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Hats off to Kate Roffey. Kate will not be going to Perth due to the limited number of MFC people allowed into WA. I am sure Kate could have found a way to be included in the party of 55 but she put others ahead of herself. A real leader.....

Some years ago, I was a member of a tribunal of a junior football league. It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise but there were a few cases that we sat on where young impressionable players sought to emulate their heroes playing league football and it landed them in trouble. Fortunately, I didn’t sit on any cases involving attacks on umpires but there were some in my time that were heard by other tribunal members. A suspension of a season or the remainder of the season plus the next were meted out. I’ve watched the vision and listened to the pundits arguing both ways but to me, this is a no brainer. Forget the argy bargy and excuse making about whether or not there was physical contact (there was). You need to look at the entire incident from beginning to end. Start with the confrontation in Greene’s approach to Stevic, the way the contact was made and the aftermath of the contact. The look of every aspect of this incident was appalling and reeks of conduct unbecoming of a professional sportsperson in this age. A finding of not guilty or a light sentence in these circumstances would not be well received in the community competitions, whether senior or junior that struggle year in and year out to fill umpiring places. I believe that earlier this season, a number of competitions were struggling and in many cases, umpires had to double up on games over a weekend. The AFL Tribunal has a duty to decide this case on its merit but it would serve the sport well if it took a strong stand tomorrow night. I personally would like to see a minimum penalty of six weeks suspension with a stern warning from the chairperson that he is fortunate to have received just that. Hopefully, a severe penalty might influence GWS to not even consider wasting everyone’s time with an appeal as they did a few weeks ago.

Greene should get at least 4 weeks. Cannot walk into an umpire intentionally. Simple, It’s not on. But it wasn’t heated, it was stupid But listening to Gerard Whately this morning, was nauseating as he went on and on. Gerard wants to run The AFL his way Whately should be given 6 weeks as well

Not to be an arrogant bastard but I have to say I told youse so 😁 This years Flag is ours to lose boys, let’s get it done.

I re-watched the game and kept an eye on TMAC's contribution or lack thereof. I am not for a minute saying he played well but was surprised to see that he did contribute more than I would have thought. This is a summary of his impact on the game. 1st quarter - Hit up mark 60 out, plays on passes to Brayshaw who misses shot/pass to Brown. - Crashes pack ball spills to Sparrow, goal. - Takes ball out of forward line ruck dual, spills to Kozzy for a goal. 2nd quarter - Leads out 5 metres clear 30 meters out from goal, Neal-Bullen kicks over his head. - Marks 45 out, misses. - Brings contest to ground to Petracca who misses. 3rd quarter - Blocks for Brown who marks 20 out. - Had front possy and hands on it for mark and Brown spoils him. 4th quarter - Brings mark contest to ground, Petracca picks up passes to Brayshaw who misses. Some may say this is not a good enough contribution and I went out of my way to find whatever small impact he had, but that is a summary his performance.

As always, context is everything. Greene sought out the umpire in a break. He pointed a finger at him. He back chatted to him. He then chose to walk into him and then turn back and continue to chat to him. There was malice and aggression in that. Heppell is in play. Split second not watching action. He grabs the umpire instinctively to stop him from falling. Intention to intimidate and discredit the umpire in one. Accidental in the other. It’s like when sometimes a player accidentally knocks over the goal umpire. There’s no malice in that and the AFL has stopped punishing players for any umpire contact because it’s a fast game and accidents happen. Things that happen in play always need to be taken under the “split second heat of the game” consideration. Players can be so focused their peripheral vision fails them. I mean how many friendly fires do we see in games. It’s not disimilar. For me the bumping action from Greene is not the issue alone. It’s the entire interaction with Stavic. It’s aggressive and it’s disrespectful and it’s completely unnecessary. It’s 30 very ugly seconds that could set off a lot ugly behavior in junior ranks if we don’t stamp it out.

