titan_uranus

I was going to post the same thing. Ridiculous comparison. It doesn't matter anyway. Whether or not tanking exists, and what Demetriou thinks about it, should be ignored. The mere fact that people talk about it should be enough to make the AFL do something.

If North plays like they did against Carlton, and we don't do anything stupid, there shouldn't be any problem. Hopefully North plays a lot better than Richmond and lead from start to finish so that there isn't as much of a need to tank.

20,041

I was on Level 2 of the MCC (in front of the coaches box) and, though I could see the clock inside the box, I didn't hear the siren either. And the low volume of the songs really pisses me off. That's not actually true, Jackattack. In fact, McMahon's mark was taken legally, as outlined by the Laws of the Game: 10.4.1 End of Quarter The Timekeepers shall sound the siren to signal the end of a quarter until a field Umpire acknowledges that the siren has been heard and brings play to an end. 10.4.2 Siren Heard by Field Umpire Play in each quarter shall come to an end when any one of the field Umpires or emergency field Umpire hears the siren. So the quarter doesn't come to an end until the umpire hears the siren. Once he heard the siren, he blew his whistle. It was just after the mark. So all good.

That AFL.com article that cooko posted, it mentions that Rohan was once a full back, but is now a forward. I wouldn't know, because the only thing I know about Rohan is that he's a red-head. But I do know that Bailey has long professed his love for flexibility in his players. Probably doesn't really matter, but if Butcher is nothing but a FF, and Rohan has the ability already to play both ends of the ground, then who knows?

Don't know enough about most of the listed players. Trengove is the best that I know of, so I'd go with him. Don't pick Butcher unless he's the best player available.

Despite Freak bringing it up, he makes a good point. Dunn has shown good form since he came back to the team. I've been quite happy with him. Much better than Newton.

Me too. That pace from Petterd was great.

Firstly, it's not a matter of 'deserves'. It's a matter of what's better for the club, 1 pick in the top 4 or 2? Secondly, we've only won 11 games since 2006. Though we could have won maybe 2 or 3 more this year, overall you're looking at 15 or 16 out of 66. Well that's not entirely stupid. Who here thought West Coast would win another game? I know I didn't. So them winning does give the head-in-sanders something to talk about.

That's a load of rubbish. West Coast wouldn't get close to Geelong. They play OK at Subiaco, but let's not forget that Essendon was missing 4 of its best players to injury.

It's not about next year. It's about our chances of getting a premiership in the next 5 or so years. Next year we cannot and will not win the flag. But we must try to win every game and hopefully finish with 8-10.

If West Coast win, we will certainly get Scully unless we go past the 16.5 mark. If that happens, pick 1 goes to the team on the bottom, which could be Freo. So it's not a certainty, but if West Coast win it helps.

First of all, you didn't miss much in terms of quality. In fact you missed nothing. I want us to get the PP because that gives us the best chance at getting the best kids available, which in turn gives us the best chance at a premiership. However, I also want us to put significant time into Grimes, Cheney, Bennell, Jetta, Spencer, maybe also Watts and McNamara, in order for those guys to be even better next year, when winning 8-10 games is a must. But, as we saw today, if there is a danger that we might win, Bailey will be happy to change things up to ensure we don't. Frawley's a good example of that. He's a pretty good chance to win Most Improved 2009, but he was shifted forward today.

Half time and it's the Eagles 8.6.54 leading Essendon 4.1.25. Essendon has, the past two weeks, had everything to play for, against two crap, bottom of the ladder teams, and blew it last week and are blowing it this week. Weird.

37,000 plus. Good crowd I thought. Certainly a lot more than I expected would show up.

Pull your head out of the sand dimmy. Warnock providing height! We had Miller, Newton, Johnson, Spencer and Martin all in the team, and they pick our full back! That is tanking. I certainly don't expect to see Warnock playing forward next year, so I highly doubt that was a bid to develop 'flexibility'. And you've ignored all the other instances of tanking, too. To be truthful, it's hard to take you seriously when you say things like Richmond's midfield is one of the good ones in the AFL, and that the second half of this match was as good a game as you could wish to see.

Crap, I hope Bennell's isn't serious. Pity about Martin too. And wasn't today Whelan's 149th game? That would be very sad if he couldn't get to 150.

You're an idiot. Sorry to have to say that. No one here is suggesting that players don't try to win. They do. It's the coaches that don't want to win.

I hope Cheney doesn't get dropped. I thought he was pretty good today. I certainly want to see our youngsters getting game time over the next 5 weeks. We have to do something productive in these 5 weeks, rather than just working out how to lose.

That is actually a very good point JTR. You would suspect that Bailey is going to cop a lot of flak this week after this performance. If we'd wanted to win, we could have beaten them by 5 goals. That will hurt him.

Agree with you. And if a situation ever arises in the future where a team tanks against us I don't think we're in the position. For that matter, we shouldn't be saying anything about West Coast losing either. Mind you, they're currently 19 points up.

I turned up to see how the match panned out. I turned up because I've already paid for the right to be there. I turned up because I wanted to see some of our younger players. I don't enjoy watching us lose, but I know that losing gives us a better chance at winning a flag.

KB admitted after the match that he wouldn't be able to continue to say teams don't tank.

Absolutely spot on. Newton was shocking again today. He showed that he doesn't understand how to position himself, he can't kick, he can't or won't chase, he doesn't man up, he has no mobility, and he doesn't understand how to kick the ball over the player in front of him.

Maybe that should read 'The Umpire' - is it true that the siren went before McMahon marked it? That's what I heard a lot of people saying after the game.