SaberFang

Would rather we didn't throw ANB to the wolves, but for some reason I could see him having a breakout match against another young team in the Saints.

LOL Boyd subbed. Another stellar game from the million dollar boy.

Can we play Essendon next week please? Got a sneaking suspicion we will remain their bogey team this year.

Mark Neeld for Bomber Thompson. What an upgrade!

I think the question deserves to be asked once and for all: Has Hird finally lost the players? 0.6.6 in nearly half a game of footy. Geelong up by nearly 50 points. Rather ironic that after everything the club has done to re-sign and protect Hird in spite of the drugs saga (all while pushing a proven coach like Bomber out the door), it's become bleedingly obvious the man isn't a coach's a**hole. Mind you, I'm enjoying it with an expensive bottle of red. In the words of Bruce, simply delicious.

Gotta feel for Ed, must be devastated. That was a ripping match though. Credit to Carlton, showed a hell of a lot of effort and run for a team with crappy skills and disposal. Wish Melbourne players could put in a similar performance.

I really hope H lifts against his old team. His form has been wildly inconsistent this year, in tune with the team itself. Would love him to start pulling players with him by the scruff of the neck.

Apart from North, Collingwood really haven't beaten anyone particularly good this year. Saints, Brisbane, Carlton, Gold Coast, Essendon... all 5 clubs have horrible days when they're off, and the Pies have had a dream fixturing run to start the season. They haven't faced any of the top 4 teams yet and this is where the younger sides get found out very quickly (as we all know thanks to the Hawks/Syd/Freo trifecta). They also lost to Richmond who we comfortably beat. Whether we win or lose this game will be determined on our terms: whether our players bother to show up or drop their heads as soon as the going gets tough.

The way Richmond are being talked up by the commentators is laughable. Let me remind you that St Kilda beat Fremantle last year and ended up wooden spooners. Richmond have beaten who, exactly? Essendon? Carlton? Brisbane? Collingwood*? They lost to us (and we seemingly only show up to games once a month) and Geelong (who are on the slide). *I don't rate wins against Collingwood. Their win against North was special, but they haven't pinched any wins off a genuine contender. In fact, their draw has been enviable, with wins against Brisbane, Saints, Essendon, Carlton, Gold Coast. Let's see how they're travelling after they play Hawks, Sydney and Freo.

Would comfortably be the most entertaining meltdown of the year if Richmond managed to lose this. Absolute gold. Shades of the Port/Hawks match earlier in the year, except Port had the fortitude to hold on with seconds to spare. Do I think Richmond have the same mental fortitude as Port? Well... http://www.afl.com.au/match-centre/2014/24/port-v-rich

Clearly you have some kind of agenda against me because the quote you refer to is entirely general. Once again, if someone on here had called me racist why on earth wouldn't I have quoted them? It was my first post in this thread so why on earth would anyone have even suggested as much without me making a comment in the first place? It's clearly interpretation. It's your interpretation that I was referring to posters on here and I'm stating for the third time that your interpretation was incorrect, as well as apologising if my initial post was unclear. If you want to get into semantics about grammar then go ahead, but I've cleared up the issue and you're the only person here continuing to argue the point.

Come on mate, give it a rest. There were plenty of other players out there not performing today.

Certainly no consistency week to week. It'll take time. Eventually we'll string together four quarters like our first one today.

Wonder how much Ryder was screwing up their gameplan, because they looked much better without him today. Kind of wish he'd played.

Well my optimism for Queens Birthday has taken a nosedive. Such a shame to see a complete repeat of the GWS disaster.

Anyone with a shred of intellect would agree that's an abhorrent example of racism. Goodes is an easy target because he puts himself out there and speaks his mind. A lot of racists would take issue with his war cry because they are racists, and a lot of non-racists might take issue with his war cry because they lacked context. Clearly, plenty of viewers loved it as well, and enjoy the colour Goodes brings to the game. On the surface, watching a player celebrate a goal like that when they're 50 points up against the league's worst team looks unsportsmanlike. I think punters having no context of what they were seeing probably blew up the situation, just as people might be confused seeing the intimidating Haka for the first time if they didn't know its rich history. Mimicking throwing a spear at opposition supporters appears fairly aggressive from a player, and we've never seen anything quite like that in AFL (that I can recall?) For that reason, I find it understandable for people to be a bit taken aback. I just disagree with the media line that the situation has no shades of grey: boo or dislike Goodes? You're racist. It's far more layered than that, and if nothing else it has sparked a lot of healthy (and some unhealthy) discussion. There's nothing bad about that!

