Nasher

Hah. It didn't seem to post right on mine, so I deleted it. This?

Fair dinkum. I'd argue with you, but there's honestly no point. It's obvious you identify whatever position will garner the most reaction and take it.

Because he damaged a nerve in his shoulder? Nerves are big squishy things that need to bend and move around a lot, that’s why the healing process is very slow and requires so much rest. When one gets damaged, the pain is intense and covers a large area. If it’s got a pinch or a tear in it, it would hurt like the blazes, and would be very easy to reinjure if he does too much too early. I would agree that there’s a big chance he’ll never get on the park, but you couldn’t conclude his body wasn’t naturally up to it. Everyone gets injured, he was just very unlucky with which part of his body sustained the injury he has. Anyway it’s great that he’s managed to find something useful to do at the club while he plays the waiting game. It’s always important for players to tend to their post footy futures.

Excited for this now. Second week in a row where the team changes offer obvious, substantial upgrades with players returning. Obviously players like Lever will be a long way off peak, but we’re slowly building a competent looking side again. Decided not to make my annual pilgrimage for this match this year, because we’d been crap and I really wanted some time at home having had an insanely busy year so far, but I’m kicking myself now.

Lever being named on the field suggests they’re expecting him to play. He definitely won’t play in the VFL in any case. Very hard to pick who’s in from the extended bench. I’d say Hibberd and Weideman are locks for in and Wagner is a lock for out (like for like player for Hore, obvious which player is better). After that, plenty of room to justify any of them.

I tend towards agreeing but I could be persuaded that Lever might not be match fit - he had to blow a lot of cobwebs out in game one and got injured in game two. Decided to give the person I was replying to benefit of the doubt there.

Australian Rules Football. Correct anyone who refers to the sport as AFL, and treat them like heathens from then on.

In what way is May underdone? He’s been training since forever and played a full, dominant game in the VFL last week. I don’t think there’s much more prep he could have done to prepare. You just threw his name in there because it suited your whinge. And it’s totally ridiculous to suggest Salem might be unfit after two weeks where he’s been able to train in full.

This thread is a great study in human behaviour. MB made what I thought was a pretty innocuous metaphor, but offended a few who are understandably more sensitive about it due to very real lived experiences. However instead of apologising and backing down, MB gets on the front foot and drives it in as hard as possible, p**ses everyone off and gets his butt kicked by admin. All for what I can see is for no reason other than pure stubbornness and unwillingness to see the world through the eyes of others. Pretty entertaining stuff, but not if you’re coming in looking for a discussion about Bolton.

Best of luck to him. He has had a very decorated and distinguished career. He’s played 47 games for Melbourne - it would be nice if that was nudged up to 50 but I can’t see that happening with where we and he are now.

Moronic comment from an oafish dinosaur with a 1980s amateur footy coach level understanding of what tearing strips off someone for making a mistake does for their psychology. How stupid does he think Sam Weideman is if he thinks he needs his teammates to remind him that missing that goal was a Bad Thing? And why is Weideman’s miss any worse than Smith’s or Garlett’s, or Wagner or Garlett dropping easy marks that should have produced a score? Even Max, who was outstanding, dropped a mark that was far easier than half the ones he plucked throughout the game. The whole team blew it big time in the last quarter. Any player that wants to single out Weideman better do it while staring in to the effing mirror.

The TMac thing is just baffling to me. I just don’t understand what’s happened. The “gets the best defender every week” argument doesn’t come close to explaining it. I know Hogan was in the side last year but TMac kicked 50 goals last year; mediocre forwards don’t do that. He would have been attracting pretty handy defenders last year too. The gap between quality of this year and last is so wide I can only assume it’s due to something invisible to us on the outer, either injury or something psychological. I just hope whatever it is gets resolved before next season and he comes good again.

He played 100 times better than he did the week before. I thought his game was a positive. Anyway the guy is 19, barely out of nappies. He’s such a long way off being the finished product that declarations of being a wasted selection or having no AFL traits are nothing short of outrageous. Give him a bloody break.

It’s part and parcel of the game because we accept it and don’t demand better of ourselves and each other. It doesn’t have to be that way. The idea that it abusing players is inherent as part of being passionate or emotional is just garbage.

Man that sucks. Just gutted. I hate football sometimes.

This moment still gives me goosebumps.

I lol’d. If this was a season that mattered I’d be furious. He’s just about finished as an AFL footballer so who cares. Who was it in the Casey thread who said Lewis was harrassed all day and did well not to belt anyone? Whoopsie!

Nah. I’ve seen enough Pettards, Pedersons, Clarkes, Dunnes etc go through the club to know the collective Demonland will NEVER spell this man’s name correctly.

Because we have literally not one single other key defender available? We’ve got five on the list, two are returning from injury and the other two are also in the side. Petty will be the first one to be dropped anyway.

Yep, hadn’t read the Casey report. JKH should be in too by the sounds.

I had one severe concussion as a child of about 9 as a result of an accident at school, and I wasn’t right for months. The feeling of being confused and agitated all the time, being unable to concentrate or remember words is bloody awful. Hearing about stuff like this, or the Daniel Bell case, really gives me chills. Hard hits and collisions are part of the thing I love most about footy. I was super proud of Hibberd when he was injured because he saw it coming but went in anyway, and would have been in a huge amount of pain as a result. But your brain is just so god damn important. Most of the time I have to ignore concussion as the elephant in the room, because if I think about it too much it will ruin footy for me. I really hope he makes a full recovery. I won’t say whether I think he should retire, because that’s a very personal decision and I don’t have all the information, but gee it doesn’t sound good.

In: Salem, Neal-Bullen Out: Spargo, C.Wagner Surely none of Lever (supposedly injured at Casey today), Hibberd or Hannan are ready yet. Fritsch goes as well if we want to play Preuss.

If you’re upset at the final score, have a squizz at what it was at 3/4 time. Have your wife film your reaction for us while you do so please ?

If we had have traded for a different type of player or used a draft pick then we wouldn’t have another ruckman on the list. We rolled the dice massively last year with only Max on the list and got away with it. Imagine if last year, if Max had gone down instead of Lever? We’d have been trying to launch a finals campaign with TMac and Weideman as our ruckmen. Going in to this year where we were hoping for another finals campaign - with no backup for Max, you’re one loss away from season derailment, and that’s a completely unacceptable risk. Obviously at the time we weren’t to know the season would be derailed anyway. If you take it as a given then that we needed another ruck - then why *wouldn’t* we take arguably the best ruckman available? It was just a gift really. The alternative was some 18 year old unknown quantity. As to why Preuss would have wanted to come here when he knew he’d be behind Max, I was stumped at the time and am none the wiser now. I doubt they promised him that he’d play all the time though, because you quite clearly can’t promise that.

Those things you list as his traits are all things I’d expect of a good forward. What I think is more likely is he gets outpositioned and outmarked frequently, does nothing whatsoever at ground level and then gets destroyed by defenders running off. I know I’m probably being over the top in my criticism, but I’m convinced many have allowed romanticism about what Preuss may offer blind them to what he actually does offer. What he offers is a ruckman who can play when Gawn can’t, and to me that’s about it.