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What always gets me is the idea that Clarry not being at his best is a reason to trade him. Makes no sense! So much more value in helping him get back to his best. Pre seasons are everything in footy, ask any player - bad preseason? Bad year. This legend will be back at his best next year if not earlier - he's building beautifully.

Demonland Exclusive (Embargo till 1500, 19/07/2024) The Melbourne Football Club has made the following first and final offer to the Port Adelaide Football Club through an intermediary, former Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes:- Melbourne receives: Dan Houston and Port Adelaide’s first pick in the 2024 AFL National Draft. Port Adelaide receives: Salary cap relief. Cornes exclusively told me that, as a fan of the Power, he thinks “it’s a good deal and Port should grab it.”

Nope. It awards mediocrity and cheapens the achievement of making the finals. If they want to shoehorn in an extra week of football make it an entire home & away round.

Despite the Crowd Strike platform failure, all hands are on deck at Demonland cycling away on our backup system in the basement to ensure that its business as usual.

Exactly.....and who would people suggest we bring in as a mid from Casey to replace an 80% fit Oliver? It's the same reason an 80% fit Petty was being played......they are better in that state than any alternative we might have.

I'm sure by now others have seen the articles describing Freo's 'nightmare' flight back to Perth from Launceston. Personally, I don't see how we could approach in fear of a team which can't go four hours without taking a [censored]. Especially after they already spent more than two hours [censored]ing the bed against Hawthorn. It occurs to me now that I've never used an aircraft toilet. Are they really that bad? Is it like the Indonesian truck stop drop toilets I decided to skip and wait until I made it to Surabaya? But, seriously, that bizarre article is a timely reminder that our opponents this week are only human, and we go in with every chance of victory.

Given the amount of youth that we are playing at the moment, the senior players out or underperforming, I was thinking how lucky we are to have Jack Viney in the side. Yes, he had a better season last year with Trac and Oliver firing, but he has really been incredible this season with his leadership and continued efforts. As a very social person, I was re-watching the Brisbane game and he was absolutely incredible in it. We are super lucky to have him.

Light reading before bed. https://discourse.bomberblitz.com/t/review-vs-crows/32952

Just when we thought there couldn't be anything sweeter than Essendon having 9 goals in a row kicked against them, they come back, look in control, and finally choke in the last ten minutes. Not all art is beautiful, but it is still art.

Petty has broken Draper

Play this to the boys on Sunday The Hollowed Turf

The likes of Cornes, Morris, Sam McClure are the equivalent in journalism of the American “yellow press” who use eye-catching headlines and sensationalized exaggerations for increased sales. They are characterized by exaggerated headlines, unverified claims, partisan agendas, and a focus on topics like crime, scandal, sports, and violence. In Britain and here, it’s called the “tabloid press” and these days it’s equivalent can also be found on Tik Tok and other social media platforms. These guys are television’s equivalent of clickbait. So yes, they are doing their job but it’s a low grade of journalism that relies on speculation and innuendo, often has little regard for the truth and rarely does any fact checking which is why this story clearly deserves the contempt many here have heaped upon the above trio in this thread. They’re doing their job which is to attract ratings from a mindless public.

Everyone! To Bomberblitz!!!

Well. Yeah. That helps. Don’t mind Adelaide finding some form. They have Hawthorn, Geelong, the Dogs and Port in their next four.

There's some real 'optimist v pessimist' games to decide what is best for Melbourne. Geelong v Bulldogs Optimist says go Doggies, to clip Geelong back so we can pursue the top-4 or home final. Pessimist hopes Geelong pick off the dogs to keep them a step behind us in the scramble for the 8. Giants v Suns Optimist looks for the Giants to stumble and us to pass them, pessimist says GWS can keep it's slot so long as they suppress the chasing Suns. Hawks v Pies Pessimist says Hawks to win because their poor percentage means they are more likely to stay behind us. Optimist says Collingwood to win because it'll be so much fun for them to still be in contention right up until we crush their dreams in round 22. Sydney v Brisbane Pessimist doesn't really care about this one, but the optimist hopes Sydney wins and Errol Gulden gets suspended for 10 weeks. Fremantle v Melbourne The optimist thinks this one will be tricky but if we win it'll make the run home much easier and make all of our potential finals opponents a little nervous. The pessimist hopes we get thrashed so they can demand Goodwin be sacked.

