98.5 ONE FM Podcasts

AFL Opening Bounce - June 28, 2024

Join Jason Aspland., The Stats Man and Sydney 'The Bridge'.

They're three down to earth country lads who love footy. Join them weekly for a lively discussion about all things AFL.

With thanks to Goulburn Valley Massage and Natural Therapy. Check them out at 115 McLennan St, Mooroopna.

This program first aired on Friday the 28th of June, 2024 on ONE FM 98.5 Shepparton.

Listen to the AFL Opening Bounce live on Friday nights from 5:30pm-7:00pm.

Contact the station on admin@fm985.com.au or (+613) 58313131

The ONE FM 98.5 Community Radio podcast page operates under the license of Goulburn Valley Community Radio Inc. (ONE FM) Number 1385226/1.

PRA AMCOS (Australasian Performing Right Association Limited and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society) that covers Simulcasting and Online content including podcasts with musical content, that we pay every year. This licence number is 1385226/1.

Duration:: 1h 53m
Broadcast on:: 28 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

You're listening to a 1 FM podcast. We are the bright of Brisbane, town where we're all blue and gold. We will always fight for victory, like a Troy and Bess are bold. Of a while I want the road. We'll answer to the call. Go Lions, Brisbane Lions. We'll keep the winnies strong. You'll hear a mighty roar. And welcome to the AFL opening bounce. And I'm Jason Asplund, back in the chair again as we head into round 16 of football. Only a sit. Eight or nine rounds to go, so we're getting towards the pointy end and we're starting to see who could be there in September and who might not. All the Lions were written off a few weeks ago and with a big win against Port Adelaide, put themselves back into contention and the book he seemed to think they're still in with a chance, so we thought that might deserve a song for it. But I have in the studio with me Sydney the Bridge and Stats, but we'll start with you Bridge. How you doing? I'm good. I'm glad to be here. And you're right, Jason. Brisbane are coming. We talked about that last week, didn't we, Stats? Before the game and suggested that I thought Brisbane might still be able to make the finals and do some damage. Well, they were my tip at the start of the year, so I wouldn't mind seeing them get their butt moving. Oh, yes, but I don't think they're up to winning it, are they? Well, that's a good question. Let's ask Mark that. Mark Owens, how you doing, mate? We'll know a lot more tonight. The National Indigenous Radio Service, broadcast, hello listeners. Welcome to the opening bounce. Great to have you back, Jason. Of course, Brisbane in Thames spot will take on Melbourne tonight at the Gabba, and I dare say for the loser, they could be struggling to make finals for the rest of the season. Well, look, there's big games all around this week. And some teams playing bottom of the ladder teams that are giving others a scare that you don't want to, like Bulldogs, play North Melbourne, North nearly rolled Melbourne last week. You don't want to drop a game like that. That just can kill you whole season. And should have really been coming with the week before North. Yes, so they're chasing scalps at the moment. But we started Friday night. Of course, I wasn't here. I was off in Melbourne and had a good weekend away from Melbourne. I didn't get to hear much of the show boys, so I'm sorry, but I had a good time while I was away anyway. Now, let's have a look. We had started Friday night with what was a really good game. 21, 12, 138 to 119, 75. The Blues took out the cats at the MCG, and it was pretty much the Blues from start to finish, just a question of margin. Yeah, set it up at half time, Carlton, 36 point lead at the half. Geelong did kick three, three to one, six in that third turn, but a nine goal final quarter to Carlton to Geelong. Three really put it to bed with a 63 point victory. I just beat Geelong up and made them look slow and old, particularly around the ball with the likes of Cripsen, of course, Walsh. And then you got the big two up forward as well that are looking really, really dangerous in season 2024. Of course, Colonel McCoy with eight goals between them. I thought decaning was awesome. Decaning ruled the Ruck, started the game off like a firecracker and give his brother a proper touch up. You have to ask why he hasn't played in the Ruck before. You know, where was that coming from with the coach? I'm not sure about that. Especially when he got well beaten early in the game, he didn't seem to change it. He didn't bring blue cabs in there. Was it part of the sales pitch to try and bring deconing over at the end of the year? Hey, look boys, we've got no Ruck. Look, we showed you the best we've got in your schooldom. I think he didn't he resign in your contract? Deconing. I don't know if you've resigned or not. I definitely talked in it. I think he did. Well, then that's it. So that's not a reason. Colonel was strong as usual. It doesn't have to get a lot of positions, Colonel. The Sam still did all right, though. He had 20 disposals, kicked a goal and had 20 hit outs as well. So, you know, he was serviceable in there, four clearances. The telling was what he's brother did. Like, I just thought he was best on grounding my mind. I thought he was awesome. Well done. There. Danger. First moments of the game. I don't know whether we want to talk about this now or whatever, but how he got off that I'm still bemused. We'll come back to that. We'll come back to that because there's a couple of incidences this week to talk about. We'll just skip them and do them a bit later. Goals wise, Charlie, cementing his favoritism for the Coleman. Five goals for Charlie. Yeah, he's going to take Beaten, isn't he? He is in the last couple of weeks broken some clear space between... Ben King missed last week. And Waterman has dropped off the ball. Yep. So, clearance is really where I thought Carlton, you probably mentioned it's that's, you know, they Carlton, 50 to 39, center clearance is 15 to 17. So, around the ground was where Carlton got them in the midfield itself. Jalen did okay. But around the ground where the space was and they ran away from them and absolutely tout them up there. So, Carlton, unfortunately or fortunately for Carlton supporters, they looked the real deal. Well, I was just going to say, Carlton now like that's another top team that was flag favorite almost six weeks ago. After seven rounds they hadn't lost a game, the cat is. And now they got rolled by them. It was probably their last win. You brought this up off-air stats that the cats rolled him 118 to 105 back in round seven. But then that was pretty much the end of the cat super run. And since then, I'm just looking at it now, they're the blues. They're one and six since then. Yeah, and the blues they lost to Collingwood, but they beat Melbourne, lost to Sydney, beat the Suns, beat Port, beat Essendon, beat the cat. So, they've taken out three out of the four of those were top wins were top four, top eight sides. Not that I really class Essendon as a top eight side because they've not been able to beat anybody above about 14th or Malata. Well, their time is about to find out about Essendon boys. They've got some total games coming up. At some point they had to play some of the top teams. They can't play the bottom four teams all season. They've had a crazy run. There's no doubt about that. And they don't travel again until round 23 or 24, the last round of the season. Essendon, so they've got an awesome draw. AFL obviously. Why is that? Because they're seven and a half thousand days since they won a final. Oh, they're a big club. They get good support base. The AFL loved those for the clubs. I did notice there in your superstars for last week's stats, Dusty got a vote just for being able to put bums on seats. Well, not only that, but for a stellar career it calls triple norm Smith medalist and Premier Chief Player. We've got the first goal of a night. Brown light medalist and got the first goal at a night and dragged 90 plus thousand to the G on a Saturday afternoon in winter. Well, that was very good. Okay, so let's move on from this one, the Blues. So just before we do, Blues, real deal boys, are they? I think they'll be there. Yeah, I'm quite confident that they're going to be in the top four. You have to rank them as a second side. I know that's they're ranking on the ladder currently, but they seem to be the immediate challenger to Sydney. Don't they? They do, they do. And while the Coney stands up in the rock, then they're okay. But if he goes back to his previous form and they bring Pitney back in, then they've got a bit of a greyer there. The defence is fine with weetering down there. He keeps it all together. The forwards good with McCoy and Kurnell, and they're small forwards there. They've got not many holes in the Carlton team, so they have to be there. So Pitney, he's just playing twos for fun, because he's not on the injury list. No, no. Yeah, I'm not sure of it though. I think Carlton were really good when they had the three big forwards and Pitney there as well. I think they were stronger at that. They were doing the job. You can't take away from a young Blake that's coming on and doing the job. I think he's been awesome. And I'd be leaving him in there and Pitney, the two's myself. I was the coach. All right, next game was over in Port Adelaide. It was Saturday daytime game, 145, 10, 13, 73 to 23, 14, 152. Big massive score for the Lions, giving them a 79-point win over Port. How did you see this one, the stats man? Yeah, look it was a lot of fallout following this. Wasn't there a course with a 79-point win to Brisbane at the end of the day. Look, it wasn't... It wasn't as poor... This might sound hard this... The four is what I'm going to say on the margin and the fallout following Port Adelaide. It's not as if they didn't try. They were just outclassed by Brisbane. Brisbane smashed them in clearance. Plus 15 in clearance, stoppages plus 18 around the ground. Uncontested possession plus 11. They just outran Port and they contested Ball plus 40. So they just outran them, but not only outran them on the outside, Brisbane, but bullied them on the inside as well. And also kicks, Port, 195 kicks, but 159 handballs. So that's a way out of whack that. You'd like it to be two kicks to a handball. So that's way out of whack there. Brisbane, 249 to 150 handballs. So what it meant was that Port, when they got the ball, they didn't have anywhere to go to. They were handballing around in circles and that's the way the game played. It was a very disappointing performance and I'm not surprised at the amount of fireworks that's happened in Port Adelaide community over the week. I'm just not surprised. No, I saw an article somewhere there that there's talk of Hinckley and Voss swapping. I saw that one on one of the AFI websites during the week that Voss is considering going back to Port Adelaide. He'd come back there, he was an assistant and Hinckley's probably putting his pressure mate out to everybody. Hinckley began at Tasmania. I can't say Voss jumping off Carlton currently. I couldn't say it either, but I just thought I'd bring it up for fun. Yeah, I couldn't say it happening. No. Not in Carlton's spot now. Besides Voss survived getting the sack last year and now he's got a team sitting second. Yeah, he's not going anywhere. He can write his new contract now, he should be. Yeah. Hipwood, five goals for the young man. Seen having a good couple of weeks, Eric Hipwood, he's been much more line throughout his journey in football hasn't he? But he stepped up the last couple of weeks and five goals one on the weekend are going to Port Adelaide on their home deck was a really good return for Eric Hipwood. In fact, there's been a lot of talk, obviously, and we've talked about a lot around Brisbane not being able to sort of put it together away from home. And this was a really good step forward in their season. They try and make the eight this year Brisbane in relation to winning away from home. All be at the MCG still does whole concerns for them. This was a really good win against Port Adelaide. After giving some credit though to Big Oscar Mack, he had three goals for the Ruckman and 18 disposals as well, along with his 31 hit outs. He's been up for spuds a week before. Yeah, it is a bit hit and miss, but it's pretty good. Joey Danner, who got clocked up another three, so he's just ticking along. And young Logan Morris, I quite like the look of him. So there's some life in Brisbane from their older players and some of the youth that I guess got tossed in through to injury a bit earlier in the seasons now starting to show us something. I thought Zack Butters tried, he had 13 score involvements for Port, 35 disposals, metres gained 486 and Mitch Geordiartes with three goals, one. He tried to provide something up forward for Port Adelaide kicking through the ten goals, but outside of that it was a pretty dismal day for Port. We'll get to Butters later on when we talk about tribe funerals. Yes, one point, taggers, well Port got a touch up, didn't they? The week before Brisbane played Secura. What? Secura tagged Locky Neal, he got 70 Supercoach points. Port ran the opposite way to him and he got 149 Supercoach points. Does that tell you something that you really got to have a tag or you've got to shut down players that are cutting you to ribbons? You have to put somebody on them to run with them. Port did nothing, they allowed him to run riot and they got chopped up as a consequence. Right, it's a fair point. The Saints only lost in the N20 points against Brisbane, but they shut their best player down and as a consequence. I think outside the box. Yeah, I'm just sort of looking at that saying well why didn't Port, it was still in this all day, why would they not have gone to him? And I think that's your point entirely there. I'm happy for you to play wide of Locky Neal, but when he starts to get 10 clearances and 37 disposals, that profile was going for four quarters. You would have thought that they maybe had put some sort of tag to Locky Neal. Yeah, even just to run with play, he didn't have to be a tight tag, but it should have been. It would have been, but even if you put somebody in a position then, I'm pulling someone like Boke, who's having a reasonable season, but someone with the experience enough to know one played against Locky Neal 20 times already. Boke had a ball. Do you play or do you have a ball? Was he out? I thought I had him in my team, that's probably why my team didn't do so well that week. Yeah, no, I think he was out. But Boke was out. Yep. Then you've got to look somewhere different a bit with it. You've got Darcy Ben Jones, you've got... Well, he's a forward. Now, for some reason, the all-Australian defender and they moved him forwards. He's been big man. He's done tagging roles in the part of the ball. Yeah, Drew would have been the ideal one. He has, you're right. Yep, Drew would be the choice there. Mckentry has done a little bit of it as well, but someone had to go to him. You're right. And they didn't. Brisbane got an easy win and brought himself back into the game. Well, back into the finals race. Yep. Next one was the Giants. It was Giant Stadium 435 on Saturday afternoon. 