Baby Bombers Reborn

It was another great weekend of footy. It all kicked off with the rebirth of the "Baby Bombers" as they ran all over reigning premiers Hawthorn on Friday night and concluded with league leaders St. Kilda pounding Collingwood on Monday night. I was there to witness both games, but of course it was the Bombers surprise victory on Friday that stood out. It was a memorable win as the youngest team in the competition showed no respect for last year's champs and ran them out of the stadium to win by 44, 116-72.

The endeavor for the Bombers was there all night as they ran hard and shared the ball. The Hawks zone defense is what lead them to their premiership run last season and has continued to be a challenge for other teams to figure out. The Bombers game plan was to attack the zone by running with numbers straight up the corridor. The Hawks could not keep up and by the end of the 3rd quarter Essendon had run them off their legs, conceding only 1 goal in the 4th quarter. The Bombers next opponent is unbeaten St. Kilda. Monday night was my first opportunity to watch the mighty Saints up close and boy do they look dangerous! It will take another incredible performance from the young Bombers if they hope to stay close.

Monday Night Footy

In the AFL's latest experiment with scheduling, they decided to follow the NFL's Monday Night Football format. The showdown between St. Kilda and Collingwood will be the only Monday night game on the schedule for this season. The game attracted 40,000 fans and the second largest TV audience of the season so far, this will no doubt have the league considering the addition of more Monday night games in seasons to come. As an American, it is very interesting to hear and read about the fans' argument against Sunday and Monday night football. While Sunday night NFL football has only gained national prominence in the past few years, Monday night football has always been a fixture, in my lifetime. But the argument going around against the late scheduled games is that the kids that go to the games are getting home late and not getting enough sleep so they are tired for school the next day. Other fans from the country suburbs complain about how long it takes to get to the game. It makes me laugh when I think about all the fans from Milwaukee and across the state that drive 3, 4 or more hours to Green Bay for Monday or Sunday night games. Yeah, you're a little tired the next day, so what! suck it up people! We do it in America every week of the season (across 4 time zones) and we seem to manage just fine! Furthermore, if the league was smart they would sell the rights to exclusively broadcast Monday or Sunday night footy to the highest bidder and then adopt the NFL's flex-schedule format, in which the best match of the week is selected as the game to be broadcast that week.

As for the game itself, between St. Kilda and Collingwood, well it wasn't much of one. The Saints established their dominance by halftime and it only got uglier for the Magpies in the 2nd half. The Saints marched all over them in every aspect of the game to win comfortably by 88, 128-40 and increase their league leading percentage to 208%. That leaves Geelong and St. Kilda as the only 2 unbeaten teams in the competition. That showdown is scheduled for Round 14 and already has the AFL considering moving the game from Ethiad Stadium to the MCG.