Chook

Too handball happy in the back half especially, and lucky the saints have missed a few easy shots - overall you can see we're trying to lower the eyes which is grea.

May is getting right back to his best, and Viney is picking up where he left off last week.

Can someone explain to me that strange strategy where Neal-Bullen kicked it in front of Brown to run onto? Is there a word for that?

The Eagles thin veneer of effort has cracked. Here's hoping the lions can run the table now and give us a 200-0 result.

That's just apples and oranges. 30 more accurate disposals in place of turnovers won't do much. 30 more goals in place of behinds will net multiple victories.

Well I mean every possession he gets now will be record breaking, so maybe he'll never shut up.

The dogs are having about a million shots from the pocket and nailing all of them, so we'd better be able to do the same on the same ground in 24 hours time.

I'm not bad, but good luck trying to lip read Clayton Oliver.

Petracca's definitely not going to die wondering if he can kick goals - he'll know he can't.

Fritsch wearing sneakers - no visible strapping or indication of injury aside from a bored/sour look on his face.

Brown to Melksham just showing their forward class. It's clearly between the ears with our players - they just have no forward craft and that's why we can't score.

Ben Brown's forward craft shines like a beacon in our forward line, even on a day like this.

Eff me dead what a kick to win the match!

Has definitely stolen Lynch's crown.

C'mon Swannies. Just a lazy 8 goals to none in the final quarter should do it if my maths is right...

I don't hate many people. I bet he's a lovely person in real life but I hate the way Tom Hawkins acts on the football field.

I reckon we've smashed them pretty much all game. Keep this up and I've no doubt we'll win.

You can't bury a club like Geelong in a preliminary final - they'll only get stronger. The only way to truly get the job done is to kill 'em on a cold winter night on their home deck, far from the spotlight of September, when there are no witnesses and nothing on the line but their own pride and dreams - crushed at last.

It would suck to be Tomlinson though in this situation. 1. Coaching panel decides our backline needs to be smaller to combat the changing (faster) ball movement of sides like Collingwood 2. Petty moves forward to allow (1) 3. Dees lose structure behind the ball without a third tall 4. Petty shows promise up forward before injury 5. Coaches bring Tomlinson in to address (3); bring in Smith to address (4) 6. Tomlinson proves the coaches are correct about (3) so they drop him and bring in the guy they removed in point (2) My opinion from day dot has been keep the three amigos in the backline together - glad the coaches have caught up. It's a long season so as long as we get there in the end, but it feels like shuffling deckchairs a bit.

The funny thing is that this timeslot usually gets the best commentator team, usually led by Huddo who by all rights should have Brian Taylor's job.

Anyone else hear the Richmond Nuffie 1mm from the crowd mic? I actually like it!

No.

I pick the Hibberd 1-on-1 win, break away pace (at 31 or whatever he is, thank you very much), kick to Smith, kick to a contest (Roo holding free kick), wheel and Grundy mark + goal. 2nd is any of the numerous Jack Viney clearances.

Having seen this footage, I've changed my opinion and am 100% ok with the Sicily suspension, as I am with all the others this round. I'd like to see some form of punishment or at least training mandated on these types of things introduced. Something like this: 1. Protecting yourself when heading into a contest; if the MRO finds a player guilty of a suspendible offence and the player who was infringed upon didn't show best-practice care to himself (insert definition of that here), then the infringed-upon player should also be held to account via retraining or even fines/suspension (I think some kind of mandatory 3rd party training on self-protection and suspended 1 match ban not impacting Brownlow elegibility) as a disincentive and/or retraining opportunity for them to avoid repeating the same behaviour in future

That Sicily decision is honestly the absolute worst I've seen by a country mile, but the problem with these types of "stamp-outs" is they start out reasonable and then become more and more draconian through out the years until there's a new watershed moment and everything else is judged on that. I can recall feeling similarly shocked 20 years ago for bumps, and look where we are now - players don't bump. I think we're all kidding ourselves if we think the AFL is doing any of this for the good of the game. It's all an attempt to avoid potential litigation in future. If after every single tackle/bump injury they suspend the bloke who did it, they can always refer back in the inevitable class action and say "look, we suspended the player that caused the injury - what more do you want from us?"