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I agree, Mr Howe. Ed has received exactly what he deserved

I had a conversation with Jason Taylor at the President's Club on Friday night. He played a pretty straight bat. Me - "What's Dogga doing next year?" JT - "He's going okay, isn't he." I asked him again. JT - "We'll be good either way." Me - "How would Freo even come close to doing a deal if he does go? They'd have to get another club involved." JT - "We've been having these conversations for a while now. We'll do well out of it."

Here’s to a little more of a positive outlook. The dees can definitely still win the flag this year. Imo we have started rounding the corner with our form over the past few weeks depsite what some might think. We have much to look forward to. R19 Loss - 10 point loss against a plucky and revengeful dogs outfit, played some good footy against them. R20 Win - 46 point win over a strong dockers outfit on their home deck, back to our defensive best. R21 Loss - 7 point loss to a momentum riding pies outfit. Dominated all areas of the game, the pies are riding a wave of extreme momentum but the footy they’re playing is not necessarily convincing. Keep the faith fellow supporters, we have so much talent and the next few years to look forward to; JVR, Laurie, Chandler, Howes and Bedford all potential gun players, plus whoever else we pick up along the way.

Win next 2 Play Pies at the G in first finals round.... Win Prelim GF Job done

Just hope Howe never plays in a flag.

I can’t believe nobody has mentioned Pendlebury dropping his elbow into Langdon’s face on the ground. Langdon should’ve received a free for that first tackle. Howe is a nobody.

Wow there super sensitive at Collingwood.

@WERRIDEEa best 22 involving Larkey, Naughton and Hogan please Maybe throw in Gunston if you have time

Thank you for creating this thread, @Deenooos_. I for one will NEVER concede at this juncture that we’re no chance to win it this season. When you lose hope, you've got nothing. ❤️💙

Whilst this year is clearly still in play for a flag, I'm already excited for the off-season to see what moves we'll make. Nothing much has changed this year from last as far as game-style and personnel go (bar the last couple of weeks with Melksham's inclusion and Gus going through the middle), which has given every other club a chance to go to town on us from last year to this year. Next year is a chance to tinker with personnel and game-plan (slightly) given the hand we'll have from Jackson leaving. We should be excited, it's come at the best possible time for us. A few others made mention of Richmond targeting Lynch post 2018 and what his inclusion helped bring. Two flags. We're in the same boat. We are so strong in so many facets but I think we're a couple of players short of being unstoppable. Contest and defence won't stop. That's our foundation. But I really dislike it when posters talk down our obvious forwardline/half struggles. The notion that it doesn't matter how many goals we kick if we're keeping teams under 60 points a game is a silly one and our losses to Collingwood last week and the Dogs a few weeks ago is the evidence. Our defensive system is not always humming so we need to make the most of our opportunities going forward and this off-season is the time to address that. Our biggest weakness is most obviously our inefficiency going forward as well as converting shots at goal in general play, regardless of the area we are sometimes instructed to kick due to our game-plan. Upgrade on personnel is vital. You can't tell me if we had McKay and Curnow instead of Brown and a resting ruckman we wouldn't be more lethal. Similarly some of our second string rotational players. Goody has a difficult task of looking at players like ANB, Harmes, Jordan and Sparrow and deciding whether we could replace one of them with someone with different strengths. ANB brings so much off the ball. But we could have a player with slightly less gut-running ability and more potency with ball in hand. I look at what Geelong have done and they look like a completely different team with only minimal tweaks. The inclusion of a fit and firing Cameron and Stengle from this year alone. They look impenetrable. So many times our inability to convert and connect going inside 50 has undone all our hard defensive and contest work. It burns us the other way because we've worked so hard going forward. We've had so many opportunities to bury teams once being up and simply haven't been able to mainly due to skill errors and poor execution. Petracca, Oliver, Viney, Brayshaw. They're never losing a hard ball. Langdon's running ability is amazing for an outside player. Jordan solid in his role. Sparrow, Harmes, ANB all handy with ANB being exceptional for his off the ball running ability. But one thing they all have in common is their inconsistent ball use and composure. We simply need to even up the ledger and add some players into the mix who use the ball really well so that at times we can pull the trigger and not always have to play default safe down the line as our game-plan wants. This is especially important given how predictable we are now in the way we play and what opposition teams are expecting. If you have a player with better ball use and composure. They're going to hit some kicks at angles and through the middle on occasions that could really give us great looks. A genuine contested marking/goal kicking threat and a couple of dynamic X-factor players with class who can still play a half-forward role/mid rotation is what we're screaming out for. Address this and we're golden.

