the final break, the Cats outscoring the Roos by one behind that quarter. The game had lost all intensity by this point. Our pick of the best for the Cats to this stage were Johnson, Mackie and Kelly, with Varcoe getting an honourable mention. The third quarter was a day when the smaller players such as Kelly, Varcoe, Wojcinski, Byrnes and Stokes got plenty of the ball.
Byrnes booted his third three minutes into the final term, finishing off another team goal (an overused term but the best description). Rooke set it up, his third bone-crunching effort getting the ball to Byrnes whose split-second snap was a good one. Geelong’s mayor Cameron Ling had his first courtesy of Varcoe and Mooney, Mooney marking just on fifty but handballing to nearby Ling, who slotted home from outside the line to an open goal square.
The game was barely a game in the last seven or eight minutes. Absolutely nothing happening as the Cats racked up possession after possession. Stokes’ second rounded off a professional seventy-point win. The Cats play the Bulldogs in another “home” game at Etihad Stadium this Friday night.

VFL NEWS – CATS PANTSED BY NORTH BALLARAT
KANGAROOS-affiliated North Ballarat out-gunned Geelong in the VFL match curtain-raiser earlier in the day. James Podsiadly kicked another big bag of goals, his third bag of five or more so far this season.

GEELONG 2.3 4.4 6.9 9.9 (63)
NORTH BALLARAT 3.4 9.8 12.8 17.9 (111)

GOALS
NORTH BALLARAT: J. Smith 3, J. Spolding 3, B. Driscoll 2, D. Chester 2, C. Jones 2, M. Wundke 2, B. Goodes, W. Benjamin, T. Cartledge
GEELONG: J. Podsiadly 5, A. Varcoe, T. West, J. Laidler, J. Hollmer
BEST
NORTH BALLARAT : M. Sewell, B. Goodes, O. Stephenson, C. Garlett, C. Jones, T. Cartledge.
GEELONG: K. Tenace, J. Podsiadly, S. Hogan, D. Johnson, N. Djerrkura, J. Simpkin.