Nasher

At half time, King and Zaharakis pointed out a couple of occasions where Carlton players would turn looking for a handball to a runner that wasn't there, and since then I can't stop seeing it happen to them. They always look like they've got one less player at the contests than they were expecting or something. At least these days when we've got the ball, you'd back us in to keep it move it forward. I'd have a heart attack every time I saw a hot ball if I barracked for this lot.

Haha. It was gold though, I literally did not catch a word of it. The Dylan Roberton effort was slightly better.

Your font is too big, I could still read it. More like this,

Very insightful interview of Simon Lethlean from Richo. Onya Channel 7.

Here’s an obscure blast from the past. This bloke is now an AFL umpire and is doing tonight’s Aints vs Blues game. Made his senior ump debut earlier this year. If I remember rightly, he had only the one season on the MFC rookie list (2006) and never made it out of the Sandy 2s.

Hahaha, I’d forgotten about that. That song is so cringeworthily 90s. Have to admit I watched all the way to the end though. Goosebumps at the kick that got them in to the 96 grand final.

I’d say Clayton Oliver can be our Clayton Oliver. All players are unique, especially when you’re talking about the best llayers, so I don’t really understand why there’s this need for the footy media to draw parallels all the time. There’s only one Clayton Oliver and there’s only one Dustin Martin. That said, King makes some compelling arguments. Clarry said in the MFC podcast that he thinks he’ll be rotating more with Petracca between half forward and the midfield. It’s a salivating prospect if they can get to the point where they’re both fully firing.

10 marks to Kyle Cheney. Great game. Been in the system 10 years for 81 games across 3 clubs - funny how some players can manage to eke out a career doing just enough to hang on by a fingernail.

Yes, we get it, you reckon he’s slow.

Is Vince still capable of playing an outside mid role like Stretch played? I’d love to see him wind back the clock and crank out a 40 possy game like his early seasons at the MFC. I know he’s slowing down, but the opening is there.

It’s hard to be too excited with the changes when it’s two fringers in, replacing two injured fringers, but really Vince and JKH were just next in the queue. Sometimes selection isn’t exciting and just an exercise in letting the process play out. Good luck to JKH. Last roll of the dice for him.

Out: Smith, Stretch (both inj.) In: Vince, Kennedy-Harris

Such a bummer. The outside run he brought to the team was just what the doctor ordered, not to mention good for him personally. Disappointed for us and him in equal measure.

Agreed. I wouldn’t expect it to be a factor in the conversation about a 25 year old though.

Yep - the old “if you don’t hate something, it must mean you love it” logic jump. Wouldn’t expect any less from you bub!

Personally, I hate it when players are criticised for their “demeanour”. If you think you can understand what’s going on in a person’s mind by the snippets you see of their face, you’re just wrong. You can’t. It also doesn’t matter if he’s never been angry on the footy field. Anger is a complex emotion and not everyone reacts constructively to it. If you think you can tell he isn’t taking it seriously because he’s not angry, you’re wrong. You can’t. Then there’s those complaining about his public comments about wanting to be the best. Watts was potted mercilessly about his comments that he moved on pretty quickly from losses, so we get a competitive, ambitious youngster in, and suddenly that’s no good either. People, honestly, stop going looking for reasons to criticise our players. It’s stupid to criticise Petracca now when he’s just played one of his best games of the year. It is possible to just enjoy the ride sometimes without needing to be pissed about something, y’know?

The go home was just an excuse to leave Brisbane, surely. I have to admit I struggle a bit with the number of grown men who seem unable to survive living a 2 hour plane flight away from their home city.

Do you take that view about people in general, or just football players?

Happy to go on record and say there is absolutely no chance, whatsoever, that he is going anywhere. Zero. No source, just confidence: belief in his character and belief that players would want to stay at Melbourne.

Why would he leave?!

Mate, I’ve been grumpy about people starting new threads when the existing ones would do since day one!

Meh. Next time just use the joeboy thread.

The slight cynic in me thinks some just like bagging players. Lewis was on a hiding to nothing with that play - he probably took the view that it was moving away from him too quickly, he was surrounded by opposition, and the ball was slippery, therefore his situational awareness (and significant experience in the game) told him not to bother. It’s unfortunate that two of them resulted in turnovers (a mark at half back and a kicking in danger free), but there’s a big likelihood the alternative result wouldn’t have been any better. It’s easy to criticise the player for what actually happened when you get to invent the counterfactual, rather than the player who would be held responsible for it. It’s a bit like those criticisms of Lewis over that “shepherd” that he didn’t lay. The word the umpires use for that type of shepherd is “BLOCK!”, preceded by a whistle and a point in the opposition’s direction. But again, we want to bag Lewis and we get to invent the counterfactual, so let’s run with it instead.

There would be a degree of setness to it. A few times I’ve seen Gawn smash it out to Brayshaw running at full pace. That kind of play has to premeditated. They would also have to plan for the unlikely event that Gawn doesn’t win the tap as well I guess!

I thought the same. We’ve been known on here in the past to give the players stick for attempting to be too cute and overpossess the ball in wet weather footy before, so it bemuses me a bit that now we’re hanging it on a player for *not* possessing it in slippery conditions. I thought Lewis was just skipping the bit where he fumbled the clappers out of it like everyone else was. Maybe I’m being too kind, but I thought he deserved benefit of the doubt too.