Chook

Whateley loves to think of himself as an "agenda setter". He leads every AFL 360 episode with a dreadfully high-and-mighty schpiel about whatever issue has got his goat that night, doling out suspensions and lobbying for rule changes left right and centre. The worst part is, everyone else does actually follow suit. At least Robbo is harmless - Gerard is the real insidious one because people actually listen to him.

Goal number 2 was the worst IMO. You have a young player in Rivers under pressure needing an outlet release option. It's Smith's turn to be that. What does Smith do? Moves towards Rivers but also behind him, making the handpass basically impossible or at the very least much harder to execute. Naturally, young Rivers coughs it up? Who to? Smith's man Cameron. Just awful. Hibberd would never do something so poor. EDIT: In the heat of the moment I thought it was Rivers' fault - a young player overawed by the situation. It was actually a settled Melbourne player who has been in the side all year going to where he had been conditioned to think a team mate would be. Smith let him down, because he doesn't know the system yet. Can't carry that in a big final.

Luke Jackson has massive teeth, loses both of his fronties. Angus Brayshaw's head is above average, copped heaps of head knocks. Jake Lever is all arms and legs, cops 2 knee reco's (Max Gawn too). Some people need a bit of additional padding, and in retrospect it's sometimes easy to see why.

Absolutely nothing against Weightman. He's going to be a star if he's not already. He's Charlie Spargo turned up to 11. Umpires needed to just hold their nerve today and let the players slog it out. It was a tough elimination final in the wet. Just get out and stay out.

This post got me thinking…what was the last flag won by a coach who is no longer coaching? Excluding Clarkson at Hawthorn for a moment (the man will be back in the chair somewhere in 2023 you would think), the last Premiership won by a sacked coach is…Collingwood in 2010 (Michael Malthouse). That's 11 years ago. Perhaps the 2 dynasties in that time (Hawthorn and Richmond) have skewed the numbers, but it just shows that if you win a premiership you get a heck of a lot of job security as a result. As you should.

So, basically the plot of Snakes on a Plane?

I think for logistical reasons they'll keep the pre-GF bye no matter what. You don't just move a massive event like the GF forward a week on the spur of the moment. However, they'd be dumb not to play the grand final as soon as they can. Imagine WA goes into lockdown after the week off.

Pretty pointless to put (NON MFC) in the title I would have thought Andy. 👹

Shattered the dream of smashing the Dons in a Grand Final is over.

You know you have a good leap when you jump so high your shoe falls off. Naughton is a ripper.

“I know Ed, he’s really dry. I’m not here to defend myself or Ed. Ed can speak for himself...he was one of my favourites.” That tells you all you need to know about Ross. An ounce of the class that Goodwin has.

Still kicking "winning goals" in finals when in reality the game was already won. Fight me but the Jones goal was the winning goal in 2018, not the Hannan goal.

Brisbane are not a bad side. Came up against a juggernaut last night.

That Weightman free kick for in the back on the boundary is just about the softest free I have ever seen. To pay that on the boundary in the wet in a final after the ball was disposed (i.e., the push didn't even affect the kick) is disgraceful.

I reckon the Dogs are cooked for the year. Just need a total mental reset and to go hard in the trade period to fix up their list gaps (most notably in the ruck). Bombers will win this, but can't see them getting further than that. (Secretly hoping they take all before them somehow and give us the chance to pull a reverse-2000-gf-smackdown on them.)

Good summation. Off-the-ball impact aside, McDonald could very easily have ended up with 2 important goals. He was on a red hot lead to ANB that missed him due to no fault of his own (ANB skill error), and had an easy shot at goal curtesy of Brown that he missed (plenty of easy misses across the board last night). Needs to lift, and hopefully will after another 2 weeks to get his body right, but there's no way he's going out of the side now we're deep into finals and actually look to finally have a decent forward structure that is capable of kicking goals. The McDonald vs Wied vs small debate is over for this year. It'll come up again next year no doubt, but it's over for now.

My hope is for an Essendon dream run that gets them into the grand final only to come up against a brick wall that in retrospect everyone agrees that no one was beating that year. Either that or for them to never win a final ever again. Either option works for me.

That is…horrifying.

He was amazing on the Rewatch. He is going to be an absolute monster when he is 23-24. Huge frame already and a fantastic tackler. Next-gen Viney, and absolutely built for finals.

Geelong. I greatly fear the way the Giants moved the ball against us last time we played.

Anyone who thinks Brayshaw is a poor player has no idea. This is by far his best season ever. 3rd in the Brownlow can get stuffed. Give me 15 years of this from any player and I'll be rapt.

I hear this game may be played in Perth despite us having the right to a home final. I think there's some health regulation behind the ruling. A bit unfair my fellow chaps, but I feel the Dees may take this in their stride all the same. Go number 9 (has he gotten smaller?)

"Watch it on tele XOXO — Mark P.S. Buy Aussie coal."

I have vague memories of 2000 and only truly got interested in footy in 2004, but since then this is clearly our best team. I'd be very interested to see what 2018 Melbourne in the middle of the 19 quarters of footy won in a row (with an average of like 18 goals a game) would be able to do against this side. I expect they'd kick about 7 goals and lose by 4, as every other side this year has.

Trac!!! We're in a prelim baby!!!