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Just updated 52,674

Tomlinson and Hunt were preferred selections in 2021 until they were injured. I think of them as part of our starting back six and could easily have premiership medals if luck had gone their way. As it was Petty and Bowey got to play instead and fully deserve their medals. So I'm not sure Tomlinson and Hunt are just 'depth'.

Good point. Bevo has got off basically without any penalty, other than having to read a statement that someone else probably wrote for him. To me he gave the appearance of somebody reluctantly reading an apology, that he didn't really believe in. The club has donated $20000.00 to one of it's own charities, big deal. This bloke bullied a journo on national TV, without giving him any chance of reply. It was disgusting. For the AFL to not punish Bevo, seemingly condoning extreme bullying, at its own media conference, is just more hypocritical behaviour by this organization, yet again. The Morris incident the next day is irrelevant, unless Bevo knew of the Morris comments when he made his and then played a part in their distribution, which seems very unlikely. If someone employed by the Dogs or AFL, or wherever, is behind the release of the Morris audio, that person probably deserves the same fate as Morris, as distributing it to the public and hurting an innocent person, is a worse crime than Morris's, which was making some drunken, repulsive comments, in a private setting.

There is a well established link between Bjork and the Dogs.

Very paw joke.

Absolutely wild that Langdon can play an entire game the way he does with no rest but what the quarter time breaks can give him.

Maintaining standards is a fast disappearing notion. We now live in a era where we have a 24 hour 7 day week news cycle. We have social media and the vast majority of folks connected to the hourly news cycle. Compare this to the old days with two newspapers per day excluding Sunday, and radio and TV news updates once or twice a day. We have a society addicted to news. We have a deterioration in standards across the board be it political, business, organisational and personal. There is an unyielding quest for success (whatever the cost) and a quest for personal gain. This plays out in the footy industry. The monster that is the AFL is driven by executives on monster salaries whose KPIs are centred around commercial and advertising deals and revenue. And marketing. Of keeping footy in the headlines 12 months of the year. We have clubs operating in a pressure cooker environment where sponsors, coaches, players and fans are driven by the need for success. We have reporters and journalists operating in this environment whose jobs and salaries rely on scoops and competitive advantage. There is an increasingly blurred line between real and fake news. No one cares half the time given that folks have the attention span of a gnat and ignore stuff that does not directly affect them. What is my point? I feel sorry for Bevo and I can understand his outburst. Coaches are under enormous pressure and it is aided and abetted by the pack hunting footy scribes. Bevo is a decent human being. From reports, he takes time out to talk with footy fans old and young. But in the pressure cooker environment of the media circus he cracked. Unwise but understandable. As we all know, the best way to manage your anger is by silence. Angry responses always result in a backlash. Bevo let himself down but I have no doubt he has higher personal standards than most footy scribes. To call most of them journalists lowers the calling of the profession. The incident shows how important it is for those in the limelight to act cautiously. The media can be a strong ally but it can also be your worst enemy. The knife in the back will come faster and with more intent than the pat on the back. The Goodwin story is a good example how irrespective of your success there are plenty of people who will try and take you down.

Its good to see the club is putting more support around him in the coaching and football department. But It seems he has isolated himself from the Coaches Association and the AF and is creating a bunker mindset at the Bulldogs. One can take the 'us against the world' theme a bit too far. Having difficulty coping doesn't mean having mental health issues and Goodwin is a prime example of finding a path to 'wellness' and coping better. His path involved seeing the media chat as 'fugazzi', accepting and facing his anxieties and weaknesses, then involving external support. Among others, Goodwin involved 'healers' and people who helped him focus his energy. This may be a bit exotic for some but their are many options. He is an excellent role model for someone like Beveridge to follow. It isn't 'unmanly' to acknowledge weaknesses and anxieties. The Coaches Association and the AFL have a program called 'Tackle Your Feelings'. At the game last week there were TYF ads on the scoreboard with Goodwin featured. As Beveridge has isolated himself from them I hope there is someone around him that encourages him to tap into this program or something similar.. A phone call to Goodwin could help him along the way.

