Round Thirteen – Ling For The Brownlow!

Cameron Ling winning the Brownlow Medal…how awesome would that be!!!

The Brownlow Medal has come under scrutiny this week after Lance Franklin was ruled ineligible to win the award when found guilty of a rough conduct charge. But because he accepted the guilty plea, he received a reprimand rather than a suspension, so he can still play on the weekend.

With a series of players already out of Brownlow contention this year; some of them who, like Buddy, were not actually suspended from playing; most of the footy media types with access to a keyboard or microphone has taken the predictable angle that changes need to be made:

• Chris Judd wants to remove the ‘fairest’ element from the award…well, of course he’d say that. Imagine how much trouble he’d be in at home if he got suspended and Rebecca Twigley couldn’t go to Brownlow night!
• Grant Thomas thought Juddy was spot on…virtually all of the comments on his blog disagreed with him!
• Mark Riccuito thinks that it’s unfair that some of the game’s best players cannot win the medal…just because they are found guilty of bumping somebody in the head by that stupid tribunal thingy…
• Chris Grant and Corey McKernan were fair players that came first in Brownlow voting but were ineligible and they don’t want it to happen to other players…well, we can understand that.

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While the media race against themselves to come up with solutions that will just be ignored by the League anyway, Half Back Flanker is happy enough to leave the current system alone. What the Brownlow Medal really needs more than anything is another unfashionable winner! A bolter from the blue.

For too many years now, the very elite players of the competition have totally dominated the Brownlow. Goodes, Judd, Cousins, Buckley, Bartel – all dominant, skillful and not entirely unattractive…depending on what you are into. What’s happened to the less skillful, more gutsy types such as Libba, Dipper or even Paul Kelly? Why can’t a battler ever get a look-in any more?

Would Dipper have won a Brownlow if he was playing today?

So that’s why we are officially kicking off the campaign for an unheralded battler to rise above the pack and once again claim football’s highest individual honour. Ling for the Brownlow round will encourage all those high-flying medal favourites to go on report for the most frivolous incidents and become ineligible for the prize…leaving Geelong’s Cameron Ling with a clear run to the finish line and become the most popular winner of the Brownlow in the history of football!

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TEAM NEWS

• Well, Ross Lyon wasn’t joking…Nick Dal Santo dropped as the Saints go for youth!
• Think Dean Laidley was pissed off after last week’s effort? North Melbourne make a lazy six changes for the Hawthorn match;
• Kerr, Fletcher, Braun and Hansen are back for the Eagles…that doesn’t sound very tanky to us!
• Josh Fraser and Leon Davis join naughty Travis Cloke on the sidelines…and all of a sudden, Collingwood’s season is starting to go pear-shaped!

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TIPS FOR LING FOR THE BROWNLOW ROUND

SAINTS by 2: We have zero confidence in the Saints…but less than zero in Freo!

HAWKS by 38: Dean Laidley will be cursing that Buddy Franklin reprimand after this game…

POWER by 18: Richo will probably make us pay but how often do the Tigers win two in a row?

CATS by 41: Worsfold can deny it all he likes but the Eagles don’t want to win this game…no chance!

LIONS by 18: I wouldn’t like to face Jono Brown after he had his sexuality questioned by wearing a pinkish tie the other day!

SWANS by 50: Sydney will enjoy a quick trip to Canberra, flog Melbourne, pick up some porn and fireworks and have an awesome bus trip home!

BLUES by 28: Carlton’s push for the finals will get another boost here…but can they really finish in the eight?

DOGS by 31: Remember the 2006 elimination final? Hopefully, the Doggies can repeat that effort…

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Tonight’s action:

Matthew Pavlich: GUILTY of wrestling…with his own emotions whilst playing for a basket-case. REPRIMAND – OUT OF BROWNLOW CONTENTION!

Telstra Dome, Melbourne – 7:40pm (local): St Kilda v Fremantle (SEVEN)

• Both these teams promise plenty but deliver little…so it’s probably no surprise that they share a history of bizarre moments!
• St Kilda may have thought they were hot snot at the start of the season but now they are looking for some new blood to help reinvigorate the team. Bye bye Milney…don’t let the door hit/kick/slay your arse on the way out!
• It’s a rare Friday night outing for Fremantle – now the entire nation can learn why this club is such a tease…
• Ahhh, so that’s what was wrong with Chris Tarrant earlier in the season…he was had a pain in the neck!
• Josh Carr is fresh for this clash with the Saints…he just hung one of those car freshener trees from his ear…