Leaderboard

Is David Roden the happiest goal umpire in the AFL ?

His tackling and intensity was a lot better then I've seen this year. I'm hoping it's all starting to click. I would have like him to have stuck a few grabs but his intent was certainly there. I haven't written him off as some have on here, he's obviously a kid that needs time and more physical progression with his body. He's played 26 games in the VFL. Talk to someone like Paul Roos and he'll tell you that the right development for a young key position player is certainly to bide their time in the reserves and build up as much experience and good habits as possible. It won't be an issue for me if he stays I the VFL for the rest of the year unless he completely bangs the door down. I doubt he plays this year but next year should be the aim for him to play at least 10-15 games at senior level.

You know very well that he chose to leave as a free agent. We had no say in it. Why you persist in peddling this "let him go" furphy is perplexing.

Too right Dee Viney. I do know that Gary Rohan has taken upon himself to lobby for more physiotherapists.

Richmond's crowd is pathetic. Don't you agree Caro? .... Caro? ... Hello?

So you’re saying to not let them lead 36 to zero?? …

I don't like him, but on this I agree with him. Essentially, the fault is not the umpires, it's the rules. They need to be much simpler and clearer. But the AFL keeps fiddling with them, with knee-jerk reactions which are often completely stupid. And the AFL being the AFL, they never ever admit that they have got it wrong. Simplest case: nominating a ruckman, to avoid two ruckmen up. But there are many. Holding the ball needs a complete revamp and simplification.

Geelong “not quite themselves” two weeks in a row. That’s a shame. Might need more funding down at kitty litter park.

Good questions. Laurie - absolutely got better as the game went on. Played the new Melbourne game style, looked for the centring kick and didn’t blaze away inside 50. jefferson - I wouldn’t say leading? That was also some bad delivery and also very Brown focused. Jefferson either played high getting that outlet kick from D50 or he was the deepest forward and it was on his head. He was playing on an AFL defender in Young, who is older, bigger and stronger but wasn’t beaten. kolt - white was the driving mid, Kolt still hangs back a little. There were a couple of times in the final quarter where Kolt let the play happen instead of attacking the ball, pushing through the contest and then going for goal - like Trac or Kozzie do. He’s young and I think he’ll get there, but I’d like to see him being more on the move.

Exactly we are still top 4 and giants under us on same points is a better result that them a game ahead. I don't rate bombers to keep it up for the season, giants will keep going and this helps our top 4 chances

Gee i hope the giants can knock off the bummers.

He’s such a sore loser. They were 8 goals down because they couldn’t keep up with the speed of Ports mids in the first half. That’s not the umpires fault, or the AFL’s. I honestly doubt any team could have. Port were on. Sometimes you get outplayed. Just call it what it is and move on. He’s a petulant child.

