Nasher

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.

I wasn’t expecting him to be the huge possession winner he is. Has had over 30 possessions in 4 of his 12 games, and at least two of those where he didn’t were prior to finally being put in the guts. Having an outstanding season. I wasn’t as worried as many others that he wouldn’t hit his straps, but nonetheless it’s a relief to see him out the other side of the issues and playing with confidence.

Looking forward to this week’s edition of “All the Behinds (thanks to Haymes Paints)”.

Exactly. It’s Clayton’s logic to suggest we don’t deserve the top 4 just because another club failed to make it. It means *they* don’t deserve top 4. Anyway, I’ve said I don’t care how other club results affect us. Win the games of footy and ladder position will take care of itself; we won’t need to worry about the teams behind us then. I point blank refuse to barrack for Essendon or Collingwood. I hate them both and wish they could both lose.

There were a couple of moments in the last quarter where I’d released the obligatory “ahh” when our players clearly dived on the back of the opposition, only for the whistle not to blow. Phew. It’s not often you notice those - I must have been pretty relaxed at that stage. I feel it was pretty well umpired all in all, but my basis of that is that nothing they did infuriated me, which surpringly (not) happens a lot more often when we’re winning.

Current form? We just put in our most dominant performance of the season. The only reason this wasn’t a 100+ win was because the footy was a cake of soap. We are good enough to beat any of those teams so long as we “bring it” on the day. The hard bit for this team seems to be making sure they “bring it” every week.

Great to hear Vanders did well. There’s no doubt that if he can stay in one piece, there will be room for him in the senior side. The two sides this week kicked a combined 18.38.

I assumed Smith in the forward line was in response to the way Fremantle occupied our forward line, rather than our idea per se. It wasn’t going to be OMac, Frost, Hibberd or Jetta, so he’s th logical next choice. I can’t think of any other reason for it because he definitely did not look a natural forward.

What was wrong with Lewis other than the stray elbow?

Joel Smith spent most of the night getting in Hogan’s way tonight.

Yes he’s the only one. Obviously I don’t know if he’s the only one or not, but I definitely don’t share his view.

Was in Darwin.

Out: Smith In: Smith

Yes.

If that had been the outcome in a torrential downpour at the ‘G, we would be stoked. I’m content. I have a slightly sick feeling in my stomach still though that I don’t think is going to subside until we get a few more solid wins on the board. Have I caught MFCSS?

The letdown of all the missed goals made it feel frustrating, but otherwise that was an absolute drubbing. It was also greasy - the boys post match compare it to wet weather footy. It’s hard to say given it’s Freo, but hopefully we’re back.

You put money on Freo. New to football?

My position on that changes depending on whether or not it suits my argument on the day ?

Forget the scoreline. This is an absolute hiding. Still time for the scoreline to finally reflect yet.

The ball is a bar of soap by the looks of it. There’s hardly been a clean possession from anyone. Our defending has been heaps better - they can’t get it out of half back. This game should already be over though, but of course we lead by the 9 behinds we kicked. If there’s a five minute lapse, Freo kick away. Come on Melbourne. Bury them so I can bloody relax a bit please.

I hate these types of games. We’ve come off a bad loss, so even a win is going to be annoying on some level. I don’t even want to think about a loss. Bring back that feeling from our mid season streak where we were licking our lips at the prospect of playing crap teams.

I trust the FD because I feel I have no choice but to trust the FD. Unlike you I can never say with any level of confidence that my idea would have worked better than the one that was implemented. There have been just as many instances where the collective wisdom potted a FD for a decision and were proven completely wrong. The collective wisdom also only sees a small portion of what has gone in to the decision; the rest is completely invisible to it. Trusting others to make decisions that are completely out of one’s control doesn’t make that person a sycophant, it just makes them self aware. I work in an industry where the outcome of the (complex) choices of my team makes become visible to the public, and believe me, the criticism I have seen out there is so misinformed that you have no choice but to laugh and ignore it and get on with the job. As a footy fan, I don’t know if I’m just a woefully misinformed member of the public, but without the decades of experience in the industry I reckon I probably am, and I reckon you probably are too. By the way, I’m not saying FDs never get things wrong - obviously they do. Neeld’s FD got pretty much everything wrong, it is plainly evident from the results. Just highlighting the danger of assuming we could do a better job from our armchairs.