Nasher

First time I've ever seen the changes thread appear *before* the game. Any resting in the short turnaround will come from the more junior players. There's no way Gawn or Hogan will be rested.

This. The "player chose to bump" argument is for the instance where the bumper's shoulder or arm collects the bumpee in the head. In this case it was a body-on-body bump followed by a head clash. That could happen in a tackle, too, but nobody would be screaming "suspension" in that case. Higgins getting knocked out was an unfortunate outcome, but no case to answer for the Burton IMO.

I watched the second half of Lions vs Suns and found it a surprisingly entertaining game. This week Brisbane definitely weren’t lacking in effort, just fluency in moving the ball. So many terribly low percentage choices like a hoof forward or kick off the ground. Other than last week’s pasting they’ve looked to me like a side only 1% off the pace. 0-5 seems unjust - that’s how it is in a pretty even competition I suppose.

Nah. Injuries mid game are another randomiser, like random bounces and poor umpiring. Sometimes it’s in your favour and sometimes it isn’t.

Any selection inferences to be drawn, ie who did and didn’t play?

Superseded only by the nightmare of Harmes in the ruck.

Players who draw the short straw for the mandatory pressers are on a hiding to nothing. Get panned for saying too much, get panned for not saying enough, or my favourite: get panned for saying anything it all. It’s like some fans expect hin to just stand there in front of the media in stony silence and not answer any of the questions. Just DO something, Gawn! Don’t crack jokes, kick that goal! Even though it’s Wednesday morning and you’re in a makeshift press room somewhere instead of on the MCG and the game was 3 days ago, DO something!

I don’t think Gawn’s sense of humour is why we lost.

I don't recall saying it wasn't a big deal. I said "is it a big deal?" It's a challenge to people who can critically analyse a situation to give it a go. I haven't put a position forward at all, because I haven't got one; I haven't looked deeply in to it enough to have formed one. Giving up a run of goals like that doesn't sound good intuitively, but if it's something that happens regularly then perhaps it's less of a deal than it seems. If it's something that happens routinely in AFL matches then perhaps it's just a function of the game; if that were the case then it diminishes the importance of it. Perhaps the more important thing to focus on is what happens after or during a run of goals from the opposition? I don't know, but that's the beauty of critical analysis. You should give it a whiz sometime.

Yes. How does it compare to other teams, the league average, and how does that statistic correlate with match results? Anyway Steve, I thought you were in the "statistics, pssssh, I use my eyes" camp. I didn't think you would be interested in discussing the relevance of a stat.

Is it even a problem? How does it compare to other teams?

Remember when headlines in the media used to give you a vague idea of the content? I hate being forced to read/listen to the content before getting to decide if I'm interested in it or not. Anyway, luckily for me, why we can't be trusted isn't a question I'm seeking an answer to. Anyone who has followed this club any longer than about 3 years knows why: because we always seem to stumble when we think we're about to clear the next hurdle. Maybe we don't actually "always" - in fact it's probably only "occasionally", but it feels like that when you spent as long a time being uncompetitive as we did. Trust will come. I personally had restored my level of trust considerably before last week: I knew that even when we were playing poorly, this MFC team didn't give up and roll over. We could go into any game, we'd probably still be in it at 3/4 time and I knew we could beat anyone if we played our best. I was still hopeful at 1/2 time against Hawthorn. The slap in the face during the second half stung painfully because I was unprepared for it (read: I had trust). In reality, all teams have at least one game a year where they play like arse and get flogged, but for the MFC fan it hurt, because of the fragility of the trust. Fans of very trustworthy teams can endure it and shake it off quickly. Fans of teams who are very untrustworthy expect that pain and can brace for it. It'll take time to recover it again, but it can happen. It's not a permanent loss of trust, just a setback to the trust that was being earned. Thanks for the analysis Plough (I still haven't followed the link).

It's almost like the hand isn't a very complex bit of anatomy with a variety of nerves and sensations, where an injury could be anywhere between trivial and debilitating.

Whenever you want, it's a free country.

I don't think Werridee is suggesting yesterday's performance was anything other than awful - it wasn't. It was dreadful and you'd have to be stone hearted not to have finished that game not at least a bit pizzed off by it. It's just that the sack Goodwin, we're doomed, it's all been for nothing, we're never going to be good crap is totally over the top.

Not saying I was thrilled with it bb, just wasn't worried yet. We were still getting enough of the ball at that stage and I've seen us have low scoring quarters before, correct it and come away with a win.

FFS.

I wasn't worried at half time either, but I was bloody worried half way through the third.

Fig, that was disappointing. Every one of our bottom end players played like one, and I include Kent in that. First time a Goodwin MFC team has put the cue in the rack. Had forgotten how disgusting this feeling is. Forced myself to watch the last 15 minutes. Don't even know why. Going to have a quiet sook to myself tonight I think.

Weird thing was, the season where 186 happened (2011) wasn't even that bad in the scheme of things - we finished 12th with 8 wins and a draw. It was otherwise looking to be a reasonable development year under Bailey until the club did its best to self-destruct. It was 2013 where the wheels completely and utterly fell off with two wins at 54%, which as ET said, was Fitzroy like. Gotta love reliving these great memories.

That's just your memory being kind to you mono.

Stop trying to use Tasmania as a Victorian tip. We really don't want your rubbish.

Weird that "Bradshaw" would be a word common enough to be in anyone phone dictionary, but it does explain it.

I'm intrigued by how often he gets called Bradshaw. Seems a difficult typo to be made so systematically. Is it a weird autocorrect type thing? Surely nobody actually thinks that is his name?

I'm almost at the point of turning it off because the annoyance of BT's voice is interrupting the peace.