Rab D Nesbitt

Hi DJ. Having our three main draft picks become walk up starts in their first season is the big plus for me. Ed Langdon has been another so a big tick for the recruiters. Petracca coming of age and Viney reaping the benefits of an uninterrupted preseason have been pleasant surprises. Maysie has been immense and with him as our lynchpin in defence we now have the makings of a very stable back 6 or 7 in place. Bringing Burgess into the football department has been really beneficial as we've seen with the rehabilitation of Bennell and the good management of AvB. According to recent interviews he's also been attributed to psychological changes both on and off the field with Trac and May to name just two. One thing that disappoints is how in all the time it has taken us to get to this point a side like Brisbane have gone from a complete basket case to consistent premiership contenders and both the dogs and saints seem to have crept ahead of us, at least in the win / loss column. It's also a little soul destroying to see how Collingwood can have a finals position already sewn up despite having many of their key players missing for most of the season.

It's not a failed year if we don't make finals but we won't have met our objectives for the season should things not pan out for us this weekend. Considering we've had a dream run on the injury front compared to some I think we would all agree that 2020 will still have had some very disappointing aspects to it. Frustrating things that the football department seem to have been working on forever yet still haven't rectified.

Just let this week play out in bitesize chunks P2J. Forget about torturing yourself by watching tomorrow night and save that for Friday. Just check the scores the following morning like you would your lottery numbers. The odds of being pleasantly surprised will be similar. On Friday just will GWS to get over the line by hook or by crook. Cheer Toby Green if you find it necessary. Assuming the Giants come out on top then we have a window of time on Saturday where we are totally in control of our own destiny. Nothing that has happened in the preceding 17 weeks or in the following 48 hours will matter. We have one final opportunity to get the job done or go home. We get the chocolates but the numbers don't stack up ? We have one more go at the lottery.

If the Giants can beat St K by even a point then for the best part of 2 hours on Saturday afternoon our destiny is in our own hands as we'll know exactly how much we need to win by to overtake them and pilfer their finals berth. If that's 10 goals then so be it. We've done it 3 times this year already. If the Dogs win too then they can join us. If we fall short of what we need, be it by 1 point or 59, but still win our game then we're at least still in the mix until the Sunday evening. After losses to Sydney and Freo could we really have hoped for anything better going into round 18 ? No, I'm not expecting GC to do a number on Collingwood tomorrow night.

I think Clarko has just been visited by the ghost of Hawthorn yet to come.

Crows making a late charge for 17th place.

Grand Final day ? No. The closest I think is mine on the 18th.

My dad's birthday is on St Patrick's Day and his two brothers have theirs on St David's and St Andrew's Day. My brother beats them all though. He was born on 24 May 1972. The day Glasgow Rangers won the European Cup Winners Cup at the Nou Camp in Barcelona against Dynamo Moscow, 3-2. ❤️

Very much so Moonie. Or at the very least address the imbalance with something from the non fiction aisle.

It makes no less sense than having a day off for a horse race or a livestock meeting. If still having it this year means either a well earned holiday for those working in essential services or a higher hourly rate if they work then I’m not going to argue with it.

There’s a part of me that would prefer all of the games in the final round to be played at the same time, a la 1987.

OK peeps. Let's get this over with. I trust we're all sufficiently fortified enough to endure the next couple of hours. If not then you've only yourself to blame.

Likewise. It's been a depressing rainy day so this will be the cherry on the top no doubt.

Hi DD. Fraserburgh, or as we say in our local dialect, The Broch. Like a lot of small coastal towns it's seen better days but the beach is a cracker with a big sand dune the locals call Tiger Hill.

Nice one PF. The town at the tip of that big point a little to the right of Speyside is where I grew up.

Possibly. Or there's only so much mileage you can get out of Ed Langdon and Arnott's Shapes.

I'm in if we talk anything but footy. Unless it's just as an ice breaker. Seriously though, plenty of quality watering holes to choose from post covid depending on what part of town you intend descending on. Anything that doesn't have a big CUB sign out front is usually a good start.

Has there been a club media ban this week ? No podcast from Gawny or Talking Points interview from Benny G. Haven't noticed any radio interviews either.

Don't they have a ghost writer ?

Just watched a little bit of the current match. Cats playing their keepings off game but the Tigers are all over them when they miss a target. Not that I'm expecting GC to cause an upset against Collingwood but tonight's result will make it highly unlikely that Port Adelaide drop out of the top 2 places even with a loss to them in the last game which could be a problem for us if it comes down to that result.

Let's not forget that Tom tore the meniscus in one of his knees late last year, in the same game he kicked 6 in three quarters in the wet against Carlton. It was bad enough to require surgery apparently and end his season prematurely. If he's carrying just a little more weight than usual then the combination of the two could be causing him some issues.

Hi Sue. Yeah, it's a fair point you make. I think that the same mantra was being used publicly throughout the season in various pressers and not just pre season but that in itself doesn't mean that any concerns about Cairns couldn't have been raised privately with the AFL. Maybe they were. Personally I had concerns about the fact we had to shoehorn 3 games in over such a short time span and such a large geographical area. It doesn't take too much to uncover our shortcomings as a team unfortunately and that wouldn't have helped for sure.

Saying we'd play anyone anywhere at any time and there'd be no excuses for our season left little room for any u-turns when it came to the Cairns situation. At least publicly. It also wasn't the AFL's decision to have us fly in and out of Alice Springs on the same day. We all know the reasons whey we did but if we'd stayed in Maroochydore and played in Brisbane or the Gold Coast we could have flown up a day or two before the first of those games like Sydney did.

Northorn. I like it. I especially like that the president of one of those sides wants teams that can't pay their way relegated to a lower tier of the game. That same team may finish 17th and receive zero income from the Tasmanian government this year. Imagine it though. At the Camberwell Town Hall you'd have the sight of Don Scott tearing a velcro skid mark and wee stain from a North Melbourne guernsey.

I'd have no problems with this as long as we don't get stiffed on where and how often we have to travel interstate again. Perhaps an interim move towards a 34 game home and away season where everyone plays each other twice. Brisbane and GC should get no home games to help even things up from this year. Hawthorn & North could have so many games down in Tasmania that they may as well move down there permanently.