It wasn’t public but our review identified that Goodwin didn’t have enough support and even the man himself says he wasn’t coping well and needed more help. Cue Williams, Yze and a flag. CW right to criticise Beveridge for that outburst - it was OTT and quite pathetic really.

Gee whiz, Rioli could have killed Matt Rowell. Seriously dangerous to life and limb with deliberate intent to take him out. Rioli is incredibly lucky not to have seriously injured or maimed Rowell. One week your joking.

the king bros? pfft, they're not even fit to be dogga's false teeth

The MRO is truly bizarre in it's reasoning, is it still just Christensen deliberating with darts and a spinning dart board with random outcomes on it?

that umpires are still part time says a lot about how serious the afl is about having a professional approach to officialdom

There was a time when I would have accepted 0.7 of a premiership. Now only a 4-peat will do.

I wonder how the footy public would have reacted if Bevo behaved the same way towards a female journalist, and not Tom Morris.

I think Bjork would agree that we can only judge people on what they reveal - we don’t know what excuses (or reasons) Luke had to talk to a journalist like that. What we do know is that he belittled a person, called a conflict, brought into question the integrity of someone, and eschewed the leaking of his own colleagues to harangue someone else. And this is after another poor performance from his team which the press conference should have focussed on. He has done this before to Cornes and Barrett and we allow it because those two can be onerous and odious but let’s not allow someone to do what he did last Wednesday night without consequences; especially when it is just the label of ‘pathetic.’

Amazing we have more than Richmond. Had to watch twice to see when Carlton's two weeks were.

Agree. Not good news about your Avatar but at least it's 8 weeks and not the season. He's a big loss. Plenty of players who I was wondering would get a game are getting a chance already. There's some excellent depth on the list at the moment.

60,000'ish will be a very good result. I suspect quite a few who would usually wait till after the start of the season to renew already have so we may not get the 13,000 going forward.

If we can arise from the depths of despair in 2013 to Premiers in 2021, anyone can do it in 9 years. We were worse in 2013 than Hawthorn today. In fact, I think our 2013 was probably the worst VFL/AFL team I've seen. And, yet, we still managed to climb out of the abyss to the summit in 9 "short" years.

I'd love to see the Hawks (and the Cats) have a prolonged spell outside of the 8 and see how they cope. Plenty of chit was heaped on us over the years (rightly so for most of it) I'd find it fascinating to see how these "big" clubs go without finals, drop/stagnation in members, drop/stagnation in sponsors and poor timeslot games. Graham Wright was touted a genius for some time and it looks like he and Clarko left the cupboards pretty bare.

We would host it but unlikely to be at Casey Fields. More likely Marvel stadium. A few years ago Crows got a 40k+ crowd at Adelaide Oval for their final. Technically we lose the Home ground advantage but given how we played in Perth with no wind a closed roof Marvel might suit us very well, if we get there.

Pro Tip: Fast forward to the end.

Yes, a $20,000.00 donation to (youth mental health organisation) Orygen IS a big deal.

Come here and say that.

I wonder how Bevo talks to the club doctor!?

every time this thread gets bumped I get a semi, only to be left feeling deflated somewhat

Ernie, great post and agreed with everything you said except the above sentence. I can understand Bevo wanting to “outburst”, but for someone who has been in the system for as long as he has, the outburst was so highly unprofessional you have got to worry about Bevo rather than feel sorry for him. I know coaches are under pressure as you state, but it’s only the first round for goodness sake. I hope he has some good people around him.

Following up on Poita's thought; every club which has their biggest top-of-the-ladder streak in the time since 2005 - Port (2020), Freo (2015), St Kilda (2009), Adelaide (2006), Western Sydney (2017) Gold Coast (N/A) has NOT won a premiership in the same period. It's a curse! Also, despite all the time that Geelong spent on top of the ladder in recent decades, their longest streak in first place was way back in 1952-54. So at least the current Geelong players were around for it.

