RalphiusMaximus

So far I have to give Seven's coverage a whopping 2/10. Last night they had the Men's road race on two channels and interviews with swimmers on the other. Meanwhile our medal chances in the equestrian don't get any air time at all and they showed a minute or so of the judo and one shot from our archery bronze medal match. The promised 3:15 start to the basketball turned out to be five minutes coverage at 3:40. And of course if you want to watch anything else on the app you need to pay for it. Fortunately if you use something to change your IP you can watch NBC and get full coverage for free on your PC.

One thing nobody seems to have mentioned is the high hit on the Weed from Rioli. Weed was bent over to pick up the ball and Rioli came in from directly in front and nailed him. Weed was stunned and would up tackled and the Hawk supporters were screaming for a Holding the ball call. Incidentally, why were there so many Hawks in the Melbourne Members area? There were dudes at the gate checking memberships, but apparently they didn't feel any need to actually keep people out.

So happy for the Weed. He couldn't have asked for a better start to his career. Got a really good pass for his first goal early on to boost his confidence and showed really good awareness with his handpassing up the ground. Plus he may be the only player in the AFL to have scored a goal with every kick of his career!

Little harsh of Garlett. He was playing more in the midfield today and had some good involvements. We had more quality kicks playing through the middle today and it showed with our efficiency in attack.

Never wash that hand again. Well, that was the third game I've been to this year for three wins. I'm pretty happy with that. Massive congratulations to King on his first 50 games, and to team Viney for their combined 300. I don't think we could have asked for more from either of them today. It was such thrill to see the young guys dominating the midfield, and especially their kicking into the forward 50. I don't remember the last time we had that many quality kicks delivered to our forwards. It made such a difference from the usual high bomb to the square and obviously paid off as we kicked 17 goals 8 from 46 inside 50's. That's as good a conversion rate as anyone in the league. I couldn't believe the blatant frees being missed by the umpires right from the beginning of the game. Two of the Hawks' three first term goals were from clear umpiring blunders. I'm waiting to see how Kennedy is going to try to spin those calls to make them seem legitimate, or indeed if he will just refuse to address them. I was absolutely ropable at the game and so proud of the team for just sucking it up and beating the hell out of the Hawks anyway. Just an awesome win.

Built a bit like Chapman, but quicker. If he can have that sort of career we're well ahead.

I don't rate the marquee signings for this lot. They'll need to draft well.

Hell No. She's big, but she's not that great a player. Admittedly at 20 there's plenty of time to work on her but on what she showed in the exhibition games she's slow, not a great mark and an average kick from close to goal. Her biggest asset is her size. While Hickey is a quality player, I am not at all happy about the Bulldogs getting Blackburn. She's going to be a star for years to come and is probably the next in line behind Daisy as best mid in the game. Plus she's played for us since the first draft. Realistically, looking at the way we've gone I think they are hoping to be the first premiers, maybe get two or three flags in the first five years. We've gone for older players with proven records and given up the option on some seriously good younger talent. The draft should be interesting. I'm also very surprised that Fremantle didn't swoop on the best from the West. Chelsea Randall is playing for the Crows and as noted above, Frederick-Taub is going to Brisbane. They have two quality mids to build around, but you'd think they could have done better.

Exactly my thoughts. Those glimpses we are getting of him now are amazing, but we need him to double his disposal tally. When he does that he's going to tear the opposition apart.

They've used him as a forward quite often. He's a very good mark for his size and knows how to crumb a pack, so can be quite effective there.

He's what Blease was supposed to be. We just need him to take a bit more care with his kicking and he'll be a matchwinner for us.

I do believe that the players have been told to do this. I'm not sure how it could fit into any useful gameplan since it's a play that so clearly favours the defence, especially when it's done so regularly, but the evidence suggests that they have been coached to do it. We have plenty of players knocking on the door at Casey, so surely if this wasn't something they are instructed to do the culprits would have been dropped by now? Admittedly, I'm not sure they can drop the entire midfield, but half maybe?

Pedersen looks to have had the perfect game for the swing/spare tall/ruck position. If only he'd kicked straight. Imagine those stats with 5 goals at the start.

Vince - Career Worst Game Garlett - Psyched himself out. Petracca - Genius on DIsplay

I was watching on AFL Live from work when I could. It looked a lot like Watts vs Lynch with a bunch of clowns running around getting in the way. Those two were basically the only players consistently contributing on both sides. Bernie Vince had a disaster. It wasn't just whenever he touched the ball, but apparently whenever he went near it horrible things happened. We also saw an epidemic of passing behind the man instead of in front. Gawn was impressive with 60 hitouts but needed to get more ball. We're finally seeing the genius of Petracca and it's a thing of beauty. The commentators were raving after the pass to Kent. Also nice to see Watts getting recognition for the work he's put in. The commentary team at one point said he could have had five in the first half if his Mids were able to deliver the ball properly. You could see Bernie making the wrong choice with 20 seconds left in the game. We were screaming for him not to do it (yes, at work). It was pure agony waiting to see that shot. Maybe because the mids can't hit a leading target? Maybe because the gameplan calls for a high bomb to the square?

I rate Dawes higher as a forward, but Pedersen is a legitimate swingman who can play anywhere on the ground including the ruck. I think he provides better value to the side because of this. That being said, neither of them should be starting for us next year.

That is hellishly impressive to reach the 100 so soon.

I actually think that as a team we a re pretty solid on Goal-Kicking. Not to say that it can't improve, but we do pretty well. The thing I would love to see them working on is team leading patterns from our forwards, creating space for each other, freeing up someone to get clear on a lead and then the midfielders actually hitting that lead. I maintain that the single biggest factor in our close losses this year has been our persistent high long bomb to the square when attacking. It's not even a 50-50 ball these days. It's basically handing it over and offering them a free counter-attack.

I'd listen seriously to anything he says. Rumour has it he's very hard to fool.

...who is entirely blameless for the unprecedented run of bad luck and injury which prevented him from ever showing us why he was drafted in the first round. Seriously, get another example, that one is completely inadequate to demonstrate your point.

Firstly, Cook was the AA CHF. I have always seen this pick as a bit of a panic move from Prendergast. He was clearly counting on getting Lynch which would have been awesome, but nobody in their right mind expected him to reach us at 12. We should have taken the best available at this point, but he was invested in using our first pick on a partner for Watts and so he went for a guy who looked great on paper even if those who saw him play didn't rate him all that highly. For reference, the phantom drafts didn't rate him at all highly. The Herald-Sun had Brisbane taking him at 25. The Australian only did the first 25, but he wasn't in it and Knightmare had us taking him with pick 50. Also an interesting point, Tom Lynch wasn't in the AA side at all. Every man and his dog rated him the best tall forward in the draft.

The Weed is fine. The last couple of weeks have been shocking conditions for tall forwards. He's not getting clean ball no the lead and he's still too slight to hold his own in the packs. Give him a nice clear day with decent conditions where the mids can deliver the ball quickly to him and he'll kick a bag.

I have to say, at this level Terlich really does look a quality player. He's better built than most of his opponents and shows real assurance and authority on the field. It would be great if he were able to bring that to AFL level, but history suggests this is not the case.

They did seem to have an influence, didn't they?

Looked like one of his teammates fell into his knee during a marking contest.