I'm of the belief we can still win it. Here are some reasons... Body of work from rounds 1-10. Placement of playing teams in top 8 from Round 11-22, whilst increasing training volume and intensity from Rounds 11-20- gives an appearance (to some) that we cannot win against contending teams. In game injuries to key personnel to structure during loss to Freo, Sydney and Collingwood (QB clash). We're still 3 weeks away from week 1 of the finals (post season/real season). We're not tapering just yet. Two poor losses (under 2 goals mind you) for me are Western Bulldogs and Collingwood. Explanable to more accurate kicking for scores comparable to us - statistically significant differentials to AFL averages...however - agree that the method to force our players to shift away from the gamplan was very well done by those two teams and coaching staff. The last month we have kicked 89.25 points a match, so my belief is scoring/forward line isn't an issue as much as people are making out, due to a desire to have a traditional full forward style - perhaps referencing the Geelong setup. The spread of our scoring options - stacks up in finals. With two losses to teams that have kicked over 100 points within the last month, I'm unclear that it's a structural problem. 24 to 21 scoring shots vs Collingwood with an opponent accuracy of 71% for goals, and 25 to 23 scoring shots vs Bulldogs for an accuracy of 74%. That would comfortably be ahead of the AFL average, would I would suggest is mid to high 50's% - and happy to have that confirmed/corrected.

I have similar levels of dislike for Howe. I hope he never wins a premiership (you too Dangerfield but mostly because I despise your mates Hawkins and Selwood ). McCrae didn’t seem to mind Langdon’s comments and thinks we need personalities like Ed’s

Langdon had the last laugh - he got up smiling. Don’t know if it was real or forced but it would have given them the s…s. BTW great to see how the team consistently got right into Cox after his dog act on Max.

Amazing that one minute the Pies are crying foul about their silly child who throws himself in to every tackler looking for high contact, but then spent Friday night going head high at players tackled to the ground. Happened to Langdon, happened to ANB, happened a handful of times. If we play them again we need a lesson on tackling intensity. Honestly, find a list spot for Vanders and give him the first 5 minutes of the game.

Demonlanders trying to convince themselves that Cripps won't get rubbed out.

Finish top 4 and I am confident we will win the flag.

I've just watched Nick Larkey kick his 4th goal 5 minutes before hslf time agsinst Sydney. I'd be moving the kitchen sink for this bloke.

Think you belong in the why the Dees can’t win the flag thread

Our best WILL beat anyone, including Geelong. Finally saw some real anger and disappointment in Goodwin. The supporters are even angrier. Will repeat that it’s not necessarily the personal changes and whether it’s Sparrow, ANB, Chandler or Bedford. From the Pies loss, the following changes are needed: Outs. 1. stop Overhandballing. It drives me crazy. We often go around in circles. More often to players under pressure. Dees 200 kicks 210 handballs (pies 200 kicks 100 handballs ). Often we handballed when free and running, straight to a player under pressure. Fix it now. Reference example - Jacko to ANB in last qtr. Guess what tackle and turnover. 2. Stop Kicking to the deep forward pocket - WTF. We target the hardest spot to convert from. That’s a reason why our conversion is so low. (Kick to advantage and the “hot spot” … that’s why it’s called the hotspot). And of course those stupid “bomb” sky high kicks that go 50 metres in the air 3. Goalkicking Accuracy must improve. Now. Missing easy chances week after week. It doesn’t cost you v lower teams. In a dog fight, it’s often the difference. Pies created chances and took them. Gawn OMG twice missed simple chances. Salem (at qtr time … unforgivable from 20 metres out). Fritsch snap from 13 metres out. We should have been 7 goals up at 1/2 time. 4. Stop going wide and wide and slow and kick to a contest. JJ and Lingers are stars but we don’t always have to go via the cape. (We need to play the corridor more). We have the runners. Perhaps we need to examine our poor conversions inside 50 as because we allow other teams to also flood back. No coincidence that our likely scoring is after a Centre bounce. ins. 1. Contested marking in the forward 50 (or at least bringing it to ground) .Brown and Jackson have hardly taken a grab in a contest. Even on the lead they seemingly fumbled. 2. Crumbing of the pack in the forward 50 when opportunity arises -Kozzzzzy looks amazing when it happens but often he’s missing (note to Goodwin - keep kozzzy inside fwd50 at all times, not up the ground) AND tackle not zone off the small rebounding defenders our conversion ability will see us rise or fall 3. Four quarters of footy, not just the 1st half. Perhaps yes all the above means we keep other sides in the contest. Keep the door open. Our lack of run and fitness is being questioned. Maybe given v Swans, Pies (twice) and Dogs we seemingly had it in control. Turning up in the second half and playing attacking footy in the last quarter is yet to happen. Switching off in the last quarter was seen even in most of our wins !! Are we ruthless? Not right now 4. Getting a “fair go” from the umps (not always in our control but a handy inclusion if available) Really. The Pies got some frees that we simply didn’t. The inconsistency was amazing. Maybe it was the crowd noise. I’m firmly believe that we have the players, the stars and the ability to win it. HOW WE WIN IT Win the Contested footy Win the Clearances Win the Centre clearances Convert our chances - Goalkicking Control the defensive zone deliver the 1%s (knock ons, Smothers) &!2nd efforts Uplift the amount of overlap running Stay fit and healthy through the next 7!weeks We have the best ruck and midfield combo Gawn, Oliver, Trac, Viney, Gus, Harmesy , Langdon, JJ

