Vipercrunch

https://afltables.com/afl/stats/coaches/James_Hird.html I'm not sure his record stacks up. 41W-1D-42L at 49.4% Laidley and Brad Scott had better records at North.

Tricky situation for Yze to go in as kind of the "next best option" if the reports that Clarko is the GWS first choice. Second best to Clarko is still a big deal, but if/when results aren't coming, will GWS be patient or does it come in play?

Simple question. If we lose on Friday and don't finish Top 4, can we win the premiership? I am of the opinion that absolutely we can and that the with the current finals structure, finishing 5th or 6th gives perhaps an even easier road to PF weekend than finishing 3rd or 4th.

Some Doomsayers are more evagelical than others so need their own platform to preach their messages of misery from.

100%. Our raw Win/loss record is very comparable but we've had a much harded season to contend with. I believe our 2022 season has actually been an improvement on 2021 when you take in all the factors above and you look past the incredible final 45 minutes of footy we played in 2021. We are not playing our best footy and must improve in many areas to win it all again, but that is exactly the situation we were in at this time in 2021.

McKay also got at least a goal from one of those soft down the ground calls I think also, but the one over the top was completely on May. May was with McKay in the centre square before deciding to leave him to try and impact the kick going to Curnow. Unfortunately it was a total miscalculation as he got no where near it but by the thime he realised it McKay was 30 metres away. Yes it's the way team defence works, but if you leave your man to impact a contest, you need to actually impact the contest which in this case he got wrong. He and Petty still played good games though.

Is it the same guy?

Your first sentence is spot on, but your second sentence is nonsense. After the mark, which he claimed and the umpire paid, he played on, so the magpie player can go wherever he likes. Then he walked it over the goal line. Easy deliberate call.

Yes it is and has been since they tightened the rule up when it was getting abused by several teams. Playing on from a kick in, mark or free kick and waiting for the pressure to come then walking over the line is a deliberate free kick.

No. If you take a mark you have an un-pressured kick to take if you want it. If you play on and the pressure comes, that’s on you and you lose the get out excuse. Otherwise we return to the dark old days when rushing behinds was abused terribly.

It was both correct and very obvious. He claimed the mark and was paid the mark. Then he played on, panicked when the pressure came and walked it over. Easy free kick call to make.

The deliberate rushed? Doesn’t come up much but that was the correct call. Took the mark (and he knew it despite claiming he didn’t), so therefore no pressure excuse, then walked it over. Brain fart by the defender.

I had forgotten about Steele and he is a good player but I don’t think he has exceeded expectations that were on him when he came in from GWS where it was the extremely stacked midfield that was denying him opportunity. Howard’s trajectory was AA when at Port where he was in the leadership group (and captained once). Higgins while sometimes very good is very inconsistent, no different to when he was at Richmond. And looking at Wood’s averages for goals and disposals there is very little reason to say he is now a better player than at North (1.2 goals and 12.9 disposals at North, 0.6 goals and 14.5 disposals at Saints). No one will be writing articles about any of them when they retire saying how their move to the Saints was the making of their careers.

Two things I noticed from last night. However bad our MFCSS gets at times, we should all be thanking our lucky stars or deity of choice that we we aren’t Saint supporters. That is one tough gig. Unlike many clubs, StK don’t seem to be able to bring the best out of players they trade for. Very few playing last night seem to have improved since moving there. Higgins, Howard, Crouch, Hill, Jones, Wood all arguably played better before moving to the saints as did Hannebery and Ryder who didn’t play last night. Long term “good” teams improve players they trade for.

I’m blaming the Collingwood ferals at the game last Friday for my positive Covid test today. I’m sure it’s their fault.

