Don’t forget you can leave audio comments below.

On this weeks Show I look at:

• Results From First week of the NAB Cup – Winners: Eagles, Power, Hawks, Dogs
• Look at the new rules
• 5m protection zone and why I like it
• Holding the ball rule. Why I like it too
• How staging rule could be used with NAB Cup trail holding the ball rule
• How they could add to the Holding the call rule with Holding the man rule addition
• Other rule changes
• Brief mention of the Andrew Lovett incidient (note: recorded before he was sacked. Will discuss more on next weeks show).

Don’t forget to vote for this Podcast on Podcast Alley (see top left of this page).
Lastly if you are interested in Sponsoring the show contact me and we can organize it.

Molly

LANCE Franklin’s reputation as “Bad Boy Buddy” has hit new heights. The Hawthorn star, already the most penalised AFL player in the past four seasons, has endured a month from hell with the umpires. Franklin has conceded 16 free kicks and been awarded just two in his past four games.

No love lost between umps and Hawks star Buddy Franklin | Herald Sun

Mark goes through the stats very thoroughly pointing out such pearlers as:

• In 2008 he has given away 38 while only getting 15 frees
• Since his debut in 2005, he won 56 frees and given away 135 for a difference of 78 to the bad in 70 games
• In that same time Nick Riewoldt has only given away 25 and received 111, a difference of 86 to the good
• This year Buddy has given away 15 in the back frees (3 more then anyone else), holding the ball 8 times (2nd most in the league) and holding the man 6 times.
• etc, etc

What Mark doesn’t really do is to look whether this is the guy being hardly done by or if there is reasons for it. So I will give that a bit of a whirl and at this point I should mention my Hawks bias! But what you might be surprised to learn is that I don’t have a huge problem with the figures and totally understand it!

When you read that this year he leads the league for in the back decisions, you have to look at what his game has developed into. Early in his career it was often pointed out that he was a leading player, a crumbing player and that his over head and contested marking was the weakest part of his game. In the early days, this was largely true but that Franklin no longer plays here! You often see on a message board where the “can’t mark” point is still thrown at him which is a big mistake (both to fans and especially opponents). According to the stats provided by Pro-Stats, Buddy is second in the league in contested marks with 29 (only behind Richo’s total of 31). With his 21 year old body really starting to fill out, he is now standing toe-to-toe with his opponent and trying to push off and take the contested mark in a marking contest.

This tactic largely explains the reason for all the in the back decisions. Buddy had about 3 or 4 occasions in the weekends game with West Coast that in the back was paid in these situations and in fact he had a number on the night he kicked 9 against Essendon at the dome. Most of them are clearly there and some (not many I would guess, haven’t had a chance to look at the video of them as of yet) probably are give on reputation.

He also is a goal kicker and part of his game is to take on opponents and try to break tackles and kick goals. A lot of times this works, but a lot of other times it doesn’t meaning that he is often caught holding the ball. Sometimes at the game I think that the umpires are often hot on this but it is in the minority. Holding the man I expect is partially because he is a clumsy tackler and partly a Hawthorn tactic to hold the player getting rid of the ball from continuing their run and so again, not surprising.

But the surprise is the lack of frees for! (In my bias eyes) I am sure that Buddy misses a lot of possible Frees but is that any different to any other forward? In the article, Hawks footy manager, Mark Evens is quoted on this point:

“He’s been a bit unlucky on occasions,” Hawthorn football manager Mark Evans said yesterday. “Buddy makes such good position, I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a few there he could have got.

“Sometimes key forwards can have very good position and a defender can scrap and scrag and there’s no free kick.

“There’s been a bit of that.”

