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I am just hoping the Heat is on tonight. A hard game by both sides hammy’s and bones put at risk

If they do bring the GF forward, and thus dispensing with the byes altogether, then winning the Qualifying Final will be crucial. Going straight into the Prelim with a week off would be a huge advantage

Doesn't matter what happens tomorrow with next week. So we play Port in Adelaide if we lose and most likely Brisbane in Adelaide if we win. I'm not sure one scenario is more scary than the other. Port have been involved in something like 6 games with results being within two goals and won every single one of them. If luck went against them and they lost a few, they'd have been vying to just make the 8. We have beaten both teams this season, both away from home. We have lost 4.5 games this season. In every single one of them, we were still in the game with less than 10 minutes to go. We have been the best team this season and by quite some distance, we have a very healthy list such that we've been able to drop Hibbo and Milkshake. Just stick to our game plan, be discipline and keep the intensity up, and we will be fine.

How ironic that a free kick for a throw is paid against the Dogs in the last minute ...

From a purely selfish point of view, today is not such a bad day. Actually, its pretty good. Not for the State obviously, but please grant me this small win. This morning my family and I were released from 14 day home quarantine due to tier 1 exposure, despite us adults being full vaxxed. Possibly the toughest mental health two weeks in my life. 5 km radius, night curfew and 2 hrs exercise seems like luxooory now. First outing today I found myself being really nervous around others and angry with those not wearing masks properly. Don't want to be like this. Normally I roll with the punches pretty well. Most of all I'm [censored]-off with the slow vax implementation nation wide (thanks ScoMo) and anyone not actively trying to get vaxxed asap. As they say, it will become a pandemic of the unvaccinated Thank god for the football and the Dees form this year! Onwards and upwards!

fmd the dogs were atrocious tonight. port not much better really. have to stop worrying about outcomes not in our control .. gotta just back our boys in to beat whoever whenever

I keep banging on about this, but anyone waiting for Pfizer instead of AZ should think again. Firstly, read this story which raises the issue of Pfizer's efficacy waning more quickly than AZ. Now, go get whatever's available and don't worry about which one it is. Just get vaccinated!

Extraordinary man, troubled yet transformative. Herewith a brilliant article by Martin Flanagan, who also wrote his own ‘fictionalised’ novel about Tommy - “The Call”, and my own portrait of Tommy (a death scene), the exhibition of which Martin opened… https://australianfootball.com/articles/view/Why+Tom+Wills+is+an+Australian+legend+like+Ned+Kelly/133

I’ve had a shot every time Brayshaw said Mitts, Dukes or Wheels. needless to say I’m hammered

So, if I’m gonna break up with someone I shouldn’t say I’m “dumping” them, I should say I’m just making a “change.” 😆

Remember when everyone was saying Melbourne had peaked too early and were talking up the Bulldogs? Well, the Bulldogs have now lost 3 in a row and we've won 3. I haven't rated the Bulldogs for most of the year and now it looks like they'll miss the top 4. It is difficult seeing so many Bulldog figjams strutt around shaking their heads after the game, but I'll take it. But Port... wow, imagine them being a top 2 team this year. What a joke.

Can’t say I’ve ever looked forward to a non -MFC Friday night game as much at this one tonight. Said to my myself at the start of the year I would love to have finals locked in before going to Geelong in the last round, Top 4 locked in is just a massive bonus. Stating the obvious, a crowd under the roof would have topped it off.

A sad bump on this one. The PGA of Australia have been drip-feeding a series of short articles (#BigFella40) with people remembering Jarrod and their experiences with him as his 40th birthday would have been tomorrow. The final lines of this one made me smile (The Legend of the Fighting Jarrod). "I saw Jarrod six days before his passing. My last few words to Jarrod were “Meet me on the first tee mate.” Not sure when yet but I know you will be waiting. I’m sure he was thinking even a hacker could shank a ball 250 m down the middle in heaven. We left singing the Melbourne Football Club song. Miss you, mate. Happy 40th birthday. RIP my friend." Gone way too soon. #BigFella40

