Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 - PS3

I was thinking about this last night, why have I not written an article about possibly my most favourite game of all time!

Years ago I was sitting at home playing Star Wars Knights of The Old Republic on my then Xbox when my brother in law asked if I had bought the new Modern Warfare 2 game and played it online. I said no as I have an Xbox and haven't bothered to buy a 12 month access to play online but hadn't really played much of the COD series as yet.

I went down to his place and he showed me the PS3, I did consider getting one as I heard the graphics were better and it had a Blu ray player also but I ended up going with the Xbox for 2 reasons, 1) It was by far cheaper and 2) It had Knights of The Old Republic...

We played Call of Duty Modern Warfare on split screen and online, I asked how much it costs per year for online access and he said... nothing... I stood there like a stunned mullet, nothing??

I loved COD, it was unbelievable - Immediately I was hooked and was now on the hunt for a PS3.

A few months later my Xbox died with a bad lens or something the repair man stated, the cost for the new parts was substantial and thought well why spend the $$'s on something I want to get rid of anyway so immediately began the search for the best available priced PS3.

Luckily it was Xmas and both my boy and I had been good that year so Santa decided he would give us a joint present and delivered us a brand new PS3.

News broke of the next instalment of the COD series was due for release shortly, Modern Warfare (MW) 3, I hadn't even played 2 yet so we immediately bought a copy and began our "Free" online journey.

MW2 was great, I absolutely loved it, so did my son, as we began to play Team Deathmatch religiously for the next few months in the lead up to the release of MW3. My brother in law, at that stage, talked me into using the SCAR-L as the main weapon of choice, I agreed after a few games using it. The makers for me had this as one of the nicest ones to use whilst it calmly stayed on target with hardly any kickback.

Issue for me was the Kills. I had a habit back then of quite simply running into the kill zone and getting killed by much more experienced players, instead of learning the map and learning what way players usually will run to and spawn from.

With our pennies saved up (Aussie $$'s actually...) MW3 was released.

I already loved playing the Campaign of both MW & MW2 and was really looking forward to where the story was going for this one, the thing I love about the COD series is the storyline in which it has moved - I never really got into the Black Ops versions but found MW to be a brilliantly told storyline which I had hoped a filmmaker out there would take note of and have a trilogy brought out!

MW3's storyline was outstanding, starting with the evacuation of MacTavish in Afghanistan, to then help reclaim US states recently occupied by the Russian invasion.

Alot of people could have said the game could be centred around the reclaiming of the US but the developers didn't stop there. The team lead by Captain Price, Yuri, Nikolai & MacTavish go hell bent on tracking down the main cause of all of this devastation, Makarov.

The team journey through the far reaches of the world in their pursuit of Makarov going on tips of his whereabouts as they cross through Sierra Leone, Somalia, Prague & Dubai.

The developers didn't stop here as in true COD nature you also switch players and spend time fighting with Team Metal lead by Sgt Frost whether your in Lower Manhatten helping blow up a Russian Sub, destroying a jamming tower on top of the New York Stock Exchange or fighting for survival in Paris!

The ending is just unreal, 3 months after the war has finished Price, Yuri, and Nikolai finally track down Makarov at the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai. Price and Yuri, dressed as Juggernauts, make their way into the hotel and proceed to the top level in pursuit of Makarov just as his helicopter is approaching for escape. As they make their way through the atrium and casino a Little Bird decimates the upper levels of the hotel and as a result both Price & Yuri are badly wounded, Yuri infact is impaled on a metal rod.

Yuri insists Price goes after Makarov and reluctantly he does, Price proceeds to hijack the escape helicopter and kills the pilots - but in the process the controls are damaged forcing it to crash land on the roof where Makarov is waiting. Makarov, just about to end it all for Price is seconds away but is confronted by the badly wounded Yuri who manages to buy time for Price!

Sadly, Makarov is able to defeat and kill Yuri. Yuri's actions and heroic feat was able to give Price enough time to gather himself and wrap a steel cable around his neck. Price then smashes the glass floor under them which kills Makarov!

Price survives the fall and smokes a cigar infront of his corpse.

Brilliant, just absolutely brilliant - it was a joy to play and kept you on the edge of your seat the whole time. If they don't make a proper movie about this then there's something wrong, a full trilogy or full movie would be brilliant and millions would flock to see it.

But the developers for me really topped the cake with the Multiplayer menu.

Multiplayer allows you to jump online and fight alongside and against other players from all over the world, at any point during the game I am fighting with and against fellow Australians but also could be people from America, Britain, India, Russia, France etc.

At the start you are given basic guns and add on's to help you begin your journey to Level 80. You not only increase your experience but also the weapons too. Each time you reach the next required level for items you can gain cool stuff to add to the guns like a ACOG Sights, Extra Mags, Silencer etc.

Strike Packages also allow you awesome bonuses when you get on a kill streak, you have the option to select Assualt, Support or Specialist.

Assualt requires you to record multiple kills without being killed, with each streak you get too you gain your selected items such as Care Packages, Juggernauts etc.

