OK, we're going to start the Wizard Cup season with a refresher from last year. For those of you who aren't familiar with Aussie Rules, namely those on my side of the ocean, your first question is probably What is a Wizard Cup?!?!? For those of you who are Australian, please feel free to correct me when I'm wrong!! :-)

Think of the Wizard Cup as the NFL pre-season, except turn it into a single elimination tournament and there you go! It's called the Wizard Cup because it's sponsored by Wizard Home Loans.

Our beloved Richmond Tigers won the first round so we get to play again next week! If we'd have lost, we'd be out of the competition until the Premiership season begins. We'd have spent the next few weeks picking up games here and there with other teams who are out of the Wizard Cup.

Now, just when you thought you understood the scoring system, they throw in a doozy. What's this about a 9-point goal?! This is the second year of the 9-point goal in the pre-season. If the goal is kicked from beyond 50-metres, it counts for 9 points instead of 6! How exciting is that?! There are a few new rules for the Wizard Cup, the most intriguing to me is that there will be video challenges for the 9-point rule. Since Aussie Rules football moves so fast, it will be interesting to see if the replays slow the game down. One of the intrigues of the game is its fast, non-stop pace. Stay tuned for a verdict and more chatter on that...!

I'm not able to get the audio feed from the Internet for the Wizard Cup games so I can't give you my personal perspective on this week's game, but I'll be here with thoughts and opinions once the regular season starts. You can get more stories from the Richmond Football Club website and from the AFL website.

In the meantime, questions? Comments? I'd love to hear them!

Hi Becky,

It was great to see footy back and to see that level of commitment from our players, even the new ones, was excellent. The form of Nathan Brown and Shane Morrison this early in the season is also very heartening.

And it's always nice to see Collingwood get hammered, but a 105 point thrashing when they play us first up is wonderful.

Carn' The Tiges!

Chris.

From: Chris Greenway
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 7:20 AM
Subject: Wow!
Hi Becky,

Yeah, I know it's late, but it's hot and I'm still hyped from the footy.

I don't know if you heard it, but what a match!

Okay, it's a pre season match and our opponents were bottom of the ladder last year, but bear in mind we had no Campbell, no Gaspar and no Richo. We turned it on the first half and then dropped badly away in the 3rd quarter and nearly gave away our lead. There were a couple of reasons for that. It's been an extremely hot day here and I think we ran ourselves into the ground in that first half and as expected when put under pressure Frawley panicked and made the wrong moves. Some early momentum in the last quarter saw us wrest the game back to our control and run out comfortable winners.

Most pleasing was the form of Nathan Brown, worth all the hype pre season. Shane Morrison, a very likely type and looks to be able to hold down centre half forward which will free up Richo and allow Ottens and/or Stafford to do some damage up forward. Pettifer and Fiora have put on muscle and played much better. Fiora is still completely at sea in defence and Frawley persists in playing him there. If someone doesn't put a stop to that I think it will ruin this kids career. Coughlan, Johnson and Tivers didn't miss a beat, nor did Chaffey and Rodan got dangerous for a lot of the game. I had a thought about what player you should follow, I know you wanted to go for Krakouer, but personally I'd watch Chaffey. A real class player who will get a game every week, but works hard and doesn't get a lot of publicity, then again I like him and always have. One worry was Ray Hall at centre half back, he has the size and mobility, but is still learning how to play in defence and regularly allowed his opponent to lead him to the ball. He has to tighten up.

However a win is a win and this will generate a bit of supporter interest, probably get us a few extra members and will also guarantee that we get a decent opponent on a good ground in close to real match conditions and not wind up on the practice match merry go round and play a dud side (Carlton, Melbourne, et al) on a paddock in Uppacomebacktowest or something.

Anyway lets hope it continues.

Chris.

From: Alexander Pelic
Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2004 2:21 AM
Hey Becky

It is good to see you have made your site into a fantastically (I'm not sure if thats a word) great site. It was a long and boring summer. Don't get me wrong, I love cricket, but there is nothing quite like the football.

How about Richmond on Friday, weren't they stunning in the first quarter. This was probably because the Bulldogs game plan was dreadful or they couldn't stick to their plan more than Richmond playing the greatest footy as it showed as the game wore on. Any scepticism about Nathan Brown from me is now long gone. I just hope he can keep it up. That first quarter was sensational. I was loving every second of it. Halfway through the third quarter my remote control was almost thrown at the TV. I was pretty upset, but at the last break I had a good feeling the game was in the bag. I must say that even though he wasn't the best, Kayne Pettifer was quite sensational compared to previous years. It was great to see him play his heart out even though there were a few simple mistakes. If I was coach, he wouldn't even be in the squad as I would've delisted him last year. That goes with Billy Nichols as well. He really gave it a shot. It was pleasing to see Shane Morrison in good touch as well. I think with him and Marsh, along with Ottens and Hall, we will be seeing less of Richo (thank god). Even though I like Richo, I'd like him better in other colours. This is unless he can reproduce the great form from 1996 and 2001. I read on the Richmond Website how the team will look even more promising when Richo, Cambo, Bowdo (I am noticing a pattern) and Gas are playing again. Sure 3/4 of these players are All Australian but Richo is way over-rated and Bowden sometimes scares me. Cambo and Gas will be welcome as when they left, Richmond's season went downhill rapidly. My point is that if you look back at the squad that was winning early in the season, from around round 3 to 7, you will notice (especially in Round 7) a rather weak on paper side that beat two eventual finalists, 9th and 10th, and nearly beat Port Adelaide in Adelaide. Anyway, as long as we win, I am not worried who is playing.

Just something about the Wizard Cup, you wrote somewhere that it is a round robin competition. It is actually knock-out. It hasn't been round robin since 2002.

I'll leave it there cause I am going to eat dinner (finally).

Up the mighty Tigers
Pelic

[Note: Thanks Pelic for the correction on the tournament format. I knew at the time that wasn't what I wanted to say but then I spaced it out. GOOD EYE!]