sue

True, but I expect you'd agree that the rules should be framed as far as possible to minimise this. When there is obvious advantage it is almost as if the umpires blow the whistle just to show their masters (and maybe the crowd) that they didn't miss the free kick. Rod Grinter's post makes a lot of sense.

I was just watching Q3 of the St Kilda match. When Hogan hit the post from a few metres out just after a free was awarded to us close to goal it was deemed he played on even though it was instantaneously after the whistle went. My question is, when is it 'advantage' and when is it not? When a team kicks a ball forward just as the whistle goes, if it is marked by an opponent it is always deemed as no advantage to the team and is brought back. So why was Hogan's miss not brought back - same situation of an instant action which is not to the team's advantage.(*) On the other hand, often when a team kicks a ball forward just as the whistle goes, it is brought back even if it gets marked by the same team up field. No one has had time to 'stop', so that seems unfair to the team. Can anyone explain please? (*unless scores were even with 1 second to go in which case it would be to our advantage, but that cant be judged by an umpire anyway.)

But as our old mate Titus says: Titus O'Reily ‏@TitusOReily 14 mins14 minutes ago Unfortunately, we don't know what type of drug Sam Mitchell was pretending to inject. #AFLHawksDons

Hi Titan - tried that but it always seems to go back to the start of Q1. The URL for example of a free kick in Q3 looks like: http://www.afl.com.au/video/smart-replayround=CD_R201501411&matchId=CD_M20150141106&eventType=free&seek=4194&videoQuality=high But if I change 4194 to 0 (or 0000) it just goes back to the start of Q1. Any suggestions? thanks

Yes the others do get booed, but only occasionally and usually just after they have done another low act. I used the word 'continually' when referring to Goodes being booed. And while it has been big in the media, has Goodes really personally made an issue of it in the media himself? I don't think he has. He gets booed because he has a high profile outside of football. Some of that reflects a portion of the population that just can't accept an outspoken aborigine and are easily swept into booing him. Some would possibly boo anyone who regardless of race has a high profile outside of footy and dares to play footy. Others are just sheep. Sure, you are entitled to feel that way. But does that cause you to boo him every time he appears? I expect not. (I feel the same about Harvey from NM. But I don't boo him every time I see him).

At the risk of hijacking this dying forum into the Goodes booing issue: An earlier poster listed a number of booable things that Goodes does or has done. The point is that there are many players who do that sort of stuff as much as he does. The thing is he gets continually booed and they don't. Why?

Tippet seems a waste of space every time I see him. Am I watching the wrong games?

It's not the dissenting thoughts that concern some of us. It is just your inability to resist responding to everything which then engenders responses from others. End result a lot of repetitive boring labyrinthine posts. I suggest that you consider widening your scope and take your enjoyment of debate to other club's forums as well. I'm sure you will find plenty of opinions to correct and stimulating thoughts there as well. And if you are busy with the other 16 club forums we will only have 1/16th of you. Which may be a more acceptable level.

Thank you. Now that you have cleared up Dees2014's misunderstandings, perhaps you might go away as a simple way to avoid your catch 22 problem. Whatever the veracity of your posts and the errors of some of the rest of us, your posts engender a lot more heat than light on this forum. The heat is very boring and the light can be found elsewhere (or even here without your input). Hence my earlier post of one word: Yawn.

Hey Lance - maybe only you can respond to my earlier post: Does LanceU post on other club's forums or are we especially favoured? If only us, what have we done to deserve it? Surely we are no more rabid on this subject than supporters of other non-EFC clubs.

Does LanceU post on other club's forums or are we especially favoured? If only us, what have we done to deserve it? Surely we are no more rabid on this subject than supporters of other non-EFC clubs.

You've got to hand it to the AFL tribunal. Guilty of everything except giving you know what to the players. http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jun/26/afl-essendon-stephen-dank-banned-for-life

yawn

We all agree. However, the question is "should" the appropriate word when half the team has been run over by a bus. Frustrating as it is, sometimes excuses are reasons.

Surely the players know a lot more about what's what than us supporters.

Cowley's result: http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-06-11/ryan-crowley-banned-for-12-months-for-breaching-drug-code

Good points. There's the difference between most EFC supporters and Demonland posters. They are never furious, quite the contrary whilst we love to bag the club for every little mistake. (Yes I know OD, we have had lots of mistakes.)

Is there any evidence he is being overworked? The bye is not far away. Or also rest him against Geelong where the chance of him being in a win is lower.

What a laugh. First prize for the most ridiculous anti-Watts comment of the year. I'd have thought diving forward away from the guys behind you would be more likely to avoid being clobbered than what he did.

I'm pleased to hear you say we are better than last year despite your focus on the win-loss ratio. Unlike you I don't get 'so bloody tired of gee we played a lot better today but we lost never mind we are better' because in recent years we haven't been able to say that often enough to get tired of it. Of course ultimately where we are on the ladder is the main thing. But when a team has been as bad as ours, we need to get to the 'main thing' by steps. And I for one am pleased to take comfort when I see those steps being taken. Let's just hope we don't go backwards in the rest of the year.

It was. For all the reasons many posters have mentioned. For a start, when we had a large number of goals kicked against us, we didn't fold but actually regained the lead. ed: didn't regain it since we never had it before then.

It has so many holes that if it was Swiss cheese you'd have to fill the MCG with cheese for it to weigh a kilo.

Agreed BB. But OD's relentless negativity gets to me at times. He just seems to hover over his keyboard waiting for a chance to say something negative. FCS we all know we lost!! but it was not 'as usual'.

That's not the only recurring theme around here. Yes we didn't win but as many posters who are not entirely addicted to seeing the glass half-empty have pointed out there were lots of promising things and we were not far off despite Cloak kicking straight for the first time in aeons.

What is vanders injury?