Wodjathefirst

I sincerely hope you are right with your observations 🤞

….. and all the more reason to rock up to the game and support our team (for those of us that can, so excusing the elderly , immune compromised, young kids - night games and other legitimate excuses etc). I know I’m most likely going to put my head on the chopping block but I feel the only let down for me in this incredible journey this year is our crowd (lack of) turning up to games. Maybe we are still scared by the past, maybe we do have a lot of ‘fair feather’ supporters that will only come out of their shell if we make the finals and in the meantime are good at coming up with all sorts of excuses as to why they can’t/ won’t attend eg it’s a Sunday arvo game or public transport concerns- (I bet that won’t be a issue for you come finals). Just maybe the general perception that other teams supporters have of us is pretty much spot on. We have room to improve! For years I dreamed of the mighty Dees coming good and dominating with huge crowds. First part, tick, second part - still waiting. Maybe I am a little bit jealous of all the supporters that ‘I love to hate’ that other Victorian clubs have that seem to be more on board with their team than what we appear to be. Finally, please don’t see this post as being antagonist, but rather, trying to encourage. I’m not here to say you should stop watching footy on Kayo if that is what you really prefer to do, perhaps just suggesting that if you go / encourage others to go watch the game live you may enjoy it even more. Word of warning- it could become contagious!

Totally agree with everything you said. I just wonder what the other umpires are doing at times. Clary aside, it just creates a blight on the game as a whole.

Totally agree. There is absolutely no need to put the pedal to the metal at this time of the year, that will happen later. Objective now is simple, try and win as many games as possible during the season proper. It pleases me greatly that we have the ability to change up gears when required.

Agree, for those of us that can go games, it’s about time we step up and go support our players

Workmanlike performance again. Expect that we will need to step up a gear or two next week against the Saints….. and we will!

As Goodwin and the board have said consistently for a while now, the club is planning for sustained success going forward. I believe them! I’m just just taking a wild guess here, but I presume this would involve developing strategies to retain as many key players and coaching staff as is reasonably possible, going forward. What evidence is out there about how Yze has not been appreciated? Am I missing something here? I’m not wanting to take sides, I just want to know. If it is true, that would be both sad and concerning. When I watched Yze doing a press conference earlier, I actually felt very comfortable and indeed proud about how he and the club were handling the covid challenge. Is this just me? I believe that the team spirit, values and respect which is embodied in the club played an enormous part in all players signing back up at the end of last year. I also hope that it holds true for the coaching and indeed the board going forward.Time of course will tell. There is potentially some very exciting things that may happen over the next few years. I’m certainly want to be part of that. I am well and truly over feeling miserable as I did for fifty odd years prior to what is happening right now. I’m enjoying every minute!

We have a great football team with a great support team behind the great team. Simple as that. GO DEES

…..or another three or four more years!

You are only as good as the weakest link in the team. Not really concerned all that much at all. The team behind the team look rock solid to me.

Going to the footy always seems to be so much more fun when your team wins and we outnumber and make more noise than the opposition. So for all those of you who can, please rock up to our games so I can have some more fun. And keep in mind, our purple patch will not last forever. May only go for another four or five years. 😉 Enjoy it while you can.

Unbelievable! I share your pain. In 1964 I was 5 years old and my brother was given a Melbourne footy jumper and I got a Hawthorn jumper. (We were kids from immigrant parents and my mum bought jumpers that had no white in it - easier to keep clean!). The Dees won the flag that year of course, my brother was happy as was the kid next door (he barracked for Melbourne). I refused to wear the Hawthorn jumper from that day on and hopped on the ‘gravy train’, so I thought. One could say it was a bad career move. We all know what happened to the Dees and I think Hawthorn snagged 12 flags since. As I got older I at times thought I may never see us win a flag. Didn’t help much as the league expanded from 12 to 18 teams. It seams the odds were always against us. All I can say now is, it was worth waiting for. GO DEES!!