lol what's with the anger? Langdon absolutely got what he deserved. If Howe had called us a one trick pony and Viney and others had piled on in the opening 30s, we'd all be celebrating/laughing about it.

Sassy Sunday on Demonland. 👌

That's it lord nev, I'm putting you on ignore. You can join a very small number of posters, like Dr D and stuie (a poster who loved nothing more than to bait other posters) in that exlusive club. I'm well up for debate, as you well know. And I'll put my hand up when I've got it wrong. But you seem only want to get into some sort of puerile gotcha discussions with your selective use of quotes. And this time you've taken that childishness to another level and completely made stuff up. It is way past being disingenuous. It's aggressive, and frankly flat out rude to to make things up and post that I have said things I have NEVER said. You put your made up comments in quotation marks despite the fact they are not actually quotes. You made the comments up. You can quote this - I have lost respect for you deliberately making things up to score some silly point. And you can shove any comment like you were paraphrasing, interpreting, taking poetic liscence blah, blah, blah. So for all posters who have read Lord Nev's post I have quoted above - as he well knows, I have never said, or even implied (cue selective quoting from Lord nev) that: 'Well we lost to the Pies because we're still 7 weeks away from optimal performance' In fact, to be clear, despite the fact lord nev uses quotation marks, I never said his first quote either.

It is certainly not a silly thread for any number of reasons For a start, we need up and running KPF's for next year and beyond. 3 genuine types are needed when factoring in injuries So where do we sit right now? I'm not sure we've got 1 genuine starter unless Brown & T-Mac can be injury free in the future. And both will be in their 30's from next season ... injury prone in your 30's? Weideman & Mitch Brown are not the answer whilst Van Rooyen is a project player I understand Weideman is contracted for next season but we might view him as a 4th ruckman/spare KF. He can be the new Mitch Brown So, in an ideal world we bring in an established KF to bolster the ranks Who's available? Does our club give Hogan a 2nd chance? He's stayed out of the news for near on 2 years now and he can still play. I still view him as a proper forward who has presence and gets to the right spots We've all been afforded 2nd chances in our own lives so why not Jesse?

The Naughton talk is interesting. I hate this time of year because I'm always let down when we're linked with a player we inevitably don't get. It's hard to believe Naughton would leave the dogs and come to us. But if he did, good God. We'd be laughing.

We can win the flag. Goody in the post-match presser looked angry, so did Viney in an interview after the loss. There’s no more room for error and they realise that. There’s not much gap between the top 4-5 teams this season, our best is the best by far and we just have to get it back. A poll would be interesting.

This is where I seem to differ from a lot of supporters. Unless it happens at the G and I can actually experience it it's less tangible. Yes winning the flag was great but there's a hollowness to the way it was done after such a long wait. Not being able to attend games, big finals, not being able to celebrate properly. Secondly I don't want to just see us win a flag, I want to see multiple flags and I want to see us compete every single year - like Geelong, like Sydney and like Hawthorn who I'm sure will be back up there soon - or at least every few years like Collingwood seem to be able to do. I'm not fulfilled with the 2021 flag. Yes it was great but I want more. I'm sure Goodwin feels the same, I hope the players do too.

