In the first four rounds of footy, it’s been difficult at times to watch teams handball the ball around a dozen times in the space of about twenty metres and eventually turn it over. So many sides this year have gotten themselves into trouble by handballing it when a kick would have moved the ball on quicker. We are aware that sometimes just kicking the footy up the ground isn’t always an option with teams usually flooding back; however wouldn’t it be better to turn the footy over in the forward 50 as opposed to turning it over in the defensive 50 and potentially giving away a shot at goal.

Last week Gary Ablett put on a masterful performance against Adelaide amassing 46 possessions. We are not taking anything away from Ablett’s performance, he was simply unbelievable but in his way to gathering 46 touches, 33 of those were handballs. Nathan Buckley was one of a small group of players in recent times that consistently gathered significantly more kicks than handballs during a game of footy. We are not saying that current players aren’t as skilled as players from yesteryear but that the game has changed so much that they have no choice but to handball more.

It was well known that both West Coast and Geelong were handball happy during their premiership winning year and of course other teams began to play a similar game to try and compete with them. When handballs are used in the right situation, the footy can be a delight to watch as teams move the ball from one side of the ground to another in an instant.

Hopefully this fad of handballs wont be around for too much longer, no doubt teams will come up with another match winning game plan that will be emulated across the league.

The biggest story of the off season has been Ben Cousins and his return to the AFL. Richmond’s selection of Cousins was both surprising and exciting; Ben would have the opportunity to resume his AFL careers. The former Brownlow medalist and Premiership winner has the opportunity to rebuild his career; all that stands between him is the possibility of injuries and his own demons. As long as Ben stays healthy we have no doubt that he will return to his best and retain his Premiership winning form.

A new AFL rule was also a talking point during the pre-season; the rushed behind rule. This rule would see the attacking team receive a free kick directly in front of the goals if it was deemed that the defensive side had purposely knocked the football over the goal line. This rule has the potential to cause major controversy and damage in the AFL. Imagine if a team loses an AFL match due to an error with the rush behind rule; very similar to the situation which occurred between the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers in a practice match recently. The AFL could find itself in a position where a match’s result could be contested post-match and eventually result in the matter going to court; something no would want to see. We view the rule as being a little bit excessive and a knee-jerk reaction to last year’s Grand Final where Hawthorn walked in numerous rushed behinds. We would prefer that if it was deemed that the football was purposely rushed, the attacking team would receive three points opposed to a free kick which slows down the game and potentially awards the team six points.

Looking to the season ahead, we believe that there are a number of movers and shakers. Of course Geelong and Hawthorn will again dominate. It’s hard to say if Hawthorn can repeat the performance from last year and win back to back flags, but if they can stay healthy there is not much holding them back from doing so. Gary Lyon recently wrote an article opposing this, stating that the young Hawks may find it difficult to bounce back from last year’s victory. If Franklin can kick 100 goals plus again it would be hard to doubt a repeat, however Franklin has struggled when comes to the playing in the big finals matches and this is when the Hawks need their other members of the forward line to step up, such as Roughhead, Williams and Rioli.

Melbourne, Essendon, Sydney and North Melbourne we believe will struggle to win games this year. Sydney has taken a huge hit to their back line over the summer in particular the knee injury to Leo Barry, who has been placed on the long term injury list. North Melbourne never rank highly before the season and always seem to make or come close to making the eight; however we think that their luck will run out this year. St Kilda and Fremantle may be this years surprise packets. Both teams should have had some success over the last few years but they may be past their best and on the way down. We believe that these two sides have the potential to cause some havoc in season 09; especially the Dockers who have had a injection of youth into their side; if they could only kick the ball to Pavlich’s chest instead of over his head they would win a lot more games.

The Brownlow will be hotly contested again this year after Cooney’s surprising win last year. Chris Judd is our man to win the converted medal. As long as he can remain virtually injury free he could easily walk away with the medal after a huge preseason. Joel Selwood is our dark horse for the Brownlow. It’s hard to believe that this kid is only 20 years old and that he can already dominant AFL games. Unfortunately for G.Ablett, it seems that his team mates will continue to steal prestigious awards away from him.

Well we hope that you enjoyed reading our first post for season 2009.

See you next week.