markT

I have a fundamental problem with the AFL Score Review System in general, and the Umpires Call aspect in particular. When a goal umpire states that I think it was touched or I think it was a goal, what he or she is actually saying is that they dont know. In these cicumstances the assumption should always be that it is a goal unless the VR can conclusively prove that the ball was touched. In other words, the benefit of the doubt should always rest with the team that has made the play not the umpire who effectively doesnt know and has provided a best guess only. IMO the discretion of the goal umpires in these circumstances needs to be taken away from them, in the same way we need to take away the discretion of the field umpire when they make insufficient attempt to keep the ball in play decisions. This would add a lot more certainty to the rules, and stop this plague ravaging our game of crucial umpiring decisions dictating outcomes.

Absolutely...Sparrow if Im not mistaken....his disposal was ordinary all day in my opinion

Conditions last week were not ideal for tall lead up forwards. Hogan at the other end had less diaposals than Brown and didnt hit the scoreboard at all. Ben deserves another game to see where he is at and Marvel under the roof will give the MC a better look at whether he can fit back into our forward set up

Binners i have no issues with the in's, but if our last 6 games have given us any cause for reflection its that we desperately need to start stringing together some wins when we are holding onto 4th palce by our fingernails at 36 points, and a conga line of hopefuls queueing up behind us. Leaving Melcham (6 disposals last week from 73 i50's) in at the expense of JVR (or even Smith) doesn't make a lot of sense in the context of a guaranteed dry surface and BBB our only selected tall marking forward. Not sure I agree that Spargo is being "managed" either. Had a very ordinary last month although at his best I agree he is in our best 22. Chandler dropped is long overdue. Hasnt kicked a goal since Rnd 10. Pretty sure he is not being managed either.

Lets bloody hope not...otherwise we may as well concede any September glory now and spare us all the angst.

Melksham (6 disposals last week) - IN, JVR (4 Goals at Casey last week) - OUT, BBB our only tall marking forward on a guaranteed dry ground. WTF! Is it just me? Or did they hand around the happy gas at the selectors meeting this week?

Binman, most people in this forum respect your analysis and views and what you say here is 100% correct IMO. But the question facing us now is how do we fix it? Just rotating personnel through our forward line until we stumble onto some connection there seems a purile response to a very real problem that last year saw us exit finals in straight sets. Only 2 of our goals yesterday came from our permanent forwards the others coming from bowey (backman) grundy(ruck) and langdon (wing). That is clearly not a return thats going to win us games. Yes, it didn't help that our most reliable goal kicker was subbed off early in the first quarter but he is only one player and if you disregard his behind only 6 of the 20 shots we had on goal came from our genuine forwards in Chandler,Picket ANB,Smith and BBB. It seems to me that the problem is not just inaccurate kicking but also how many quality looks our forwards are actually getting at the goals. I dont believe BBB was part of the problem yesterday. It was not a day for big forwards and Hogan didnt get on the scoreboard at all at the other end. But it was perfect conditions for the smalls and with 73 inside 50 they clearly under performed.

Zip. What has Chandler done for the last 5 games. Last goal was round 10. How many more chances is Goodwin gonna give him b4 swinging the axe. Jordan or Spargo would have been a far better option than him. Forget all the excuses re loading etc. Facts are, our forward line is seriously broken and is letting down our hard working backs and mids who are as good as any in the competition IMHO. 73 inside 50's for 5 measley goals. You gotta be kiddding. Fix it for FFS.

Deplorable effort all round and a game to forget. Our forward setup seems to be lacking any sort of cohesion whatsoever, and if we are not careful, we will carry that dysfunction into our finals campaign just as we did last year - and we all know how that ended - with tears all round! If our strategy is to just kick long to our marking forwards, it's clearly not working. It was rinse and repeat all night and predictably we just kept getting picked off in the last by Geelong's interceptors. Sadly, the same wasn't happening in our defensive zones with poor ball use and dropped marks in our forward half creating turnovers that resulted in three easy goals in as many minutes to Geelong. Game over. Difficult to see how Chandler keeps his position in this side. Hasn't kicked a goal since Round 10. Not good enough for a small forward there to kick goals.