After the huff and puff of this round, we are still third and it really is in our own hands. Win the next 5 and we go back to back. After 17 in a row earlier this year, the trick for Goody will be to block out the external noise and challenge the lads for another mini Demon charge. It may not end this way, however, I am hoping to revisit this post in 6 weeks time!!! Go Dees.

New rule of the week. It is fine to pile drive a player's head into the ground, then with another player attack him on the ground, by punching or forcing your fists into his face ( see picture in Herald Sun ), and then have the opposition Captain come in and drive his elbow into his face/head, if that player has made public comments about the opposition. Just pathetic and laughed at by the commentators, calling it a sign that the Pies had come to play. Bonus new rule is, the side with the loudest supporters, will be given all the time they need to dispose of the ball when tackled, while other side will be subject to split second opportunity.

Josh Kennedy’s all class. His last game of a 17-year career and he’s kicked six goals to 3/4 time. What a legend. edit: eight goals now.

Why aren't the Bears players allowed to own a dog? Because they can't hold a lead... I'll see myself out

Just a reminder, Oliver's game consisted of 14 clearances and 8 tackles, with 24 contested possessions from 42. What's the record for clearances? The bloke is an A+++er.

Good job North. We are still 1.3% ahead of Sydney.

I remember that and at the time I thought I'd cop plenty of grief coming back, Col ... but that didn't happen. It's fair to say that the appraisals were rather damning! Fast forward to right now and most of our players are down on their best in some ways, haven't come on or have stagnated The optimists will point at our standout performances (Impressive Lions and Freo wins and our 10 & 0 start to the season) whilst the pessimists will focus on the 6 losses from our last 10. And both evaluations are correct in isolation But from an overall perspective, we are just not playing well enough right now. As a team or as individuals Beat Carlton and everything can change ... one win and then we play for the next win. And the next win would be for the double chance in the finals. It's all on the line and the way forward is crystal clear. We've eliminated the grey area with those losses

For anyone thinking Collingwood are a flag chance - pump the brakes. The way they are playing now looks great and is clearly getting results, but the reality is finals is a very different game all together and they will be liable to more turnovers from the extra pressure. I’m predicting they will be scored against on turnover in big numbers come September. Also keep in mind we kept our absolute best footy for finals last year - and so far we’re the only team in contention that has proven in recent history that can find new levels in September. The stats we posted on Friday night wins finals games 100% of the time. Anyone writing us off at this point is flirting with extreme danger in my opinion.

After moving through the emotional 'anger' phase which lasted all of yesterday I am taking a more logical view of the situation. Your comments make it sound like we were beaten by 8 goals and are getting smashed week in week out and are no hope of winning games. We lost by 7 points..... and smashed freo. We also only lost to the bulldogs by just 10 points because some young nerd was having a blinder. We are playing pretty good footy over the last month, we aren't doing a lot wrong.

We are factoring in loading, or should if we are interested in understanding what happened, because we are in the tapering phase of the program. And in aprox week two of that phase we are still seven weeks of our optimal level. We were flying, but couldn't maintain that level right to the end. That was a a finals like game and we don't have finals like readiness yet. And the pies do. I'm hoping like he'll they can't maintain that level, because if they can tbey are obviously a real contender. I was wrong about the level the pies were at. Their ability to maintain the rage right to the end of the game was fantastic. They look super fit and very focused. I felt even that say 75% of our optimal readiness we would be too good and too strong for them and would smash them. I was thinking I had got it correct unti about half way through the third, when it became obvious things had levelled up. But a positive was that it was only really the last 10 mins of the game where we were clearly looking gassed. I found it super strange we never tried to play tempo footy and take the speed out of the game. You make a good point about the resilience and mental aspect. It is impossible to really know how much an impact Burgess had in that space, but it felt like he was an extra coach, and a psychologist as much as a sport scientist. To be fair, last year we had very few issues to test that resilience. This year we have mutiple injuries, in game injuries the may melksham saga, the Bartlett saga, tbe goody drinking with the boys saga and the Jackson fugazi. To be clear though, lest posters fell the need to launch at me, we didn't lose that game because of loading. In my opinion we lost it for tbe reason I have been complaining about ever since I started posting in demonland - our appalling kicking for goal. We missed so many goals we simply should never have missed. They kicked accurately from set shots and took their chances. That's the game right there. Good kicking is good football. And we have so many [censored] kicks it's not funny. And once again it cost us a game of football. We take our chances in the second quarter, we then control the game in the third - and our fatigue levels never comes to the equation.

