Bates Mate

Pretty simple question but keen to hear members responses. We sit second on the ladder with 4 games to go but scanning through most threads it appears alot of the natives are restless. I'd personally say I haven't enjoyed the year as much as the ladder position suggests I should. The first 10 wins the brand of footy never had my excitement levels up . I've not been able to attend as many games as I'd like due to having a young family and us having so many night games. The only game I've really enjoyed was the Brisbane game.i was able to attend and we played a ferocious brand of footy and the crowd was into it . I've sat through 35+ years in the outer through all the good and mostly bad but after reaching the promised land last year, this year is just strange.

Opposition have known what we do and how we do it for a while. Issue isn't that we have been worked out. It is that we can't sustain our game plan for long enough . We started our 2022 pre season at least 6 weeks behind 2021 as we played at least a month longer than the previous year when we didn't make finals. then the required time off for players . I think this is a massive reason for our fade outs and losses.

Big decision and dilemma for the kid. Id suspect he would want to stay at least another couple of years and he is young enough to get a big offer contact in the future. But on the other hand if he stagnates over the next 2 years the offer and money on the table now might no be there in two years time. Tough decision

Collingwood falling over the line against bottom 6 teams again. Good on em they won't win a final

Dogs played better than us in the second half. Dogs also kissed on the D by the umps. Every 50/50 went against us but given to them . May brain fart kick across goal and kozzie miss cost us. Still annoys me ugle Hagen was gifted to the dogs and they changed the rules straight after . We are still second and destiny in our hands . Bulldogs played their grand final and as good as they can. Us still room to improve not slitting my wrists yet.

Oh well game over. They played better than us in the 2nd half . Kissed on the d by the umps. Annoys me jamara was gifted to the dogs

Just ridiculous

Htb against Jackson , another joke.

Max square in the back play on. Spargo great tackle play on

Can't hold your ground apparently. Rubbish against anb

Milked our should I say melked that 50

Good on ya weid. F U Bulldogs

I forgot about freekick Bulldogs

Weid started well

Alice is a home game we choose to play away from the G. Two six day breaks coming into next week away against the Dockers isn't ideal. They travelled this week and would be flying back today so not a massive advantage to them. We have a day longer break against the pies and 2 day longer break than the Blues the following week. Swings and round abouts

Go watch last year's Grand final if you think he's easily replaceable. Bloke is heart and soul

BBB had 8 marks ,2 goals and could've been 3-4, Fritsch 15 disposals 4 scores . Melksham had 7 tackles and contributed to at least 2 goals. Id say he did the job he was asked against port. I've been a big critic of his but he can do a good defensive role on a medium to tall defender , and he is also has the ability to deliver better than most into our forward line. People are upset we are not trying a rookie in jvr and potting Melksham for his game on the weekend really don't get it.

Melksham couple of great tackles and involved a couple of goals. Offers more than Bedford has the last few weeks. Petty is a better player than thommo it's pretty straight forward

worth a listen, Daisy is a class act and talks through the hunt , dermie comments with measured logic and eloquence.

I'm mostly underwhelmed by Weid as well but he has shown he can at least create a contest at AFL level , and on occasions been better than serviceable. Jvr will get his chance next year. He has shown glimpses but hardly banging down the door will multiple bags and dominating at VFL. If we choose to go tall I'd prefer to go with a player who we know can compete at AFL and won't be a liability

This is the issue now. Umpires have to second guess what they see. Kozzy from the umpires viewpoint was a clear head high tackle. From reply on the other angle you can see kozzy was part of the reason why it was high . Incorrect calls happen due to umpire's positioning all the time. Think about how many times you see a player blatantly throw the ball when you watching in the stands. But umpire calls play on as he can only see the back of the player and the ball being released due to the fact the player's facing the other way. End result play on. Point is umpire should only be expected to judge what he sees, not what he thinks is happening on an angle he can't see.

Just like a lot of demonlanders :-)

Rivers deserves a run of games thought he was good today. Brayshaw effectively replaces bowey as a distributor who can intercept mark. Rivers offers playing tall/ small good dash and decent kick and can't get exploited like Bowey has been in a couple games this year. Bowser will be back but not sure if this year. Jordon doing great on the wing

Kozzie, Langdon, Jordan, Hibberd, Bbb

I thought Jordon and Langdon worked their guts out all game on the wings. Both played great IMHO