Vipercrunch

I can confirm there were plenty of Richmond supporters there.  The aisles were full of them heading to the exits very early into the final quarter when we were less than 2 goals up.  Don’t let Tiger supporters claim they are thing more than one of the most fickle supporter groups in the league.

9 minutes ago, DubDee said:

Why the hell are we playing on saturday after playing monday night?  Tigers get a sunday match.  we are playing north, clearly not a blockbuster

[censored] me

Channel 7 must be licking their lips at the potential viewing audience 😂🤦‍♂️

25 minutes ago, FritschyBusiness said:

 

Where he is played is the difference, Petty stops way more goals than he kicks per game.
Since he has been played forward our average score against has gone up a couple goals a game.

He's played forward for 4 games and kicked 2 goals 1 for the season, It isn't working. 

That's not correct.  Looking at his heat maps for all 6 games, he played back for rounds 1 and 2 (WB and Lions), and returned back for round 5 (Ess) because Lever was out.  He was forward against Sydney and West Coast, then again for Richmond.  We've won every time his played as a forward, not that anyone should read much into that.

Nibbler is in the overall team leadership group so good chance he takes significant on-field leadership of the forwards. And as is any successful player who's isn't dripping with raw talent, but rather has to work extremely hard to make it, he definitely has a future in coaching if he wants it. 

He would very quickly get caught out if he wasn't following Goody's instructions.

While I don't necessarily agree with it, I get the sense from Goodwin's press conferences recently that the Petty/JVR/Fritta/resting ruckman combination is going to be persisted with a little while longer, so I can't see BBB or TMac returning this week, or Petty returning to the backline.

The only possible change I see to that forward mix is Schache coming in if Grundy needs a freshen up.  Schache looked destined to play seniors before his concussion and was clearly on the cusp this week if we needed a late change and got shafted by the VFL game being on Sunday and didn't play at all.  The coaches may want to keep the Gawn/Grundy chemistry building though if they are both managing well.

Harmes I think is next in line for a call up as he is far more dynamic than Dunstan, who clearly has his admirers, but I'm just not one of them.  If one of Viney/Trac/Clarry can't play, I think we resuffle players like Sparrow, Gus and JJ to cover their middle time and bring in a player like Laurie.  IMO, Dunstan would only come in if two of our inside midfielders were out.  Dunstan played in the North game last year, and perhaps I was being harsh, but I left that game thinking he was absolutely last resort.

4 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Undoubtedly they beat the other possible alternatives in Pies, Cats, Bombers, Brisbane etc 

They’ve seen so little success, I would be really happy for their fans if they won it. I just despise Ross Lyon. 

Good chance this would be true for 80% or more AFL fans.  He really isn't that likeable, but choosing St Kilda over nearly every club except your own is quite easy. 

Today is why I hate Monday night games.  They take so to come around and right now it feels like I've been stewing on the insipid performance against Essendon for an eternity.  All we want to know is will our hope pendulum swing back to "we're still a serious contender" or will it slip further into "we're making up the numbers and there's something seriously wrong".  7:25 can't come soon enough.

Just now, MrFreeze said:

Disposal is shocking atm, multiple direct turn overs going inside 50. 

Very poor all round.  I hope all the seniors play well with no injuries because so far no one is putting their hand up for promotion.

Bright start but the second part of that quarter was quite poor actually.  Not super high pressure, but they just looked to be cruising and going through the motions.

2 minutes ago, Bay Riffin said:

any way to watch online ? 

All VFL and VFLW games are streamed on the AFL website and app.

Should be link on homepage if the game is live, if not find the VFL in the menu.

Nice ball movement by foot this time leading to a goal by Valentine.

Woey definitely willing to take on tackles.  Got done HTB once, but then later got the assist for the first goal.

First goal to Casey by Edwards after aggressive movement by hands from the wing including BBB, TMac and Woey.

5 minutes ago, Adzman said:

Dunstan playing at Casey, so one assumes Clarry will be right to go tomorrow 

Any other of the emergencies? Laurie, Schache or  Disco Turner?

7 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Guaranteed he's going to get boo'd...

It's all part of the theatre and you'll get nuffy supporters at every club who'll go out of their way to boo.

Jesse Hogan gave us much better service then Jacko and there were boos when he stepped foot on the MCG in 2019.

LJ played in our first premiership for 57 years, and many think he played a very important part in securing it during that third quarter.  That’s a very significant difference between LJ and Hogan.

For some the “I’ll never boo a premiership player” will be enough.  I’ve always thought how well we did in the trade would be very decisive for some potential boo-ers .  Looking ok right now, but in the end you’re probably right. All clubs have nuffies that will boo, some for the pantomime, some because they’re jerks.

