Its Off To Etihad we Go - Round 1 -- Collingwood Vs Port Adelaide

Its off to Eithad we go. Or I go.


Wow. where did the last 6 months go? Footy is back already! All that "I''m going to watch the grand final 100 times on DVD over summer, yeah, never did happen. Its been a long hot summer (hardly) and now we are under the cover of etihad stadium...except the roof is actually open, strange. I think this is one of the first AFL games I've been to when the roof is open. The place is chaotic to say the least, and I haven't ventured to this stadium since two faithful nights in early December of last year. The queue for subway almost resembles the U2 general admission line up about 6 hours before the show, okay a slight over exaggeration, I'm bloody starving!


I'm pretty confident the Pies will get up today. But its round 1 and its always a little tricky to predict. Port have now officially a new coach, and 2011 is a whole new year. Pre Match, I'm tipping the Pies by 4-5 goals. Leon Davis is a late scratching (this does not effect my tip) whom has been battling an illness all week, and is replaced in the side by Brent Mcaffer. Last time Davis missed a game, we managed to smah the saints in the first week of October. Maybe that's some sort of weird omen. New Year, new story, lets see how we go!


Port hold the Pies down for the first couple of minutes in the opening term. Before Blair and Jolly convert a couple of goals. Almost as quick as Collingwood jumped to an early lead, Port Adelaide have pegged things back, and the game is again all square. Harry O looks like he's still on summer holidays for the first 20 minutes, before he pounces on a terrible kickin from the Power, and scores a long bomb goal from on the 50, trademark Harry O! Heath Shaw takes a great mark running back with the flight, to which the crowd applauds loudly. Port are holding strong early on though. Its not till late in the term when the pies break away with a decent lead. Dane Swan converts from an on the run goal and the Pies take a 3 goal lead into quarter time. 6.1 aint bad kicking compared with last year!

The first twenty or so minutes of the third term were much like the opening 3-4 minutes of the opening stanza. However this time the Power are able to capitalize. Port Adelaide manage to score 6 goals to 1. The magpies defence was very undisciplined, gave away some silly free kicks and leaked a couple of goals. My mum interrupts me at this point. She offers me some jam doughnuts. I knew she was at the game, but she has come down from her seat on level two, unannounced.  We talk a little about the game, how Taz is playing (she's glad he's back, I'm still not sold) I tell her Harry O has his mind back in Brazil on holidays and better bring it to the game against the Kangaroos next week. Arrangements to get home are made, and then unmade. Meanwhile, while all this chatter is going on Port Adelaide are attempting a comeback. Westoff boots truly, he's been accurate all day. All of a sudden 24 minutes into the third term the Power are only 16 points behind. Enter Andrew Krakouer who sells a bit of candy, then kicks a snap shot come drop punt come banana goal that seems to reignite the pies. Dawes converts from directly infront, Beams from on the run, Cloke again with a set shot on about a 45 degree angle. Just as they managed to do in the NAB cup final when challenged, the Pies have steadied, the upset of this very young season as been put on hold. While Harry O is still on vacation, the pies lead 114-72 at three-quarter time.


The final term is played out in more of the style of the second quarter. Collingwood largely dominate possession. and put a big impact onto the scoreboard (more accurate kicking included!) Simon Buckley (ah its good to be saying "Bucks!" again at the footy) takes the cake for goal of the quarter with a big goal from just inside the center square. The game was already lost, but the small amount of traveling Port supporters stay till the bitter end. Pies fans who have basically written off our team as "Duds" for twenty minutes in the third term, are back on the bandwagon (heck even the umpires were getting praise, momentarily.) Big H (Harry O'Brien) has had a pretty average game (if you can't tell) he fumbled alot and I guess it is only round 1, he is not alone over the course of the weekend. Krakouer has had a fantastic cameo appearance is the first official magpie to be subbed off in AFL history. Brent Mcaffer strolls onto the ground and scores a goal, less than a minute after he has been on. I can see the term 'super-sub' being used a lot this season.



FINAL SCORE:
Collingwood 24.11.155
Port Power 12.8.80


A disappointing turn out, considering this match was the only game on in Melbounre for the day. 35,700 or thereabouts. I guess with an interstate team with a small fanbase didn't help much, however with the Pies having 60,000+ members, I would have thought there would have easily been 40,000 turn up. 


Votes:
1. Blair - "The little man!" - 3 goals, a lot of good stuff from him. 
2. Swan - plenty of touches as always, the guy sitting next to me's supercoach captain, and also 3 goals
3. Dawes - had a great game, 4 goals and a few good marks. Good presence up forward.




Moving forward to next week. I'm never confident against North Melbourne. Worse thing, is a coupe of my mates are coming with me (whom are North fans) and I don't think the Pies have ever won when they have come.

NHL '11 BE A GM : Canucks #1 :A Shaky Start

Thought for today: Why are long weekends never long enough?

Last Monday I decided after giving the game a few test runs at a mates place, to purchase NHL 11 on the PS3. The game arrived on Thursday and I haven't seen much daylight since. I'll try and keep a bit of a nerderiffic story up about this. The game has really eaten into time I possibly should be spending on NBA 2k11, Killzone 3 or you know...normal life.

