BigBlog

Please be advised that i’m no longer blogging here but you can find my new, improved and “very exciting” blog at http://dalethomas.beinvolved.com.au/ Hope to see you there soon...!!

I thought I’d start off this blog entry by responding to a few of your comments from the last entry. Unfortunately I can’t always answer all of them, but first up thanks to everyone who was so concerned about my health. I’m sweet now and looking forward to taking on the Brisbane Lions tonight.

Jane – whoever the observant viewer was they may have been off on this one, I do wear a ring on my left hand but it’s on my pinky, not the ring finger.

Silky – When it comes to the boots any version of the Predator is a great boot to wear. Adidas make quality boots and I have a few pairs at my disposal.

Nathan – Dayne Beams for Rising Star is a dead set certainty, not to put any pressure on the kid at all. He’s also in my Toyota Dream Team and going great guns!

Allie – The nickname Daisy doesn’t bother me either way. I think it’s just what you get when your name is Dale., A mate back home in Drouin shares my first name and nickname.

Anyway on to the footy and losing to Geelong is no disgrace. At least we did better than in the NAB Cup final, although it may have been impossible to go worse.

Everyone knows how good the Cats are and it’s no secret many expect them to win the flag this year. In the end we were close enough if good enough at three quarter time, but they kicked away in the final quarter.

Overall I think both sides have a lot of improvement left in them after that game and I reckon that as much as it hurt, we will be better for it.

The biggest issue when it comes to tackling the might of Geelong is their depth. Paul Chapman stood up and was the match winner for them this time, but Gary Ablett also had 30 odd touches and if he has a quiet one by his standards, (which I believe is 29 touches) then someone like Jimmy Bartel, Joel Corey or Joel Selwood will stand up and hurt you.

Then there is the forward line: Cam Mooney, Mathew Stokes and Tom Hawkins are all capable of kicking a bag. They are a devastating side.

Now that I have said that, it’s also true they have not blown any sides away yet this year, which may be a good thing for the Cats, but not the rest of the comp as they are learning to win tight games once again. Either that or the AFL is more even across the board.

I think it’s a bit of both. The comp is certainly more even than say 10 years back when one or two teams would dominate and others would struggle. Richmond have not won a game yet this year, but they nearly topped the Cats in round two and Hawthorn haven’t started the season like champions.

This week’s game against the Lions is an example of having yet another tough hit out. Brisbane are never an easy proposition, especially at the Gabba.

In many ways the Lions remind me of Geelong, they have guys like Simon Black, Luke Power and young Daniel Rich in the midfield and if one of them doesn’t get 30 plus touches another probably will. Then you come up against a stiff defence and the brilliance in the forward line of Jonathan Brown and Daniel Bradshaw, who is currently the AFL’s leading goal kicker.

Speaking of Brown, I’m also lining up against him in Dream Team this week, hopefully I can make it 8 points over him in a weekend.

I had a bit of a break over Easter and played golf at ‘The Sands’ down Torquay. It’s not the most forgiving course in the world and after starting well I think I lost eight balls in the space of four holes, as well as my temper.

Frustrating game golf and I’m not a good loser. If I had of been using my clubs instead of a mate’s, I may have had a couple less. It made me appreciate what the real golfers were doing at Augusta National on the same weekend.

Dale

It has been brought to my attention that an article was written today stating: “Collingwood’s Dale Thomas is the latest name to be mentioned in connection with the (Gold) Coast.”

I want to be the first to say that while the weather and lifestyle would certainly appeal to me, I don’t think that will be happening!

I am happy here at Collingwood and am not looking to move.

With Gold Coast acquiring the 17th licence, talk has turned to another new franchise in Tasmania and, while I am a fan of more teams if they can turn over a profit and be good for the game, I don’t know how easy it would be to sell Tassie to some of the boys.

While I am talking about the administrative side of AFL I want to comment on the new rules, particularly in regards to the deliberate rushing of behinds.

The new rules certainly make for some mad goal mouth scrambles in defence and similar to the NAB Cup I don’t think they have made a huge difference yet. I guess the question is do I feel it was a knee jerk reaction by the AFL?

If you look at the history of the game, there have been very few games decided by teams rushing behinds. Was it a good look in the Richmond versus Essendon game last year? No, but that was a one off and I think it will be a long time before a similar situation arises.

