Smokey

The end score is obviously unkind and forgettable, but take a deep breath everyone. We won inside 50s and clearances. That is an improvement. Guys like Clarry and Max and Viney are responding and getting back to their normal outputs. Now we just need T Mac to rediscover some form and we should start resembling ourselves again. There are probably a few more to mention but I reckon t macs current form is hurting us the most right now as we rely on him for a lot in the forward 50. Most here conceded that we had a very interrupted pre season with many surgeries, and far shorter than we’ve been used to in over a decade to boot. Well it’s only round 2 and this is still obviously a huge factor from what I’m seeing. Again, take a deep breath. I think we’ll be fine and the panic stations some have arrived at already mostly reflects your lack of mental resilience more than anything else. Many here comment on how the boys will handle the expectation that’s been put on us this year, well most of you are failing that same test right now by throwing your toys out of the cot after 2 games.

Finally an intelligent and considered observation. And to all you armchair personal trainers commenting on his weight, try to understand that manipulating ones body mass can be incredibly more difficult for some. Conversely, look at Jeffy - he spends just as much time in the gym as anyone else in the team and has arms like toothpicks. Petracca wasn’t even our worst and some of you ought to be ashamed for the way you are talking about a fellow human right now. Bunch of bloody keyboard warriors, love to see you lot go down to training this week and share these comments with him in person.

Season? Spare me the drama mate it’s round 2

And when that happens, people will complain about bad entries.

The intensity is back. Very pleasing

In retrospect, I’m Strangely feeling far more confident today than last week. I thought I was confident last week but on reflection I don’t think I was. Dees by a couple of goals. Viney to respond. T Mac to respond. May to wipe that stupid effing face Hawkins does after he kicks a goal clean off. Smokey to drink too many beers again.

how bout we target a flag this year

Great read. Good on ya Kade, all the best tomorrow - I have very high hopes!!

I'm with the others. I think this has been covered enough. Don't get sucked in to the outrage porn.

I'll give the boys the benefit of the doubt on this one and give them the chance to respond against Geelong before labeling them soft, which they absolutely were on all fronts in round 1. Hawkins or Danger in a bodybaq is my pass mark ?

I can't stand Cornes, he is an absolute idiot of the highest order. Which is why its so painful to say he is absolutely on the money here. For all our contested ball winning "bulls" not a single bloke flew the flag for Gawn and people here should be far more concerned with that than they currently are. It is simply disgraceful that we didn't fight back for Gawny, there really is no excuse. Ugh, time for a shower.

Understand your reservations, but you shouldn't confuse the fact some people choose to have a positive outlook with it being "blind faith". You'll find no one here actually has blind faith really, some (including myself), prefer to focus on the positives more than the negatives. In my case, because it simply makes the experience of following a football team more enjoyable and instead of looking to each game with anxiety, I look to each with excitement. I am a strong believer that happiness is a choice. It doesn't mean I or others have "blind faith" and are ignorant to our issues, we just make different choices. I feel this needs to be understood better on DL.

Can you explain what you mean when you say drinking your own bathwater then? Because my understanding of the meaning of this is that it includes a player becoming arrogant in terms of their own abilities, which in turn breeds complacency, which in turn could lead to poor performance on the field. That's generally the context in which most commentators are speaking to when it is mentioned. Is your take on this different? Genuinely interested here because I seriously hate this term being thrown around without justification and have spoken of it before here.

Where we will not see eye to eye on this is the insistence of using hypothetical scenarios in the assessment of any player. Yes, anything is possible - Clarry could succumb to the media hype and become arrogant. He could also get hit by a tram and break both legs, or slip into a deep depression after his missus leaves him for a 65 year old super yacht owner with a horrific spray tan. Hypothetical's in this scenario serve no purpose other than generating unnecessary hysteria and anxiousness which frankly, we simply do not need.

