Chook

If I were a St Kilda fan, I don't think I would have survived the 2004-2010 period with zero premierships to show for it. It would quite literally have killed me. Just imagine we lost in 2021 and exited this period with no premierships. It would be intolerable.

Partially related, whenever I hear the name "Bailey Dale", I have to respond by saying in my most annoying voice "Daily Bale." It's a sickness.

Port Adelaide training this week:

Completely different intent but ended up as a dangerous bump that was lucky not to send him into next month. Butters was charging in to collect the ball but got him on the chin. Umpire had to have been blindsided because that is as clear a free as you'll see. Should be a week as well, and lucky not to have really collected him and been out for a month.

Expect to see Maynard show up then.

Exhaustion is relative. We were't exhausted compared to how you or I would be playing at AFL intensity week in week out, but compared to a desperate Brisbane who came off an easy win and had their bye already it was night and day. You only need to be off by a bit - we were off by a lot.

We just looked absolutely cooked, midfield banged up, forward line completely shot/disinterested/burned by poor delivery, and out on our feet. Lost a player after 10 minutes as well which didn't help. Bye comes at a very good time. Brissy will go on a tear over the next couple of months I think - they're still a quality side.

Oliver can't even handpass the ball - thinks he's playing rugby out there.

Rayner is destroying every young mid we're playing on him. Woey was responsible for him in that pack marking contest, but it doesn't matter which one he goes with he's too crafty and strong for them. Need to put an Oliver or ANB on him.

If we're tired after being up for a month, you have to wonder how the coaches didn't see it through the week. If we thought we'd just turn up then the players need to get their heads checked. This is last year's grand finalists we're playing.

Backline can hold their heads up high. Everyone else needs to reset after taking a good long look.

Absolutely punishing our lazy mids tonight. He is running off Windsor at will.

Worst quarter since round 1Q4. Tholstrup has been ok. Gawn has tapped everything to Lions players hitting the ball at pace. Viney, Oliver and Sparrow need to lift in a big way or we'll get flogged with the amount of ball going into Brisbane's forward line.

It's not just a lack of possessions for Oliver, it's his positioning too - we're practically 17 men out there with where he is placing himself.

Midfield losing every stoppage then kicking to leading forwards. Impossible for the defence to stop - need the midfield to step up and win some stoppages or we'll get flogged.

Brisbane happy to play a stoppage game and beat us from stoppage with Oliver providing nothing.

Clayton Oliver is practically a liability at stoppages so far tonight. Isn't winning the ball and isn't providing much defensively.

Plenty of passengers so far tonight. We're looking off the pace running both ways.

So much easier to slot young players into a high-performing side rather than throw them to the wolves all at once together out of necessity. May we never have to do that again.

A great Youtube channel (aptly named "The Mighty Demons") posted the highlights of Tommy McDonald's debut today, so I thought I'd dig up his debut thread and add the video to that. It was a great debut and displayed all the hallmarks of his game - excellent spoiling, deceptive closing speed and good game awareness to come off his man and support in the backline. His characteristic stiff but effective straight-line gait was on show as well. All that was missing from the player we'd come to enjoy in later years are the goals. I think he has been an underrated addition to our backline this year and really feel it's his best spot, as good as he was as a forward for us in the 2018-2023 period. Hoping for a good end to an underrated dee's career. One of my favourite players over the journey, and someone who could still be a huge benefit to us in the backline again in the twilight of his career.

He plays a lot shorter than Flower though. Flowers’s marking prowess looks to have been underrated based on what I’ve seen (too young to have seen him live).

I wonder how many more times we’ll all have to hear David King say the word “punish” in a Dees context before opposition fans cotton on to the narrative?

Just make it up and use the most obscure nicknames you can come up with so it becomes utterly impossible to understand who trained well or if anyone was even there.

I said it at the time and history is bearing it out: the introduction of video technology for umpiring decisions is antithetical to the human nature of sport and does nothing but open a can of worms that need not have been opened. We’d never use technology to replace a kick for goal, so why would we do it to replace a decision on the accuracy of the goal?

Personally I'm sick of podcasts where the host is constantly saying "we've got to move on" as soon as the conversation starts to get interesting. Podcasting is the perfect format for long-form conversation.