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Everyone loves a conspiracy theory. With Dunstall and Derwayne openly barracking for the Suns, it was interesting that every time they said there should have been a Suns free or an incorrect free was paid to the Dees, the incident was replayed a couple of times and dissected by the commentators. However, contentious frees and goals paid to the Suns were totally ignored and no replay to show the incident/decision was seen. I had absolutely no idea why several frees and resultant goal decisions were paid to the Suns. How does this happen repeatedly in a game that is so heavily televised with multiple cameras? How many times was the JVR spoil on Ballard repeated? It seemed to be extremely selective vision and replays. Just a bit of fun for post game discussion, easier of course when you win.

It relates back to 1990 when everyone’s favourite footy manager,the great Peter Rohde, and the unheralded Tony Campbell pantsed them in consecutive weeks in R22 and the the finals to keep them from winning a flag they thought was rightfully theirs. I love that they hate us. It’s for all the right reasons and they can do f all about it.

Has there been any media chatter about this hit?

I have a simple explanation for so many of our players being flat: 3 interstate games in the first 5. Followed with 3 games in 12 days including another flight. An eye on another interstate game vs Port in 2 weeks. That workload takes a big toll on players with niggles and AFL level newbies like: McVee, JvR, and Chandler. And maybe our imported players (Hunter and Grundy) wouldn't be used to that workload nor yet conditioned to our standards. The season is a marathon. We only need to ride out this tough patch through to the Port game, take the 4 points as often as we can and get ready to consolidate our season with most games thereafter being in Melbourne. After the workload so far we are in an outstanding position in the top 4 with an excellent % No need for all the stress in this thread.

I posted this in the post game thread, but if you want some different insight watch the press conference…. Watching Goodwin speak in the presser he was very confident that we could get them on turnover. I feel like we are trying to win differently. For years we’ve needed to smash the contested possessions, where as I think now we are often having a look at breaking even there, which means we use our match winners more sparingly. Goodwin spoke about this in the presser. I think it’s about winning games, but not taxing our best players every week, so they are fresher when needed.

Agree Red. I was also a little peeved at the commentary (vomitary) around the JVR incident and yet the Chol incident on Bowey was similar and only replayed once and no references re the tribunal etc.

Good lord, reading this thread you'd be forgiven for thinking the dees have been a powerhouse for decades and won mutiple flags, such is the level of disappointment in our performance. We travelled yet again, played a good team in form on their home deck, a team that played out of their skin and matches our biggest strength -contested ball. Yes they pushed us. Yes they beat us at stoppages, clearances and ground ball (which is the real worry because it is an area we have struggled in down back) But let's not let a narrative tale hold where we were 'lucky to win'. We led for all but the first 30 seconds of the game. The scoreboard slightly flattered them as they were much more accurate than us Despite them winning contested ball, and more significantly clearances we kept them to 85 points (when was the last time we won after losing the cp by as many as 27?). So the defence held up - despite once again one of our senior defenders being a very late out (we really missed hibbos physicality, experience and strength). Remarkably we had 22 more tackles and we were plus 35 scoring from intercepts - not only are both huge differentials (which were key to us winning), it also suggests our effort and pressure was good. And despite them winning most of the key stats that drive inside 50 numbers (in particular clearances), we kept them to a paltry 45 inside 50s, smashing them in that critical stat by 16. Their pressure and contested work was off the charts. As good, if not better, than any we have faced this season i reckon. And Rowell and Anderson were brilliant all game. Witts is a goood ruck and took it up to maxy an Grundy. They would have been favourite to beat any team with that performance. So to get the four points after losing in most of our core stats (I’d love to know time in forward half) is simply a fantastic result. We should all be super proud of our team's performance. I'd also add, that was a long injury break in the last quarter and basically mafe it a 20 minute quarter form that point. We were on top but lost our fitness advantage and momentum and i suspect if not for the break we would have rolled over the top of them.