Ok i'll approach this differently. What evidence have you based this opinion that Clarry is in danger of drinking his own bathwater? Keep in mind, poor performance is only one of the metrics at play here. He would also have to display a level of outward arrogance with relation to his own abilities to meet the category for the idiom you have chosen to use here. I find his personality, based off observing his media appearances to date, to be very humble and frankly completely at odds with what you are suggesting.

@La Dee-vina Comedia Fair call. I'm just tired of hearing every under-performing player being labelled as "drinking their own bathwater". It is possible that players can have bad games without being full of themselves you know ...

I do indeed. The term "drinking your own bathwater" would imply that a player, in this example Clarry, has openly praised his or the teams own abilities and is now failing to meet that. The validation of information that has been put out by an individual with regard to oneself and the subsequent failure to meet the standards portrayed. Please share with me any evidence of this. I find our players to be pretty humble when it comes to media appearances and generally say the right thing. It's only the media and commentators pumping us up, and our players are constantly bombarded with conversations about expectations this year and I honestly feel that they respond to that pretty respectfully. Unless I'm missing the interview where Clarry came out and said "I'll win a Brownlow and we won't drop a single game this year", I feel like people don't understand what this idiom actually means and are not applying it correctly. Clarry in my view does the opposite. He is highly humble and has shown that he continues to work harder and harder every year. Suggesting he is in danger of drinking his own bathwater is way off the mark in my opinion.

Do I have to respect others rights to have differing views? Of course. Do I have to accept these views as fact? Absolutely not. You can't suggest one person has the right to say what they feel but tell another he cannot because it is at odds with someone else's view. For those playing at home, this is a good example of an oxymoron. Getting back on track, I wouldn't take issue with whats being said here is I felt it was "realistic". I consider myself a realist in saying that losing in round 1 is not the end of the world, there were a number of factors which clearly contributed to it, it's a long season and lets pump the brakes a bit until we have a decent data set to analyse. What is being said here can only be viewed as hysterical at this point, not the collected thoughts of a bunch of "realists" who appreciate the significant contributing factors to why we would have a slow start to the year. Don't like my opinions which are at odds with others? Take a leaf out of your own book and stop reading them then ...

Getting pretty sick of people claiming that certain players are "drinking their own bathwater" after having an average game or two. Stop repeating the one liners you hear in the media and instead try to have an original thought without being influenced by the highly limited collective IQ of fox footy personnel. Unless you have a signed photo of the player in question which states "I am gods gift to footy and no longer need to try", then spare us the recycled fox footy one-liners you unimaginative parrots. The most ironic thing is that people that are dull enough to quote people like Robbo is that they have probably never invested themselves in anything anywhere near what these young men do week in week out. If you can't handle a round 1 loss in a 23 round season after a disruptive pre season without melting down online in a poorly constructed forum post, then I'm sorry but you are likely suited better to following competitive knitting or something. Again ironic - you would demand these young men have the fortitude to do what it takes week in week out to be a professional athlete in a top 4 AFL team, yet throw your toys out of the cot like an entitled 2 year old after a loss in round 1. Show at least a fraction of the mental toughness you demand from the team or sit the hell down.

Sure, I encourage it. I live by the sword.

Wow wee the round 1 over reaction is even more crazy than I expected haha. Its 1 game. We had a short off season full of surgeries. The team looks under done across the park. I am compiling a list of some of the most outrageous comments after the round 1 loss and will crack them out at round 23 and we can vote on the best ones.

Jones to the twos

Thanks for sharing. Yep, a d***head. Ban him from the G.

Agree. But we should be thankful this is what we have been reduced to complain about

I'll say it again, hypotheticals don't outrage me. The bloke was just fine afterwards, no need to cry for his family over what could have happened because it didn't. The fact he insisted police make no further inquiries suggests to me he may have provoked it and as always, the short video filmed on a phone captures 20% of the incident and none of the context. Facts are all I'm interested before I form an opinion on something and call for witches to be burned at the stake, that's actually all I'm trying to say here. Take it or leave it mate.