titan_uranus

A potential new record for "best set of ins" might be set today for West Coast. They've just recalled Jeremy McGovern, Luke Shuey, Tim Kelly, Brad Sheppard, Jack Petruccelle and Nathan Vardy.

Fair. There was always a debate to be had about whether we go in with another tall or not. I was of the view we should have put B Brown in, but I can understand going without. I'd make Jones the sub to give Chandler a full game at Casey.

Clearly not in the FD's eyes though. Jones doesn't play Spargo's style of game. He's not quick enough nor is he a good enough kick inside 50 to replace him. Jordon's playing a gut-running midfielder's role, including with some time on the wing. Not Jones' forte. Having said all that, Jones isn't playing right now in no small part because we only have one best 22 player injured (Tomlinson). That is unlikely to be the case for the rest of the year. Opportunities can, and likely will, arise.

Oh come on. In the last six matches we've played, and beaten, three top 8 sides (Sydney, the Dogs and Brisbane). We may not have scored 100 but we put 87 against the Dogs and 97 against the Lions, as well as 94 against Carlton and 95 against Adelaide. Four of our last six scores have been 87+. In Essendon's last six matches Essendon has played two top 8 sides (which happen to be the worst two, sitting 7th and 8th), and lost to one of them. The 140+ score you mention was against the bottom side sporting a 1-12 record. They've also in that time conceded 100 points twice, including 123 vs Richmond. Their highest score against a top 8 side all season has been 87 vs West Coast. If we've been "worked out to a degree", but that degree means we conceded 80 points to Collingwood (our second highest score against all year), I'm not sure that's something to be drastically worried about.

Out of interest, where do you get this stat from?

As I said earlier, there is no one size fits all approach. Just because you find it capable of living without social media doesn't mean everyone can live without it. And that's more so for those who already have it and for whom it already forms a substantial part of their life and their connection to their friends, family, news and the world in general.

Something that's gone under the radar is the announcement that GWS v Hawthorn is being moved from Giants Stadium to the MCG. It's one thing to move the venue, but it's another to move it to the opponent's home ground, where the two sides don't meet again (so there isn't a return game to flip). This gives Hawthorn an extra home game (they'll be deemed the "away" side but it's their home ground) and gives GWS an additional away game. I'm guessing the issue is Marvel was already in use that Sunday so there was nowhere else to host it, but I wonder whether the game could have been played in Geelong or Ballarat, or anywhere else, to ensure the ground was neutral, rather than Hawthorn's home ground. Although I suppose if given the choice GWS might prefer to have it at the MCG for experience.

That's good for you. But if you do already have them and they form part of your life, the answer isn't "just turn them off". There is no one size fits all answer.

He's spoken of struggling to deal with the pressure and social media commentary before, too: https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/238081/weideman-experiences-the-afls-dark-side Oh wow, it's so easy! Disconnect from the entire world, thereby isolating yourself further. FFS this is so incredibly out of touch.

A summary for those of us who don't have Herald Sun subscriptions?

It doesn't 100% prevent you from catching COVID but it does reduce the risk of catching it, and it also reduces the chance of you passing it on. There's some evidence outdoor transmission is possible though: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/12/melbournes-mask-rule-is-there-evidence-covid-spreads-outdoors-and-how-does-it-occur But the issue with capacity at stadiums isn't the sitting outside, it's the congregating in a number of places, and the requirement to staff the facilities and various things involved with the stadiums. I'm not saying 50% is unreasonable by the way, but the rationale for cutting capacity isn't just the risk of people transmitting COVID in their seats.

A bit of deduction can be used to narrow things down a bit. In Round 17 we play Port. No other games are as big as that one (there's Bulldogs v Sydney and Richmond v Collingwood). So I'd say we'll be Friday night (or Thursday night). Working backwards, you'd hope that means we're not on the Sunday the week before, to avoid a five-day break. But there are two MCG games (Collingwood v St Kilda is the other) so unless one's a Thursday or Friday night, they have to be Saturday and Sunday. I'd expect us to be Saturday, not Sunday. Question is then whether we're day or night. This week we're night vs Essendon, so we might be the day game vs GWS, otherwise it's a lot of Melbourne on FTA (no complaints from me of course). Round 18 vs Hawthorn there are three MCG games so again, unless there is a Thursday night, these need to be spaced. Richmond v Brisbane a good chance for the Friday night, but Collingwood v Carlton could be a Sunday afternoon as they play in that timeslot a bit. We'll be shuffled around those but I expect either Saturday 1.45pm or Sunday 3.20pm. Round 19 away to GC will almost certainly be Saturday twilight or night. They play nearly all GC home games in those timeslots. Round 20 vs the Dogs could be another Friday night, not much competition for prime time that round (Essendon v Sydney, Fremantle v Richmond). Round 21 vs West Coast I'd pick for Saturday night. There are three Marvel games so one has to be Friday night (I doubt they'll be doing Thursdays by then) - probably Bulldogs v Essendon will be Friday. Round 22 vs Adelaide will be Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Then Round 23 will come down to critical ladder positioning games I reckon. But there are again three Marvel games so one will have to be Friday night, meaning we won't be (unless there's a Thursday night). I'd expect Bulldogs v Port for the Friday night, leaving us for maybe Saturday night. I'll probably get none of these guesses right though.

Look to be fair it's not only the seating that's the concern with 30% vs 50%. It's the toilets, entrances/exits, bars, kiosks, the trains/trams to the ground, etc. But yes, it's a bit odd that they don't space people out a bit more.