The other side of the coin is to look at Nick Riewoldt and ask is he a teachers pet so to speak or are his free kicks justified? And from what I have seen on him it is very understandable that Nick gets the frees he does and doesn’t give that many away. (If there are any Saints fans reading, would love to hear you thoughts in comments below but I will give my opinion here) From what I see of Riewoldt, he does his best work out on hard leads. He doesn’t often stand toe-to-toe with his opponent and wrestle for position. For this reason I would image a great deal of his 17 free kicks this year are for in the back or chopping of the arms when he just flat out out runs his opponent on the lead. The fact that he is mostly on the lead and rarely beaten to the ball means he doesn’t put himself in position for the in the back frees that Buddy does. So although it makes for great reading, to compare the twos totals is probably not fair for the AFL/umpiring department.

The last point of the story touched on SuperCoach and the points Buddy owners would have lost due to this free kick count:

If you take away all frees against and 50m penalties from the equation, Franklin ranks as the second best player with an average of 126 points. His average of 106 points currently ranks him 19th in the competition. Coaches who did not do their homework on his past deeds are losing 20 points a game through his undisciplined acts.

I think Mark misses and absolutely important point on this meme. As he said and I explained earlier, a lot of the frees come from in the backs in marking contests. Often these frees are given when Buddy takes the mark. Although I do SuperCoach, I rather talk Dream Team as it is easier to score and I have a better knowledge of it. If you look at the difference between Buddy giving away a free (-3) and him taking the Mark (3) and going back and kick (3) the goal (6), that is a –15 loss off your potential score! If you assume two of the frees are let go on the weekend (assuming everything else stays the same and thats a huge if) and he takes the mark and kicks the goal, that’s an additional 30 points and means he breaks 100 (and makes me a lot happier seeing’s as I picked him as Captain this week against my better judgement)!

So it was an interesting statistical examination of the situation by Mark, but I hope thinking about the context of the raw stats is even more interesting (even with my poor English!).

• News of the day
• Match Review panel findings
• Umpires for the Hall of Fame Tribute match
• More thoughts on the Time Keepers and why a fix is almost unworkable

Molly

Don’t forget you can leave audio/video comments below.

On this weeks Show I look at:

• Results from Round 6
• Another draw
• Was it a goal? Mrs Roos thinks so
• Sydney’s 19 Players
• Head count – My thoughts on the rule
• Dockers v Cats end. Lost 10 secs
• Jarrod Waite
• Hall of Fame Match – Injures killing it?
• Do they need to make players miss the next week if they miss?

Subscribe to Molly’s Monday Machinations by Email by clicking here

If you want to leave me an audio comment , you can now go to the comments section below or email me your mp3 file to mollyfud@gmail.com.

Don’t forget to vote for this Podcast on Podcast Alley (see top left of this page).
Lastly if you are interested in Sponsoring the show contact me and we can organize it.

Molly

Friday, April 11

Essendon v Western Bulldogs
Telstra Dome @ 7.40pm

ESSENDON
B: Adam Ramanauskas, Mal Michael, Dustin Fletcher
HB: Jay Nash, Patrick Ryder, Kyle Reimers
C: Bachar Houli, Jobe Watson, Ricky Dyson
HF: Alwyn Davey, Adam McPhee, Andrew Lovett
F: Mark McVeigh, Jason Laycock, Nathan Lovett-Murray
Foll: David Hille, Sam Lonergan, Brent Stanton
Int: Angus Monfries, Damien Peverill, Henry Slattery, Jason Winderlich
Emg: Courtney Johns, Jason Johnson, Tayte Pears

In: Lovett-Murray, Slattery
Out: Leroy Jetta (hamstring), Matthew Lloyd (calf)

WESTERN BULLDOGS
B: Tim Callan, Brian Lake , Dale Morris
HB: Lindsay Gilbee, Cameron Wight, Ryan Hargrave
C: Josh Hill, Matthew Boyd, Daniel Cross
HF: Daniel Giansiracusa, Mitch Hahn, Robert Murphy
F: Jason Akermanis, Brad Johnson, Scott Welsh
Foll: Ben Hudson, Adam Cooney, Ryan Griffen
Int: Nathan Eagleton, Dylan Addison, Jarrod Harbow, Will Minson
Emg: Peter Street, Callan Ward, Wayde Skipper
In: Eagleton
Out: Scott West (knee)
Umpires: Matt Stevic, Scott McLaren, Matthew Head

