Finally, following the arduous pre-season, the hype and the speculation, the 2012 AFL Premiership Season is here and everyone has played a game for points.

I guess sometimes when things are hyped up so much, as the AFL season always is, it can potentially be a letdown but I am sure everyone will agree, the round one matches did not disappoint!

Now, no one is going to beat the young-veteran and my coffee buddy Ian Callinan when it comes to watching footy, but I did spend a big chunk of my weekend watching games thanks to Fox Footy and their coverage of every game live.

This week I have decided to name my top 10 moments that kicked-off the season proper (in no particular order).

1. The Kangaroos comeback from 25-points down in the final quarter and then big Hamish McIntosh marking within range with only seconds to go. As he walks back to take his kick the siren sounds and he needs a goal to win.
Unfortunately, for Hamish and fortunately for the Bombers, his kick just missed to the right and Essendon escaped with a two-point win.

2. As I've said, I love watching other teams play and alongside speedy Sam Martyn and Tom ‘Goose’ Lynch I watched Port Adelaide secure a gutsy win over the visiting Saints. St Kilda had all its big guns in, Riewoldt, Hayes, Goddard, Dal Santo, Montagna and Fisher, but the young Power side with the help of recruits John McCarthy and Brad Ebert, were too strong running away with a narrow win as St Kilda made one last surge into attack. Coach Matthew Primus and his players were elated on the boundary as the final siren sounded.

3. The Brisbane Lions were almost the forgotten side when they met Melbourne at the MCG on Saturday afternoon but they had plans to venture south to Melbourne and fly home with the points in hand. And they did!
With inspirational captain Jonathan Brown out injured, veteran on-baller Simon Black wound back the clock and dominated the stoppages to help propel the Lions to their first win in Victoria in many, many attempts.

4. Despite Sydney and the Giants playing last weekend, to me it felt like the real season opener was the Thursday night battle between old foes Richmond and Carlton. And as has been the way for the previous few years, the Tigers were pumped up, but in the end no match for what I think is a very strong and capable Carlton outfit. The usual suspects in Murphy, Gibbs, Carrazzo, Kruezer and Waite were all in great form.

5. Backing up from Thursday night’s blockbuster, the MCG hosted another monster crowd as Hawthorn and Collingwood locked horns. Although, unlike last year’s preliminary final, this night belonged to the Hawks and more specifically, Cyril Rioli and Buddy Franklin. Rioli excited the crowd in the second quarter with a spectacular mark and some seriously clever ground work while Buddy did what he has done for five years with his long running goals. These two teams will see each other at the pointy end of the season I’m sure.

6. Saturday night, as I watched Essendon and North Melbourne play out a thriller, over in Perth the Dockers and reigning premiers Geelong were doing battle in what turned out to be a classic match. The home side snared a wonderful win, but the game was almost overshadowed by the clash between Hayden Ballantyne and Matthew Scarlett, Steve Johnson and Paul Chapman.
As everyone has probably by now seen, defender Scarlett dropped a left hook on the Freo forward's jaw in what was a spiteful game.

7. Sunday afternoon in glorious sunshine, the West Coast Eagles strolled into town and took down the Bulldogs. I recall last week people making a big thing out of Eagles gun forward Josh Kennedy being under-prepared for the season due to injuries. He sure looked 'under-done' as he snagged a goal within thirty seconds of the game starting, four by quarter time and seven for the match.
The Eagles are a dangerous unit.

8. In the same game, debutant Clay Smith was a bright spark for the Dogs. He bolted around Docklands and kicked four excellent goals including one soccer goal in a contest with All-Australian Darren Glass before being subbed out due to what Dogs coach Brendan McCartney described as ‘a full body cramp.’ He sure was exciting.

9. It would be remiss of me not to mention the Crows big win on the Gold Coast but the game within the game was the possession battle between Scott Thompson and Gary Ablett. In the end, I reckon it was a draw with Ablett grabbing 42 touches and two goals while Thompson had 39 and the victory. Both those players are certainly elite.

10. Finally, not all the action happened on an AFL arena this past weekend. Out at Commander Centre Oval in Unley, my SANFL team Sturt had a great victory over a strong side in the Port Adelaide Magpies. With a huge crowd, a lovely day and big expectations, Crows players Richard Tambling, Matthew Jaensch, Sam Kerridge, Tim McIntyre, Aidan Riley and Brodie Martin made big contributions as we were able to come away with a one-goal win! Not bad for a side, which won only five games last year. Hopefully, we can triple that win total this year.

Well there you have it, that’s what I took from the opening round of footy and I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.

Don’t forget to contact the boys on Twitter, almost all the full list is onboard now.

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You can also send me an email via joshjenkinscrows@hotmail.com

See you all next week.

Josh #20