titan_uranus

And we've now had the three Demons going up for the same ball and spoiling each other. It's all happening.

It looks to me like they're flooding back, cluttering up our space. A weakness we've had for years.

This is bad Melbourne. No plan forward of centre. 8 inside 50s for 0.2 compared to 4 inside 50s for 2.0. This has disappointing loss written all over it.

Shopping him around? After everything we did to rehab him and get him back to playing? Despite the obviously strong relationship he has with May and, it seems, with Goodwin (possibly/probably Burgess too)? No way. IMO Bennell's issue is intensity - he hasn't been sprinting or chasing hard enough when he's been in the side. If that's because he's fearful of injuring himself, that's something he has to work on. But I've seen enough to believe he still has the desire to make it, and the talent to be a best 22 player for us. After putting all this work in, I cannot imagine we'd be giving up now.

I will approach all four of our final four games the same way: with extreme nerves. Our form against the weaker sides this year has been solid (comfortable wins over Adelaide, North, Hawthorn and Gold Coast). But with the significance of each of these final games comes pressure, and we all know we've struggled with expectation before. We should have Sydney covered. They have been distinctly mediocre all year. Their win over GWS was exciting but IMO an outlier. Their only other wins have been vs Adelaide, North and Hawthorn (and each of those was by less than two goals). Since beating North in Round 3, all their losses have been by at least 26 points except two: Richmond (a well-publicised defensive slog) and Collingwood (Collingwood's inaccuracy kept the Swans in it but Collingwood dominated most stats). And they're missing a handful of key players.

Yeah nah I don't think that was a sign that Fremantle are that good. Richmond was off. Turnovers where they usually wouldn't make turnovers. Sloppiness. Didn't appear to be caused by Fremantle pressure, seemed very unforced to me. And despite Richmond clearly being off, Fremantle kicked 4 goals. None of this means we should take them lightly. We shouldn't take anyone lightly.

I assume then you look at West Coast's bench of O'Neill, Nelson, Hutchings and Rotham and think "premiership material"? He hasn't played defence for years. Like TMac, he's a forward and that's where he'll play. Otherwise he won't be playing seniors.

Maybe it is a fitness thing. Jetta's been named as an emergency, but Lockhart hasn't. So if it's not fitness, Lockhart's gone from best 22 to behind Jetta (and Rivers).

So does Smith play small on Papley (or Lewis Taylor, who they've brought in)? If he's playing tall, I don't understand why we've picked both him and OMac.

I completely forgot about Lockhart, which disappoints me. I agree with you. IMO he was more than good enough when he was playing to get a spot back in Hibberd's absence.

Harmes named at half forward. Could be Smith for Hibberd, Fritsch for Hannan, Harmes for vandenBerg and ANB for Pickett? In terms of keeping structure much the same? I will go early and say I am not a fan of Smith returning. Hope he proves me wrong.

B: Lever, May, Tomlinson HB: Salem, McDonald, Rivers C : Langdon, Viney, Jones HF: Harmes, Weideman, Petracca F: Fritsch, Brown, Melksham Foll: Gawn, Brayshaw, Oliver Int: Spargo, ANB, Wagner, Smith Emerg: Preuss, vandenBerg, Jetta, C Wagner In: Fritsch, ANB, Harmes, Smith Out: Hibberd, Hannan, Pickett, vandenBerg

Even if Essendon were at fault for the COVID test (and they weren't), the subsequent fixturing has nothing to do with them. There's no possible link between it and the venues we're being sent to and shuffled between, the four-day breaks, the lack of stability or other sides getting the opposite.

We have certainly copped a difficult fixture. This week is our fifth straight game at a different venue to the last (Adelaide-Gabba-Metricon-Alice Springs-Cairns). Our "bye" was in Round 3, one game after a three month break. Everyone else (other than Essendon) gets a bye during one of the two compressed fixture phases. Other clubs get repeat games at the same venue - we currently haven't played more than two games at any particular venue and will finish the year having played at 9 venues across six states/territories. We have undoubtedly had a much tougher fixture than most, and in a season like this, these sorts of differences can be magnified in importance.

Yep, a tough stretch for West Coast away from Perth and missing some players. The key issue for us is that if they drop either of the Dogs/Saints games they will be helping those sides get to 10 wins. If the Eagles win both, it keeps alive the possibility that we can qualify for finals on 9 wins.

Essendon's beaten Collingwood and the bottom 5. They do, however, get Geelong off a bye - Geelong are on a 0-8 streak in games played after byes during the home and away season and I believe on a 1-12 streak including finals.

He's played one game since 5 August, a month ago. Maybe, if the rest is necessary, it will come in the Fremantle game 4 days after the Sydney game.

This game certainly isn't over. Ball has spent the entire quarter in Essendon's forward half. West Coast are just trying to eat up time but aren't getting the ball forward. Dam wall could break at some point.

If they lose tonight they can still make it but would have to win all three and get in on 9.5 If they win they will jump up into 8th tonight.

Is this weekly article really that accurate as to who we choose to bring in?

This is just before @Clint Bizkit's screenshot Raises both arms, as if he's trying to block Kent from kicking. Which led me to panic, even if he was able to follow Steele.

He's clearly trying to impact Kent's kick though, hence why I freaked out at the time.

Remind me again why we got fined $500,000?

If Essendon beats West Coast, things will get bad for two reasons: Essendon will be challenging for finals Essendon supporters will come even further out of the woodwork Away from Perth, no Kennedy, no Cripps...who knows.

This is fair, and I agree. But what we can aim for, and what we need, is consistency defensively as well as output offensively. It's important for us to be able to win games off the back of defence, but where we can get better is to take this level of defence and then ensure that the players we've got in those mid/small forward roles are hurting our opponent the other way.