FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Enough.  Enough.
Anyone want to talk about this year, this week?

Johnnies over Gusties 35-7
Whoever plays Northwestern over Northwestern 28-6....it's a lock, phone it in! 

I'll take that bet 105, Northwestern plays Crown in the 18th Bible Bowl.  Northwestern holds a 16-1 record in the series outscoring Crown 659-223.  The last meeting was 44-7.  But anything is possible, I'm taking Gustavus over the Johnnies on Saturday. 

Northwestern and Crown also played a 38-34 game at Crown last year.  That doesn't mean I'm predicting a Northwestern loss though.

Northworthless and Clown...who cares?

[OzJohnnie]

It's Grand Final Saturday and it's widely believed this year will be an epic clash (much like last year).  I think that instead we'll see a brutal blowout by Geelong (making their third straight appearance and looking for their second title in that stretch) over St Kilda (in their first appearance in 12 years and looking for their first title since '61).  It's turning into a cold, rainy day with hail expected.  The elements will be as brutal as Geelong's mid-field.

Today's game is fast and won in the mid-field where speed, strength and surgically precise ball-handling skills are needed for victory.  Geelong now sport two Brownlow Medalists (League MVP) in their mid-field, one being Gary Ablett Jr, son of Gary Ablett Sr (obviously) who is widely recognized as the most talented man ever to kick a Sherrin.  Jr won this year's Brownlow in a record setting blow-out of the rival players and he is reaching the point of being considered better than his old man since besides Jr's obvious physical talents (which trail his father's), he has one thing that Sr lacked: the discipline of a Marine Gunny.

A young Hawthorn outfit surprised a senior and disciplined Geelong side in last year's Grand Final by being harder at the ball and cool under phenomenal pressure in the second term when Geelong threatened to turn the contest into a rout.  Hawthorn's success will be St Kilda's misery.  In cold, sloppy conditions, I think Geelong will punish the Saint's physically and lock down the mid-field game-wise.  First bounce is at 2:35 Melbourne time, 11:35pm Minnesota time.  I hope to have some great highlights to accompany our happy day in St Peter.

[OzJohnnie]

Enough.  Enough.
Anyone want to talk about this year, this week?

That horse isn't dead.  He's pining.  For the Fjords.

[OzJohnnie]

As it's Grand Final day, I'll indulge in just a smidge more AFL talk.

I just visited the Sherrin website, makers of the official AFL footy ("If it's not Sherrin... It's just not football), and they had this neat little history of "The Footy" on their homepage.  Interestingly, it's not the history of Sherrin, but the history of a kid and their experiences until they get their first real Footy.

The Pill, The Nut, The Tooty, The T.W, The Cherry, The Agat, The Pigskin (actually made from cow hide), The Tommy, The Air Conveyance, The Ball... has any object ever had more nicknames? The first footy was always a thrill, it was often just a pair of dads socks rolled inside themselves that could be happily booted around the house. Then came the nerf footy. The advertisers spruiked, "It won't break anything, great for indoors". While they didn't "break" anything directly they did have a nasty habit of knocking over mum's vase's which subsequently smashed on the floor. Hot on the heels of the nerf sensation were Tuddy's rubber guts rainbow footys (very easy on the bare foot), this was followed by your first real footy... a leather one. This was the good one, only to be used by those who knew what they were doing. There were often tears when it bounced onto the road and got its first scratch.

[Robert Zimmerman]

Of course Dylan is a MIAC guy, who else would he root for?  Well, I guess Dylan would actually be old enough to remember when the Gophers were good.

Long time reader, 1st time poster.  

I figured we could use another Johnnie fan in this forum.  I hate to bring this up and maybe I'm missing something, but I think the poll is wrong.  St. John's lost to Gustavous at home in 1997.  I think the score was GAC 24-SJU 16.  I was a senior at the time and I believe it was Homecoming as well.  The 1997 season was the season we tried to replace a 3 year starting QB (Ramler) and quarterback shuffle that ensued in '97 was even worse than last season's QB debacle.

On a brighter note, GAC looks like they have a video stream for Saturday's game.  I don't know what the quality is like, but here's the link:

http://gustavus.edu/athletics/audio.cfm

Bob Dylan is an MIAC guy   8)

[sjusection105]

Enough.  Enough.
Anyone want to talk about this year, this week?