75 to the Swans 102 for the Battle of the Bridge. Bridges was a good battle on your bridge. Look, Sydney walked all over it. They just crossed the bridge for that house or they really didn't have much opposition. Where are the Giants gone? Well, they're gone because they've lost that movement of the ball. They haven't got the title wave anymore. They're just going around sideways, backwards, and it's just not helping them. 217 kicks, 158 handballs. Right, disposals was okay. Numbers wise. Marks, they did okay. 87 to Sydney's 67. Sydney's been beating everybody in those little cut-off marks, but what it tells us is that Giants wasted the ball. They kicked ten goals in a row too. Sydney and that's it. From that second quarter to part way through the third. That just decimates you when you're that far down. Also, Grundy ruled bricks. Breaks had a poor game. And that's probably one of the worst games I think he's played since he's been in the team. Breaks, that was really poor. Centre clearances, you know, pretty even. 43 to 40. 618 to Sydney, 11. So there's nothing much in those. It's just what Giants did with the ball. They haven't got that run anymore. All right. Yeah, what do you have with that one stats? I wasn't as harsh on the GWS as Sydney was. I actually wrote down in my notes looking at the KPIs during the week. It wasn't a bad effort for mine. They worried Sydney with that handball run, an uncontested possession, plus 28 in the handball, uncontested possession, plus 29. So they did try to get that tsunami going. Sydney pointed out that they did hold sway in the air early with marks, which isn't a bad effort against the swans, which is there. One would in particular. And their tackle pressure was also okay, plus eight on the tackle pressure on the afternoon to GWS. The forward tackle pressure was really good from Sydney, though, as opposed to GWS. They won out of a middle plus seven in the clearances, which is actually a fair smacking against that star-star at midfield that GWS do possess. And if they only won the contested possession plus five, so not a lot in that. But Sydney just worked harder on the afternoon and, of course, held sway. But I didn't think it was that bad effort from GWS, but Sydney were the better side on the KPIs on the afternoon. And the next one was Melbourne versus North Melbourne, and 11 goals for 70 to 10 goals, 767. But I guess the real tale of the tape with this one is that three-quarter time, the score was 70 to 37, and Melbourne didn't score in the last, and from about the 25th minute of the third quarter, Melbourne didn't score. Not even a point. No, Sydney came in with a proper rush, didn't they? And look good. It was an exciting football to watch. I really quite enjoyed the end of that game. They come home, didn't get there, but I'm not disappointed with the way North are starting to show us. They won every major KPI, North Melbourne, and I've just got a big... If you didn't look at the scoreboard, North win this game. And, of course, like I said, dominated every KPI just like they did against Collingwood, and couldn't get the job done on the scoreboard in the end. No, they've lost, wasted early North Melbourne. They were three-seven at half time, and ended up ten-seven. So they straighten themselves up, and that's one of the things that's coming through North. They are pretty good at kicking straight at goal. Yeah, seven straight after half time. Yeah, and the week before, or even against you blokes, the kicking at goal was amazing. Is L.D.U. on the free agency? He's recommitting, though. That's the talk during the week in the press day. He's not free till next year. Yeah, but he's recommitting. He's liking what he's seeing at North Melbourne, and I believe that he's given a sort of win and a nod. I should say that he's going to stay. Because, really, he's a sort of player. If you've got a spare two or three million, your salary cap right now, you could nearly go and throw that at him. 31 disposals again, kicked a goal, led the way. His ability to win the ball in the middle is really, really good. Obviously, she's will do it his job again, 20-70 disposals and two. But for Melbourne, turn up. Okay, another couple of goals for him. We're looking for forwards in Melbourne's window there, and turn up is a big solid unit. I think he could make it. I'm not sure he's ever going to be a key number one full forward, but it should be a good back up there. Yes, on the night, they're lucky. They had a very poor one. Big shout out to former room. The player in Joy Simkin had a really good game. 25 disposals and five clearances and kicked a goal. That calls for North Melbourne. Yeah, as I was saying, Lucky was poor. He only got one point for the night. 26 supercoach points, five touches or six touches. Oh, look, I'm sure that Bailey Fritz can do worse than him. Yeah, he's been so good, Lucky. Yes. And for them to get up there close without him having an influence showed that Zuhar did a bit. The other forwards did a bit. What do Melbourne do with Fritz? Two, I would be suggesting. He's their only forward, their main targeted forward. He's not big enough for the role for a start. Well, him and the big spard, Petty. Well, I don't know what Petty's doing job is either. I hear through the week that Petty is, there's a golf course in Melbourne that's been redone. And so to get back into it, it's about 15,000 for the year. And apparently, Petty's got his name on it. So he's not intending to go back to Adelaide. Probably Adelaide don't want him now, the way his form's gone. Well, that's where Melbourne's issue is. It's their forward line. They don't have a forward line. Van Ruhan, again, is another young kid. It's sort of like you've got a star-studded midfield. You've got one of the best backlines in the league. And then you've got 15 kids in the front trying to kick your goals. Yeah. That's the way Melbourne are at. Like, they're so unbalanced in their team. Their odds are $41 or something to win the flag. And they're on the ninth spot, probably pretty accurate. Yeah, well, Van Ruhan, he like to say he got two goals. One goal. One goal. But he only had four touches, so he did nothing else. Yeah, and that's a problem. So he had four touches. Fritz had six touches and no goals. Pick it to another one. That's a problem. Ten touches, a goal. And that's about it. Yep. And I'm in Oliver. Clayton Oliver, who's apparently looking for housing in Geelong. I think Oliver, Oliver's checked out. Do you think stats? No, I think, look, I'm still not going to write Melbourne off. Just yet it looks really die for them. No, no, I don't mean Melbourne. I mean, Oliver. Well, I think Oliver will remain at Melbourne. You do? Yeah, I do. I think Melbourne have checked him out. I think they're done with him. He's not performing the money that he's on. He was early this year. Not really? Yes, he was. He was one of their better players in the front half of this year. He was super coach wise and bachelor stats wise. He really is not anywhere near his former self. Patraka was the one doing the job. He was just jumping in the shadows. Well, there was a couple of 40+ position gains for Oliver early. He needs now, though, to step up with Patraka out if he wants to do anything. But Melbourne have signed him to this very high contract for how many years, Bridges? Tool 2030. OK, so, and he's got to be on what? A mill towards that? I would say at least. Average of that probably, because when he signed it, he was a superstar. How do you move that? Oh, yeah, the only way. The only way you can't really demote it. The only way is to shift it to someone else, copping the bill. Copping a couple hundred to do a Collingwood and just ship him off for 400 grand and pay the difference yourself. Yeah, that's probably the only way you could move. If you go the Gold Coast theory, though, give up a draft pick to someone to take him. Well, that's what they did with those. Oh, I'd put my hand up for that. Saints would have him. We're not going to do anything with the draft pick anyway. Well, you never know. Good work to North, though, for, yes, they lost. But they've shown some, I guess, the shin bonus spirit there, which their fans are wanting to see. Well, according to the KPIs, they were the moral winners on the evening. And if you can shut Melbourne down for 40 odd minutes of football without letting them score, you've done OK. But this is North's challenge now as well. They've got to turn these moral victory losses into actual four points. Well, do they, though? Not this year. They don't have to, I don't think. I think you've got to form winning habits, Sydney. And it starts early, particularly with a young group. And when you've got players in the side, is it Warlord that's only seen one win in, like, 20 odd games or whatever it is? Yeah, you're right there. You know, you've got to start to get that winning culture. And this is where North got knocked a lot over that Harley Reid situation last year. And I know North Melbourne supporters have bagged them, but I actually supported Clarkson in that victory, because he's trying to create a winning culture. And I think longer term that'll serve North Melbourne really, really well. I don't think so at all. That's Harley Reid is a superstar and would be looking pretty good in a blue and white stripe jersey out there at the moment, helping him out over McCurcher. I think he's definitely a level above, especially. Let's see the balance of time. Okay, but McCurcher. Let's have a look at the balance of time. Because they've got some really good kids at all. But McCurcher's a Tassie kid, so they're going to lose him as soon as Tassie put up a side. So, whereas Harley Reid's a local boy. That they could lose to anywhere. West Coast may not keep him because he's from Tongala. And that's always been the top. That's right. So, for them, but they're not going to go and be able to buy him. Somebody was saying off at him 10 years and 2 million a year. Honestly, I think he's worth it. The way he's shown so far. I know he's not got 30 disposals every game, but his ability to break tackles, his game awareness, is at that higher level of football. And I think he's going to be-- He's very dusty. There's no doubt he's a superstar player in the future. But I still feel-- To win one game versus getting hit that. I still feel that the longer term that Clarkson will be proven right on what he done at the end of season 2020. Oh, I can't. No hope. That's no way. Sorry. You give up a kid like that just to win four points that didn't matter. No. And this is why St. Kilda are dealing with your supporter base. It's only one flag in their history. It's got nothing to do with supporter base. You're losing culture and you just brought it out right there. It's got nothing to do with supporter base. It's got to do with the fact of the simple-- It's about winning habits. And I support Clarkson. It's about building a team. He did the right thing. He did the right thing, tried to win a game before he-- He's better off to do what he did against Melbourne on the weekend and have a big rush home and lose both three points and still have Harley Reid. Yeah. Just going back to Oliver. I just had a quick look. Oliver Supercoach scores for the first eight rounds of the year. 105, 82, 92, 62, 65 by 82. In other words, he is crap. Whereas last year, he's were in 120. He was averaged about 120 this year. He's been competitive, but he has not been anywhere near where he was. And that's what I mean. I've had him in some of my leagues and he's on the bench. I haven't even got him on the field. I can't even risk putting him on the field because he's just at the moment. He's a spud. I turfed him out this week. You're better, you're Supercoach, but I can't turf him out of the long term ones. All right, boys. We'll