Chook

This. Hibberd is incredibly close to the end and simply can't back up multiple weeks in a row even though he is still good enough when he can get up for the game.

I think supporters are tired. We want to win so bad and it hasn't gone to plan so far. It didn't go to plan last year either. It went to plan the year before that but I for one sort of feel like the AFL world doesn't care because it was a COVID year. In times like these we look to the club itself to see how to act and feel as supporters, because the club drives the culture of the supporter base and the onfield results are the impetus for everything else that happens. Let me bring up what Simon Goodwin has said just yesterday in his press conference. It's the best answer we can get prior to Friday night: "Now there's a vibrancy that's really permeating through our building about what's in front of us and the opportunity that sits there. So I know there's a lot of noise on the outside about incidents and performance and anxiety and you know the what ifs. We're not in that space we're in the space of positivity, opportunity and looking about what's possible and that's exciting for us internally." It remains to be seen what happens on Friday night but excitement and positivity is something that has been missing from Melbourne hearts for a long time. We captured that feeling briefly and are losing it now after some challenges. It happens and we're very used to it. So let's recapture it. The players will help. They're really the only ones who matter here. Imagine 20 points up in the 3rd quarter on Friday. I'll be excited as I'm sure you will too. Only the players can bring us that feeling, and we'll need to ride the wave again when it comes.

I can see that perspective but I'm not buying into it. It's a weak loser mentality and I've got no interest in it.

This isn't about MFC. Aside from weakening Collingwood this means nothing to Melbourne directly. All it does is bare the AFL's priorities for those who were still unsure. This case will come back to bite the league though I think in coming years.

And there it is. Hope to see Collingwood on Grand Final day. Failing that, I hope to not spend another braincell on that mob till next year.

I sure hope they're paying it no attention. I'm on holidays, so I've got an excuse but no sane person should be giving this as much attention as we are.

They didn't even try to argue that he bumped. That's where this case is IMO - it's arguing that intent to bump doesn't mean yelling "I'm gonna bump you", it's acting in a way that results in a bump due to the nature of the action.

Sure. First and foremost being "jump off the ground with some sense of awareness and control of their body and surroundings." I learned to do that when I was 5.

And there it is. Blame Brayshaw.

Objection: speculation.

I'm afraid of this too. I think the AFL cooked this one arguing for the wrong thing. I think they should have argued that the moment he left his feet with that amount of force and that level of uncontrollability, there was no possible outcome other than what amounts to a bump. The 'spoil' component of this has got next to no bearing on it imo.

There was a decision to bump. The moment Maynard left the ground, there was no other outcome. Like when you throw a frisbee once it has been thrown there's no taking it back.

You're nearly there mate…who initiated the inevitable contact?

https://go.arena.im/live/fox-sports-australia/e34cFA9?v=2

The biomechanist seems to be proceeding on the basis Maynard didn't know Brayshaw was there. That's false at the least, and indicates recklessness at the best. He's smothering the ball from front on - he has to know where the kicker is and therefore has far longer than 400 milliseconds to react - his "reaction" is the smother - seconds worth of time to plan and execute.

This seems strange. It's a known human reflex to put out your arms and hands to break your fall. It's not a reflex to rotate your hip in the direction of the player you're hitting. That Maynard didn't put out his hands indicates some level of conscious reaction. In fact Maynard even admitted he saw Brayshaw and knew he was there.

It's Zita's schtick but it's a bit unprofessional IMO. Leave the wisecracks to people who aren't getting paid to report on it.

I hope Brayshaw's partner has held onto those flowers and that wine and leaves them on Maynard's doorstep along with a card reading: "My condolences for your unexpected unavailability for the finals"

This is a dumb line of reasoning from the AFL here IMO. To me the issue was it became a head-high bump when he failed to successfully smother and hit him high with his hip. Everything else is secondary.

Looking at the running upvotes/downvotes on each blog post there is a 3:1 Collingwood to Melbourne supporter ratio.

Maynard reckons he touched the ball with his hand, straight out of the Marchbank textbook (it touched Marchbank's forearm if anything, and Maynard wasn't within cooee). No chance he touched it.

Garbage.

Football act count: 1

For those interested, here's a link to the live blog being run by David Zita, for minute by minute updates: https://go.arena.im/live/fox-sports-australia/e34cFA9?v=2