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You build a potential side around a tough, skillful and experienced midfield. You can have stars and/or talent on every other line, but the midfield is the engine room that makes you go places. It's been the case with every premiership side, such as Brisbane in the early 2000s, Hawthorn, Sydney and Geelong. Collingwood's midfield comprises players like (games played in brackets) Pendlebury (268), Sidebottom (202), Treloar (135), Adams (111). Geelong has Selwood (266), Selwood (161), Ablett (314), Dangerfield (218), Duncan (174), even Guthrie (135). Richmond has Cotchin (214), Martin (194), Edwards (224), Houli (180), Caddy (132). We've got Jones (256), but as a comparison we are building our real midfield around Brayshaw (50), Viney (95), Petracca (55), Oliver (52), Salem (62), Harmes (62), Neil-Bullen (51), Fritsch (16) etc. You work it out. These games played stats highlight our present condition, but are also a reason for huge optimism. It's hard to be patient when we've been down as long as we have but we have reason to be genuinely optimistic. They are not "excuses", just reality. Calling the side "mentally weak", highlighting deficiencies in individual players, saying someone "should never play again", asking for the coach to be sacked and handing in our memberships will never overcome that current lack of experience. They are just poor analyses, and mentally weak in themselves. I agree with Judd. It's a good summation of where we are and where we are going. I'm look forward to the next two years with great anticipation, regardless of whether we make the 8 this year (which I think we still can).

He is a young 6 foot 3 athletic defender who has played 6 games in his career. He is quick has a great leap and can play small. I know he has made some errors but I put this down to inexperience and believe he is trying to do the correct things. I reckon he will be a lock in the 22 in a couple of years

It's a sensible article. The pain of Saturday night is still pretty raw, but if you can put that aside then you can see that we are continuing to build a strong side that is playing together more often. Gus, Oliver and Petracca have 150 games between them and they basically led our midfield on Saturday night against almost 1000 games of experience in Ablett, Selwood and Dangerfield. That's a damn fine effort and proof that our kids are maturing right before our eyes.

VFL 2018: Liam Hiscock overcomes cancer scare to make inspiring VFL debut for Casey Demons Liam Hiscock was diagnosed with testicular cancer last year after playing 8 games with the Casey Development League team. On Saturday, he played his first game for the Casey seniors. ”Hiscock, a commerce student at Monash University, will long remember his debut. Casey finished furiously at the Geelong stadium, kicking five goals to two in the final quarter to pinch a three-point victory, its 10th on the reel.”

It really is no fun being you is it

Might want to be in the 8 first

For the doomsayers here have a read of chris judds excellent and realistic view of melbourne in todays Age. He cuts through fugazi and lays out why there is upside still and the potential core of a good team still with a way to go. Short term and week to week thinkers probably should avoid. It will only upset you.

Our footy club has the turning circle of a cruise liner. What I struggle with is Collingwood- they’ve been crap for so long and are suddenly top 2/4 and flag contenders. Why isn’t that us? Arguably, (IMO), we’ve got a more talented list, I just cannot reconcile this.

My understanding is that the AFL instructed all nine clubs still in contention for finals to send out those emails. Had we made it, another club would have been seen to be getting ahead of themselves and copped the ridicule. Unfortunately, nobody really seems interested in the truth when there is an opportunity to sh1tcan Melbourne.

6/6/6 will do absolutely nothing to ease congestion around the ground. The AFL is run by absolute morons I swear.

Here's another example of the experience and maturity of our list. Number of players with 100 or more games experience: Hawthorn 17 Collingwood 16* Geelong 15 Adelaide 15 West Coast 14 Richmond 14 Sydney 13 GWS 13 Melbourne 8 * includes Grundy who plays his 100th game this week.

What amazes me is the number of Demonland posters who said we'd be beaten easily by Geelong, at Geelong, and because we came within an inch of beating them but didn't win, all of a sudden we're dining at the restaurant at the end of the universe. Of course it hurts our final chances and shows all sort of deficiencies in our game, but only Marvin the Robot would be so depressed. Pardon me for breathing, which I never do anyway so I don’t know why I bother to say it, oh God, I’m so depressed. Here’s another one of those self-satisfied doors. Life! Don’t talk to me about life..

