Hatchman

If the MRO deems it "Careless" (which they might as I don't believe Maynard intentionaly meant to hit him), it will be graded as "High Contact" with "High Impact" (as a best case) and that carries a two match suspension automatically. There is no way in hell they could get that downgraded on appeal. Worst case for Maynard it could be deemed "Severe Impact" as Brayshaw was momentarily knocked out and that's an automatic 3 matches PLUS a trip to the tribunal. Judge for yourself: https://resources.afl.com.au/afl/document/2023/03/01/9c9bdc05-2377-4ffb-a8a0-885835edcaf1/2023-AFL-Tribunal-Guidelines.pdf While they will argue he was going for a smother and try and pass it off as a "football incident", leaping at a player in this way at full speed and hitting them high like that in the head is just unforgivable in our current world where the AFL is (quite rightly) very concerned about CTE class actions that will at some point be coming. That and the fact we lost a player 5 minutes into the game which gave them a significant advantage Unfortunately for Maynard I can't see how he will be playing in a GF if Collingwood gets there. This case is bigger than denying a kid a chance to play in a premiership team. Van Rooyen will get at least one week for his cheap shot (Intentional, HIgh Contact, Low Impct), but I could see how it might be two weeks as well if they deem it Medium Impact - which they very well might

Jordan in for Brayshaw Grundy in for JVR (who will get at least one week for the cheap hit). I'm expecting Grundy will alternate with Tmac in the forward line. Spargo as the sub in-place of Laurie (who played poorly) No changes to the backline, they did very well. Only way Turner is getting a game is if Hibberd is injured.

If we had of kicked straight we would have won. That's it. We beat them in almost every stat.

Such a great win, the girls look fit and lethal, huge upsides out of this

So calm under pressure, its extraordinary for someone of his age to be so chill in a game.

Possibly unpopular opinion but I think the only player that needs a rest is VIney. He has busted his backside for the last few weeks and looked visibily sore in the last quarter. If Jack looks sore he's probably carrying something that any other footballer/human would require a stay in an ICU ward. Tomlinson was great in the first half but faded in the last quarter - I'd take Hibberd over him BBB did great work off the ball all night, I thought he played very well.

If I was JJ I'd look elsewhere, great player but he's well behind in the pecking order for our midfield. At another club he'd be in the best 22 and playing every week with a lot of certainty

I'm astonished at how good this kid is for a first year player.

The goal kicking coaches and assistants need to be sacked. This is a joke. We should be 6 goals in front.

May did not look 100% at all. Looked slow and stiff. He needs a week or two off

McVee has been the highlight of the season for me so far. Came from nowhere and he has been amazing, excellent ball use and game awareness.

Its disgusting the amount of gambling advertising with Australian sport. One thing I am grateful for living in the US is that it is a lot less of a feature in sport here.

I'm feeling very confident about our chances to get to the GF this year. I agree with the assessment, on paper we look very good. Of the new recruits I'm more excited about Hunter than anyone else. He will provide an excellent counter to Langdon and make it even harder on teams to run with us

Epic game, loved every moment of it. Eliza West has some serious intent and power at the contest, she was huge. I thought she was the best player for us. Comment of the day was when Harris got a huge cut under her eye and a family member exclaimed that they hoped she was okay, to which another replied, she's a kickboxer, pretty sure she can take a punch to the face!

I absolutely love the AFLW. Wonderful to see the competition get better and better now

I lived in Frankston East (Karingal), Mornington and Frankston South. Mornington is better.

He's one of the most beautiful and accurate kicks for goal I've ever seen. Would be a great pickup

Maybe players get excluded if they play a certain amount of AFL games?

Many of us underestimate how much of a beating the players took against the Swans. That was a brutal game of football, and to be blunt, we did not recover enough. It was a good plan by Longmire; a winner takes all approach to get the prized week off so players can recuperate. We were never going to come back from that, especially given the mounting niggles and our last quarter fade-outs which are symptomatic of a team worn down from two very long seasons. We just had to win that game. Fagan was smart enough to let us run around in the first half, get tired, and switch to the Sydney plan in the second half. It was a good gamble and just enough to get over the line because we were spent. I don’t see the season as a waste or a failure; we still finished top 2 with a woeful forward line and limping home with tired and injured players. And have a few of you forgotten we won a flag last year? Ten years ago, that was an impossible dream, and many of us just wanted to see one in our lifetimes, which we got. I believe we need to cut old legs now like Melksham and Ben Brown, draft in under Bowey, JVR, Bedford and Chandler (to push them into the firsts) - get a ready-made top-shelf ruck replacement for Jackson (assuming he’s gone) and then we should be good enough for a finals push again next year

Of course the club will say he's playing, why give the Lions an opportunity to plan for a game without him. I would be amazed if he played, a fracture, even a hairline one on load bearing bones like the shins, is a bit serious. If he got a serious knock the bone could break. I doubt he'll play, it would be a crazy risk, even with a shin guard.

Out: Melksham In: J Smith Dunstan for Harmes if suspended Bowey will be emergency

Richmond has the best club song, by a long way We have the best jumper

I remember seeing him play for us at the G early on. His left foot was elite, still is. Hibberd is a bit of a genetic freak. Build like Dustin Martin, leg speed of someone much younger and lighter, and reads the ball and play so well. The sight of him grabbing the premiership cup and bolting to the crowd will make me smile till my time on earth is done. Great memory

San Francisco Bay Area over here. I'll watch it on the WatchAFL app and cast it to my TV - night games on the Australian East Coast mean 02:00 start times in California

Part of me wonders if a lot of the games we were playing in the second half of the season were using tactics that were deliberately designed to get other teams to change their analysis of the way we play and spend energy adjusting for that so that we will change tactics in the finals series and catch them off guard. We played differently last night, and I do concede part of that is due to the fact the Brisbane were so bad. But it still seemed different. I am a lot more confident in our chances of getting to the GF. Last night a lot of things just seemed to "click"