deespicable me

If we are the real deal and not just a first half of the season front runner we have to and should win this game albeit against a side who will bring in a youthful enthusiasm and a hunger to beat the top team that will be hard to quell. There are 3 other top eight clashes this week with Brizzy v Cats, West Coast v Dogs and Port v Suns. This is the time to put distance on rivals. This is what teams capable and committed to winning the top prize would do. If we win this week we are that much closer to sewing up a top 4 spot and well favored to finish top 2. Drop this one and we let others in. This is about understanding the competition and what victory means. We should have good plans to stop Essendon, shut them down, get the game on our terms and win at all cost. If we come out like against Collingwood I will be super disappointed. If we lose we are probably still too immature yet to win the flag.

They have been in lock down so can't go anywhere or be with anyone and you can't suggest there wouldn't be enough players putting their hand up to play this weekend. That is a non-argument Dazzle

It was their first 4 quarter game all season. 4 quarters of crap. Playing like millionaires, they've completely forgotten how they played to get where they are. Completely lost their synergy. Didn't play as a group at all. Gawn was off in la la land for the first half. This is Goodwins big test. Clearly our worst game for the year. Does he [censored] them on the track? Give them a rest? At least they go to the break knowing they are a long way off a flag yet.

I did the survey but found the last question inherently racist. It asks you to describe yourself and suggests "white Australian" etc. I answered Australian. If you answered white Australian you aligned yourself with the question, took the bait and are now considered inherently racist. Your views will be collated accordingly. I mean what does it matter what colour I am as to how I answer the survey. I am Australian.

Please...........

Given the "darlings" of the AFL the Bulldogs are so favored you would have to reckon' The Bont is leading the Brownlow. They might struggle to stay top 4 if that +32 gets evened up over the second half of the year. I'm glad we're close to even, it means the fools in yellow don't enter a game thinking they've got to limit the frees to us.

I hope they can map out a program that has him ready to run through brick walls in the prelim. What that looks like with his foot I'm not sure but it looks like he might struggle to play all games so give him the Clark Keating (triple premiership player for the Lions who only played about 10 home and away games) treatment. While Harmes is doing his job he possibly isn't needed and it's also good to get games into Sparrow, but of course Jack Viney makes us a better side.

Seperation If we win we will be 3 games clear of them and should be confident of a top two spot If they win there is only one game the difference and with a closing pack right on our heels. It's easy to feel comfortable on top of the ladder but this year there are at least 5, maybe 6 teams who can get into the top 4 and hopefully the players are as focussed this week as they were against the Dogs. Lions are a genuine contender. They have improved from last year, are more mature in terms of big game pressure having been in the prelim last year and have their eyes firmly on the prize. They will be very focussed on beating us and putting doubt into a first year finals contender (us). I think we're up to it but this is the toughest test for us yet. In the Richmond and Dogs games we virtually had the last quarter off having controlled the game in the third. Tomorrow night there will be no such luxury. Lions will keep coming. I think it is a game for individual brilliance to shine when all the chess pieces are locked down so for us this is the perfect game for Kossie to shine bright. I'm hoping he can kick 3 or 4 and be the difference in a tight game decided by only a few points. Demons by 3.

So does Kye stop playing for Werribee and now play for Casey?

So Jeff Kennett has come out and said , it's all a disaster, too hard to make happen and we should call the season off. I say having been through the years of non-competitiveness and having to watch Hawthorn win flag after flag he can suffer through. In fact I think he should be strapped to a chair and have his eyelids pried open and watch the Hawks 2021 season on repeat, for the rest of the year. Happy days Jeff. I hope you get the opportunity to remain president for 3 of the next 5 spoons. Wouldn't that be lovely.

12 of Robbo's AA 22 are playing Friday night, that's pretty impressive in itself. Almost a State of Origin game!

From my experience watching good teams (not us until this year mostly) you see players develop within the team, because they want to be a part of it and they gain confidence from the other team members in a winning side. Sam is not an Alpha male, which is one of the most common traits of super good forwards, Dixon, Carey and Johnathon Brown for example. Good sides have the luxury of patience and Sam will come good, I'm pretty sure of it. The other good thing about good sides is they develop players better. Look at Jordan, ANB in career best (Alpha male), Harmes has never used the ball better (was a turnover merchant), Rivers in career best, Jacko in need of work but given the time to develop on the go. Even Clarry is in career best form. We trust our coaching staff and they are building a very impressive strike rate of player improvement across the board. They will be on to Weidemann and it is the one area of the ground that if we improve even further should take us to the holy grail. Weid is a tough one coz he's not a natural, he's not even a man yet, but I trust our staff to do the job.

Yes, Rivers is the other match - up for Cameron. He did a good job on the dogs small forward in Weightman who got one goal and one other where he got away and should have kicked a goal, but Rivers really hurt him the other way and overall took the points. Cameron though is another step up. Hibbo and Riv might share it.

I'm very glad we have him in the side rather than No. 41 (Sweet) from Dogs. How was his effort to pick up the ball I think in the third. Wow, if he was a Melbourne player I think Demonland would have melted down by now and there'd be 276 pages on how he should never play for the MFC again.

Maybe if they handed out rotten tomatoes and got Joffa to parade around the MCG in an open vehicle at half time we could attract a few more.

Hibberd will be on Cameron.