Support allows you to gain items whilst still being killed, beauty is it doesn't reset after each time you get killed.

Specialist is another which resets after each time you die, so the more experienced and stealth players generally use this - this package gives the player perks for optimum performance.

Once you get to Level 80 you can Prestige, the Prestige allows you to reset back to Level 1 but use a token each time to buy items to keep going forward. So if your a big fan of a certain weapon you can use your token to buy it to use once you've Prestiged.

As far as I'm aware there is no set limit on the amount of times you Prestige, currently I think we've Prestiged 12 times and have racked up a heap of cool weapons to use.

The Maps that the developers have added are just awesome too, the original Maps contain differing levels for each type of player. Some Maps are awesome if you prefer Sniping or running through with Akimbo machine pistols for quick kills like in Hardhat.

My favourite Maps right now are Hardhat, Seatown, Terminal and Dome. Hardhat & Dome I love running through with Akimbo machine pistols and an MP7 - these maps are generally where I rack up more kills than others as I tend to go hard in getting kills. Seatown & Terminal I tend to be a bit more reserved as I prefer to use my Sniper rifle and see how I can go without getting killed as much.

There is a plethora of different ways in which you can play the Multiplayer Maps, through the basic games such as Team Deathmatch, Team Defender, Domination or you can join the Hardened Menu's and take on the elite.

It also gives you a zombie type game called Infected, at the start of each game the countdown will begin to chose who will be the first infected, players are given set weapons and the first infected keeps that weapon selection to enable them to infect one player to even up the playing field. Infected can be great fun and the games can be quite quick as the infected bolt through with extraordinary speed to knife the unsuspecting victims but it can also be super slow, especially when its Striker v Jugg... throw in Dome and you've got 10 - 15 players all camping up on top of the Dome in Jugg outfits whilst you try like crazy to get up and kill them... Not the easiest of tasks and can be boring if you get it continually...

For me I love having sessions of Team Deathmatch and Domination, there you can either go your own pace like on TD or capture bases on Domination then slaughter the opposition whilst you attempt to hold the base.

Using the headset can be a fun feature, especially if you have a group of friends your keen to chat too, good way to catch up whilst also having fun playing this awesome game. It can have its downside also however, there are alot of extremely rude, arrogant and disrespectful people out there. And even when you report them for Abusive language or something similar nothing seems to happen.

In the end we mostly just mute players now and don't use the headset anymore, just not worth getting in an arguement with a player from the US just because they got upset for being killed hahaha.

One thing I would love the developers to do is to create an extra menu for Multiplayer to put players off against each other Nation versus Nation. Not a daily thing but even like a Fortnightly or Monthly thing, let players sign up for their Nation and allow their points, kills etc to be applied to an overall tally and see which Nation is the best COD players for that period.

Doesn't have to be exactly like this but something similar would be awesome. It's not a compulsory item but a nice addition just to keep everyone interested.

Not that that will be a concern, since I bought the game this is all I have pretty much played. Briefly we will play MLB The Show, AFL Live, FIFA and maybe The Walking Dead. But they are usually brief and a session of COD is always on the cards.

Either way I'm sure once you play this game for the first time it'll be one of those games you just can't turn away from!

I've used photos from the COD website however will try and jump back in at a later date and get some screenshots from my COD login!

I'm going to leave this now and get back to my next session of COD - hope to all see you on there at some stage - look out for me - Bo_Gas.

All About Me

Thought I might do a quick article about me now and whats been happening since March last year and what I've been up too!

Well as some of you may have read, in March I played my first ever finals game in any sport i've ever played! Baseball - which looks like the game for me as I venture to retirement of all sport (You'll see why soon), was giving my my first taste of what Finals is being that every other sport my team had bombed out.

I spent a good portion of my life playing football @ Happy Valley Football Club, back then, The Vikings, had one of the most successful seniors team around, sadly I was in juniors at that time.. All throughout my time in juniors playing Under 15's, 17's and then 18's when they changed the rules around, my team was thoroughlly thrashed at most games, some games even belted by 30 goals...

When I moved to the C grade it was a bit different, we weren't getting the thrashings but were missing finals by one or two wins..

Knee Injury forced me to finish up with Happy Valley as well as moving out north west to be living with my now wife... My final season with the Vikings was the year after my knee went caput but was prob one of my most successful seasons - kicking 10 goals in one game and finishing with approx 50 in the 10 games I played that season...

But that was 12 odd years ago and now my main focus is Baseball, with East Torrens Red Sox! We had a pretty good season, matching it against the top teams and heading into a Semi Final against Adelaide, it was there I suffered not only a broken bone in the nose.. but also a chipped bone in the forehead and a broken thumb.. All in same game and happening at different times in the game.. (Hey we won though but that was season over for me!)

Worst thing was heading off to the Soundwave Festival with no painkillers, a broken thumb, a head that looked like a horn was growing and a purple nose.. Basically looked like I had been in a really bad fight - nope, just me stopping the baseball with my head!

Our team went on to narrowly miss the grand final by 1 run.

Since then i've been studying and also decided on a return to football....

