I thought the umpiring was poor today. Brisbane kicked 4 goals, two of which were directly from questionable umpiring decisions. There's absolutely no that should have been 50 against JKH, and Christensen's free kick in the last was marginal at best (his constant staging never helps the situation).

But the one part of umpiring that gets me, and it happened again today (JKH first quarter) is when they randomly ping us for HTB due to the player 'not making a genuine attempt'. Pretty [censored] hard to make an attempt when you have no prior opportunity and the ball is pinned to you. Always against us.

Ah yes, the umpiring was poor. That 50 against JKH is something they never pay anymore, happens basically every game and goes uncalled. As for the genuine attempt thing, most of the time that's pretty much the umpire guessing. I saw Casey yesterday and the umpire just balls it off when a player has the ball pinned to him rather than showboating and using jargon. Do they ever point out what a genuine attempt actually is? They just decide to call it holding the ball when they've waiting too long to whistle for a ball up, it's stupid

I thought the umpiring was poor today. Brisbane kicked 4 goals, two of which were directly from questionable umpiring decisions. There's absolutely no that should have been 50 against JKH, and Christensen's free kick in the last was marginal at best (his constant staging never helps the situation).

But the one part of umpiring that gets me, and it happened again today (JKH first quarter) is when they randomly ping us for HTB due to the player 'not making a genuine attempt'. Pretty [censored] hard to make an attempt when you have no prior opportunity and the ball is pinned to you. Always against us.

It's not just us, it's not just this match. It's every match every week.

Holding the ball: does not exist. Incorrect disposal: does not exist. Holding the man: does not exist.

Blocking/holding someone more than 5 metres off the ball does not exist. Running more than 15 metres does not exist.

Deviating from the line of the mark ( = play on) does not exist.

Playing on after a mark ("oh, I've decided I don't really want to play on after all") does not exist.

These "rules" get paid about once a match amidst usually many egregious instances.I

I don't blame the umps. They are umpiring to direction given them by a horribly and perennially confused umpires department. Which buys into the idea that there can be "interpretation" of rules. "Interpretations"? How about framing the rules so that they are clear. I've never heard the word "interpretation" used with respect to the rules in any other sport.

Haven't seen the stats so I could be completely wrong but I felt we got slaughtered in the clearances.

My issue with that is that Gawn won a lot more hit outs and beat the two Lions, but we still got killed at stoppages.

On that, does blame lay at the feet of Gawn or the midfielders..

We lost every key stat but inside 50s. Our defence and zoning meant that they couldn't capitalise on their posession and were constantly forced wide. It was a hard and disciplined game defensively.

I thought the umpiring was poor today. Brisbane kicked 4 goals, two of which were directly from questionable umpiring decisions. There's absolutely no that should have been 50 against JKH, and Christensen's free kick in the last was marginal at best (his constant staging never helps the situation).

But the one part of umpiring that gets me, and it happened again today (JKH first quarter) is when they randomly ping us for HTB due to the player 'not making a genuine attempt'. Pretty [censored] hard to make an attempt when you have no prior opportunity and the ball is pinned to you. Always against us.

Did we get a single HTB or throw paid our way? I didn't see any, but I was watching on my tablet at work and may have missed one. I know they gave plenty to Brisbane.

Beamer and Colin Sylvia at the Chairman's lunch today.

Spoke to Colin, he has done a shoulder and it is all over for this year. Hope to play a few more years in the lower leagues in Melbourne.

Spoke to JT in the lift on the way out and he hopes to be running in about a week and says the foot feels fine. Hopes to be ready for Pre Season and available first game next season.

He is a bit taller than I thought, when you stand next to him.

Good to hear that Beamer and Col were there. If we got Roos after Bailey instead of Neeld, Beamer would have stayed.

Not sure if anyone would have got the best out of Col, but it would have been good to see him for a couple of years under Roos and George Stone.

I thought the umpiring was poor today. Brisbane kicked 4 goals, two of which were directly from questionable umpiring decisions. There's absolutely no that should have been 50 against JKH, and Christensen's free kick in the last was marginal at best (his constant staging never helps the situation).