I’m tired of hearing “we’ve been worked out”, the biggest game in the country that has a stat for just about everything, opposition coaches who’s sole purpose is to analyse other teams and their game plan/s & tactics. Numerous tv shows that have former players and so called media experts that break down passages of play frame by frame. Clubs know what to expect from other clubs, being able to play to your strengths and nullify your opponents for longer is what it comes down to. Injuries, umpires & the bounce of the ball are just part of the game we love. You could also mount a case for our travel the breaks in between games compared to other top 8 sides. Apparently we also can’t win it because of our record against other top 8 sides this season. There was a post on FB yesterday detailing 5 of our 6 losses. Freo : lead by 30, lost by 38 Swans : lead by 26, lost by 12 Pies : less by 22, lost by 26 Dogs : lead by 27, lost by 10 Pies lead by 23, lost by 7 We also lost to Geelong by 28 at their home ground, early in the last if Kozi kicks straight scores are level. Geelong kicked a couple of late goals to flatter the scoreboard but we were largely competitive. It was Gawn’s first game back after missing a couple and didn’t take a mark, LJ missed the week before (can’t remember why). Even after conceding 96 points against the Pies and 110 against the Dogs two weeks earlier were still the no.1 ranked defensive side in the competition. We can still finish top 4 and from there anything can happen. We need to tidy up our entries inside forward fifty, at times throughout games it looks as though we have but then we revert back to bombing it in, opposition pressure plays it part. Our set shots cost us on Friday night, a number of very gettable shots were missed, as already mentioned on the post game thread we had 24 more inside fwd 50 than the Pies. But our pressure and fwd smarts (small fwds flying for marks when we already have a player in that contest than no one at ground level) has dropped right of allowing the Pies to rebound at ease. Finally the Dogs and Pies disposal whether by hand or foot was fast, low and direct. Both games were fast paced and finals like, our lob handballs and up and under kicks plays into the hands of the opposition giving them time to regroup and then apply tackling pressure. We can still go back to back and I believe we will.

If we play 4 quarters and kick straight

The optimists take indignation at the half empty. The pessimist expect the worst so their sensitive souls do not crack, and can tell us "I told you so". The realist see all is possible. Me, we have a great chance of getting the cup. We control much of the game. The other has to play well to knock us off. We are finals bound, and that is when we do it for the 4 quarters. Go Dees.

It wasn't an immense game by Brown as you pointed out. I certainly thought it was one of his better games he's had for a bit but. Also, since when is how many kicks you get in a game a key indicator of how you performed on the day, especially for a full forward? In fact, I bet coaches don't put a huge emphasis on how many kicks a full forward should get. I mean even pressure acts for key forwards, is that really another key indicator? Some of the best forwards in the game right now are rated 'below average' for pressure acts. Charlie Curnow Tom Hawkins Jeremy Cameron Harry McKay. All 4 players, including Ben Brown are rated 'below average' in the AFL for pressure acts and they have the exact same numbers or similar. Either your bar is set way too high or you're just now judging his performance unfairly and looking at nitpicking the smaller things when possible. In comparison to some individual performance this weekend from a stats point of view and I'll add the pressure acts as well. Ben Brown: 6 kick 7 marks, 3 which were contest marks, 7 pressure acts 0 tackles and kicked 2.1 Last night Tom Hawkins: 7 kicks last nigh, 5 marks, 1 contested mark only, 6 pressure acts, 0 tackles and kicked 3.1. Jeremy Cameron: 10 kicks, 2 pressure acts, 4 marks and 0 contested marks, 1 tackle and kicked 2.1 I reckon Chris Scott would still be fairly happy on their performances. So in comparison, Benny Brown had a good game on Friday night. Do I think Goody is using him to his strengths? no I don't. Another genuine key forward is needed for the chop out and I think we missed the opportunity to bring JVR in a few backs back to build cohesion.

I don't think you quite understand how it works. There is a gradual increase in performance after you stop the increase in training volumes, this process is when the tapering part of the program is implemented. You can think of it like a curve on a graph that is slowly curving upwards and will likely reach its "peak" in 2-4 weeks after tapering has begun, that's the whole idea. I think Binman has been spot on and not moved the goalposts, last year we were still loading in round 19 hence the poor performance against the dogs. It was always talked about that in round 20 we would start to see the benefits of our program and we did against freo last week but we are by no means at our peak. We are no longer loading but that doesn't necessarily mean we should/are peaking right now, but rather it will be an incremental improvement as we get closer to finals, although I've noticed considerable improvement In the past 2 weeks tactics and that jazz aside.