With Studying I've always had an interest in plants and bonsai etc, but never been able to do some things i've wanted to do with them like growing from seed, cultivating etc.

Whilst talking about this at work a collegue mentioned the local government has a skills for all scheme happening where they will fund approx 200 courses for free to better equip people in our state.. Nice!

I wandered on there and found a Certificate II in Horticulture, had a quick look and thought it looked quite interesting so applied! Three subjects in and i've aced each one and getting excellent feedback from the lecturer (Ha, never got that in finance!!)

So, the return to Football, possibly not my finest of ideas but I had it for the right intentions.

The intention was never to be this awesome footballer to come and kick a bag of goals for my local team, it was to fill in whilst they were short on numbers. Broadview Football Club has 4 senior teams, One Division 1 side and its Reserves team, and the other is in Division 7 with a Reserves team.

The Reserves for Division 7 were running low on numbers so I thought i'd whack on a guernsey and see what happens.

Now, I'm alot older since I last played football and definately don't have the fitness levels I had back then... I found first training quite challenging to say the least haha Found alot of the time I was hands on head sucking in as much air as I could.

But with that the players were very welcoming, even the higher grades, always encouraging you to keep at it.

The first few games of the year my team had won so I was looking forward to getting in and kicking some goals from the forward line, sadly the higher grades sustained some injuries so alot of our better players moved up to fill the void, some even had to play 2 games each weekend straight after each other..

With the loss of players came with some of our heaviest defeats, my first game against Flinders Park saw a huge loss, infact my only shot on goal came in the 3rd quarter I think it was when I took a mark about 40metres out and had a shot on goal, looked good initially however didn't allow enough for the wind and it narrowly missed.. Shame, if I nailed it I would have been the leading goal scorer.... Highlight though was standing an ex Adelaide Crows player Sudjai Cook who was lazily standing on the Half Back Line. Wow - he still has speed, he was just standing there rebounding the ball and moving it with great skills - was great to watch.

In the end I played 5 games, the fateful game for me came after a week long Adelaide drenching where the heavens truly opened up giving us a taste of a true old fashioned Adelaide Winter!

The final game was very water logged but also the ground sunk when you walked on it. I was placed at Centre Half Forward which is where I did play alot of Junior Footy, my favourite role is Full Forward.

Half way through the 1st quarter one of our big left footers took a mark on the right hand wing just forward of our goals, I was walking just inside our 50 ready to lead and all I could hear from the bench was Lead Lead!!! so I bolted towards him, for a big guy I do have early speed and got a few steps infront of the defender, 2 players were sitting under the ball which was perfect for a screamer...

As I approached the 2 players I proceeded to ready Launch! But it was at this point my right foot sunk in the mud and got stuck, by that time though all my weight was on the right leg and it buckled at the knee, I felt it pop out as I launched into the pack, still got my hands to the ball but knew I was in big trouble...

One thing I remember was one of our much smaller players, his face cracks me up each time I think about it - As I hit the pack and was on my way down he was at the front looking up as what prob looked to him as a wall of mass coming towards him - his face showed pure terror and fear as I fastly approached, I turned my shoulder and bang. He was flattened - quite hard too, I mean I am a big unit...

I layed there knowing my knee had gone, I had a quick feel around and could instantly feel my Medial was like jelly - my lateral and others felt ok though, massive pain from the bone on my right side but the ligaments felt good on that side.

They carried me off and I sat on the bench icing away. Good thing was I can still put weight on it so was able to hobble to the changerooms, grab my keys and stuff and drive down to the local Sportsmed for a check.

Initial fears were quickly brought to light, Grade 2, possible Grade 3 tear of the Medial Ligament. F it. I also suffered severe bone bruising on the right hand side of my knee..

So began my recoup and soon rehab, I even experienced acupuncture for the first time ever - won't be my last but it also won't be the first thing I run off to go and get if I'm in the mood for pain!

That was approx 8 weeks ago and my leg is much better, it still isn't ready for anything but I am walking ok and now have the knee brace off. Stupidity has set me back a few weeks as I slowly jogged around the oval with my youngest daughter, sadly the weight on my knee really put too much pressure on the right hand side and have aggravated the bone bruising..

So now pain when I walk but it is getting better.

As we speak right now, I am preparing for my sons final football game for the year and he ventures towards starting Baseball for another season. I too will return just not sure if it will be Round 1 (Physio believes it will be) or later in the round like round 4.

My Richmond Tigers are in the finals for the first time since 2001 when we were cruely knocked out of the Prelim Final, we are still 2 games to play but its likely we'll finish 5th and play Port in the first round of the finals. Both Noah and I are extremely looking forward to this!

Earlier in the year we decided we would take the family to the Gold Coast for 10 days, that meant no Melbourne trip for Noah and I unless we made the finals... sure enough they made it! So we're anxiously awaiting to see what day they will be playing so we can fly in and hopefully fly out same day.

So now you know what i've been up too, hope to add more posts over the next few weeks and push my blog to 100 articles!

Latest App Reviews

Well I sat on Top Eleven for a long time and loved it to bits, by the end however I started having grief with the way games were being decided.

