Nasher

F***** if I know ?

Sure was!

First game where he’s consistently looked like an aerial threat. I’ve been bullish anyway because he’s shown other attributes like getting involved in linkup play and cleanliness with the ball, and he’s played a marking game in the VFL, but this is the final big tick required. I’m happy now to play the waiting game while he fills out and matures, confident in the view that he will make it as an AFL quality forward.

Hah. I jumped through the roof when Melksham put us back in front (geez WC would be spewing how easily he got off the chain) and nearly burst in to tears when Kent put it through. That was the biggest stress relief feeling I’ve had in many years. I love this club.

Hands up who needed fresh undies after West Coast hit the front?

Too late, already passed out

West Coast went up a gear and we held firm. It’s not exactly what you would call a skilled contest, but literally the only metric or factor I care about in this game is the scoreboard at the end.

He’s got a special skill for getting a serious injury right when he would have been dropped anyway - that happened last year with the shoulder and this year with the hammy. The continual stretch of injuries is a big enough concern on its own.

Definitely an intrigue. It must be apparent to him (and others in his position) that time is running out. Some would be motivated by that and others would put too much pressure on themselves. Let’s see which type Kent is.

I laughed. Then vomited. God I’m nervous!

The back half of this season has been slow burn torture. We win today and we are a game and percentage clear of the teams out of the 8. We lose and it’s another week of waiting and hoping. We are capable of beating both WCE and GWS - but I think that’s only contributing to my stress. It’s almost easier when you know there’s no hope (have I just revealed the core of MFCSS?). We’ve moaned about being flat track bullies, but those mid season pummeling of crud sides is what’s keeping us alive at the moment. Our percentage is pretty much unassailable. Come on Melbourne. Get it done. Please?

Yes, I understand the concern over the pattern of these injuries. It’s a worry and no doubt there’s some common root cause. It’s the second half of your post that I’m talking about - where you’ve arrived at the common root cause without any additional analysis other than the problem statement. It’s an absurd logic jump.

So many experts on here. I’ve seen everything blamed in this thread from Misson to the club Doctor to Hogan himself to the training ground surface to not resting him against Gold Coast - all claimed as if indisputable fact. If I jumped up the ladder of inference in my job the way you lot do I’d have been sacked years ago.

If we win tomorrow and beat West Coast next week, our GWS clash in round 23 will be for third. I doubt they’d be so keen to face Richmond at the MCG in a qualifying final to take it easy against us.

Now that the dream of second died with a Jeremy McGovern kick after the siren, let us focus our energy on putting the mozz on North. If they lose and we win, we are two games and significant percentage ahead of 9th and 10th, and the chances of us missing the 8 go from “enough to make us s*** ourselves” to “mathematically still possible but the biggest kind of unlikely”. God I hope we win tomorrow. I really need to be able to put my mind at ease for a little while at least!

Bloody Geelong should be called the Cockroaches. They just don’t die.

I can’t speak for the effort but more often than not when a team kicks a lot of behinds, it’s because they’re taking hard shots - either flying shots under pressure or set shots from hard positions. The opposition scoring a lot of behinds can actually be a sign of good defensive pressure. The games where I’ve seen us most accurate are games where we take marks from easy positions to kick goals from.

Slightly off topic, but am I the only one who had no idea Hamish Brayshaw was on West Coast’s list until all this unfolded? ?

You should.

Should he fly to Afghanistan and clear the air with Will too? He’s the biggest brother of all. I get the need for Gaff to mend bridges with Andrew and why Hamish would want to facilitate it. I can see why Craig Gaff would reach out to Mark Brayshaw. I can’t see why anybody would involve Angus in any way. It has nothing whatsoever to do with him.

I can’t understand why Gaff would meet with Gus. It’s none of Gus’ business, to be frank. According to Mark Brayshaw, Hamish and Gaff are close mates, so it would make sense that Hamish would arrange a meeting between the two Andrews to help each get peace of mind, but I can’t see why anyone owes Gus an explanation. I reckon someone has just got their wires crossed and the misinformation has spread like wildfire as it does.

Yeah, I know. Just got hit with a surge of “I f***ed up real bad and didn’t mean to and now everyone hates me” when I saw his reaction - I have had that feeling before in my life. Just my empathy acting up - I’m well aware that he isn’t the victim.

Odd feeling of feeling very sad for Gaff and that justice has been served at the same time.

Well said.

40.16 for the year, 4 goals against Collingwood, 6.0 in the Geelong loss. But yep, let’s throw all that away and make him a defender again because his radar was a bit off in the first game he hasn’t kicked a goal in all season.