Having said that I am sure the AFL would have thought long and hard about any change to the laws of the game.

Speaking of games I wish we had of played better in our season opener against Adelaide. We didn’t gel as well as we had in the pre-season and it certainly cost us against the Crows.

It was a hard loss to take. We certainly didn’t play our best footy and we were beaten by an Adelaide side who always take the slightest chance provided to them.

Coming out of that game I felt like John Anthony performed very well for us. John has made the transition from back (where he wasn’t getting a run) to forward and he stood up against Adelaide. John is a guy you love to have in the forward line because he very rarely misses, which is what every forward wants.

Reading some of the comments on my blog, obviously you Collingwood fans believe my disallowed goal was a goal. Honestly at the time I thought I had done enough to keep the ball in play and kick the goal, but having watched subsequent replays I’m not sure either way. It was a tough call which went against us. It happens. Thinking it could have been the difference does hurt, but we just have to get on with the job.

The job this weekend is Melbourne on Saturday afternoon at ‘The G’ and despite the way the media at large are writing the Dees off it’s not a foregone conclusion. There are eight teams with wins and eight with losses and you don’t know the form teams from one game. For the record I didn’t think Melbourne were too bad against the Kangas last week.

As for all the Dream Team comments, thanks to Laura, Nathan, Katie and anyone else who has put me in their team and a big thanks to Mish for making me captain. I’ll have to grab more than 81 points this week; I should have had more last week.

Dale

First bounce of the season is tonight as two projected big improvers, the Richmond Tigers and Carlton Blues face off.

The match which begins the season also marks the return of one Benjamin Luke Cousins to the game which has provided him a career full of contrasting highlights and lowlights.

I think it’s great that the Tigers have taken the punt on Ben and really do hope he repays them with some vintage performances, so long as they don’t come against us!

The amount of media coverage of Ben down here has been psychotic since he signed for the Tigers. On the upside it has taken a bit of the media pressure off of us at Collingwood.

The two teams I just mentioned have been spruiked by themselves and the punters but at this time of the season everyone is talking up their chances. Richmond and Carlton finished the season strong last year and the Tiges, with a rejuvenated Matthew Richardson, were looking very good. I haven’t spoken to Richo but I would say the move to the wing may have shocked him.

Speaking of moves I’ve been playing all over the place in the NAB Cup, my regular half forward spot, midfield and even defence.

I enjoy pushing up the ground a bit, particularly into the midfield, but defence is still a fairly new concept to me. I don’t think I ever played in the backline all through junior footy and only had a couple of spurts there last year against St Kilda and Fremantle.

I guess I’ll just have to wait and see where I end up this year.

Coming off the NAB Cup Final loss we had against Geelong has been tough, but it has taught us a lot about ourselves as well as Geelong.

The Cats were simply far too good on the night. I don’t know if they were trying to send a message to the other 15 teams or just us after we flogged them last year and went close to them in the finals in their premiership year, but either way I’m sure they sent one.

While the loss hurt it was better than it being in the regular season where we wouldn’t have received any points and watched our percentage take a bit of a beating.

This week our season begins with Adelaide and it’s hard to find a side who are consistently as tough other than Hawthorn or the Cats. Adelaide are one of the fittest sides in the comp and always provide a battle.

It’s a bit bizarre at the club right now that we almost have a full list to choose from. The squad is fit with only three guys in the rehab group. Usually in round one you have about ten guys on the sidelines, but this year hardly any. Hopefully it stays that way all year!

I’ve been very impressed with youngsters Steele Sidebottom and Dayne Beam, I think they are in the mix  for good years. I also think Anthony Rocca once he gets back will be a huge asset. He is dead set champing at the bit right now. It’s a good sign from the big man.

I’m pretty keen for the Toyota AFL Dream Team as well. The boys from the club get right into it, especially Heath Shaw who is absolutely ADHD about it and I love to beat him. There’s always a bit of banter going on, like that between ‘Lethal’ Leigh Matthews and I on the ad. Still wondering if ‘Lethal’ included me?

