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I don’t think it was the forwards fault. He’s not a bash and crash contested pack mark kinda guy. If everything up field is broken what chance do the forwards have. They are the last piece of the puzzle. They can only provide adequate service if they are provided adequate service.

He’s continued to kick goals though, as per his job description. He’s unfortunately our main forward and is up there with the best in the league at that job, despite his size. No he’s not necessarily tough and I have seen him take a few short steps over the years. I’ve also seen him show great courage in the air. I like that he shows a bit of arrogance at times. Sometimes our team seems to go out of its way to keep its head down a bit too often. He’s not a bull and there’s a certain element who seem to think if you aren’t jack Viney than you are lacking something but Fritschs strengths well and truly over power his weaknesses. A team needs balance. He has been one of the best forwards I’ve ever seen at the club.

Another classic tight victory by the magpies… they look ordinary. Scraping past a poor hawthorn side isn’t going to fill anyone with confidence.

Did they really handle finals last year? Yes they beat us but could we have tried any harder to keep them in the game. It was one of the most dominant losses I’ve seen

I always thought Draper was horribly over rated. He just flails around being semi physically dangerous because of his size and every now and then a thing happens not as a result of skill, talent etc but as a result of pure chance. Inevitably if you flail around on a football field for long enough something will happen.

The umpires still working hard

They are holding us constantly but they can do anything they want and they won’t get pinged with ball in hand

Class

My dog leaves the room as soon as it hears the crowd on tv. Knows what’s coming

Someone explain that to me

Good boy

Disagree. We all need some good conspiracy theories in our lives. Would this even be an internet forum if there wasn’t a few conspiracies floating around.

Me too, I was ready to not pay much attention to the football this season. I was kidding myself though

Fair enough and I agree

Did you start getting out of bed on the other side?

But max will continue to get nothing

Most commentators have no idea about football these days.

It’s time to move on

I’ve always struggled to understand how the afl landed on outcome over intent. They just love leaning into the grey. They could make their life a lot easier going with intent but it wouldn’t create the same amount of click bait and ratings.

Attempted punches or kicks should all cop a game or two on the sideline. The grey areas of the game have to go as much as possible. Off ball niggle in general is unnecessary.

I think our little backwater league is safe from them

Don’t disagree with those points. Just thinking along the lines of how to have the best ball users in the most dangerous places when there is a premium on conversion and usage later in the season. Id like chandler to prove me wrong but I think he has a lot to do to change perception. If he keeps kicking goals and showing up in game I’ll happily change my tune on him. I was also really encouraged by our backline and am maybe getting carried away with one game. McDonald, Howes and hore looked like they belong against what I think is quite a good forward line.

@Young Blood thanks for the feedback

Considering how good our backline looked I wonder if when Bowey is right and despite the fact that chandler kicked three if we might try bowey in a chandler type role. I think he has what chandler has and more. the more creativity and execution we can get into the front half of the ground come finals the better in my opinion, as long as our defensive structures hold.

If petracca was clean with his hands the match would Look a bit different