And there’s the siren - a famous victory for Casey by 3 points CASEY DEMONS 1.3.9 6.7.43 8.9.57 9.15.69 CARLTON VFL 4.3.27 6.6.42 7.11.53 9.12.66 GOALS CASEY DEMONS B Brown Tholstrop 2 Fullarton Jefferson Laurie Neocleous CARLTON VFL Cahill McMahon 2 Carroll Lemmey Monahan O’Keefe White BEST CASEY DEMONS Hunter Laurie White Hunter Jefferson B Brown Tholstrup CARLTON VFL Binns Fantasia Marchbank Young Carroll McMahon Statistics Jed Adams 3 kicks 6 handballs 9 disposals 1 marks 3 tackles 36 dream team points Ben Brown 2 goals 6 behinds 11 kicks 2 handballs 13 disposals 6 marks 3 tackles 88 dream team points Kynan Brown 1 behind 12 kicks 9 handballs 21 disposals 3 marks 3 tackles 73 dream team points Paddy Cross 3 kicks 1 handballs 4 disposals 1 tackle 17 dream team points Tyler Edwards 8 kicks 8 handballs 16 disposals 3 marks 2 tackles 57 dream team points Tom Fullarton 1 goal 1 behinds 5 kicks 4 handballs 9 disposals 3 marks 7 hitouts 44 dream team points Max Gregory 4 kicks 5 handballs 9 disposals 4 marks 34 dream team points Marty Hore 13 kicks 1 handballs 14 disposals 5 marks 57 dream team points Lachie Hunter 17 kicks 7 handballs 24 disposals 4 marks 3 tackles 89 dream team points Matt Jefferson 1 goal 1 behind 5 kicks 4 handballs 9 disposals 2 marks 4 tackles 53 dream team points Bailey Laurie 1 goal 14 kicks 8 handballs 22 disposals 5 marks 3 tackles 88 dream team points Shane McAdam 1 behind 5 kicks 3 handballs 8 disposals 1 mark 6 tackles 48 dream team points Andy Moniz-Wakefield 13 kicks 6 handballs 19 disposals 5 marks 3 tackles 73 dream team points Ned Moodie 7 kicks 5 handballs 12 disposals 1 marks 36 dream team points Harvey Neocleous 1 goal 1 behind 3 kicks 3 handballs 6 disposals 3 tackles 34 dream team points Ollie Sestan 1 behind 9 kicks 4 handballs 13 disposals 1 marks 1 tackle 37 dream team points Roan Steele 12 kicks 7 handballs 19 disposals 1 mark 3 tackles 63 dream team points Koltyn Tholstrup 2 goals 1 behind 11 kicks 6 handballs 17 disposals 4 marks 70 dream team points Adam Tomlinson 16 kicks 8 handballs 24 disposals 6 marks 1 tackle 82 dream team points Will Verrall 8 kicks 5 handballs 13 disposals 1 mark 1 tackle 11 hitouts 53 dream team points Mitch White 1 goal 15 kicks 5 handballs 20 disposals 3 tackles 75 dream team points Kai Windsor 4 kicks 2 handballs 6 disposals 1 mark 1 tackle 20!dream team points Taj Woewodin 6 kicks 5 handballs 11 disposals 3 marks 2 tackles 43 dream team points

There is very little if any difference between Pickett’s incident versus Adelaide and Newman’s incident last night. Both were low impact but both stuck out the arm and made contact to the head. One is graded as medium under the nebulous “potential to cause injury” clause and the other is graded low. I really don’t see any difference in force between the incidents. You don’t want to think different players are judged differently (depending on prior conduct or the team they represent) but for those that think that is the case, this is about as compelling a piece of evidence as there is to support their position.

Yeah my mate son is an VFL umpire trying to make AFL they could not care who wins just try to make right calls in a difficult job.. They cop heaps of scrutiny off their bosses and reviews every week