You're talking about the 2018 season, yeah? Cause I just checked, we are top 8 with 5 games to go. Ironically, you probably expect 100% effort from the boys week in week out, but seemingly give up very easily yourself. Weak as p155 comment

Word is Gaff was on his way to us. The Eagles have upped the ante with extended offer and more money. He’ll probably still come but we’re going to have to pay serious dollars

The article itself is fugazi, it means jack [censored]. Wins and losses are the only thing that means anything, always has and always will. Our club is mentally fragile and everyone knows it. I agree with PJ. Oh and Nathan jones inspiring, biggest joke of the day!!! Good for a laugh though. It reminds me of an article in the Bailey era, and we know how that turned out.

Keilty won't play against the Crows, way too much of a risk in a much too important game. If he's lucky he might get a go vs the Suns if we need to rest someone. He had a good game vs the Cats, kept Buzza goal-less and to only 6 disposals, so he definitely is deserving of a game, but I don't see it happening given our run home. Pederson was very good against the Cats so if they feel they need to bring in another tall, given his experience at AFL level, I'd expect they'd pick him over debuting a Rookie.

Strangely enough, the kids are fine, it’s the older brigade who are mentally weak.

Nice article. Might mean something if I hadn't been hearing these "coulda wouldas" for fifty years. I'm over potential.

I am very much in the thought that if Dec had played vs the Saints, we would've won. He was great on the weekend, kept Buzza goal-less and to only 6 disposals. But Pedo is also in some good form so I think he'd play over Keilty. As for your second question, I'm not allowed to comment on that, sorry.

How many times over the course of a round of football will a player 'take a mark' and stop, despite the umpires screaming 'touched, touched, touched'? The result of every single one of these is benefit of the doubt, player didn't hear it. Then in a ruck contest, Geelong nominate a confusing ruck, that ruck then runs at his opposite number, rather than the ruck contest, and is paid a free kick for blocking. Where the [censored] is the benefit of the doubt? Not one player had any idea Dangerdick was rucking. At least we know how to fix up our i50-goal conversion. Every stoppage inside forward 50, nominate whoever is being tagged and get them to run at the tagger. Free kick - goal.

Should Dangerfield be reported for staging. Having now viewed the incident again several times, it is clear he staged for a free. That is against the rules and a punishable offence. He throws his arms out before any contact with Brayshaw and when he is nowhere near the throw in or ruck contest. He runs into the back of Brayshaw who is stationary, just in front of him, wildly waving his arms as if he is being held back by two sumo wrestlers. He has clearly staged to get a free kick. The AFL MRP looks at consequences of an act. This resulted in a goal that changed the result of the game. What will Michael Christian or his boss the former Cats player and footy manager and now AFL footy manager Steve Hocking do, absolutely nothing.

I couldn't care less about your predictor or anyones for that matter. I will wait until the end of the season and see where we finish. Good luck with your analysis...I hope it's as good as your posts.

No way known that was an honourable loss. It was another of a long line of embarrassing capitulations.

Agree. he has something i reckon. Very early days for him and clearly the club see real potential there. It is worth remembering in that context he was selected round 1 last year.

i like joel smith and i thought he played well against the cats. he is quick, agile, aggressive, versatile and plays to his strengths. i rate him and i'm surprised others dont either.

But the AFL is ahead of the NRL where the teams employ ex-referees to coach players into how to cheat. Some AFL clubs don't use ex-refs, they get the active umps to do it. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-24/nrl-clubs-accused-of-coaching-players-to-cheat/10029500

perhaps we've turned and are going the wrong way.

What [censored] me off the most with the Dangerfield ruck nomination incident, is when after he kicked the goal and celebrated, he ran to his team mates and pointed to his temple to infer "Look how I just outsmarted the opposition to milk a free kick and goal." Clearly did it to exploit a rule and in turn, create an easy shot at goal and important momentum killer for them. For a rule that allows a player to do that is a blight on the individual and the game.

I actually think we have failed for some different reasons, reasons that are quite the opposite. Last year we lost games against the lesser sides and upset a few of the top ones. This year it's changed, but I think that shows we are on the right track if that makes sense. As we mature and continue to gain experience then we can knock off the sides above us more regularly. Outside of the Saints, which was a blip on the radar, we have handled everyone else with ease. I think that's a sign of improvement. We just need to continue to build our experience and maturity so those sides above us that we struggle with quickly become the sides below us.

