15 hours ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

The Children's Hospital have just announced they'll be holding an appeal for North Melbourne next easter. 

Each year I have my 'quote of the year". This is the winner for 2021 so far, by the length of the Flemington Straight.

Love your style Rab.  

Is Mark Neeld coaching North?

13 hours ago, Better days ahead said:

A decent game this between the Crows and the Suns. Both teams have improved a lot. Adelaide will be tough to beat when we play them over there.

The footy has been great this year. Kudos to the rules committee and the coaches for getting back to what we love about the game. Long may it last.

13 minutes ago, Jontee said:

Is Mark Neeld coaching North?

Not really fair on Noble given the task he has taken on,  I hope he was very clear upfront on what was going to happen after their purge and the board stick with their plan.  Though to be honest its a crap plan and does not work in the modern AFL work, as we are the perfect case study of it.  It simply destroys the culture of the playing group and they forget how to win, eventually it destroys player potential. 

2 minutes ago, Darkhorse72 said:

Not really fair on Noble given the task he has taken on,  I hope he was very clear upfront on what was going to happen after their purge and the board stick with their plan.  Though to be honest its a crap plan and does not work in the modern AFL work, as we are the perfect case study of it.  It simply destroys the culture of the playing group and they forget how to win, eventually it destroys player potential. 

something strange went on with North late last year. Shaw's unfortunate departure seemed to unleash a rash of barely understandable delistings.

Rebuilds just don't work anymore simply because the draft is so compromised and drafting itself is so imprecise.

Logically the only way out is Tassie and a load of priority picks...not even sure that path is still open.

Even as a merger for another team they offer very little

Richmond versus Sydney will be a belter, I rate the Swans very highly (that’s what happens when you can cherry pick talent through an academy).

6 minutes ago, Clint Bizkit said:

Richmond versus Sydney will be a belter, I rate the Swans very highly (that’s what happens when you can cherry pick talent through an academy).

Yeah they lose the COLA to supposedly even things up and then they get gifted all the best NSW talent which is a way bigger advantage than the COLA.   

Just searched GA tickets for Tigers v Swans match out of curiosity.

Only availability is top deck Ponsford stand and one section on the Southern stand wing where you could buy single tickets

Will be interested to see final crowd numbers

Main thing for  today is Port destroys the Eagles.

And as much as I hate Essendon I wouldnt mind seeing them upset the Saints.

On 3/28/2021 at 11:04 PM, Wadda We Sing said:

I hate it when we are favourites.....

Need to learn to cope. 
After all to be at the top you need to beat those below.  

A bit like saying the team that finishes top has had an easier draw, because they only play teams below then, whilst the 18th only play teams above them ?

14 hours ago, willmoy said:

If he's not sooking, he's looking at himself. Skips around like a big fairy

Who are you referring to?

19 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Who are you referring to?

Bruce

Swannies are bringing the heat

Swans should be up by more. Missed some getable goals. 

Good to see them resting Buddy to get him right to take on the bummers next week. 

I'll take Sydney seriously if they keep this up.

Don't currently rate their wins vs Brisbane (didn't show up in Round 1) or Adelaide (still a bottom 10 side). 

Having said that, there don't really appear to be too many bad sides this year. North obviously is appalling, as bad as anything we've seen since us in 2013. Essendon looks bad too. But who else is a bottom 4 contender? GWS? Hawthorn? Carlton?

20 hours ago, Pickett2Jackson said:

Check out the Dogs draw.  Made the finals last year, got gifted the #1 pick in the draft and then on top of it get the easiest draw you will ever see.

They have repeat games against Port Adelaide, West Coast, Gold Coast, us and North. They've still got six interstate trips and a trip to Geelong. Not sure it's the "easiest" at all. 

Meanwhile the advantage rule is broken IMO. So many umpires wait to see if the team who takes advantage retains possession and if they don't, they recall it. That's not how the rule works. If you take it, and immediately turn it over, bad luck.

Case in point just now: Sydney had a free, player picked it up and kicked it, turned it over, so the umpire called it back and that gave Sydney a new possession and a goal.

26 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

I'll take Sydney seriously if they keep this up.

 

They should have been taken seriously since round one, they still have a core of star players and a host of academy players.

Interesting

Just switched over from the womens game..

Wow. Is there a changing of the guard underway?

The Swannettes are the real deal. 
 

where’s our academy??

We should take credit for Sydney’s rise. Round 15, 2020 we played them into form.

Swans killing them.   They stuck with John Longmire for the rebuild and it looks like the payoff will be tremendous.

 

Edited April 3, 20215 yr by Pickett2Jackson

7 minutes ago, Clint Bizkit said:

They should have been taken seriously since round one, they still have a core of star players and a host of academy players.

As I said, Brisbane didn't show up in Round 1 and Adelaide is still Adelaide.

It's easy to get carried away when a younger/rejuvenated squad starts a season well but it wouldn't have been surprising at all for them to slump today.

The fact that they're not means they deserve to be rated.

Richmond are getting pantsed in the middle and it's not just because Prestia is injured. No midfield pressure on Sydney means they can take their pick of forward half options, and that's without Franklin in the side.

It's incredible that Tom Hickey is playing well. A journeyman in every sense of the word.

Sydney's next two are Essendon and GWS.

Even if they lose this from here, you'd expect them to be 4-1. 

Their repeat games are GWS, Essendon, Fremantle, St Kilda and Gold Coast. Really, really favourable list there, which happens when you finish bottom 4 I suppose.

 

Sydney are a top four lock.