BigFez

Knee. Nothing further yet.

SMASHED out of the middle AGAIN

He said he's building every week but not fully back to his best. If 28 and 3 with 11 clearances is 'building' then I'm looking forward to seeing him back to his best.

For whatever reason, this is coming up blank for me. Would someone please be able to elaborate for me? Got a decent reaction so my interest is piqued.

I thought we were caught ball watching quite a bit when the ball was in dispute. Freo set up really well with outlets via handball through the middle and our guys were a bit flat footed. That led to a couple of easy goals for them. Hopefully they can tidy that up a bit. I reckon Goody would have rated AJ's game and he'll be a real chance of a Rd 1 debut. Hopefully his effort and attack on the ball make up for what I perceived as a slight lack of height and speed for a key fwd. Gees he had a crack though.

I was pretty surprised on how long we were to make the 8, considering last year we weren't all that far away despite the injuries to many of our stars. I'll be getting on that for sure. Oliver for Brownlow is an interesting one. Even in his dominant AFLCA winning seasons he didn't win, he was still a number of votes behind the eventual winner. Not sure if they umpires love him enough to get him over the likes of Bont, Neale, Daicos, Cripps etc. The umps will give those blokes 3 votes just for showing up sometimes. I reckon Tracc is the better bet for Brownlow personally, the umps seem to like him.

I would never write off a JT selection. I for one believe there are many country footballers who, on talent alone, are superior natural footballers to plenty on AFL lists, they just lacked the drive and dedication to get themsleves to the level of fitness required to compete with the elite juniors at draft age. I played with and against plenty of guys who went on to be drafted, and there were guys who would be every bit as good, or better, but just liked the good times a bit too much to drive themselves to that level. If this bloke has discovered that drive slightly later, there's no reason to think he can't have an impact at AFL level. The recruiters have obviously seen something in him, and I'm here for it. Go well young man. How tall was Nick Riewoldt again? Not comparing the two but sugestions 193cm is too small for an effective forward are misguided.

I'd be interested to hear if Kentfield is showing anything to suggest he might see some AFL action this year. Only things I've really heard about him are he's big and slightly off the pace in terms of fitness.

Has it been said that West Coast were bookies favourites in this game?

I love the guy to death and want to have his babies but I thought Max's rucking efforts early in the 4th quarter cost us the game. Clearly hampered by the injury, trying to out-muscle Briggs who is built like a brick supermarket time and time again to lose clearance and give up 4 quick goals (one should have been a push free to May though) from centre bounce dominance was very frustrating. Then after ANBs goal we go in and comprehensively lose the centre clearance AGAIN! Amazing how much I have come to assume Max will win the majority of hit outs and get disproportionately frustrated when he doesn't.

I take it Clayton told you Sam McLure is muckraking POS who's latest trade rumour is complete garbage?

Gawn is at his very best when he plays the vast majority of his time in the ruck. We've seen with Grundy and even Preuss that having two pure rucks doesn't really work for us because as good as Max is in the ruck, he isn't a great forward. So why would any half decent ruck come and play for us knowing that unless Gawn gets injured, they are more than likely end up playing in the VFL? Even Grundy, who is in the conversation for the AA ruck spot this year ended up in the VFL because the two ruck setup doesn't seem to work for us. So my question would be, is there a ruckman in the country that wasn't good enough to be playing regularly in an AFL team, and would be happy to play second fiddle to Max for the next 5 years, who could have competed with Darcy/Jackson on the weekend?

Maybe big fans of Patrick Swayze in Point Break? Great movie, didn't quite inspire me to name any of my kids Bodhi though.

I believe Crom originated from a typo in a forum somewhere years back, and the footy-posting public got hold of it and it got legs. Not 100% sure though.

Childish and wildly unbecoming of a professional sporting organisation I know, but a big part of me wanted us to select the biggest meat-axe in Australian country footy in the mid season draft. Roll him out on King's Birthday, clearly unfit, slightly overweight, covered in prison tattoos and with no business being anywhere near an AFL list, just to end Maynard's career just after the first bounce with a despicable behind the play hit not seen since the early 80s. Then take his 20 week suspension, delist at the end of the year and we can all move on with our lives.

Weird seeing Oliver so far down the list, and only polling in one game. So much upside for him for the rest of the year.

Did you see the one where Curnow almost punched Rivers' head off his shoulders? No free. Then seconds later I think it was Max barely touched a Carlton player's shoulder and a free was awarded at CHF for Carlton. I think Riv even had to come off and get strapped up. No doubt it has been mentioned on this or another thread before, but that was also up there. Almost made me switch the TV off.

I think this is genuinely the worst umpiring decision I've ever seen in my life. He was right there too.

I still haven't recovered from our last match against them.

Lever 5 in total for that game give me a spell. Isn't this supposed to be the award most respected by the players? Should have been minimum 9.

Oliver - Shouldn't have played. Clearly hampered by the hand, couldn't pick up the ball, couldn't grab an opponent, it was like trying to play with one arm. Hopefully it gets sorted during the break and he's back to his best soon.

Some quality Kolt content on Jack Viney's Instagram story today.

Gee the peanut gallery will be in overdrive if Oliver is a late out.

Feel for Koz, it's like his brain went from "smother the ball" to "clean him up" to "ah actually no I can't do that anymore" which is where you see him push him off right at the end of the collision. Looks like he's trying but has strong Byron instincts he's trying to overcome. I don't think the AFL can let him escape without a week at the moment unfortunately.