mauriesy

In certain circumstances player moves make a difference (e.g. Oliver close to Bontempelli in the GF), but a lot of the time they're desperation moves in desperate circumstances and the side still loses.

"Plan A" vs "Plan B" is a silly dichotomy. Plan A is all the required necessities of modern football, like winning the clearances, winning the contested ball, tackling as hard as possible, moving the ball quickly, a tight zone defence, attacking from the back half, kicking to a leading target inside 50 etc. It's exactly what we did to a high level in the GF. Apart from a few hopeful player movements and different match-ups, Plan B is just to try harder at Plan A.

The only protests I've ever been to were the Vietnam war demonstrations in 1970-71. They were truly representative of wide public opinion. Not like that rabble on the steps of Parliament House, which is about as unrepresentative as they come.

I think she dismisses a bit too easily the way the far-right uses these events for their purposes: https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/far-right-protester-charged-by-counter-terror-police-amid-talk-of-killing-daniel-andrews-20211117-p599qx.html "... the far right in Australia had long hoped for an event that would provide a series of hard knocks to the community and foster mass public frustration with governments. “COVID has delivered exactly what they have wanted. It has delivered it to them on a silver platter ... Freedoms and liberties have been temporarily rolled back and it’s been a time of extraordinary difficulty for Australians – and with a lot of real trauma.” However, it was crucial not to conflate hardcore, far-right “white supremacists who have an agenda, with these broader public movements and mass protests”. Demonising all people at these protests as being part of the far right “just makes people feel like they’re not heard and could even push them to those fringes where the actual far right lurks”.

Rubbish. Read this/: https://www.theage.com.au/national/dying-of-covid-or-with-it-pathologists-take-on-conspiracy-theorists-20211111-p5982e.html (Hint: open it in a private window)

Exactly. All the unvaccinated people who think it will make you sterile, or magnetic, or a slave to Bill Gates, that are failing to do the community thing and helping control the pandemic. All in the name of "freedom", that ironically none of them are getting. Liam Jones has made his own version of "freedom" I guess.

You don't just "throw in a theory". A theory, among other things, needs to be built on previous scientific facts and research, even if it attempts to change some of them. No scientist gets far if they haven't done significant research to develop a theory or what seems like a "breakthrough" in the first place. "Throwing in" a crazy Covid theory like Ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine is not science, it's just ignorant or hopeful guessing. These theories got the short shrift from the TGA that they deserved. BTW, here's another hint: follow the money. Who made a large investment in hydroxychloroquine in Australia and can't sell it? There has now been 7.5 billion vaccinations given for Covid-19, and 3.2 billion (nearly half or 42%) of the world's population is fully vaccinated with two doses. People are not exactly dying in even small numbers as a result. Vaccines for Covid-19 have gone way past the "experimental" or "trial" phase. They are now about the most researched and medically-tested vaccines ever. Anyone like Liam Jones who thinks they are still dangerous is deluding themselves ... quite the opposite given the lives they save.

Lynden Dunn has been a life member of the Melbourne Football Club since 2015. Hard not to open the door to him, and I don't see why not.

Libba is not slow, but he did go ball hunting and lost defensive position, allowing Petracca et al to get out of the front of the circle. That wasn't anything to do with speed, in fact he ran pretty hard trying to catch them once they were past, but they were too far gone.

I doubt those age gaps made much difference. You are really only talking about Liberatore as a difference. Most experienced players don't decline until after about 30. In fact since the effects of experience and training are cumulative, they should still be getting better. Sides like Geelong are a different story.

Watch how slowly the Bulldog's players run forward after that Naughton mark though.

He hasn't left yet. He's just said he might, or is willing to, stand down earlier than when his term expires in December 2023, two years from now.

If there was no horse racing, no one would breed the horses.

We will be like the adventurers who once they've climbed Mt Everest, go on to climb K2, all the world's other 8000m peaks and traverse Antarctica!

We had eight players under-21 in the grand final who are only going to get better. One acquitted himself really well in only his 7th game. We didn't have a player with 200 games experience and only one player over 30. Players like Jordon, Hunt, Tomlinson, Daw, Melksham, Weideman, Mitch Brown and Smith are there as role-playing back-ups. Of course injures may happen to key players, but the "law of averages" therefore says to me that we are not going to get worse.

Why? If we continue to improve, more players will have "career best years". Depth, fitness and good management can take care of injuries unless they are really numerous and/or severe.

But never rule anything out. Who knows what will happen in the future? David Neitz was an AA CHB in 1995 before going forward and becoming Melbourne's leading goal scorer. Tom McDonald spent years in the backline.

Gee, what a shocking nickname. Surely we can do better.

Anyone can lose their place if they lose form and another knocks on the door, but I'm not so sure Petty (and a few others you have mentioned like Sparrow and Spargo) are still "fringe".

If I were a Dog's supporter, I'd have to suck it up. Never seen an umpire change their mind.

Unless it's for a specific role like Ben Brown, I think we are well past needing to acquire players like Polec.

Waiting for durango to tell us he'll need to improve to hold his place. 🙂

According to the umpire it was 15 metres. That's the only decision that is needed!

That would be us.

Leave the last century to the last century. Just have a best 21st century team.