I just hope the Dee’s are hungry enough to eat the crotch out of the low flying hawks. GO DEES. Eat ‘em alive!

Not to mention that we had eight 50 metres for dissent which resulted in four goals, but even worse, the way their supporters reacted at the final siren- it was like they thought they won the GF. Sure, we may drop a few in the season proper, but it must not be against Carlton!

Living the dream 😊

I think my passion for hating other teams revolves more around their supporters. So in no particular order. First tier hate list- Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon, Richmond West Coat, Port - all very self explanatory GWS, ( this being an exception- call it the Toby Greene factor - do they have supporters?) Second tier- Hawthorn , Geelong, Adelaide, Tolerate - Footscray (Could be soon due for a promotion to second tier hate list), Brisbane, Sydney, Gold Coast, St Kilda (used to feel sorry for) Feel Sorry for- North , Freo (because they have to put up with West Coast supporters )

Well done again. The Demon machine just keeps on rolling along. I liken the Mighty Dees to being like a high-performance racing car. You look after it, it will look after you. The teams objective is to win as many ‘races’ as possible throughout the season proper. The focus being on winning, not necessarily by how much. It may necessitate putting the foot down every now and then just to get the job done. No point thrashing the engine for prolonged periods of time when you don’t need to. No point letting your opponents know how good you really can be at this stage. Chances are we may even lose a few along the journey. We’ll see. In the background the support teams role is to continually tinker with the machine, to make sure it can perform at its best if and when required, and to ensure that is in peak condition for the finals. It’s important that we can go the distance. Come finals, it is a different story. Put the pedal to the metal and drive it like you stole it and snag another big one. (Sort of along the lines of what happened last year😊- so hard to be modest when we are so effin good) GO DEES!

Time to wheel out Choco Williams footy with the stripe down to middle at training so the team can work on goal kicking skills Got the four, GO DEES

Amazing how my level of despise for Carlton supporters reignited when they beat us in a preseason game (with the assistance of eight 50 metre penalties given against us for showing dissent which resulted in four goals) The way their supporters carried on you could have been excused for thinking that they won the GF! (Ironically, I don’t mind their players and their new game style) Well done Freo. It’s not that I hold grudges and can’t let go.

Believe it or not I actually like the intent behind the dissent rule. What I am totally annoyed about is the way it is being applied. Appalling. The missing ingredient is ‘reasonable’. Just imagine if a similar militant principled approach was taken in relation to pack marks. I would suggest that most marks would have to be called ‘touched- play on’ particularly when marked from back of the pack. But funnily enough, there doesn’t seem to be any real issue with the umpires in the vast majority of pack marks because they are allowed to take a ‘reasonable’ and practical approach in assessing and adjudicating on the mark rule in these circumstances. Why can’t they be allowed to have the same level of discretion in applying the reasonableness test when assessing the level of dissent shown by players and whether it warrants a 50 metre penalty being applied (rule of thumb being if it looks, feels and is offensive, it most likely is so penalise the player, if not don’t impose a penalty ). I reckon it’s about as difficult to adjudicate on this as it is whether to call play on in a pack mark situation. I again can only conclude it is the AFL that is the principal culprit in this saga. All they have managed to do is make the umpires job harder and (self censored) off a lot of fans of the game like I’ve never seen before.

I’m still totally annoyed about what happened with the interpretation of the dissent rule in last nights game St Kilda v GWS. How am I going to be when I attend our game against Richmond! If that St Kilda player was deemed to be showing dissent for questioning and suggesting to the umpire that the ball touched the ground and was not a mark, logic suggests that if and when a player or players dare to ‘suggest’ to an umpire that the that the opposition purposefully kicked the ball towards the boundary and that should be a free, that they too should be pinged for showing dissent? How dare they try and tell an umpire what they should be doing. I would suggest that when they do this, they would be showing a lot more emotion both verbally and with arm gestures than what the poor St Kilda bloke did. What is the difference? If it is bad enough to be given 50 for disputing a decision in a non hostile manner, surely it must be equally bad if not worse to suggest to them that they should make a decision in a somewhat more emotional manner ! Madness.

