mauriesy

Port Richmond Bulldogs West Coast

Good luck with that. And the AFL and clubs still have a duty of care to their employees.

Since the best we can do is finish 8th, we wouldn't get a home final so it's a moot point.

Unfortunately, the reward for finishing 8th will likely be a hard road trip to Perth to play West Coast. ?

I know commentators have to talk games up, but what drives me nuts is Brian Taylor going into non-stop hyper-babble overdrive because he thinks somehow a team that has kicked 5 goals for the entire game can suddenly kick three goals in the last three minutes to win.

They're not the solutions to our problems. But maybe a fresh Bedford, Baker or Wagner is still better, for at least a match or two, than a tired or flagging Jones or Melksham.

The game has still changed to a certain degree. Shirtfronts were once admired (think Whelan on Hird). We all complained bitterly about the "original" Trengove sling tackle, because of the precedent it set. I think the AFL would like to do more, but every suggestion is greeted with the "we don't want the game to be like basketball" chorus, mainly from certain retired players of the game who are now media commentators. Sooner or later the AFL will be forced to do more any way, because they risk being faced with a raft of legal cases.

The AFL is doing the right thing by trying to limit concussions as much as possible. Supporters should think about long-term effects to Polly Farmer, Danny Frawley and current cases like Kade Kolodjashnij, Paddy McCartin etc. next time they complain about fines and suspensions for sling tackles, elbows to the head, shirtfronts and rough conduct. Or even worse, complaining about how the "biff" is going out of the game.

What a boring game of football Ess v StK was. Chip kick the ball 25 times around your back half, then kick it down field only to have it marked by your opposition. Rinse and repeat. Three goals each in a half of footy.

Saying you can't have Viney, Petracca, Brayshaw and Oliver in the same side is like saying Brisbane would done better if they got rid of one of Voss, Black, Lappin and Akermanis.

You're getting tiresome.

I think lack of pressure is also a problem with Brown. Probably why he's not getting a game.

It's easy analysing draft selections through the retrospectoscope a few years down the track. I bet most people here thought Lumumba was a good pick-up when first recruited.

Lumumba for Clark wasn't an error. It was just a trade swap of players (not controlled by Taylor), both of whom did nothing at their respective new clubs. We didn't win or lose. Any player from a rookie draft is speculative, and hardly a major fail when they don't make it given the price you pay for them.

This is just a nonsense. Firstly, Taylor isn't respoonsible for trades. Secondly, just classifying picks on a "success-neutral-error" basis is totally subjective and far too black and white. As is the assumption that we would have picked the same player another team did with a traded pick. Remember that 19 other recruiters overlooked Fyfe at pick 20, for instance. The only way to assess Taylor is against his peers (i.e. how other recruiters at other clubs have performed with a similar range of picks) and how his actual picks have gone against the average number of games for picks in the same range. For instance, getting a 90-game player like Salem for pick 9 in 2013 is hardly an individual "error". How many games on average would you expect to get out of a first-, second-, third- or fourth-round recruit? To reduce the overall score for Taylor by saying: Sparrow and Jordon are "neutral" when they are still second-year developing players taken later than pick 26, and Nietschke is an "error" when he's out for the season. Jackson, Pickett and Rivers are "neutral" when it's their first season. is either jumping the gun, or a poor assessment of players who have played a handful of games. I think they are all showing tremendous promise.

I seem to remember they both played their early games forward, not back.

Gee, conspiracy theories are alive and well on Demonland. The blue and rose-coloured glasses are very thick. The rationalisations are strong. If that was an opposition player you'd all be baying for 6 weeks. The precedent with Burgoyne is irrelevant. The AFL wants to clamp down on tackles that cause severe concussion. Neal-Bullen was overly aggressive (as he often is) and the tackle was very dangerous. Besides, Neal-Bullen played an extremely poor game. His possession count was low, kicking efficiency woeful, and he gave away too many free kicks. As a Melbourne supporter I don't have that much time for him, and the enforced holiday just avoids him getting dropped anyway.

You think so? Three goals up with 10 minutes to play and 99% of games are over.

Didn't know that! I'm waiting for the meltdown when Brisbane scores the first goal or two. ?

It was only five days ago that the sky was falling in, five minutes into Sunday's game day thread.

Did we? I thought our pace and carry againstthe Hawks was pretty good.

The further we go up the ladder, the less North's pick is worth.

Thought he moved pretty well. Hardly stuck in the one spot on a plinth. ?

The outliers on the right side of that graph are the best current midfielders. Getting the ball out of traffic and handballing it to players outside is what they do that makes them good.

You can watch the first two 2018 finals 30 times.