just-- we missed our sponsors break, so we will jump to that and then we'll finish off the round. Of course, the AFL opening bounce is brought to us by Golden Valley Massage and Natural Therapy over in Marupna. If you're taking a few batters and bruises from football or netball, go over and see Michael over there. Give him a ring. He is very good at his trigger points. And working on little, tiny areas that you may have destroyed playing sport, which we're at the time of year, where we're starting to think of finals and you carry in that little niggling injury, can you fix it? We'll go and see Michael and he'll help you out. You'll listen to the AFL opening bounce, live and local on 1 FM. Do you have an A called pain that just won't go away or a scar that just doesn't feel quite right or not happy with the appearance? That's where Golden Valley Massage and Natural Therapy can help. We specialize in remedial massage, gentle scar therapy, oncology massage and trigger point therapy. We also offer private health rebates for all our services. So call Michael on 04 22 75282 and visit us at 115 McLennan Street or message us on Facebook. One FM sponsor. And welcome back to the AFL opening bounce. Okay, let's get looking into one of the last games. Or was it the last game? I think there's one more after it. 122 to 92. Essendon, 19 goals, 822 to the Eagles, 1314 92. In Melbourne bridges at Marvel Stadium. Still getting 92 points is a good sign for the young Eagles. No Harley Reed in that one of these back this week. And I think they were missing Tim Callie as well from memory. Yeah, they really were a good West Coast. I thought they were right up with Essendon all the way through the game. The second quarter Essendon got away from them there. Like the first quarter is 4 2 to 4 3 West Coast in front. Second quarter, 10 4 to 6 3. So Essendon kicked six goals in that second quarter. And that was the difference in the game. So in the third quarter, 4 goals just and 5 goals to West Coast. In the last quarter, 5 goals to 2 goals. But there was only a couple of goals in it at the end of the day with minutes to go. So Essendon sort of got those last couple. It wasn't a convincing performance from Essendon. They got a 4 points. All you have to do is win the 4 points. That's exactly what they did. In that, Stringer was a standout, kicking 5 goals. That was terrific from him. And I like him. I think he's great. Merritt had his ball on a string as he usually does. You know, what, 29 disposals. The Verde was good, Gelfie. So what it tells me though is that everybody still got the question marks over Essendon. They didn't answer those questions after the weekend. No, they didn't. And if anything, they probably confirmed the fact that they are down with the bottom end teams. Like their results are that they should have been able to put them away by a lot more than 30 points. And look, they did have them away by a lot more than 30. Where's the little tailor tape? I'm sure it was. No, that was about as big as it was. It's sort of sat there. But Eagles did try and get back into it towards three quarter time stats. They dominated disposal, Essendon, 401 to 292. And they were so efficient with the football elite by 78.6%. Whereas on the other hand, West Coast, 292 disposals, 52 turnovers. For the 401 possessions at Essendon had that 54 turnovers. So plus two. So they really coughed it up, West Coast. Look, they were good in the clearance and the stoppage, which is usually Essendon's one would. They won that plus nine in the clearance stoppages plus 10. And their tackle pressure, West Coast is really good as well. Forward, 50 tackles, 16 to 10 plus six. And plus six around the ground as well, 60 to 54. So they had a dip West Coast. I thought they had a real crack, but to Essendon's credit, like I said, their handball and their uncontested possession really worried West Coast at times. And they controlled the air plus 49 marks on the afternoon around the ground marks to Essendon. So look, it was a good effort by the West Coast Eagles, but Essendon just continued on. One more state of interest was free kicks West Coast 13 to 8. Yeah, I got that there too. Only eight for the day. And yet again, West Coast always, is it their colors or something that just get them more free kicks than anything else? Well, definitely wasn't a crowds, wasn't over in Perth. No, that was a fair crowd there. It was a pretty good crowd Essendon turn up window. It would have been Essendon and crowd, that's right. But that's only what, so, you know, 21 free kicks for the day. And only eight to Essendon. That's just ridiculous. You're telling me that only 21 people actually did something useful on the day bridges. No, that's not possible. I find that hard to believe. Like when you consider there was, you know, 116 tackles made. So 116 tackles and virtually no free kicks. No. Sorry, AFL. They don't, not out of their way with that one. Dockers versus the Suns was the last game of the round. It was the battle for no flags and the Dockers come up trumps 85 to 65. The Suns got out to a bit of a start and the Dockers then just stopped them dead. Oh, I thought the Fremantle was a 50/50 at the start of it. Can the Suns win away from home? No, they can't. That was answered quite emphatically. Freo, I'm still not sold on Freo that they're a real deal. But when they get the roll on, they are OK. What I do like about them though is they seem to have found a forward in Tracy. He's not overly great. He's not, but he's consistently getting a couple of goals every week. He's taking those big marks in the forward line which they need. And when, now the day misses, got his misses up, he's just missing everything. And so they need somebody to rely on and that's been Tracy. The rucks, Darcy was pretty solid. I thought Darcy was good and brash or bounce back. Young was good. So what that meant was, through the week, a lot of Muir gave them a proper touch up about being selfish and not playing for the team and whatever else. So he got some result from that. He couldn't miss last year. He was brilliant in front of goal and he started the year pretty reasonable. But he's fallen away. Any reason that you think that a young bloke there just can't hit the big sticks? Sometimes a young player plays with a bit of, how do you say it, a bit of line hardness early? And then they start to overthink things a little bit as they sort of go through their careers and it sort of can play with their heads at times and sometimes. I don't think young players really feel the pressure. They just sort of play on instinct. But as they get older, they start to realise that, hang on, I've got a role in this side and the coach wants me to play a certain way. It can sort of sometimes metal with the head, particularly in front of goal. Look, I think it's correctable and he's generally a really good shot for goal like you said. Did you drop him back to the Tuesday in the week to have six, seven or eight easy goals? No, not yet. I would. I'd drop him back. This has gone on not for one or two weeks, this has been five, six weeks. Since before this and killed a game, he was missing it. And we watched him that day bridges and he was, did everything right but just couldn't kick straight. The pressure just got to him. Maybe he's shot. Come back one level of football and go out there and have a bit of relax. Take the pressure off him, go back. But don't drop him as in you drop because you're a spud. Go back and have fun. Yeah, go back into the twos, get a few goals, get your confidence back and then come back into the weekend. But then again, a week off, like he's had a buy. Yeah, but he didn't probably play that week. He didn't go down to the twos and find that he's got a bit of space around him and he can get some easy goals. Well, you know, he's sixty sposles, two behinds and he did take four marks. So that there shows you that he's doing his job, he's getting four marks, he's getting four shots at goal and he's got pretty much two points out of it. It's not enough. Took Miller's one I wanted to highlight. Now he's got thirty-three disposals but I look at his efficiency and what he did with them and he was terrible. He got a lot of meters gained but who did he kick it to? Where did it go? I've got him in one of the leagues here and I'll find it whilst that tells us a bit more about the breakdown on that. The one thing I will say that yes, the efficiency might not have been brilliant but the meters were gained. So that suggests to me that when the ball was turned over, it was turned over deep up field more than in the midfield. Yes, but one of his big parts of his game is that he's deadly with a kick and he does get the ball to his team, made up the field and then they run and going forward. If he's coughing it up, then the team itself has to stop giving him the ball and give it to somebody else. And unless they do that, when it comes to the big teams, they're just going to get chopped up. So he had thirty-three disposals but fifteen of them went to Fremantle. Went to Fremantle, okay. So eighteen effective fifteen ineffective disposals and fifty-fifty handballs and kicks. Now he did get seven hundred meters gained, so when he stuck his boot into it, it went a long way. But was he under pressure and that was just a get out of jail kick and he's not really kicking at a target? I listened to this one more than saw it because I was driving back from Melbourne so I was listening to it. So you can't really see what's happening on the ground. Yeah, I'll probably listen to it towards the National Indigenous and the A7. You'll no doubt watch this one this week, that's because they play Collingwood, just have a bit of a look and come back to us with talkers. It's easy just banging it on the boot because somebody's breathing down his throat or is he really screwing it up? Because he's getting the ball and when they were winning, he was getting the ball into it. Well maybe it's a set play that he kicks it along and he's hoping like forwards, like day and... Jack, look, how do you say he's starting up LaCoches? LaCoches, thank you Sydney. LaCoches and you likes a swallow when those 50-50 contests, maybe it's a set play. Well the other problem they have there is he's not the only midfield or the main guy that's having troubles. Anderson is not much better, he's dropped right away from where he was early in the season and also has round. But the three main keys that were given them that platform early in the season are all struggling at the moment. And maybe that efficiency will improve if Bob calls Ben Kings back in the side. Maybe, but where I'm going here is to me it looks like a coaching issue and when Richmond were at their best, they didn't do well in the midfield. They really won the midfield contests, clearance, et cetera. It was the win Freeo needed to have though wasn't it? To keep their finals hopes alive, to keep mine track, not let Gold Coast get a win away from home because they're both on. But they're basically the same points or pretty close to before the game. And now we've got Freeo up in fifth spot in the latter, sun's dropped to 12th. They had the Evanny Sydney pointed it out in the Rockdale, Darcy and Jackson for free man or disorder, worked wits over with a 1-2 combination. Then they won the clearances free man or plus 12, the centre breaks plus four and the stoppages plus eight. And they just won the territory battle plus nine inside fifties. And they also took plus five marks inside fifties as well. So later wise, let's scoot through that and we'll jump to a sponsors break and then we'll do some spuds and bits so that Bridges loose on some players that probably got superstars last week. Bridges will crucify him, no doubt. Swans on top, clear on top, 12 points on top, 52. So 13 and 1, they are. Closest followers are genuine contenders, Carlton, 10 and 4. And then we get to, well, are they or are they not contenders? Essendon, nine and four, but they've definitely got the wins on the board to keep them a final spot. Collingwood, a chase and stats, they're there. Eight and two drawers, so basically nine wins. Freeo, Giants, Cats, Port and Melbourne, all there on eight wins. Freeo, I've got a draw so that puts them at the top of that list. And Brisbane down in 10th spot with seven wins. They're fourth favourite for the flag bridges. Do you figure that? It has to be going on last year. The fact they played off in the grand final last year. The bookies are saying we're seeing a bit of form there and we don't want to let them get away and pay out some big $1. I think they could just be that there's such a heavy weight of money gone on them already. The bookies aren't game to let it drift out or people go, "Oh, I've already got that much. I'll just do this and over all my... That's what you'll find it'll be." Because at the start of the season, they were one of the favourites to actually win it. And I think there was a weight of money at the start of the year. And the bookmakers are just trying to keep them safe to avoid any sort of how you say, any sort of mitigation on their part. Just an interesting one. Bulldogs are in 11th at seven and seven. And the Suns are at 12th, seven and seven. And Hawthorne, seven and seven as well. But the odds between these three. Bulldogs 21 for the flag. Gold Coast 101 and Hawthorne 67. So they're all got the same points, bridges, but someone thinks the Bulldogs have a chance in the Suns. It's got more chance of snowing in the Gold Coast. Well, that's actually fair enough. I mean, the Gold