Our game is one where the result is often decided by centimetres; the touch of a fingernail, a split-second decision made by a player or official, the angle of vision or the random movement of an oblong ball in flight or in its bounce and trajectory. There is one habit that Melbourne seems to have developed of late in its games against Carlton which is that the Demons keep finding themselves on the wrong end of the stick in terms of the fine line in close games at times when centimetres make the difference. Ironically, the match was lost yesterday when they allowed the Blues to avoid a close contest scenario until the very end when it was just about too late. After Ed Langdon failed to score with the first shot at goal for the game, Carlton added five goals to nothing for the remainder of the opening stanza, leaving the gap of a bridge that was literally less than a centimetre too far for a Melbourne victory. Supporters of the Bluebaggers were pinching themselves with delight as their team piled on the goals, many of them scored by Demon errors such as the simple failure to cover spaces from which the opposition could score easily. The failure to apply sufficient pressure was palpable. Melbourne had equal opportunities, even early to hit the scoreboard. They went into attack often enough but the entry was poor, the forwards were sluggish and the Carlton defence stood firm against a forward line in disarray. Was it the curse of the five day break - or something else? It took until ten minutes into the second quarter when they were trailing by six goals to nothing, for Melbourne to register its first score for the night through the man who was it’s “almost” hero in Christian Petracca who had been sent forward to enable a change in the mix. It was one change that worked although it also meant that for a large part of the game, the Carlton midfield, led by Cripps and Walsh had the upper hand. When you have that upper hand - in this case thanks to a head start and efficiency in front of the big sticks, then you force the other side into pushing it uphill in an arm wrestle, particularly when the rain comes down making a comeback even more difficult. Petracca persisted, Alex Neal-Bullen worked his butt off, Steven May was a tower of strength in defence but most of the side battled and, in the final analysis they just failed to reel in a deficit which, at one stage in the third quarter was as substantial as 38 points. But they never gave up. In the final term, they dug deep and their superior fitness, notwithstanding the shorter break between games, saw them fall short by a single point, making it the third time in as many games against Carlton that Melbourne lost a game, despite having more scoring shots. After the game, coach Simon Goodwin reflected: "We gave a really good side a 6-goal start but our responsibility as a footy club is to rock up and compete in a way that keeps you in the game." All of that is true. The team can take some solace from the fact that they refused to lie down and supporters should take that away from the game instead of lamenting about the general run of the umpiring, dodgy score reviews, a deliberate out of bounds not picked up, a late shot that hit the behind post and even the Petracca surge forward that resulted in him being brought down when a few centimetres could have made all the difference and allowed one last move forward to at least tie the score (important in an 8-point game). None of those things matter when you concede so much in the opening third part of a game against a team that’s more effective in front of the goals. What does matter is that you fight it out to the last second and the very last centimetre. MELBOURNE 0.0.0 3.1.19 7.6.48 11.10.76 CARLTON 5.0.30 8.2.50 11.4.70 12.5.77 GOALS MELBOURNE Petracca 5 Fritsch Gawn Pickett Turner van Rooyen Windsor CARLTON Owies 3 Curnow 2 Cripps De Koning Hewett McKay Martin Pittonet Walsh BEST MELBOURNE Petracca May Neal-Bullen Viney Gawn Langdon CARLTON Cripps Walsh Weitering Kennedy O Hollands Curnow REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil CARLTON Nil INJURIES MELBOURNE Nil CARLTON Pittonet (finger) Cerra (hamstring) SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Taj Woewodin (replaced Bowey in the fourth quarter) CARLTON George Hewett (replaced Cerra in the third quarter) UMPIRES Matt Stevic Curtis Deboy Nathan Williamson Jacob Mollison CROWD 58,472 at the MCG

I think Kemp needs to explain why he put his head down twice in the tackling motion. None of the momentum of the tackle suggests any motion to drop his head forward, let alone twice. https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/fine-the-fakes-calls-for-punishment-as-debate-erupts-over-dubious-free-kick-awarded-to-blues-defender/news-story/8c674cf8e2679ec5f36d20ceed985a21 The AFL needs to stop this, for their own financial benefit. Someone will break their neck trying to win a free. That’s why people hate that rule. Players have adjusted, and are now making the situation much more dangerous.

Fritsch sub!

We lose by a point and that ends our flag chances? You give in easily not like the team you support.

Anyone bored with these games, checkout the southern lights.

I'm looking at the Norf score and, regardless of the myriad of issues, they should not be this bad. There's a couple of players who do not give a stuff and in just about any other team would be dropped for lack of effort. Zurhaar plays like a bloke marking time until recruited by a big club. He's not alone. Pathetic.

Losing Harmes, JJ and Gus in one season. They are 3 premiership players. And you wonder why our midfield has fallen off the face of this earth. Yea a little dramatic… but point to be made.

I think JVR is following a very clear trajectory. He has some good and some bad games, but always tries. He is young but has aggression. I think next year will be the one where he will really emerge, and will end up being a Brereton-style CHF and a champion.

