VÌþÈR

41 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

I fall out of love with football just a little more every season.

Melbourne being a good side is keeping me going. But I am holding on for dear life.

 

I 100% get that.  I used to watch every game I could.  Now, I very rarely watch anything other than our game.

Ask anyone trying to defend how Maynard positioned his body to make contact if Maynard would have done exactly the same thing if it had been Nick Daicos there in an intraclub game instead of Angus Brayshaw in a final.  

1 minute ago, Fromgotowoewodin said:

I don’t know if we’ve executed them at a high level all season, lost before with massive inside 50 numbers. But it’s still a choke. Blew the start, then got it back on our terms and kicked ourselves out of it. 

Maybe not all season, but in games when we have been humming, we are far less fumbly, make far better decisions and are far more accurate in front of goal.

Anyone who says its purely a footy act needs to be sure in their own mind that Maynard would have turned, braced and leant his body weight and momentum into Brayshaws head if it had been a teamate there instead of Brayshaw.  The only answer is of course not.

8 hours ago, Go Lordie said:

So wrong, VC. Pies were faster to the ball, created more pressure. They also were better at ground level, while we two-grabbed ball pick-ups and marks. And still we were in with a chance in Q4. When we had the chance to win, we fluffed it in front of goal in Q4. I don't think choking was the issue. Skills were.

I guess it depend on your definition of choke.  Failing to execute skills you have generally executed all season at a high level because of finals pressure is a choke for mine.

That was a choke.  No other way to describe it.  Absolute stage fright.

The question no one from the media who have been critisicising us for picking up Grundy have tried to answer is who would have rucked for us when Gawn was injured earleir this season?  If Grundy leaves, the club will need to answer that question.  Will Verrell or Farris-White be able to fill in at AFL for a short period (or longer) if Gawn is injured again next year?  It doesnt look like it to me, so I think we need another experineced ruckman on the list next season. 

As unpopular he is around here, in hindsight, perhaps we should have chased Rory Lobb instead of Grundy.

15 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Just watching the replay of the Kings Birthday game. Worth watching.

Collingwood had won 23 of their last 25 H&A games

They were on fire and we smashed em. Just couldn't kick straight

I'm not taking any significance at all from the KB game. At 11-1 at the time, Collingwood would have been in a very demanding training phase, potentially even training harder than us who were 3 wins behind them (8-4).  This is now the real deal and it's got every chance of being an epic final.

5 minutes ago, Clint Bizkit said:

Except it worked yesterday.

5 goals for the team in the 2.5 quarters before his injury is hardly evidence of that.  

Umpiring is embarrassing.  I’ve watched more footy this weekend than I have for a while and I had actually begun to hope the umpiring had turned the corner.  That was an illusion obviously.

It is so hard to believe, but each week the quality of umpiring just gets worse.  I can barely watch games involving my team; there’s no chance I’m going to watch much games as a neutral.  It’s quite depressing.

Can someone please, please tell these umpires to BLOW THE [censored] WHISTLE!!!

This game.

Can’t help think that the result would have been very different if the umpiring hadn’t got Brisbane back into the game in the second quarter.  Sydney was well on top at stage then the momentum swung 180.

Swans are getting absolutely rogered here by the umps. OMG

1 minute ago, Jontee said:

2 weeks?

 

Hope so.  Extremely silly thing to do.

Just now, Jontee said:

who was that dill from the swans?

 

 

The one that didn’t get tackled but still got a HTB paid against him?  Terrible umpiring decision.

9 hours ago, Demonland said:

 

History shows Dangerfield would call a ambulance for a paper cut.  There has been several times he has taken himself off the ground and out of the game because he felt the slightest twinge.  Unlike our man Clarry who played out a game with a torn hammy. 

Apologies if there is a thread for this already, but is anyone else really concerned where the game is going after the 3 week suspensions dished out tonight for Sicily and Mansell?  I don’t like Mansell and am pretty ambivalent about Sicily, but I think both are incredibly stiff to get any punishment at all for those incidents.  Mansell made a self preservation action at the very last moment to protect himself, and there is no way Sicily should be held responsible for that tackle.  Accidents happen and the game seems to be getting itself lost trying to eliminate them.

It looked like Trac was pointing to the area of the ground that Cox stood over McVee giving him a mouthful after taking a mark in the 2nd quarter, so maybe Trac was reminding him of that ordinary moment.

Not sure why, perhaps it’s the last time we had a 10 day break and really needed a statement win, but I’m hoping for a similar performance to that of round 15 last season when we smashed the Lions at the G.  It was one of our best performances of the year (up there with round 20 against Freo and round 23 again against the Lions) but unfortunately it was far better than the form we showed in the finals.  Now, as we are passed the half way mark of the season, things really gets interesting and we get to see if we truly have learned the lessons from last season and can correctly get everything peaking when it matters. So I hope tomorrow is a statement game, but only a hint of what’s to come.

Expected scores currently is 72.5 to 61.6.  Interesting.

Just now, Demonland said:

Another free directly in front of goal.

The last 10 minutes has been appalling.  It’s almost crisis time for the AFL.

Horrible quarter of footy this.  Very poor skills. 

2 minutes ago, YearOfTheDees said:

That looks like a free but isn't a free, it's just guessing.

If the headband didn’t come off it wouldn’t have been a free.