Coast history, I mean, they haven't even made finals. So to expect them to actually make the top eight and then go on and win it is actually going to be a really big task for Gold Coast Suns. Let's just let them get into finals first. And then hopefully in the next couple of years, maybe winners. But I can't see them even if they make the eight taking a big leap forward and winning the flag. So that triple figure sort of odds I can have for the Suns. Yeah, I agree with that. But I just find it interesting that they're all the same. It's only nine games left. None of them have got a shot really of making that push. I don't think the Bulldogs, to be honest, have got much of a shot. But I just find that interesting odds to be looking at. I agree. Yes. I think where the Suns are at, they started off the year as normal, running on top of the ground, getting goals and winning games. And as the season's gone on, they've just fallen away. Now, why that is, I don't know, it's been history. It happens with Suns every year. They barely win a game after the by rounds. And this year is proven now. And their away record as well is disastrous. Mathematically, it must be possible for North Melbourne to make the flag. And obviously the odds only go to 500 to 1. Because from St Kilda Adelaide, West Coast Richmond North, they're all 500 to 1. So mathematically North must be able to make the finals still if they're still taking bets on it. Well, even if they won their next nine games, they still can't make. They only make some 10 wins. Yeah, they still can't make the 8s, how can they be? Well, maybe they think they can. Alright, let's jump to a sponsors break. On the other side of that, we will have some spuds and some superstars. And then we'll have a couple of big topics before we get into nine full games of footies for this weekend. You're listening to the AFL opening bounce brought to you by Golden Valley Massage and Natural Therapy over in Marupna. Do you have an A called pain that just won't go away? Or a scar that just doesn't feel quite right or not happy with the appearance? That's where Golden Valley Massage and Natural Therapy can help. We specialize in remedial massage, gentle scar therapy, oncology massage and trigger point therapy. We also offer private health rebates for all our services. So call Michael on 04-22-75282 and visit us at 115 McLennan Street or messages on Facebook. One of M-sponsored. AFL Masters is football that focuses on allowing mature players the opportunity to participate in our great game of Australian rules. You'll compete with similar-aged players with the focus being on footy for fun and enjoying the spirit of Masters football in a family-friendly environment. So if you still have the passion to play football and you want to be part of a club who supports men from a diverse range of backgrounds with a strong emphasis in supporting men's mental health, then this is the club for you. Whether you've played 300 games or if you've never played before, then it's time to get off the couch. GV Giants welcomes all players no matter what level of football experience you have. Find us on Facebook or call Golden Valley Giants Coach Steven Tate on 0434-582-959. And welcome back to the AFL opening bounce. Just before we jump on to Bridges Spuds, I thought we might have a bit of Giants news because tomorrow is a big day for the Giants and for Masters football across the state. It is. It's going to be a terrific day and I shall be involved with that for the day. Yes, we're out there bridges with a stopwatch and trying to organize things as a game coordinator. So tomorrow we've got a carnival down in Quayalla where we've got teams coming from all over the state to fight off a cup at the end of the day. So it's a one day lightning championship. So for Masters which doesn't normally play for points, it's an interesting day that I've sort of put together. And we've got teams coming from Aubrey, we've got teams coming from as far as Torquay and then all in between. And we've got other clubs that haven't got enough for a whole team so they're joining in with other teams to come and play. So that's going to be a random team. And even in some of the others, they're joining together as well. So a couple of the Yarawonga boys that we played against and shown us how to play 40 a couple of weeks ago. Oh, very good. They've come down to join in with the Giants and there's a few others that are Marcona are going to play with the Merrible Crocs. And so there's a few teams joined together just to make sure we've got numbers and it's going to be a really good day there. And I believe you'll be talking with our coach Steven Tate in the morning at 11 o'clock stats. Yeah at 11 o'clock just after the 9 news at 11 a.m. We'll be talking to Steven Tate, the coach of the GB Giants in relation to the big carnival at Quayalla tomorrow afternoon. So go out and check it out. Okay. First game kicks off at 11 o'clock and it'll go all day. The grand final will be around dark and the bar will be open. There's a lovely lady Jacinta who's got a food truck there and so we'll have all sorts of food and drinks and things there. So fully catered, no BYO though if you are coming, you're not allowed to bring your own. It's one of those things from the local licensing parts. But all right, that's a positive thing, Bridges. Yep. Now where you can have spuds. All right Bridges, from positive to Bridges. Well there could have been a few, I've got a big list here actually. One, he didn't get him. But Amati, Joel Amati, last week kicked nine and on the weekend he got two possessions I think, 25 super coach points and nine or two minutes again. And based on your rules, how does he not get spuds? Well because it was worse. How can he be worse than only getting two possessions when you kicked nine goals a week before? Yeah but a bit of balance. The team's still one, he doesn't have to do it every week. Okay. Why he gets mentioned as well is the inconsistencies there. And Sydney would like him to be. He is only young though. Sydney would like him to be far more consistent. Hogan, Jesse Hogan, only 33 in 112 minutes. Wicks 18 in a heap of minutes. Larky at 26, Hunt 35, Amos 28, Ainsworth 33, Matt Rowne, Burn Jones 29 but they didn't get him. All right. One goes to Bailey Fritsch from Melbourne. She must be some bad ones if he only got one vote. Eleven super coach points in 104 minutes. Now they still won but I'm still not happy with Melbourne and the way some of their boys are going. Harrison Petty gets two. You know like he's the big forward. He's the true forward. Joey the Consist listening and going. Britches please. Give me a break. Well I'm sorry but Harrison he's just, I don't know, he's not a forward in my mind. He doesn't lead like a forward so maybe the coach should get those ones because he's just not a forward. He's had one big game as a forward. Only one. The rest of the time he's done not much. And three goes to another Melbourne guy in Clayton Oliver 26 super coach points in 98 minutes of game time. His average is about 90 or 100 or so and I don't know he's just lost the plot. He's one that I'd be sending back to the twos. I know they can't afford to miss him but if he's doing this what's the point of him being on the ground? He wasn't injured he just looks like Sadezical and that midfield of Melbourne is their injured room yes like everybody else's. But their forward line is so second rate that they have to have more out of that midfield to come through. And he's just not offering at the moment so he gets three. He gets three all right well looking at that that puts Petty up to ten votes. So Petty's your new leader for your spud's bridges. He should be listening to the show and next this week he would come out against Brisbane tonight and kick maybe four or five a bit of luck. Is that Fritz's first votes? Yeah that was Fritz's first votes but he does need to pick it up because I have him in a lot of super coach teams. The thing with Fritz's is he's normally a very good kick at goal. He doesn't always get a lot of positions but he does convert pretty well and lately he hasn't been converting either. He's just lost his way. All right from bridges is nastiness to Sadezical. You don't have to add to bridges super coach spuds this week. Not really but Clayton Oliver's average 24 to spoils his season. He's averaging four tackles and he's averaging just under five clearances. So he's close to half of last year then because the average close to 40 disposals last year didn't he? Not sure I'd have to look up the average last year I don't think it was 40. No but he was in the mid 30s more often than not but Oliver's just been down. He's like playing with no confidence or there's definitely something not quite right with him. I have to wonder if he's already checked out bridges or he's been told he's being checked out. Well it has been told then it's going to come. I can't see Melbourne carrying those sort of statistics for their gun midfielder who they've got on a million dollars a year till 2030. It just doesn't. Someone has to pay the penalty for Melbourne's dismal season. It's going to be him all right fair enough. All right let's go to some superstar. Big thanks to Statsy for doing superstars last week with Dusty 1 the good old Bond 2 and a Marty 3. So that helped the Bond get up a few more into his votes there. But this week wore tough week tough tough tough week. It was just let me get back to there. I've got one vote there and my last one went to him. You realise you're talking to yourself? I am talking to myself because I'd written them all down bridges but I hadn't actually put the numbers beside them. Locky Neil didn't get them but could have. Locky Neil 3070 Sposles seven marks. Probably got three brown low votes because he always does. But Oscar Mack I thought was really good with three goals so just shared them a bit around. Goulding 41 touches not bad. Robodham 32 disposals 11 clearances for the young bloke. LDU gets one vote because he almost brought the north back from defeat with 31 disposals a goal. Eight clearances in there. Two votes goes to Brody Grundy put on a bit of a clinic. 28 disposals for the Ruckman with 31 hit out so I thought that was really good. And three votes goes to Patrick Crips. Has to 41 disposals, five tackles, 14 clearances for the day. It's a pretty crazy day for the Crips man. Surprisingly he's only got four votes now in total for the year and we've still got no real new leaders. We've got Harley Reid sitting on six votes and a few chasing him on five. Well he got a couple of really good games there that's why and he deserves to be there. And someone else will have to push hard to get over there in your superstars. Well Harley Reid might get votes again this week, he's back. He's had a few weeks off. But LDU I really liked his game. I thought he was good. There was a few others like she's always good. Stringer. If it wasn't an Essen in play I probably would have given stringer votes but you know a bit rigged. I don't really like him. If I was going to give Essen in play a vote so I would have given him the Caldwell. He's got 70 touches, a goal and 11 tackles. Same old boy. I think he was having a terrific year and you watch some of the runs he has. He breaks those lines. I think he's an awesome player and he's got big upside yet. He hasn't found his total yet. This is second season is it? Mid-season was he mid-season? I think he's mid-season last season wasn't he? This is second year, how good is he going to be? Alright, stats man, what topics have you got for us? Well, the first one I find really interesting. We've talked about it in the past but I'm going to go with a bit of a different angle here. We all saw the state origin at the MCG for the NRL on Wednesday evening. It was game two in front of 90 plus thousand at the MCG. We've talked this season around, of course we had opening round where the AFL tried to take on. Of course the Sydney rugby league when they were overseas and tried to play footy in their backyard so to speak. Then we had a series of Thursday night games that we now don't have anymore. But as rugby league starting to take over, the AFL is the dominant code in Australia. Well, there's some figures I've got Jason that support it. Actually support this and this is where I'm sort of going with it. For Victorian rugby league clubs, the participation is up 21% on 2023. The NRL free-to-air ratings this season on 9 are up 9% in Victoria. The storm have now got 30,000 plus members for the first time, only second to the Brisbane Broncos. We've got the storm again with the second largest fan base behind the Brisbane Broncos at 1.68 million fans. 1.68 million Melbourne storm fans, 30,000 of those plus members. Okay. Now there's more. This year, Victorians have bought more than 465,000 tickets to NRL games this season alone. The pathways that the NRL have developed in Victoria has led to some storm players becoming rising stars. Now, I'm going to get these names wrong, but Sua for longer and Dean Irema of the Melbourne call storm at the moment are two rising stars that are killing it, both from Victoria and a Victorian base. The reality is you said 485,000 tickets have been sold. That's only two weeks of AFL, and they've paid what, 17 rounds of NRL? Yes, the participation rate may have increased, but if you go from 10 to 12, that's not much when you're talking 100,000 to 120,000 in AFL. Well, this is the discussion. Is it alarming? Is it a, is this just a sort of spike and it won't continue? Or is this a