pitmaster

Loving the movement through and around packs that the Bulldogs forwards are creating. There're lessons for our blokes there.

Glad to have BBB back but puzzled at JVR's ousting unless he is being rested. With Brown there JVR could have played with more freedom. Hopefully he is a smokey late inclusion.

BT is terrible. Thinks it's about him. It ain't. Darcy is a goose. McLachlan not so bad but has some terrible turns of expression like "such and such and change". Hudson sounds like a hyperactive 12 year-old. Whately is OK. Underwood dreadful nasal tones and talks in the cliches she heard growing up (like Eddie McGuire who was a shadow of Lou Richards) Wish Cometti was still at the mike.

I understand this has become a painful issue for you binman, however I have to ask you to dig a little deeper and go again because I have obviously missed something in this discussion (which I have not followed since last season). Can you please outline the interplay of loading and the bye and explain how training around that time away is fatiguing players?

I'm loving it.

Nathan Brown. Courageous, great reader of the play. Matt Whelan and Brett Lovett worthy nominations above.

Personally thought it was a great tackle that should have won a free, not the reverse, but at least there's no longer term penalty. https://www.afl.com.au/news/954595/match-review-fritsch-learns-fate-for-tackle-star-cat-fined

Don't want to get between you and those with whom you might have enduring arguments except to say that every week under (comparatively) little pressure Gus will send a couple of spearing 40 metre passes in the general vicinity of team mates only to put it directly down the throat of an opposition player. Alternatively, an attempted switch will put a team mate under the hammer in the manner of TMac in his old time defender days. I'm not bashing the bloke but it worries me that he has not been able to work this out of his game.

I agree, sort of, until I remember that this time in 2021 we were nursing Brown back and TMac could still be relied on. Now TMac is rehabbing from surgery and Brown is not within sight. In their place there is Smith whose much disrupted career means he lacks the physical presence of TMac and the forward craft of Brown. Without a serious threat up there it becomes harder for Fritsch and (out of form) Kozzie to do their things. Hopefully we can fix a few things - Choco goes to town on Brayshaw's disposal, Bowey comes in (better ball use), and despite what Kate told a poster, (see above) Petty goes forward.

Simon broke his own rule of keeping to in form players: Tomlinson should have played back (although was probably omitted because of weather concerns), and Petty, if he was to play should have been forward. Smith is too easily out-bodied to be a key forward. Spargo had a shocker on KB and should have been replaced. Bowey, a great user, should have taken his place and might just have improved forward connection..

Out played whenever the rain stopped. Out marked in our forward half and out run in the finish. Very disappointing. ANB's last quarter fumble crucial. Agree that Angus' disposal really hurts us. Handpasses only in future?

Just saw the scores for tonight's games and something told me this would be the first ranked thread.

Hunter running through WHE really did have me out of my seat. It was the moment I realised we were starting to put our game together. Having said that, my favourite moment from the KB game did not come until earlier this week when it dawned on me that in consecutive weeks we had knocked off Carlton and Collingwood. For decades post our flag in 1964 these two lorded it over us and the competition. To send the Blues into an even bigger tailspin and to nail the Pies both within 10 days was sensational.

Does defeat tonight deflate Geelong's prospects so much that they start to shift focus to next year, or does it make them more desperate when they meet us next week? I suspect the latter but I can't see Port missing the chance to move ahead of Collingwood, even temporarily. It simply makes next week another chance for us to demonstrate that we are really a contender.

Damn right. Old style copper and an apologist for thuggery.

So...scarf on the seat lives on Level 1??? That's the MCC. Tradition dies hard.

You're way out of date. Tickets are issued for every seat on arrival on Level 2 (coach's level) & 3 (press box level). The scarf on the seat has not been a thing for more than a decade, maybe since Neale was at the helm.

Not heaps. Just two on the level I use (41 and 48). That's six more between them. And as I said, it used to be that there was no drinking on that level unless you were in a bar. It used to be that the game took precedence over getting on the turps.

Remember Brian Boyd? Big man at Trades Hall and big Demon supporter. Greg Sword also. Also the late Mike Hill, famous local government opponent of Kennett Government and mayor of "the Peoples Republic of Moreland" as Kennett's folk called it, was another huge Demon supporter and political progressive. And a great bloke. One of the great things about our game is that supporters transcend the stereotypes.

I often have a beer or wine pre-game because since I sit in the MCC members I have to arrive early to secure a seat in the area I want. So lunch or dinner with a drink follows. But I have begun sitting in one of the alcohol free bays during the game because of the ratbaggery of some. I also hate it when would-be drinkers head off to the bar during play, or arrive with an armful of beers (in plastic!). I have written to the MCC urging them to increase the number of alcohol free areas but had no response. In the old - that is pre-Covid - days there was no drinking in areas like the Balcony on Level 2, but that changed when we weren't allowed to congregate in bars. I wish the MCC would revert to that. The memory of a rabid Collingwood supporter with a beer in each hand going out of his way to harangue Melbourne fans (we were playing Sydney at the time) convinces me the drinking rules have been a step backward, but try telling the MCC.

One of them will win Best First Year Player at our AGM, but which one? Right now, my money is on Judd. Less spectacular and less noticeable but consistently effective and brings a line breaking attribute we lack.

Neither in terms of his physical development nor in his mental approach to physical contests.

It's determined by what suits the Seven Network.

I know it's pointless but go to the replay and consider the high tackle on Kossie (City end) where he is clearly taken around the neck and is running at almost at full height. Then, same end, take a look at the free paid to (some random) Carlton player in front of goal when the player clearly drops his knees. Utterly inconsistent although Hodge in the commentary claims Kossie lowered himself ([censored] ex-Hawk). Then take at look at Docherty, head down, try to bullock his way through a pack. Instead of a free in front of goal against Docherty it goes the Blues' way. A novel interpretation. The umpiring is rubbish. They should be made full time professionals and held accountable but we don't need four of them.

For me the best sign in this game was that we were trying to return to the system that was evident early in the season. Strong defence with a willingness to play on and cop the risks while up forward trying to find targets on short. Had a few usually reliable goal kickers - Fritsch and Chandler - been on target we'd have had scoreboard control throughout. As it was we had control of the contest and while the margin never appeared secure, we never looked like losing. Having said that had Mackay taken a conventional kick in the last quarter and run the margin down to five points it would have been a challenge. As it was, we always found something to hold them at bay. We have several new and newish players this year in McVee, JVR and Chandler who are having a positive impact. Another positive out of the game was how cool and steady we looked in defence with Salem providing the exits and rebound. This was a step forward.