■■■■ club. ■■■■ list. Senior players with lack of skill and composure. Mental minnows. And we come back for more every year. It’s like it’s scripted. I can’t believe people defense this rabble and particularly the list manager. He should be nowhere near the place. The only Dodo that continues to survive the extinction he deserves.

Is that the hole that the Bulldogs fell into halfway through the third quarter of the GF?

This is such a valid point. Nearly every great player goes through a down year, especially coming off an interrupted pre-season or after injuries, and rarely do fans suggest to trade out that player after one poor year. I think if Clarry didn't have the pre-season he had in terms of the negative headlines, we would chalk his form down to a lack of pre season and injuries, and there would be no mention of trading him. The only reason the club would ever consider trading him is if his behaviour doesn't stack up. The club only floated the trade idea last year as a way of scaring Clarry into getting himself right off the field. It was never a serious threat, and if they didn't trade him when he was at his lowest, why would they trade him now that he's doing so well off the field? And to anyone assassinating his character, I truly hope that you or a loved one of yours never goes through any mental health battles or mental illness of any kind.

Finals get more coverage, people are more interested, attendances are higher and ad revenue is higher. Obviously Solution. Cancel the Home & Away season and just have 22 more rounds of finals. Every one of which is a theme round.

I had the privilege of collaborating (in a small way) with Cody Atkinson on the following article regarding contested possessions. These guys regularly put out fantastic and insightful AFL articles for the ABC and are well worth a read. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-19/afl-2024-premiership-importance-of-contested-possessions/104113954 The contested possession has increasingly gained prominence in recent years, with players, coaches, commentators and fans offering different opinions on its role in the AFL. Star Sydney Swans midfielder Errol Gulden has described contested possessions as "a key indicator for success", but not everyone in the AFL is enamoured by the concept. "Contested ball is just a fancy term for everyone in the media," Alastair Clarkson said in 2016. "We don't give a toss about that … we've won five contested-ball contests in about two years, so we've still won lots of games of footy." So how important are contested possessions? And what even is a contested possession?

Towards the end of the second quarter I thought I was a chance to enjoy a 10 goal Essendon loss. This was much, much better

Ahh gotta love it. Crows were owed one after the Draper flop last time.

EAD Essendon and the AFL (in the nicest way possible).

defending optional tonight from both teams.

What are you, a Camel??

What a terrific start to the weekend that would be !!!

Here we go again, another crass idea based off American sports. 🙄 Why can't things just be left alone?

Didn't realise Bowey was named in the bench. He could absolutely either get dropped or start as a sub. His form of late has been pretty poor and considering AMW has been playing better football off half back they might look at using this opportunity to get Fullarton in perhaps. All guesswork I suppose.

Watching Essendon lose feels like a win! 🍻

And more gold from Bombetrblitz: Season over, what. A pathetic effort but sadly not surprising from this club Go ■■■■ yourself Essendon you make me ■■■■■■■ sick I will sleep well tonight.

Woah Hoo Suck Sh&@ Essendrug

EAD Essendon

Oh no… the AFL will not be happy with that.

I am registered as an in-flight emotional support camel for tax purposes, so there is some pressure on to keep up appearances. To be fair, I've never done a pacific crossing and I'm also putting off a Europe trip until there's an available stopover location which isn't a major slave market or Perth.

It's not weird when you consider that Fullerton is a forward who can ruck, not a stand alone ruckman, and his VFL form has been lacking. Max is great at hitouts but it's what he offers around the ground that has the most impact and what we miss most as a team. Petty might not be great in the middle, but he can mark around the ground and have influence there. Roo is competitive in the middle. Fullerton, is not great at either of these things, which is why he has not been picked.

That flying horizontal tackle against the Brisbane player a few weeks ago says it all.

Woey injured with a bad corky. Billings had 32 disposals and two goals in the VFL last week. Played well. Laurie did too, so a tad unlucky.

