SaberFang

This will be a silver lining, no doubt about that. You could sense the seething anger from Lewis when talking about the Houli outcome. I can only imagine his reaction to hearing Schofield got off entirely.

This has been weighing on me a lot lately. Opposition supporters have no reason to like us now we're not wallowing in the depths of despair. We'll never be the AFL darlings that the Bulldogs were; as we become more successful, other teams and supporters will want to tear us down. They'll cite the usual rubbish like AFL concessions, priority picks and handouts. Our gun players will get targetted off the ball -- and, by the looks of things, the judiciary will victimize the aggressors and punish the victims (remember that 4 year propaganda campaign where drug cheats were now innocent victims?) We need to get used to being disliked. [censored] the rest of 'em.

While having your mouthguard out at half time, and having braces because you're 19. Oh, but those facts are irrelevant in the eyes of the Tribunal. Oliver's a DIVER!!!!11!!!1!!1 TOTEZ FAKING IT!

Let's not forget that two weeks ago Joel Selwood had no case to answer for elbowing Mitchell in the back of the head off the ball. It's a kangaroo court. Just like the laughable Essendon drugs tribunal. Don't waste your energy looking for logic, sense or fairness from a system as corrupt as everything else about the AFL.

I'm getting to the point of not caring about this sort of crap, because it continues to make my blood boil. The amount of contradictions and hypocrisy does my [censored] head in. In no universe is Schofield "not guilty" of elbowing Oliver in the chin. What these morons have just done is reopen the can of worms that such actions are fair play. Well done on creating a precedent that future cases will use as their defence, morons.

Knowing the state of corruption at AFL HQ, wouldn't be surprised if West Coast were given assurances that Schofield would be let off if they appealed. Makes no sense to risk it all for the sake of a one week ban. Never forget that the only people who found Essendon not guilty of doping offences were the carefully handpicked AFL's Tribunal.

If the basis of West Coast's appeal is that Oliver dived and our medicos lied, I'd be staggered if they overturned the ruling. The key facts: It was high contact. His elbow connected with Oliver's chin and video evidence proves this. It was off the ball. It was outside play. It was entirely avoidable, therefore it was intentional contact. At a time when the AFL have just launched a crackdown on head high contact and punches, not the smartest idea to challenge a suspension with these considerations, all for the sake of a single week. We must have really upset these downhill skiing snowflakes by showing them up for the pretenders they are!

Hope the sniping piece of [censored] gets two weeks. To lower the grading is tantamount to the MRP saying that Oliver staged. Either way, I wouldn't want to be playing against Oliver on Friday night.

The only silver lining to Essendon returning to finals will be Brendon Goddard being delisted the year before it happens.

Surprised the umpires didn't pay a free for high contact!

Hey, Simmo: how are all those poor little downhill-skiing petals in your team holding up today? After such an embarrassing choke against us, with those pathetic defensive efforts in the dying seconds as 4 of your defenders nonchalantly jogged towards Tom McDonald before kicking the winning goal, are they holding up okay? Any neck injuries from all that excessive ducking, diving and milking for free kicks every week? How's Darling, by the way? Still cleaning his dacks after [censored] himself in your embarrassing excuse for a Grand Final coaching performance a few years back? Keep up the great work though! You're doing a fantastic job treading water in the middle of the ladder with zero impact in finals.

Goddard on Footy Classified is like having the Grim Reaper on the panel. Has all the charisma of a staph infection.

Disgusting hypocrisy. One week the media is harping on about showing empathy for mental health, lest any players be going through a tough time. The next, they're gleefully dragging a 19 year old through the mud for his reaction to being slugged in the chin with an elbow. All for the sake of cheap headlines, clickbait and ad revenue. The media in this country is [censored].

If accurate, BT & Channel 7 can expect the same "go [censored] yourselves" treatment that Sydney gave them last Friday night. Deadset parasites. And who even watches that dreck? Four knobheads sitting around a table pretending to be controversial for the sake of ratings and filling their pockets with money. Save yourself the angst and spend an hour watching paint dry; it'll be more intellectually stimulating.

Straining my eyes trying to tell the difference on TV and I'm only a few metres away. Typical AFL hypocrisy.

Terrible outcome. We all know Richmond are beatable pretenders but the last thing we want nipping at our heels are a rejuvenated Swans.

Search 'Jake Lever and Daniel McStay' in Google and open the article at the top from there.

GWS really botched that. So many chances to nab a draw minimum in the last minute and end up losing. Not to mention all the selfish running shots at goal. Not unhappy with the result though, keeps GWS from dominating at the top.

Carlton looking the goods against GWS. Can't be bothered checking but what's the result of bye vs non-bye teams this round? I know Sydney won after their bye but last round both bye teams lost (Port and Suns).

Unfortunately Essendon have an advantage over us in the race for a finals campaign: they were gifted an easier draw after artificially finishing dead last in 2016. That means more games against against crap opposition, more opportunities for percentage boosters and in such an even season that's critical.

True, I just feel it's just a mindset thing. After so many years of mediocrity, just securing that W is gold. Like Roosy used to say, the percentage looks after itself (and fortunately ours is quite healthy with all those close losses).

Let's just focus on beating them, forget the percentage. There were identical posts before the Fremantle, Hawthorn and North Melbourne games and look what happened.

That's the Seven commentator mantra. State the bleedingly obvious.

I get the feeling Hodge is being groomed by Seven to replace Ling next year. He regularly bobs up on random games to commentate, so he's planning for post-retirement employment. But yes, Ling is thoroughly shithouse. And you just know every time one of the commentators spew out statistics, they've been fed straight into their ear by a producer. It's as robotic, forced and unconvincing as a newsreader reading a teleprompter. Insufferable, the lot of them.