Johnnies over Gusties 35-7

Whoever plays Northwestern over Northwestern 28-6....it's a lock, phone it in! 

I'll take that bet 105, Northwestern plays Crown in the 18th Bible Bowl.  Northwestern holds a 16-1 record in the series outscoring Crown 659-223.  The last meeting was 44-7.  But anything is possible, I'm taking Gustavus over the Johnnies on Saturday. 

AO- wrong Northwestern....Gophers take care of business. Did you know Decker is from Cold Spring & almost came to SJU until the full football scholarship offer came from the UofM? 

[Freebird]

Enough.  Enough.
Anyone want to talk about this year, this week?

Johnnies over Gusties 35-7

Whoever plays Northwestern over Northwestern 28-6....it's a lock, phone it in! 

I'll take that bet 105, Northwestern plays Crown in the 18th Bible Bowl.  Northwestern holds a 16-1 record in the series outscoring Crown 659-223.  The last meeting was 44-7.  But anything is possible, I'm taking Gustavus over the Johnnies on Saturday. 

AO- wrong Northwestern....Gophers take care of business. Did you know Decker is from Cold Spring & almost came to SJU until the full football scholarship offer came from the UofM? 

Horse shoes and hand grenades

[Freebird]

Looking forward to the game tomorrow in Arden Hills.  Any BU posters going to be at the game?

I'll be in attendance.  It's my 5 year reunion...I can't believe it's been that long already!

On a similar note.  Ran into/met Cory Johnson at the gym yesterday.  Seemed like a really good guy.  We got to talk about the agony of that first season away from the game.  It is always great to meet guys (especially good players) from the other MIAC teams and find them to be everything I'd like to think MIAC players should be.

I will see you there! Is your brother going to be around?

[AO]

Enough.  Enough.
Anyone want to talk about this year, this week?

Johnnies over Gusties 35-7

Whoever plays Northwestern over Northwestern 28-6....it's a lock, phone it in!  

I'll take that bet 105, Northwestern plays Crown in the 18th Bible Bowl.  Northwestern holds a 16-1 record in the series outscoring Crown 659-223.  The last meeting was 44-7.  But anything is possible, I'm taking Gustavus over the Johnnies on Saturday.  

AO- wrong Northwestern....Gophers take care of business.

Agreed, Gophers will start 3-0 in the big ten with Wiscy and Purdue up next.

[OzJohnnie]

Half time and thw Saints are up by 6.  The umpires have been inserting themselves into the game and St Kilda scored the goals off free kicks from dead in front.  A disgrace.  AFL umps could learn something about post-season reffing from the NHL.

That being said, I'm still picking Geelong to dominate this game.  Almost all of the Geelong superstars have been non-factors so far (Ablett an exception of course) and the won't stay out of the game forever.  The third quarter is the championship quarter so we'll see where things stand after the next 30 minutes of play.

[OzJohnnie]

At three quarter time the Saints are up by seven.  The rain and awful conditions really limited the effectiveness of the Cats although the had the most of the play in the quarter.  It looks like the last stanza will be a nail biter...

[kubiack78]

At three quarter time the Saints are up by seven.  The rain and awful conditions really limited the effectiveness of the Cats although the had the most of the play in the quarter.  It looks like the last stanza will be a nail biter...

Well OZ this is my first time of sitting down and watching footie.  Still not quite sure on all of the rules but it seems to be a combination of rugby and soccer and just straight thuggery.  One thing I have noticed is these guys can take a fall as good as any NHL player.  Tight game though with 7:34 left 67-65 St. Kida up.

[kubiack78]

Ok OZ I know I went to a state school but how does the clock work for these games?  I was watching and the clock was running down to about 6 min and I look back and now the clock is counting up and we are at about 22 min.  Oh well its over now and I still have no idea how they time these games.

[OzJohnnie]

Glad to have you watching, kubiak.  Staying safe and hurting the bad guys?

Game is over and Geelong take it by 12.  A tough, tough, tough last quarter where tha Cats were not going to let the game go, although they didn't hit the front for good until the last five minutes.  Not an elegant game, but a good old-fashioned hard-nosed meat grinder.  I'll post a video highlight when one goes online.

[OzJohnnie]

The Ten Network runs the clock old-school where it runs up, not down, and you don't know the time remaining.  Frustrating.  The run down until there is five minutes left and then run up.

The Seven Network has entered the late 20th century and run down to zero.