Ok, I understand the point re federation. The big issue for me at the start of this whole thing was that when a national cabinet was formed, virtually a war cabinet if you like Morrison didn't invite the opposition to be a part of it. It would have been a show of true leadership but instead the politics got in the way. It is not unusual in times of crisis to have both sides of politics working together to find solutions. Unfortunately in these times partisanship has won the fight over communities working together. Just look at all the selfishness out there, yes and look at how the politics and point scoring has been a part of this pandemic from the start. Going all the way back to that DH in the US. The politics of division... Scomo and Albo...FFS is that as good as we've got. They say we get what we deserve, I'm not sure we deserve this. Maybe we, do, we've all been asleep at the wheel as our democracy withers on the vine. Curfews and state border protection don't bother me anywhere near as much as this.

You’ve lost all credibility by stating that (not that you really had any). Baker is not even close to Gus as a player, but ultimately you are not listening to what the arguments for him are. He protects critical zones to prevent the opposition from getting easy balls out, the fact we are not easily scored against is in no small part to his running patterns. He has had some higher number days with involvements, last week wasn’t one of them and yeah I’d like to see him get more of the ball. But don’t expect Brayshaw to be going anywhere soon, he is essential to our system and is playing a hugely sacrificial team role to allow Langers to do what he want on the other wing.

Or when a country has a Federation where much of the power lies with States who can't even agree with each other, have media spats and are hell bent on doing their own thing. Our Federation is unique and it significantly determines how policy is made and implemented. rjay, You may well be aware of how our Federation and Federal/State constitutional power division affect policy making and implementation but I suspect many on here (and in the media) do not. It sickens and saddens me that in our country, a democracy, we have Australian troops at state borders and curfews during peacetime. How many countries in the world stop its own citizens moving freely within its own boundaries let alone use troops to enforce them? I back up @daisycutterthe blame game and bickering is counterproductive be it on this forum, the media or in politics. We are eating our own.

Lol the dogs board blaming the umpires. Absolute flogs. Winning the free kick count for the year by 75+ and have certainly been kissed on the [censored] all year. Finally get called for their cheating throws and they [censored] about it

For now. That’ll change soon enough.

Fair points rjay. Would it have mattered who was on the National Cabinet as the State Premiers went there own separate ways almost immediately. Premiers from the same side couldn't/can't even agree with each other or adopt similar policies. It is every man/woman for themselves. If there was ever any goodwill it is long gone and I suspect having the Leader of the Federal Opposition in the National Cabinet would have made little difference. He is hardly someone that engenders confidence and leadership, either. Like you, it worries me that our choices are Albanese or Morrison. But if we had a good system of governance, in times of crisis it shouldn't matter. As it is, with States having the Constitutional power to go their own independent way, any PM of any side of politics is somewhat of a 'lame duck' at the mercy of Premiers and their much relied upon CHO.

.. as she continues in her quest for privacy?🤨

We completely dominated Port in Adelaide only a handful of weeks back. Off the top my head, Goody has maybe a 5-2 record at Adelaide Oval (with those two narrow losses absolute robberies by the umps - which I know is counter to my pep-talk, but still). I'm not sure why some you folk have the fear. I reckon the boys would relish playing in front of a crowd again.

Almost prefer to play Port than Brissie tbh.

Would be grand if the Eagles pull off a miracle tomorrow. My preferred draw would be the Dogs right now. They look cooked.

But not against a crowd of feral Port fans, scaring the umpires into giving them everything and lifting their team.

Finally pinged for throwing the ball and lost the free kick count 15 to 23. Karma is a [censored].

no bont, no dogs

Crowd-noise guy is phoning it in.

Hannan doing well this quarter. Pleased for him

Looks nothing like him.

1964-1

You have to feel for Teague. The bloke's replacement has been all but made and he is still in the job! The blues need to rip the bandaid off and sack him. let him leave with some dignity intact

Somewhat ironically, for a politician who is recognised more for his political nous than his policy skills, Morrison missed an opportunity. If he had agreed to include the Opposition Leader in his National Cabinet, it would have silenced Albanese as once inside that Cabinet, he would be bound to agree with every decision made. That would have strengthened Morrison's position as he would have had no Federal Opposition public commentary to worry about on this issue.