trend that really the AFL need to be worried about? Well, one state you brought up there was that the storm have 30,000 members first time ever. If any AFL club had 30,000 members, they'd get drummed out. Even the Gold Coast has probably got more than that, and giants have probably got more than that. But you're talking that it's one of their power clubs. Storm is one of the power clubs in the NRL. Top of the ladder, favourites in the flag. Which is their equivalent of an outlier club like L.G.W.S. or L.S.S.S for example. That's right, but what about the main clubs? Their main club is Brisbane that have got more than them. Richmond have got 100,000, Collin would have got 100,000. Oh, those even Tasmania's got 200,000 members. I think Tazewon's count for just... Right, but the others do. The others do, and so your figures say yes, it's increasing, but our population's increasing. So they're going to have to get some extra bonus out of a growing population. Well, the AFL must have been worried and must have known these figures during the year, or at least at the end of last year, because they had an opening round. I disagree with you. To try and get the jump on rugby league. No. And now, they're talking about state of origin. Oh, see, I disagree with your stats. Now they're talking about AFL state origin. If the AFL was aware of these stats, then why would they be given rugby a bunk up every Thursday night? Well, we've discussed this. Why would they do that? No, I don't agree. Why would they do that? They don't have those stats in front of them. But not only that, the AFL... They don't care. They don't care, because when they did opening round, they had no football on the Sunday afternoon, which is rugby's biggest day. So in that opening round, they didn't capitalize on the TV viewing at that time. When they had their buys, they put both Sydney teams on the same buy on the same weekend and had no football. And that was the first week of state of origin. So they put no football on the first week of state of origin. No, look, I don't think the AFL really cares what the NRL do, because the AFL's TV rights are worth 20 times, probably what the NRL's are. Their big money-maker players are on like $450,500. Well, boys, the perception in the community is that these days, that rugby league has kept more than its purest form of the game, more than what AFL has. OK. I'll give you an example where it's going nowhere. Now, stats, you are the sportsman. You have a sports show tomorrow that's all about sport. What part of your show is about rugby? Well, there's no real local rugby. Although at times, at times, yeah. But at times, we've talked about it when things have cropped up, particularly up Aubrey-Wadonga way. So I can remember, back in the day, talking a lot about a rugby league side. So you're telling me about a sport that's taking over AFL, which doesn't have a representation in the place, where the number-one draft it just came from. But the tentacles are coming out of the capital, and they will spread to country areas. Eventually, it will get out to these sort of areas, because population will send it to there. There's migration people coming from rugby states that are supporting that sport. I go to a lot of houses that do watch rugby over AFL. So it is there. But what my point was to use that is that you do all sports locally. There is no rugby here. So there has been in the past. And if there is, I'm sorry for the rugby people if there is, because I feel really bad, but we don't know anything about you. We don't read you on newspapers, and you're not on stats and show. So if there is any rugby clubs or whatever out there, then they need to contact the station and get some profile. Yep, but otherwise, sorry, I've got nothing to it. I know in the '90s, Shepard, and did have a rugby league side. What do I do after that? Yeah, but in the '90s, I was young. And I agree with you is the fact that Storm, under their coach, Greg Bellamy, have been a perennial finals and won flags. And they are a terrific team. They're a terrific club. They run extremely long of our league, really. Oh, they just stand up there. Every pre of them final or grand final. And again, this year is sitting on top of the ladder. So when you've got a club like that, like I back for Storm, you know, I think I follow rugby. Like every Thursday night now, I'm watching rugby. I watched Wednesday night. I really enjoyed Wednesday night. I watched last night. The women's last night. Saved me a big, large bottle of water. Then New South Wales boys actually get me into gear. No, not yet, it hasn't. It has. So it's great that both of you guys are after 14 seasons of this show finally back to the AFL. And they're getting it right currently. And they're nothing to worry about. Not 100% right now. No, they screwed it all up because, like you said, they tried these things to beat rugby and did a half job of it. That they could have done opening round so much better. They could have done the buy round so much better. I don't like Thursday night personally. But if you've got bridges watching rugby instead of football, then you've screwed up because bridges is a football man. Football all the way. Yep. So, you know, there's lots of things the AFL could have done or could do to keep their foot stomped on rugby's head. Yep. And clearly, you're allowed to do that because we saw plenty of that on Wednesday night. Was it disappointing game Wednesday night? It was really good. I like the guy that got sinned in though. They're fighting, they're punching, they're carrying on. And he says, don't do it again, boys. And the next, and the next bit, and he got Stephen for touching him on the top of the head because he was stirring it up. What do you think of coming back to the AFL having state origin? I can't. When I talked about it over the last couple of weeks, has that game on Wednesday night with the 90 plus thousand crowd? And I know a couple of weeks ago, we sort of said no to it as a group. It can't happen. Are we still in that camp? It can't happen at the highest level because there's too much money, there's too much risk. NRL accepted and those clubs embrace it and they accept that they're not going to have these players play either side of that week because they're doing state of origin. But I can't see clubs going, patty crypts, it's all right mate, you go and risk yourself out there and that's all right. We're only Carlton, we're second on the ladder, we're going to push for the flag, should we risk you? It's not going to happen. The only way I can see it ever coming back is if it's played in that by round the week before the finals and the only players able to play those have missed the eight. What about a week before the season proper? No, to risk you, same bit. Not going to happen, not going to happen after the season. But we've tried in the past, they brought it back 10, 20 years ago, they had a game and there was barely 60, 50 or 60, 50. They even tried that AFL-9s with the square. Rectangle over would bring it back and that failed. If you want to bring state of origin, I can tell you people like it. And if we look at the Masters football, it's massive. The want and the bits to fight for your state is very good. I would be looking at it at a junior level. Under 18s, in these bi-weeks, I'd be having that as the showcase game, pull a whole AFL off for a whole entire weekend and have a massive carnival of under 18s, show these kids off. Big Metro, Queen of Australia with Australia. Yep, and do it with the kids. And the next question I have, because they already do it with the kids, because the kids are already playing TAC Cup and things, but we don't see it. It's not made big enough. I agree, if you boys, just before we go see it. The next thing we know is, what game would you have? Would you say our first year is going to be Victoria, South Australia, and then South Australia, Western Australia? Or how do you do that? You have to have an ASB carnival. Look, I just think culturally, we've gone a bit past it as an AFL community. Well, back in the day, I loved it. You know, 70s and 80s and early 90s. And the lockets and dunsons and that were playing in it. Well, there you go, Witten. The Witten game sort of was that, but then it became a bit of a comedy fest. Yeah, it was more of a hull and boat struggles. And I think it works. Well, because essentially, there's only two states that play rugby league, whereas we had Western Australia, we had South Australia and Victoria. Well, this is debatable. If Melbourne Storm are the strongest team over the last decade, it could Victoria actually put up a team, you know? I don't know. All right. You've got to be born here. Have you got anything else, urgent stats? Well, we'll throw a couple of stats a second. I want to throw a haircut and get a bit of tribunal bits, OK? Get a haircut and get a real job. Now, originally when I was going to do a haircut, my haircut was going to be Dangerfield getting off of his tackle. OK, that was my bit. Fair enough. All right, so what do I do, Bridges? I want to make sure I've got me research right and want to watch it. So I click on the AFL website, go to Tribuneral's, click on the bits to watch it. And what comes up is that one o'clock in the afternoon, while I'm on my lunch break, a sports bed ad. Now, Bridges, that's not an adults' website. How can it be legal for all this betting companies to promote something where I have to-- and I can't watch it. You can't skip it. You can't do nothing. You have to watch it. You have to watch that sports bed ad to be able to watch Dangerfield. Dump him on the ground. So any 10 to 14, 16, 18-year-old kid that looks to see what happened there has to watch that sports bed ad to see it. And I just find that disgraceful. And, you know, we don't do tobacco advertising. We don't do beer advertising really much anymore. Almost that's, you know, almost disappearing. You're not allowed to do sports bed advertising during a game. Which they do. I thought they was banned. Return your foxtail on and watch you do the quarter time, Bridges. Guarantee that they'll be talking about it. They've still brought it. It's still in there. It's far too often. It's there. But what really got me was the fact that it was on the website. Now, surely there is better sponsors the AFL confined to force me to watch an ad now. I would like ads as much as you do, Bridges. I had them to-- OK, but I wanted to see what Dangerfield did. Now, once I finally got through the ad, then I saw what he did. And, honestly, Sam Walsh should have got probably put for staging. It was my view of that one. And I actually don't have an issue with him. Oh, rubbish. Walsh dumped his head into the ground. Dangerfield held him up and Walsh let himself go forward and head butt of the ground to get the free kick. No doubt about it. What did he have of holding himself up? The only way he could-- without losing his head. Dangerfield didn't even dump him into the ground. He took him to the ground and stopped him into the ground. If he had never owed him into the ground, it would have been a push in the back for a start. It had to be, because he's all over his back. He's got both arms pinned. He's plowed him into the ground. That had to be-- He carried him into the ground. OK, stats, man. Give me your take on the Dangerfield one, mate. Well, Dangerfield for a start is the President of the Players Association. And I take him into his word when he said he had fully understood that the best way leading into that tackle. And if this was premeditated by Dangerfield was to pin both arms together as the safest way to tackle. So I don't think there was any intention on Dangerfield's part for Walsh's head to hit the ground. It's a sad portion. Therefore, I think it was the right call to discard that one weight band. I can't have it on that. But they've been pinging all the way up to right now. All of a sudden, it's been you pin both arms. That's why you're getting suspended. Bang, bang, two arms, two arms, two arms, all with her. Now, all of a sudden, they say, oh. Because the mechanics of the bit said that Dangerfield did not dump him, that he had butted the ground to get the free kick. And it's happening a week. The one that had his ground was Stephen. No, Stephen May didn't even touch the ground. That was the next one I had to watch a sports bed add to see. It was the Stephen May one, by the way. Yep, click it on next to the bit. He got a fine for that, I think. He got a fine for staging. Now, he got swung around and then pretended as if he's headed the ground. His head didn't even touch the ground. No, so Stephen May copped, but players now are deliberately playing for that. Head touches the ground for a kick. Walsh did it. Look, I disagree with that aspect of what you're saying. I don't think it was a deliberate action by Walsh. Why? I feel that the mechanics of the tackle were dangerous. No, they were dangerous. No, I don't think so. No. The soon issue wasn't the argument, Jason. The argument was that two pinned arms is the safest way to tackle. That's the argument. But it's also been the argument of why everybody else got suspended because they grabbed both arms and put them to play a catch. That was the argument. How was the argument at the tribunal and that's what he got off on? Well, it's a load of rubbish. All it does is make the ball more murky. Nobody understands again what is going on. He's a good guy. He's a good guy. That's what it is. Did he get off because he's a good guy? He's got off because he's a good guy. You're