Big Day For Buddy (The Lost Weekend)

Bye Bye Brownlow?

While each of the top-four teams passed significant tests over the weekend during Pass Or Fail round, the fate of one of the competition’s brightest stars will be on the agenda today as we await the findings of the match review panel on Lance Franklin’s rough contact report.

It will be interesting to see how this incident will be classified…Jono Brown thinks that the level of impact should be graded as ‘fly’! But with a number of high contact incidents in recent weeks, many people will attempt to make comparisons to the findings of other cases, including that of Adam Goodes…who still played on the weekend but was found guilty and is now ineligible for the Brownlow.

While a suspension would end Franklin’s Brownlow medal hopes, he is still comfortably leading the Coleman Medal race…and the ladies will still love him! But if he does miss one week, another huge game in front of goal from Carlton’s Brendan Fevola could make the goal kicking race very interesting! Fev kicked a bag of eight in yesterday’s big win by the Blues and could close the gap even more if Buddy is sidelined….particularly as the Blues face a leaky Essendon on Sunday!

Fev stated that midfielders make full forwards look good after the win yesterday…but will he remember this come contract time?

What a day for Carlton! They kicked fourteen goals in the second half to blitz a blockbuster-fatigued Collingwood and storm into the eight. Now the Blues are talking finals, the fans are going mental and old Jack Elliot is hanging around the joint again…pretending like he still has some influence in what goes on down there.

So, could Carlton really challenge for a finals spot? On yesterday’s evidence, it doesn’t seem that crazy…the only one who is kidding themselves is old Jack!

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Here’s a wrap of all the events of Pass Or Fail Round:

SUNDAY

WOO HOO!! WE ARE IN THE EIGHT!! MAD MONDAY!!!

• Carlton are flying again…and it is thanks to Chris Judd and his unique brand of brain training! But the Pies, who would have been aiming for top-four this season, have now lost twice to the Blues and Mick Malthouse is clearly showing signs of post-blockbuster-press-conference fatigue! And, way to blow our chances of tipping eight winners, by the way…no wonder everybody else hates Collingwood!

Port may have played a physical game yesterday but the umps obviously think they are soft if Steve Johnson was reported for THAT!

• Port weren’t even allowed the opportunity to choke yesterday as Geelong dominated from start to finish. While the Power were physical at times, they weren’t ever a chance to beat the Cats despite an undermanned defence. Great day for the baldies as Gary Ablett just continued to do as he pleased and Paul Chapman found form again.

If new prez Jim Stynes was crying before he found out the size of Melbourne’s debt, imagine what he’s doing now!

• Richmond manage another win but do it in true Tigers fashion…coming desperately close to blowing a big lead against the desperate Demons. Despite the fightback, the match ended with more heartache for Melbourne…it was like having, for example, a 4.5 million dollar debt, reducing it down to a couple of thousand dollars before flushing a couple of million bucks back down the gurglar!

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SATURDAY

 

Put that racquet away, Aker…Australia already has a blond-haired tennis bogan that we all love to hate!

• Just how good are the Western Bulldogs? Well Leigh Matthews thinks the Dogs are looking Grand Finalesque…and there is nobody more qualified to recognise a premiership contender! The Doggies looked the goods from start to finish as they easily handled the Lions with Aker firing…which would have thrilled Leigh no end!

Matthew Pavlich and Chris Tarrant share a special cuddle…

• Dangerous is their middle name! Fremantle thrash North Melbourne with Matthew Pavlich kicking eight goals…what a lovely present for birthday boy Mark Harvey. Dean Laidley, on the other hand, didn’t really appreciate the turd sandwich his team served up…and wouldn’t like what happened to his number one ruckman either!

Something great must have happened at Hawthorn…Clarko is smiling!

• Luke Hodge’s late goal wins the game for the Hawks, their first in Adelaide since Darren Jarman was last under 100 kilos! Lance Franklin may have reported as many times as he kicked majors but his move to the midfield help swing the match Hawthorn’s way.

Brett Kirks busts out some Buddhist chants to keep Barry Hall nice and relaxed so he didn’t belt anyone in his comeback game.

• St Kilda just can’t win, can they! They lose Kosi just before the game, never really looked like winning against Sydney and Ross Lyon will now go with youth as he feels that many of his players have lost the will to live! They should be thankful that Barry Hall remained composed on his return otherwise they could have lost another key defender too!