SaberFang

A fish rots from the head. How much money do you suppose betting companies pour into the AFL's pockets?

Adelaide's draw against Collingwood might be the ultimate blessing in disguise. With one result it knocked the Pies out of finals contention (can only reach 11.5 wins) AND it stopped Adelaide from moving a game clear plus superior percentage of rivals. So basically it was a win but it's nullified their high percentage from having relevance. With luck they'll be playing for top 1/2 in Round 23 and won't have the luxury of a loss. Adelaide winning games from here on is bad for us. If positions in the top 4/5 remain tight, it prevents them from being non-competitive in round 23. The more losses Essendon / St Kilda / Hawthorn / Bulldogs / Sydney have, the better. It could be the difference between making finals on 12 wins or missing out.

I thought the same after our Port Adelaide win. Suddenly 13-14 wins looked a shoe-in. After the weekend I'll just be grateful if we can get to 12. A week is definitely a lonnnng time in footy.

Yep, thought the grand finalists were meant to get difficult draws? Since the bye they've had luxurious breaks between games: 9, 6, 7, 7, 8, 7, 7, 6, 7, 7, 8, 6, 8. Compared to us: 6, 6, 6, 9, 6, 7, 7, 7, 8, 7, 6. Makes sense.

So we're the only top 8 team given a 6 day break between rounds 22 and 23. What a [censored] surprise. 7 day break for Collingwood. Essendon given 8 days to recover between matches against Gold Coast and Fremantle. What a staggering coincidence. Only other teams to get 6 day breaks are Brisbane, North Melbourne, Hawthorn and Bulldogs, all playing against each other to keep it fair. Of the teams also vying for a spot: Sydney - 8 days West Coast - 8 days Essendon - 8 days You'd think a logical person would've scheduled West Coast v Adelaide on Saturday, considering they have an 8 day v 9 day break, rather than allowing 6 v 7 for a team on the cusp. Self inflicted, sure, but the AFL never do us any favours. Once again treated like pushovers by the AFL.

Uninspiring interview really, not much insight. Trotted out the line about the past being irrelevant when asked how on earth one team can have the wool over us for 17 straight matches. Gotta wonder, how do you improve on mistakes from the past if you choose to ignore them?

Agree with the sentiment that it's not the fixture's fault we blew games against Fremantle, Hawthorn and North Melbourne at the MCG. Win those three games and we're entrenched in the top 4 at 13-5.

Whateley being laughably biased tonight on 360. Now bemoaning the "damaging" Carlton medical report, noting the similarity to the damaging Carlton medical reports that sunk Lewis and Hogan back in round 2. So where was your [censored] outrage back then, Whateley? Or is that only relevant now it's affected the media darling Dangerfield? You didn't have a care in the world about either Hogan or Lewis getting extended suspensions as a direct result of those harsh medical reports -- and ever since you've happily gone along with the media line that Melbourne are just unsociable. Embarrassing.

I'm sure they'll push the concussion angle heavily (then Krruzer will line up next week, right as rain). Same incredible recovery by Rowe after round 2, and Cripps' magically healed jaw fracture.

Wouldn't that be icing on the cake? Hadn't even occurred to me but we're not the only club to fall victim of suspect Carlton medical reports.

Yep, very similar to the Schofield situation. I've got no doubt that was orchestrated as well to save face. Geelong will be instructed to appeal, he'll get off, and everyone will forget it ever happened by Thursday.

All orchestrated. They'll appeal to tribunal and he'll get off. It's just a transparent attempt at making the MRP look impartial.

If we can only win 2, they need to be bloody solid wins. And our losses need to be within a few goals. Otherwise we'll be out of finals only by percentage.

Will already have two mids back in Jones and Bernie (for Trengove and someone else). We need Weids or Pedo to replace Hogan. Highly doubt we'll make another midfield change to fit Brayshaw in; he needs a solid month in the VFL before being considered, given the amount of time he's been out.

Despite the veiled threats, Bernie will be straight back into defence next week. Lewis will be released back into the midfield. Hogan out means either Pedo or Weids come back in.

"Offensive Facial Expression Towards Umpire" - $2,000 fine, suspended sentence.

He's not infallible! Geez, reading some of the comments in this thread you'd think he was Lucas Cook. The simple fact is this: we're yet to win a single game without Lewis in the side, which makes his win loss ratio pretty enviable compared to other teammates. Something to think about.

If it was Bernie, he'd get 2.

No disagreements there, but it's equally pointless making the 8 if we're too mentally weak to put away cellar-dwellers. Two losses to North Melbourne, Fremantle and Hawthorn are an indictment on the mentality of our club. Losses to Sydney and Adelaide I can stomach.

Another player could do the exact same thing as Dangerfield and get a different punishment. He'll get nothing because the AFL looks after its Brownlow prospects. The MRP is corrupt, nobody should be surprised at this point.

Even though it's put us at jeopardy of making the 8? I'd rather we had two percentage boosting wins against Fremantle & North Melbourne and dropped one of the Adelaide/West Coast games. As it stands, we're precariously placed to miss the 8 on percentage unless we can win 3 of our final 4.

I know where you're coming from, but if you told me at the start of the year we'd beat the Eagles at Domain, Adelaide at AO, Port at the MCG and wins against St Kilda, Essendon and Carlton at Etihad, I'd be expecting us to make top 6 in a canter. Instead we look likely to limp into finals, or miss them entirely, because we've dropped so many winnable games with [censored]-poor, drunk-on-bathwater performances. We can thank any of the 3 losses under a goal for this situation, all against crap opposition we should've beaten. Nobody else playing for finals has a resume as poor as ours in this respect. Even Port Adelaide are above us, and they haven't beaten anyone inside the top 8! But they consistently show up against lesser opposition and put them to the sword. That's what separates us from other teams: delivering on expectations. Even Richmond, who few here rate, sit two games clear of us despite several tight losses against two potential contenders (GWS & Bulldogs) and Fremantle.

And you can be sure both teams will dispense of their opposition with ease. We'll be in huge trouble if either team use the opportunity to build their percentage.

West Coast are such a nothing team. Could win by 150 points against the Lions and I still wouldn't be impressed. A team of downhill skiing, flat-track bullies. They'll never win when it counts (as evidenced by their [censored] of the bed 2 years ago). That said, Christ it'd be nice if we had an ounce of their ability to put away lowly teams with such ease. You just know we'll start the Brisbane game horribly, end up 4 or 5 goals down by half time, then barely scrape over the line in the 4th (or worse, lose by a goal). We've perfected the art of giving lowly opposition a sniff at embarrassing us.

Exactly, can never take a finals sniff for granted. Next year teams could easily have worked out our strategy and negate it (just as teams worked out Hinkley and Beveridge). Can't take this season for granted. We have to play finals and seize our momentum.