only about your seventh suspension this year, but you're a good guy. I was speaking of many reports for the year. Zach Butters. All right. This one's got to pump this through some matrix thing. Butters, is that the fourth time this year he's been fined? It's all the fourth time in his career for striking. I think it's this year. Well, assuming it's this year, it's a $10,000 fine that was brought down to $6.5 or something. I'm admitting you did it. But I did see it in long distance. It's $900,000 a year by the way. Yeah, but I did see it in long distance and it didn't look a real lot in it, to be honest. I know it's striking and it's still there. It's $10,000 out of $900,000. But you've been banged four times in a row, don't you? Isn't there a point where, oh, sorry, you've been fined. You now have to cop a week? I agree what you boys have consistently set on this particular issue with Butters. It looks bad for players that are playing in lower grades in juniors. And I felt that, yeah, that was the wrong call. You should have got suspended. The last few years, Zorka should have been suspended. Panda, we should have been suspended. As soon as it's closed fist and you make body contact and I don't really care if it's like just touching. I don't care whether. It's the mechanics of it and it's the look of it. But if it's your fourth time, surely you get one fine, maybe two if they're a nice guy. But surely the third and the fourth go, it's mate. You're clearly not learning anything here and you're obviously not caring how much we find you. So you've got to do a week. Now, why did he not get a week, Bridges? Well, he's not really, I don't think about it. Because he's about third or fourth brown, no favourite. Well, he's, season doesn't tell me that. He is third or fourth brown, no favourite. He is right up there. He is going to vote high on brown low day. I have a question for you. I don't think he's going to win it, but he's going to vote high. I have a question for you. Yes, Bridges. Let's go to your superstars. Yes. Okay. Can a suspended person win your supercars? Yes. Superstars. They can't say they can be suspended and still win it. Yeah, I'm not a fair player. It's fine. You can still win superstars. Harley Reid's still winning the superstar. I was out there on the other day, and I bumped in or made a moment. Gary Reardon from Katania McGaughton or whatever else. You see, listen to the show every week. Hey, hey Gary, how are you? You're missing. Lovely. It was a great chat we had. And they just agree, but sometimes they totally disagree with us. I think that's... I'm sure they agree with that. No, it's a superstar. I don't care what... If he does it wrong the week after, that's not my bit. I'm voting on anybody. He did that particular week. And how good that. All right. Before you go... Yes, that's a nice one. I just want to talk about... No, I just want to talk about that gambling aspect where you're totally right. I mean, those... If you're going to vision of the AFL, and you should be able to at least get rid of that at all, delete it. Look, I'm all for... As everybody knows, I've been a lifelong punter, and I try to promote on a Saturday morning responsible gambling and betting acceptance within the community as long as it's responsible. But, yeah, I totally agree with you that there is way too much of the current AFL football advertisement at the moment, and it needs to sort of slow up a bit. But the government rules say that they can advertise. So, to have them as the banner at the top of the screen or something like that, okay, fair enough. But don't force a kid to watch a gambling ad to see the danger field was a good guy. See, I'm not really...I don't gamble, I don't bet on horses, I don't bet on footy or whatever else. That's because you're not good at it, Bridges. No, I'm not good at it. That's right, but at least you're smart enough to know that. Well, I've done it a lot. But why should I not put it at all? I just didn't have to watch those ads. It may corrupt me. Well, they could do... They corrupted it a lot of other ways. Now, Bridges, they could do ads about washing your face with nice, pretty stuff or something like that. Instead, you might get some use out of that instead. Hair dye? Look, mine silver is fine. Well, even in the rough... Hair polish that you do for me. I've noticed that some betting agencies are on their jerseys as well, so... Yes, they've got that. Well, I think they still are with some of ours, too. Which I thought... I thought the government was actually stopping. And there definitely, there's plenty of the crypto currency ones that... Now, if it's face cryptos, not much different to gambling. In fact, it's probably worse because you think you might win. At least gambling you know you're going to lose. Gamble, responsibly. We do mention odds here, but... Yeah, always. It's our bid. But it's just for something there. All right, no more topic stats? Not really, no. We can sort of let it go for this week, if you like. All right, we'll chuck them in there. We'll spend a bit more time on them next week than their quick sponsors break. Then we'll get into some teams. As always, we're running late, so we're going to have to get through them quick Bridges, so no 15 minute speeches on them, okay? Well, how do I always get the blame? Because it's always your fault. You listen to the AFL opening bout, it's brought to you by Golden Belly Massage and Natural Therapies over in Marupna. Do you have an A called pain that just won't go away? Or a scar that just doesn't feel quite right? Or not happy with the appearance? That's where Golden Belly Massage and Natural Therapy can help. We specialize in remedial massage, gentle scar therapy, oncology massage and trigger point therapy. We also offer private health rebates for all our services. So call Michael on 0422 75282 and visit us at 115 McLennan Street or messages on Facebook. One of them sponsor. Welcome back to the AFL opening bounce brought to you by Golden Belly Massage over in Marupna. Go and see Michael for all those little injuries, aches and pains and get him to try and get rid of him for you. And we've got... By the way, he's not just a mess, he's a specialist. Yes, he has all the tickets, all the certificates anybody could ask for that he puts out. He's not a mess who he is a specialist. And he did do wonders on my neck. It's a lot better now. We're good. Didn't feel a bunch different straight away, but it seemed to bounce back a lot quicker than it normally does when I hurt myself. And I'm pretty good at that, aren't I, Bridges? You do. Okay, tonight we've got our NIRS coverage. So we'll cover this game last as we lead into our coverage. Brisbane Lions versus Melbourne up at the Gabba, and it will kick off at 7.40. Then we get to 1.45pm, Marvel Stadium, North Melbourne, playing in Melbourne. That's a really odd thing to see. But anyway, North Melbourne home game, playing the Bulldogs at Marvel, and that one lineups. We've got George Wardlaw out with concussion, L.D.U. clocks up 100 games and probably adds another zero to his price tag. Callan Dawson comes into the side and across at the Bulldogs some big changes here. Now Booker Carmas omitted. Calla Daniel omitted. So is Scott. But Aaron Norton back from his knee injury already, which is really good. I think he's only been out for 5 or 6 when they said it was going to be a 12-week injury. Oscar Baker and Sam Darcy comes back in after suspension. Statsman. The Bulldogs, the Bulldogs that are favourites are $1.12. The Kangaroos are $6.21.39 and a half gamble responsibly. Danger here is which Bulldogs turn up. That's the danger. They are Jekyll and Hyde, English and Richards and Libertore. There is a distinct doubt over that Bonton-Pally. He said it was not early in the week but then he's heard his back. Will he play or not? That's a big question Mark over that. Darcy back I think he's a star this young kid. He's big, he's strong, stands up tall, takes the mark, not a bad kick at goal. I think he's going to be one of the future stars of this game. You're watching lead out to a mark. He's nearly 2 metres 10 tall. His arms are about four foot long. As a defender, if he's got any more than half a foot on you, how do you get to the ball? Well he's only a little bloke. Did you see that one the other day from Canada? He's a basketballer and he wants to play in the NBL and he's 7 feet 10 inches tall at 20. His head on the ring just walking. That's only an inch tall in May. Well sure. That is two of you stats. No two stats wouldn't even add up to that. Anyway, I'm going for the dogs. I think at home they should be okay. I just want them to turn up and give me some consistency Bulldogs. I'm just going to assume the Bulldogs are actually going to do their job properly. So I'm tipping the doggies. I've given up on my tipping the underdogs because in the end I was no better or worse. So I've gone back to what I feel like now and I'm still losing. What do you think stats north of the dogs? Oh look, the north are being definitely on the improve. But I think the dogs are going in with a really tall forward line to obviously stretch that north Melbourne defense. Not their best area. And I think that that will unfortunately for the kangaroos I'll also come to that. If taught by that might change things a little bit but the dogs for me. Okay, who's our bridges? If Bond's out he's got to cook back a bit. Yeah, back problem apparently may not. No, I've got a couple of finals in cannibal leagues and super coach tonight this week that I could really use Bond. So he better play and better play properly. Okay, Sydney Swans versus Dockers 145 at same time but this one's at the SCG. And no changes for the Swans. They don't care, they're winning, they're happy. Across at the Dockers, Piers is out injured. Warner, owner or car owner? Yeah, W-O-R. So it's not a, it's a different owner. Josh Draper and Brandon Walker come in so some youth comes in for the side. But the captain out could make a big difference when you're on a road trip to the other side of the country. A couple of years ago when they made finals they went down to Sydney and won there. But they're playing a different Sydney side at the moment. Odd stats? Yeah, the Swans are at $1.22, Dockers $4.30, wine 27 and a half. Good battle is going to be in the Rock of course, Grundy and Darcy and with Jackson to back up Darcy there. The midfield is going to be a good battle as well with strong and bracial chasing down Heaney and Gould and then Robodham. So I'm looking forward to this game. Neither, if a Marty's owner kicks nine then Sydney's four. Oh, that's Facey. He's not going to do that probably ever again. But if he is, that forward line of Sydney looks really dangerous. With Freo, there's still question marks. Without Tracy down there they don't have it. Sturt came in last week and kicked a couple. I was pleased with that. But I think Sydney again will run away with it. I'm going to tip the Dockers. Give me a reason, there has to be some mental capacity in there that says that's wrong. Swans have been up and flying in bits. Yes, the Dockers are losing Piers but if there's one team I want to lose Piers against, it's probably a team like Sydney that don't have a real key forward. They've got three or four forwards. Well they've also got McDonald, they've got Pappley, Haywood's there as well. So they've got others around but they're smaller forwards that can be covered easily. Piers tends to take the biggest guy, he's got to punch in the back of the head and does a good job of it. And intercepts and goes from there. So I think they can get past that but I just like the way that the young guys are going. Jordan Clark, Hayden Young, they're doing well. Luke Jackson, he needs Darcy to get injured again. He scores, he's doing the team thing which is great but he's only half the footballer when Darcy's in. I just think that they've got a sniff. I just wonder who they're going to use to stop that run of Sydney. Because Sydney don't always only get their goals from those big forwards. They get them from their midfielders coming down. Gilden gets a couple of score involvements as well. Exactly, on the chain. And I just can't see how Freo can stop that. Sharp was not very sharp last week. No but he'll probably go to someone like Warner. Fife's got to try and do a shutdown roll on one of them. I think you've probably got to sacrifice him for that. And not sub him out. If you're going to play him, play him. It goes through. So Jaegro Mira could possibly do a shutdown roll. He could, yes, if he doesn't get injured. But you've got to have Caleb's wrong and Andrew Brace sure. They've got to clock up the stats. That's got to run backwards, not just forward. Yep. But anyway, I'm stepping out there and going with Freo just for fun. I think that it's going to be fascinating the battle with the robot Brody Grundy up against John Darcy and Luke Jackson. I don't know if you heard about the robot comments during the week when he was talking at the Melbourne Foodie Club last year about his future. But sort of informed them that he wasn't a robot. So I've now dubbed him the robot of course. But look, I'm tipping Sydney. But I sort of in Jason's camp. They're going to drop one somewhere. I don't think it's tomorrow though, but at some stages I reckon the Dockers may look like that they've got Sydney's measure. But I reckon they'll get up and win in the end. All right. Well, Sun's versus Collingwood, 435. It's at Gold Coast Stadium. So it's up people's first stadium up on the