Dave’s Football Blog

It’s been suggested that the Sydney Swans’ goal animation looked naughty…

We report, you decide.

West Coast 74, Sydney 73. For the third time in a row, the margin of victory in an Eagles-Swans game was only one point, which had never happened in the AFL until last weekend. West Coast had stretched the lead to 19 late in the fourth quarter, but three Sydney goals in four minutes brought it back to 1, and the crowd was eager to see a big comeback… until Daniel Kerr ended the last Swans rally by tackling a guy like he was a taxi driver.

I can’t wait to watch this one, and I’d like to thank the friendly anime fiends who pointed me to this page for instructions on converting x264 to XviD. You need VirtualDub, AVISynth, and all the various codecs. I’m converting the game now. We’ll see how well this works.

(I’ve also been informed that the subscribers-only tag that BigPond puts on its streams doesn’t necessarily apply to AFL game replays. We’ll see how that works…)

Port Adelaide 121, Fremantle 105. After being down by as much as 34 in the third quarter, something finally switched on the Power at Subiaco Oval, as they kicked seven unanswered goals on their way to 61-point quarter that sent the Fremantle Dockers into a tailspin. David Rodan, Damon White and Daniel Motlop each scored 3 goals to lead the Power to the win. Steven Dodd of Fremantle was none too happy with White. He’s getting a one-game suspension for stomping on him.

Collingwood 82, Kangaroos 79. Speaking of 4th-quarter comebacks, the Collingwood Magpies trailed by 25 at the end of the 3rd, then stormed back with 7 goals in the last period to stun the Roos at the M.C.G. (That’s the Melbourne Cricket Ground, in case you were wondering.) 11 players got one in the goal column for the ‘Pies, while Brent Harvey led the way for the ‘Roos with 3 goals.

Western 113, Geelong 93. In the NFL, Brad Johnson is a washed-up QB who’s no good for your fantasy team. In the AFL, Brad Johnson is your leading scorer of the week, kicking a whopping 8 goals to lead the Western Bulldogs over the Geelong Cats. If you picked Johnson on your fantasy footy squad, try not to brag too much, okay?

Carlton 115, Richmond 98. Winning that NAB Cup turned out to be a pretty good springboard for the Blues, as Brendan Fevola scored 21 points on 3 goals and 3 behinds to lead Carlton over Richmond. It wasn’t the Blues’ most accurate kicking performance, though, as they scored 25 behinds total. Still, the Blues outscored the Tigers 38-13 in the final quarter for the win.

All the Round 1 scores are available from the AFL web site and, of course, Wikipedia.