titan_uranus

Changes from the proposed Round 3 side: Smith takes Jetta's spot in the 18, putting Jetta on the extended bench vandenBerg takes Brayshaw's spot in the 18, putting Brayshaw on the extended bench Hannan moves from the bench into the starting 18 Bennell moves from starting 18 to being dropped Lockhart takes Bennell's spot in the 22

I expect only one of Lockhart/Jetta to get a spot. Could be in for a surprise here. I don't expect to see Hibberd. I also expect Jackson and Pickett to play. I'm therefore guessing we'll see a bench of Jackson, PIckett, Lockhart/Jetta and Brayshaw. ANB, Hibberd, Jones and Lockhart/Jetta to miss.

Hannan and vandenBerg are guaranteed starters in the 18. One takes Bennell's spot, there's at least one more to be dropped. Could yet be Jones, on the extended bench.

In: Hannan, vandenBerg, Hibberd, Pickett, Lockhart Out: Bennell (omitted) Edit: the team's changes are from Round 2, not from the intraclub. So Jones is still in.

No it wasn't. The next bit about being "not far off May and every bit as good as Lever as an AFL footballer" is also not something I can agree with.

Updating the tally of interstate games for Victorian clubs to end of Round 7: St Kilda - 0 (just Marvel and the MCG for their first seven games) Carlton - 1 (plus Geelong) North Melbourne - 1 Essendon - 1 Richmond - 1 Bulldogs - 1 Hawthorn - 1 (plus Geelong) Geelong - 2 Collingwood - 2 Melbourne - 3 And on the home/away ledger: Essendon - 5-2 Carlton - 4-3 Collingwood - 4-3 Geelong - 4-3 (one home game in Perth) North - 4-3 St Kilda - 4-3 Hawthorn - 3-4 Richmond - 3-4 Bulldogs - 3-4 Melbourne - 2-5 Based on the above, you would have to think that Essendon, Carlton, St Kilda and North are all ripe to be sent to hubs in the second half of the year (minimal interstate travel so far, and all having already had a decent number of home games in their home state).

At the end of Round 6, this is the tally of interstate games for Victorian clubs: St Kilda - 0 (just Marvel and the MCG for their first six games) Carlton - 0 (but they did go to Geelong) North Melbourne - 1 Essendon - 1 Richmond - 1 Geelong - 1 Collingwood - 1 Bulldogs - 1 Hawthorn - 1 (plus Geelong) Melbourne - 3 And on the home/away ledger, we'll be 1-5. Richmond will be 2-4, all other Victorian clubs will be either 3-3 or 4-2. So this should, in theory, mean that in the last 11 games of the year, other Victorian clubs should be doing the heavy lifting in terms of interstate trips. And we should be getting a good slate of home games (hopefully at the MCG) too, given we need to have either 7 or 8 of our last 11 as home games.

Why are so many people angry that we're not playing the game tomorrow? Why do we need/want to play so soon? For one, as has been mentioned by others, it's not set in stone that our game will need to be crammed mid-week at some point. There is the potential for byes, staggered rounds and other positive tests to create gaps anyway. But assuming it is going to have to be played midweek, why does it have to be this week? Why not aim for a situation in which the AFL gets us to play on a Thursday night, Friday night or Saturday afternoon, then back up to a Wednesday vs Essendon, then back up to the following Sunday or Monday night? Space out our games as much as possible, with notice to us, so we can prepare (rather than putting all 40 of our fit players into a match on a Sunday).

I'm not an NBA fan but I'm with you 100%. The lack of crowds might make some games "easier" but so many other aspects of this season are harder on the players. Whoever wins it this year will be able to build self-confidence into what will hopefully be a "normal" 2021 season. There will be better sponsorship opportunities, better fixturing opportunities, exposure in a media which needs something to talk about. There are a number of reasons why there is plenty to play for this year, if we can get a full season in.

