leave it to deever

And yet Port came out on top there the other week so while I agree it's a fortress, the cats are well and truly off their game. What a shame. Probably still traumatized from Max.

Can we please just have Sydney do the same to Carlton tonight.

Tx for spreading the anxiety😃

Yea I thought Billings finally showed some flair. He showed some good use of the ball in finding teammates. Something people have argued his biggest skill, so it was good to see. I really would like to see Woey get a full game and preferably not defending.

Please explain. Then again maybe not😃

What a shame. Likely to play his best in front of family and friends. Despite seemingly dropping in form this year to last year he's still very young in game experience. I really believe Jvr is going to have a big future at this club. He will fiil out more and once he starts clunking everything than yippee. I wish he didn't have to help in the centre ruck so he can just concentrate on his fwd craft.

I reckon some sort of award in the spirit of mateship or leadership would be a good place to start.

Insightful perspective. It's true.

Over the course of watching and supporting a lot of football in my life I had the privilege to see some greats of the game. Max Gawn is truly one of the very best I've ever seen. Sure I'm a bias Melbourne supporter but even non believers must find it hard to argue otherwise. He has year after year, been heralded as one of the best players in the AFL over the last decade. And rightly so. He has turned the tide of many a game and was the first captain of the club for half a century to help win us a flag. It's a shame ruckmen don't win Brownlows as much anymore. ( I'm perplexed why he hasn't). After all one could rote statistic after statistic about his on field prowess. But I wish there was another medal. One that encapsulates who Max really is. A damn fine human being and gentleman of gentlemen. Last week we saw Max get angry over an incident that I don't really know anything about. ( I don't know because it doesn't really matter). It doesn't matter because it rarely happens. Max Gawn may show signs of frustration and anger at times but it's not much for an AFL player. And more often than not when it does occur, it seems justified. But that's because Max Gawn has high standards. ( To my knowledge he's never been reported). Standards that go beyond just being a simple AFL player. He is a captain. And he takes this role seriously. Being captain is about leadership. But for Max leadership isn't something that happens for a couple of hours each week on a patch of grass. It's much ,much more. It's about standing up this week about homophobic slurs in the game. It's about taking in a teammate when he may be doing it tough. It's about standing by your mate when they have had to retire from the game. It's acknowledgement of being beaten by a better opponent. It's about visiting sick kids in hospital. Being an advocate of mental health or simply speaking to a fan when he's probably really tired and just wants to get a coffee at a cafe in peace. Like his on field performance, I could keep going. So thanks Max for showing us what a true captain of a club should be. On and OFF the field. I'm sure other Demonlanders stand with me in applause when I hereby award thee the unusually long but very aptly titled... "Captain of captains and gentleman of gentlemen and the best of blokes" medal. 👏. Thank you.

And the umpires upset for the missed the opportunity to pay a free against him for dangerous marking attempt.

Misread post.

It's become clear to me that Oliver this season is given less time than a lot of players to get rid of the ball when tackled than seems the norm. I hope Jvr isn't been targeted by umps due to previous incursions. That was a perfect tackle that was deemed dangerous. Cost us the game too. I know you could single out others to counteract this claim but that decision was the biggest howler of the evening and the round for sure. I know umpires make mistakes but when there as blatant as this I would like to see them dropped for a few.

I don't understand how rules seem to come in and out of vogue so to speak. The dissent rule was one that the umpires were hot on last year then they stopped enforcing it as strictly. Doob seems to be red hot at times and I have noticed seems to be influenced by the crowd noise. I mean umps are human and it's natural that 40 thousand people screaming at you could sway most people. But the hardest thing for me to fathom and especially for players are rules that are paid in one round and then ignored the next. A classic example was htb. In the cats game v us, the umpires gave players no time or benefit with this. I think Clarry was pinged 3 or 4 times. And others too. Once a tackle was laid you had didley time to get rid of it. Or worse when a rule comes and goes in a single game. Again the htb rule in us v the blues. It wasn't paid pretty much until the last quarter which was annoying because our tackles often went unrewarded. And our players would have had last week's htb vigilance foremost in their minds and as such quick to dispose before or during tackles. Why do umps seemingly cherry pick what to pay and ignore? Must be infuriating for the players. We need more consistency each week and certainly in each game. The hands in the back ( or side) is on constant interpretation limbo. Hawkins has a field day with this one. I mean this is a classic example. A few years ago just resting a hand on someone's back was a no no. Now you can pretty much shove someone and it's play on. (Unless of course the umpires change their minds). But it's the lane changing each few rounds that seems odd.

