R4 tips

This week’s winners, assuming I’m right, of course, will be:

Brisbane v Collingwood
Sydney v Carlton
Hawthorn v Port Adelaide
St Kilda v Fremantle
Adelaide v Geelong
North v Essendon
Richmond v Melbourne
West Coast v Bulldogs

15 winners so far. A bit behind early, but I’ll get there.

Round Four

Jared Brennan comes in for Albert Proud, while Jamie Charman’s in for the unlucky Matthew Leuenberger. The Pies are not necessarily disadvantaged by the tribunal-enforced loss of Cloke and Maxwell by the inclusion of Rocca and Goldsack.

Rocca certainly has his good days but I’ve never been convinced by his play; all too often when he’s called on to kick an important goal he fails to take the opportunity. But there’s no doubt he’s an imposing figure and he’ll be set on a strong showing at the Gabba.

In Brisbane there’s a growing and palpable sense that the Lions are building something. Against the Swans it felt like the players are actually starting to enjoy themselves in a way that hasn’t been obvious since 2002.

When Leigh Matthews took over in 1999, something took hold of the playing group. Quite quickly they’d been moulded into a strong finals-bound team after a despondent 1998 season. The change isn’t as stark this time – we don’t have as far to come as we did that year – but nevertheless we seem to be getting somewhere, and a win over the league’s most hated side could only increase the momentum.

And a Friday night match! It’s great that the Lions are going to be on the big national stage, and it means prime-time coverage on Seven. The Seven programmers must be grinding their teeth. Hard luck guys. Last week I experimented with taking my six-year-old son to the whole match, which frankly was less than successful. It’s a hobby-horse of mine, but give us some day games next year please! As a result I’ll only be attending until half-time. So if the Lions are down at half-time and you see me leaving, it’s because of that, OK?

Speaking as a former Pie myself, there’s nothing I like more than a win over this side, even if I have to watch the second half from home. Go Lions!

Three weeks in

Since last I wrote, rather too long ago, the Lions have defeated West Coast, lost to Carlton and returned to the Gabba to despatch the Swans for the first time since my son was a year old.

The signs are all good. Given we won just one quarter against West Coast I found that victory a bit unconvincing, but we put in a fighting performance against the resurgent Blues despite snoozing for a bit over a quarter.

The win over Sydney was most satisfying however. These guys have been touching us up for years now, so to put them behind us was great. The skills shown by the boys was a marked improvement on a month ago, all the more remarkable given the atrociously slippery conditions.

I was shocked however to hear of the passing of Rob Dickson and his son in South Africa. I'd not heard the news prior to the announcement at the game, and I was dumbfounded. He played just the two games for the Bears but he was a major part of the Bears' 1991 reserves premiership (I still have the video) and he seemed to really embrace the Gold Coast/Queensland lifestyle. And of course he'd found a niche in video production which produced some wonderful work; I'm still halfway through watching his The Essence of the Game and am enjoying the way it casts a spotlight on footy at every level.

A dreadful tragedy. Vale Dicko.

But the cycle of life rolls on, the season continues, and Collingwood awaits.