Just on that game. I watched most of it and thought the players to impress in order were Sparrow, Lockhart, Jones then Chandler then Baker. Rosman looks good as a developing player and does some things that you would think can translate to AFL level but I'm pretty sure he won't be called on this year. Sparrow deserves a game and I think Lockhart may have passed Nev in the pecking order but he still does some risky things and under extreme heat may be a bit dodgy against a Charlie Cameron so I don't think they'll throw him into the furnace yet, but I would like to see him get a go at some stage and the Salem to the wing is quite a good idea (but dodgy groins and an uninspiring game against the dogs ) may rule that out too. Baker is almost the opposite of Gus in that he hasn't developed his defensive game much at all. You can see he just wants to kick a goal. I'm not convinced with Baker. Chandler is probably third in line behind Sparrow and Jones. I think Jones is probably the best choice against a seasoned hard-nosed side like the Lions.

Good work RGRS. A few prank calls to help get through lock-down is an excellent idea. Better than baking sour dough. I actually hope we can get to the game. I'm pretty engaged with the footy at the moment (obviously) and this game is the real deal. They were fluffers the dogs, with no crowd and their pathetic effort it was an anti-climax but this Friday is the game of the year. Lions are the real deal. I'd love to go.

For all you Hunt, Melksham, Gus and Fritta droppers week on week, I would have to say our worst player tonight was Salem. Shall we drop him? Salem out, he was awful Anyone in Hows that?

Yeah, I agree. For such a running machine soft tissue injury can ruin your season. He looked bright enough after the game so hopefully not a bad concussion. Was starting to think he was becoming dangerously irreplaceable he was playing so well, so it will be good to look at a plan B for the odd occasion he gets stopped. In fact I think they must have put work into stopping his play because he was nowhere near his influential best tonight.

Gus was great tonight, he is probably a defensive player though and shouldn't be disrupted from his natural game. The amount of times he stopped their releases from the backline was fantastic. A real finals pressure player. Well done. Can't replace Langdon though, hopefully Sparrow gets a go, Brisbane have real grunt players and Sparrow is a big boy.

Lots of great match ups, of course the one they all talk about is Trac v Bont, but the match up I'm most looking forward to is Spargo v Daniels.

Sure but with the rules as they are at the moment they have to be interpretated. Unless you want to triple the frees being paid. There are quite often 2 or 3 frees at every contest that the umps let go. You can't get rid of the grey. You have to interpret. When is a free a free. At what point does it become obvious. There is always an answer to a maths problem and a correct way to spell but a variety of ways to teach. You can't lock it down. Unless you throw out the rules, strip it back and start again. (which has merit ). It was a great game of footy on the weekend. Big crowd, great plays, great players, fast, lots of goals and a ridiculous crazy finish with high drama. I know we were duped but there would be lots of people happy with the game.

I think they need a larger pool of umpires. So many of them don't show any improvement, don't have a feel for the game and make poor calls. Quite often the 3 umpires don't work well together and you get different adjudication of exactly the same infringements. Some weeks you go along and its the week of the baffling ruck frees. I watched a game on the weekend where the umpire bounced the ball in the middle and it sailed up and over one rucks head and should have been recalled as the other ruck couldn't get to the ball. Instead the silly ump pays a free against the ruck whos head the ball sailed over for blocking the other ruck from getting to the ball. Incredible. I just kept rewinding it and laughing. Then you have the Grundy ruck free in the dying minutes of the Port/Pies game. The ball in is shallow and both rucks with arms intertwined are running in and get their legs caught up and fall over each other. I think the right call was play on ( but who knows maybe thats just because I don't like Collingwood) but it was so hard to judge. It really is a tough game to umpire. Then Brian Taylor is just scurrilous after the game going all dramatic "Ooh gee, I don't know, was it a free? You be the judge." So many frees are 50/50 and depend on the interpretation of the umpire on hand. So many frees that should be paid and are genuine frees are missed. I would like to see a fair and uncompromised commentator as part of the telecast team, going back over the frees after each quarter or maybe at half time giving viewers numbers of frees for and against, one or two that were missed and one or two really good decisions and basically making an assessment of who has got the "rub of the green". I'm sick of the commentators blindly backing up the umpires, but of course by the same token they can't go on about the umpires, (like fans do). I've watched replays at times just watching the umpiring and I was surprised at how good they were. Other times when they get out of sync they can just make bad decision one upon the other. There are bad umpires, and they make all 3 on the field look bad. Imagine having to umpire with someone you just don't agree with. If they create a larger pool and re-assess each game properly instead of just saying "yep, good call, well done" they can improve the individual and in turn the 3's umpiring together and the overall standard. A good team of umpires would have got that holding the ball decision against Keays because they back each other up. I'm glad they came out and acknowledged the mistake. It gives them a chance to improve.

Yeah sure Macca, we have had a good run with umpiring in many of our early wins. Yeah the decision to Petracca was soft. My view on any deliberate OOB's is always the same. It's a raffle. I'm worried your aligning yourself with coaches though. We are on a fan forum, you're not a coach any more than anyone here, so no need to try and take the "high" ground. I'm not actually talking about last night. Last night is just another example of my life long frustration with umpiring and I'd like to see it improve. This thread allows me an opportunity to put forward my opinion. My opinion of the game was it was a great game. Tex Walker was fantastic. Doedee's smother in the last qtr was fantastic. I don't think Oliver has played a better game. He was sensational. It was exciting and the crows supporters should be very happy today. Even neutral supporters would have enjoyed it because we've all known the pain of being robbed by the umpires and would have thought it great to see the undefeated Demons go down in such a way. But I'm not walking away from the fact that the umpiring affected the result and I think we should try to improve that coz who wants a contest decided by officialdom rather than the contestants?