This weekend of AFL football matches is round 11 .It is the half way mark for the 22 round season .

Teams that are clear winners are Geelong and Collingwood . There is another group of teams that are in the middle range like St Kilda and Sydney Swans .

More teams further down the League ladder eg Essendon are hoping to continue their winning form so they can play in the Finals.

Richmond Tigers languishing on the bottom of the ladder recorded their first win last weekend .  It was a gritty , surprise victory over Port Power in SA at AAMI stadium in the rain .

Tipsters , amateur and professional alike are having difficulty picking winners .

Grannies in retirement homes are picking winners more accurately than the experts.

It wouldn't be AFL footy without the air of uncertainty .

Loyal fans , wearing their football jumper, jersey , guernsey attend their teams Games no matter their form ie ; Friday night's tussle between Saints and Tigers is believed to be a sell-out.

Whatever its outcome the fans come dressed in their football jumper to watch one of the greatest spectacles in the world.

The humble footy match .

Second Win for Tigers on Friday Night ?

Four long term AFL players have announced their retirement this week . Brett Kirk of Sydney and Simon Goodwin of Adelaide Crows will retire at the end of the 2010 AFL season.

Tyson Edwards of the Adelaide Crows has retired effective immediately and Troy Simmonds,Richmond Tigers will play his farewell Game this Friday night .

All brilliant athletes and faithful servants of their clubs who have entertained fans for many years.

Each has worn his team colours , jumper , jersey, guernsey with pride .

Fans all around the country will turn out to cheer these inspirational men and to witness them take their one last kick of the Sherrin on a public stage.

Who will adopt their numbers on the back of their jumpers, jerseys , guernseys for 2011 Season ?

Kirk's look alike Jumper

The pressure to succeed and the unpredictability of the modern AFL game was never more evident than in last weekends round of matches .

The Cats thrashed the Lions at the Gabba', Western Bulldogs beat in form team Sydney and the Saints suffered their third loss in a row to a speedy , youthful Bombers side .

The Richmond Tigers looked poised to breakthrough with their first win of the 2010 season only to have it snatched away by their Hawthorn opponents in the dying moments of the game.

A  youthful Melbourne Demons team were no match for a rejuvenated West Coast Eagles who beat them soundly at the MCG.

Interstate results saw Carlton hold off Port Power at AAMI stadium and the Collingwood Magpies beat vastly improved Fremantle Dockers at Subiaco.

Many fans, tipsters and media commentators would have expected different results to those posted in this round of matches .

Fans were out everywhere in their jumpers , jerseys , guernseys to cheer their team on and to will them to succeed.

Nic Naitanui's Jumper

Two famous Football Clubs wear the traditional sash style jumper , jersey, guernsey.

front and back

They are the  Essendon Bombers and the Richmond Tigers.

Both teams wear the all black with the sash diagonally across their jumper front and back from shoulder to waist . This style of jumper is  iconic and is easily recognised as the traditional Home strip of both sides .

Richmond wear the all black with the yellow sash .

Essendon wear the all black with the red sash.

Both teams have a very large supporter base . Supporters enjoy wearing this traditional style jumper to their teams games.

Tigers sash Jumper

Richmond Tigers played the Western Bulldogs on Easter Sunday , 4th April, The Tigers ,who were the Home Side wore their traditional black guernsey , jersey , jumper with the yellow sash.

The Western Bulldogs, the Away side , wore the white clash strip that is becoming more popular with clubs .

It provides a distinctive contrast to the other team especially if one of the teams is wearing black .

More evidence of this trend was at the Essendon Bombers versus the Fremantle Dockers Match on Easter Sunday .

The Bombers wore their traditional Home strip of black with a red sash . The Dockers wore their all white clash strip with the purple anchor emblazoned on the front .

Results from both games saw big wins to the white or clash strip wearers. A victory to the whites versus the blacks .

With the resounding success enjoyed by the non traditional white jumper wearers will more teams adopt this white clash strip?

Only time will tell but these white jumpers , jerseys , guernseys will probably become highly collectable .

white / clash

AFL players have their number printed on the back of the jumper , jerseys , guernseys with the afl logo on the bottom of the numbers .

Player numbers can be bought from most sporting goods stores . These are either ironed on or sewn on and are made from a variety of materials including fabric or coloured adhesive.

Often numbers were assigned for the following historic reasons ;

A club may give a certain position a specific number eg the ruckman will wear number 25.

The captain of the club will wear a certain number eg richmond tigers captain will wear no 17 as worn by the famous " Captain Blood ", Jack Dyer.

A player will wear his fathers old playing number eg Stephen Silvagni wore number 1 the same as his father Sergio Silvagni.

How do you remove an old number from your jumper , jersey , guernsey ?

These are some ideas from readers ;

If the number is soft plastic you can rub it with alcohol or acetone (nail polish remover) to soften it and then try scraping it with a butter knife.

Try sticking duct tape very firmly over the number and then pull it off in one quick motion.

If the number has been applied using heat by applying more heat you may be able to peel it off, although this often leaves resin glue underneath.

Try heating the underneath of the number with an iron while placing a damp cloth over the top of it.Use the steam setting on your iron to get maximum heat and after a few minutes lift iron off the number and using tweezers see if it will peel off.

I have tried using nail polish remover with limited success .It melts the number which can then be peeled away. However corners of the number cannot always be removed using this method.

Does anybody have a method of getting rid of old numbers from jumpers? If so , let us all know !

where number goes

number 10

kangaroos hop up the ladder

Winners are grinners and the Saints are smiling all the  way to the top of the AFL League ladder after effectively demolishing the Fremantle Dockers on saturday night. Four wins in a row all against interstate clubs have secured St Kilda's top spot ahead of Geelong who are second on the ladder also with four wins .

Other winners at the weekend include Collingwood who  beat the Lions in front of their  home town crowd at the Gabba, and the Cats who held off a determined Adelaide side at AAMI stadium. The Power out-powered last years premiers the Hawks by 3o points at the MCG and the Eagles beat the Western Bulldogs over in Subiaco .

The Kangaroos held off the young Bombers to secure victory in a lack lustre  game and Richmond Tigers woes increased as they were beaten by a spirited Melbourne  Demons side .The Demons celebrated whilst the Tigers continued with their four game losing streak which sees them languishing on the bottom of the AFL ladder emphasizing their poor start to the Season.

Up in Sydney the Swans beat Carlton and some Carlton players  like Fevola continue to struggle with inaccurate kicking .