In Harmes Way

And that's just his kicking for goal

Assuming we go back to playing in our home states, same day travel and 4 day breaks are really going to hurt the interstate clubs that travel every second week. Probably evens up the ledger from this year where they had the advantage on Vic teams.

Look no further than to the dogs game where Gawn vs Dunkley in the ruck still had us losing clearances.

The by and large commentary both on here and professional commentators alike is that we wouldn't fire a shot in the finals if we had made it, however we have a fully healthy list. This has to 100% be on Goodwin and his line coaches - and needs massive attention before preseason starts. We need to play with a defined system and roles - "brand" (and a bit of mongrel). How can we have an elite ruckman and midfielders and lose clearances consistently? Agree with a lot of the positives and negatives above, however it's largely fugazi.

Hopefully in the interests of fairness the doggies are just getting on the plane now to fly up to Cairns

I’ve just started watching “All or nothing” on Amazon Prime. It’s a fly on the wall doco following Tottenham Hotspur EPL club last season. Mourinho is hired as a new manager, and within 2 days concludes the team are a bunch of nice guys. He tells them this, and that for 90 minutes a week they Can’t be nice guys and need to be a pack of c***s, Effing Intelligent c***s, not stupid c***s, bastar*s in the sense that for 90 minutes you are there to win matches. That’s ruthless. I hope Goody has an Amazon prime subscription, our guys could learn this lesson.

I thought this game mirrored our season really. Looked good in patches, looked flakey for extended periods in pretty much every game except vs Pies and Giants. Won the games we should have and were pretty much middle of the road as the ladder shows. Its a shame because we’ve got more talent than our ladder position suggests. Definite improvement on last year (obviously) but I don’t think the condensed season and more travel than just about everybody coupled with no bye did us any favours.

Shout out to Nibbler for his goal in the second. well deserved for keeping his eyes on the ball as the defender was running towards him flat out. Would have been shirt fronted in the 80’s, but was really brave of him I thought.

At least if they get up we’ll know what we have to do tomorrow - back in our hands somewhat

Congrats Adam, great news mate.

Shades of 1987 in this - our captain/ex captain #2 in his last season (presuming this for Jones), who had carried the club on his shoulders through dark times. Needing other results to go our way. Don't write us off just yet.

I’ve heard of small forwards who could sniff out a goal, but this is taking it to a whole new level

Burgo's replacement seems pretty bullish around us making finals with Jones' prognosis. I'd have termed it Season rather than 1 week. Even if we do make the finals.

My take on all of this Layzie is that we should have rules that judge the action not interpretation. Either change the rule so there are no throw ins and the opposing team gets the kick in all circumstances where the ball crosses the line, or do away with the rule and throw them all in like they did 30 years ago and nobody complained. These stupid umpire interpretation based free kicks for what they think a player was intending to do, with an oval shaped ball no less, is killing the game.

Better than misquoting yourself methinks

I’d rather we took Jon Patton and that’s saying something

We make it or we don't make it, que sera sera However, the HAWKS are going to finish BOTTOM THREE. SUCK IT HAWTHORN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and we've got their 2nd round draft pick, just gets better).

I thought they looked at a data range of games in the recent past, i.e. not just this week in making their decision. Typical of the AFL to pick and choose. Swing like a rusty barn door on one hinge in the wind. I can see the internal decision making process now - if we give it to the Crows, it builds some hope over the off season that they've got a good up and coming list....blah blah blah

Both the Essendon backline and forwardline are not particularly tall - two talls and 1 medium in the forwardline and 2 talls in the backline. On this basis, I don't think we need to make any structural composition changes to better match up. I think Hibbo is a better matchup on Stringer than Smith, if his ankle is right. Additionally I'd like to see Lockhart to Tipungwuti for Nev. Who is our backup for Lockhart if Tipungwuti gets off the leash? I'd also like to see Hunt go for a run up the ground like Mitch Brown did on Saturday, who was awesome. (I expect this from Ed Langdon every week now).

After watching the replay I’m still amazed Salem didn’t get a free kick in the 3rd qtr for tunneling. I thought the subsequent somersault and landing on his head was visible enough for even these crappy umpires to see. Exactly why the rule was brought in.

I owe Oskar Baker an apology. He was really good tonight. Two superb snaps from both sides of his body.

Proud of the composure showed by the boys in the last 3 minutes. Better than what was going on in our lounge room. And that 50m penalty for their first goal was a [censored] joke

AND making the finals means Nth Melbourne lose in the 1st round draft pick swap.

Not sure how the fixturing would work If the Grand Final remains in the last Saturday of September (25/09/2021) and games revert to weekly, with the 4 weeks of finals, 1 week off for Festival of Football and 28 home and away rounds the season kicks off on 6 February. Aren't grounds still being used for cricket then?

Into the wind