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it's watching games like this that makes me appreciate how good Melbourne's defence is

So the intention of this rule was originally to stop abuse at local level football because umpiring numbers were falling away. Don't see how this works as 90% of abuse at those levels comes from over the fence. They're tackling the problem with the wrong solution.

That Casey team is likely to change because at least one, most likely two players will be on the flight to Perth. Looks like former Demons in Dom Tyson and Marty Hore will line up against their old side’s VFL counterpart.

The ladder is really interesting. It is completely clear that only two teams have any idea about defence – of course, we are one of them. so lovely to see Geelong on the slide.

Seeing Charlie Cameron berate a teammate makes me very grateful that Melbourne don’t do that.

Paddy Ryder, take a bow.

He will be their biggest loss when age finally catches up to him. I swear tho he’s aging backwards. I can’t stand him but you got to admire how well he’s played for well over a decade now.

Will never forget… ❤️💙 ☘️❤️💙

I hate umpire abuse. Here in the BFNL 3 years ago, we had a past player and long time club member barred from the ground for 2 weeks by the club for umpire abuse and foul language. It was a great move by the club. It is a lot better than it has ever been and other people in the crowd are beginning to clamp down on the idiots. May I say, it is actually parents in the U16 and U18 competition that are the worst. Parents can be vile at times about perceived injustices to their little Johnny or Jenny. But I hate the new rule. It should be held in place for abuse and/or physical remonstrations that make the umpire feel disrespected or unsafe. But asking the umpire "what was that for?" with your arms extended is a rational, reasonable response to either a) a carp umpiring decision or b) not knowing what the free kick was paid for or who to give the ball to. I thought de Goey's response was excellent. He began to let off steam, caught himself, and swallowed it. The umpire should have actually said "well done". And the Khamis one is a howler for the simple fact a blatantly obvious free kick was missed.

Current top 4 is us, Freo, Brisbane and St Kilda. About as inoffensive as it could be.

Sonetimes it depends upon the support around the volunteers. In my child's league there is a parent from each team that escorts the umpires wherever they go outside of the changerooms, even to their cars if needed. We are told by the league to report abusive parents as a matter of urgency. And we do: one parent got a life ban last year You'll always get idiots. Unfortunately they need calling out

You would think if that tweet is correct then he is staying. When we were chasing Cerra, a swap of Brayshaw for him would have seen Cerra a demon. We would surely have at that time asked Gus if he was thinking of such a move, as to have not done so would have been derelict list management. I think Gus has made it clear where he wants to play out his AFL career and we therefore gave up on Cerra as we had nothing else of interest to Freo that we would deal on. I am very confident we will soon see new Demon contracts for Gus and Luke announced.

According to the strict way they have instituted this rule, they were both there yesterday and that is exactly why it is a ridiculous rule. Not one former player or media person agrees with the rule. It is also being inconsistently umpired. Umpire 13 Gavine will pay it for a grin or glance, others ignore comments and arms out. The rule is a blight on the game and it is best to leave it to umpires to deal with abuse or over the top dissent. It was working pretty well up to this year. The problem we have is that the AFL doesn’t like to admit mistakes.

Well, I have said Ed’s smile deserves its own thread. So here we are. It’s a proven scientific fact that… “Smiling Is Contagious! How many times have you heard that a smile has the power to light up the room? While it is certainly a beautiful sentiment, it carries a hint of truth. Smiling not only has the ability to elevate your mood, but it can also change the moods of others for the better. Your brain automatically notices and interprets other people's facial expressions-and sometimes, you may even mimic them. That means that you might spot someone else's smile and unconsciously smile yourself. Yes, it is scientifically proven that smiles are contagious. ” I hasten to add: this is NOT a fan-girling thing. Recently I turned my phone on in the presence of 30 or so of my ‘Army’ comrades (fellow cheer squad members) and the commotion that ensued upon seeing my Ed’s smile wallpaper was off the charts. Men and women alike were espousing the benefits of seeing a “whole face” smile. Well I was, anyways. But they all agreed. 😁 Wholeheartedly. Feel free to add any MFC smiles to this collection. All good if no one does since we all know I will. 😃 Oh, and KEEP SMILIN’ !!! And while taking nothing away from the double dose of Christian smiles, look at the top right, and there it is again…

