Bring-Back-Powell

Surely we can put the fanciful idea of a month long hub in Perth to bed. You could have Port, Geelong, Sydney and Brisbane hosting week 1 finals. I know nothing is fair in this pandemic, but that’s genuinely unfair for those teams who have the right to host a final.

What a tremendous win from the Dons and Peter Wright.

15 minutes into the 1st and all the marginal umpiring calls have gone the Dogs way.

McGowan and his chief health officer are making a significant announcement any moment according to the Age's live COVID update. Might not be anything of note, but still interesting to read the word 'significant' https://www.theage.com.au/national/australia-covid-live-updates-nsw-records-262-new-case-and-one-death-as-queensland-lockdown-lifts-victoria-records-11-new-cases-20210807-p58gpx.html

Damien Barrett on the footy show isn’t a massive subscriber to the Perth finals hub and is quietly confident that finals will be played in Melbourne aside from the grand final. I would rather a home final at the MCG in front of nobody rather than giving up a footballing advantage in Perth. And further to that, clubs don’t get the gate proceeds in finals. Fingers crossed we can somehow get rid of this outbreak and perhaps see our boys live in an MCG semi or prelim final.

Would this delta variant have come into Australia if we closed our borders on all but the double dosed returnee Australians who had to prove that they did 28 days (yes 28, not 14) supervised quarantine prior to departure. All but the absolute triple confirmed negative tested returnee Australian should have been allowed back into our country. Some very tough decisions perhaps could’ve been made in order to prevent where we are today.

I don’t want him but if he doesn’t play in round 10, we’re top of the ladder.

Except in WA and that state is going to reap the rewards next month. Now I finally understand why the people of Western Australia love Mark McGowan and why he’s segregated his state from the rest of the country.

Oh well at least he can’t kick a goal after the siren against us again.

Giants will hang on.

Just remember ladies and gentlemen, history says Geelong most likely ain’t winning a flag on a 12-0 run.

Might have a bit of a problem here fellas. Only 15 pts down and GWS off a 5 day break.

I think you’ll get your wish. Can’t see a VIC crowd by 21 August. If the AFL make the dreaded Perth September decision, the Geel V Dees game could even be at Perth’s Optus Stadium.

Love watching Toby Greene when he’s on song (except against us!)

I think Geelong are more than happy to lose a late season game. History says you’re most likely not going 12-0 to win a flag.

If Geelong lose tonight, they’ll win the flag. Lock it in.

Fair comment. It's just that if Sydney are winning the flag this year they're probably going to have to go 12-0 (from round 16 onwards) which is extremely rare in not just the AFL but in all sports. Going full pelt for the entirety of July and August isn't a recipe for success. I'm hoping some patchy form by the Dees in June/July might re-ignite some hunger, which was on show for most of last week.

Our commitment to our members is to continue to investigate ways to get as many of you back to the footy as safely as possible, as soon as possible. We have a team working closely with the state governments and health officials on revised plans leading into the finals and beyond - AFL Membership Department Lip service from the AFL.

That will be worth a giggle seeing Carlton in the 8, for 5 minutes.

Sydney are due a loss after 5 straight wins. They wouldn't admit it but they could probably do with a late season slip up. Otherwise they'll need to go 12-0 if they want the flag. That hasn't happened in years.

Dogs and Geelong are damn good teams this year so we may fall short regardless.

Fair point. That would be extremely unlucky but a risk you would have to accept. If you were caught up in VIC just after arriving in Perth, you'd probably look at attending the game and then hand yourself into jail after you've seen the boys do their victory lap.

If VIC somehow goes a month without community transmission by mid September, WA should open their borders to VIC with unrestricted travel. That would be consistent with what McGowan did in early July.

With all the doom and gloom over the couple of days, I'm quite happy to take a gallant prelim loss and then take the next step into a 2022 grand final, when things are back to normal. We've waited this long, what's another year. I hope the AFL takes the border issue into strong consideration and therefore considers Adelaide. It's only about 5,000 less capacity than Perth anyway.

I've got no issue with the grand final being played in Perth so long as Victorians can fly over for it and not have to quarantine for 14 days. WA opened their borders to VIC on 9 July which was 29 days after VIC came out of lock down 4. For WA to open their borders to VIC, we'd essentially have to be out of lock down on 13 August and not have any community transmission until GF day. It's a tough but not impossible task. Conversely, SA opened their border to greater Melbourne 12 days after their lock down 4.