Looks so much like his old man! Good to see he’s performing well. He’s come along way with his develop and I expect us to pick him up with a late pick.

need to give toby a bit of latitude......after all this is only his 22nd charge to date

I agree with this. I heard Gerard Whateley's opening on his radio show this morning. He said something about how people in the AFL industry/media who had tried defending Greene were wrong to do so, but I didn't hear him name anyone in particular. That might be because most/all of those who have defended him are his colleagues on either Fox or SEN. We have Luke Hodge, who in the post-match interview tried to lead Greene into saying it was an accident. Justin Leppitscsh blamed Stevic for not getting out of Greene's way. Nick Riewoldt (I believe) said he wanted to "fly the flag" for Greene. Kane Cornes says Greene should be fine unless Stevic effectively rats him out, putting the pressure on the umpire (in this case the victim). Matthew Richardson thinks it should be a fine only. There are also current players defending him, including Petracca (I can't read the Herald Sun article but apparently it's here), as well as Pendlebury and Taylor Adams. That's slightly more understandable given what we know about the all-important player's code. Some/all of the above may have said what they said without seeing the side angle camera footage which removes any debate over whether there was contact or not. But having seen the footage which shows obvious contact, if you still think this isn't worthy of a multi-week suspension, you are contributing to a cultural problem within the AFL which will only serve to increase the horrendous standard of AFL umpiring (i.e. if we don't take a strong stance to protect umpires at the elite level, we'll struggle to get better umpires into the system).

Still gets a game for me. His first shot at goal just missed. he competed hard all night

Ridiculously eerie.. Thought I was looking at Shane Woewodin 1997.

Sheesh, talk about gifting the cats an armchair ride into the prelim. I dearly want him to get off to play against them but honestly i reckon this should be 6 weeks plus. This guy costs his team time and again… he’s brilliant but not a team player is he. Toby is All about Toby. In fact If i were the Giants i’d trade him and get a cpl of first rounders. You can’t grow a bonded team around this [censored].

The biggest standout feature of our rise is how so many of our players now play in front of their opponents. And how we fight for the front position All over the ground but especially our forwards We're giving ourselves so many more opportunities to win the ball. Ball falls short we're in front and a large majority of frees are paid to the player playing the ball (think about how hard it is to win a free kick playing from behind) But free kicks are only a small part of the sport when factoring in the 1000's of football acts in any game of footy. Where we are winning out is when the ball is in dispute, we are playing in front. It is a huge advantage and can't be downplayed And our backman read the play so well that they are often playing in front by default So do all that and then break even or win the clearances and you're half way home By contrast, the Lions were caught out playing from behind too much so they paid the penalty As complicated as the game can be these days it's also a simple game as well

I’m just here to remind everyone that David King wanted this bloke to be All Australian Captain last week. A team featuring Gawn, Bont, Wines, May, Hawkins… Good call, David King call.

As seen elsewhere, he's more rectal thermometer than barometer.

What traditions, celebrations and superstitions do you take into this time of year. I’ve got a 1980 bottle of MFC premiership port that was given to my late father and at the time we vowed to open it if a GF win ever came our way. Would love the chance to crack it open this year. Not sure how it will taste but it would be worth it.

Disappointing remarks from Petracca IMO: https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/teams/greater-western-sydney-giants/afl-news-2021-toby-greene-contact-with-umpire-special-treatment-video-what-happened-reactions/news-story/6cd7d9f1a58a26d992d5cd5853c72ee6 Better to say nothing

I really like Toby Greene as a player - he is an out and out superstar and as a PLAYER i would love to have him in our side, BUT I would not want him near our current team for what he COULD do to the culture. In this case, I CANNOT, and I want to write it in double bolded CAPITALS, CANNOT fathom how anybody can possibly try to defend what he did. He bumped an umpire, walked straight at him when he had many chances to go around him, all while upset that a free was reversed when he elbowed an opponent in the throat (unsure when that has happened recently and the uproar of that???). He should get 6 weeks in my books. I would also love to see what sort of response from these so called experts and players would be saying if it was Zach Sproule or someone of his standard and experience!!! They would probably accept his punishment and want to set an example, but not when it is a gun player in a big final!

Much to the missus' horror, my full sized flag now hangs from the lace ironwork of upper bedroom window. Starting to see some other red & blue about our 'burb.

I actually thought that our game on Saturday night was really well umpired. Except a couple of idiotic dangerous tackle calls, which went both way, it was a game where you didn't notice the umpires at all. And that is a good game. Say what you like about Ray, he is a good umpire.