NORTH MELBOURNE v CASEY DEMONS, Arden Street Oval at 12noon CASEY DEMONS B: M.Buntine 71 A.Tomlinson 20 F.Rosman 19 HB: R.Baldi 56 D.Turner 42 D.Smith 43 C: J.McVee 41 L.Dunstan 27 O.Baker 33 HF: K.Chandler 37 S.Weideman 26 J.Melksham 18 F: J.Van Rooyen 42 M.Brown 38 T.Bedford 12 Foll: M.Daw 28 B.Laurie 16 J.Munro 47 I/C: C.Ellison 79 G.Grey 68 T.Macrae 67 M.White 52 T.Woewodin 40 Emerg: J.Bell 73 T.Edwards 58 M.Shepherd 77 R.Steel 54 In: T.Bedford M.Daw B.Laurie T.Woewodin Out: J.Bell T.Edwards A.Moniz-Wakefield R.Steele NORTH MELBOURNE B: K.Hayden 37 M.McGuinness M.Hore 53 HB: J.Archer 34 J.Goater 37 S.Collins 64 C: P.Walker 31 D.Tyson 46 J.Lipscombe 59 HF: C.Lazzaro 35 H.Murphy 48 Y.Dib 56 F: M.Walker 47 J.Watkins 70 J.Guthrie 60 Foll: Z.Monkhorst 66 H Jones 49 K.Answerth 54 I/C: J.Boyd 74 H.Dick 50 M.Mitchell-Russell 61 C.Smith 57 C.Smith 58 B.Stevens 57 Emerg: C.Hinkley 55 T.Howard 71 D Stone 64 C.Weightman 75 In: J.Boyd H.Dick J.Goater K.Hayden T.Howard B Stevens D.Stone Out: C.Comben J.Edwards T.Powell A.Wright

Our scandals are as dour as our defence nowadays.

Look out Cats, here I come!

Essendon’s ‘season defining’ win couldn’t even define their next weekend.

So good to see Geelong lose again. That's 4 times now already in 2022, from memory they only lost 5 in total last year (H&A) and that included the Gawn game and they still sucked in the finals. The cliff is coming for them.

Always great to see Geelong lose.

Oh no Geelong lost 🥳

Gotta give Tom Hawkins credit - he's trying absolutely everything to get the Cats this win. Too bad for him he'll fail (mwahahahaha!!!)

This is terrible I know, but every time Tom Hawkins is in a marking contest, I silently hope for an injury.

It would feel like the AFL have dumped their problem on us and would be proof they clearly don’t give a crap about us. I and many others would consider supporting a brand new team, as a second team (I already have a team), if it feels like ours. A rebadged North Melbourne, it’s a hard no thanks from me.

I agree with your original post. Gill is being painted as a Golden Boy in the Media, i think his tenure has been very ordinary. The AFL take little notice of their audience.

There is an easy way for Tassie to get an AFL team. Just don’t give North return air tickets! Woul be surprised if there are 2,000 at the game. They have obviously handed out free tickets to school kids, trouble is they are wearing Demons beanies, Hawthorn jumpers or Freo jackets.

Just win take the four points and come home. So the Cats beat us by 186, how many flags have the won since. Bet they would swap that record in a heart beat for one. Give me a repeat or a tri-peat any day. Records always get beaten flags are forever. "Unless your the Storm"

And besides this nuffie rule what are the AFL ACTUALLY doing to support umpiring at community level?

The rest of the season: Port have as good a chance as Bulldogs if they beat North today and get a decent % boost. But for mine, the Tigers have it sown up.

What frustrates me is that by definition dissent literally means to hold or express a differing opinion to a commonly or officially held view. Throwing arms in frustration isn't giving a different opinion it's simply remonstrating - hence this rule has zero merit. Just as ridiculous as the stupid stand rule. Did I just give away 2 50s

I do take some perverse delight in watching Jeremy Howe watch goal after goal sail over his head. How's that 'moving for success & to play forward' working out.

Just on this - not sure how many of you watch Port games closely, but I am not sure how he would fit with you guys given the role he plays. From where I sit, you play Langdon on one side of the ground and rotate Jordon with Harmes, ANB, and Brayshaw in the past - all these players have significant defensive sides to their games that Amon simply does not possess. He is a great runner and will work into the rotation to clog up space, but he is not a ball-winner in contested situations the likes of the three I listed. I am not sure he will be one to keep his width and spread the defence the way the others do. Sure, he can be taught, but to pay overs for someone that will play a role that four others already on the list can play... seems a little out of character for the current Melbourne team. Far be it from me to tell you blokes about your team - I know how much attention to detail there is on this board - but I watch the wingers pretty closely across the league, and on face value, he does not appear to fit in with what you're doing at the moment. Anyway, happy to be corrected

Goodwin, the coaches and the players have all bought into a process. Playing for percentage, managing players workloads or trying new things is not part of it. They'll follow the same process whether its the Lions or the Eagles. Dees by 45 (75+ if we are efficient)

How about the moronic collingwood supporter with the tatt on his face giving it to Bailey Smith. At least Smith had a laugh

You know how for some reason you love watching a certain player, even though they are at another club? For example I love both Heeney and Kennedy from the Swans, Pendlebury at the Pies, and in the past enjoyed Quinlan from Fitzroy, Dempsey, Glendinning, Peter Matera, etc... Khamis at the Bulldogs is just wonderful to watch. Star in the making. He has a magnificent leap, marks the ball at the highest point and his 2nd efforts are aggressive. Love seeing great young players emerge.

