Chook

I think our fitness is just absolutely stuffed, leading to terrible disposal due to fatigue from already poor disposal players. Petty, Oliver, and now Petracca have been cruelled by injury and will need a full preseason to return to something like their best. On top of that, our gameplan relies on good disposal which we don't have, and our defence has finally begun to wilt under the intense pressure of an unfit midfield and noncompetitive forward line. Finals would be a good result, but we're simply making up the numbers if we get there.

Gerard's sentiments are valid, but his failure to apply any responsibility on the individual is so typical of the modern journalist. Petracca shares some significant responsibility here, and his motivations would be interesting to know. It would reveal a lot about him and AFL culture. Why did he choose to play on? Did he want to prove himself? Did he want to win the game off his own boot? Did he fear looking like he was soft? Was he simply trusting the medicos to pull him out of the game if they felt he was unfit to play?

Yeah finally managed to put on a bit of weight which is nice. Another preseason and he'll be ready to roll.

I've potted Max over his part in the Grundy experiment failing. I think we give him a pass for being a generally dodgy forward. A lot of our problems would be solved if he'd stepped up in that area and allowed Grundy to be our main ruck.

Yes you did. Now leave me alone.

Fair play. I thought we'd lost our last two against them. You might be remembering a different Chook though, as I don't usually do much mocking of people. You're the one being rude here.

We'd lost the past two, quite convincingly. Never let facts blah blah.

Well I can't say I expected that margin, but I will say I tipped it.

The days of domination are over.

Good on Harley Reid for brining the kind of competitiveness that wins matches. Not to dredge up the past, but imagine Jack Watts had his desire to win.

I use Sensodyne. It helps stop me from getting too sensitive.

We're Freo's bunnies, so I don't have much hope for a win in this match. Funnily enough I'm glad we're not playing them at the G. They absolutely have the wood over us there.

While watching this I was thinking "bet he's gonna say something about being a goal kicking defender" or some rubbish, and yep I wasn't far off. Jenkins' opinions aren't worth the time of day, though at least he follows that old adage about a stopped clock.

Sidebottom and Pendlebury will do that to a team's average age.

You hate to see an Australian football player injured.

I assume he meant to say fruiton - a bed made out of fruit, which I assume he sleeps on at night because that's just the kind of thing I'd expect a guy like him to do.

Looks like a high shepard. However the ball was loose, so no excuse for him not to go for the ball. Plus he clearly got him high with severe impact.

Could be good for him. He has a pretty good leap, he's competitive, and has a tendancy to drift out of games so this will help keep him involved. Hope his foot doesn't blow up though obviously.

My post-loss routine:

Threw the game away in the first quarter unfortunately. Lots of umpiring decisions felt wrong to me, but you can't be 0-30 at quarter time. Petracca immense.

Jeez, what a bad half of footy. Absolutely no forward method whatsoever, and forward pressure nonexistent. On top of that we're losing clearance and contest, so the ball is just constantly in Carlton hands.

We don't look like scoring tonight. We're trying to run the ball down the ground through handball and aren't slick enough. The last disposal going inside 50 is deplorable and Carlton can then get us on the counter. Losing a lot of contested ball as well, which isn't what we would have wanted vs Carlton.

Can't pull something out of the box if you're in the box yourself.

I reckon we'll be fine on the 5 day break. I think the real hard game is the one after the 5 day break. Ever pulled an all-nighter? It can be done and you often get into a zone. Then you're wrecked the next day. I'm more worried about next week after these two big games.

So that's why you're so keen to avoid litigation as a result of things posted on this site!