Went to the game last night. Metricon is a great place to watch footy. You can sit on the grass outside or have a kick of the footy and be in your seat within 2 or 3 minutes for the start of the game. Perfect night for footy. No excuses Steven May is proppy. My wife and I were watching him closely early on. Even his gait when walking is uneven. He's running at 80 percent now and that lack of closing speed hurts us at the moment. Petty has to go back to cover this. We all agree. Our forward line. BBB comes in but it won't fix much. The beauty of a half empty stadium meant we could move to the opposite end to sit in the forward pocket in the last quarter and watch our forward line malfunction. This is our biggest problem at the moment. So many forward fifty entries were wasted. WE JUST DON'T LOWER OUR EYES. We can't rely on a young bloke to take screaming pack marks 4 times a game. We can't rely on Tracc trying to bend a dribbler in from the boundary when Grundy is standing front and square 15m out in the last quarter. The long bombs from 60 or 70 out have to stop. We are doing it at AFL and VFL level We were right in front of JVRs spoil in the last. It was a brilliant effort by him just to make the contest. Eyes only for the ball to try and lock the ball in which we're not doing well enough. It will be tragic if he goes for that gut running to make the contest. Field kicking was off for a lot of the night. We are missing Salem's disposal. Oliver was still very good. We are just not that good without Max. Jack Viney saved that game for us in the last. The strength he displays in packs is just something else. The Jui Jitsu (I think) training he's doing is helping him keep his feet so well and also stopping him from dangerous tackling in some ways. Umpiring - evened out after GC were gifted a handful up front earlier in the game. Well done to Gold Coast. They are no easy beats and were unlucky not to win I think the coaching staff have some serious work to do with how we are playing. From our defensive setups, our kickouts, our transition into the forward line. Another KPF ain't gonna fix it. We're in a great position considering we're not firing on all cylinders. Gotta be happy with the win. That's what good teams do.

Don't forget, that wasn't just footy we were watching yesterday. It was FOX footy. Where truth goes to die.

Challenge the high impact for sure. Just because he went off on a stretcher does not make it high impact. He had no concussion and would likely have walked off had he not apparently felt something in his neck. As soon as the doctor hears that they essentially have to call the stretcher which means he can't come back on the field.

Where do I start.... We are moving the ball quicker and forward, which is reflected in our increased metres gained numbers. We are rated #2. We are using the corridor more than in previous years mainly due to the number of elite kickers we now have in the team. Ranked #1 for disposal efficiency. We are more direct in our forward inside 50s. Not just kicking into the pocket. We are rated #1 for accuracy and goals inside 50. Last year we were in the bottom 4. We're running more players through the midfield, particularly at centre bounces. Trac and Clarry are being rested more than in previous years, particularly during the third quarter, in order to be ready for the fourth quarter. The gameplan has been modified with the recruitment of Grundy. There are more options with our kick-ins now with Max on one wing and Brodie on the other. We have become less predictable. There seems to be a shift in our stoppage clearance strategy. We were ranked #8 last season and are ranked last this season. Clarry who is having great season, was ranked #1 last year for SC but is ranked #35 this year. So something has changed. I believe that there is now a greater importance on post clearance. A lot of teams are now bringing extra numbers to the stoppages allowing us to take advantage of the resulting mismatch elsewhere. These are just a few of the changes we've made to our game plan. There are undoubtedly many more that we have not noticed. We're doing a lot of things right. We must be if we are sitting on top of the ladder. If you claim to be a big picture guy, you must agree with this.

The problem with modern day commentators is that they confuse commentary with punditry. Just call the game and save the hyperbole for your spinoff show afterwards.

No. It was a terrific game. Hard, fierce contest from go to whoa. The suns were impressive. And our accuracy reverted to the mean But Maxy, tracc (how about thst goal?) Oliver and Viney stood up and won us the game. Worth watching just for that. Generational stars. We won another last quarter, meaning we have yet to lose one this season. Kozzie did some brilliant things in the first half. And brodie roved Max and snapped a goal. The last minute was pulsating. They had a shot to ensure at least a draw. I won't tell you what happened next (note to self: what was may thinking?). It would have been no shame to draw (the most likey result if that set shot had been a goal) so to get four points is a fantastic result. A lot to like. Or you could watch a couple episodes of MAFS instead.

He is a machine. You'd have to have blinkers on not to see his impact. Finished with 28 disposals, despite having a hard tag (ie not a defensive mid like Dunkley's job on Cripps) on him all game – something that doesn’t happen much anymore because the oppo is basically giving up a player and coaches can drag a player doing the hard tag away from contests (which are the reasons I’ve heard goody give for not using a hard tag more often) And despite having less disposals than he normally would, Oliver had the third most metres gained (behind tracc and maxy) for us and on a night we got smashed in CP, the most contested possessions (he was two ahead of trac, four ahead of Viney – and equal second with Swallow for both teams, behind only Anderson). And top all that off he had 9 score involvements – two more than any other player on the ground. Oliver doesn’t play, we don’t win. But sure, he didn't have much infleunce. Sheesh.