Completely disagree. Jackson's spread from the centre bounce was phenomenal in that 30 second patch in the GF, and is the best ruck work I've seen at ground level ever.

I like my revisionist history of that time, where historically it was spoken about how instinctive Jackson was, and what leadership it was by him, "he is such a unicorn". On further reflection, and inspection, it was clearly the Dogs midfield positioning (looking at you Bont and Treloar) which Melbourne as a team capitalised on, it could even have been Mark Jamar rucking (no disrespect) and the ball still would have been fed out to our marauding midfielders. The mythology of Jackson rests on him merely being at the right place at the right time, as Gawn needed a rest.* 🫣 *not that I am bitter...

no way windsor or disco go out or sub in my opinion, both amazing last week. Only chances for a drop or sub are bowey and (hopefully not) kolt

Petty, Sparrow, 2024 Pick 1 for Butters and Houston? haha. Seriously, this is gathering legs and im stoked that for once we have been linked to a player that is a gun. The more i see his stats and ranking and game impact, the more im thinking its akin to a top 10 pick. probably in the 5-10 range. I had a view earlier this year that we should forget 'the reload and have another crack in 2025' and instead, look to the draft to accelerate a rebuild. However, after seeing the mouse pack, i think we have most of the puzzle pieces already to at least content for the next 5 years. The obvious questions will be around replacements for May, Gawn, TMac and whether Jeffo comes on and Petty sticks around. If we are able to obtain Houston for this years 1st round pick we will have an impressive 2025 side with some quality depth. D: AMW, May, McVee HB: Petty, Lever, Houston C: Windsor, Viney, Langdon HF: ANB, Turner, Trac F: Kozzy, JVR, Fritta Foll: Oliver, Riv, Gawn Bench from : TMac, Salem, Bowey, Woey, Jeffo, Chin, Sparrow, Howes There's only 4 players over 30. A good chunk in the 25-29 bracket and plenty of youth. So in deciding between using this years 1st pick on Houston vs Draft, i have changed my mind that it is worth reloading for another tilt in 2025.

Simple win ALL or 5 games and we make Top 4 or enough (3 or 4 )Top8.

Not a fan tbh, but if the AFL could automatically install it for this season i may relax a little about our run home aha

The United States: Yet another objectively terrible idea. Everybody else: We should do that.

Plus it would mean that 7 th to 10 th miss out on the pre finals bye, while the other teams get it. It makes a joke out of all the work that mid ranked teams put in to get a finals berth.

Firstly because I suspect that he's "fit enough" albeit not at optimal fitness. But he can get through games. But I also suspect that one of the reasons he was brought straight in is because being part of the on-field team plus the routine of an AFL season is much better for his mental health. His mental/well-being demons started with that long period of rehab last year and the kind of isolation from the group it brought.

It doesn't work like that. In fact, the longer the season goes, the more players like Oliver (and Petty) will struggle. "Players were divided into three equal training load groups based on total distance accumulated during pre-season. Results: Players in the high training load (HTL) group performed more relative total and high-speed distance in matches compared with the moderate and low training load groups, with the differences becoming greater as the season progressed." https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326856433_The_influence_of_pre-season_training_loads_on_in-season_match_activities_in_professional_Australian_football_players

I'd rather the opposite; start with last week's line up and sub in Fullarton if not working. I'm also more interested in seeing what Fullarton can offer at AFL level than Laurie or Billings.

I'm all for the optimism and confidence, but yes, I seriously think Fremantle are better than us. Their loss to Hawthorn last week doesn't immediately negate what they've done this year, which includes beating Sydney two weeks earlier. They have weapons which we struggle with (a midfield which can match us at contest but beat us on spread, half-backs with pace, forwards who can compete in the air even if they're not A-graders and rucks who would give Gawn trouble, let alone Petty/JVR), and their only losses in Perth this year have been to West Coast in a derby (we lost to them too) and Sydney in the game after McCarthy's death in which they were clearly and for obvious reasons not at their peak. I want to see us play like we have the last month, and if we do I think we can win, but I'll be OK with our season and fortunes if we don't because Fremantle should be considered a difficult match-up for us and a strong opponent.