2 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Melbourne supporters boo'd Oskar Baker even after we delisted him without playing an AFL game for 2 years.

Compared to Jackson circumstances and how he left, the boo's will be well and truly coming his way from Melbourne supporters.

I thought Baker was only boo’d sarcastically because the Dogs supporters had already boo’d Hunter several times, and at least where I was sitting, there was as much laughter at the pantomime as there was booing.

Time will tell re: Jackson and boos.

2 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

A smart player with good management looks at that and thinks “this is bad culture and bad management”. 
A selfish player who is only focused on himself and the money sees no issues with a club pushing retirement on a 300 game champion, and trading 4 important players just to fit him into the salary cap. 

 

That is nonsense.  A 20 year old player and his manager aren’t responsible for the decisions of a multi million dollar, “professional” sporting organisation.

4 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

He would have made very good money in Melbourne too. 
It is not like he was facing a life of poverty. 
 

Ultimately the choice was his. Nobody put a gun to his head. But of course as with most big trade deals, the players make out like bandits and the clubs suffer the consequences for a long time to come. 
Couldn’t be happier for Peter Bell. 

Did you expect him to cross out the $900k they put on the contract and put in $450k?  He took what they offered him.  No one forced them to do it.

9 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Of course it’s not his fault. One player is never the reason for a side being terrible. 
But it is his fault he chased money he didn’t deserve and Freo had to dump 5 of their starting 22 players to make it happen. It definitely explains part of why they look so awful. 
They went and got a player they didn’t need, to play a role that doesn’t suit him, and gave away their whole salary cap and draft haul to make it happen. Absolute stupidity. 
I would be furious if Melbourne traded 5 players to bring in a ruckman… and then forced him to be a forward… and then had 0 draft capital heading into a strong draft. 

All of that is Freo’s fault, not his.  They enticed him home by making the offer and managed their list horribly.  All he did is sign the contract they put in front of him.

I’ve just started watching.  Are the cheers for LJ when he gets it genuine support or Bronx cheers?

19 hours ago, binman said:

Or would he prefer the judster?

Or perhaps Justice (as in MCV - Magistrates Court of Victoria)?

Are you sure you no longer want to call him McVeigh?

21 minutes ago, Longsufferingnomore said:

That was right in front of us and TMac gave out a very loud groan when hit and then stayed down for a long time whilst play went on. The trainer tried to get on the ground but couldn't get on because of the play around her. By the sound of the hit and the subsequent groaning coming from Tommy I wouldn't have been surprised if he didn't play this week.  Glad that he trained today.

The umpire shouldn’t have let Draper nominate for the ruck when he was so far away.  By the time he had reached the contest, he was at full pace and TMac was a sitting duck.  Very ordinary moment.

3 hours ago, poita said:

The problem is that a number of our players have history of declaring themselves right to play when they are clearly not. Most recently Hibberd and Lever against West Coast and Brown against Sydney are examples of players who have subsequently missed games by trying to play through injury.

Viney and Gawn are both repeat offenders, which is why I would be treading well clear of playing Gawn before round 8. I really don't care what he can add against Richmond or North - as a supposed premiership contender I expect us to win both games with or without him. I do care how he he is travelling in August and September when he will be desperately needed at 100% health and fitness. If that means missing a few games during the year, so be it.

I think the recent delay of May's return hinted there was much more to it than just the player declaring they are fit.  He wanted to play (basically declareing himself fit to play) but because he hadn't reached certain measurable levels or strength and speed, he was ruled out.

I expect with Gawn, his return will depend on him proving certain levels of strength, flexibility and stability in his knee joint, as well as possibly having it rescanned and then after that completing a certain amount of full training sessions.

As for as Hibberd, Lever and Brown, weren't they all injured during those games you mentioned and then all missed following games?  

12 minutes ago, whatwhat say what said:

was sparrow concussed in the end? if so that's he and spargo as definite outs

Great question.  When discussing possible sanctions for Merrett in the media, delayed onset concussion was mentioned , but it wasn't made clear if that was true or just speculation.

58 minutes ago, rpfc said:

Oh is it now? Thanks for defining the discussion we are having - you’d be fun at parties.

We played half the team last year at various stages through injury that I mused at the time and has since been confirmed through the drip-drip of interviews and players saying they were struggling.

We didn’t need to play them all, sore as they were, and we don’t need to risk Gawn now.

We can defer to the experts that we employ but even they have pulled the pin on Lever and May this year for things, I would argue, they would have played through last year.

The club, with all the information they were privvy to,  made judgement calls that the sore and struggling players they selected were better options late in the season than the possibly fully fit players from Casey.  It takes extraordinary arrogance to conclude those judgement calls were 100% incorrect.