Interesting that when Collingwood fall over the line against middle of the road signs like Essendon and Adelaide- the media, the players and supporters celebrate like they’ve won a flag and give the impression that they’re this special side that captures the hearts of the media and most football supporters. But, when we win a close game against a middle of the road side interstate in challenging conditions, it’s considered a poor win by some despite leading for 99% of the game, something that Collingwood are incapable of doing in many of their games. This win wasn’t as poor as some are making it out to be. We got lucky with some umpire calls as well as McPherson missing that very late goal, but we beat an inform side who are playing hard footy at the moment and asked a lot of question of us today.

My thoughts on the game. The ones complaining about how poorly we played are the same ones who said this would be an easy win in the pre game thread. You can never please them and should be ashamed to think that this would be a walk in the park. Supporters are still not getting it that you still need to respect every team you play regardless of how poor they are. GC are a good team that's being poorly coached imo. If Damien Hardwick ends up there they'll easily play finals. The QLD trip is nearly overcoming WA as one of the hardest trips on the road purely because of the climate and the fact that you're lucky to play there once every 2 years. It's still completely foreign. The game was sloppy but it was such a grinding win. Had we played this game in thr 2nd half of last year then GC simply overrun us. So just shows we're mentally improved from our 2nd half fade outs. I still hold some huge concerns with our forward line. It's a bit of a mess. That has to be Petty's last game as a forward. Either get Ben Brown in and tell him that it's time to compete and get on his bike otherwise against Collingwood and Geelong we'll be exposed big time. Now is the time to get that forward structure settled especially coming up against the likes of Hawthorn and Freo. Great win, and hopefully the lads recover well.

After last year’s practice of playing the same 22 regardless of injury status, and then bowing out of finals in straight sets, I’m really pleased to see Goody playing with variations on team setup and players from Casey getting a go. Petty looked really good playing forward in that final last yr vs Brisbane. We’ve had a good look at him as a forward now and I think we’ve learned he’s better in defence, but it didn’t cost us games to find this out.

Suns came to play and had a real dip. They are not a bad side when on and the conditions seemed pretty greasy. Was a tough contested game of footy and we took the 4 points, not sure what some here are whinging about. We got a couple of decisions go our way in the last but overall I thought the umpires were absolutely putrid again tonight. Some dodgy frees going their way right in front of goal that fox footy refused to show replays of so we have no idea what they were actually for or whether they were there. You have umps paying frees at stoppages and then blowing advantage once everyone has stopped to see whose free kick it is (I thought they weren't allowed to pay advantage out of a stoppage? Or was that another "interpretation" that only existed for a week or two until they decide to roll it out again?) You had May getting knocked down after taking a mark, no 50. Hunter called HTB after getting a clean handball away, get how many times did they just throw/drop it out of the tackle and nothing? There were numerous other umpiring calls that seemed to be solely about keeping the Suns in the game. I can understand home cooked umpiring in WA and SA but on the Gold Coast where we probably had as many supporters as they did? Give me a spell. Fritsch missed three set shots he usually wouldn't, Rivers coughed up that goal in the last and another where we fumbled and fell to ground. Kozzy and Chandler were pretty quiet, I thought Jordon should've been subbed off instead of Turner especially with their tall forwards troubling us. Overall this was a tough game of footy and a lot of players looked spent in the last 5-10 minutes. We had all the run until the stop in play to allow Ballard to go off and that seemed to turn the momentum a bit as Anderson kicked a goal shortly after, had we got the next one it was probably lights out. But the game followed the same pattern each quarter we got out to a few goals then they reeled us in. Rowell and Anderson were great around the contest and Swallow did a decent job on Clarry. The Suns aren't a bad side they've just been underperforming. They rolled the Cats only a few weeks ago let's not forget. But apparently some on here are writing us off based on not winning well enough 🤦‍♂️ I thought it was a gutsy win and class won out in the end. Yes we got let off the hook with that last shot at goal but so what. How many times has the shoe been on the other foot over the years, it's nice that we can finally scrap wins when not playing at our best. Bank the 4 points and move on to next week, and for those who are sooking it up take a look at the ladder, we are currently on top.