Perhaps there is some truth to that, but until season is over, I find it very hard to conclude anything. Form, fitness and perhaps even 100% correct mindset can’t be maintained at the highest or “perfect” level for 6 months. There have to be fluctuations and perhaps the greatest trick to coaching a team looking to go back-to-back is to manipulate those fluctuations to ensure the team peaks at everything in September. To do so might mean some seemingly broken things get ignored for long periods, which frustrate us all, but with the aim to make the corrections at the right time to bring everything together at the desired time. 6 weeks to see if the coaches can deliver and get the team playing to its full potential, which I think most Demonlanders think is good enough to win it all.

It’s irrelevant to the outcome’s on the field. I thought that would be clear…..

Absolutley agree. Unlike many good players from other teams who act or play in a style that makes them extremely dislikable, I've never had anything else than repsct for JK. Wonderful career. WCE clearly won in the Judd trade in my opinion, which is amazing in itself given how good Judd was. 8 goals in his last game is a very fitting way to go out.

I think the "Melksham instead of a genuine tall forward" experiment is over. There were so many times that our small forwards and midfielders easily got to the fall of kicks into the F50 but instead of contesting the mark, took position front and centre expecting one of our talls to contest only for there to be an uncontested mark to Collingwood. We can't allow that to continue so need to bring in someone to support BBB. I think Weids is out of chances so has to be JVR or Joel SMith if he trains well. No more of Max starting at FF. Start him in the middle. Jackson made some costly errors early on Friday and is still a second ruck that can provide some great cameos as the game wears on. It's not pooular but I can see why we kick to the pocket. They went end to end on us after an intercept mark in the middle of our back 50 late on Friday. That doesn't happen if the intercept is deep in the pocket. They broke us down and scored by creating overlap at our half forward area. Too many bees to the honey pot was often the cause initially then they got the run through the corridor and took it forward at speed which is very hard to defend. Was it our system not working or was it someone (or several) not sticking to the system? Whatever it was, it needs work to combat Collingwood and Sydney's ball movement. Cold comfort, but we actually got a lot of things right. I went home thinking that 4 out of 5 times we'd probably win that game. We won most key stats, kicked for goal badly, watched them kick for goal unbelievably and didn't get the rub of the green with HTB frees in front of goals (the McCreey non call in our goal square soon followed by the red hot call against JJ quite soon after stand out). The expected score had us winning by 13 points. Fingers crossed it is 2018 repeating, with Collingwood playing the role of 2018's Melbourne side, who when playing an exciting brand of footy went to Perth late in the season to beat WCE. "The Dees played eye-catching footy, moving the ball with pace and putting West Coast's rock-solid defence under severe pressure." was how it was reported. We all remember how 2018 ended up.

Who is "we"? The fans, in which case it is utterly irrelavant if some of the fan base is arrogant and disrespectful, or is "we" the players and coaches, in whch case you have no idea of their attitude.

Spargo and Kozzy both do it but I’d argue it’s as bad. And the AFL should have stopped Selwood doing it 15 years ago but they fluffed it. However, JG took it to a new level by making winning the high free his first and only goal when confronting a tackler. Once the dust settles the game will be much better off. Whether Jack has enough other strengths in his game to remain affective at the highest level remains to be seen. Edit for clarification - I’ve never liked Spargo and Kozzy doing it, or any other Melbourne player. I loved Brad Green but disliked when he started throwing his head back late in his career. Playing for a free is totally against what I view as the mythical “spirit of the game”.

The poor bugger should stop dropping the knees. The one against Essendon that caused all the uproar was only a mistake because it lingered high and became overly agressive. AFL's call was contact was only high because JG lowered himself so intially the call of play on was correct but the "make him earn it" aspect that wasn't called a free was the error.

We're fine in the rain. Just makes for unpleasant viewing. It will be worth it at the final siren though.

Bring ya ponchos folks

I heard today the AFL were expecting a crowd of just over 60,000. Maybe this is a well thought out strategy to get that to close to 80,000 instead. Unfortunately if they attend hoping for a close one, they’re going to be disappointed. Melbourne by 50+.