Same! I really love Björk and she’s not even my favourite Icelandic act. But you didn’t quote the part from that song that might apply to Bevo the most… “You blow a fuse Zing boom The devil cuts loose Zing boom…” 😬

Lovely positive discussion. Hope it happens with choices all through the year.

Read this earlier this morning. what an absolutely “nothing” article. Complete waste of time…

No and Yes No - its is Michael Christian and Yes it is darts and a board....

My Cats supporting (acquaintance) who is always talking up his side was all smiles about weve stepped up the tempo of our game .....i just smile and he looks at me and says ....and F*#* Melbourne !!! Oh its good, its really really good.

51,513 Thanks for updating the tally George. It's not even on the club website. We reached that amount around early July last year and mid June in the previous record year. So we are way ahead at this point. We got an extra 13,000 from this date to the end last year so at this point we are heading for at least the early 60,000's. Where it ends up probably depends a bit on how many people were motivated to join earlier than last year and whether it will start to slow or hopefully the opposite.

Well there wouldn't be one person here who hasn't been involved in a questionable conversation and if they say they haven't I'll call them liars.

Yeah really. Lots of things get spoken about in workplaces that probably shouldn't. None of us were privy to Morris conversation or knew her sexual orientation till the media turned it into nationwide gossip. They're as guilty as anyone if not more so. Talk about gutter journalism.

hate to say it… and i’ll need therapy after I do… but I agree 100% with caro on this.

When asked about possible complacency from the Dees, Garry Lyon ‘On The Couch’ highlighted Hunt’s effort late in the game when the match was just about done and dusted. Repeat sprints to eventually lay that crunching tackle on Daniel which almost got us a goal from Nibbler. It was evident last year and good to see the good habits of playing until the final siren has continued.

They are moody, inconsistent and emotionally fragile… tell me where I’m wrong 😂

So what you're basically saying is that umpires are 15 year old girls.

I'm happy to open up a discussion on the standard of journalism in this country, particularly AFL journalism. But the case here of Morris reporting on team selection shouldn't fall foul of the issues above. The idea that a player being dropped shouldn't be reported on because of mental health issues is IMO ridiculous. Let's assume Hunter is going through a tough time in some way. His being dropped was always going to be reported on, whether before the team was announced or the moment the teams dropped. He was always going to be a focus of the media. Every week for the last few years journalists have reported on team selection issues hours or days prior to the official announcements. Just like they also report on injuries suffered, sometimes before the club formally announces it. There is in my view very little wrong with a journalist reporting on team selection early, and Beveridge's response to it was wholly disproportionate. If Beveridge was actually having a go at Morris for other issues (e.g. because of the way Morris handles himself generally, or maybe for the sorts of things the Whatsapp leak subsequently revealed), the way he did it was inappropriate.

His foot should not have been raised at all nor extended after taking the ball. Feet should not make contact in any way. Minimum 2 weeks for raised foot making contact.

Toby must be [censored] off. He gets into trouble (correctly) for using his leg to sort of 'protect the ball drop' and Dangerfield, puts his leg down and in a seperate action raises it again high up. The AFL wants us to respect umpires - perhaps the AFL should work on earning our respect.

The delay could be a concern, but the club has more preparation time. Free could knock off the. crows, but in Adelaide it will be a challenge. Rather play them than crows if we make it.

Journalists are so precious - next idiotic question to a coach should be followed with the retort 'have you deleted your chat history'. Caro wants Bevo on a cross, totally over the top, and seriously they worry about his moustache, who are they going after next, Merv, Lillee? They want to turn everything into Disney, it's bloody Australia, chill out Brussel sprout - the Front Bar made more sense. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW5C9oDb3rQ Timestamp 47m21s onwards - comment at 49m

There were also three missed getable goals either side of three quarter time. Say we get two of those and add the insanely corrupt free kick goal to Weightman at the end of the first. We should have been up about 40 points a few minutes into the final quarter. The scoreline flattered the Dogs.

You're dropping Jackson for Mitch Brown then? And he's also now behind Daw in the pecking order? That you Bevo?

don't stop there 2014, you've never eavesdropped on a group of women gossiping about men (and other "things")? it's not just a simplistic male issue