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Maybe the AFL can just give us the 4 points after initially taking it away from us last week.

Dare I say that the club isn’t keeping the supporters in the dark. Instead they aren’t letting every opposition club know what’s wrong with one of our most important players, and therefore how to target him.

Rabid dogs?

Seriously, what do you care? There may be 100 reasons why they don't want others to know about a players injury. Let them do their job.

Clearly this is GOD punishing the AFL for not committing sufficient resources towards quality umpiring.

If ever there was a (non health related) reason people need to get vaccinated this is it. Population gets vaccinated, it no longer becomes an issue how many cases get reported. Life goes on.

haha we are a petty bunch. Don't we want to face a full strength dogs to see what we're made of? Silly question I know I know...

Also, because if they all test negative they're not battling a potentially life-threatening disease.

Salem available to play according to MFC website

Gee Terlich & Toumpus are stiff..

Who can all go [censored] themselves.

Don't think he was injured, just ran out of peroxide and refused to go on deck without his highlights.

Win a flag and then they're in the conversation. Theyre obviously a brilliant duo though, best in the league.

no close tags then - have to maintain social distance

Hopefully they all test negative. A positive test result would definitely force us into a compacted fixture later in the year.

I demand to see all his personal medical records!

i believe he is sore between the big toes.

It was the Lever decision that astounded me. The umpire payed a free kick against Lever as the Adelaide player waited and shepherded the dribbling ball over the boundary line. It showed that the umpire decidedly did not understand the rule. An obvious free to the Dees paid against them.

The Bulldogs are nowhere near as good as people seem to think they are. honestly i think they're flat track bullies a little bit. really looking forward to seeing how we test them out. i am backing us in to get over the line

I will always have a soft foot for Jack as he was so wonderful with kids, I often took my daughter to training 7 years ago and he was just brilliant in his interaction with her and a few years later when we had moved to Alice Springs he was also fantastic with my son, the kids loved him.

Disappointing that this was said by Kane Cornes automatically disqualifying this statement as being true. ?

In: Salem, Brown, Sparrow Out: Jetta, Weideman, Melksham Shouldn’t forget that BBB has kicked 173 career goals at Docklands! He could have 0 possessions in the VFL and it doesn’t change my view that he’s in our best 22.

Joel Smith 3-4 season(s) How prescient

Bad news if true. Our midfield has dropped off big time since he went down injured. Over the past month statistically we’ve gone from a clear top 2 team to a middling team grinding out wins (and a loss) against weak opposition. Viney adds defensive pressure, ball winning ability, and a vocal leader to organize around the ground. His absence is being felt more than it’s being spoken about.

Too late OD - i'm fully woke.

If we are to have any chancing of winning this game we have to replace Weideman with Brown, While browns form has been average at best he has played a large number of good games at the dome and knows it well. Weideman is a very average KPF who has played half a dozen good games in his career and is not up to it. He has played two games since returning and would have been in the bottom 5 players both games.

Sounds like a media report of the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.

I really hate this articles, this side and this pair has achieved absolutely nothing, 1 year of finals in the 5-6 seasons they have played, the side 1 year of finals in 16 years. Pump our tyres up once we have actually had an era of success, that may or may not include premierships but 5-6 years of finals at least.

It's a pretty good tactic though. I'd employ it too if it were an option.

To be fair that only happened in WA and we know they are panic merchants. As much as I want to go to this game, I want to avoid lockdowns more. A wide long lasting lockdown would impact the season far more than one game with no crowds.

I'm getting that pre 2019 bathwater feeling and we all know how that ended The reality is that the two rarely perform at elite level in the same game. If they do then perhaps we have the makings of a great team.

Thats a really good point DJ. The roof that is never open needs to open. It was built to open and in this case its public safety at stake. It should be law that it is open.

I would be - it effectively means that we can't beat them in a final - this is as close to a final you can get during the season proper It's the classic 8 point game, both teams have a chance to grab top spot and a clear break on the next in line We have to stop thinking near enough is good enough - why bother if we can't actually win a premiership. I for one am sick of making up the numbers Time to make a very big statement - are you good enough or not ? we get the answer this Friday night

I ask (rhetorically, not of you) what use is a rule that requires "interpretation"? Incident A happens this week and results in a free, but the same incident last week didn't. The week before it was something else again. Yet the rule stayed the same. A rule that requires "interpretation" is a poorly framed rule. (We see shades of this "interpretation" nonsense in the match review department, where Christian doesn't know if he's coming or going. He's the one who needs a concussion test.) In the umpires' defence (God strike me down) no one understands it because it has holes in it you could drive a truck through. "Interpretation" is required to fill in the gaps. Rule does not say what happens if another player allows the ball go out. Just some feelgood about "best intentions". The umpire on the spot gets to invent the outcome. Rule also does not say what happens if the ball is deflected. All of bigfooty and most of the media convinced themselves that Spargo touching it (if he did -- vision was about as good as most goal review replays) meant it couldn't be deliberate. But the rule is silent on that point. No-one understands the rule! Not even the people who wrote it. "Interpretation" is a bogus concept and it's one of the great con jobs that the AFL has everyone from Gil, Shocking, clubs, coaches, players, media and fans, accepting it as a normal part of the game. I'd like to know when it first reared its ugly head. It's a joke and a travesty. It's like being at a school where the English teachers can't spell, and the maths teachers can't do arithmetic, and the school manages to convince the pupils and parents that that doesn't matter & it's a normal part of schooling ..... and those pupils & parents accept it as a frustrating but unavoidable part of the school experience. "Interpretation" is utter bull-sh*t and should be eradicated from the game.