Like most, we were left shaking our heads as a team in which we were massively overstocked against and far more superior on paper left us gobsmacked as they managed to either defeat us, or, score the equaliser.

So many theories showed on the Top Eleven Forum's on why this occurs, some suggest its the formation, others believe its how many friends are linked and watching - some also believe its a down right conspiracy.

Me - I'm just not sure, the last straw for me which broke the camels back was a team which i was approx 20 points better on average against. I had one 7 Star player, three 6 Star players and a handful of 5 Star players. Looking at the opposition they had one 5 Star player and the rest were 3's & 4's.

No friends of his were watching and he/she wasn't watching either, Personally, I was and had two friends watching also.

I then proceeded to watch as my team lost 4-1. To say I was filthy was an understatement, this was a game which I had been sucked into buying gold so I could buy high ranking players, I had a hugely stacked side compared to the opposition yet this lowly placed side beat me 4-1?!?!

I could find absolutely no logic in this occurring so decided enough's enough, my team should have finished top yet lost approx 5 or 6 games I should have won in the last 8 of the season and dropped to 3rd on the ladder.

Thats it - see you later!

So I decided to move onto some other games, love playing a few when I have some spare time. I moved onto the likes of Hay Day and Footy Coach. Hay Day was awesome for a while, but became really repetitive and Footy Coach became boring as you spent way too long waiting for health to rejuvenate so you could play against someone...

Whilst playing Hay Day one day I came across a video for Clash of Clans, thought i'd watch the video as i get free something for Hay Day if I do... It actually looked ok so thought i'll download and give it a go.

Clash of Clans is a fun game and very multiplayer friendly, but thats almost where it stops for me, yes once you've levelled up enough and save up your Gold & Elixir and build your Clan Castle you can Join or Create a Clan. Clans are handy as members will donate troops to store in your Clan Castle - if you are attacked or short on numbers you can use these troops.

But really this is where the multiplayer part of the game ends - My hope for Clash of Clans would be you work together to battle or rage war on other Clans, but nothing really happens for this side which is dissapointing.

Although, it still has that aspect of fun in it where you just can't give it up completely, its handy as you can instruct your builders for upgrades, collect some resources, attack some other players and then leave it for a few hours and return later. I think i'm really holding out for the upgrades and ability to buy the Tesla towers and Dark Elixir items such as the Barbarian King or Archer Queen.

Whilst playing this 2 other apps came across my screen when flicking through the App Store, one which i've held off playing due to the hype around it, Candy Crush, and the second was Airport City.

Candy Crush is one of those games which is so damn addictive yet it makes you wish you could poke out your eyes due to the increasing frustration that it provides due to a) running out of lives & b) sitting on one level for weeks on end...

There is the cheer and satisfaction though when you do finally pass a level, even better when you quickly follow up with multiple level movements...

Candy Crush is designed to test the mind, there is always those moves that you make that you wish had a undo button handy as you see another way which would have worked better - the other element also is linking via Facebook. Whilst linked you get the priviledge of knowing one or more of your friends are well passed you and some over level 350! All this while hanging on levels below 65...

After 3 and a half weeks of sitting on level 65 I finally passed it last night with 18 moves to go, the house shook and wife woke as I roared with relief as finally, I passed 65! All to then find out I have to wait a day to move to next level...

Airport City is a airport simulation game which allows you to build a city with an airport closeby then tempt you into sending flights and upgrading everything in the attempt to retrieve items from each collection of passengers, or, on planes returning from hour long flights to Bali!

This game has its moments too, it allows you to build up and own up to 3 or 4 planes early on but is limited on what you can do in terms of expanding your city unless you spend actual $$'s on cash to spend to do it..

Right now i'm stuck with no cash to expand my city and can't save $$'s up to buy the upgrade as i'm limited in the amount of buildings. The other issue I dislike also is the fact that part of your map is taken up by forrest's which can't be bulldosed or built on... Buildings also must have a road attached and cannot be built out the back of your car yard...

Overall each app/game has its own unique way of drawing you into playing more, I love playing all three but as is the case with most apps, something will come along soon to take its place if its more appealing or offers more..

If I was to rate each App i'd give them the following:

Hay Day - 5 out of 10 (Too much repitition, game lacks extra things to do despite the recent addition of the fishing side)

Footy Coach - 4 out of 10 (Way too long waiting to play a game of football, very hard to start with as no real direction on how to play and in the end became boring waiting for games to play)
Clash of Clans - 7 out of 10 (Great game just lacking that whole Multiplayer Co-op mode)
Candy Crush - 7 out of 10 (Highly addictive and frustrating yet hard to turn your back on...)
Airport City - 5 & 1/2 out of 10 (Ok game but just lacks that ease to build your city to great lengths without spending real money on!)

So thats my review, hope its been useful but if I was to recommend anything it would be to try the above apps and decide for yourself, not everything I like will be the same as the next person...

Regards

Bo_Gas

Round 4 - Richmond v Collingwood (AFL)

Ok I've held off for as long as I could, was very tempted to write this last weekend straight after the game but that would have been full of negative thoughts and no constructive criticism..

