deanox

I can't disagree more here. Neale may have been more animated, but his contact was about trying to get attention. There was nothing threatening or intimidating about what Neale did, and it was clear he was moving away. Greene's action was intimidatory, pushing through the physical space of the umpire in an act of dominance. Others have pointed out this is what starts fights at pubs. It was more threatening and disrespectful than Neales contact, and the only thing that stopped it being harder was that the umpire was forced to move out of the way so he didn't get barged into.

They were pretty big on intent when Maloney didn't actually bump Bartel, but that didn't really create a precedent did it?

Sorry for my typo, should be "should not be considered a mitigating factor". If the umpire is standing still, and Greene barges towards him, then Greene is intended only to make contact in an intimidating and aggressive way. Short of assaulting him, this is probably the most aggressive physical thing he could have done.

If he didn't touch him, that's only because the umpire stepped out of the way to avoid Greene's contact, and that should not be considered a mitigating factor.

@Basher wondering what you're laughing at? I thought Rivers looked a bit nervous early in the first, with some uncharacteristicly rushed disposal and position, but settled well and played his role. Of all Joeboys 3 words it was the one I didn't agree with.

Rivers: Settled early nerves

I thought so. Had a lot of it. Disposal was pretty good throughout. 7 clearances, 6 tackles, 7 score involvements. I thought he played a really strong role. Tough to only give 6 tonight. May was good. Salem was good. Brayshaw and Sparoow were consistent and had good moments.

I was sure Smith was on him early not Salem, but I'll watch the replay!

6 Clarry 5 Petracca 4 Viney 3 Lever (15 intercept possessions) 2 Viney 1 Fritsch

Serious? Cameron kicked 5.1, and May ended up taking him by the end of the game. Surely we're not thrilled with Smith's game? *I don't mind your actual votes though!

With this and the academies, to make them fair, instead of removing access to top 20 picks surely they could have just said "no discount for any first round bids, plus you need to have and spend a 2nd round as part of the points", meaning that you can't trade up in front of the expected bid in return for cheap picks in 50s.

I wonder if we'll go purely "back our system head to head" or if we'll deploy a some targetted tactics like we did against the dogs in R11. Most of the year we seem to have just played our system and let other teams do their thing.

Depends where he plays. Last week he didn't get a disposal inside 50 (did have 4 inside 50s for 3 goal assists, and 2 tackles inside 50 though). Whereas in round 12 he was closer to goal.

You'd think Jackson and Petty will be big targets for other clubs next year, with Oliver and Rivers the year after. But otherwise the core of the list has been locked up lock term hasn't it?

If he doesn't give it to Oliver, surely Max is the only other option for top 2 votes on Sat?

It was a 2017 joke.

I haven't even got my "buy your finals tickets here" email, and we actually made it this time!

Sparrow was great, surprisingly strong, and I thought he did enough to hold his spot. 12 disposals (7 contested and 331 m gained), 6 marks (3 contested), 5 tackles, despite only 62% TOG, was a great return. I was in favour of Jordon playing, but if the plan was to bring Jordon back after a week off, I think Sparrow has made it difficult for Goody and co to stick to their guns.

My main concern with Smith is that I don't think he quite has the "football smarts" at times, so worried that he gets turned inside out by a Charlie Cameron. I think I'd put Petty on Daniher due to the height, so I'm wondering if Smith play on McStay? He gives away a few cm (191 v 195 as listed), but it would allow May on Cameron (I think he has played this type of role before) and Lever to take say McCarthy and do some zoning?

I haven't seen this reported anywhere, and maybe I've got my wires crossed but if Clarry averages 30.3 disposals per game in his next 19 games he will equal Greg Williams as the fastest to 4000 disposals, despite his 17 games in 2020 being played with 25% less game time. If Clarry can average 31.9 disposals per game, he'll do it in 18 games, and beat Williams by 1, making him the fastest ever. For context, in his 22 games this year, he has averaged 31.6, so it's a very real possibility. Sources: This Brisbane Lions article is about Lachie Neale being poised to be the fastest to 5000 disposals. It lists a number that are fast to 4000, but it isn't a complete list and maybe someone got to 4000 faster but not to 5000 and therefore isn't listed here? https://www.lions.com.au/news/963083/neale-poised-to-make-afl-history AFL Tables has full career stats for Oliver (3,425 disposals from 121 games, including round 22: https://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/C/Clayton_Oliver.html Edit: it goes without saying that he is on track to be the fastest to 5,000 as well, needing an average of 28.75 disposals per game for the next 67 games to do it.

Well we got the minor premiership, and ironically will probably have an opportunity to know off the interstate final too! I think I read that we've play 87 finals at 9 venues, but only won at 4 of those venues. And of those 4 venues, the only one in current use is the MCG. So any finals wins this year will add to those numbers!

Prolonging Essendon's steel without winning a final is critical for the balance of the universe.

With you completely with this post, except for giving him the benefit of the doubt. He was over line when he went up for the ball, his immediate opponent had already dropped a couple of steps back because of how clearly OOtF it was (so no physical pressure and he wasn't trying to spoil anyone's mark) and he chose to double fist punch it as far as he could. I think it was pretty justified for a "time wasting" 50 m penalty, given the "professional foul" nature of the infringement.

I honestly don't know what was worse. Paying it against May as he fell over, or against Brayshaw trying to get it forward.

The umpiring was pretty average all night. I would have thought that the two top 4 battle games would have been auditions for the 6 umpires they thought were most likely for the prelim/GF?