Nasher

The most amazing thing about McVee is the flick-of-a-switch manner in which he came on. He spent his first year in 2022 kicking around in the VFL and never got close to being picked. Has a massive ‘23 pre-season, gets picked in round 1, makes immediate impact and never looks back. It’s hard to imagine him not being there now.

Can someone explain to me how this Darcy/Jackson super-combo works that makes picking a ruckman crucial in a way that it wasn’t this week? Even when we had Jackson and Gawn, it was rare that they both fired in the same game. Which one fired depended on the day, but the vast majority of the time we had one of them barely pulling their weight in the forward line while the other strutted their stuff. If we’re that worried about it, pick an extra tall defender. They’re not both going to be rucking at the same time.

I can’t see West Coast beating Brisbane unless they pluck out the old play out of their skin now the coach is gone trick. They looked mentally and physically out of juice against us week. For some reason I’m more optimistic about Richmond beating GWS, although I should probably remind myself that the ladder is the way it is for good reason.

So long as GCS get the job done here, we will finish the week in the 8. At the moment the mathematical range of possibilities for our finishing position next week is 4-11. At round 18, that’s insane. I honestly can’t remember a more interesting year.

I’ve been ignoring you until now - but I laughed out loud at this. Mate, your opinion is not so important that it contributes to a successful club. The crew who make all the decisions obviously need to analyse the performance for the club to be successful. Our job as supporters is to buy memberships to keep the club healthy, and to make a racket at games to pump the players up. That’s it. We do this for our own amusement, and that’s it. Nobody of any importance cares about your, my, or anyone else’s opinion on here about how Petty played. And fine, Petty didn’t have a great game. We get it and don’t necessarily disagree, but the walls of text on the topic are annoying for people who want to just enjoy a good win.

What do you expect him to say? Goodwin has more respect for his players than to say “we don’t think Fullarton is up to the job”, which is the unspoken implication of his non-selection.

My take was the opposite - Petty is Cam Pedersen in this scenario, albeit a better player to begin with. If Gawn wasn’t injured, Petty would have still been selected and it would have been Disco Turner dropped. So think of it is Petty replacing Gawn and Turner replacing Petty.

Essendon fans hated him. Nothing would please me more than a big win with Melky BOG.

Lots of thoughts ran through my head watching that! Isn’t privilege such a tiered thing - Kozzy had a disadvantaged upbringing compared to Oliver or Goodwin, but compared to Nan he might as well have been raised in a palace. It’s so hard to fathom the idea of having to be out of town by 6pm or getting locked up. That was THIS lifetime, not some ancient history. Far out. Love that Goody, Clarrie and Shano took the time to head there with Kozzy and connect. The bond will run just that bit deeper with every step like that.

I guess we could squeeze both in if we must.

Max’s value isn’t in the ruck, it’s in his innate ability to always park his giant frame at the right place at the right time. We all laugh at Maysie going for him but why wouldn’t you? The opposition always kick it to him more than anyone on our side ever does. Whoever covers him better be prepared to run his chops off, because that’s the requirement.

Agree od, this is precisely the situation he’s on the list for.

The plan will be to play Fullarton and cross fingers and toes that he passes off as an AFL ruckman.

Even if absolutely nothing else good happens this year, I hope we rip Essendon a new one to the point where the entire football world calls them out for the pretenders they are, and their rancid, smug fans realise that this is yet another false dawn and that they’re still as irrelevant as ever. Please? I don’t think they’ve suffered enough yet.

Who wouldn’t? Not sure what gun goal kickers we have sitting on the shelf waiting for a game. The shelf compromises of NQR forwards like Laurie, Billings and Schache.

Optimism = we will make the 8 Pessimism = we won’t make the 8 Realism = we have a chance of making the 8. The pessimists believing they are the realists is the misconception of the ages.

Disco Turner thoughts? Jury is still out - I wish he was playing with experienced forwards ala 2021 vintage TMac and Benny Brown. I love his contest and the fact that he rarely wastes it - not impacting the game yet but it may come. I’m hopeful but not yet confident.

Adds a touch of cleanliness by foot that we’ve lacked, especially with Trac out. Future leader too IMO - important with the pretty lengthy list of players from WA we seem to be assembling. Loving his progress - hard to believe he’s still just a tacker himself.

We have the list profile of a team in the middle of a rebuild at the moment. If our best players this year had fired we’d have been in the flag window and it would have been against the odds. Nevertheless, there will be no post-flag bottom out like we’ve seen Richmond, WCE and Hawthorn have. We’ll be continually up there like Sydney and Geelong have been.

Would’ve been nice to claw back a bit more percentage but no complaints - we smashed them. It was a game dominated by youth - Rivers and van Rooyen in particular as best players. Despite the disappointing season this list has a lot of upside, and this season isn’t over yet.

I hate gatekeeping supporters. As a remote supporter, nothing annoys me more than supporters who claim superiority because they’re in the privileged position to go games when others can’t. But if the only reason for a supporter’s non-attendance is “to send a message”, that support sucks. A lot.

Loved the Kynan Brown tackle. Well done son. I loved it when the camera panned to dad - Ooze and Daniel Ward either side of him were going off their heads but poor old Doggy was crapping his dacks. I could relate.

Did you watch that last quarter? That definitely wasn’t the worst possible result.

Lol I’m a blue sky junkie, but this season is clearly boned. I’ve well and truly recalibrated my expectations.

Watched that with my Carlton supporting girlfriend. Enjoyed that all round - happy about the good mood in the house and happy that my suspicion that Essendon are pretenders is confirmed. Everyone wins.