Swooper1987

He did. After he was discriminated out of Carlton when the trainers refused to rub him down because of the colour of his skin, among other things.

Horrible stuff. Just appalling if substantiated.

We beat them twice in 3 games, 3 times for the season and our closest final was a 6 goal victory. It was the most comprehensive premiership since 2007. Gastro or not, they were never beating us that night.

Congratulations to Cripps. He's a worthy medallist, just as Miller, Oliver, Neale et al would've been. He's been an excellent player for a long time. I watched Gawn get ripped off in 2018, when he was clearly the best player in the comp (AFLCA winner) and he didn't even poll the most votes in his team - Brayshaw 3rd and Gawn 4th. We are very fortunate to have so many outstanding players at the same time who have combined to give us one flag and hopefully one or two more still to come. It's a team game and there's one medal every Brownlow winner would trade it for, including Cripps. Oliver, Petracca and Gawn and 20 of their mates already have one of those.

Not a vote for May or Fritsch. Bizarre

Topped the club vote by the look of it. Think we just pipped Geelong by a couple. Clarry polled in 12 games but not enough best ons unfortunately.

Fortunately for Clarry he plays in the same team as Gawn and Petracca; unfortunately that will cost him a Brownlow. But you wouldn't trade that premiership medal for anything.

I'm not into conspiracy theories as a rule but I am beginning to believe there is a real dislike of Clayton from other players. The last two years he didn't get near the MVP despite winning the AFLCA award in both years. Blokes like Pendlebury come out and blacken his name with his "elbow into the throat" bs. Just seems like there is a bit more going on here.

Berry cleared.

Freo, was on Fox "On The Couch". The panel chuckled and said "Blicavs is a role player - you'd pay a million a year for a role player".

Jon Ralph just spoke about Jackson. He said the club already knows and possibly announced as late as next week. Apparently has been promised a hybrid Blicavs style role which appeals to him.

I'd agree except that Petty can play forward but has been anchored to the back six all year when we were crying out for a decent tall forward. Goodwin's lack of imagination was a positive in 2021 but an albatross around our necks this year.

Not according to the MFC app. And he was drafted as a utility who has played both defence and attack. He was a key defender only last season for the WA national championships. Not disputing he looks an effective forward. Just raising the possibility he could be more than that. I do laugh though at the overreaction - lunacy. Might even be creativity. Something that's probably been a bit lacking this season. And a tall utility is a great asset to have. https://www.afl.com.au/news/672918/nab-afl-u19-champs-finn-gorringe-jacob-van-rooyen-strong-as-western-australia-demolishes-south-australia https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1033254/drafted-demons-land-jacob-van-rooyen-with-pick-no19

Possibly, however the match committee no doubt realised we had Tomlinson as tall cover in defence and our weakness in the seniors was our forward line. Watch this space, I reckon.

Van Rooyen was a very good defender in underage competitions. Perhaps he is the answer to releasing Petty forward. JVR, May, Lever as the back three and Petty forward. That gives us flexibility to switch those two around as required. JVR may well be that very rare breed of key position utility for those old enough to remember in the Terry Daniher/Ross Glendinning mould. At 193 cm he's a little shorter than Petty but he reads the play well and I'd imagine he'd play the intercept game pretty well.

Since 2011 when Geelong won the flag, the record of reigning premiers is as follows: 2012 - Geelong loses elimination final after finishing 6th in H&A 2013 - Sydney loses prelim after finishing 4th in H&A 2014 - Hawthorn wins flag 2015 - Hawthorn wins flag 2016 - Hawthorn loses semi final after finishing 3rd in H&A (straight sets) 2017 - Western Bulldogs finish 10th - 11 wins 2018 - Richmond loses prelim after finishing 1st in H&A. 2019 - West Coast loses semi final after finishing 5th in H&A 2020 - Richmond wins flag 2021 - Richmond finishes 12th - 9.5 wins 2022 - Melbourne loses semi after finishing 2nd H&A Nobody has come runner up the year after winning a flag in this period; two sides have made a prelim and lost; three have bowed out at the semi final stage; one in the first week and two didn't qualify to defend. Our performance was about the "average" for a defending premier over this period. A very hard draw, untimely injuries to important players and perhaps a lack of imagination (or too much faith) from the coaches box all contributed to the seasons result, and should provide some confidence that we will be in the frame again next year.

Whateley on AFL 360 said in his segment with Goodwin and Hardwick that the narrative around Jackson to the west has changed recently. Goodwin maintained the give him all the time he needs line. I reckon it's likely he stays.

N55 row C. Took about 15 minutes. Happy days!

Agree, especially McLean.

Thanks John, agree entirely. They cost us more than anything else on the night.

3 50 metre penalties resulting directly in 3 goals equals 18 points. We lost by 22. I'd say that cost us more than anything. Of course we all respect Sydney but to be honest I have no idea why you'd be disappointed or otherwise in what I think or don't think about Sydney.

Just get there everyone who can. We got 90k crowds to our first two finals in 2018 and I'm sure it made a difference. You never know when we'll play our next one.

However, despite that, we gave away three goals through lack of discipline and another couple with "unforced" errors if such a thing truly exists in finals. And there is the game. I agree that the Swans performance was the best of the first week though.

This narrative that pressure is our kryptonite is laughable. Pressure is every teams biggest weakness. The teams that apply the most defensive pressure always keep themselves in games and give themselves a chance to win. It's what got the Swans their flag in 2005 and it's Roos DNA. Our forward 50 pressure on Friday night was down compared to Sydney's - especially our forward 50 tackle count but we still applied significant pressure over the night. Our lack of composure with the ball when the pressure wasn't there was our biggest worry, as well as a lack of discipline that saw us cough up 3 50m penalties all resulting in goals. In a three and a half goal game, that's a substantial headstart we gave them before pressure even became a factor.

Not certain how easy they are doing it. Our losses to Collingwood and Freo in the run of three were largely injury/personnel based. Injuries in game had an enormous impact - May, Petty, Gawn, Petracca. Then the second loss to Collingwood could genuinely have gone either way, similar to our first loss to Sydney, again without May. Lack of discipline cost us more than anything on Friday night. I reckon those sides played at their best to beat us - that's not easy to do every game.