I love his intent. He's still young. But I think his form last year was better than this season . He's still developing and I believe a future very good and long term player for the club.

Mmmmm pavlova

What's also worrying is our lack of midfield depth.

Last week the umps killed us with htb calls. Against the blues the rule was removed for most of the game. Also the deliberate on was a joke. Obviously determined by the crowd noise. You can find 100 s of frees on a game if you want to. Extrapolate the 11 to 3 out for the game and its 44 to 12. Who wouldn't object to that? So it didn't continue but enough damage was done already. Also one wonders if the umps didn't try to level that discrepancy up?

Unusual that Carlton were given 11 in the first quarter and then only eight for the remainder of the game though. Carlton were on a role and it's no surprise that they kicked six goals with that level of free payment. I mean their scoring dried up when the frees did so it did have an impact.

No love for Bbb Sounds like he went ok at Casey. Maybe in for Disco.

Well we were certainly a chance last year. Despite the rampant injuries to our fwd line we still would have beaten the filth if Gus was knocked out and had his career ended. We were flat from that and with Laurie as the sub ( a very poor call) we lost. The year prior we struggled again with our fwd line come finals. It is interesting that there has been a dearth of big solid experienced forwards since 21. The club tried the woeful Grundy idea but that was a huge flop. With hindsight any bloke that's almost seven foot an averages about two or three marks a game was never going to be a forward and if they really thought it put would have considered how bad Max is at goal kicking twenty out. But we were right in replacing Jackson. Just tough times with a shortage of talls. Won't get any easier with Tassie on the horizon. Thankfully Tmac has come good even if it's in defence. But Bbb who started well is perhaps the Bbb of 22 finals when he was lost for them both. And Petty....well we saw what he can do again v the cats but sadly looks back to his slump again. I said pregame that our fwd line was a real unknown quantity. Sure Fritta and Kozzie are reliable but the talls in Turner, Petty and now Jvr are not. So if you can stop Frittas and Kozzie than it's alarm bells. The big news is Tracca as a fwd again but alas we are robbing ourselves in the middle. But I'm with you.... It is incredibly l frustrating to go out in straight sets and I feel too that we are seeing a generational team slipping through it's destiny. I do think we don't bat very deep. As said we are missing a big reliable solid fwd and we need a couple more decent mids.

I feel given your name that when one reads your posts it should have some accompanying music like that fro the show...the saint or mission impossible or thereabouts.

He's travelling ok this year ( he has been probably our biggest tackler) but Jack Viney is having a significant lesser amount of disposals this year to last. In his all but his first game he has averaged around twenty possies a game. In his last eight games last year that was around six to seven higher. Is he playing a more defensive role this year? He doesn't seem to be impacting games quotes so much. Yes his flick to Caleb was classic Viney and he's his usual tackling machine self, but in general play, he hasn't been someone who looks like teams have to worry about. Add in Oliver who has been hot and cold ( playing injured at times) and I'm not sure we have the luxury of playing Tracca up fwd. Which after five goals is surely a must. Maybe Salo will be back soon and or Rivers goes to the guts. Is Woey ready for a promotion or young Brown a chance? It was encouraging to see Sparrow play another solid game.

Yea Petty was that vital link against the cats. It was disappointing that he fell back into that rut. Mind you he wasn't alone. All our fwds were off. Even Kozzie seemed to panic a fair bit. Mind you our midfield wasn't delivering the ball to them all on a platter like Carlton's were at times. Even with so many players down we almost won so that's the big positive . That we don't rely on sole players. But can we address why we have come out sound asleep for a few games now? Fix our starts and we are a tough nut to crack.

I really think there were a lot of very soft frees paid to the blues in the first quarter. Carlton had all the momentum and played well but when your team is pinged 11 to 3 against like us in the 20 odd mins than that momentum was difficult to break. The frees certainly contributed. I know we started poorly but maybe we did win if May did actually touch that kick.

And it seems fairly clear that dob is related to the size of the crowd of the team receiving the free.