I've bolded the relevant part, because you must have missed my clarification the first time. I was speaking generally about the way Goodes came out and labelled people that boo him as racists. At no point did I even refer to posters on this board, otherwise I would've quoted them the way I'm quoting you now. Maybe I should've been clearer in my initial post that I wasn't referring to any posters on DL, but I've clarified this and yet you keep singling me out. I also spelled out the parallel to Hawks fans booing Clark in round one, which was treated similarly by the media. I was drawing attention to the fact that some people cite hot topic issues such as gender, race, mental illness, sexuality, etc. to mask other criticisms people may have about their character. Clark and his depression, though not directly related to Goodes and racism, was simply an interesting parallel with respect to trial by the media and I thought it worth mentioning in a thread about broader societal issues. I don't agree that's a "bizarre" point to raise, but you're entitled to your opinion.

I can see us winning but I'm going to subscribe to my "tip the teams I want to lose" theory today. Port gets my tip. That way if I drop the tip, at least the consolation prize is the team I wanted to win, won. Case in point, tonight's match between Essendon and Richmond. 50/50 call, but I'd hate to tip Richmond and see Essendon win. Conversely, I'd happily tip Essendon and see them lose. Worth dropping the point for!

This reminds me of the booing against Clark in round one. The instant reaction from the media was that apparently the crowd were booing him because he had depression. Similarly, Goodes is apparently booed because of his race. I'd say the reality of the situation is fairly different. Maybe Clark was booed for what he did to us? Maybe Goodes is booed because of his dirty acts on the field?

From BigFooty: "on 5AA they just mentioned that Boaky got a poke in the eye (from training) and his eye is closed"

Clearly I must be reading a different thread, because I see posts insinuating that people who don't like Goodes and cite reasons like sniping, etc. as nothing more than a front to hide their racism. By the same reasoning, if I dislike a certain woman, this would make me sexist. Or homophobic if I dislike someone who happens to be gay. Goodes should be heralded for the work he does for the Indigenous community, but I do feel he spends more time driving a wedge between communities than he does uniting them. If he's going to come out and say people boo him because they're racists, that's deeply misguided (but I can understand why he would come to this conclusion, considering he has undoubtedly suffered a lot of racism throughout his life).

I'm sick of being labelled a racist because I don't like Adam Goodes. It's reverse racism in my opinion, of the people labelling me as such. I worship the feet of three fantastic and positive role models currently at our club - who happen to have Indigenous heritages - just as I did for Farmer, Wizard, even Jurrah before his fall. I equally dislike the antics of Petrie, Boomer, Riewoldt, Selwood and any number of theatrical, diving, ducking or sniping players, irregardless of their skin colour. I could give two hoots about Goodes being Australian of the Year (of all the sports personalities given the award, he's done lots of admirable work for the Indigenous community and promoting their cause) but I dislike his attention seeking, sniping and arrogant on field demeanour, capped off by his antics tonight. Just as Bulldogs and Tigers supporters disliked Nate Jones' overt goal celebrations this year. This does not make me a racist and, frankly, speaks volumes about the level of one's intelligence to label me as such. The fact that Goodes instantly cites racism as the reason anyone might dislike him is as braindead as Clark bringing up depression every time someone criticises him. It's nothing more than an attempt at deflecting from their character flaws and not owning up to some home truths. Manipulative and all too eager to place labels on others and play the sympathy card in an entirely-too-PC society.

Did anyone see this bizarre tirade on Fox post match tonight? McGuire interjected no less than 4 times between a heated debate between Hall and Maclure when discussing the next Carlton coach. Apparently the choice for Carlton is "obvious" according to Eddie, he says the AFL need to put Roos in place. Says he's the perfect coach for the AFL to assign to all the basketcase teams in the league, because they'll just keep forking out $1.5m a year for him to do it. Not sure what to make of this one but we know Eddie doesn't do anything without an agenda. Is he trying to destabilise us or was it just a veiled dig at the AFL bailing out the crap clubs? He wasn't even correct in saying the AFL are footing the bill for Roos.

Interesting bump... Anyway, safe to say the 3 indigenous players at our club are deadset legends. Can't wait to see JKH blossom under Garlett.

Is the possible reason for Port's collapse this year that teams have caught on with how to ruin their gameplan, and they didn't actually spend this last pre-season mixing things up or finding contingency plans for when teams flood stoppages and stop their running game? Roos was clearly the first coach who worked out how to strangle their gameplan, and this year's results would indicate other teams have caught on as well. Have they gotten ahead of themselves?