RalphiusMaximus

I thought he showed us a bit today. He wasn't amazing by any means, but he had a hard role, basically warming the bench for Max with some time spent forward here and there. He got in good positions, took a couple of good marks and had some absolutely terrible kicks flying at him when he was deep forward that killed any chance of him actually scoring. One absolute shank that should have been a goal. He wasn't outstanding, but he played his role, broke even with some really good defenders and held up in the ruck. I think he did enough to earn another week.

Just watching the replay, and I may not completely understand the rules, but I just saw an umpire tell Kossie to get back out of the 9 meters (goalsquare), then pay 50m against him for not standing still on the mark, WHILE HE WAS GETTING OUT OF THE 9 METERS. Does this confuse anyone else? Also, I would like to apologise for my comments doubting Kossie's abilities before we drafted him.

Honestly, I thought he was gone the moment he did it. I think they both slipped a little which made it worse than it should have been, but it was pretty much a textbook example of "arms pinned, head hits the ground." They've been very clear for a few seasons that this would result in a suspension. Aside from that, I was pretty damn happy with AJ's game.

According to JT, he's a ready-made replacement for ANB.

My mail says.... Hmmm, not as helpful as I'd hoped. OK, so as a pure guess, I'd like to see Jefferson finally get his chance, he's more than earned it. I also suspect that Sharp and Langford will be early call-ups.

I was going to point this out. Mid 30's isn't a great way to watch football.

An aging player in a team with questionable youth who still rely on a few older stars to carry them is saying we need shorter games. I wonder what his motivation for that could possibly be?

The Hawks are my sliders for this season. They surprised everybody this year, but now teams know what they are about and will be digging into their gameplan. They won't get the unexpected wins against teams that underestimated them again. I expect them to drop out of the 8. 2026 will tell us whether their team and gameplan are the real deal or not. Also, I can't see us missing the 8 unless we suffer more major injuries. The media pile-on fails to acknowledge that we were essentially playing without three of our best mids. Trac was gone for half the season, Oliver was a shadow of his usual self without a real pre-season, plus playing injured, and of course the loss of Gus not only cost us on-field, but was a massive psychological hit to the team. While we don't get Gus back, the other two are in full flight and training well. Having them both fit and firing, plus natural improvement from the young mids, we'll see a different team next year.

Sounds like depression to me mate. You need more sugary treats to cheer you up.

So it's going to be a [censored] game then?

What did they do to him?

That sidestep of his is something special. He's going to break some ankles.

Moore leads with the knee deliberately. He ended the seasons of two players this year with that action. As Macca says, the other one suffered fractured vertebrae, which could have left him paralysed. He's a dog of the highest order. As for Maynard, you will never convince me that an athlete capable of catching and moving on a ball in a fraction of a second didn't have time to register the contact (especially given he was the one who caused it) and react. You can clearly see that Brayshaw saw him coming and tried to catch him. In the same time, Maynard chose to turn and lead with his shoulder. That wasn't bracing for impact, it was a choice to hurt someone. So yes I would be thrilled if they both had opponents jumping knee-first into their backs all day. Maybe that would prompt the AFL to do something about players leading with the knee.

Looking at the gallery for today. There are some very fit looking lads in there. It loos like the entire squad has come back in sensational shape. I think the reports of our demise are somewhat premature.

Pretty sure the best way would be for Moore and Maynard's seasons to end on Queens Birthday.