It’s a very simplistic article. It’s basically correct but my 11 year old son could write it

Who cares, honorable losses are nice but they have a use by date. 2016 had a chance at finals and blew it, failed pathetically last year, heat is already on again. I don’t care for nice stats and they mean jack crap if a side is mentally weak and can’t handle pressure. As Peter Jackson said himself, if we miss finals it’s a failure this year.

So Oliver, Hogan, Lewis & Jones all get fines for tummy taps yet Hawkins gets off because why??? Absolutely [censored] joke this league is.

My girlfriend (a Brit) was really surprised and shocked at how [censored] off I was after the Port loss. Of course I would never hurt her but she kept poking and making fun of how upset I was. I had to calmly (but still clearly annoyed) tell her to just let me be, just let me be annoyed for a bit and let the frustration out. She then got annoyed at me for that! ? My point is I’m a very patient guy and I can let my frustrations out in healthy ways. There are too many that don’t, and it’s silly to ignore the fact that heightened emotions from sport create higher instances of DV.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/world-cup-2018-england-matches-domestic-violence-surge-football-police-a8405871.html http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-22/spike-in-domestic-violence-during-state-of-origin,-study-finds/9895684 https://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/origin/study-of-new-south-wales-domestic-violence-cases-reveals-spike-at-state-of-origin-time/news-story/da950e0bcef77e227c650f98478ced50 Some people have a massive problem and much of it is down to the toxic masculinity that is ingrained into our culture. We don't have to be stoning women to death in some parts of the Muslim world to be demonstrating an incredibly dangerous masculinity. Inter-partner violence, domestic violence, spousal rape etc are all big problems in our society. I know because my wife works in the space and I hear some [censored] horrible stories. I get whiteline fever at the footy and I get very angry. I've never hit anyone in my entire life, but I made a conscious effort at the start of this season to try and control my trigger response to Melbourne turnovers, bad umpiring and Melbourne losses. I'm not perfect and I still get incredibly angry, but I'm getting better and it also means I can move on quicker (this Geelong loss is taking longer than usual though!). I've been a feminist a long time and the sooner some men acknowledge their propensity for anger and trigger responses, the sooner we can start to eradicate this scummy, lowlife behaviour. The more we're in denial, as you seem to be, the longer it will continue. The world I want to live in isn't populated with boofhead gronks who want to get around beating up people, because they're too stupid to understand their own feelings.

I still think Ablett quite clearly pushed Brayshaw in the back when Brayshaw went in to get it in that last 30 seconds. We've seen tackles like that get called for pushes in the back repeatedly in the last few weeks. Ablett didn't even try to roll him over like Salem did when he got pinged last week against the Dogs. Nothing is as bad as the protected zone 50m penalty against Harmes, though.

According to some people on here, Umpires dont cost teams games. Go and watch the game over and you will see the garbage that got paid against us on sat night. Looks like that visit from Troy Pannell paid off for Geelong. [censored] the AFL.

So today we find out Harmes has a broken hand probably from having the ball kicked out of his hands in the last quarter. No free play on and Geelong get a goal. Our young first year player gets smashed by Hawkins while laying on the ground. Hawkins gets off. Plus the rest of the bulls#$t frees on Saturday night and the club does nothing. We're so polite and soft off the field as well. Why doesn't our club stand up for our players? Meanwhile at the NRL coaches call it like it is and refs get dropped when they fup. https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/nrl/greenberg-tells-referees-to-be-better-as-axe-poised-over-sutton-20180723-p4zt5k.html

You are a tool, and clearly don't understand the game if you think Oscar was responsible for the majority of those goals. The lack of midfield pressure in the last quarter is one reason. Our guys were out on their feet by the last quarter, and Gawn had a relatively poor night in the ruck. No full back in the competition would have stopped those goals. Goodwin's continued stupidity in having a loose man in defence who doesn't stand in the hole of front of the opposition full forward is the second reason. Stewart parked himself in front of Hogan for most of the night, and completely negated him. Smith or Frost could certainly have done a similar job for us. As for JKH, he should have been delisted last season. There was absolutely no reason for him to get a new deal.

There's an "R" where the "F" should be in the thread title ?