Archive for April, 2011

The new broadcast agreement struck between the AFL and the Seven Network, Foxtel and Telstra to broadcast AFL matches for the next five years will see an unprecedented amount of live football shown to more parts of Australia, across more platforms than at any time in the game’s history.

As part of the new agreement, supporters in Western Australia are guaranteed of being able to see all of Fremantle’s matches on free to air television.

The Seven Network will broadcast four matches of each nine-match round during the Toyota AFL Premiership Season on free to air television, as well as all finals matches.

On free to air television, Friday night football will be telecast live into Victoria, Qld, NSW, the ACT and Tasmania, near live into SA and on a reduced delay, due to time zone difference, into WA. Showpiece matches on both Friday night and Saturday night would now be shown live or near live across most regions of Australia.

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Because of a finals campaign last year that comprised a ho-hum win at home over a hobbled Hawthorn and a meek surrender to Geelong at the MCG the following week and because – well, it is Fremantle after all – there was one team generally regarded as being susceptible to a tumble from the top eight in 2011.

This column had Freo in the eight, but only just, at the start of the season. Now we are reconsidering that on the back of a win over the Western Bulldogs on Monday night which, while hard to watch at times given the skill errors and the turnovers, was edge-of-your-seat stuff for the entire final quarter.

In the space of 30 pulsating minutes, Fremantle had the game won, then lost, then won again, to suggest that the dire pre-season prognostications might have been a touch premature.

And the heroes in purple were two of the more unlikely you would expect to find. Jay van Berlo, the until now unheralded younger brother of Adelaide skipper Nathan, kicked four goals, while the oft-maligned Kepler Bradley also kicked four and dazzled the 37,000 fans at Patersons Stadium with some rarely seen skills and athleticism.

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Fremantle Dockers stars Rhys Palmer and Antoni Grover were in Midland last week to check out their avatars as the new AFL Live video game was launched at EB Games.

The Midland Gate shopping centre store recorded the most orders in Australia for the game ahead of the launch, according to store manager Glenn Taylor.

The game, which was launched in PlayStation 3 and Xbox formats on Thursday, is the first new version of the AFL game in four years and was created by Melbourne company Big Ant Studios.

Mr Taylor said the creators had put a lot of work into the game.

“It is by far the best AFL game made so far,” he said.

“All players in the competition have been modelled, all the sponsors are in there.”

Versions for Wii and PCs will be out in coming weeks.

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Fremantle coach Mark Harvey says his side is not yet ready to claim the title of Collingwood’s main premiership challenger following a thrilling Anzac Day win over the Western Bulldogs at Patersons Stadium.

Fremantle, which heads into its first bye for the season with a 4-1 record, responded to a spirited Bulldogs’ challenge on Monday night to win by seven points.

But despite holding onto a top-four spot ahead of clashes with Richmond, Port Adelaide and West Coast, Harvey said it was premature to declare Fremantle a frontline title challenger.

“We’re not there yet. We’re sort of aiming and working hard towards it, but we don’t play Collingwood until later in the year anyhow,” the coach said on Monday night.

“We just need to keep progressing with what we’re confronted with.

“There’ll be sides we play over the coming weeks that everyone will expect us to win (but) we understand that we have to make sure that we’re diligent with what we do with our planning and the way we play.”

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