The impression that I got from him on Mac Andrew was somewhat different. Taylor says that Andrew was at our very first (NGA) training session at 14 but was still very much a raw prospect prior to Covid. He wasn’t involved in any major programmes such as the Vic Country squads although he did some work with the Dandenong Stingrays and it’s only this year that he’s made significant growth. It sounded to me as if Taylor and the club weren’t taking all that much credit for his recent improvement. As to the changes in the rules, he said he hadn’t been involved in the politics but he felt that there might have been a bit of a knee jerk reaction in the decision-making. He said the AFL might have taken into consideration whether players had been involved in academy programmes before removing access to them. The impression I got was that because the club hadn’t been so heavily involved in Andrew’s development over the years, he was philosophical about the prospect of losing him. At no time however, did he say one way or the other whether he thought Andrew would go top 20. On Taj Woewodin, he said he was a terrific young man who was making significant improvement in his midfield craft after previously playing off half back (and might also play forward a bit). The club has spoken with him and although the (Covid) situation has blocked attempts to get him over here, he’s in the WA Under 19 squad and the club will closely track his progress. Reading between lines, I think we will be drafting him in November.

A good article this week on how Jake Lever demonstrably fits in and guides our game plan

The argument to keep Melksham for his ball use into 50 only makes sense if he actually gets it. As it stands he got so little of the ball last week any difference in our efficiency as a team is just psychosomatic

My honest opinion I actually think they'll potentially use him to lock down on Jeremy Cameron potentially. I say this because he actually did the Job on him last year and kept him to 1 goal. By doing this again frees up Lever and May even more. The more I have thought about in the last few hours the more I'm slowly starting to understand this selection. Now does this also free up Petty as well to use his strength in being another intercept role? What you see with Hibberd is what you get. But I think Smith offers that flexibility to play on the smalls and also with the talls. Maybe they are happy with Rivers, Salem and Bowey as our run and carry? I think coming into finals the club may want to use Smith on a more lockdown role just because I think teams that we play in the final will put heavy work into the Lever/May combo.

Come Federal election time please remember who has responsibility for inbound quarantine and the vaccination procurement and distribution (hint: not the states ) I will not forget

Don't be so negative. Squirrel also reckons he knows an Afghani mate of his who reckons he knows a people smuggler who can get us into any state in Australia. He's got this big truck and it can fit a whole lot of us in. Once across the border you can claim asylum and demand to be taken to the footy.

I have today officially given up in 2021 on: Seeing another football game live. Being able to move outside 5km from my home. From today I have officially began to hibernate and am only thinking one day at a time. Sad isn't it But life is now reduce to existing. Time for another Heineken.

ANB is having the absolute epitome of a "career year" The amount of times this year he's stepped up to kick an important goal when we needed one. The MCG boundary snap shots against Richmond and GWS come to mind. Sure he's not perfect, he's a had a couple of poor games and won't be anywhere near the All Australian side. However, he's had a very good season overall and doesn't let 1 or 2 early errors define his performance. I was hoping he'd stick around after 2 promising late season games against GWS and Essendon last year, and he's more than upheld his end of the bargain. Hats off to ANB for a very good H&A season.

Thank you LDVC! I sent this link to my (25yo) son who’s been holding out for Pfizer. He just messaged me that he’s booked in for an AZ tomorrow morning.

