titan_uranus

Port would have to beat the Dogs at Marvel for this to happen. Port is 2-5 against the top 8, with one of those wins vs GWS (the worst side in the top 8). It's not probable.

Here we go again with the vandenBerg myths. "Professional free kicks"? He [censored] gave West Coast a goal with a ridiculous push in the back when the ball was going over the boundary line. Nothing "professional" about it, it was moronic. Unfortunately he doesn't appear to have improved that aspect of his game. Meanwhile he was only on the ground for 50% of the game but had 6 clangers, our second-most. He doesn't add anywhere near enough to our side to offset his mistakes and what are blatantly unprofessional free kicks. It's insane that he gets praise for that sort of game. If Viney did the same thing he'd be pilloried.

No one placed our 7-2 record against the top 8 "as the pinnacle of our season so far" except you. All I did was note it. You're the one who saw it and blew up. Which speaks volumes of your attitude, one which IMO is horrendous. You're all about the "gold medal", not setting for silver/bronze. We won't win the gold if we don't win H&A games and finish top 4. Last night was a win that secures top 4. It is literally a key step towards the target you say is so important. And again. No one other than you took that post to mean everyone's satisfied with the H&A wins to date.

Would agree with all of that except I'd say: Langdon - good first half Bowey - really, really impressive

My immediate gut reaction is TMac/Weid for vandenBerg (I want the second tall forward back into the side so if TMac's not ready Weid gets the game, and vandenBerg was our 22nd ranked player tonight and I'm happy for a last in-first out principle here). Hibberd for Hunt if Hunt can't play. Other changes to be considered if we need to rest bodies on a tight six day break.

Right. Your first post after the game, other than to bag the umpires, is to say this win means nothing if we don't win the premiership. That's a ripper attitude. And by ripper I mean ridiculous.

I think that was Spargo's fault. He marked the ball and then immediately plays on. I think some are arguing the umpire called play on, which would have been wrong (the kick was more than 15), but I reckon he thought it was touched or something. He handpassed to Sparrow who missed the snap.

Why? We're locked into the top 4 no matter what.

Am I right in thinking we haven't won the minor premiership since 1964?

Last year vs Fremantle in Cairns - loss. 2017 Round 5 vs Richmond (ANZAC Eve) - loss

6 - ANB 5 - Oliver 4 - Jackson 3 - Brown 2 - Petty 1 - Bowey

Petracca kicks that goal immediately after the re-start and the game could have taken a very different turn. But you almost have to write off the last 15 minutes after the break. At the break we were 10.9.

Soak this in. We have beaten every single side in the top 8 at least once this year. Our record against the top 8 is now 7-2.

The finish was crazy. Before that though, a lot to like. How good were our youth: Jackson, Bowey, Rivers, Jordon all played really great games. Brown was so good early, helped us get the early lead and gave us a chop out repeatedly. ANB's forward pressure was immense and he got 2 goals to go with it. Thought Langdon's first half was back to his best but the game wasn't down his wing enough after half time. Harmes improved on last week, Melksham stood up when needed too. Backline was good without being amazing and we still only conceded 18 scoring shots. Still want TMac straight back into the forward line to make sure we have two marking options, particularly when Fritsch struggles like he did tonight. And I'm not going to comment on vandenBerg's silly free kicks against. Hope Hunt's injury isn't too bad, but we've gone into Perth with no Viney, no Tomlinson, no TMac, Hunt off in the first quarter, then a crazy half hour lightning break in the fourth quarter with West Coast's season on the line, and we've come away with the win which locks in top 4. It's huge. I'm happy.

Nah I've got zero time for this attitude. An unprecedented 30 minute break when we have the game entirely under control, in hostile territory, forcing West Coast to change their entire attitude, after a week in quarantine, off the back of a day last weekend on a plane. This is a win to savour, not to complain about.

Guys. We're finishing in the top 4 no matter what. YOU [censored] BEAUTY!

Off topic slightly but how about Hawthorn's fixture this year. In a COVID disrupted year, they'll get to the end of the year having only played three games away from the MCG, Marvel and UTAS (their other home). And of those three, one was an "away" game vs Gold Coast at the SCG. So they'll only have played two games all year in true foreign territory.

Our 22 from the 2018 prelim: B Neville Jetta, Oscar McDonald, Jordan Lewis HB Christian Salem, Sam Frost, Michael Hibberd C Mitch Hannan, Nathan Jones, Angus Brayshaw HF Jake Melksham, Tom McDonald, James Harmes F Aaron vandenBerg, Sam Weideman, Alex Neal-Bullen FOL Max Gawn, Clayton Oliver, Jack Viney I/C Christian Petracca, Charlie Spargo, Dom Tyson, Joel Smith Bolded aren't playing tonight (assumes TMac plays). That's 12, more than half the side. An almost entirely new backline, too. For comparison: B Shannon Hurn, Tom Barrass, Will Schofield HB Thomas Cole, Jeremy McGovern, Lewis Jetta C Dom Sheed, Luke Shuey, Chris Masten HF Mark LeCras, Jack Darling, Mark Hutchings F Willie Rioli, Josh J. Kennedy, Jamie Cripps FOL Scott Lycett, Elliot Yeo, Jack Redden I/C Liam Ryan, Liam Duggan, Daniel Venables, Nathan Vardy 10 for them not playing.

They're missing Ryan and Barrass, too. We have to expect them to come out all guns blazing tonight in an attempt to atone for their poor performance last week. If we're not switched on early and they jump us, we might find it hard to pull them back. But if we can weather any early storm, and hopefully get a quick break on them, I'll be much more confident.

Or allow people to argue whatever he said wasn't actually racist, or "wasn't that bad", or something like that. Putting the slur into the media puts it in front of kids' eyes. We're trying to eradicate this language, not perpetuate it. There is literally nothing to be gained from publicising it.

They're not as blatantly wrong as Twitter is making them out to be. The first one in that video is clearly at least an arguable dangerous tackle. Redman pins an arm and drives him downwards. It's line ball to me, could have gone either way. Similarly the second one is a bit 50/50 on whether he had prior opportunity: if he didn't, it's a free for holding, which is what was paid. Personally I reckon he had prior opportunity.

Yes and no. Yes, in terms of being able to beat teams like the Dogs. No, in terms of it not being as big of a weakness for us as it is for them, if it doesn't work. They've invested so much of their list into their midfield. It results in crazy depth in that part of the ground but weaknesses at either end. I'd prefer us to be better at centre clearances than we currently are, but we know we can play top 4 quality football without it. I don't think the Dogs can.

As I asked above, what do you want to discuss?

What are you arguing here? We should know what Walker said so that we can debate it? What do you want to debate about it? I suspect you want to see what he said so that you can consider whether you think it was "bad" or not. There is no doubt that what he said was racist. He has accepted that it was. Once it's racist, nothing else matters.

2014. 8 straight H&A games away from Melbourne - two have been our home games sold to the NT, the other six have been away games. Since 2010 there have only been two years in which we haven't played West Coast in Perth - 2013 and 2015. That's 9 times in 11 seasons we've been sent to Perth to play the Eagles. In the same time period, we've played them in Melbourne three times, and one of those was at Marvel (2011). Two MCG games against them since 2010.