coast. And so Sun's undefeated at home. They're still undefeated, yes. They won the beat, as in the last time was their last challenge. But they've got to take on the mighty Magpies, which is going to be a task for them. Rogers omitted, Alice injured, Ben King and Nick Holman come back into the side. The Pies, they had their own version of Chook Lotto. And the losers were Charlie Dean, Finlay McRae, Rief McInnes, Tae Jirth, and Locky Shilts. He only got half a ticket because he's the illness. But yeah, a lot of outs for them that are just omitted. Mark off, Pendlebury, Maya Chek, Jordan DeGoey, and Joe Richards all got into the side. Quain all with 100 games. So some big ends for the Pies. Surely a win for the Pies up there. Wouldn't it be stats? They're the favourites. They're $1.80 currently, the Sun's $2.00 line to an a half. There's not much in it. No, it's not. I think it's a danger game in the fact that the Sun's record is at home, which is fine. Another issue I have is that there's two, four, six, seven coming back in for Collingwood, who have all been out for quite a period of time. And so you don't always find your form straight away. And big names coming back in, yes. But have they got that normal fitness in there, that normal? Well, Pendlebury, you know what you're going to get straight up. That's DeGoey. You will play a little bit more forward than he probably would normally as midfield, which will help my check, who probably won't be able to hit the side of a barn with a shotgun, and he's going to have a tough task against Collins and the other dude. My brain's gone blank. Ballad, those two are pretty tough down there. I've got to tip the Pies. That's it. Break the Sun's run. Stats? I'm going to go Collingwood, but I'm hearing what Sydney is saying. The ends that are coming back could take a little while to get back to that AFL standard, if you will, because when you miss games at AFL level, it can take a little while for you to find your mojo again. But I'll tentatively tip Collingwood, but wouldn't surprise me to see the Sun's get him. Well, Mark, I've only been out of week or two, and he was dropped. Pendlebury's been out, what, five, six weeks? Yeah, but he's Pendlebury, so he's a good... He's a good... DeGoey's been out for five or six Richards, only been out for a couple. He's a young bloke coming back in, his only young one in there. And they had the boy last week, which means they could have put those guys through a preparation part anyway to get them ready, so they'll be ready to play. Oh, I guess with the likes of Pendlebury and of course DeGoey and those types, are they fit? Are they match fit? Are they quite ready to give 100% just yet? All right, let's move on. We're out of time, boys. We're all on make pies. All right, Voodoo Doll will come back out. I actually figured out bridges why my ankle and bits don't heal. And I asked Heather to pull the pins out of the Voodoo Doll last week, and I'm feeling a bit better in the shoulders this week, so thanks, Heather. But if pies lose, don't put the pins back in, okay? Crows versus the Giants, 7.30pm Saturday night. It's good to see so many games cranking through on a weekend. We've got Adelaide Crows, we've got Borles, Omidid, Stretchen and Sharon Berg. Omidid, Tex Walker, Riley O'Brien and Elliot Himmelberg come in. So Adelaide are actually going to try this time by the look. Pete Ling, Ryan Angwin and Xavier Ahellem and Omidid from the Giants. Harry Perryman, Stephen Coniglio and Isaac Cumming come back into the side. So three big ins, really, on both teams. Giants are at $1.77. The Crows are $2.85, line to an hour. Danger, danger game, I think, for Giants here. They lost last week in Sydney, of course, and Adelaide have been really off the boil. It's a bad time, I think, to be visiting Adelaide and because the media, everybody had the knives out for everybody at Adelaide and Port Adelaide. The knives are all in Port Adelaide's back after last week. No, no, no, no. On the Crows as well, don't worry about that. They're talking about reviews at the Crows. Normally they do that under the table and you don't hear about it, except when they have a bad pre-season. But this is a danger game in the fact that at home Adelaide always can do the wrong, you know, jumping over and grabbing an extra leg and play out of their skin. What I'm looking for the Giants to do though is go back to the early season form, bring that pressure back, bring that run back, move the ball in a tasami way and I'll tell you what, they'll win it easy. With the one that Sam Taylor, the fullback, with him out, their backline looks weak. Jack Buckley in it, full back versus Tex Walker. Tex has got too much size on him. You've got Himmelberg down there, it's pretty solid. Yeah, Himmelberg there, but then he's going to have Foggy to deal with. They've got the other Himmelberg to go up in there as well, Lachlan Murphy. They're quite tall, Adelaide's side. I'm going to lean to Adelaide on this one. Adelaide Himmelberg's a spud, isn't it? Yeah, but he's still tall. Yeah, but he still doesn't get the ball. And just as your spud doesn't mean he's not better than his brother. But Elliot Himmelberg for Crows is not a patch on his brother from the Giants. Maybe he's got the wood over him when they get to the game, you know, just when they're playing against other people. If nothing else, it'll give you something to watch out of this game. It's at 7.30 at night. Hopefully holding a cup right now with GV Giants winning on the premiership this one. So don't tell us too much chance of watching this game. Who are you tipping, boys? Giants. On the crows, I think with all the internal stuff that's been going on, I'm expecting a really big response from both Adelaide clubs this weekend. And I'm all over the crows to beat the Giants. I tell you one thing, boys, after Saturday evening, we're going to find out a lot about both clubs. I need a massive game from Tex Walker, Supercoach Wise. So crows for me. I need Tex to wake up. Eight from Tex would be nice, just a lazy eight. Cats versus bombers. Now, this one will see where these bombers are really sitting at. Cats are a bit of freefall. Bombers have played nobody really that they haven't beaten anybody, superstars. But if they can come out and flog the cats, well, that starts to make a statement. Tommy Hawkins, injured foot. Talk earlier in amongst our studio here as will we see him again. Oli Henry, injured. Isla Mullen, omitted. Lachlan Lawson. Humphries comes in for his first game. Solids Shannon Neal comes in to take over from Hawkins. And Mitch Nivett comes in as well. And we've got over the bombers. Nat Caddy, omitted. Jake Kelly's out with illness. Todd Goldstein and Jade Gresham come in. A few milestones over at the bombers. Heppel 250 and Jade Gresham. Not many games from the bombers, but 150 in total. That's one of the odd stats. The bombers are $1.70. The cats are 215. The line four and a half. I like the cats odds there. This is at the MCG? Yes, it's at the MCG, so it helps nobody. It doesn't really. It probably helps the cats more. They probably spend more time at the G than Essen and do. I'm not sure Essen get plenty of home games there as well. What Essen have done have brought in two rucks. So they looked at last week's game against Kartner and said, "Jolong don't have a ruckman, and so we're going to bring in there two big boys." That's fine. I'm quite happy with that. Dangerfield gets a run, which he shouldn't be, but he's suspended. Caldwell, Merritt, he just brings his own footy every week. Merritt, he's a class act, and he's their captain now, and I think that's awesome. But I'm going for a turn-up here. I'm looking for Jolong to bounce back. I'm looking for Jolong to... I don't think it's a turn-up. I don't think Essen and the real deal. Well, yeah, but while Jolong are playing, then it is a turn-up. Jolong have been awful. They were awful last week. They've been awful for a few weeks, and I'm just looking for a bit of bounce from the catters and come back in and beat Essen. Statsey... Talked about tag is a little earlier, but what clubs have been doing against Jolong, particularly since round seven, being tagging Tom Stewart in that back six, and that is now what for Jolong pretty much. Look, I think the bombers will win this game, boys, but if you're the director of Channel 7, and you've had a choice at a free-to-air game, which one would you take on the Saturday night, the Crows Giants, or the Cats Bombers? Oh, you've got the Cats Bombers in Victoria, and out of state, you would be the other way around. Even though I'd love to see this game between the Crows and the Giants, particularly with what's been going on in Adelaide throughout the past week. So what game is on Channel 7? I'm not sure. Oh, I can answer that for you. I dare say the MCG game. You would think to be clubs. Jolong and Essen and I dare say. Jolong and Essen and is on Channel 7, the Adelaide Games. In Victoria, anyway. Yeah, the Adelaide Games on Fox. So, look, a question for you, Statsey. Rhys Stanley, is he cooked? Is Stanley a blunt knife now? Well, I'm not into it. I suppose he has these question marks around a lot of Jolong players, isn't there? By-claves is another one. Two is another one. He's come under question, and, well, he's still getting a game, and Stanley's playing the twos, and he's fit. He got eaten alive against, was it, Grundy or Gorn or somebody there a few weeks ago, and they've dropped him, and he'll struggle. What he's got to do is go back to the twos and find some form. If he goes back to his find some form, he'll be back in again because they need a ruckman. Jolong, interesting with Jolong. Their injury list only has five names on it. Henry, Guthrie, Hawkins, Wiltshire and Bruin. So, they've got no injuries. This is their best team that they can put on the park, and Stanley, sitting there, I think Stanley's knife is, he went and cut something, one of them boxes and it snapped. Well, maybe. They've got a blunt Stanley knife going in and out of form. It's not just, like, it's easy to look at. It's old. It's easy. But I still say that he could still come later in the season back into the side and do okay. Well, Jolong do rest people like that, yes, I suppose. Cats for me, because I want to see them win. But if Essendon can get up here, that tells us that maybe they are a bit of the real deal. But if they lose this one, then they go back into West Coast category. Yeah. Bombers for mine. All bombers. Oh, interesting. Okay. Sunday, then we get to. Let's get through these. These are all sort of dead rubber games because I think they've all got pretty easy winners. Maybe the last one. Saints versus Port. And we've got Cordio-Mitted, Zach Jones and Tom Campbell-O-Mitted. Weighing it in Malera, Jimmy Webster and Cooper Sharmon come in for the Saints across at Port. Radigalier out injured, Sose Burgoyne, McKentry has been dropped. Boke, Locky Jones and Will Lorenz comes in and it's Will Lorenz's first game. That's man. St. Kilder, $1.80, the power $2 line three and a half. Yeah. The danger here is that Port have Saints' number as a rule. They do usually beat us and I wouldn't be surprised if it happened. I'll tip Saints because they're my team. But I wouldn't surprise me if we don't see a bounce from Port. I could nearly give this guy bonus superstar votes. Kel Wilkie breaks the record for St. Kilder for the most consecutive games and could even be in the AFL as a rookie playing on 125 something like that. As a rookie maybe. Not as a normal player. No, since he debuted, he's never missed a game. So it is the wall of Wilkie and it's obviously built like a big brick messy house. No, he's not a very big bloke. Yeah, but he's just talented. He's brilliant. But anyway, just congratulations to Wilkie and I hope they get out. I'm going to back the Saints, of course, but it is a danger game for us. I'm hoping I'll get over tomorrow at the Giants. Okay, and I might duck down to see that game. Yep. Stats, who are you tipping? Like I said with Adelaide, I'm expecting big responses from both Adelaide clubs this weekend and I'm happy to take the even money gamble responsibly. I think they might bounce back as they tend to do after weeks like they've had. I've got an interesting one for you. Richmond and Carlton. So two teams that love each other so much. But each end of the ladder, Tom Lynch is out injured. Cumberland. Yep. Cumberland, Tom Dow, again. He didn't last very long. Jacob Hopper. Jacob Blight, Sam Banks. Now, Jacob Blight, is there a Malcolm Blight relationship in this? Is this kid like part of royalty or not? I don't think there's any real life. No, I'm going to throw that one to you, Stats, you know everybody. Is there a Malcolm Blight that's just about to start playing football for the Tigers? Not sure. I'll leave you to find that one out for me. 150 games for the Big Tank Nankerbus. And at the Bombers, Durden, out I'm emitted and Sarah back from injury. Zach Williams gets 150 games on the Blues side. Odds. That's all we need though. Another blight on the game. I'm only joking. Here's a great player, Malcolm Blight. Well, it's any great player. Great kick. Awesome kick. The call, Saly Odds. Carlton, as you'd expect. It's probably the shortest price favorite of the round. In fact, they certainly are the shortest price, $1.09. And the Tigers are $7.50. The line's 42 and a half. $7.50 is about where it belongs. I can't see Richmond. I can see him having a fight for it, for a quarter or a quarter and a half. But I can't see him doing it for four quarters