Mel Bourne

Umpiring was what it was. We got away with a few things in that last quarter.

I’d say let the adrenaline wear off a bit more, DeeSpencer. This is hyperbole.

Ugly win, but thank Jehovah for our core players. I can only assume Fritsch got dumped by his girlfriend this morning, or one of his pets died. Was Langdon tagged? Again, May not playing great, but again, posters here talking about him like he’s the worst player in the league. At least he was getting to the ball, unlike Lever, Fritsch and Ed. The dearth of centre-clearances continues to astonish. Having said that Rowell and Anderson are both extremely good midfielders. But there’s no point raving about Gawndy if there’s no connection.

This is peak “gameday thread”.

Bizarre Game. Fritsch, Langdon and Lever are nowhere to be seen. If they can enter the match we should do some damage. If they can’t, this is going to the wire.

Are Langdon and Fritsch wearing camouflage?

Fritsch was named this week, yeah?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CrxgQGDO2it/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= Not sure if this link (from MFC Instagram) will work, but only just saw this goal for the first time, and it is something else…

Completely understand the curiosity and it would great to hear what he’d have to say, but if he hasn’t talked about it much it might be because he doesn’t want to. My wife works closely with members of the indigenous community, and what she’s noticed over the years is that some indigenous people are genuinely uncomfortable talking about their culture/history with non-indigenous people. There are a lot of different reasons for this, but the main one seems to be that many indigenous people are not fortunate enough to have the kind of connections to their own history/mob/stories to speak with confidence about them. In our ongoing, well-meaning quest to mend our relationship with and better-understand indigenous culture, we sometimes make assumptions that all indigenous people are deeply-connected to their culture and are willing to teach others about it, but the reality is that colonisation has sought to suppress these connections for a couple of hundred years, and as a result, many indigenous individuals are on their own personal mission to learn about themselves before engaging with non-indigenous people about it (particularly in the media). It’s also true to say that some aren’t, and this needs to be respected too. Not to assume this is the case with Maysie, but it’s worth being mindful of.

When was that exactly? Edit: Haha! Yes, I guess he did kick that goal when there was only six points in it. Excellent point!

Both of these teams look average. Very little composure to be found on either side this last quarter. Saints supporters aren’t letting their unfamiliarity with the rules get in the way of their passion.

You’re forgetting young Harry Sheezel.

Heart n’ soul player who’s been showing all the signs of a standout year. Don’t insult the guy with the offer, and it should be an open - shut case.

Finally got a chance to watch the game tonight. After reading a couple of threads here first, I was preparing myself for May’s “atrocious” game. He wasn’t at his best, but he was nowhere near as bad as I was led to believe.

He didn’t exactly keep the statisticians busy against the Dogs or Lions. Kicked a total of 1.1 across both games. So far his one standout match was against a depleted, flailing team. Of course I want him to do well, but I can understand where people’s doubt is coming from.

Ok, not a free to Spargo. But not a f$$$ing free against either!

Every time Kayo cuts out I comfort myself with thoughts of Rupert Murdoch’s imminent expiration.

Yeah I know, sorry. Appropriating the nickname of the greatest goal kicker in the history of the game has never sat well with me.

Ok, time to leave the game-day thread. Go Dees!

…is Tony Lockett, no?

I’m not sure I understand the “letting the opposition get a run-on” thing. Swans are a quality opponent, and this game was always going to be an arm wrestle.

Wow, if you just read the last few pages of this thread you would not assume we’re up by fifteen points at half time. A lot of areas/individuals need to lift in this second half, lack of centre-clearance is a real concern, and Swans have a lot left to show us, but we’ve done a lot of things right so far.

I’m not going to buck the trend here. I absolutely loathe the songs after goals. But I’ll go a step further and say that I believe they’re actually a serious problem. During the prelim last year, one thing I found bewildering was how quiet the Demons fans were throughout the match. I was firmly of the opinion that the PA-spew after each goal was sapping the onus out of the supporters to make the required noise, which gives the players that extra charge. Once all the music/SFX malarkey died down, it just left a strangely muted crowd who’s literal thunder had been stolen. From a purely-tactical position, it’s a disadvantage, and a f****ng annoying one at that. While on the topic, the club has persisted using the intro to “Enter Sandman” while they players are warming up. It just plays on a loop. Bit lame, but whatever, it’s fine. Except the freakin’ loop sounds like it was cut by somebody who works in the marketing department. Every eight bars it just jarringly-lurches back to the start again on the completely-wrong beat. It does my head in. @WalkingCivilWarYou might have the connections to get this message through, but I’ll happily provide the club with a better version of this if they want it. Nobody will probably care but me, but it’ll be a massive personal victory.

Well for a start, you’d have to ask several million people. But as somebody who has personally lost more people to drugs than I care to count, I am not exactly of the opinion that the War On Drugs was ever fighting on their behalf. The majority of people I’ve known who died from overdose or prolonged usage had a troubled past (invariably involving violence or other forms of abuse at a young age). For them, drugs provided relief and periods of time when their lives weren’t fraught, fearful or any other form of “unbearable” (yes, this was of course a ‘band-aid’ solution, but have you not noticed how ineffective modern society has been in providing an alternative?). The War On Drugs saw and continues to see and treat people like these as the enemy. It has always sought to vilify the drug-user, rather than view them as the group it was trying to help. The prisons are clogged with drug-users, while the ones doing the most damage are not only roaming free, but occasionally doing so with the assistance of the US government (there are countless substantiated accounts of the CIA giving green lights to Sinaloan, Panamanian, Venezuelan and Afghan drug operations in exchange for information, kickbacks and the like). No, I can’t speak for all of the people you mention. Not one individual ever could. But if they were to all know the truth behind the War On Drugs, I strongly suspect that most would feel horrifically betrayed by it. A single case in point: in the late nineties I had four friends die from heroin overdose. These four were what is known as “dabblers” - very occasional users. They led productive, respectable and respectful lives (you’d be surprised how many do). They died because the purity of the heroin that was coming to Australia suddenly went rapidly up. They took their regular hit and were dead within minutes. That’s the black market for you. And while there is a “war” against it, that’s what the drug industry will continue to be until the world boils. So what, eliminate the need for drugs entirely? Well, it seems to me that until you eliminate stress, poverty, violence, depression, corruption and a whole lot of other undesirable aspects of daily life that drive many to seek refuge in the only place they can find it, it ain’t gonna happen.

The War On Drugs was and will continue to be an epic failure, so I’m not sure why the people you mention would have a problem with it being discontinued, unless they have a penchant for wasting taxpayer money (the USA alone has spent over one trillion dollars on this “war” so far with nothing to show for it) and lining the pockets of drug cartels and militant groups. Drugs - be they medically/societally approved or otherwise - are here to stay. So the only way to combat the negative aspects of this are to look deeply into why people take them, and try to address those issues.