Good to see him get some recognition for his performance. Those stats are pretty good for a 4 x 25 quarters game with no time on and 5 players rotating off the bench. Given that there were a number of highly regarded prospects from each state on the ground. I’m biased obviously but he’s going to the right club where he can be developed without the urgency that we used to apply for every recruit who walked onto the scene. Here’s a player by player assessment on the game - Scouting Notes: 2021 AFLU19s – Western Australia vs. South Australia

There’s an article in the Herald-Sun (no link available) entitled “Moneyball: Follow all the latest trade, contract, draft and coaching news across the AFL” there are some interesting items – • Essendon is keen to recruit Gold Coast’s Malcolm Rosas who is seen as a replacement for Irving Mosquito who has left the club. • Adam Cerra is considered a certainty to land at Carlton with Melbourne mentioned as the only other possible suitor. However, the Demons aren’t in a position to provide a trade. Luke Jackson is out of the question and the club doesn’t have any high draft picks. • Melbourne is keen to retain Sam Weideman who has received interest from Collingwood, North Melbourne and the Gold Coast Suns. • Tom Lynch who was told by Adelaide that he wasn’t getting a new contract. • Hawthorn has offered a three year deal to Fremantle’s Lachie Schultz.

Plus two for that face.

Have heard from someone who gets good intel that Hunt is all but certain to be right to go, and we're tossing up Hibberd coming back in as well.

Hats off to Kate and an absolute shambles that only 55 can attend. No doubt blokes like Eddie McGuire, Tom Browne and Damien Barrett (who's already quarantining) will somehow find their way over there.

and when tackling, not a hair out of place with the best head of hair in the AFL.

Why are so many players, commentators and general public defending it? You cant touch an umpire, especially in an aggressive tone regardless of who did it.

Rhys Mathieson says hello

I actually think he is one of the better umpires. He might be a bit theatrical at times but his explanations are always appreciated. Some umpires just say "that's what I thought happened" without giving an actual explanation.

Perfect, looks like my interpretation was relatively correct. Accidental collision, caused by not realising he was about to run into him. Saw him last moment and tried to minimise impact. Chalk and cheese to Toby Greene. Honestly I can't believe anyone could be defending Greene's action. His intent is so clear. His body language, demeanour etc. Everything about it was aggressive, intimidatory and disrespectful. Anyone trying to claim plausible deniability should have a good hard look at themselves.

There's a lot more to it DN but we're winning out in one of the fundamentals of footy Our zoning, positioning, 2-way running, formations, pressure acts, 1%ers, tackling and all sorts of other aspects are very good as well And we consistently kick the footy to the right spots to give ourselves greater opportunities. And we're highly disciplined. There's a lot to like to a point where if we bring that type of total football, it's then up to the opposition to stifle us So I'm not concerned about other teams per se, more so wanting our team to bring our best

8th time that Oliver has had more kicks than handballs for the season. That would have been unheard of in previous years. He's still played some A++ games this season with significantly slanted handball to kick ratios, but it's this balance he's got in his game now that has made him IMO and in the opinion of AFL.com, the best midfielder in the competition. For him, he played relatively low TOG of 84% too. On TOG, we had all our young guys (except Bowey) register sub 70% TOG. Incredible management in a final. Rivers, Pickett, Spargo, Sparrow and Jackson carefully managed. Also, interesting to note McDonald only played 74% TOG, quite a bit lower than Brown or Fritsch.

Correct. His hit on Gawn deserved suspension. Although weirdly him being able to play next week makes the Lions a worse side so maybe it’s a win.

Channel 10 news reporting Luke Jackson was forced to apologise to his mum for not wearing his mouth guard and losing his two front teeth, all I can think of is that song by outkast

The only people seriously looking into Rhys would be his team mates and coaching staff. His Lions comrades would have to be incredibly embarrassed when reviewing his game. The whack on Kozzie was pathetic by itself. However the charging into Maxy absolutely reeked of a coward footballer. Every AFL footballer would have been watching our game and the fact he didn't have eyes on the pill or even look at the ball at any stage or try turn his body to attempt the spoil was truly humiliating. His team mates, trying to promote a tough brand would genuinely be ashamed for his antics.