But the one part of umpiring that gets me, and it happened again today (JKH first quarter) is when they randomly ping us for HTB due to the player 'not making a genuine attempt'. Pretty [censored] hard to make an attempt when you have no prior opportunity and the ball is pinned to you. Always against us.

I thought the umpiring ok or at least even. There was a push in the back against Harry (second qtr?) after he tackled and rolled underneath and ended up on top that was bizarre but we've copped much worse this year. To Tyson and some others: you don't have to actually make a genuine attempt but have to at least fake it. Been that way forever. It's not that hard.

Burgs, I love your work mate, but seriously, no post match Harmes interview? The kid is living out all our collective dreams, I wanted to see him beam.

I'll give you a hypothetical version:

Matt Burgan: "I'm here with a fine young man and lifelong Dees supporter after the fine win by the Dees in Round 16 over the Lions, James Harmes, with a fine performance with 15 touches on a fine Melbourne day at the AFLs finest venue, the MCG.

James, how do you feel?"

James Harmes: "Well Matt, I...." [cutoff]

Matt Burgan: "That's fine, thanks James."

Something tells me he was fairly pleased...

Sure a win is a win. But seriously, 3 goals after quarter time, and one after half time is pretty sad.

Any team other than Brisvegas would have thrashed us.

A very hollow win. But as I started, a win is a win.

Something tells me he was fairly pleased...

Why would former QLD Premier Peter Beattie be happy after a Bears loss?? And why would he dress up in Demons gear?

Except we did win.....

Yes very impressive against the bottom side wasn't it? A good side would have smashed us

A

Sure a win is a win. But seriously, 3 goals after quarter time, and one after half time is pretty sad.

Any team other than Brisvegas would have thrashed us.

A very hollow win. But as I started, a win is a win.

Any team other than BV would have played differently and so then us. We kept up the pressure most of day but I seriously think we were confused by the lack of it in return going forward at times.

I thought the umpiring ok or at least even. There was a push in the back against Harry (second qtr?) after he tackled and rolled underneath and ended up on top that was bizarre but we've copped much worse this year. To Tyson and some others: you don't have to actually make a genuine attempt but have to at least fake it. Been that way forever. It's not that hard.

A big part of the reason Tyson gets pinged is that he is very good at getting his hands and arms out of the tackle. To the ump that represents an opportunity to dispose, which of course it does, but other players just allow the ball to be buried in the tackle....ball up. The inconsistencies to the holding the ball/incorrect disposal adjudication are a frank embarrassment to our game at the moment. It is an utter raffle, with not an ounce of credibility. Effectively a toss of the coin. How it gets fixed I don't know, but it is poisoning the game.

Jeez some people are never pleased.

Take the win and look forward to next week. This was Brisbane's strongest side they put out all year and I expect them to get a couple of wins this latter part of the year.

Yep anyday!

Yes very impressive against the bottom side wasn't it? A good side would have smashed us

You can only beat the opposition you're facing. We beat Geelong not that long ago. We're doing ok.

No he wasn't

Yes, he was.

I'll take this win anyday. But I'm more worried about the next day when we play with the same mindset but suddenly leak 5-6 goals against a better side. I hope today's win has shown that we've turned the corner. But it must just show that Brisbane really suck.

Last year's game they kicked 6 in a row to end the game

I'll take this win anyday. But I'm more worried about the next day when we play with the same mindset but suddenly leak 5-6 goals against a better side. I hope today's win has shown that we've turned the corner. But it must just show that Brisbane really suck

What it shows is that when we're not ascendant in the game we can still dig in, lock it down and force a nil-all draw. Admittedly, we showed it against a team with no credible tall forwards, but tall forwards aren't how Brisbane beat us last time are they? They did it with manic running and goalscoring smalls. We prevented them from hurting us with that today, so I'm happy.

I haven't seen the game yet, which doesn't appear to be much of a loss based on the comments and stats.

However, I notice we were thrashed in the clearances. To keep any side to 4 goals and to have more inside 50s than them when losing clearances 42-23 is a positive and, as AoB said, must surely speak to an improved defensive effort across the entire ground.