against Carlton. I don't think they have the pressure. And the forward line for Richmond just doesn't function well enough. Their main players are just not giving them enough. So I'm going, Carlton. Fair enough. I'm just looking there. I can't see any direct relations. So no. I'm going to go with it. A quick glance online. No, he's not related. He was a number two draft pick though. OK. Fair enough. We'll see how the kid goes. We get there. Next game. Last game is West Coast versus Hawks at 4.40pm. And ins and outs for that one. Often a bit, they're pretty accurate. But look, Petricelli and Hutchins out. Tim Kelly, Harley Reid in. Bruce managed Harry Morrison comes in for the Hawks. Big game, really, for both teams. What have you got there, stats? The odds. Hawthorne are $1.50, $3.80, $2.50 line, 10 and a half. Hawks go into this favourites and say they should after their last five or six weeks. They're on a roll and they are going over there feeling full of confidence. The problem is that West Coast haven't been as disastrous as what they were at the start of the season or last season. They're starting to put together a few weeks of decent football. Their forward line is functioning a lot better. They have a Ruckman now in Flynn. I'm not sure he's the best Ruckman around. But he's at least as tall and he's competing with that. Yo. Will Yo play? He's had a family loss and so he may not play Yo. It's pretty nice too, Yo play. Yeah. But Reid back in will give him a lot of confidence there. I think he's picking bridges. I'm going up. I'm going up. No, it's not. Hawks can make the points. Hawks can make the eight but still feels like a wooden spoon batter. Hawks from on. They're still on a roll. I just want them to keep going for an extra week. Harley Reid back in. Go to go to the Eagles. Yeah. They've been growing an extra leg in recent times at Optus Stadium and just that twilight game for them and Kelly and Yo and Reid. I think they can light it up in that Sunday twilight zone over there. Well, it's in Victoria. It's obviously a little bit earlier in Western Australia, but yes, I think West Coast things. Bruce the Lions Melbourne. We need to do this one quickly too because we are over time and our coverage is just about to kick off. It kicks off in 21 minutes of the game so we're not far from that. Jack Payne out injured. Shadooprain omitted. Dara Joyce, excellent kill to play in. And Will Ashcroft back from his ACL, which is good to see. And young Jasper Fletcher will be the sub. Wouldn't surprise me if half way through the game. Ashcroft becomes the sub out, so do be careful with that if you're putting him in super coach sides. And across at Melbourne, little bit of changes. Salem injured. Blake Howes omitted. Bowie injured. And they brought in Jack Lever. Andy Moser's Wakefield comes in for his first game and Taj Wowoden comes back in. And Kynan Brown is going to be the sub for the demons. Let's have a look at the odds. Before I do that though, it is our National Indigenous Radio Service game. When we get off air, our callers are Darren Jackson, Matthew Ridley, an expert commentator, Darryl White, for Brisbane taking on Melbourne. Live from the Gabba 10 versus 9 on the latter, the odds are lined to $1.15. Demons are $5.50 and the line is 33 and a half. Well, will we see the Brisbane role on again? They win this at home. They've got their mojo back at home. Their winning games there, their winning games away. They're doing everything you could ask for them. And it's all changed from they had the buy because all of a sudden, they say we're playing, we're having more fun, we're doing whatever. But what it is is they've straightened themselves up forward and they're now kicking goals instead of points. That's the big difference there. Over at Melbourne, they don't really have to worry about where they kick points or goals because they just don't get enough of the ball forward. Darren Joyce comes in, he's got a birthday. It must be his birthday, he's playing on Frits. So Darren Joyce is going to have a river of a day. Harrison Andrews is playing on Petty. He might say, look, I'll go and sit on the fence, do a dinner here and sit on the fence for half. The game just to make this competitive. So there's Harrison Andrews. In the rock, Mac and only two weeks ago was a disaster. Absolutely got a bath and the guy to give you a bath is Max Gorn. Melbourne might not be doing any good. Max Gorn is having one of his best, if not his best career game season ever. Vine is in the midfield, isn't he? Terrific little fella. Oliver, I'm not sure. If he gives us another game like he did last week, not only gets spuds, but he'll also get a visit to the twos. Ashcroft back in, might be his first game for a year. All he has to do is get the employee, get through the game, Ashcroft. Don't worry about being a hero to it this week, get through the game. Melbourne. They would have played him in the twos a little bit first. He wouldn't be coming in cold. Yeah, but you're still coming back up. It wouldn't be his first run. No, it wouldn't be his first run, I agree with that. What I'm looking for, leave it back in there will help. The back line is going to be any extreme pressure from Melbourne, and I think Melbourne will get well and truly touched up here. I'm going to do lines for me. I just think they're going to be too strong. And like you say, the back line there, it's not just Joyce and Andrew's there. It's they don't round them. Zorco, Darcy Willmont has been magnificent the last few weeks. Bruce Reviol off the wing there showing some life to a team from a young bit. Jared Berry on the opposite wing. They're going up against Tajwa Woden and Caleb Windsor. So they're two kids that haven't stood up yet on any of the big stages. So I've just got to lean to the lions. Melbourne could come back and shock us, but when you can't score against North Melbourne for 40 odd minutes of football, what hope you got against scoring against a team like Brisbane? Yeah. And you're on stats? I'm on Brisbane. But a big shout out to Kynan Brown who had that late tackle to save the game for Melbourne. It was a ripper, 1%. But it saved the game for Melbourne last week. He's under the young star in his first game and liked to look at him. But look, I think primarily it is Christian Salem as well, who's out that hasn't been talked about much. He drives a lot of run from that heart back. So not only are they missing a course of likes of a tracker, but just Salem being out who really directs traffic down in that heart. That puts a lot of pressure on Trent Rivers, who's been really good because Salem would have copped the best defender, but the best half back flank. Now he's going to grow across to Rivers. Well, I tell you who I am like and the look of is a guy called Logan Morris. Comes from Werribee. He's played seven games for the Brisbane Lions. He kicks goals on a consistent basis. He does everything you might like. And the fact he's only played seven games, he gets another eight or ten games in. He's going to be a smoky for the rising star. He is that good. He's doing everything you're going to ask. He's a big strong mark. He is a terrific looking young player. And I'm just looking forward to how what he can do. Interesting, interesting. The one in for Melbourne, I'll say, and it's a really key in for them. So I reckon they've missed this particular player. He's Jake Leaver down in the fence. He just helps out early with Stephen May. And Stephen May can't do it all on his own. He tries, but we leave it back. That'll take a bit of that relief off Stephen May to just be that main aerial dominance in their back heart. Well, you'll need to against the two giraffes. You know, like Danneher. Danneher and hip would have been, one or the other has been on fire, if not both of them, the last quite a few weeks. That's why I say earlier, they've straightened their forward line up and it's still-- And Charlie's then feeding at their feet, Jack. Charlie's been off. Yeah, but he's still feeding at their feet and doing what's needed. McCluggie's just coming up with a goal or two, splitting in the middle there as well. Like as far as he's been hitting the scoreboard. And he's got 13 goals in seven games, that kid. And Locky Neal, as much as he doesn't look to be doing it, I think he's still clocking up brown low votes. He would have last week. I think he's still going to be back up there. He's probably played better this year than he did last year when he was getting all the votes. Well, it's just what I said last year and I still hold to the fact that he just attracts the umpires eye. Yep. You might not necessarily think he's having the best of seasons or you might think that he is, but either way, he just attracts the umpires eye. Do they tag him? Will Melbourne send someone like Ed Langdon or that to-- No. Or you probably wouldn't say Langdon, no. Who are they going to send to tag him then? Windsor. Vainty. Vainty. Vain, you know, the backman? Vain Rowan. No. Vain-- not Vain Rowan. Plays it in the backline for Melbourne, let me just-- Tom McDonald. Mick V. Mick V. That's the one. Well, he can't do that from the back pocket. No, but don't blame there. He's a decent player in himself. He's a tough, nuggety bloke. I'm saying they should move him into the midfield for a start. That's the first thing Melbourne should do, is give him a crack and then get him in there. Dump Oliver onto the bench. Tell him to go and sit on the fence. Right? Put Mick V in there and then send Mick V straight and lock your kneel and tell him, go and have fun, buddy. Why don't you make it easy and just send Jack Vainty to go and bash him up. I'd send Windsor to Emore. I'd send Sparrows. Windsor's not big enough. No, they're not big enough. Lock your kneel, eat them. Sparrows just doesn't have a talent. He's just not good enough. And let's face it. Lock your kneel is one of those sort of guys that knows how to find the clearance. So you've got to put somebody in there that knows how to find the clearance as well to be able to stop him. You don't have to be-- No, no. You don't have to be big enough. He doesn't have to be a pest. He doesn't have to get the ball. He's used to not get the ball. Tell him to go in there and just rough him up. Melbourne need to get possessions two ways. Windhager took him out a few weeks ago. Windhager still got the ball. You can't just be a tago. The tager has to get the ball. You have to do better than what Port did last week. Well, not necessarily. You don't necessarily have to get the ball. I mean, the main job of a tag is to shut down. And that's why I think Sparrow will Windsor do a great job. Absolutely. I can't believe he's just dismissing that outright. Sparrow is not good enough talent-wise. And Windsor is a kid. It's not about talent when you're a tago. He's not even big enough with strong enough. Lucky Neil. Lucky Neil. It's more about running with and just being a harasser. No. You've got to be able to hold him out. Lucky Neil's got that good just push off of that instant second. And Windhager's one of the strongest guys out there as far as free size. And those two, they were having full-on sumo wrestles off the ball. And it was a nil or draw. So you've got to be strong to take. That's why I think, honestly, I don't have to look closer at McVee. But I think Jack Vineys, the only one with enough grunt. And if you take Viney out of your go-like statuses, then all of a sudden you've got nothing coming out of you. Now Oliver's got to stand up. Well, he's not. He's sitting on the bench. No, no. Oliver's going nuts today. He's going to go and sit on the fence behind the goals because that's all the goodies he's doing. All right. Let's go. So we're all on Brisbane. Yep. All right. Thank you very much, boys. Thank you. It's a message in natural therapies over in Marupna, sponsoring our show. Come down to Caialla tomorrow, everybody, and see the Victoria Country Carnival for the Masters. And if not, we'll listen into the boys here. Where are you at tomorrow's stats? Tomorrow, they are at Deakin Reserve for United, taking on a chuka. And on Sunday, at Nikadiel Longwood Avenue from 2 o'clock onwards on Sunday from 1.30 onwards. Tomorrow on streamer as well. Tomorrow for round 12 action of the go-tape Going Valley League. We're in round 10 action of the K-T-L. Thank you very much. You've been listening to AFL Opening Bounce. Stay tuned for the NIRS coverage. [MUSIC] We are the bride of Brisbane. Tell me when we're all new and old. We will always fight for victory, like a Troy and Bess Arbo. All for one and one for all. We'll answer to the call. No lions, Brisbane lions. We'll kick the winning score. You'll hear a mighty roar. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] It's a grand old flag. It's a high five flag. It's the emblem for me and for you. It's the emblem of the team we love. The team of the red and the blue. Every heart beats true for the red and the blue. And we sing this song to you. True to all the pain that's been. Keep your eye on the red and the blue. Do you have an acorn pain that just won't go away? Or a scar that just doesn't feel quite right? Or not happy with the appearance? That's where Goblin Valley Massage and Natural Therapy can help. We specialize in remedial massage, gentle scar therapy, oncology massage and trigger point therapy. We also offer private health rebates for all our services. So call Michael on 0422 705282 and visit us at 115 McLennan Street or messages on Facebook. One FM sponsor. You've been listening to a One FM podcast.