This is the problem with the majority of Demonland, IMO. Too many want to see 2021 again. We should all know by now that the H&A season is all about two things: Winning enough games to put yourself in a position to win the flag (technically that means making top 8 but realistically means making top 4); and Being in form at the right time of the year. It's not about dominating from go to whoa. 2021 was a freakish year. We were brilliant. It was one of the best full seasons produced by any side in recent memory. I don't think we get enough credit for it, given how many people say stuff like "we hit a September purple patch". No, 2021 was out of this world. We cannot use that as the standard. We're 6-2 and have the league's best percentage. In those 8 games we've played four 2022 finalists (3-1 record) and have played half our games interstate. We clearly have challenges to come with our fixture but right now we are ticking the boxes for the first point above - we're winning games to ensure we're in a position to win the flag. We won't know if we're in form at the right time of the year until we get there but we have seen time and again that premiership sides aren't always in form in Round 8.

I maintain my view that this wasn't a reportable offence. I want us to appeal. There are a number of things I'd argue in this order: It's not a reportable offence. It's an attempt to spoil gone wrong. Fogarty did the exact same thing on Murphy last week and (correctly) wasn't penalised. It's not a strike. Wrong charge laid. If those two fail, then at the absolute least we need to look at downgrading the impact grading from "high" to at least "medium", if not "low". The reports are Ballard's injury was minor. That's not "high" impact. It's not the sort of action which, like a bump or a sling tackle, can obviously lead to catastrophic injury. This is an outstretched arm trying to spoil a ball and contacting the head. It's "medium" or "low" and should stay that way.

I am absolutely disgusted with this decision. For the sake of the Melbourne Football Club this decision must be appealed. Also by appealing this rubbish decision we will be sending strong support to one of our young up and coming players.

it was the optics of the stretcher that got jvr done over even though stuie dew said it was just precautionary by the doctors and turned out unnecessary and no concussion or injury.

And of course Chol isn’t even cited for a round house smack to Bowey’s head because Bowey had the nerve to get straight back up.

I believe the decision is just plain silly but how often has that been said about the match review/ tribunal system over the years, yet nothing changes. But ... what implications for the game itself does this decision open up? It seems to me that a spoiling situation always has the potential to result in high contact. In an overhead marking contest the spoilers arm, fist , forearm will always be close to the maker's head. As we see in the JVR situation where the spoiler has to move at speed to make the contest the possibility of high contact is increased. If JVR is suspended what will this mean for attempting to spoil the mark. Is this leading closer to a non contact game? PS. If someone could find the footage of the incident where Mitch Robinson poleaxed Pedo in a game at the G a few years ago it would make a very interesting comparison. If I remember correctly a free may have been paid but there was certainly no tribunal or suspension.

Related to this, there's some criticism lurking of Oliver that he is accumulating disposals and not really being potent, but it isn't as if he is being a seagull out there - he is accumulating in very difficult circumstances. Not only is he going at 50% contested possessions, but he's also earning almost 5 intercepts a game - that is defender numbers. In fact, after a quick scroll through the rankings, Oliver is the only inside mid player with anything close to that number of intercepts. Even for more open-role players who aren't always defenders, there is only really Brayshaw and Acres up there. If you combine intercepts (4.9 vs best 9.6) and score involvements (8.25 v best being 9.0) you get Clayton Oliver. Add to that the contested possessions, clearances and tackles of his old core role, and you get Clayton Oliver then a lot of daylight. Oliver's game has changed and it is becoming much more rounded, and potentially more valuable than the simpler clearance beast. It is possible that Oliver is quietly making the changes to become the most complete midfielder ever, right in front of our eyes, and we aren't noticing because it doesn't involve total domination of the usual statistics.

Regarding the bizarre allegation that Oliver had played a few shockers this year. Just caught a bit of the Channel 9 Sunday show. Oliver is leading the polling. 'Shocking'. FFS.

Very happy to get the win. We don't get beaten up like that at CPs (-27) and clearances (-6) if we're not off our 4th interstate match in 8. We looked absolutely exhausted after quarter time. The Suns are good in the contest, but not that good. And defensively, they waltzed through our zone and waltzed through the corridor a number of times - we seemed to back off them at times too, but their talls provided good contests ahead of the ball, which worried us a bit. It felt like we went really hard in the first quarter and tried to do what we did against North and ice the game by quarter time. But the first three quarters followed a similar trend where we dominated scoring, before the Suns would reel us back in. I love our ball movement and unpredictable forwardline at the moment, but our contests behind the ball (in the air and on the ground) need to be much better and our defensive zone (the transition is generally fine), needs a tweak otherwise we don't beat Collingwood or likely Geelong at the pointy end. Let's see if the FD is holding a few aces back. That Suns win though could well be huge in the scheme of things this year. Lucky or not, a win's a win!

