Marngrook Footy Show

February 9:  Essendon’s injury-plagued forward Scott Gumbleton  is cursing his wretched luck ... again.

The 21-year-old suffered a back spasm at training last night and has been ruled out of Friday night’s clash against West Coast at Subiaco in the first round of the NAB Cup.

February 9:  Expect excitement machine Shaun Burgoyne to light up Hawthorn’s  midfield in 2010.

The Port Adelaide 2004 premiership player and genuine matchwinner is destined to be one of the recruits of the season.

The 27-year-old’s troublesome left knee which restricted him to just nine games for the Power last year is getting stronger and stronger.

February 9: The humble boundary umpire is set to become the new best friend of superstar midfielders like Geelong champ and 2009 Brownlow Medal winner Gary Ablett during the AFL’s NAB Cup.

In a ground-breaking decision from the AFL, boundary umpires will be given the power to award free kicks for holding at stoppages during the pre-season competition which blasts off with West Coast taking on Essendon at Subiaco Oval this Friday night.

Monday, February 8: Essendon stars on the rise Paddy Ryder and Leroy Jetta have got a lot more on their minds than just training as hard as they can in the build up to the first bounce of the 2010 AFL season.

The wonderful experience of fatherhood awaits the best of buddies ... and any day, too.

Ryder’s baby daughter is due any day and Jetta’s twin boys should be born in the middle of next week.

Everyone at the Marngrook Footy Show wishes Ryder and partner Jessica and Jetta and partner Kaisha all the very best.

Highly-skilled forward Josh Hill isn’t lacking motivation as he steels himself for a massive year as the Western Bulldogs take aim at grabbing the AFL’s ultimate glory in 2010.

The Claremont (Western Australia) product was left shattered after being controversially dropped after the side’s 14-point loss to Geelong in the first week of the finals last year.

Monday, February 8: Promising indigenous forward Liam Jones could be given an opportunity to strut his stuff for the Western Bulldogs during the AFL’s NAB Cup pre-season competition.

Possibly even as early as the side’s anticipated first round clash with Brisbane at Manuka Oval in Canberra this Sunday.

The 19-year-old son of one-time St Kilda player Bob Jones will be desperately hoping to start on the interchange bench against the Lions after an impressive performance during the Bulldogs’ intra-club practice match in front of 1500 fans at the Whitten Oval on Saturday morning.

The Tiwi Bombers continued their red hot form with another convincing win on the weekend, this time with a 138 point thrashing of the Wanderers at TIO stadium.

Former Essendon Bomber Courtney Johns led the assault with 8 goals for his new team combining with inform Tiwi forwards Ephrem Tipungwuti  with 4 goals and Roy Kantilla who booted 5.

The win was even more impressive given the Bombers had already sewn up top spot after last round’s victory against Southern Districts, a sign that this team is totally focused and has the discipline to go all the way to their first NTFL flag.

Final scores – Tiwi Bombers 31.10 (196) defeated Wanderers 8.10 (58)

Port Adelaide have announced their leadership group for season 2010 with Domenic Cassisi holding onto the position of captain with 2 new vice captains in Dean Brogan and Jacob Surjan.

Surjan finished equal fourth in the club’s best and fairest count last year after a strong season whilst former rookie Dean Brogan's142 AFL games will add maturity and experience to the group.

Friday February 5 - General admission prices for the 2010 Toyota AFL Premiership season were released today revealing small increases.

The most notable rise is in the price of junior admission which had remained the same from 2001 until last year.

The new prices are as follows:

Adult $20 ($19 in 2009)

Concession $12 ($11.50 in 2009)

Junior $2.50 ($2.20 in 2009)

Family  $40 ($38 in 2009)

Wednesday February 3 – It was all good news at the intra club practice matches of both the West Coast Eagles and Essendon today as key players returned from their injury plagued 2009 seasons and positive signs were shown by those expected to step up this year.

The Bombers played their game at Shepparton where key ruckman David Hille impressed in his first hit out since injuring his knee in the ANZAC day clash against Collingwood last year. Hille played the first 15 minutes of each quarter and played both up forward and on the ball.