By now your reading this knowing the result wasn't what I had expected or hoped, yes my boys lost.

The wound goes deeper than just the loss, earlier in the day I made my long awaited come back to football, I last pulled on the boots some 12 years ago, back then I played my last season with the Vikings and kicked a nice 50 odd goals in only 10 games, including my never to be forgotten 10 goal haul against Christies Beach (in just 3 quarters of football...).

Knee injury was the reason I stopped playing and also I met my wife to be and moved 20km's away from the footy club, I was spending more time doing other things and sadly football lost. My knee wasn't right though, I spent my last season of football at Happy Valley with a massive knee brace which was awkward to move in and took about 10m off my old 60m kick...

Since then i've moved to a local club, Broadview Football Club (Tigers!!), my son has been playing junior football there for the last 5 years. Talking to one of the members he mentioned their D grade were short of players so I had a few days to think - yep lets do it..

Now, I'm atleast 20kg's heavier than last time I played, no where near as fit and 12 years older... My first training session everything was great, the next few days though - pain, just pain - body wasn't ready for such a training session hahaha. Over the course of the week I then had niggling issues, first the hamstring, then my driver but was still confident of overcoming these and lining up for the Tigers.

That I did, I got my chance to hit the ground midway through the 1st quarter and slotted into the forward pocket - very unfamiliar ground, most of my footy at HV was at Full Forward.. From the time I jumped on though I had nothing but hesitation in my mind, new club, new players, hadn't played for years... I just didn't know my place and what I should do - sadly two leads in the groin went... I hobbled to the bench at quarter time and rested it up. I guess to my credit (and a stern pep talk from my wife) I got back out there midway into 3rd Quarter and it was then I had my first shot on goal as a Broadview Tiger.

Sadly it just went shy of the left post and a point awarded, I finished out the rest of the game getting my hands on the ball a few times but in the end it didn't come down that much as we were soundly beaten by 18 goals... infact, that goal I missed, would have been our first and only goal for the game...

So - missing the 1st half of the Richmond game I sped home, sore and a gutted feeling...

Listening on the way home I heard the Tigers had a great first half matching Collingwood and allowing our midfield to dominate again - sadly the same issues from previous weeks reared their heads again... Missed Scoring Opportunities.

I hope this is a sticking point for Dimma at training and something he is focussing on as at this level the amound of easy shots on goal the Tigers have missed this year is disgusting. Tigers at the moment are content on just doing enough to maintain a lead rather than going for the kill and murdering the hopes and moral of the opposition.

Unfortunately what I saw when I got home and sat and watched the last half was nothing short of poor, this is harsh but I think the 3rd quarter we saw last weekend was by far the worst we've played all year.

Collingwood hit Richmond hard, their midfield dominated the centre and flooded it into their forward line where their million dollar focal point was winning a tough battle in the air against Alex Rance. To Rance's credit he fought hard, unfortunately the arm reach of Travis Cloke is a tough one to defend against, he has great hands, sadly I wish he came across during last trade period!

Rancey was given a spell and Chappy took over the duties on Cloke, sadly by that time the damage had been done, Collingwood piled on the goals and took a 4 goal lead, but by that stage our heads were already down. Chappy was the next casualty of the onslaught taking on some friendly fire to the head in a clash with newby Chris Knights.

Collingwood piled on 8 unanswered goals during that quarter and I watched in amazement as one of our best midfielders, Dustin Martin fell into his 3rd quarter curse and began increasingly quiet as his player Harry O'Brien ran freely and aided Collingwoods demolition.

To the Tigers credit they managed to add 2 goals late in the 3rd quarter to somehow still be a chance.

Even though the quarter was done and dusted, heads in the sand, there was still a feeling we weren't done and early goals would worry Collingwood...

Tigers started fresh and pushed the ball constantly into our forward line but 4... i repeat 4 early chances, some easy shots, were missed. We finally added a few through the two big sticks and crept to within 3 goals but by then the damage had been done, the early misses cost us again as Collingwood regrouped and surged again adding a few and then doing enough to keep Richmond off and securing the 34 point win.

34 Points doesn't really give Collingwood the notion of how dominant they were in the last half, 11 goals to 5 doesn't depict the 3rd quarter fright they gave the rest of the competition after they had 8 unanswered goals and looked unstoppable.

Highlights for me in terms of best players, the ever reliable Cotchin, Lid's tried hard, Grimes and Petterd. Ricky Petterd isn't featuring in the Tigers so called Best players which is a shame, his addition to the team this year has been nothing but positive, he's been getting his hands alot of the sherrin and his disposal has been quite good.

Looking at the Best players below i'm shocked to see Bachar Houli in there, his last half disposal was terrible which is a big shock considering I believe him to be one of the best out there. His first half must have lifted him up there cos sadly my Bachar didn't impress me...

How do we beat Collingwood next time, or even look ahead to Freo, Geelong and Port?

