titan_uranus

I couldn't care less if you think the 8 is set, reality is it isn't, and coupled with there being two match ups that haven't yet happened, and the obvious ridiculousness of coming this far and then stopping, your idea is insane.

As @Demonstone said, I meant Fremantle missed out on Hawthorn in 2015. We beat Hawthorn before the draw so that counts. The only side we didn't beat this year was Collingwood. A far cry from the long losing droughts we used to have.

Pfizer was made available to Victorians 40 and over in late May https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/vaccine-roll-out-expand-all-victorians-40-and-over Edit: my mistake, thought the discussion was about over 40s, not under.

Not sure if serious? The top 8 isn't currently set. It's not fair, in the extreme, to shut West Coast and Fremantle out of their shots at the 8. The more so given St Kilda v Fremantle and Brisbane v West Coast are match ups that haven't yet happened this year.

Part of the problem was the field umpire calling it touched - it's impossible for the umpire to have seen the touch off the boot, so he's gone off the Adelaide player calling it touched. That shouldn't happen. There also shouldn't be an "umpire's call" option for these sorts of kicks, because the umpire's call is just a guess. It's very different to the goal umpire standing on the goal line and seeing a touch. The ARC was never going to definitively say that wasn't touched because of how blurry it was - unless they were forced to by removing the umpire's call.

We've tied the record with Fremantle in 2015, who beat 16 of the 17 other sides, missing out on Hawthorn only.

Agree. The MRO box-ticking exercise is as big of a problem as anything. The box-ticking for what Selwood did should result in a suspension (i.e. even with little-to-no injury, if you run past the ball, bump, and hit the head, that should be a week). That's not a good argument. No one ever "has to" lay a tackle. Take the anti-Geelong bias out of the equation, and imagine it was TMac who was chasing down Joyce in our forward line with the game and top 4 arguably on the line. I maintain there's very little chance you'd be arguing for a suspension.

Whilst I agree with the sentiment and how the stats show we're as well-placed to win it this year as anyone, it's not a simple as the bolded line. We don't need a "horror out of the box performance" to miss. There are four other very good sides in it: Geelong, Port, Brisbane and the Bulldogs (albeit the Dogs appear to be trending the wrong way at the wrong time). We know we can beat them but it won't take a "horror" match for us to lose, particularly if we lose to Geelong this week and end up playing Port in Adelaide in the first final (or, almost worse, we avoid them in the first final but lose to, say, Geelong, and then end up in Adelaide in the prelim...).

Hate Hawkins all you want, but I'm extremely confident if it were a Melbourne player who had laid that tackle you'd have been livid for a suspension. The bigger question to come out of this week's MRO is why did Hawkins get nothing but Zaine Cordy, who did the precise same thing, got a fine. They're either both fines or they're both nothing. Again, the MRO is a broken failure.

Sure, but we were without May, Viney, TMac and Hunt, with top 4 locked up, a near dead rubber game, and playing in front of an empty stadium. We didn't play well for 4 quarters but in those circumstances I essentially don't care. Also what does "we haven't played a proper side for 3 weeks now" mean? West Coast in Perth might not be the force they've been in previous years but they're all of a sudden not a "proper side"?

Average age 24 years 6 months, average experience 86.2 games. Adelaide was younger and less experienced (24 years 4 months and 66.3 games - they had 14 players with less than 50 games yesterday, compared to our 8, and only 6 players over 100 games compared to our 12). The entire comp from Round 22 in order of age: Essendon: 24 years 0 months, 79 games Gold Coast: 24 years 1 month, 68.2 games Fremantle: 24 years 2 months, 64.3 games Adelaide: 24 years 4 months, 66.3 games Collingwood: 24 years 5 months, 95.3 games St Kilda: 24 years 5 months, 88.3 games Melbourne: 24 years 6 months, 86.2 games GWS: 24 years 7 months, 90.1 games North: 24 years 9 months, 85.9 games Hawthorn: 24 years 10 months, 100.7 games Sydney: 25 years 0 months, 92.3 games Carlton: 25 years 3 months, 97.8 games Bulldogs: 25 years 6 months, 101 games Port Adelaide: 25 years 7 months, 104 games Richmond: 25 years 9 months, 111.4 games Brisbane: 26 years 1 month, 115.4 games West Coast: 27 years 0 months, 131.2 games Geelong: 27 years 6 months, 143.8 games

Wasn't even close to our worst performance. Can't believe you'd think that. Each of the North, first Adelaide, Collingwood, GWS and Hawthorn games was significantly worse than today. We did precisely what we needed to do in what was in almost every respect a dead rubber of a match.

