They’re about to jump for 2013

So, it’s all systems go for the 2013 season, with just three sleeps left. In some ways, it seems like footy never took a break. There was the extended Draft and trading period with the beginning of a new free-agency era, the defection of Brendon Goddard to the Bombers and the subsequent hoo-ha around Kurt Tippett, the Crows and the Swans.

 

Just when it seemed we could all settle down to be bored to snores with yachting and tennis, the Bombers got on their PR front foot and invited ASADA and the AFL in to examine some practices they thought were OK that were about to be mentioned in the ACC’s report.

 

And then the AFL decided Melbourne hadn’t ‘tanked’, but fined them $500k just the same and suspended two former club officials.

 

And just so the AFL didn’t completely hog the sporting highlights, Cronulla Sharks found they had maybe only half a team to field

 

The pre-season competition has given a taste of what’s to come. More experienced players than ever before have changed clubs — the summer migrations are almost at the levels of NRL. Will the change enhance careers, or sentence them to obscurity AND damnation.

 

As we noted in our previous post, a few new rules will test the public’s engagement for a few weeks. The coming weekend will give an indication whether The Giesch’s boys put the whistle away last week ‘because it was a Grand Final’. AussieRulesBlog won’t be in the least surprised to see the umpires taking a no-holds-barred approach to implementing the new rules. They’ll justify it by telling themselves they need to stamp their authority on the game, but really they’ll just be their normal overzealous early-season prat selves.

 

AussieRulesBlog has never been about predictions, at least as far as match results and final ladder positions are concerned, and we’re not about to change. There are, however, a few things we’re waiting to see with some eagerness.

 

• Will Special K continue his development and stamp a claim as an elite AFL player?
• Will the Giants experience second-year blues (as the Suns seemed to do last year)? And will people stop trying to get their tongues around GWS and just call them the Giants and be done with it?
• Will the Suns surprise the pundits and finish above the Giants?
• Which of the free agents will stamp themselves as the trade of the year?
  Moloney has looked good for the Lions (and the Demons must be wondering why the body snatchers left them with a dud while he was apparently playing for them).

 

All will soon be revealed, and we’re pretty excited that it’s all about to go again.

 

Go Bombers!