deespicable me

I would think we are about to be a part of a record for a Thursday night match

De Goey has a week off and was just spotted on a plane to Bali!

I would rather we win and play whoever. I even have a preference not to play the Pies. The Pies at the G will be a formidable task and I would suspect that whomever they are playing they will get off the leash at some stage and go on a goal stomping run and with their feral fans it will be hard to overcome. Not saying it would be any less at Ports ground but really with almost every Demon supporter having the game at the G as their preference it is becoming a classical case of "Beware what you wish for."

Maybe Bobbie, not saying you're wrong but offering an opposing point of view, is depth overrated at times? We took a while to cover Oliver but when we got a mix back in the middle that worked it's arguable to think we were better. This week Newcombe and Lewis were out for the Hawks yet Worpel stepped up and others from the Hawks helped out. Would they have beaten us with those two in the team. I doubt it. Last week my Carlton mates were carrying on about their outs in Cerra, Walsh, McKay and others, would they have actually won the game (coz they didn't) with those players in the team? Not sure. Fritta who is our best forward over the last 3 years by a fair margin comes back in to the team hopefully this week. I thought we were just starting to cover Petty in the second half against Hawthorn. Will we be better with Fritta back? Certainly in the long run but again it may take a while. Of all Collingwoods outs I think maybe the one they missed the most this week was Bobbie Hill. Some teams can cover loss well if they have a ready player. Some players are irreplaceable and no amount of depth can cover their loss.

Could maybe try and get Darcy from Fremantle as he and Jackson don't seem to be working that well and they can't give up on Jacko. In an ironic twist we could give them back their second rounder. Darcy is at least a better forward than Grundy. From what I've seen Verrall is a long way off.

I blame myself for falling in love with such a stupid game. Its exciting, has great skills, tough. The game has everything, but is ruined by umpiring. Saturday night was great and in the end the Blues fans were delirious with joy. So many of them singing the song at the top of their voices. It was their turn to get the "rub of the green". What is sad and frustrating yet comical is watching fans shouting for frees that aren't there. Umpiring has become so random that anything goes. The Blues crowd next to me were shouting and complaining when on the far side of the ground Hibberd punched the ball out of play. I'm shouting at them, they're shouting at anyone. It's a mess. Hmmm! Maybe random umpiring is good for the game. At least we don't have a ground announcer come over the public address system "Quiet Please". I hate tennis.

I was talking to a footy dude who barracked for Essendon and I said they have once again been a dissapointment. He disagreed and said Scott has 10 wins which is good for their list which is poor. Anyway long to short we both thought it would be interesting who rises first, Hawthorn or Essendon. Long time rivals and completely different list management strategies. I secretly hoped we could see both clubs in a Carlton v Melbourne "Kreuzer Cup" style scenario. That'd be a good year.

Not sure where the play for Harley Reid sits and whether we were only dealing with West Coast but maybe we could tank and lose so North finish 17th rather than 18th and dealings with West Coast could recommence! A reverse tank!

I think he is still a year or two away from his peak as a footballer so I'd keep him if possible. If you look at him up close he still looks like a kid, he still needs a good pre-season to develop further strength in his body. I hope we have seen the last of Harmes in the seniors and I also don't think Laurie will make it. It will be nice to have Jordan coming into the peak of his career in a year or two. I would hope and suggest he is a required player.

I quite like the media bias. I can hate on them, talk to them, laugh at their stupidity, see something that they've missed and shout and carry on as they go "what happened there" What I really can't stand is umpiring bias.

That thug should have got 6. Most other cases we've seen this year were mis-judgements. They weren't malicious..... His was

Theres a clear and simple answer to this. White ant Geelong until they win 3 spoons in a row, then no-one will care playing down there, no one will go and there'll be 8,000 adoring Cats fans watching their team lose by an average 186 points across the 3 year period. Well I can dream can't I.

It's not a very sexy word Nullify. Great word though. To nullify, make zero. ANB the Nullifier. I'm going to nullify you. There should be more 12 year olds wanting to nullify their opponent. Instead they all just want to kick goals after the siren and win the game.

