titan_uranus

And once more: the AFL's clash jumper "policy" is a [censored] disgrace. We can't wear red vs the Dogs, and in the Sir Doug Nicholls round to boot, but Essendon can wear a black jumper on ANZAC Day against Collingwood, and Carlton gets to wear its home jumper against Richmond, Collingwood and Essendon. Steven May was talking during the week about how much it meant to him to be able to wear the jumper in Sir Doug Nicholls round. To some it's a small issue but for a competition that wants to be elite, it's a disgrace.

A few options here but let's be honest, none of them are good and losing Langdon against a Brisbane side featuring McCluggage is a major loss.

What about Cordy mouthing off at him after obviously getting him high. Fritsch just went back, curled the goal around, and got on with it.

You do know you're talking about Matthew Richardson, right?

There might be a rule whereby if the concussion happens with less than 20 minutes left, you can just activate the sub straight away (would make no sense otherwise, why wait 20 minutes if the game is going to end).

So I guess Baker replaces Langdon? That's a huge loss. Irreplaceable.

Yeah agree, JJ is fringe for them right now. Of those you've mentioned though I reckon Dunkley, Treloar, Martin and Wood get back but I'm not sure if McLean or Vandermeer are best 22 for them. Only the two goals for the Weid. I thought his leading and contesting were good, but I agree that he didn't have a great game. Who replaces him though? How does Brown, for example, get back in when he had 4 touches and no goals last week and doesn't play VFL this week?

6 - Oliver 5 - Harmes 4 - Lever 3 - Rivers 2 - Spargo 1 - May

A few struggled at times (Weideman, Jackson, Hunt, Melksham) but no one played so badly to warrant being dropped IMO. No change unless injury. (if Langdon's out next week vs Brisbane that will hurt, big time).

The Dogs had 19 scoring shots, that's their lowest all year (they had 20 against Richmond). And we kept them to that amount on Marvel.

Huge game. They dominated the stats and had tonnes of the ball but the stats don't show you how much they were mucking around with it because of our pressure and defensive set up. A massive team effort. Oliver was dominant but this was as much about the stars as it was about lesser lights, like Harmes tagging Libba, Jordon's midfield role, Weideman continuing to present despite having a poor first half, Spargo/ANB/Pickett gut running repeatedly to keep the pressure on, Brayshaw's amazing defensive game on the wing. We had to match them in the middle and we did, winning CPs by 21. We had to dominate the air and we did, +5 marks inside 50, +9 contested marks and a lot more intercept marks (can't find that stat). There will be those who qualify this win, noting that they were missing Treloar, Dunkley, Wood and Martin, and arguing the lack of a Dogs home crowd helped us. But [censored] them. We brought our defensive A-game and our pressure A-game and like Richmond, a top 4 contender couldn't go with us.

Almost as good as the first quarter because they started really well and the ball was stuck in their forward half. To come out with 3 goals to 0 is a massive effort. One more quarter...

This is one of your worst. You’re upset about us not kicking on from a 5 goal leas against the ladder leaders?

Disappointing to give those two late goals back. Should be further in front. But they lifted that quarter and we still dominated for most of it. Big third quarter coming up.

AFL deemed it a clash. It’s a [censored] disgrace. Carlton is allowed to play Collingwood, Essendon and Richmond in its regular jumper but we can’t wear red against their blue.

Arguably our best quarter this year. Our team defence and pressure are right on.

All this talk about the Dogs blowing teams off the park. Here's who they've beaten by more than 20 points this year: North Melbourne, Gold Coast, GWS, St Kilda. Us by comparison: Fremantle, GWS, Geelong, Hawthorn, Richmond, North Melbourne, Carlton. Their percentage is through the roof because of those two massive 100+ point wins, not because they're consistently destroying their opponents each week.

That's the spirit.

Big games for those under the pump: Weideman, Melksham, Fritsch.

There is plenty of scope here for the AFL to get through the next few weeks, although much hinges on the six clubs in Victoria this week being permitted to go to other states/territories. Next week, Round 12, there are three games scheduled in Melbourne (St Kilda v Sydney, Essendon v Richmond, Carlton v West Coast). St Kilda is the only one of those sides in Victoria this week. I imagine that if they can get negative tests, one of the other states will let them in, and that game can get moved. The other four clubs are already out of Victoria and I can see a situation in which they are all moved into neutral venues (I think Dreamtime is already being discussed as moving to Perth). In Round 13 only Queen's Birthday is scheduled in Melbourne, and that's 11 days away. By then, potentially/hopefully, things will look better. Assuming WA is tough on things, if NSW, Queensland, SA and/or Tasmania are willing to let clubs into their states even if they've been in Victoria in the preceding 14 days, the next few weeks should be manageable. Some clubs are going to lose home games and revenue, but there will be scope to try to adjust later games to fix that I suspect. There's also scope for late season games to be brought forward (e.g. maybe our trip to Adelaide to play Port, or our trip to the Gold Coast, or something like that, leaving later months free for games in Victoria).

There's no way they can do this. But there's likely no need to either. The initial lockdown last year was substantial because the entire country shut down. Right now only Victoria is in the weeds. Only four clubs are going to be here this week (the Dogs, us, Geelong and Collingwood). With byes coming up, there is some flexibility in getting games arranged in other states and territories.

You hinting at something here @Mach5?

There aren't many winners from all this, but there is luck associated with it all. We're missing a crowd at an away game, not a home game. That's some luck. We've already had a fair amount of MCG games (Essendon, for example, has already travelled four times, and now might have to play even more games interstate). That's some luck too.

I suspect the AFL's rationale here is that they are getting games played this weekend because it's possible. You don't know what is going to happen in the future so taking a bye this week runs the risk that a further game will need to be caught up in the future. Getting the round played is one fewer game that the AFL has to work out later.