I watched the St Kilda / GWS game last night. There were two moments for potential ‘dissent’. The first one was a player upset and clearly showing a form of dissent and then immediate obvious remorse for his action. No 50 given, a logical outcome, move on. Second incident, pretty much a player suggesting that the ball had touched the ground and was not a mark. There was no malice, no disrespect, at worst some emotion but definitely nothing bordering on being over the top. No reasonable person would say he was being disrespectful to the umpire. 50 metres was given! Classic example of subjective nature of decision making process of two different umpires. I am now convinced that the AFL will succeed implementing this rule but at an incredible price. The price being that they will strangle any emotion being shown on the field. Players will become very wary about showing any passion whatsoever. It is slowly sterilising and killing the game. Fans will become increasingly frustrated and vent even more frustration at the umpires. My reaction last night was exactly that and that was watching a game that I had relative little interest in. It is ripping the heart out of the game. I just can’t see how what happened last night will encourage anyone to want to umpire at a junior level. I feel sorry for the umpires, players and fans. I am really (censored) off at the AFL.

Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles I'm feeling very still And I think my spaceship knows which way to go Tell my wife I love her very much she knows Ground Control to Major Eddie Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong Can you hear me, Major Eddie? Can you hear me, Major Eddie? Can you hear me, Major Eddie? Can you "Here am I floating 'round my tin can Far above the moon Planet Earth is blue And there's nothing I can do"

Totally agree with you with your comments. I was more trying to make the point that when they make bad decisions during the game not much can be done about it at that point in time . For very obvious reasons it would be impossible to have an immediate performance review process during the game ( and I have no solution to this at all). On the fly, maybe allow one captains challenge but I think in this particular issue this could lead to many more complications due to the interpretative nature of the rule - so forget it I just feel that this dissent rules can and will further exasperate bad decisions that at times will be made. Sure the umpires performances can, should and is reviewed at a later point in time, but the damage may have already been done. Hope that makes sense. Cheers

I hear that the AFL stance is that no matter how exasperated a player may get for whatever reason, even a gesture of putting his arms out in frustration will not be tolerated and the team will be penalised. Wow! I just wonder if there is any correlation of signs of frustration being expressed by players being a reaction to an overtly poor decision that at times are made by an umpire? It does happen! I think overall they do a good job but on occasions they do stuff up. As it stands, umpires are totally unaccountable for their stuff ups, however teams potentially can and will lose games in the future due to an umpire clearly getting it wrong and a player in the heat of the moment showing ‘reasonable understandable frustration ’ considering the circumstances as opposed to ‘clearly dissenting frustration’. How dare he show such disrespect! So I’m not sure how this leads to the AFL’s perception that the game will now be officiated in a fair and equal manner. Players of course will learn not to react so as to not penalise their team. What will the supporters learn? I think they will go nuts venting their displeasure at the umpires even more than they did before. It certainly appears that way in the games that I’ve attended this year. Please don’t get me wrong. If a player shows real dissent, eg abusing the umpire, being overtly rude even with body gestures, penalise him . However my thought process at the games I’ve attended has been along the lines of ‘get real and toughen up a little you flouro coloured cream puffs’ which I know is not appropriate! What I’m trying to say is that it is so obvious that supporters on both sides of the fence having been increasingly venting about umpires. Mission being accomplished to make us (as fans) more respectful of umpires? I don’t think so. I’m not sure how this will translate down to the grassroots comps. I’ll let others that are smarter than me analyse that. What next? Tongue in cheek, will they consider penalising teams if spectators show overt disrespect/ resentment/ dissent to umpiring decisions. On the bright side I think teams like Collingwood, Richmond, Port and West Coast and Essendon may potentially be impacted more than most 🤭