I'm a bit conflicted on how I'd like to see the games to make up the teams in the bottom half of the 8 fall. On the one hand, I'd rather not see Essendon make it, but then I'd also like to see West Coast supporters suffer some pain and suspense of thinking they are in with a sneaky chance of making finals only to be denied at the last minute.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-news-2021-melbourne-demons-new-training-base-facilities-goschs-paddock-casey-fields-tom-morris/news-story/cdafa95cfe3fa4d6c4e204be43d56942 As much as I understand we are less likely to receive government handouts due to reasons previously mentioned I would be incredibly disappointed if our home base ends up being in Car Park E. The three options were are Car Park E (In Between Holden Centre and AAMI Park) Car Park F (In between our training oval and AAMI Park) and the empty land across the road from our oval. Clearly from just looking at my image below, Car Park E is the worst outcome of the three. Although I would be happy if we eventually got our home base we need one that can capitalize from both a marketing and long term point of view. I hope the recent article released is wrong, the empty land would be my first preference and if not that Car Park F. Even from an advertisement perspective it would be difficult to get sponsorship for the base as the building will be basically hidden from sight. Melbourne can do better than Car Park E.

Second Duggan, he'd be absolutely perfect and still out of contract. The other one for West Coast is Brander who could be handy key position depth if Weid goes but don't really know how good he is/how good he could be. On Rivers moving to a wing next year I'm not sure about it. You have to have a big endurance base to play wing, not sure if Rivers has that (yet at least). Instead I'd prefer to move Rivers to an inside mid. He has that long booming, accurate kick which would add a real point of difference to our midfield that it doesn't have, he's also a big body with a bit of speed who has crafted a nice defensive side to his game and is a really strong mark around the ground. A while back someone made a comparison of Rivers to Elliot Yeo which I think is absolutely spot on except I think Rivers would have a better defensive side to his game. In Riv's second half of his under-18 year he moved into an inside mid role for East Fremantle where he averaged close to 30 touches, multiple tackles, multiple clearances, and over a goal a game so I believe he has the capacity to thrive in that role. On Bowey not sure if he has the endurance either to play wing and I really like him at half back where he breaks lines with his kicking. The nature of the wing position is that some days the ball will be on your wing a lot and other days it won't be on your wing much. I actually reckon Gus has done a really, really good job this year on the wing where he has done a lot of unrewarded defensive running that has been vital to our structure and success. Is he the perfect winger? No, he doesn't have line breaking pace, an elite kick, or elite endurance. Does he play his role well? Yes he does, he has great spatial awareness or shutting down opposition attacks and is just solid when you need him. We already have a close to perfect wingman in Langdon on one wing, it would be nice to have 2 perfect wingman but in reality they will have days when they get don't much of the footy. Dylan Stephens might be worth looking at to play on the wing but does he offer the defensive side to the game Gus offers on a wing? Not sure, but his small frame limits that, I certainly wouldn't be giving up anything more than one of our second rounders. Trent Dumont is a free agent, he could maybe play the wing role but is he better than Gus? The other option could be Steele Sidebottom for a few years who does have elite endurance but is probably the same pace as Gus now. Personally I'd just rather stick with Gus, and I think Jordan could develop into a really nice winger. Down the track Rosman could potentially but I have serious doubts (he's an athlete not a footballer). I'd rather allocate my trade targets elsewhere and for me our biggest need is a small/medium defensive defender to replace Hibberd, where Maynard is the perfect option. He should be our number one target as Rivers could then move into the inside midfield too with your defence consisting of Maynard, Hunt, Salem, Bowey.

In the end it was Lever, Petty and Matthew Parker for Lochie O'Brien, Liam Stocker and Robbie Young. Obviously that was after further trades, with none of those players ending up at Adelaide. More accurately, it was Lever, pick 35 and pick 47 (future) for pick 10, pick 19 (future) and pick 67 (future).

Yeah we paid 2 first round picks, but add them all in with the picks we got back (including Petty), I don't think the equivalent of a top 5 pick was overs for an exposed form, 21 year old who was almost guaranteed to play for 10 more years in your best 22.

I don’t know how Sparrow is in ahead of JJ. Unless JJ is sore he is just a better player.

Agreed. It's a terrific book about a very interesting, albeit flawed, individual. It there was ever a list put together of the 10 most influential Australians of all time, his name should be there. Not just for being the inventor of Australian Football but also for taking the first Australian representative cricket team to the UK and for his ahead-of-his-time understanding and positive relationships with indigenous communities and individuals.

We'll win this week, win next week and go on to win the flag and everyone will say "well that was obvious wasn't it - they are the best team"