Meanwhile have just noticed that Brisbane have only played one current top 8 side since the bye: Geelong in Round 15. Their games post-bye have been against 2nd, 10th, 11th, 12th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th, and they have 9th to come.

If we win next week we'll finish 17-1-4. That will be the second-best H&A season put together by any club since 2013 (Richmond in 2018 finished 18-4).

Assuming the top 8 doesn't change, it will be 10 for us in total, 9 for Geelong and the Dogs, and 8 for Port (given we all play top 8 sides again this weekend). Port's repeat games this season are Adelaide, Collingwood, Carlton, St Kilda and the Dogs. That's two bottom 4 sides, a bottom 6 side if Hawthorn passes Carlton this weekend and another bottom 10 side. Just one repeat game against a top 8 side.

Everyone please read this post. Repeatedly. Jon Ralph isn't worth listening to. He doesn't have any inside information and repeatedly his "breaking news" is just the latest thought that's popped into his head that he wants to turn into another click bait article on Fox Footy.

With Essendon replacing West Coast, here is the top 8's record the current top 8: Melbourne: 7-2 Sydney: 6-3 GWS: 5-5 Geelong: 4-4 Bulldogs: 4-4 Brisbane: 4-4 Port: 3-4 Essendon: 1-8

Essendon has won 5 games since the bye. Those wins have been over 4th, 14th, 15th, 17th and 18th. If they win next week, they'll add 16th. So that's the bottom five, plus the Dogs in a form slump. I maintain their form is a mirage. If Brisbane are getting their game to click, they're better than Sydney IMO. Would not want to draw them in the semi final if we lose the first final.

I read your post as a statement about the future, not a reflection on the past. You've concluded that, because he played Round 1 in 2017, which apparently (I'll take your word for it, it certainly sounds believable) is the only time he's been available for selection in Round 1, the FD likes him. I'll take his non-selection for the many weeks he's been fit in 2021 as better evidence of the FD's current views on him.

5th gets you Essendon/Fremantle, but 6th gets you GWS. For all the media-fapping over Essendon, I still don't rate them. I reckon 5th is preferable to 6th and drawing GWS in the first final. So I reckon Brisbane and Sydney will both be pushing to win their final games to avoid dropping to 6th.

I had previously posted this too but it's not entirely correct. if Port and Geelong both win, Port could pass Geelong on percentage (i.e. if Port wins by a lot and Geelong only wins by a little bit - the gap between them is only 1.3%). So it's possible if we lose and the Dogs lose that we could finish 3rd and play Geelong again the following week.

He had 28 touches, 5 clearances, 7 tackles, 348 metres gained, 8 score involvements, 28 pressure acts (our most) and got to spend 12% of the game on the bench.

Fremantle in 2015 beat 16 of the 17 sides, missing out only to Hawthorn.

Fremantle kicked 8.2 in the first quarter and 2.0 in two quarters since then. West Coast played like tripe for the first half but only 17 points behind. Two very average sides playing this game right now.

If the Dogs win on Friday night, we'll know that: A win gets us a home final vs Port A loss gets us a home final vs the Dogs Port's record against the top 8 is poor and if they lose to the Dogs it will get poorer. I'd prefer a home final vs Port than the Dogs, to be honest. But if there's no pre-finals bye, if the Dogs win and we know we're top 2 no matter what, I wouldn't be surprised to see some late outs to rest some players (and/or avoid injuries - e.g. May's never played a final, it would break my heart more than anything, ever, if he got injured in Round 23).