Nasher

If that were the case, whichever of TMac or Weideman were the nominal "playing if Jackson isn't" would be on the extended bench with Jackson. In the "field 18 all play" scenario, they're all playing irrespective of if Jackson does, so I ruled that out as an explanation.

Thanks Captain!

Indeed - even in yesterday’s presser, when specifically asked the question whether all three could play in the same forward line, he said “the short answer is we won’t”. There’s no room for TMac back with Smith in, they won’t play him on the wing, but all three are named on the field. Goody is playing funny buggers. One of the three is injured or otherwise unavailable which won’t be revealed until the final teams are out. It’s the only way I can make sense of the selections as they are.

If Useless AFL Stats keep this up, they’ll have to drop the first word of their name.

It’s probably a combination of out of sight, out of mind and wanting avoid making a difficult choice and needing to disappoint someone. Early on I tried to convince myself of a scenario where BBB doesn’t get picked for those exact reasons, but now that the dust has settled it’s clear to me that he’s the best of the three and must come in. Who goes out is down to a coin toss though. Tough choice, glad I’m not the one making it.

The clear options to me are: Drop Hunt for Salem, or put Brayshaw back to the wing and drop Jordon for Salem. I favour the first, but reluctantly. Like the forwards conundrum, it involves dropping a player who has done enough to keep his spot. I really like Brayshaw at half back and I think Jordon has made the wing his own. I feel bad for Hunt, but competition is currently very tight. I don’t see Bowey or Rivers going out either, but it might be a possibility. I can’t see Hibberd being a factor unless injuries start to mount; in my view he is now behind all the players currently in the side as well as Salem. Tomlinson is backup for flag 3 talls. I have no doubt he’ll play here and there throughout the season and do a fine job.

Nobody has said players aren’t allowed to be emotional. That’s a strawman argument. The reason players can’t control their frustration is because they’ve been conditioned that they don’t have to. I’m betting by round 15, players have magically figured the secret and will pull off the impossible (according to you), and won’t be arguing with the umpires at all. There was one moment early in the game that was picked up on the mic. Trac gave away a (soft) free and just said to the umpire, “can you watch it?”, to which the umpire said “I’ll watch it”. I suppose Trac should have just flapped his wings and stomped his foot.

In all seriousness, this is a legitimate question that should be asked. If the goal is to change the culture of the sport regarding treatment of umpires from the top down, then senior coaches are just as responsible as the players. Chris Scott should be heavily fined every time he gets busted doing this.

I love that he’s added goal kicking to his repertoire. I wonder if that’s been something he specifically set out to add to his game, or if it’s just panned out that way?

To be honest dazz I reckon it’s more likely that we were all desperately hanging out for our next big thing and got carried away in how we rated him. No doubt the off-field distractions didn’t help, but I think it’s probably true that he just is what he is: a decent but not great tall forward.

It’s because he’s got long hair and enjoys it when he kicks goals. Footballers must be homogeneous and humble.

Tom looks like that all the time. Getting carried away with celebrations has never been his thing.

My reading was, competition is tight and we haven’t decided yet. Brown will come in for one of them, but I don’t know how you’d decide which. I thought Weid looked more dangerous aerially, but TMac was crucially involved in a lot of scoring passages. I thought both were good. It’ll probably be Weid but I can see reason in all the possible options.

The Viney crumb goal in the third should have been a Weid grab from 25 out. He got the perfect block on his opponent from Sparrow and went in to the space, but the kick from TMac went across him. Weid did a lot of unrewarded work tonight I thought. Side note, I’m really liking the wide camera angles we’re getting from the broadcasters this year. You can actually see what’s going on.

We are SO hard to score against. The poster to Hogan is the only of the 0.5 that should have been a goal, the rest were rushed or low percentage/difficult shots. It’s great to watch.

My wife would consider me disappearing with the kids for an entire day the best Mother's Day gift there was :D

Could also just be the coach’s preparedness to ask him to do it. How many other coaches would say “hey I’ve got an idea. Let’s ask our winger, who already does more running than anyone else, to stay on the field 100% of the time so our more bursty players can get more rest”? I’d say it’s combination of coaching staff, fitness staff and Ed himself all having a deep understanding of his capabilities. It’s incredible in any case!

Spot on. Eventually we are going to come up against an team that reckons they’ll be able to go head to head with us, rather than go in to damage control from the first bounce. That’s when we deal out the first major belting. I’m sure we are all in furious agreement that we hope it’s Hawthorn in round 7. Hopefully they keep winning a few and have their tails up.

I've said it before, but I think if Kane dropped the facade of needing to be controversial, he would be a good football commentator. Underlying the facade is solid insight.

Hehe. I had a post half finished that agreed with your family other one that I never posted. I thought they’d be competitive. I was a bit taken aback by how bad they were.

Amen Ben. I’m 38 and this is the first time I’ve had the luxury of a team that is the real deal. And it could just as easily be the last. I remember as a teenager in 2000 watching the Essendon juggernaut roll us in the granny, thinking, who’s ever going to stop these bastards? Vossy’s Lions did the next year, I blinked, and suddenly Essendon have been in the wilderness for 22 years. Here’s hoping they stay there another 22. Screw being angry or setting impossible standards. I’m just enjoying the ride. We’re 4 games in and I’ve spent zero minutes entertaining notions that we’d lose any of them. We just haven’t looked like it. The last two teams have hoisted up the white flag before the bounce and have tried to outscrap us - lol. Good luck with that. The thrilling footy and dealing out hidings will come. We had to wait a while for it last year too. No team ever plays like that every week, I’m more than happy to settle for coasting to 30 point wins without breaking sweat until the purple patch comes.

That run Sydney made for the finals in 2017 was off its chops - if I remember rightly they were 0-6. If we ever see that again in our lifetime I'll be stunned.

That interpretation of it did go through my head too, but at the end of the day, we don't know the real dynamics of the relationship with Max and Joel, or any of the players. It could be hurtful or they could all just laugh about it - who knows.