Assuming no one else is allowed in or out of Casey Fields and our players don't go anywhere in Casey other than Casey Fields, we'd be OK wouldn't we? Might have problems if any players live in Casey (or any of the other affected LGAs, for that matter), though.

No, not at all. I'm merely saying that of all the players to stuff up the protected zone rule, the one who did hasn't played at AFL level for 2.5 years (i.e. it's not that big of a deal).

More like MIC (missing in clip).

Adelaide are also abysmal.

Not sure how much "worse" any of those actions are. A factor going the other way is that his teammate (Zerk-Thatcher) had already been suspended and, surely, Essendon would have read the riot act to the entire playing group. After that, it's hard to believe another Essendon player broke the rules (I'd be similarly gobsmacked if another Melbourne player stuffs up). I agree with you that McKenna probably shouldn't be getting a bigger suspension than Zerk-Thatcher, Pickett or Spargo simply because he caught it and they didn't (unless he knew he had it but didn't comply with the rules, in which case season-long ban minimum, I say).

If we kick 100 points in a real match and our tall forwards kick 0, is that "embarrassing"? I don't care who kicks them so long as we score enough to win. Getting Melksham back into form is equally important as TMac/Weid at any rate. You're in form for over-reactions this week, I reckon. It was an intra-club scratch match. Frustrated players who'd trained all week and had the game pulled away from them through no fault of theirs. And your major concerns are the Bennell 50 (which was bloody iffy, and at any rate committed by a player who hasn't played at AFL level for 2.5 years) and "possibly Jetta looking upset". Seriously? You're upset that a player showed emotion? I'll give you the Langdon one, but really, are these things we should genuinely be worried about?

Yes, they didn't kick any goals, but are we really going to call TMac/Weideman "horrible" for what we could see of them in a 6-minute highlight clip of an intraclub match?

Looks like Brayshaw, Jetta, Jones and Hibberd all started for blue. At some point Hibberd, OMac and Rivers switched (the latter two started red then went blue). From that footage, which is obviously limited, I thought Melksham looked infinitely better than last week.

Brayshaw started in royal blue. Wasn't dropped this week but is the FD considering he's on the fringe?

Gawn says we put our best 18 on one side to begin with but then shuffled jumpers midway. Also mentioned Jones played - I'm increasingly confident the line about him carrying injuries through training was rubbish and was just designed to soften the blow around him being dropped.

Let's wait for Port today who might be the only side to put in three strong performances. Collingwood not too far off. Everyone else has put in at least one sub-par performance. In a normal season, that would be a refreshing positive. I think our lapse against Carlton needs to be put into this perspective.

Yeah if he's knowingly breached the guidelines, particularly after Essendon already had a teammate break them, my sympathy goes out the window.

I didn't hear this, but it's possible he trained after the test, but before the result was returned. Because it's logistically impossible to arrange the match on an hour or two's notice. They'll slot it in later in the year, on a few week's notice.

You can, but my understanding is that false negatives are quite uncommon. It's common to have the virus but show no symptoms, but that's completely separate. Apparently the type of result he produced yesterday (the "irregularity") was a low viral count, with today's test a higher count, suggesting it's in the early days. That's consistent with the idea he got it quite recently. Regardless, the key will be the next round of testing on Essendon players and staff.

Meanwhile West Coast go in with their tall forward line and can't take a mark. Carlton's tall forwards last week didn't exactly set the world on fire, either. (Having said that, I'm also surprised we planned to go into tomorrow with just TMac. Possibly horses for courses because Essendon is small and fast).

So, just to confirm, if we had the opportunity to beat Essendon tomorrow, we would be in front of Richmond, West Coast, Geelong, GWS and the Dogs. Each of those sides has had a shock loss to an ostensibly worse side (Richmond to Hawthorn, WC to GC, Geelong to Carlton, GWS to North, the Dogs to St Kilda). This season is clearly ridiculous. And, I'm not suggesting we're any good, but our only loss so far is West Coast in Perth. We also beat the side which just beat Geelong in Geelong.