History Lesson

So Mason Cox was back in the lineup for Collingwood. He managed to kick a couple of goals but his shoulder was wrapped pretty well and it was plain to see it was bothering him. The up and down season of the Pies continues with a 15-point loss to the Richmond Tigers, who are struggling this season. Last year Richmond had a big streak to close out the season, winning like their last nine to qualify for the postseason. They're not having similar fortune this season.

My other match of the week was the Western Bulldogs qualifying for the eight with a win over North Melbourne. The Kangaroos can still make it, but Western sealed their trip to the postseason. It's pretty remarkable work by the Bulldogs since they've lost a lot of players to injury this season, including their captain Robert Murphy very early in the season.

Last week I wrote about Matthew Pavlich and Brent Harvey, and I saw some St Kilda highlights the other day and another player was wearing the old #7 jumper that Lenny Hayes wore before retiring in 2014. Those things made me think about how AFL teams honor their great players of the past, because Hayes was prominent on those two hard-luck Saints teams in 2009-10 and it didn't take long for someone else to put on his old guernsey.

I get it that there are only so many to go around and that you can't retire everyone's number, hang them from the rafters, put them on the ring of honor or whatever. There are 18 AFL teams and many teams share different venues such as Etihad or the MCG. That makes it tough honor past players in any of those ways.

Geography plays a role, since in the area of Melbourne, Victoria, you have the teams Carlton, Richmond, Collingwood, Essendon, Melbourne, Hawthorn, Western Bulldogs, and North Melbourne all within a very close proximity of one another. That's almost half of the 18 teams in the competition. A park for each of those sides isn't practical. In fact, I find it amazing that there's such strong fan support for teams that are so close geographically.

Stateside the situation is different. Teams don't share a venue unless it's a situation like the Seattle Seahawks/Sounders. In a league of X number of teams, there are X stadiums nationwide, so honoring past players by putting their names/numbers on display is easier. Each team gets to do their own thing.

I have noticed that individual AFL teams each do a great job of preserving histories on their own websites. There are a lot of 'teams of the century' from the older clubs, as well as naming of all players to wear a specific guernsey number, premiership seasons, and such. So it's nice to see these things told, retold, and preserved.

On tap for this week-- three weeks left in the 2016 home and away season. Geelong at Richmond, and North Melbourne at Hawthorn. The Hawks dropped one to Melbourne last week and are now just one game clear of four other sides at the top of the ladder. I saw one prediction list them as falling to fifth by the end of the season. Their percentage isn't as good as the teams below them, and they've got questions regarding injury and suspension. Should be fun.

Play on!

Western Bulldogs

So two weeks ago I saw the Western Bulldogs kick a goal in the closing seconds to defeat Sydney. It was a great game that had some violent mood swings and several lead changes.

The Dogs have had some rough patches over the last couple of decades, including poor play on the field as well as financial troubles and low membership totals off it. They've only won one premiership, in 1954.

But these days they've put a solid team on the field and even made the playoffs last season. I watched them play Hawthorn in round 3 and they gave the Hawks all they wanted before coming up short. To add insult to injury (or injury to insult), the Dogs lost captain Robert Murphy to a knee injury at the very end of the game. They were seen as premiership contenders beforehand, and I thought they would regress a little because of it. However they're playing well and are in the thick of the chase, trailing Hawthorn by one game as we head into week 17.

AFL ladder after round 16. Hawthorn has already played Sydney as we go to press.
No spoilers here.

Bulldogs captain Murphy is planning to return for his 17th season at the club following knee surgery and rehab. I think he sees something special right now and wants to be part of it. He probably deserves the chance to see it through, given that he's been there for the bad times, though there was talk that he should retire. It's interesting to me how there is such open talk on whether a player should do this (Matthew Pavlich at Fremantle is hearing it too), even during the season. I don't think we see this in the states-- we'd likely view it as quitting on your team.

In returning from vacation I watched Sydney beat up on Geelong and I got to see the GWS (Greater Western Sydney) Giants play Collingwood. The Magpies picked up their third straight win after beating GWS by 32 points. The Giants played well in the first quarter, scoring 44 points, but it took them almost the whole rest of the game to score that many again.

On tap for this week: Geelong/Fremantle and Collingwood at Adelaide.

Play on!