Not me! I generally find them tedious, untrue and a self-indulgent waste of time. I'll make an exception in this instance, however.

I just watched The Round So Far on the AFL site. They spoke about the game as being a really tough contest, with a lot of brilliant individual efforts. Last year in the first 10 games the team said our game against GCS up there was our hardest match by far. We only got home by 13 points, and that was when we looked unbeatable. That’s a tough win last night I reckon. It wasn’t pretty, but I think that’s character building.

In the 3rd quarter the suns got 3 free kicks in front of goal, one to Ellis and 2 to King, all resulting in goals, and they didn’t show the replay of the incident once. Theres a clear mandate by both broadcasters not to show free kicks being paid in front of goal. That they don’t think we are aware of it is embarrassing. There’s an average of 27 seconds to show a replay of an incident before a shot for goal. The only logical conclusion is that they are trying to protect the umpires.

Its amusing to compare the amount of respect GCS got in the pre match thread with the lack of respect they get in the post match thread. 4 points against a tough contested team away from home, great result.

As great as bang, bang, bang was and what followed, it really has messed with some peoples minds on expectation. Not going to be rosy all the time ffs, we will work on what we did wrong and carry on. Some of the comments about the players are just ridiculous.

King and Montagna on ‘First Crack’ reckon Melbourne will appeal to the Tribunal, and JVR will be free to play next week. I hope they are correct! The integrity of the game is imperative!

I was totally fine with Kosi getting two weeks. His was not a necessary footy action or even in play and had the potential to cause a very serious injury. The reality is tho, that basically every action on a footy field can cause serious injury. A spoil, a diving mark, a tackle, a speccy. If we start penalizing every action that ends in injury, whether accidental or not, whether in play or not, we are changing our game. We have to minimize risk by taking out actions that don’t contribute to the game. But we can never take the risk away from the game, and if you can’t even spoil a ball with the game on the line, then what can you even do? If Rivers dives for a spoil and the player chasing him accidentally trips over him and hits his head on the ground does Rivers get suspended? What if you go to spoil and break someone’s leg? Does Lever get suspended because he went for a spoil and his opponent landed badly and broke his leg? A split second in play decision to try and spoil cannot and should not result in suspension when 9 times out of 10 it won’t even result in a free kick. Just because Ballard felt something in his neck and a stretcher was called as a precaution, doesn’t mean JVR now has to miss two weeks of football. The AFL, as per usual, have taken it so far the other way, for fear of being sued, they are changing the game. For the worse.

Great listening to Chaplin and he mentioned it was our 3rd game in 12 days - 3 wins is a fantastic result.

If we don’t challenge this we are simply p-weak. No injury yet high impact.

Agree with you. Felt like a loss on Demonland! Getting towards 60 years of supporting the Demons, can’t remember 64 flag as a 3YO Demon, our supporters can be very fickle. Won 2021 flag with brilliant finals campaign. 2nd last year in H&A, but slumped through injury and fatigue in finals. So in 2023 trying different things, as well highlighted by djr! Debut for McVee and JVR, Chandler getting a go, Petty tried up forward, and resting Trac, Oliver, Gawn during games! Goal kicking has improved, last night wasn’t great but still more goals than points. Enjoy the wins, not every win will be perfect, support our players. Someone steps up in the forward line, a bit of luck re winning the close ones like last night, a good run with injuries, and we will go close again this year! The other bonus is getting a few extra picks from Freo let’s the Demons renew, so hopefully avoid a Hawks or Tigers like slump! Be happy Demonlanders, it’s not 1980/81, or the Neeld years, we are in with a real shot this year!

WCW Yep,....i briefly logged into match day posts and it was dreadful. Insults flying everywhere about Grundy May Lever and Fritsch. Is Deespencer a bonifide Mfc supporter? How many teams would have beaten the Suns yesterday Maybe 2 or 3 or maybe none. Rivers looked as sick as a dog after the game in the rooms. An dees official said Chandler was ill before the game. Sounds like they ate some jungle grub that didnt agree with them. Goodwin never complains or makes excuses. Brayshaw thought it was a damn good win under the circumstances.

