Dave’s Football Blog

It wasn’t nearly as pretty or as high-scoring as the Round 14 clash between Geelong and St. Kilda. A downpour in Melbourne coated the turf and made the ball slick, and the high stakes made it seem even slicker and made the hits seem harder. The Cats and Saints wrestled and struggled through the ugly conditions, producing a Grand Final that had all the flow of a dammed stream.

But damn if you couldn’t take your eyes off of it.

With the score deadlocked at 68-68 in the dying moments of the final frame, the match cried out for a moment of genius to determine the winner. In the end, it was Geelong who made it happen, as Matthew Scarlett kicked a wobbling ball off the turf directly to Gary Ablett Jr., who used tons of space in front of him to boot it to the goal square, where it finally found Paul Chapman, who quick-snapped it high enough to hit a scoreboard in Dallas and watched as it finally flew through the goal posts for the game winner. A late goal at the siren proved meaningless, aside from making the final score 80-68.

St. Kilda was shut down after that. The Saints proved once again that nobody could disrupt the Cats’ transition game better than they could, but in the end, they were done in by inaccuracy in the 2nd and 3rd frames, where 9 of their 15 scores were behinds. A few more goals would have changed this one considerably. Getting the ball to big center-forward Nick Riewoldt proved difficult as well, as he was triple-teamed just about every time the ball was sent inside the 50 to him.

It was the Cats’ day, however, and with two Premierships in three years, this team has cemented its place as one of the greats in footy history, and they show no signs of slowing down. As for St. Kilda, they’ll be back as well, but their first title since 1966 will have to wait.

The only question I have left is this: what were the TV ratings like in America? How many people watched and/or recorded this Grand Final here? If the numbers are good, it could help Aussie Rules build an audience here. If you see the numbers before I do, feel free to post them in the comments.

Cats the last ones standing in epic battle. (afl.com.au)

If you live in the USA, set your DVR for ESPN Classic at 12:25 AM. The St. Kilda Saints, who are seeking their first title since 1966, edged out the Geelong Cats, who are in their third consecutive Grand Final, in an EPIC regular season clash a few months ago. The rematch between these two promises to be just as intense. You'll want to watch this one, people.

A few weeks ago, an old friend of mine came to town with her boyfriend for another friend’s wedding, and they crashed at my place. In between events, the subject of football inevitably arose — she plays rec league soccer and has season tickets to East Carolina football games — and during my usual origins-and-evolution blather, I asked the boy if he’d ever seen any Aussie Rules. Luckily, I still had the epic Round 14 battle between St. Kilda and Geelong on my DVR, so I pressed play and let him watch for a little while.

After about 10 minutes, he told us, “I like this game! It makes sense!”

This kind of reaction is what got me all excited that Aussie Rules returned to ESPN earlier this month, right after Setanta Sports went pear-shaped in the UK and started selling off properties to make ends meet in Ireland and the states. Put this game in front of people, and once they figure it out, they’ll enjoy it.

Alas, the WWL has been too busy shining its light on the Premier League to give the AFL much publicity. AFL matches have been relegated to ESPN360, and at this stage, only the Grand Final on September 26 will air on ESPN2.

This pretty much sucks for me, because ESPN360 is only available to Internet service providers willing to pay for it. In this area, that means Verizon DSL, and anyone who’s been following me on Twitter lately knows I’ve grown tired of Verizon’s shit. They’ve been degrading their DSL service to get more people to sign up for FiOS — but of course, Verizon doesn’t offer FiOS here in central North Carolina.

So I switched back to Time Warner Cable, which doesn’t offer ESPN360, but also doesn’t go down twice a day, often for hours at a time. And it’s faster. It’s a tradeoff.

If you’ve got ESPN360, bully for you. That’s a decent site for watching both live games and match replays, and it will probably show most of the Finals Series. If you’re in my shoes, however, and don’t have ESPN360, but still want to check out the entire Finals Series, you’ve got one option: AussieSport.tv. This international site serves up full match replays, highlight reels and other vids associated with the AFL, NRL and something called V8 Supercars, which I assume is Australian for NASCAR. A one-month pass to the AFL in September is only $9.95, and a 4-day trial is only $1.95.

I think I might give this a try. I’ve missed out on most of the AFL season this year, save for that St. Kilda-Geelong match and an equally epic Geelong v. Hawthorn clash in Round 17 that was decided on the last kick, but something about this year’s Final Series looks compelling — especially the potential Geelong v. Collingwood clash in the opening round. I wonder if Anthony Rocca still has the distance on those kicks.

The St. Kilda Saints have decided to take a pass on Ben Cousins, which means his AFL career could be over. Does he have a future as an NFL punter? Stay tuned...