Well thats a trip down memory lane. I've barracked for the dees for the last 55 odd years and have lived through all those dissapointments year on year. My mate from Kindergarten barracked for the Dees and we still go along to the G most games, we're both 62, have lovely families and long suffering wives. We were at the game for the record loss to Fitzroy. When we were around 16 we would go to a few games then when our season was done for the year we'd go off to the races. My mate says thats the only good thing barracking for Melbourne gave us was a love for the races. I think the day of the Grand Final loss to the Hawks was the worst. I ended up so drunk and being kicked off a tram in the city into the arms of police and shouting "leave me alone! I barrack for Melbourne" They let me walk it off. 2021 was extroadinary. I never thought I'd live to see it. I had smug Hawks and Tigers supporter in-laws and just thought there was too much against the smaller clubs for them to ever see success. 2016 gave us hope when the Dogs won. But what a year. I'm only mucking around. Playing devils advocate against peoples hope. I like taking a position and being proven wrong. I don't give us much hope this year. Happy to be wrong. As for Collingwood, they were terribly undermanned against us. Replace that Finn McGuiness or whoever he is that replaced Ginnivan and we probably lose. But it was a good win. I was very happy. I don't think Collingwood will win it either by the way, I think Port and Brizzy will finish top two and get through to the GF. As a betting man I'd give you 50-1 (which I won't, I'm a punter not a bookie) for us to win 8 of our last 9 games. I'll take a position and say we'll win 5 of our last 9 games. Happy to have a bet on closest to the pin. Hope you win. Go Dees.

That is some crazy rose glasses you've put on there Binman. Are you taking the [censored]. Surely. How can you have such faith in such a disappointing team?

Well then Mate, I think I might like Deeluded. And yes thats a pretty good summary of my ramblings. Sorry I didn't fact check. But I don't have the finances, unlike our Government to commission a report and spend millions working out that 1. advertising can have an adverse affect on children and... 2. gambling has the potential to ruin lives. As to who took the children away it's a well known fact it was the church that wanted to "save" the children and bring them up as good wholesome christians. They genuinely thought they were doing the right thing. Just like it's the government of today, trying to save us from ourselves. Mind you they've had their successes, banning smoking and compulsory seatbelts. But I'm just rambling again. Sorry they upset you so.

I worked in the racing industry for many years and still bet weekly. I love the game and hate the ads just as much as everyone else. I also bet on the footy as many do. The issue of the people that dictate what we should be doing or not with our lives is worse. The do-gooders of this world are the same type of people that "took the children away" in their era. The fact that anyone is so arrogant to think they live better, know better, are better, than others are quite possibly the worst people in the world. All this report will be just like the billion dollar fining industry we have in this State. Its all based on "statistics of the dammed". ie they take their stats from the poor people out there who end up gambling their house away on pokies or unstable people who get behind the wheel of a car and destroy lives. The end result is we see a different set of adds on tele. Nothing else changes. People still lose the plot and do bad things.

Becoming???? Ha

Watching Tomlinson versus Petty, Tomlinson is a very good chip kicker of the ball. Hits targets and his last two games at both AFL/VFL levels show that. He needs to come back in as we showed again the long down the line uber predictability too much against Geelong. May/Lever look around to short pass then always go long down the line, more and more so under pressure. Petty is probably better against talls, especially resting rucks. I think we've upset him in his development this year trying to create a swingman and for mine they need to play him as a forward at VFL level. BBB was great in the VFL and he got to the backline and up the ground a lot. I think that is how they want Petty to play so send him back to the VFL and get him successful there before bringing him back to AFL level. Having Petty, JVR and Smith as a forward line is just crazy as they don't have the experience individually let alone as a cohesive unit. Bring BBB back in as his forward craft will help us a lot and his accuracy can really help settle us into games. I agree our 4 small forwards isn't working. I'd drop ANB. He could really benefit from a stint at VFL level. Instruct him to practice being clean with the ball and more creative. Look to attack more as he needs to bring more to the AFL side than tackling. Smith could play his role as he is worth pursuing as a forward. Also playing only two smalls in Chandler and Kossie is worth a try as well. It may actually free them up and increase our scoring. Out Petty, ANB, Spargo In BBB, Tomlinson and maybe Bowey,