As for my team I have a few guys in there who I think will do well. Scott Pendlebury is one from Collingwood who I reckon goes well and I have Chris Judd in the midfield as well. I somehow squeezed Buddy Franklin and Brendan Fevola into my forward line, but found no room for myself. So who’s in your team?

The rest is over as of last weekend which was spent surfing with mates. The season starts now!

Dale

Summer has finally arrived to Melbourne and while I love the decent surfing conditions the good weather is bringing, it’s a double edged sword as the heat has made training a hell of a lot harder and more taxing.

Some days I have been driving to training in the morning and looked up at the big Nylex thermometer near the ground and the mercury is already past 30 degrees. When you see that you drop your head a bit and think about it being a hot one again, but at the end of the pre-season it will probably help us.

I am trying to enjoy the summer as much as I can despite training six days a week and am having a pretty good time.

Aside from training and surfing I have also had the chance to head out for some fishing down Sorrento with my mate ‘Habby’, and our girlfriends.

They have been some good times, most probably because we have been catching fish, especially the first time. We were only in about five metres of water and the fish were biting like crazy. I caught one off my first cast before the line had even gone deep and took home some nice fish, including a decent flathead which was cooked up for dinner.

Backtracking a little bit and I want to thank everyone for the Xmas and New Years wishes. I spent New Years in Bali with Kylee and a couple more of our friends.

It was my first time in Bali and I really enjoyed just kicking back and relaxing.
We were staying in Legian and spent a bit of time relaxing by the pool and sipping on some Bintang, which really does go down smoothly.

We also did a bit of shopping. Anyone who has been to Bali will tell you it’s an experience to shop over there and barter with the locals. In a way it’s kind of funny that you can end up arguing over 5-10 cents as the Aussie dollar will buy you 6000 rupea, but that’s the way it is.

It’s actually quite a tiring experience because you can’t really say you’re just looking as you are constantly being shown goods and getting asked if you want to buy this or that.

Like most people I found it fun at first, but my patience probably wore a bit thin later on.

It was a pretty good break though. Six days in Bali was worth it and it only really takes as long to fly to as Perth.

Since then I have been back at training and putting in the hard yards. I’m actually finding it easier to do pre-season training this year and think it comes with the experience of having done it for a few years now.

I now know what to expect and know it’s going to feel like I’m dying out there everyday as opposed to the younger guys who aren’t really ready for it.

Having said that the really young guys in the squad get looked after just like I did when I was their age and when it gets to the really hard part of the session they are pulled aside and taken care of.

While the pre-season has been hot and fairly long, the games are coming around quickly and we are preparing for our first trial match in around two weeks time at Subiaco. So in the end all the training in the heat will probably help us with the dry Perth conditions.

The curse of the stingray barb continues to strike down AFL players en masse. David Hille of Essendon was stung this week adding to a list including Jarrad Grant from the Bulldogs and West Coast’s Daniel Kerr. Fortunately for David he didn’t have too bad a reaction.

I think it’s a more a common occurrence because we do a bit of work in the shallows at beaches. Personally I am more concerned with sharks at the moment, given the recent spate of attacks.

Looking at the Herald Sun the other week I can’t believe a surf instructor didn’t order his students out of the water when a shark was cruising by close to them.

Having said that I think you have more chance of being killed by an errant coconut than a shark attack and tend to think if it’s your time then it’s your time and unfortunately for you, you were going to go that way.

It’s been a while so I thought I’d answer some of your questions on the blog.

Nathan – When it comes to pressure to perform there is a bit of it, especially here at Collingwood, but we deal with it by doing the hard work and preparing for each game the best we can, and we are able to do that because the club provides some great support staff and facilities.

As for my goals for 2009 I haven’t really sorted them out yet, but will work them out after I have a sit down with Paul Hudson (who has come on as a forward’s coach this year) sometime soon.

Laura – I played cricket as a kid, and made some regional teams as a wicketkeeper and that’s my best sport of the three. As a tennis player I make a very good footy player and as far as golf goes I am consistently inconsistent, although I do have a hole in one to my name, which occurred at ‘Royal’ Drouin. Some say fluke I say good shot.

As for our slogan for 2009 I believe it’s ‘Side by Side’. At least that’s the one from our membership campaign.

That just about brings me up to speed. I’m off to Lochsport this weekend with Kylee to enjoy my last weekend off in a while.

Dale