Just made the mistake of watching Goodwin's press conference. Not because of anything he said - he rarely says anything much. But how can a mega-dollar organization as the AFL not manage to have the questions audible. Do they fear the journos will steal a microphone if one is anywhere near them?

Focus is post clearance possession.

Sunday morning and we won a game last night against a quality team. My father used to tell me good teams find a way to win when they are not playing well. Forwards played poorly, we were beaten in the centre and backs made mistakes at important points in the game. But we still won and the four points are in the bank. Enjoy today like I will with luck the pies will lose today to complete a good weekend.

Teams have gone to work on our clearance game, but our clearance players have prioritised joining in the transition game. It's an interesting dilemma - win the clearances and lose the transition, or win the transition and lose the clearances. We will be busy finding ways to win both. And that's what matters at the business end.

I really hope Dunstall and Brereton are commentating the day we 187 the Hawks. For the Suns game it really was obvious that a decision had been made to go into 'sell the game to wavering Suns supporters' mode. I would guess that decision was made pre-game out of fear that it would be a hope-destroying blowout, and the market research is telling AFL HQ that the Suns' support base is becoming very tepid. That's what happens when arrogant execs turn thought bubbles into $200m money furnaces and try to cover the problem by pressuring zero-integrity media to help 'manage the optics'.

That very last high ball needed someone to stand under it dropping and mark to save the day. Viney of course.

3 games in 12 days, tough place to win, Suns played well. Good test and solid win with plenty of room for improvement. Not a bad place to be in.

If JvR is suspended so be it; he'll learn. He needs a rest anyway. That aside, love his aggression at the ball and his own argie-bargie reaction to all the attention he is getting behind play. Fearless and takes no nonsense. Rapidly rising to be an =+1 favourite!!

Agree Spargo should come in. Disagree Chandler should go out. He's been great this year, had a bad one last night but still kicked a magnificent goal on quarter time.

Another disadvantage of playing both Petty and JVR forward right now is that it's the blind leading the blind in terms of forward craft leadership. Say all you want against BBBs unwieldyness when the ball his the ground, but he is crafty and knows where to position himself and move if he misses a mark and often gets involved in scoring chains if he misses a mark. Whether he feeds it on through a handball / knock on or just running to the right spot to receive and kick an opporunistic goal, he's crafty as a forward where Petty frankly isn't on current evidence to date. We need someone like BBB to be mentoring and leading JVR in these aspects of playing forward that being an experienced forward at the MFC brings. If it's not BBB, the T Mac or Melksham would be just as good IMHO. T Mac is a leader and student of the game and has the presence that someone like JVR would respect. I'm not sure exactly what's up with T Mac at the moment as his practice match form looked pretty good to me as he has in patches at AFL level. Although he may not have taken that many contested marks in the season proper, I still think he'd contest and bring the ball to ground just as well as Petty up forward. And Tommy has good goal sense and forward craft in general.

We have a potential advantage over the top 4 sides as the fixture Gods have smiled on us this year; last year they smiled on Geelong. We play 3 of the current bottom 4 sides twice: Richmond, North and Hawks with 4 of those games yet to be played. Brisbane, Geelong and Collingwood do not play any of them twice!! Teams played twice: Brisbane: Adelaide, Collingwood, Fremantle, Gold Coast, Melbourne, St Kilda Collingwood: Adelaide, Brisbane, Carlton, Essendon, Geelong, Port Adelaide Geelong: Collingwood, Essendon, Fremantle, Port Adelaide, Sydney, Western Bulldogs Melbourne: Brisbane, Carlton, Hawthorn, North Melbourne, Richmond, Sydney There are no easy games as we learnt last night. Never fear D'landers we will be top 2!!

I was at Metricon for GC's win over Geelong earlier this year. I also was there for our previous game against the Suns. This game panned out as I expected; a four quarter slog! DL's who thought it would be a cakewalk were not reading the room. I was also livid at how Rivers coughed up their last goal, but he fought tooth and nail to make up for it by the final siren. We got away with some borderline decisions in those final minutes, but after an evening of non-decision in GC's favour, I take that as overdue! Congratulations to Viney, Max, Petracca and Olie for showing the way when we were staring down the barrel.