Chook

It would take until the finals series of 2022* for me to get over not making a grand final this year. If we made the grand final but lost, it would take until we won one for me to get over that. * (featuring the Demons)

It's Friday night. The weekend is ahead and your footy team is safely into a Preliminary final. There's a game on tonight, two sides battling for the privilege of facing yours. You've had a hard week's work, and met a big deadline. You've just come home from a long run, and there's cold beer and warm chicken. You've just had a nice warm shower. Your playlist has shuffled its way through to "These Days" by Powderfinger. Life is ok sometimes.

If Jones doesn't get a farewell game, there's a very strong likelihood the following 10 players will have played more finals than Jones in his entire career by the end of this finals series: Brayshaw, Gawn, Harmes, McDonald, Neal-Bullen, Oliver, Petracca, Salem, Spargo, Viney

The only name on that list that jumps out at you as not long for this footy world is Tom McDonald (maybe Ben Brown too), and even that is based more on the past than the future. Good spot to be in.

Better hope you don't die between now and next year. Death by any cause would throw a spanner in the works I'd think. Give me the premiership this year in whatever capacity it comes.

Gonna stay at home.

Good ins for Geelong. They're old as the hills, but they've got a very good paper list. No idea who I want to win. Please just both kill each other.

Beautifully put. There will be lifelong Dees fans there no matter what, should we make it. I'll be happy for them, and I'll still get to see it on TV so I'm at peace with the way things turn out. Another positive is the hunger to win another one (surely, surely at the G this time) would be massive. No GF hangover I wouldn't have thought. Anyway I wonder who'll win the Semi?

I'm getting horrible flashbacks. High school was a lot of things, but mostly it was kids being better than you at stuff, and everyone being really loud all the time. Would not recommend.

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.