Tony Tea

Well, I'll probably feel different tomorrow, but here's my half-time knee jerk: This is the straw that broke the camel's back. The pundits have ummed and ahhed over Daniher's future for a long time now, but after tonight all doubt has been eradicated. No coach can be so comprehensively out-smarted as Neil has been tonight, and hope to keep his job for next year.

Yeah, but if WE try it they'll ping us 50.

I've just finished watching my tape of the game and I was staggered how biased the Ten crew were towards Collingwood. Sure, Christian is a recidivist offender when it comes to bias, but Luke Darcy and Robert Walls were more than content to echo Christian's tone. Only Huddo was able to keep himself in check. And what is Christian doing commentating, anyway? How did he get the gig? He has a crap voice, overdoes adjectives - even the most mundane Collingwood action was "excellent", "clever", "courageous", brilliant", etc - gets things wrong and is, in round terms, a complete dud. Which Ten executive's daughter is he married to?

Thanks, Wallsy.

Adelaide manned up after half-time and forced us to dink it around. They'll be kicking themselves for allowing us a free run in the second quarter.

I gave up on the Fox commentary and listened to the ABC radio one. Sure, Mitchell, Dorra and Judge are biased, but as West Aussies they are up front about it and you expect it. Not so Healy and Clunt. They are supposedly calling for all of us and we shouldn't have to cop their sly bias. And Glen Jakovich isn't just biased, he's a wood-duck. Is the depth in our footy commentary really so low that we have to have the game presented by such a fathead. (Don't answer that.) He's barely adequate for the local Sunday league, let alone the AFL.

Looks like my pre-season ladder tip of 12th was wildly optimistic. Not so my tip of Melbourne being 0-10 after ten rounds. Wasn't 1997 our season from hell? Well, currently we can only dream of four wins. What's worse than hell?

What, you mean "last week's form" against an OK side who we match up with, compared with this week's form against a great side that is infinitely better? No comparison. One day we will play well against a top side. One day. One da.... oh, what's the point?

And by the way, was there even the slightest, stinking doubt that Headland would have a blinder against us for his one good game for the year. A classic McKernan Technique.

It's complete madness to say anything even remotely like "at least we have Richmond in July". They will probably win one game for the year and it's a stone certainty that win will be against Melbourne. We are utter rubbish. If we were even remotely good we would have beaten Port who we always beat in Melbourne and who were off their game two weeks ago. We should have beaten the Bullies who we regularly beat but who did enough to get over us. Now we play a proper side, one that is a dead set contender for the flag, and we are getting spanked like a red-headed step child. It's embarrassing. (But at least it's instructive.) And to put the cherry on top, we make their big namers look good. Motlop chokes against St Kilda, but wins it for Port against us. Typical. Aker hasn't had a kick all year, but nails us with a big last quarter. Typical. Lynch kicked one point last week against Gee-Long, this week the only reason he won't kick a league record (Carroll, who is having a disasterous year, falls over every time they go near the ball) is because he leaves his kicking boot in his glove when he chucks it to the ground. Typical. All this play-them-back-into-form strategy needs is a name: let's call it the McKernan Technique.

To sack, or not to sack, that is the question: Of course, the other question is: has Daniher ever been, is he, or will he ever be, a very good football coach?

Headland was never going to do the time. Nothing can stop the tribunal when they WANT to get someone off.

Don't kid yourself. Fremantle are absolute, rolled gold certainties next weekend.

And we could always replay games on another day when it rains.

We've got rock all chance of getting Cousins, but maybe we could draft the guy on the right.

Apparently he had undisclosed shares in a drug company.

It was the last game of '95.

I’ve got Foxtel and Fox Sports 3, so it’s all good, as the young’ns say. But anything that keeps the footy off Seven works for me. Wonder how long Bruce and Dennis can carry Tim Watson and David Schwartz? I can’t see either of those two offering up anything in the way of insightful commentary; Schwartz in particular. In fact, their comments could well border on “special”, and not in a Bruce way.

Yeah, fair points, Strange, some increased grunt from the youngsters would be most welcome, but I would prefer our on ball division to be pro-active rather than re-active. I would also like our rucks to be better able to impose themselves on the game when it's tough. White is a very good flat track bully and Jamar a bit of a stop-gap. When they give us first use of the agate we are very hard to beat. Conversely, when they are being thumped, we border on awful. The differential in performance is too great, and if that gap's going to be reduced it needs an increased contribution from both the rucks and the runners.

Today in The Australian:

We won't win a premiership unless Jeff White (and Jamar) can at least break even with Dean Cox, Spider Everitt, Aaron Sandilands, Steven King (if fit) and even Matthew Clarke who has owned White in the tap department every time the two have come up against each other when we've played Adelaide. When our rucks gets butchered, as they regularly do by the comp's top big ruckmen, we get butchered. Sadly, we don't have the luxury of playing against the likes of Ackland every week.

Brent Williams is a terrifically gifted sportsman who basically couldn't give a f##k. Pretty sure he comes from down Keysborough way. If we'd been able to harness his talent we would have had a real player.

Yes, Channel Seven are a disgrace, there is very little they don't butcher. Just have a look at their appalling footy telecasts in the late 90s. Surely they couldn't be that bad again. Surely. But it's PBL who own Nine and a slab of Foxtel who are driving a hard bargain against Seven. Seven either lower their price to allow Foxtel to show four games, or they knock back Foxtel and have to show live games against the NRL in Sydney and Brisbane on Friday nights and get massacred in the ratings. Either way, Nine are laughing.