Saturday, April 12

North Melbourne v Melbourne
MCG @ 2.10pm
NORTH MELBOURNE
B: Josh Gibson, Michael Firrito, Drew Petrie
HB: Daniel Pratt, Shannon Watt, Jesse Smith
C: Daniel Wells, Adam Simpson, Ed Lower
HF: Nathan Thompson, Aaron Edwards, Brent Harvey
F: Ben Ross, Corey Jones, Matt Campbell
R: Hamish McIntosh, Brady Rawlings, Daniel Harris
Inter: Sam Power, Shannon Grant, Lindsay Thomas, Leigh Brown
Emg: Gavin Urquhart, Eddie Sansbury, Leigh Harding
In: Lower, Smith, Ross
Out: Hale (injured), Swallow, Harding
New: Ben Ross (Bunyip/Gippsland U18. Taken at No. 19 in 2006 Pre-Season Draft)

MELBOURNE
B: Matthew Whelan, Nathan Carroll, Jared Rivers
HB: Paul Wheatley, Brad Miller, Daniel Bell
C: Brad Green, Brock McLean, Clint Bartram
HF: Camern Bruce, Russell Robertson, Colin Sylvia
F: Aaron Davey, David Neitz, Austin Wonaeamirri
Foll: Jeff White, James McDonald, Nathan Jones
Int: Mark Jamar, Chris Johnson , Lynden Dunn, Cale Morton
Emg: Brent Moloney, Colin Garland, James Frawley

In: Whelan, Jamar
Out: P.Johnson (injured), Garland
Umpires: Luke Farmer, Jason Armstrong, Shane McInerney

St Kilda v Geelong
Telstra Dome @ 2.10pm
ST KILDA
B: Sean Dempster, Max Hudghton, Brendon Goddard
HB: Jason Gram, Sam Fisher, Sam Gilbert
C: Xavier Clarke, Leigh Montagna, Nick Dal Santo
HF: Adam Schneider, Nick Riewoldt, Robert Harvey
F: Fraser Gehrig, Justin Koschitzke, Stephen Milne
Foll: Steven King, Lenny Hayes, Luke Ball
Int: Jason Blake, Leigh Fisher, Matt Maguire, Aaron Fiora
Emg: Shane Birss, Charlie Gardiner, Clint Jones

In: S Dempster, M Maguire
Out: Raphael Clarke, Jarryn Geary

GEELONG
B: Tom Harley, Matthew Scarlett, Josh Hunt
HB: Darren Milburn, Harry Taylor, Corey Enright
C: Cameron Ling, Joel Selwood, Jimmy Bartel
HF: Steve Johnson, Cameron Mooney, Paul Chapman
F: James Kelly, Tom Hawkins, Mathew Stokes
Foll: Mark Blake, Gary Ablett, Joel Corey
Int: Trent West, Ryan Gamble, James Kelly, David Wojcinski
Emg: Brent Prismall, David Johnson, Shannon Byrnes

In: Gamble
Out: Byrnes
Umpires: Brett Rosebury, Ray Chamberlain, Simon Meredith

Sydney v West Coast
ANZ Stadium @ 7.10pm

SYDNEY
B: Tadhg Kennelly, Leo Barry, Martin Mattner
HB: Craig Bolton, Ted Richards, Kieren Jack
C: Jarrad McVeigh, Brett Kirk, Amon Buchanan
HF: Ryan O’Keefe, Michael O’Loughlin, Jude Bolton
F: Luke Ablett, Barry Hall, Heath Grundy
Foll: Darren Jolly, Adam Goodes, Jarred Moore
Int: Ed Barlow, Paul Bevan, Craig Bird, Lewis Roberts-Thomson
Emg: Luke Brennan, Ben Mathews, Nick Smith
No changes