I suspect we're witnessing in slow motion the demise of the cats vaunted midfield. Selwood gone danger at 34 and soft tissues cam Guthrie etc. Hawkins finishing up. Scott will struggle with this I suspect

This just simply isn’t true. Cripps and Walsh both had 34 and 35 disposals and kicked 2.1 between them. If Cerra had run out the game he also would have had 30+. To blame the defenders on the 5 centre clearances is also extremely short sighted and black and white thinking. Our defenders rely heavily on the pressure up the ground and Carlton had numerous exits at the front of the stoppage which allowed them easy looks. Do you think the Dogs in 2021 blame all of Melbourne’s centre clearance goals on their defence? No they blame it on their mids who allowed clean exit from the centre square. Let’s also analyse your “mids are having a good season comment” by looking at our 3 prime mids. Viney: Averaging 21 disposals a game - very average for a full time mid and clearly down on form. Don’t throw me pressure stats, I’m talking about pure ball in hand stuff. Oliver - Averaging 25 disposals compared to his usual 29 and only 4 clearances compared to his usual 9. Petracca- Matching his usual career average but has struggled with a tag. If he didn’t go forward he probably would have finished sub 20 disposals for the match. As a team we’ve also only won contested possessions 4 times and clearances 5 which used to be our one wood. For a team that supposed to be focused on “contest and defence” our contest work, especially in the middle, has been lacking all year. I can absolutely guarantee you that Goody would not be happy with our midfield to date. I know our forwards were poor on Thursday night, but to give our midfield a pass is just crazy when they’re posting record low numbers. What makes it even more disappointing is that Gawn is having an almighty year but our mids haven’t capitalised at all. None of our mids except for Petracca (mainly on his score involvements) would be in the conversation for AA this year.

Not every team that is down by 5|6 goals deserves to lose

Let's face it they just aren't very good at the job. No sense of the game and often out of position when making decisions. We need to entice ex-top juniors with dodgy knees who can read a game to take up the dark art.

Finally, an intelligent comment about the umpires. The people who complain about umpires also make mistakes at work but then demand that the umpires be perfect.

One of the best was Hewett also Carlton of course, being shown striking to the head with the right arm but charged with doing it with the left arm. Even though they had the power to amend the charge, they let him off on that technicality. It is nothing less than a joke. I just cannot have any respect for that body. Imagine in a Court of law that you get off, because you stab someone with the knife in the other hand.

Van Rooyen is still a kid. We have thrown him to the wolves and he is monstered most weeks. He needs more forward line support and I fear if he does not get more support, we will ruin his confidence.

There were a few positives I thought. Some of our tall timber looked promising. If BBB kicked straight he would have and maybe should have had 6/7 and he looked to me that he wasn’t going at 100%. I’d say he will just tick along for a while before doing a mini preseason and be ready for tail end of the season. Thought Jeffo and Verral showed signs and hopefully will continue to improve. Kolt had solid game. MacAadam looked lively in the last quarter so hopefully he’s getting his fitness up and can have a better game next week. Unfortunately I think we are light on in terms of real good talent coming through. Our injury list is very short at the minute too so there’s not many to come back in. It’s not surprising- we’ve lost Gus, Smith and Dunstan for various reasons. Traded Grundy, Harmes and JJ and in addition to that we have promoted some of our best talent to the first team.

I see Chris went on a rant about that advantage rule that didn't get paid. That is not why you lost

As some of us on here felt he was with us. i still believe if he knew Gus would retire he would have stayed: He left for better opportunities and has got them with the current best team in the AFL. We have a hole after Clarry, Tracc, JV and Sparrow.

He played 4, between 2015 and 2017

Liked McAdam’s game, 6 tackles more than outweighs the quiet attacking game. If it brings that pressure and has a day out he’ll soon be in contention. BBB not next week but at least he’s back moving better. Solid Kolt game Kynan Brown messier than usual but I like the way he always fronts up. Jeffo probably the highlight, stats don’t tell the full story, he was attacking the contest in the air with purpose.

Not sure why our mids are copping it so bad. The top rated player from either team was tracc. Yes he played forward too, but still played through the middle. Crazy metres gained. Our next highest rated was jack (3rd behind cirpps). Nibbla, who had some time on bsll, next (4th for us and both teams) Clarry, who was terrific in the first half, but faded was still our 8th highest rated player. And Max was 6th. The blues are the best clearance team in the AFL. They only had 2 more clearances in total. And only scored 5 more points from clearances (-18 from centre bounces and +13 from around the ground stoppages). All while Max had his lowest rating in a match since being sick with the flu in the OR.