The 2 non decisions discussed here are appalling but there is another I’m yet to see mentioned which happened immediately prior to the Out of bounds... the push in the back when Kozzie attempted to mark the ball. You can see him ask the umpire using his hands asking why it wasn’t paid. Am I alone here noticing this??

It’s not a silly point and IMO highlights our attitude and lack of awareness. We were simply not switched on. The players should all have been screaming to the umpires with hands outstretched. Then if the closest umpire doesn’t pay it one if the others might. How often do we see teams appealing to the umpires for a free and it does work, though of course not always. If a bunch of the closest Dees had visibly gesticulated for the free, the umpires would have known this would become an incident in the media and may have capitulated and paid it. When the players act like they don’t care, it is the out for the umpires to avoid a blatant free against the home side, that could cost them the game. In summary, our lack of reaction probably contributed to the umpires decision, even though of course it should have no effect, but as we know, it often does.

I’ve picked us all year and I’m not about to change now. Go Dees.

If this is the bar you need to jump over to say a team won't win a Grand Final soon, then it would be absurdly easy to write one about every team in the league. For example: Bulldogs: Class is mostly in one area. Defence terrible and defence wins premierships. Zayne Cordy has to take the number 2 big forward. Awful in the ruck. Halve the midfield and you beat them. They're flat track bullies. Went to water when they faced pressure against an understrength Richmond. Brisbane: Defence ordinary after Andrews and struggle to defend run ons. Poor in the ruck. Too many small midfielders who have been bullied around in finals the last few years. Rely on too few to do too much, and they're all similar players. Had their chance in the bubble and still didn't threaten. Port: Butters out indefinitely. Lack a big marking option after Dixon. Too many 'meh' smalls. Struggle to score in tight games. Many players lack class. Best players are either old or young, with middle filled with average footsoldiers. 'Stars' aren't good enough to win games like others can. Had their chance int he bubble ... now they're all a year older. Geelong: Old and lack pace. Midfield lacks class. Ruck is terrible and costs them games. Play a high possession game that can get shut down in high pressured finals. Have struggled to win finals during their run at the top. Their old list plays well during the regular season but doesn't have it in them to raise their game again once the pressure goes up in finals. No team is perfect. Nor are we.

That is super high. Our average opposition score was something like 61 points prior to this game. And we conceded 76 points from turnovers alone. I'm not sure how they define a turnover (frustration #6543 with how the game us covered) but I'm assuming it is any time where we have clear possession and they win it back. So not just clangers. There must be heaps of turnovers in any given game. No doubt speaks to how fierce at the contest they were, their ability to transition the ball and getting clean entries. The first speaks to our pressure the latter two things our average defensive running and spread.

My thanks go out to Hell Bent, I spent about 40mins reading through this thread to see if anyone else had raised this (I need to get a life). The Fox vision doesn't show it but some of the other vision I've seen shows the Adelaide player clearly pushing Coz in the back with both hands. Even with the Fox front on vision you can see the Adelaide player is caught behind and cannot spoil and clearly propels Cozzie forward while he is attempting the mark. There is no subjectivity, in the same way as an earlier free was payed against Lever (correctly). If you go back a couple of minutes (before the Tex goal) you will also see Cozzie apply a perfect holding the ball tackle near the boundary line. This was also called play on and I commented to Mrs DW at the time that I wouldn't expect us to receive any free kicks in the final minutes. How often do we here the commentators say "the Umpires have clearly put the whistle away" in the closing minutes of a game and this is often applauded but I firmly believe it is a blight on the game. IMO you cannot pick and chose when to apply the laws of the game. What we are seeing at the moment is confusing for everyone. It's one thing to have your view obscured or to be uncertain due to the pace but it is ridiculous to ignore a clear breach of the laws.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Weideman and Brown both don’t play and we go back to McDonald and Fritsch as our main targets. The issue is Melksham should be dropped too so not sure who can come in to fill those spots.

Good they admitted their mistake, but it doesn’t change the outcome of the game. Incorrect decisions made by umpires since officially recognized as incorrect by the AFL have now directly influenced the result of three matches this year. All three teams who incorrectly lost have been the visiting side from interstate. Umpiring needs to be seriously looked at now. The entire ladder would be different if the correct results were upheld. $100,000s would have been incorrectly paid out in betting too. The AFL has to do something.

They were also made to look second rate at Marvel by Carlton for 3 quarters. We will need to be at our best, but they are certainly beatable.

Mark it down as it happens every year, we’ll win at least. two of Dogs x 2, Lions, Port, Eagles and will drop one of the W’s you have penciled in. Plenty to work on from Saturday and there will be more identified issues from the Brissy and Dogs games, but you’re better getting exposed to your flaws now. I actually like that we finish with 3 really tough games in our last 4.

I like this doggies supporter because he is spot on. Unfortunately the Weideman/McDonald did not work at all. First time this year where our forward functioning was poor. Does that come down to not having Ben Brown there drawing two defender which releases Fritsch or McDonald? Could be. The Melksham comment is spot on again. Why the actual [censored] we brought Melksham in will go down as this year's biggest selection blunder. Not only does he add legit nothing to the team but we are taking away more defensive pressure by having both Melksham and Fritsch playing in the same team. No coincidence that our forward pressure was at its best when Sparrow was also rotating through there, but also applying manic tackling pressure.

Our best wins this year against Richmond and Geelong have come about when we've had T Mac, Fritta and a resting ruck as our talls. Perhaps drop Weid and don't replace him with a tall.

Are you serious? Gus played one of his better matches on Saturday. His defensive positioning was elite. He also got some inside ball as well. I was very happy with his game. 22 touches at 73%, 10 CPs, 3 tackles and stopped multiple Adelaide switches and entries via his positioning. Is he as damaging offensively as 2018, no, but he's being played as the defensive winger. Langdon is the offensive winger. People need to watch the game more closely.