The answer is simple, our shots on goal. 11.13 is a terrible result, I saw 4 points that should have been goals atleast but thats not the only example, look back to the Carlton and St Kilda games... Early in first half we had them both dead and beaten - shocking misses though didn't bury them and kept them within striking distance. Yes the result was we won, but we didn't win convincingly like a Top 4 team like Collingwood, Sydney, Geelong or Hawthorn would do.

If we are to be one of the teams others fear, we urgently need to rectify issues like this, we can't in this our season of change, allow us to have so many close games when really we could have thrashed them.

Well, this week we're out at Freo on Friday night, should be a cracker of a game, I actually think we can win this providing our midfielders maintain for four quarters and we start hitting easy shots and get the goals up!

Players best be on their A game, we have the likes of Aaron Edwards booting 7 in the reserves and we're also expecting the debut of Nick Vlastuin this week... Nathan Foley also had a good hit out, expect him to return in a month's time if all goes well...

 Final Scores:

RICHMOND                    3.3   6.5   8.6  11.13  (79)       
COLLINGWOOD           1.4   5.8   13.12  16.17 (113)

GOALS
Richmond: Riewoldt 3, Vickery 2, McGuane 2, King, Edwards, Houli , Maric
Collingwood: Cloke 7, Sidebottom 4, Clarke, O'Brien, Elliott, Swan, Dwyer

BEST
Richmond: Cotchin, Deledio, Grimes, Houli
Collingwood: Cloke, Shaw, Fasolo, O'Brien, Reid, Sidebottom, Swan

INJURIES
Richmond: King (hamstring), Chaplin (head)
Collingwood: Brown (groin)

SUBSTITUTES
Richmond: Shane Tuck replaced by Brandon Ellis in the third quarter
Collingwood: Josh Thomas replaced by Dale Thomas in the third quarter

CHANGES
Collingwood: Goldsack replaced in selected side by Macaffer

Reports: Nil
Umpires: Rosebury, Meredith, Mollison
Official crowd: 81,950 at the MCG

Round 3 - Richmond v Western Bulldogs (AFL)

Tigerland is a buzz at the moment with supporters and the media going nuts over the boys sitting 2 wins and no losses at the start of the season...

One hoodoo down our Tiger boys set firm target on the lowly Bulldogs, we haven't won our first 3 straight games since our dominant year of 1995, the year we almost made the Grand Final...

Cotchy headed to the centre of the ground for the coin toss, just as one of our lasses botched the initial toss... finally the toss had been corrected and we got the result we wanted.

Much anticipation surrounded the first quarter, the third is usually the one to nail the game but it was super important for the Tigers to stamp their dominance early...

And that it did, the ball fell into the hands of Brett Deledio and he sprinted towards striking distance and launched a ball some 60+ metres and it went through one bounce for a goal.

Experts are stating that was the quickest goal in AFL history, TV commentators are saying 14 seconds, when I was watching the clock on the TV it looked more like 10 seconds!!

Absolutely one of the best goals i've seen, nothing better than watching a midfielder with a huge burst of pace, bounce the ball all the way through and nail the goal.

The Tiger army was certainly in full voice, but sadly we failed to capitalise on our opportunities. Again, as we did against Carlton & St Kilda - we were extremely inaccurate infront of goal, missing some very easy chances. Dimma roared into the group ruing the missed chances...

At the end of the first quarter we finished with 9 points and only 4 goals to show for ourselves. Extremely disappointing given the early dominance of Deledio, Martin, Cotchin, Houli, Grigg etc... just to name a few...

Second quarter started and the Tigers were threatening to move, but just couldn't shake the Bulldogs as we only scored 3.2 for the quarter, again missing some easy shots but also a bit sloppy and turning the ball over.

Third quarter came and so did some relatives.. haha, I sadly missed a fair bit of the third quarter but thanks largely to the AFL app for the iphone, I managed to keep abreast of the score and could see we piled on the goals to extend the lead further by another three at three quarter time.

From all reports, the main group I mentioned before lead by Cotchin, Deledio and Martin were having a field day, the new comers Chaplin, Petterd and Knights also were having an impact across the ground.

Fourth quarter started and it was time to get rid of the Dogs although they managed to put the first two majors on the board. From then though it was all Richmond, piling on 7 out of the next 9 goals to run out victors by 67 points.

67 is closer than I expected, I really thought we again missed crucial chances to put them away early. Like all other games these early misses can dent the game but our midfielders were completely dominant this round and the Bulldogs had nothing to show for it.

Deledio, Martin and Cotchin were outstanding, Grigg & Houli threatened an entrance in the top 3 players but was hard with the efforts of the first three.. I found it really hard to find players that didn't perform on the day, it truly was a team effort.

Jumping Jack showed some great aerobatics pulling down a couple of great pack marks, Luke McGuane again was a key forward threat and Ty Vickory made his presence felt. Little Shane Edwards booted 2 and was a little livewire along with Jake the Push Up King!

Standout for me though was Deledio, he was just a joy to watch as he sped through the middle of the ground on numerous occasion's, acting as a conduit between the backline and the forwards. He has sat behind the likes of Cotchy the last few games but I reckon he pushed ahead this game..