WEST COAST
B: Brent Staker, Adam Hunter, Shannon Hurn
HB: Brett Jones, Darren Glass, Adam Selwood
C: Mark Nicoski, Daniel Kerr, Michael Braun
HF: Steven Armstrong, Ashley Hansen, Jamie McNamara
F: Ben McKinley, Quinten Lynch, Mark Seaby
Foll: Dean Cox, Tyson Stenglein, Beau Waters
Int: Chris Masten, Matt Rosa, Scott Selwood, Matt Spangher
Emg: Brad Ebert, Josh Kennedy

In: Armstrong, McNamara, Spangher, Rosa, Masten 
Out: Priddis (knee), Wirrpanda (hamstring), Ebert, Fletcher, Embley (illness)
New: Matt Spangher (Old Xaverians/Easter U18. Taken at No.34 in 2005 AFL Draft)
Umpires: Chris Donlon, Hayden Kennedy, Stuart Wenn

Port Adelaide v Brisbane Lions
AAMI Stadium @ 7.10pm

PORT ADELAIDE
B: Michael Pettigrew, Alipate Carlile, Jacob Surjan
HB: Peter Burgoyne, Toby Thurstans, Domenic Cassisi
C: Travis Boak, Chad Cornes, Kane Cornes
HF: David Rodan, Warren Tredrea, Brett Ebert
F: Daniel Motlop, Justin Westhoff, Danyle Pearce
Foll: Brendon Lade, Steven Salopek, Shaun Burgoyne
Int: Paul Stewart, Dean Brogan, Troy Chaplin, Matthew Thomas
Emg: Tom Logan, Nick Lower, Damon White

No changes
BRISBANE LIONS
B: Troy Selwood, Daniel Merrett, Joel Macdonald
HB: Anthony Corrie, Joel Patfull, Colm Begley
C: Tim Notting, Jed Adcock, Travis Johnstone
HF: Luke Power, Jonathan Brown, Nigel Lappin
F: Daniel Bradshaw, Jared Brennan, Rhan Hooper
Foll: Jamie Charman, Simon Black, Michael Rischitelli
Int: Cheynee Stiller, Matthew Leuenberger, Lachlan Henderson, Justin Sherman,
Emg: Wayde Mills, James Polkinghorne, Albert Proud

In: Troy Selwood, Cheynee Stiller
Out: Robert Copeland, Albert Proud (omit)
Umpires: Dean Margetts, Heath Ryan, Shaun Ryan

Sunday, April 13

Hawthorn v Adelaide
Aurora Stadium @ 1.10pm

HAWTHORN
B: Campbell Brown, Stephen Gilham, Brent Guerra
HB: Rick Ladson, Tom Murphy, Grant Birchall
C: Clinton Young, Sam Mitchell, Chance Bateman
HF: Shane Crawford, Lance Franklin, Tim Boyle
F: Cyril Rioli, Jarryd Roughead, Michael Osborne
Foll: Simon Taylor, Brad Sewell, Luke Hodge
Int: Robert Campbell, Xavier Ellis, Cameron Stokes, Travis Tuck 
Emg: Tim Clarke, Josh Kennedy, Mark Williams
In: Crawford
Out: Lewis (suspended)

ADELAIDE
B: Graham Johncock, Ben Rutten, Nathan Bassett
HB: Michael Doughty, Nathan Bock, Brad Symes
C: Nathan van Berlo, Scott Thompson, Bernie Vince
HF: Andrew McLeod, Simon Goodwin, Tyson Edwards
F: Ken McGregor, Brett Burton, Scott Stevens
Foll: Jonathon Griffin, Jason Porplyzia, Richard Douglas
Int: Kurt Tippett, Robert Shirley, David Mackay, Bryce Campbell
Emg: Jarrhan Jacky,  Patrick Dangerfield, Ivan Maric
In: Campbell, Shirley
Out: Luke Jericho (cracked sternum), Kris Massie (hamstring)
Umpires: Michael Vozzo, Mathew Nicholls, Justin Schmitt

