Nasher

I think @faultydethas a photo of it coming off as his avatar.

Jeez mate, get a grip. Who cares about the umpires. They’re the same every week, why let it soil the mood?

Tom McDonald remembered at halftime that 18&21 Tom has a lot more fun than 19&20 Tom. He is just bloody immense. I didn’t see this resurgence of his coming.

Spargo doesn’t waste a kick. He doesn’t do the “traditional” small forward magic, but if he gets the ball, it goes to a teammate every time. I’ve come around.

It would be nice if we could wait a day before we start bagging the usual suspects. They were part of a great win, give them a break just for the night. Please.

Love seeing the boys go over to the crowd to enjoy it with them. I know that often happens, but seeing that small but loud as f cluster going nuts was just awesome. So proud of this footy club right now. ❤️?

Yep, there’s never much bluster from Brisbane supporters. Not sure why - whether it’s the physical distance (although that doesn’t stop West Coast fans from chirping), the a culture of humbleness, or just the warm weather in Queensland just makes them more relaxed about life in general, but the difference is noticeable. They’re a team that gives you no reason to hate them. Quiet supporters, humble coach, tough players. I have respect for the way they’re just quietly building. I’m looking forward to this game more than I have any other this year, should be great.

I didn’t realise the NT was an island?

Victorians complaining about how other states and territories are managing the pandemic is so rich it’s giving me a heart attack.

lol, no mate. Same name, different player.

King?

TMac said it can take a while to get in to a groove with marking, especially if you're returning from being out of the side. I figure as someone who has had two seasons where he marks everything and two in between where he really struggled to mark anything, he's qualified to talk on the topic. And it makes sense to me - the ball moves so fast that your timing, either of arriving at the ball, or getting your hands to it, only needs to be out by a fraction and you've blown it. I remember when Gawn, pre-elite era, where things just started coming together for him, but it seemed he couldn't catch a cold. Obviously he's still not perfect, but you'd back him most of the time now. Weid's shown he can mark before. I'm backing this part of his game to come good with patience and time in the side.

(I’m being devoured by my own hubris. Send help!)

I’d prefer the stability of Sydney than FIFO in to Brisbane. I accept Sydney is the better choice if we want the opportunity to prepare properly. It’s just the being afraid of boogie monsters in the crowd at the Gabba that I reject. The hostile crowd will soon shut their traps once we get on a roll and we’re good enough to do that. To be perfectly honest, I fully understand the anti-Gabba argument and if I were a decision maker, I’d choose Sydney for the same reasoning as those above. But I’m not a decision maker, so I’m prepared to let my testosterone decide for me, and it’s decided we’re 10-1 and wants to give a big F U to one of our fellow contenders and fleece their supporters for gate receipts in the process. At the moment I’m the footy fan equivalent of an invincible 18 year old male.

Gabba please ? I want to beat them there, in front of a big crowd.

That's the story, but I don't think it's the truth. Pretty sure torp-gate was this game - he played another three after that.

How tight are we for space really? Is that well documented, or is it just speculation? Collingwood may have stuffed up their cap, but Hawthorn and Richmond when at full flight seemed to be able to bring one of these “come home” players in every year, despite their existing star power, and the cap never seemed to be an issue. How? It must be possible. That said, we have already done a fair bit of it with Lever, May, Langdon etc.

Another +1 here for coming around to the Gabba idea. I love the brazen arrogance of it. We don’t care if you’re third on the ladder and on your own dunghill, we’re not afraid and we’ve got you covered. Thanks for the gate receipts, see ya in September. Then the pies get to come visit us at our new Gabba fortress. *beats chest*

Yes, sorry. That question was a brainfart.

How does it offer no tourism benefits? Someone on here said recently they tried to get accomodation in Alice for the game and there was NOTHING available. I find it hard to believe there are NO benefits, or otherwise why would they do the deal in the first place? I do note I get an “Explore the NT” ad every time I watch video content on the MFC website, for starters (I can hear that catchy fluty song in my head now).

Can anyone explain why we are “no chance” to play in Alice? Hard Vic-NT border?

Don’t know about that RN - it’s obvious to all and sundry that it’s our initiative. Organising it for an Essendon home game doesn’t make it any less ours. The AFL are shady but not *that* shady. The most important thing I think is that the Big Freeze occurs on as big a stage as is available I think.

Does it absolutely have to be our home game? Could still do all the hoopla like marshalling the troops at Federation Square and so forth. All the coin raised goes to Fight MND anyway. Obviously Essendon would need to agree, but why wouldn’t they?

Exactly. You would also think there’s a high chance this won’t be the last disruption to the season thanks to this gift that keeps on giving. Calling a bye round now creates a risk of making future outbreaks more difficult to manage.

Yes - no doubt we’ve benefitted from not being at the centre of international travel and lower population density. We did have a cluster very early though, visible in the graph, and it was shut down hard and fast. Irrespective of Tasmania having a lower degree of difficulty than Victoria or NSW, if one solitary case in 12 months doesn’t warrant at least a pass, and an admission the premier has at least two active brain cells, enlighten me on what would. Note: I feel completely filthy defending a Liberal premier that I voted against pre- and post pandemic, but the bottom line is our state government has kept us safe in this pandemic, and I’m extremely grateful for that.