I thought Khamis was appealing for an ITB free (which looked like it was there) not dissent per se.

Yes that's exactly how it should have been handled.

The abuse at local levels of football is a blight on our game and society. I can’t take my kids to the local football because it’s so bad. The last time I took them a man in his 40’s called the umpire a black cant and then proceeded to abuse those around him who told him off. It wasn’t an isolated incident. The leagues are short umpires and it’s no wonder. Time to remove the scumbags from the crowd. It’s upto the local clubs to call this out and move these people on.

The game is riddled with difficult decisions for the long suffering umpires. More so than any other game i know of. Why introduce an extra 'rule' where the umpire has to decide if the action of a player was dissent, confusion or mere frustration with either the decision or with themselves or even calling for a free not given (which is dissent, but seems not to be penalised). Abuse is another matter. Now these extra umpiring difficulties and the repression of normal human emotions might have been justified if the stated goal of helping recruit junior umpires had been carefully analysed and compared to other solutions. But that does not appear to be the case.

You misunderstood my post. "scrambling at the same designated time" meant at the time Ticketek make tickets available for each group. ie Members will be scrambling for tickets at the same time as other members. Non-members will be scrambling for tickets at the same time as other non-members, for the first 3 weeks of finals. That is the way it is for all ticket sales even H & A: Tickets for members are available before ticket sales for non-members. I fully understand how GFG and ticket sales work! For the club ticket allocation, there is no ballot for GF tickets. If there are any GF tickets left after the GFG (Priority 1) allocation they are available for Priority 2, then Priority 3 etc members until the allocation is exhausted. Whatever priority GF a member is, they still have to 'scramble' via Ticketek to buy the tickets with other members in that priority group.

BT is probably the worst commentator going around at the moment. His sidekick JB isn't far behind. And why does Channel 7 insist on three special comments ppl? One person talking drivel after every other contest is more than enough surely?

Libba the usual sniper So glad we denied that little germ the Premiership Medallion

Not really. Seems like the usual sht house umpiring to me

Looks like it's rule of the week again. Two paid tonight that I saw which are laughable including the one against De Goey just now which pretty much iced the game. That's what we want to see I guess, games being decided by petty umpiring decisions.

We had a taste of what that was like in the Port game - It was fantastic. It's a special kind of ruthlessness, more demeaning and deflating, than the ruthlessness of the shock n awe goal barrages we've also seen. Just completely cutting off their ability to score anything, and pip a few goals here or there on the rebound each quarter - neutrals will be bored to tears, but for us it's like watching a game of chess unfold. Sip a glass of wine and enjoy. Of course, I wouldn't mind a 100+ point thumping too. A scoreline of zero goals and whatever behinds to 154 would be a grand old payback for that prelim.

Lets I'd love them to keep them to zero. Dont worry too ,much about our score - just don't let them score

A 100+ point thrashing and their coach resigning is the only acceptable outcome from this match.

I'm thinking its because we just back our best 22 to do the job week in, week out without worrying much about the opposition. Although there are always some significant one on one plans for certain players who lock down (Petty, May, Hunt etc), it looks like we just play a system brand and back our system in to choke teams to win. We're the hunted at the moment, all over the ground and teams are trying to stop us rather than vice versa. We have had an incredible run with injuries which won't last (sadly) and then test our depth. I'm still not certain that it's as good as everyone thinks and some players are riding on the coat tails of Trac, Oliver, Gawn who are just so dominant in winning the ball and putting others into space. It still worries me that if any of these three get injured or worse, more than one, we'd come crashing back down to Earth fairly quickly. We'd still win the flag of course, but maybe only by 4 goals instead of 8.

Spot on. And I'd that the combination of his skill, brilliant one one marking ability (particularly for a player who is neither tall or super strong) and his importance to the side mean that the opposition simply have to put a decent defender on him, and they have to play him pretty tight. Which is tricky on a number of fronts. He will thrash most small defenders in the air, so you need a medium or big on him. But they also have to cover THREE other talls. Thisls adds to the match up challenge as how many tall defenders do each team actually have. It is one reason why the dogs struggle to contain us And making things more of a challenge is that having to play him tight makes it hard to zone off him - which in tun makes or harder to stop our other talls. The other ace up fritters sleeve is his brilliant field kicking that often create score involvements and goal assists.

Formula remains my own, but I use a combination of disposals/efficiency/metres gained, inside/rebound 50s, score involvements, goals,, turnovers, as well as player ratings every week decoded by the writer reviewing the game. They go in with the special herbs and spices every week to give a score and we get the cumulative amount. Hope that helps