You know,  its a damn exciting time to be a Richmond supporter when you look at your midfield led by Captain Cotchin, Brett Deledio, Dustin Martin, Shane Tuck etc. The amount of talent each one has is unbelievable. Each has the ability to change a game completely and when all are firing it is simply a lovely game to watch.

Well we know shift focus to Round 4, a massive massive clash against Collingwood. I've said this alot this year especially against Carlton & St Kilda, if we are to be Collingwood, this is the year to do it.

Some very interesting match ups will be made, I'm hoping the boys can stick closely with Collingwood until half time, keep the pace and energy in reserve and then nail them hard in the 3rd quarter. My prediction, Tigers by 18 points.

So Final scores for Round 3:

Richmond - 20.15 (135)
defeat
Bulldogs - 10.8 (68)

From this week onwards I'll start adding extra stats to each Round:

GOALS
Richmond: Riewoldt 5, Deledio 3, McGuane 3, S. Edwards 2, Martin 2, Knights, Houli, Jackson, Tuck, Maric
Western Bulldogs: Jones 4, Cooney 2, Stevens, Griffen, Giansiracusa, Dahlhaus

BEST
Richmond: Martin, Deledio, Cotchin, Houli, Maric, Morris, McGuane
Western Bulldogs: Cooney, Griffen, Jones, Morris, Wallis

 

Prelim Final - ETPBC Div 5

Hi All,

I astounded myself early on Prelim Final gameday, I could still pick up the bat and swing hard... The grip I used with the "almost" dinger I tried again and perfectly it swung with no pain in my thumb... hmmm...

But realistically I won't be moving from the bench position... Unless it was the Grand Final and we needed some bat to be subbed in I won't be used at all, I can't even put my mitt on so really only a DH role would work or come in last inning for a hit...

So lets look at the game, sobering mood for me pre-game, still had nerves but different ones... not playing so it was like I was watching my beloved Richmond Tigers or Seattle Mariners, just hoping they'll win.

Our Divvy 5 team travelled down to West Torrens on an extremely hot, dry, humid 36 degree day. Felt more like 40 in that sun, no wind and just that yucky sticky heat.

Team looked good though, Cummo was a welcome addition after battling Glandular Fever and our boys were in high spirits that we could take this game.

Once we hit the field though the team wasn't as full of confidence, almost looked a shade nervous. Didn't use the bat well in first couple of innings and little things weren't going our way...

You could also notice it in the field, Robbo was working hard on the mound but bugger all chat around him...

Gussy made the stop of the day with a beautiful diving save at first, just narrowly missed getting the runner out but showed great courage diving to his right to snare the ball.

Sadly I had to leave early as was due for a family get together in Goolwa, this is a special occasion that we can't miss.

Years ago we pledged that we would make sure we attempt to participate in the annual Mervy every year to honor our nephew Jackson.

Jackson sadly passed away at birth a few years ago.

As I married into a golfing mad family, each year we get together and play a stroke comp for the Mervy Trophy, previously, under the old Calloway system, the winners each year were generally the ones which played regularly.

This year the rules had changed slightly and handicaps formed based on previous cards, this gave all players a much better chance of winning.

Myself, I finished last in the 2nd comp and since then (5 played overall) i've placed about middle of the pack.

With a broken thumb, I didn't think i'd actually be able to participate this year but pledged I would come out to support and try a swing to see how we go, I tee'd off first to officially start the mervy. Not sure who was more suprised, my golfing family or myself as I launched my drive straight and long up the middle of the fairway. I altered my grip so that the thumb was not touching the club and was free of my right hand so no connection or bumps would occur...

Really shocked, not for a minute did I think I could swing a club... I said I'd play 9 and see how we go.

I ended up playing all 18, had an awesome first 9 of 48 but dropped off a bit on the back 9 with 56. But still hit very well for someone with a broken thumb and I even beat the score from last year...

We all finished up and headed back to my brother in laws for a bbq tea, shortly after dinner the scores were announced, My golf mad father in law who plays the most out of everyone came dead last... woohoo! Slowly each name was read out - no Tony as yet...

Three names remained, two players who never really play (myself included) and one who plays regularly...

And there it was, I was named runner up tied for second and the winner, Bec has never won before either and is Jacksons mum. A fitting end to a great day, two unknowns in top 2 and Bec takes the cup for her son.

Overall a great weekend.

Now back to the game (sorry I tend to get sidetracked).

I was relying on my mate Jarrad to supply the scores, I said before I left, I wanted a play by play, pitch by pitch summary... no luck.

As we reached Goolwa the fateful message came in, East Torrens Div 5 team had lost in the final inning by 1 run.

When I left, we were 5-2 down and didn't look like over running them at this stage, it was there but not just yet..

Jarrad later revealed that we staged a massive comeback holding them to the one run over next 3 innings as we took the lead in the top of the seventh inning, leading 7-6 we looked like a history making win.

Sadly West Torrens levelled the score and then a dodgy shot dropped in for them to bring home the win.

