BLAIR: Welcome back to another week of Let’s Talk Sport gentlemen and we’ve got plenty happening. The weather was heating up and so was the action, we also had some great occasions of significance with Anzac Day matches as well. But we will start with Best Action, kick us off Juzzy.

BEST ACTION

JUSTIN: Yeah I went down to Officer on the weekend to see them play against the perennial powerhouse in Wandin who are always up there in the Outer East Premier Division. They’re reigning premiers and they’re always consistently in grand finals, but the Roos actually had a really good crack against them. They led throughout most of the third quarter, but in the second quarter, it was a grab by Officer skipper Brent Moloney. The ball came in high, pack sort of developed in the forward 50 and he timed his run perfectly and took a bit of a hanger up on Wandin superstar Daniel Willis. The two number 18s came together and it was the skipper of the Roos that came out on top; then went back and slotted the goal. So it was a big moment, tied the game at that point and then the young Roos ended up taking the lead with Wandin again flexing their muscles and showing their true class, getting the choccies in the end. What about you Dave?

DAVE: My best action is going to one of the defensive aspects of Nar Nar Goon’s game on the weekend. Kooweerup came into the game full of chirp, full of positivity, they haven’t been up and about like this for a long time. And in the first quarter, Flynn Parker, and this is no disrespect to Flynn, but if you lined up the 22 players of Nar Nar Goon and made them sprint to the other end, he would be in the last few players – he is not the quickest player in the team but he chased down one of Kooweerup’s quickest players in the first quarter and made a tackle right in the middle of the ground. He made him earn it and gave him a shove on the way up. Also in the first quarter, Jake Blackwood, the full back, Kooweerup has the ball five metres out from goal and chuck it on the boot and Blackwood smothers it, a goal-saving smother. Sometimes you watch Nar Nar Goon and they are not 100-percent switched on, but they don’t need to be. But it was like they had the oven cranked up as high as it can go on Saturday; determined to put another pretender back in their box. As soon as I saw those two things, I thought they are going to be hard to beat today.

BLAIR: I went down to Kinetic Stadium to watch a bit of Talent League action between the Dandenong Stingrays and Oakleigh Chargers on Sunday. The Rays have had a good start to the year, so I wanted to go and see what it was all about. My best action comes from Dandenong big-bodied midfielder Clancy Stuart. He is 188cm tall, he moves pretty well for his size and has legs the size of tree trunks, finishing the game with 21 disposals and three goals. But it was during the second quarter where he roved the ball from a centre bounce at the back of the stoppage and was really clean. He looped a sweeping handball forward to space … it looked like it might’ve been too far in front of Jackson Phillips and like he might’ve missed him, but it was centimetre perfect. Phillips didn’t break stride and ran to 50m and went bang with a goal. It was a brilliant play and just a classy handball which turned out to be a great goal assist. Dandy went down by six points in a thrilling finish, but Stuart really impressed me.

PENDLEBURY PERFORMANCE

BLAIR: Anzac Day is a big occasion on the sporting calendar and 92,000 people converged on the MCG to watch a Scott Pendlebury masterclass as the veteran wound back the clock and finished with a ridiculous 43 disposals, two goals and 19 score involvements. At 38, it’s hard to wrap your head around. As a Collingwood man, what did you think Dave and do you have a local comparison?

DAVE: Boys, I was getting dressed to go down to Nar Nar Goon on the weekend and had a look through the wardrobe for a polo shirt … I found my Collingwood polo and decided to run with that on the day. I got quite a bit of feedback, but that’s okay; you cop it , you dish it out. As the day unfolded, people were coming up to me saying the Pies are going well and Pendles is smashing it. So it got me thinking a little bit this question. First of all, thank you to Brad Scott for ending the career of Brent Harvey, because I think he could have played 500 games. I’ve got a list here. The most talented player I’ve ever seen is Gary Ablett Sr. Biggest match winner, Wayne Carey. Explosiveness, prime Patrick Dangerfield. And I think Pendles fits into a ‘best of’ class. So, there are three blokes that are best at those things that I just mentioned, but I think Pendles for his composure, his ability to think clearly, I think he’s the best I’ve ever seen in AFL footy. I have never caught a wave, like a big barrel on a surfboard, but I can imagine everything would go silent and just be so serene … Pendles plays his footy like that, everything just slows down. I am very proud that he is going to be the AFL games record holder, and I think he’s a very deserving person.