Have you been watching West Coast lately? Their recent form at home includes a win over a top 8 side (Fremantle), a close loss to a top 8 side (Essendon), and a win over Richmond. Prior to that run, they led Sydney away from home for a half and lost by 26. A 10+ goal margin is far too high of a bar. Right now, West Coast in Perth is not a walk in the park.

Billings was very good, what game were you watching? Agree with Fritsch, Van Rooyen and Turner!

Bit hard to play football when you wear this...

My post-loss routine:

@Anti-Saint I think you should commit to the bit and make sure that every post starts with a statement of being anti-saint. Not just new threads.

Hi gents love the pod. I didn't get to watch almost any of the game, but it seemed to me that the 5 day break was an issue for us, hence the slow start. Once both sides tired out, we seemed to have the run of the game. Is that what it looked like live? Not too unhappy with the result, a win would have been better for sure. But I have to think that in another game and in a final with full breaks, we would be the fitter and better team. The first quarter was bad, but I think it has to be considered an outlier, rather than an indication of where either team is at. Does the panel agree? I think Binman's notion that each game is not a litmus test on flag credentials is especially important now. We've looked good in many games and looked bad in small stages. I think our best footy is right up there and probably the best 2 or 3 sides in the comp. The challenge for the Dees is delivering that consistently in September. The change to the Red and Blueprint means that sometimes it might not quite all come together, which is not a problem in May. We're growing and improving and Goody always says the team that wins the flag is not the best team, but the team that improves the most. I think we have that in us. Go Dees.

We played pretty poorly in the first quarter the umpiring certainly did not help. While people say the umpires put away the whistle well that was not the case in the first quarter where they hit us for everything and ignored everything Carlton did. The tackle was not dangerous, the players shoulder and head did not hit the ground first as occurs with a sling tackle. the carlton players knees hit the ground first, he was then pushed over from there. this is no different from players being ridden into the ground all the time. the holding the ball, rule seems to be impacting Clarry most of all last week and this week he was the main person pinged for holding the ball or incorrect disposal. Never mind the treatment he gets both on the ball and off the ball. we had our chances and should not have to have relied on that roo's tackle to win the game, we had more scoring shots and some of our best players had the worst misses. damn proud at how they came back and almost won it, i was in the stands cheering them on and for a brief moment we had hope. god if we could only play more than 15 minutes with that level of intensity, if we could play 4 quarters we would be unstoppable. one of the main issues i have with the umpires is the deliberate out of bounds. we got pinged for it several times when players are being tackled and ended up kicking it off the side of their boot and it goes out, the same did not occur with carlton. I don't understand how a player can walk the ball over the line when there is little or no pressure and not get called for deliberate out of bounds. It is deliberate it just did not come off a players hand or boot. they are certainly not attempting to keep the ball in which is what the rules is supposed to be for.

13 disposals, 8 tackles, 26 pressure acts I’d love to know who you think we’ve got ready to come in who can provide that same defensive effort and win a good share of the footy. McAdam’s going to have to be really good and Chandler not recover at all before I’d make that swap.

Agree with you, but I have absolutely no doubt that different players are umpired differently. Take Oliver and Cripps as examples. Clarry is pinged for holding the ball or throwing in an instant, while Cripps is given an eternity to dispose and throws the ball without penalty regularly. I say that from years of watching both play.

That’s 3 games in a row against the Blues that insufficient goal review technology has cost us the match. One day a team will lose a Grand Final as a result of Soviet era tech.

That's true, but also if the umpire on just 2 occasions did the right thing, we would have one goal more from the rubbish dangerous tackle disallowed goal and they would have one goal less, from the incorrect ruck out on the full to Pittonet, who was the one who hit it out and giving them a goal. That gives us a 2 goal win. That is ignoring multiple other incorrect decisions, which of course can happen in a game. Here is the real question though, in each of the last 3 games against the Blues, all won by them by less than a goal, how many controversial decisions went our way instead of Carlton's. I have no doubt the crowd affects umpires and that is a fault with our game.

Umpires - disgusting yellow maggots

More so, the haircut and ears 😁