Credit to them they were a good side, I still think we're better but, they're in the GF.

Season over and now West Torrens take on Glenelg in the Grand Final, personally, I hope West Torrens wins it over Glenelg. After our last "heated" game down at Glenelg where sportsmanship and gentleman's code was not even in their vocabulary.

Well thats my Baseball reviews over for the season, I'm off to rest this thumb over the next 6 weeks and look forward to an even bigger and better 2013-2014 Season.

Go RedSox!!!!!

Round 18 - ETPBC Div 5

A very hot day was forecasted and it managed to bring what it threatened, a very hot 37 degrees with hardly any cloud cover.

With that came in the reduced game rules, this enforces a maximum of 5 innnings or 90 minutes...

For someone like me who was starting on the bench, that brings in nothing but angst on whether you will be played or not.

Robbo started on the mound and got off to a flyer, zone was good and not many opposition hits through the five innings and really worked hard to keep them at bay - recorded some good strikeouts too!

Gussy again proved to be the one pitchers hate the most being walked twice, Cummo was the hitting specialist for the day twice with big bombs into the gaps and also superb speed to reach third twice for back to back triples.

Cummo's first proved to be a spark the team needed, most were telling him to hold off at 2nd but Cummo knew his pace would beat the throw to 3rd.

Hard to determine which highlight was the best on the day, so I think line honors need to go to both Cummo and Jonesy.

Jonesy is now known as the aerial defender, late in the 4th inning with runners in scoring position, a big bomb was hit to deep left field. For all money Jonesy looked beat on this one as it was well hit, from nowhere Jonesy lept back and took a superb catch which recorded the final out of the inning and any chance of Southern coming back to challenge the lead.

Red Sox ended up holding them off in the last to record a 7-1 win over Southern and securing our place in the finals.

I'm super excited, never in history of sport have I reached finals, not unless you count mixed netball which I don't think I will... During my football life at Happy Valley, my junior years were spent being thrashed by teams like Reynella and Morphett Vale, sometimes by 30 goals... During my senior years at the club we won games but never enough to reach finals, often missing out by one or two.

In my baseball career we haven't made it over the 4 years i've played, the year I missed our team won the flag.

This is something to savor and I look very forward to the challenge.

See you all down at Adelaide this weekend to cheer on the Red Sox!

Round 17 - ETPBC Div 5

Big game against Goodwood, not because of the fact previous years they had our number but for the fact every game from here is must win, especially if we want that finals glory...

Goodwood are a changed side compared to last few seasons, one person I spoke to months ago said they had lost alot of players from the club for various reasons - this looks to be what has depleted their Div 5 side, who in previous years has edged us out for the win most of the time.

Temperature wasn't ideal with a quite hot 36 degrees but the ground was looking in great condition.

Well, I can't hide from this... first ball of the game was thrown in by Cummo, from my side it looked straight, maybe a bit inside, the batter connected well with it and straight towards me..

I had an idea of where I thought it was going to go, which turned out to be the complete opposite to where it did go... Embarrisingly the ball went straight through my legs instead of hitting the lip of the 3rd base cut out like I thought it might and ricochet up towards my head...

I hate it when I start off with an error, really plays on my mind and unfortunately you feel completely isolated and hear everyones thoughts without them saying a word....

Cummo was put under pressure early but to his credit worked hard and got out of trouble, yes no runs were scored but my thoughts were in a dark place at that moment...

Bats started off early with Cummo and Gus all getting on base and gaining the early lead, a lead we were able to maintain from the first inning and keep adding to it until the final.

Cummo worked hard through 3 more innings and kept the no score in his pocket, DR took over for final couple and that was it for a pitching point of view - our pitchers threw hard and in the zone, our fielders (despite the first cough up..) did very well and held off any potential score threat that Goodwood threw at us.

For the batters, our team was impressive with the hits, still far from our best but we managed to make good use of our at bats, Cummo, Angus and young Laws hit quite well with Gussy being walked three times I believe.

We ended up running out convincing winners 16-0, defence was strong and offence was great.

Personally yes my 1st play was terrible but I think I bounced back well to minimise any further errors and also had a good hand in one of the slowest Double Plays ever recorded with Scoop..

Batting I'll say I was 50% happy, my first and last at bats were terrible, both hit off the handle of the bat and popped up to the infield. My 2nd and 3rd were good, first one was knocked into the gap between centre left and I pulled up with a double with 2 runs coming in. Beauty was also Goodwoods shortstop overthrew to home plate and I managed to advance to 3rd on the wild throw.

My 3rd at bat I liked but I know personally I swung late and got under it, I hit a deep fly ball to centre field but was straight down the throat of the centre fielder. I'm still relatively happy with the hit, it felt good just a tad late but also managed to score the runner from 3rd.

Overall 1 from 4 but with 3 RBI's thats a good day.

So, final game is this weekend for the regular season, we face Southern Districts @ Home. Southern are currently sitting 5th on the ladder only half a game behind us.

A Win puts us in the finals, the loss, well lets not even consider that.

Get down to the oval and cheer on your Red Sox to get into the finals!