The Lions are a bunch of snipers that love to dish it out, but quickly go crying to the umps when the shoe is on the other foot. Dogs are like this as well.

Rhys Mathieson spent most of the game when he was subbed on trying to belt our players. There was at least 3 or 4 incidents. Nakia Cockatoo did it to Jack Viney too when he flipped Jack over and he landed on his backside or hip. However, he did more damage to his own player Daniel McStay with that accidental knee or foot to the face though. Grant Birchall did it as well when he kneed Clayton Oliver in the back or kidneys. That was incredibly dirty and dangerous. But he is a former Hawthorn player so it isn't surprising. In fact, Clayton Oliver always get belted by someone and we definitely need to make mention of this to the umpires. The Melbourne Demons players need to be wary of this and protect eachother.

It’s one gesture, but it speaks volumes about her character. And that’s a reflection of the culture of our club. I feel sorry for supporters of other clubs who aren’t in a position to be proud of their club’s admin. as we are. (I don’t really feel sorry for them. 😏)

Say what you will about our sporting cousins in Rugby League, but they are all over us when it comes to referee (umpire) respect. Even in the country leagues the players call the ref "sir" when approaching them. And there is almost zero abuse such as we saw from Mitch Robinson as it results in penalties. I know some will think I've become all soft and woke but it's something I really would like to see creep into AFL football at all levels.

Means one more coach/trainer. Very well done.

2 weeks? 12. The message had to be sent that under no circumstances is this acceptable. Lower leagues struggle to get umpires as it is without every [censored] 14 year old thinking it’s cool to act like that to an ump. Hell my dad got a week off in the VFA for calling an ump a white maggot. Harsh maybe but also necessary. Things like this are very thin of the wedge stuff. All that said I have zero faith in the AFL putting the good of the game over next weeks ratings

For information travel from SA would be fine, I got the approval this evening for the Preliminary Final.

Not enough.

TMac had a poor game, but we won a Qualifying final by 33 points, and the forward line as a unit looked as potent as it has all year. No way he gets dropped.

Said it in another topic, he won’t be dropped. Sometimes we look for reasons to drop people or make changes. Yes, he wasn’t great, but the team and the forward unit was. He requires a good defender on him, it helps the others when he is in and defenders can’t peel off him as they would a smaller player. He stays in for me. Sparrow is the one who has surprised me and made it hard to play either of Jones or Melksham.

Personally the Mark Neeld years were easier on my anxiety. I knew we would lose every week. There was no finals stress.

Have been watching football closely since 1994 and this team would smash every one of teams that have taken the field in that time. The biggest difference is not in the talent that takes the field, but in the gameplan and selflessness of the players. This is also the first team I have seen in the red and blue that has defence as it’s primary strength. 94, 98, 2000, 2006 and 2018 all had an exciting and attacking gameplans and mentality. This was gloriously entertaining and exciting to watch, but was ultimately deeply flawed under pressure against the top teams. This team not only holds up against the top teams; it plays better against them.

I was too invested in consuming post match content that i didn't get to writing my thoughts down, a little late now but none the less i feel a ton of pride in the boys to back up last week and the last months effort so emphatically. Sparrow, Nibbler and Brayshaw were all great last night, felt like any time we needed either of them to win the ball in a passage they delivered. I'm very critical of Harmes most weeks, thought he was fantastic again. This also goes to my points when critising him, last night he wasn't prolific but did the simple things well. Some games he can get 30 touches but make some silly mistakes or think he is a superstar mid and get caught on the ball. There were times last night when he got the ball in traffic and i felt very assured he would deal with it. Surprised to see a lack of superlatives for Petracca, felt like him and Oliver showed you what damaging players looked like. We win last night by 70+ if turns his first two points into goals. Lions were there for the taking and Petracca and Oliver were having fun bursting through any number of Lions that tried to tackle them. Back 6 brilliant in the air. Probably a little nervous in the first quarter and made some unusual errors leading to easy goals for small forward brigrade at the lions. Fantastic win all round, nervous for what lies ahead. I'll be representing the WA demon bigrade rain, hail or shine.