Mel Bourne

On a good day we’d beat them. On a bad day they’d beat us. To suggest the bulldogs are a “class” (whatever that means) above the rest of the competition is hysterical hyperbole. Or perhaps you didn’t see them play Richmond?

About to lose top of the ladder ?. Hopefully just briefly.

Over on the Reddit AFL forum, Carlton fans are fuming at the news today that Patrick Cripps has been playing up to his neck in painkillers due to a fractured back which he’s been nursing throughout the entire season. Not sure how a story like this going public actually affects the club’s decisions, but is it possible they will succumb to the scorn of their fans, many of whom are wondering why the club is risking serious long term injury to its biggest star, in a year where such a risk just isn’t worth it.

Yokozuna knows what’s up.

What “atrocious errors” are you talking about? I watched the game twice, and saw nothing from him that could be described as such. The only player who made “atrocious” errors was Clayton Oliver, who on two occasions kicked horribly from free kicks and caused a turnover each time. Having said that, he was also incredibly good in many other ways. But people need to stop ragging on Harmes. It was his first game back after injury, and he played bloody well. Disagree? Watch the game again, but this time without the obvious prejudice you brought with you the first time.

We all seemed to watch different games, but I agree with SPC. I thought Harmes looked good from the stands, then after just watching on replay, am still convinced that he was a much more solid contributor than the heat he’s drawing on Demonland would suggest. “Turnovers” are a misleading statistic. There are turnovers that are the result of high-traffic, high-pressure situations where the ball is frantically changing owners, and then there are turnovers that are the results of brain-fades or poor disposal. Harmes’ were safely in the camp of the former, whereas if we’re going to really get stuck into turnovers, Petty, Jordon and Clarry were all guilty of the latter in the first half. But what’s so great about the team right now is most of the supporter’s criticism of players is fairly pernickety in the scheme of things. It’s just such a refreshing feeling not becoming infuriated by low-grade efforts, lack of discipline and generally crap decision making from any of our players. I hope it stays that way for a while! He had to blow a couple of cobwebs out the other night, but Harmes is a welcome return to this exciting team for my money.

I had to tell the four young-ish Dees “supporters” next to me to ease up on the screams of “f$&king useless” when one of our boys didn’t perform to their unusually-high standards. They were totally in the dark about most of our players’ names. Really infuriating and embarrassing, Johnny Come Lately, bandwagon twats. Gotta say, feels strangely good to have fair weather supporters like this again. Means the weather is fair! Ed Langdon just keeps killing it. Has he played a dud game since joining our club? Jordon is quietly building something special. Spargo just gives and gives. TMac lifted to new levels. Harmes played a great first game back. Oliver was crucial to the win and does so many great things, but my god his field-kicking is easily the worst in the team. Kozzie frustrated me a little tonight. Needs to just find a little composure (though I accept a lot of his sublime moments come from throwing composure out the window). Jackson was also tremendous. Gawny had a bit of a shocker, but he’ll bounce back in no time. Great to see us beat a quality side with Fritsch, Gawn, Lever and even Trac having off nights. And just brilliant knowing we’ll play four quarters now. Go the bloody Dees!

Well, I just hope everyone plays well. Even those two seemingly really unpopular guys.

Regardless of whether it’s a good idea or not, this ain’t the week to do it.

Since you’re covering some proper depth in this list, do you think Lockhart will come through this year?

Fine line between being passionate and being a turkey. And yeah, you see people cross that line often at games.

Saying things like “diluting trade value” is horribly disrespectful. Why should somebody play well for the team you support if that’s all you’re going to reduce their contribution to on an off day?

Not a pretty win, but I’ll take it. Some really rubbish posting going on in the match day thread. Some folks need to put their phones away during the game and have their meltdowns in private.

Oh do cram it.

I can’t really see him worrying about the wording. Surely this possibility would have been flagged to him. It’s understood he needs the rest more than Melksham does. And Melksham needs to lift!

Yeah I think he’d be less upset about having a rest than a lot of the posters here.

This “Melb” you speak of doesn’t exist anymore.

Last year a friend from England was staying at our house. I had 360 on the TV, and after a few minutes she asked me in all sincerity if “the gentleman on the show was part of an inclusiveness policy”.

I mean, it’s not like there’s a stipulation to post only verified information here.

He will be if we win the flag.

Don’t underestimate what our new coaches are capable of. Seeing so many players such as Hunt, ANB, Salem, Spargo, Tmac and Tomlinson lift the way they have this year, should tell you that Harmes is not to be written off. And if he doesn’t lift? Well he doesn’t get a game. This is another thrilling aspect to this season; that players are fighting harder than ever to earn their spots.

I really don’t get the negative vibes towards Spargo.

A bigger problem is that a lot of people who wouldn’t fairly be described as stupid often fall prey to this too.

One has to be pretty vigilant taking in news these days, unfortunately. The term “false-flagging” refers to media organisations concocting outrage that centres around supposed “debates” that in actuality, really aren’t occurring in any real sense. Recently Ch 9 ran a story about how the Golden Gaytime was being targeted for a re-naming by the LBGTQ community. Turns out it was just somebody who started a petition and managed to get a few hundred idiots to sign it, but that didn’t stop Ch 9 hyping it to the point that it’s Facebook page was full of furious and, worst of all, hateful language from it’s viewers/readers towards a community that never even picked the fight in the first place. In reality , the overwhelming majority of the gay community are either genuinely uninterested in the issue (there are bigger societal issues they face than this) or wholeheartedly embrace the name. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. These media companies know this, but rather than searching out genuine issues with that difficult, draining and meddlesome stuff called “journalism”, many have discovered it’s just so much easy to create the wheel AND the grease out of thin air. It gets people interested in their crappy product just as effectively as any journalism could, at a quarter of the price. The downside? A society being further divided by skewed impressions of the world they live in. So next time you see an article saying “they bloody want to change the name of Smarties because it’s not inclusive of stupid people” ask yourself “Is this real?” The answer is invariably “no” or “not really”. And sure there are occasionally very worthy examples where a call for social change is very loud and absolutely warranted, but it’s important to know how to differentiate and not conflate these things. The narrative that so much of our media pushes of “outraged, whingy, lefty snowflakes” is a dangerous one, because it’s purpose is to dilute other more crucial progressive thought. Anyway, sorry for the essay. Got on a roll. I’m of to Perisher Smiggins for a cognac.