Carlton v Collingwood
MCG @ 2.10pm

CARLTON
B: Kade Simpson, Michael Jamison, Bret Thornton
Hb: Heath Scotland, Jarrad Waite, Jordan Bannister
C: Shaun Grigg, Chris Judd, Nick Stevens
Hf: Brad Fisher, Matthew Kreuzer, Bryce Gibbs
F: Eddie Betts, Brendan Fevola, Andrew Carrazzo
Foll: Cameron Cloke, Richard Hadley, Marc Murphy
Int: Paul Bower, Setanta O’hAilpin, Darren Pfeiffer, Jordan Russell
Emg: Adam Bentick, Steven Browne, Shaun Hampson
In: Grigg, O’hAilpin
Out: Ryan Houlihan (hip), Shaun Hampson (omitted)
COLLINGWOOD
B: Heath Shaw, Shane Wakelin, Nick Maxwell
HB: Dane Swan, Nathan Brown, Harry O’Brien
C: Scott Pendlebury, Scott Burns, Tarkyn Lockyer
HF: Alan Didak, Anthony Rocca, Rhyce Shaw
F: Paul Medhurst, Travis Cloke, Dale Thomas
Foll: Josh Fraser, Shane O’Bree, Leon Davis
Int: Martin Clarke, Ben Johnson, Alan Toovey, Cameron Wood
Emg: John Anthony, Tyson Goldsack, Danny Stanley
In: Clarke
Out : Anthony (omitted)

Fremantle v Richmond
Subiaco @ 2.40pm

FREMANTLE
B: Roger Hayden, Luke McPharlin, Antoni Grover
HB: David Mundy, Michael Johnson, Steven Dodd
C: Ryan Crowley, Josh Carr, Des Headland
HF: Peter Bell, Chris Tarrant, Chris Mayne
F: Byron Schammer, Matthew Pavlich, Daniel Gilmore
Foll: Aaron Sandilands, Dean Solomon, Rhys Palmer
Int: Brett Peake, Scott Thornton, Jeff Farmer, Paul Duffield
Emg: Robert Warnock,  Garrick Ibbotson, Ryan Murphy

In: Thornton, Solomon, Tarrant, McPharlin
Out: Heath Black, Matthew Carr, Robert Warnock, Ryan Murphy (omit)

RICHMOND
B: Jake King, Will Thursfield, Daniel Jackson
HB: Chris Newman, Graham Polak, Kelvin Moore
C: Richard Tambling, Shane Tuck, Jordan McMahon
HF: Chris Hyde, Matthew Richardson, Brett Deledio
F: Nathan Brown, Jay Schulz, Adam Pattison
Foll: Troy Simmonds, Kane Johnson, Nathan Foley
Int: Luke McGuane, Jack Riewoldt, Shane Edwards, Mitch Morton
Emg: Daniel Connors, Joel Bowden, Matthew White

In: McGuane, Riewoldt, Edwards, Hyde
Out: Kayne Pettifer (suspended), Greg Tivendale, Bowden, White 
Umpires: Gary Fila, Martin Ellis, Todd Keating

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23517595-19742,00.html

(will expand this post later)

Its been a big week in Footy and the issue of the weekend has been the Siren Controversy out of the St Kilda Saints v Fremantle Dockers game. This week I look at that and what happen, what is happening and what I think should happen.

If you want to leave me an audio comment, click on the icon below or email me your mp3 file to mollyfud@gmail.com.

Also, as promised, here is the video of the incident:

Don’t forget to vote for this Podcast on Podcast Alley here.

Lastly if you are interested in Sponsoring the show contact me) and we can organize it.

Also, don’t forget to check out the Footytalk.com.au boys who are back for 2006! Also, you might want to take on them (and myself) in their Footy Tipping contest. Check out the Forums at http://www.aflonline.com.au/.

Molly

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