I agree. And I also 100% agree it was a big factor on Friday night. It was incredible atmosphere actually, and as much as I hate the carry on of fans on the train afterwards, I couldn't help but be jealous that the opposition fans, at our bloody home game could be such a force. I think their energy created almost a vibe of inevitably and absolutely would have had an impact on their performance and probably ours too. Maybe even the umpires too.

I just don't believe that The Pie or The Cats can play any better than they are at the moment, we certainly can but we must stay in the top four.

Thanks for the input there @IRW . For clarifications sake - you don't load continuously for 10 rounds, the process is far more nuanced than that. What happens, is that there is significant increase in volume - let's say rounds 11-13, plateau for 2 weeks, increase from THAT new baseline and go for greater volume again, let's say 17-19 and plateau, and perhaps squeeze another step up in volume 3-4 weeks out from the post season. Hope that clarifies the process away from a notion of 'loading for 3 months straight'. I mean you're right though, if that was to happen, that'd just be hilariously incompetent by the Performance Manager. I'm a bit confused by your left field coaching moves comment - could you elaborate? ps: my authority, is having had part of my career working in these environments and having direct links to people who currently work in these environments - particularly in AFL circles. So I get to ask questions about whether things are done the way the used to be done (within a 5 year window) and what evolutions have occurred in the process.

Not only did he look angry but extremely confident and full of belief when asked the question if we could still do it. They know they're better than this, and I think this loss to the pies has really angered everyone involved in the club. This will reignite us.

I can only hope so. As great as it was lifting the cup last year it wasn’t here and your core of supporters couldn’t be there or celebrate it unless you were prepared to risk doing time in the McGowan daycare centre. I want to see my team Melbourne, win the grand final in Melbourne.

Too complacent (see Dangerzone) and not hungry enough.

I really don’t get how the members and supporters thingy works. We have over 60k members and am totally guessing here, say an additional 30 to 40k supporters. In relative terms, bugger all turn up to games, even the big ones. I know for a fact that a lot of members - definitely the category that have reserved seats / access to GF tickets (if we make it) - (that have also been fully sold out)- don’t go to many games because there have been many vacant seats in those reserved areas in every one of our home games this year. My presumption is that we must have a substantial number of ‘fair weather’ and perhaps somewhat affluent supporters that buy the higher level memberships just in case we make the finals. Maybe that is the answer for your 2018 question. If that is the case, in my opinion that is a bit sad but so be it. I also get why we get the ‘going to the snow’ jokes. We seem to deserve it. But back to what I cannot work out. If we have over 90k supporters (even allowing for elderly, Covid concerns, distance issues) why so few in relative terms turn up to big games such as against the ferals. If the answer is they prefer to watch the games on tv, again, or just choose to attend if we make the finals, such is life. I used to enjoy bagging our northern state neighbours about how bad their attendances were for their rugby games. That has sadly very much become a tv sport. I’m going to back off doing that because I feel a bit hypocritical. I just feel for our players and I am again just guessing again, would appreciate some vocal support at our home games. Must be disheartening to know that opposition supporters more often than not not only outnumber our supporters but are also more vocal. The real downside being that our team is disadvantaged in home games if that makes sense. Just like for decades I wished we win a premiership, I now wish (actually have done so for many decades) the values and attitudes of our new supporters also change, dare I say it to resemble the raw passion that most other Victorian based seem to have. Again in my opinion the MFC as in the board, coaches, players and staff have all stepped up, the only real remaining weak link is us, the supporters base. Apologies to all the die hard fans out there including the cheer squad and people that turn up week in and week out - be you a member or a ‘non financial’ supporter. You guys are the heart and soul of the club.

I think you will see from my history that this is not my style. I thought posters would be interested in the rumour but of course it comes with no guarantee except that the source is reliable.

You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. what's incredible is the conviction with which something so ridiculous is posted. Loading is real, it's not exclusive to AFL, we did it in 2021, i almost guarantee we've done it in 2022 as have other sides, i would be shocked if we still were at this stage of the year, so it's not an excuse for last nights result. but i am going to call out and challenge any posted silly enough to try and claim loading doesn't exist because it's just an absolute load of nonsense.