Lord Travis

Only 13 points down now. It would be amazing if we come back and win this one after serving up absolute dog**** this first half.

10-0 clearances this quarter. [censored] pathetic. How is Yze not getting any heat for our midfields poor output this year?

Yze needs a rocket. How can a team with Clarry, Trac and Viney consistently get beaten up around stoppages and contests?

We need to draft or trade in a good small lockdown defender. We’ve only got Mcvee and juries still out. Since Jetta left, we’ve struggled with small forwards and ground balls in defensive 50.

Actually still in this on the scoreboard here. What a bizarre game!

What is Aliirs problem the mad max looking [censored]?!

Max has cracked the [censored] and stopped trying.

What has happened to Steven May this year? He’s gone from the best Melbourne defender I’ve ever seen, to getting beaten by absolute spuds.

Scoreboard flatters is. This game should already be over. Another likely loss against a top 8 team. We’re looking like flat track bullies in 2023 unfortunately.

Another poor quarter. We’re yet to find our rhythm against any decent teams yet this year. Still plenty of time to get going tonight, but we need to adjust to the wet conditions. We’re fumbling the ball and slipping over and getting sucked into the contest. As soon as one port player wins the ball and flicks it outside the inner ring, they’ve got numbers and take off while we’re left flat footed. They’re basically doing to us what we perfected in 2021.

Scoreboard still fine but they’re absolutely controlling the play here. We can’t get clean possession and out ball handling in the wet is surprisingly poor.

They’re handling the wet better so far.

Good test for us tonight. So far this year we've beaten up on the bottom teams, but lost to other top 8 teams. Port are entrenched in the top 8 and have 6 wins in a row. If we win tonight, it will show good progress for us to handle the pressure of the best teams. If we lose tonight, you have to wonder if our 2023 gameplan stacks up against other finalists. Dees by 22.

Is tanking even much of an issue that we need to bring in a lottery system and break the draft system to combat it? It doesn’t seem like the clubs at the bottom want to be there and are tanking as such. Pretty sure Gold Coast would rather move up the ladder than draft another elite junior when they’ve already got an entire list full of them. What problem is the draft lottery solving?

Hate it. The teams that are down the bottom need all the help they can get. Giving them even less chance at a good player will only lengthen the amount of time they're down the bottom and create a bigger gap between the strong and the weak clubs. The lottery concept would also break trading, and remove clubs ability to plan their movements. It essentially would randomise list management. Free Agency has already handicapped weak teams. We only see good players leaving for premiership contenders, not the other way around despite bigger money offers. If anything, the draft should be even more heavily weighted the other way, where top clubs don't get any first round picks unless they trade for them. That would be more fair than this lottery proposal. The draft was designed to create equality and get elite talent into lower teams so they can rise back up the ladder quicker. We need to stop teams like Geelong making finals every year, and teams like North and Carlton (and us for a while there) missing for over a decade. It's supposed to be equal and cyclical. We need to give the bottom teams more, not give them less chance. Who gives a [censored] about the draft as an event also. Even if it was a lottery, it's not like people sit down to watch it when they have no idea who the kids are anyway. It's a different underage system to America. The AFL need to stop trying to make it a showcase event like they have in NBA. AFL isn't the NBA, it's our local game, and thank god for that.

Brett Rotten takes over as coach of North now. Rhys Shaw, now Clarkson with mental health struggles. North coaches don't fair well it seems!

Ben Brown was in great form before injury and I expect him to return to replace Petty up forward. No Dixon or Marshall means their tall forwards aren't as much of a threat. Port have just been manufacturing goals from everywhere instead of relying on tall forwards to contest and score. That works against TMac for his flexibility.

Just like his dad. Perfect. Look forward to his development!

Chad isn’t exactly a star these days though. The weekend was his standard game for the last 2-3 years. He’s only averaging 10 disposals and has only kicked 2 goals for the whole year, so going at a goal every 4-5 weeks lol Amazing fall from grace for a guy who was All Australian 40+ goals in his second season! Hope Mcvee can keep improving and be the lockdown back pocket we need long term. It’s the biggest hole on our list at present.

No wonder players leave that franchise year after year. Soulless loser club with no supporters or future. Hope Powell receives a nice Viney tackle or a well executed Van Rooyen spoil when we next encounter them.

By striking or spoiling though? 😉

And isn't it pathetic that we've reached the stage where they're arguing over the definition of a word, rather than the actual incident. The whole process is absolute rubbish and makes me ashamed to breath the same air as the idiots running it.

100% this. The suspension is classified as a strike, which it is not. Let's examine it like a legal eagle [censored]. A physical strike is defined as a directed physical attack with intention to cause blunt trauma or penetrating trauma upon an opponent. A strike can be performed with hands, arms, legs, feet or head. In this case, it was JVR's arm, so the other body parts are ruled out. The type of strikes that can occur with the hands or arms are palm strike, closed fist punch, elbow or shoulder charge. He didn't palm strike or punch him. They're out. An elbow strike is performed by folding the forearm towards the bicep, and then swinging the arm in a circular motion with intention to cause impact with the elbow area. He didn't do this. That's out Shoulder charge is performed by tucking the arm into the body, lowering centre of gravity, and then propelling yourself with intention to impact using the shoulder. He didn't do this either. That's out. JVR did not perform any defined method of "striking". Contact was incidental with his inner bicep making contact with the opponents head after his straight extended past the opponent, with no swinging motion occurring. This was part of an attempted football spoil, not an intended strike to the head. On another note, the opponent (Ballard) received a knee to the back of the head earlier in the match and was off the ground for that injury. After JVR's bicep made contact with the front/side of his head, he went down and grabbed the back of his head. That we know of, no serious injury occurred from either blow to the head, as Ballard has been confirmed as fine and will be playing this weekend. The short term damage he sustained though appeared cause by an earlier incident. If this suspension is not overturned, then the rules of the game are now void, and the English dictionary is deemed false. MRP and tribunal system, go [censored] yourselves. You are a disgrace to the country.

Goodwin stated in his press conference today that Salem won’t play this week. As the VFL has a bye this week, he will play VFL next week and go from there. So officially no Salem for minimum two more matches.

Let’s send Jack Viney to him next time we play. Would give us a nice new entry into the Jack Viney hurt me thread!