The countdown to the semi-finals, Fraser Gehrig's playing future and Anthony Koutoufides' best and fairest win are among the football-related items in Australia's daily newspapers on Friday, 9 September 2005.Herald Sun: Getting under Barry Hall's skin and frustrating Sydney's forward line is Geelong's best chance of winning Friday night's second semi-final at the SCG.Port Adelaide is ready to unleash a fired-up Byron Pickett for the Ultimate Showdown, with coach Mark Williams indicating he could be the Power's secret weapon.Geelong has taken a calculated risk and included Corey Enright for his first game in five weeks in Friday night's second semi-final against Sydney at the SCG.A month ago the question with Gavin Wanganeen began with "if". Now it is all about "when". Exactly when. Wanganeen is on the verge of history. He will play his 300th AFL game this season if the Power beats Adelaide in Showdown XIX at AAMI Stadium on Saturday night.Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams has a golden rule in Showdown weeks: don't rattle Adelaide captain Mark Ricciuto.Charlie Walsh readily admits he knows nothing about football, but he does know a lot about winning. His expertise was in cycling as the coach of Australia's national track program for more than 20 years. Now Walsh is using the success he enjoyed at the Olympics and Commonwealth Games to help Adelaide try to win another premiership.An AFL club chief executive has joined the call for an overhaul of the All-Australian selection process.St Kilda coach Grant Thomas will give his players the run of his house to watch Friday night's Sydney-Geelong clash at the SCG.Anthony Koutoufides edged out the man who might replace him as captain to win Carlton's best-and-fairest award for a second time. Koutoufides took out the John Nicholls Medal with 401 votes from midfielder Nick Stevens (367) and forward Lance Whitnall (350).Retiring Kangaroos defender Leigh Colbert says he would have no issues one day returning to the club where his career began 13 years ago.Highly sought Victorian teenager Marc Murphy has rejected an offer to play for Brisbane Lions under the father-son rule.The Advertsier: Fraser Gehrig is considering quitting football.Chad Cornes looms as the ace in Port Adelaide's pack in Ultimate Showdown XIX, with the Crows conceding they don't have an obvious match-up for him.The Age: For a man who played football as though his life depended on it, life after football looks conspicuously rich for Leigh Colbert.Three years after being removed from the Carlton presidency, John Elliott continues to make waves within the AFL.The prospect of more AFL matches being scheduled on pay television has been raised again.It is becoming clearer by the day that the outcome of the next fortnight for the long-suffering Saints could profoundly shape their 2006.After a disappointing year on the field, Carlton finally had something to cheer about when skipper Anthony Koutoufides was named the club's best and fairest.Geelong has had little of the fanfare of last year's final series but according to defender Tom Harley a desire to play for each other will serve the Cats well.Kevin Ablett, 47, is the "other" Ablett, blessed, not surprisingly, with enormous natural talent.Paul Bevan's elevation to Sydney's senior team for the first time in almost three months is another sign of what Geelong would have known all week — that the Cats are in for a torrid time at the SCG.Carlton legend John Nicholls pleaded with his side's out-of-contract players to think of the club and what they could do for it rather than what it could do for them.Marc Murphy, arguably the hottest player in this year's AFL draft pool, has rejected the Brisbane Lions' attempts to snare him under the father-son rule.Wayne Carey has confirmed he was in talks with Collingwood about taking on a specialist coaching role.The return of Adelaide captain Mark Ricciuto is one of three changes the Crows have made for tomorrow night's historic showdown final between the two South Australian rivals.When you think about it, Adelaide v Port Adelaide in Adelaide seems about right, even if it flies in the face of all that pious tub thumping about a supposedly national competition.Lewis Roberts-Thomson, Sydney's raw defender, has gone right to the top in his search for football nous.The Australian: Sydney captain Barry Hall had a shocker at Subiaco Oval a week ago. On Friday night at the SCG, he will come out like a bleeding bull looking to make someone pay.Adelaide sprang the first major selection change of the finals by recalling "forgotten" defender Jason Torney for the game against Port Adelaide on Saturday night at AAMI Stadium.Long before they were paired in the West Coast midfield, Tyson Stenglein and Chad Fletcher were a formidable combination.Mark Ricciuto is a realist. He knows that no matter how well trained or prepared a football team is at finals time, one element is essential.The outcome of post-season surgery, not how well St Kilda fares in this year's finals, will decide if Fraser Gehrig retires at the end of the season.Kangaroos defender Leigh Colbert says he might have quit several years earlier had it not been for coach Dean Laidley.The Courier Mail: Sydney has turned to hard-tackling colt Paul Bevan for a wildcard edge in Friday night's cut-throat AFL semi-final against Geelong at the SCG.The Daily Telegraph: Swans coach Paul Roos has drafted in a young tackling dynamo for Friday night's do-or-die semi-final against Geelong at the SCG.Paul Roos wants the Sydney Swans to unleash the full force of their anger on the Geelong Cats in Friday night's sudden death semi-final at the SCG.Geelong Advertiser: Geelong has laid all its cards on the table by naming Corey Enright for Friday night's must-win semi-final against Sydney at the SCG.Sydney Morning Herald: Beware Barry Hall. Having a bad game from time to time happens, but back-to-back bad games? That's extremely unlikely for Hall.The West Australian: Fremantle's board and president Rick Hart face an independent review as the club comes under mounting pressure to justify missing the AFL finals for a second consecutive year.