I can't comment on how the game actually played out, but it's common for a bad side to bring the other one down, so though we may have played appallingly today, there's no guarantee it will happen again next week - we've shown this year that we have a much higher ceiling than whatever we dished up today.

Also, on what appears to be another instalment in the Demonland "everything's black or white" saga, it is entirely possible for an ugly win and a poor performance to create positivity and optimism. On the one hand, our opponent was clearly abysmal and in perfect conditions we kicked 3 goals in 3 quarters. That's not good enough. On the other hand though, we got another great game out of Hogan and Gawn, Howe and Dawes contributed more, McDonald got another shot at being a forward, Harmes looks to have improved, and we won despite Jones only having 21 touches. It's now our best season on a W-L basis since 2011, we've won as favourites which gets that monkey off the back, and we've finally ground out a win against a bad side (stuffed that up twice already this season).

It doesn't have to be either all positive or all negative. It is, like usual, somewhere in between.

Just did the sums on the equal percentage with the Bombers. They are ahead by roughly 0.02%. If we'd scored one more goal today we'd be ahead of them.

To Tyson and some others: you don't have to actually make a genuine attempt but have to at least fake it. Been that way forever. It's not that hard.

Yes, good call, I noticed that too - how can a player be so stupid to not know you have to put on display demenstrating you are trying to get it out once youve been tackled - the umpire just needs to see it or he pretty much has to call HTB. Bloody hell if I was coach I would be so mad at players getting done like that

Yes very impressive against the bottom side wasn't it? A good side would have smashed us

and a worse side, like us 2 years ago, would have the lost the game of football

so we do know how to win obviously

we have done it 5 times this year

The worst game of footy I've witnessed in a long time. The stoppage game is okay when we are trying to match it with stronger sides but we caused stoppages when we didn't need to!!

We almost let them back in to the game! All we needed to do was kick a couple more goals and bury them but instead we had stoppage after stoppage. Eventually they started to play with a bit more flair and all of a sudden they were within striking distance. The only thing that saved us is that we were more effective at constipating the game.

Daniel Cross is a great judge of the ball in the air, a great pair of hands, courageous and determined. But i don't want him kicking the ball in the back 50!

Dom Tyson is a lazy kick. On numerous occasions his casual up and unders caused turnovers. He needs to address this if he is to reach his potential. Today i wanted to drag him!

Jack Watts was the only one I trusted with the ball in the back 50.

we won despite Jones only having 21 touches.

Yes, I thought this was a pleasing spect of the day - if you look at DLand POTY, our top 6 players this year are:

Bernie Vince

Nathan Jones Tom McDonald

Jesse Hogan

Angus Brayshaw

Jeffrey Garlett

I would say that only Hogan had a big impact today, it is nice to know we can still eek out a win despite all that quality having a quiet day, it means we are building a more well-rounded side with less passengers

Yes, good call, I noticed that too - how can a player be so stupid to not know you have to put on display demenstrating you are trying to get it out once youve been tackled - the umpire just needs to see it or he pretty much has to call HTB. Bloody hell if I was coach I would be so mad at players getting done like that

True. I really don't get it. Viney is another offender - love his ferret-work but lucky a couple times today in this regard. It's a nonsensical facade but if the arm is free then feed the chickens.

The worst game of footy I've witnessed in a long time. The stoppage game is okay when we are trying to match it with stronger sides but we caused stoppages when we didn't need to!!

We almost let them back in to the game! All we needed to do was kick a couple more goals and bury them but instead we had stoppage after stoppage. Eventually they started to play with a bit more flair and all of a sudden they were within striking distance. The only thing that saved us is that we were more effective at constipating the game.

Daniel Cross is a great judge of the ball in the air, a great pair of hands, courageous and determined. But i don't want him kicking the ball in the back 50!

Dom Tyson is a lazy kick. On numerous occasions his casual up and unders caused turnovers. He needs to address this if he is to reach his potential. Today i wanted to drag him!

Jack Watts was the only one I trusted with the ball in the back 50.

Good summary.

My farts smell horribly today.