My team of choice is the Vancouver Canucks. Before I get flamed by choosing one of the best teams in the league, currently. Before I chose them, I had no friggin idea. I'm 23 addictive games into my first season as Vancouver GM. So here's a little back-story. I would normally, be default go to the team from Boston, as I also support the Boston Celtics in the NBA. Once again I'm not on the bandwagon...well maybe. But I always used to play as the Celtics way way back in the days of NBA Jam on Super Nintendo.

The Canucks pre-season started poorly. Losing every pre-season game in OT. Bar one. Which was lost after 2 periods. It was through inablity to score goals, more so the inablity to play defense. The story was about to change as the real season began. The canucks opened up the season with a two game home stand. Both games were won. The first with a goal with little remaining  in OT, the second; a big win over Florida. Another win in OT came against the Ducks. After a nice little 3-0 run, a three game winning streak came to a sudden halt, and the team hasn't really been able to get back into top gear since. Consistent form could not be found with an eventual 3 game losing streak the team has struggled with a 50% winning percentage to date.

23 games into the season, coming off a big win over Calgary (5-3) The Canucks are sitting 11-11-1. Theres still time to find our feet. Some  good trades, and some better defense will certainly improve the Cancuks chances. My next entry will hopefully show a little more in deatil of matches i've played. I'll update some trades I've made. I'll keep doing this for as long as I can be botherd, so it might all come to a grinding half at some point.

Slow Line On The Horizon

This is going to be a quick on the fly, not really drafted or thought about.... Its more so just to let everybody know that I'm still maintaing the blog!.....and finally, something non-Charlie sheen related!

No Line On The Horizon is the 12th album released by a little rock and roll band out of the little country of Ireland ....U2. I love this album to pieces now (maybe not every piece)But it took a hell of a long time.....(and the album release, as well....humph)

 

I must admit it took my several listens before I fell for NLOTH. I knew “Get On Your Boots” and had been playing it over and over, not quite as much I’ll admit as I was playing a 10 second snippet of Vertigo recorded off the radio in late 2004. But enough. I liked the song, but it was sort of sounding more of the same. Elevation Part III or Vertigo part II....but still with a good rockin tune. 

I still couldn’t wait for the album to be either released, or since we are living in 2009 (or so we were at the time) to leak online. Our U2 Christmases did come early, and straight after work...or maybe I even downloaded it AT Work  (It has been done before) 4 years of U2’s blood sweat and tears had been downloaded in about 2 and half minutes. 

The exact number of listens before I er “got” NLOTH I couldn’t tell you. But I could be sure it was about 2-3 months after release where everything seemed to fall into place. It’s a wonderful feeling. (It’s a musical journey) Which I think it why the album didn’t do well in a commercial sense. Look at the first 5 tracks. Its a little over 27 minutes before you reach the “hit single” ...which it wasn’t really a hit at all but anyway.  The average Joe-Music fan’s listening attention time these days is probably about 3 minutes. 3:30 would be pushing it...and don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with that at all....I just think that there is your one simple answer as to why No Line On The Horizon tanked big time. (Ok not really big time....you can have a look on Wikipedia that it still ranked very well...but it didn’t have the strong sales worldwide of its predecessor HTDAAB or even ATYCLB...but hey, the industry has changed just a little bit since 2000.) It takes nearly half an hour to get up to some “easy to get into” rock and roll tunes. HTDAAB? Vertigo. Bam. Straight off the bat, here we go!. I didn’t like this approach by U2 at first. But like I’ve been saying, it grew on me.

I heard a few of the songs live from be it bootlegs or television....the awesomeness that is "the claw" and the 360 degree world tour. The songs had taken a whole different live in the live setting. Just look at "Crazy Tonight" I personally already liked the studio version from the early days of listening....but in the live setting, its an absolute fucking monster! But I think that not always but most of the time is the case for a lot of U2 songs. from what is just rubbish on the studio "Elevation" to the really cruddy production of "All Because Of You" (ouch my ears, especially at the very beginning)...those are just two examples, I mean how much better are those songs live? I'm getting a little off track. 

By the time the 360 tour started, I'd completely gotten into NLOTH. I knew all the words, If they were Tori songs, they'd be my new best friends. Magnificent is classic U2 stadium anthem, with plenty of doubt its my favourite track on the whole CD. The only song that I've still not had interest in to this day is "White As Snow". I'm sorry, but for some reason this little quiet song about a solider dying in Afghanistan (thanks wikipedia) doesn't belong. Its NLOTH's "Peace On Earth" except its really out of place. All is not lost, I know people who love the track, and can't stand songs like "Stand Up Comedy" (which eh, I don't mind.) 

In summing up, to the average music fan, nobody is going to be able to digest and love this album from the very start. It takes time. You have to wonder if it was released by a young up-and-coming band dressed in hipster clothing, and not a bunch of old blokes in their 50's who no longer sport mullets or afro's, would this album have been better received around the world? The tour has certainly been received very well, which goes to show the brand that is U2 is still as strong as ever.