JUSTIN: Agreed, to have 43 at 38 is just ridiculous. There is no greater testament to him than the all-time games record. I can’t believe how good he is and how much he has done for Collingwood, he finds space and can’t be tackled really. His footy IQ is off the charts.

BLAIR: Yep, he just reminded everyone of how good he really is. If there are people saying Pendles is washed up, he just silenced them. He was breaking records left, right and centre, we don’t quite realise how lucky we are to get to watch him play.

DAVE: The second part of your question Blair was a local footy comparison. It’s Nar Nar Goon captain Trent Armour, he is injured at the moment and won’t play for most of the season but he is a different style of player to Pendlebury. But when he gets the footy, everything slows down, everything is done so creatively.

BLAIR: That is a big compliment. Mine, for the longevity, has to be Marc Holt from Cranbourne. To be playing Div 1 Southern footy at 41 years of age, and not just playing but kicking goals. Like Pendles, it is also what he brings to the team in terms of experience and mentorship.

INS AND OUTS

BLAIR: Final topic boys, what are some Ins and Outs, what are we liking and what are we not liking? We can take this direction anywhere we want. I will kick things off with plenty of Ins. A big in for me is the spread of goalkickers, Hampton Park had 10 individual goalkickers in their first win on the weekend to beat Port Melbourne. And in the talent league, Oakleigh kicked 12 goals for the day and had 11 separate players hit the scoreboard … it is hard to defend that. Another big in, hot chips at the footy – I have been consuming my fair share of them and am loving it. The rucks are in, Hayden Dwyer at Narre Warren and Lewis Robbins at Cranbourne have both started the year brilliantly. And I will finish off the ins with Kozzy Pickett, he had 29 and 4 and will have to be up there in the Brownlow votes at this point of the year. His hanger just rubbed salt into my wounds while I was sitting in the stands at the ‘G. Now for my outs. Players cramping on hot days, get the pickle juice into you, I don’t want to see cramps. Kayo had a shocking weekend, was kicking me out of games, buffering, the audio was struggling. Umpiring. Finally, accuracy in front of goal. Narre Warren kicked 5.16 on the weekend v Dingley after kicking 20.11 last week. While Dingley also kicked poorly, bad kicking can cost you. What do you have for us Dave?

DAVE: Ins has to be Nar Nar Goon. The best local footy team I have seen since starting this job is the Narre Warren team of 2012, 13 and touching 14. They won 36 games straight. Nar Nar Goon won their 30th game in a row on the weekend and the two teams they have beaten in the grand finals in the last two years, Tooradin and Phillip Island have both fallen off a cliff and are last and second last at the moment. While Nar Nar Goon is probably at the same level as last year, the gap has got bigger between them and the rest of the competition. The in is the dynasty they’ve got going at the moment and they are not an old team either. When you go out there at three-quarter time, they are all 6ft 2in. Another in, the Anzac Day spirit. I got up early and went to the dawn service and the representation from the Pakenham Footy and Netball Club, then you go to Nar Nar Goon and there was a sea of people out there before the game. The fire brigade turned up, all of the veterans were there, just the respect and connection between global sport and Anzac Day is getting bigger and better. For my outs, you talk about a good spread of goalkickers Blair, well I had a multi on Friday night, Melbourne had 11 goalkickers, but the one bloke I needed to kick one was Jacob Van Rooyen, and he couldn’t snag one so he cost me 200 bucks. But the biggest out for me is the AFL rules. The stand rule is turning our game into a joke, unless you are impacting the bloke with the ball, let him go. The last touch rule is a disgrace, if you watch any other game in the world, there are so many times where the ball comes off a couple of hands and they make a decision, they do not stop the game every time. If you’re going to have the last touch rule, you have to wear the fact that it’s not going to be perfect all of the time. And then umpiring decisions where nobody at the ground or watching would care if a free kick got paid, but the umpires pays one anyway. They are judged to the nth degree in training and they are too scared to miss one, they should be the opposite, if it’s not obvious, do not pay it. Greg Swann, get your act together.

JUSTIN: If we are going to do an on-field one, mine is Dandy West in Southern Div 4. They’ve put up three massive scores to start the year, 118, 101 and...

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