Not sure I agree with those lauding Essendon's game today. They were the inferior side for significant portions of that game and had Hawthorn kicked straight at key moments, and/or had something better to aim for than Koschitzke, a resting ruck and Tim O'Brien, they would have won that game. Essendon was -24 in disposals, -3 inside 50s, -46 in uncontested possessions, +7 in turnovers, -22 in marks, -4 in marks inside 50, -2 in scoring shots and -16 in tackles. To me, they were outworked by Hawthorn but Hawthorn is a weak side and didn't make it pay. To be behind in disposals (and significantly so in UPs) and marks, and to still lose the tackles, that's not good or sustainable football.

I don't know but doubt it. North Melbourne in 2016 nearly missed the finals from 10-1 though. They finished 12-10 and only scraped into 8th on percentage.

The MFC media department has copped a fair bit of flak on here over recent years (fairly enough too), but I wanted to give some credit for the mid-season update material the club's posted over the last week. We've now had mid-season update videos from Pert, Petracca and now Goodwin. There was also a small insight into the post-match review process from Lever's perspective. Might be more before the next game but even if not, I've appreciated the club's attempts to get some communication out to the members about where we sit both on and off the field.

Agreed. Screw that old dee. I want to go to the game. I want to see my team play. I don't care if that means Essendon makes money. I've spent too long with my side being rubbish: we're half-decent this year and I want to see them as much as I can.

Where's Steve Hocking? Jumps out of his chair to send Mackay to the Tribunal for contesting the ball. Nowhere to be seen when Joel Selwood deliberately drops an arm into a player's head.

Thanks for the pick up - makes the argument 100 times stronger.

Micro moments that the Dogs will hate re-watching, like our game too. They had the ball in their forward 50 with a minute to go but couldn’t force it over the line. Didn’t get to the ball on the clearance, allowing Selwood to knock if forward. Not sure if Cordy had options for his clearing kick but if he did, his kick didn’t help. And too far up the ground given they needed to defend the lead in the last minute, leaving too much room for the Cats. Also Bontempelli missing from directly in front early in the last hurts.

Not at all. I am in fact terrible with injections/needles (but have no reservation about being vaccinated when I am eligible). My take on the vaccination rollout is that complacency set in with the government, just like it did with the population. A perverse side-effect of how well we did to re-open and get back to "normal" lives meant people tended to let themselves believe COVID was over, and we therefore didn't need vaccines. It's not unreasonable for the government to have placed orders for multiple vaccine options last year at a time when no one knew precisely which vaccines would be "best" or how we'd obtain sufficient does of them. And it's not unreasonable for the government to have had to change the rules around AZ given the drug didn't exist this time last year. But the messaging/advertising/education on the vaccines has been sub-par, I'm sure the investment in the logistics needed to roll it out has been sub-par (I don't actually know that though), and the laxness to let most of Australia take their time getting vaccinated prior to Victoria's recent lockdown was sub-par.

Isn't the logic that the government did not want to put all its eggs into one basket? Why do you think it's a conspiracy theory? In relation to vaccine rollout? Almost all of them! In relation to minimising COVID deaths, possibly none of them. But we have been paying a certain price for that: four lockdowns in Melbourne, closed international borders, regularly closed State borders, continued damage to the economy, mental health etc. of being unvaccinated and therefore at the mercy of outbreaks. As to a waiting list, that's only manifested in the last three weeks due to the outbreak and lockdown. Prior to the lockdown, Victorians were not getting vaccinated: we've all heard the stories of mass vaccination clinics being open for 8 hours a day and vaccinating one person. True, but context is important: Canada has far, far more Pfizer available to it than we do. So for us to do the same will delay our vaccine rollout even further. See here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2021-06-09/covid-19-vaccines-mix-match-pfizer-astrazeneca-australia/100188824 Different circumstances. And, in addition, Canada has noted that there might be a benefit to having a dose of AZ and a dose of mRNA, albeit the clotting risk is also a factor.

@Kent - you appear to have bolded the part of my previous post citing the death rate from COVID in Australia as 0.03%. Yes, that's low. But it is 20 times higher than the AZ death rate. The bolded part is the problem. As we keep waiting, we keep exposing Australians to: Closed borders Lockdowns An impacted economy COVID itself And you never know what will happen with supply chains, production, or further variants of COVID that may impact that timeframe (all of the government's stated timeframes on the rollout have been blown out so far). If you are over 60 and you are choosing not to be vaccinated in the face of medical advice and evidence which suggests it is the best thing both for you and for the population generally, in my view that is unreasonable.

I don't agree. My view is that everyone should go to Geelong. It's their home ground. I have no issue with playing their home games there, but it's manifestly unfair that Collingwood, Carlton, Richmond, Hawthorn and Essendon don't get sent there. If Geelong want to "sell" two home games per year to the MCG, that should be fine, but that shouldn't stop those big clubs playing down in Geelong semi-regularly (e.g. in the years in which Easter Monday is a Hawthorn home game, Hawthorn should be sent down to Geelong). If Geelong decides that it wants to host us at the MCG to make more money (on the same logic that leads it to host those five big clubs at the MCG rather than Geelong), that's fine with me, but it shouldn't be necessary.

OK, here are a couple to keep us interested: Win more than 14 games in a H&A season - last time was 1990 (31 year drought). Win 17 or more games in a H&A season - we have never done this in our 121 previous completed seasons. (If you're wondering about the 17+ game stat, Hawthorn have done it five times in the last 10 years).