I strongly dislike (hate) how we say things like "that wasn't the Melbourne way" and "we need to get the game on our terms". Goody says this sort of thing all the time , the players say it and we the supporters say it. It's most parts rubbish. Do you think Scott goes into the rooms after the game and says "gee how lucky were we, Melbourne didn't play the Melbourne way tonight." True pressure came on and we crumbled. Is ANB fumbling the "Melbourne way?" It certainly seems to be the ANB way. ANB is now a player who doesn't really want the ball anymore. He'd rather wait till his opponent picks it up and then tackle them. His 1 wood is tackling. Forward line pressure. All very well but how about we create goals rather than stoppages. He needs to be a player in his own right, not just some bit part player deferring to the "stars" of our side. Playing a role. Bad coaching. He could be so much better. Some of these "role" players need to be given more responsibilty. You be the man. Stop relying on others. We are going nowhere.

Thats it. We're done. People will laugh and carry on about negativity but this is the first time this year I've posted such negativity because I wasn't sure until now where we stood. But once again Scott has shown us up as absolute pretenders. As an example Spargo comes on and plays fake tough man and gives away 50 metres. He should have spoiled. How many times did Geelong spoil the ball. Thats tough. Not what Spargo did. But no-one will tell him off. If he spoils that ball like he should have, everyone gets around him and is energised. Instead he'll get dropped. Look at Rohan. He was about as quarter as good as when he came across from Sydney and their coaches turned him into a good footballer. Tanner Bruhn in his 11th game for the Cats starred out of the middle. We'll win enough to play finals and may even look dangerous as we head into finals but make no mistake. We are pretenders.

Yes it was one of Scotts strategies to be very physical with Bowie and not give him any time with ball in hand. Really unsettled him and he had problems for the rest of the year. They will more than likely try something similar with McVee. I'm not sure this is a good game for Bowie to return.

The thing is this game is one of the very modern great rivalries. And the AFL are disrespecting our standing in the game and the rivalry by playing the game at KP. 2021 we showed them up and it was one of the reasons for Geelong's change of game plan and man-management systems. Chris Scott hates losing and although I dislike him and half the Geelong team, he plotted and planned to take us down in 2022. We were soundly beaten, looked like we didn't even see what was coming and were totally out coached. It was a cornerstone game for Geelong's assault on the flag and our meek finish to the year. So ...1. Why are the two past premiers only playing once this year and 2. Why down at the cattery? The AFL are totally disrespectful to our club and should be asked to explain. Don't think this won't be a cracking game of football. If we don't understand how important it is to get the ascendancy over Geelong we don't understand the gang mentality of footy. If we are to win the flag this is a must win game. If we enter the game like last year just thinking we'll win, even though they are down this year, they will have plans and be super switched on. We have to beat them and kill off their 2023 campaign. This is nothing to do with whos out there but the attitude of every player to win. If we don't we are kidding ourselves.

To highlight how random umpiring can be remember last week when Grundy in a ruck duel out bodied the North ruck who then scragged Grundy as he lost his balance and fell to the ground. Razor came in to give a free to Grundy who didn't wait for Razor to award him the free but just grabbed the ball and ran back getting ready to go. Razor more or less in a show of petulant power one-up-manship awarded the free to the North ruck for Grundy slinging him to the ground. Max then followed Razor down the ground chirping at him. I would love to hear what he said. Anyway I'm sure Razor changed his mind to teach Grundy a lesson. But what is much worse is that the frees nowadays in over 50% of occasions can go either way. They are just random. Virtually every other sport on the planet has upped their game to improve the spectacle, reduce bad umpiring mistakes and let the players decide the outcome of matches. The AFL meantime think the problem lies with us.

I agree. First it was a hospital ball. Second Van Rooyen had every right to try to spoil as he was within distance if he ran at top pace. Third. The only reason he missed the ball was because he was trying not to collect the Suns player as best he could. If he just went to hit the ball with no regard for Ballard he would have connected but it would have been worse for Ballard. You can see by the way he sort of reaches down JVR was actually trying to hit the ball but not collect the player. He wasn't quite successful but there was clearly no malice and a part of the play. It was a hospital ball.