All hail the suburban game

While some in the AFL media pack howl about the barren couple of weeks ahead in Melbourne the VFL is on the crest of a wave. With two weeks of dramatic, intense football, including Aaron Edwards kicking his 100 th goal against the Bullants last Saturday, isn't it time some of the pack turned their gaze to the suburban game? Instead of deriding the VFL as a guinea pig for rule change experiments, as he did in the did in the Age a few weeks back, Jake Niall should use his pen to capture the VFL's unique beauty. For while changing the name of the VFA to VFL sticks in my craw and I often wonder where the competition I loved is going, who can deny the quality of the football over the past two weeks? The passion it has generated on the field and the terraces at Port should be cause celebration. The Sandringham v Bullants (Saturday) and Williamstown v Geelong (Sunday) games promise to be among the best finals for years. With no AFL football in Melbourne it would take only a modicum of interest from the state government and the mainstream media to entice 5 000 people to these matches. Come on Bracksey!

Mitchell walks the tightrope

Former Carlton power broker Wes Lofts won't be wishing Barry Mitchell well this Saturday. Despite Mitchell taking the Bullants to the top of the VFL ladder Lofts delivered a staggering attack on his coaching ability in the wake of the failed coup at Princes Park. In making a presentation to the Carlton board amidst the turmoil over Denis Pagan's tenure Mitchell clearly put himself at risk. With Pagan staying and Mitchell out of contract the road ahead looks fraught. However, what hurts most is the claim he was disloyal to Pagan. He says he only did what the board asked and that Pagan knew about the board's request. Having to weather the aspersions on his character and bite the tongue in the face of Lofts' savagery has made it an uneasy finals campaign for Mitchell. I've only met Lofts once, and whilst I suspect our political views would be miles apart he was very engaging when we met, in an airport lounge some years ago. And I'm not close enough to the Carlton camp to know how Pagan is travelling. What I do know is that Mitchell can coach. His rapport with players and clarity in the huddle make him one of the VFL's standout coaches. If Wes Lofts can't see that he's not looking. No amount of big-noting in the media can camouflage the fact that Carlton under John Elliott rorted the salary cap and set the Blues on a path to disaster. And that wasn't Mitchell's fault.

A disaster waiting to happen?

Late in the last quarter of the pulsating semi between Geelong and North Ballarat I repeated an earlier opinion, that marking Cat Kent Kingsley with the much smaller, VFL listed player Andrew Burchell, was a disaster waiting to happen. ‘You sound disappointed,' Peter Donegan had remarked as Kingsley banged through his third for the quarter and fifth for the match. Notwithstanding my reservations about the Cats being allowed to play 17 AFL players, it had been a remarkable 6-point victory by Geelong, in an absolutely inspiring game. I just couldn't understand why Roosters coach Gavin Crosisca had left his captain Shaune Moloney so deprived of tall support in the back half. Yes, with Michael Jamison and Ben Schwarze missing through injury and Orren Stephenson and Michael Searl alternating in the ruck Crosisca had his hands full. However, as Robert Walls so stridently put it on Saturday night, John Worsfold's decision to leave Barry Hall and Michael O'Loughlin with acres of space cost West Coast the game. And pushing Chris Grant into the backline probably won the game for the Bulldogs on Sunday. I was disappointed that the brave Moloney should have been in such a situation and that Kingsley wasn't forced to win the game against a class player. As much as Crosisca, with a mere seven Kangaroos in his side had every right to be proud of his team's performance, had he played Searl in defence in the last quarter, the Roosters would have won. We can talk about stoppages until the cows come home. In the end, match-ups remain the first step to any win. That's why Brad Gotch will give his best defenders the task of stopping Kingsley, Nathan Ablett and Henry Playfair. I can't wait to see how this game unfolds on Sunday.