praha

Saints will run away with this. Leadership has gone missing, nothing from Garlett or Petracca, pressure has dropped off. Just can't see us getting up for it. They dominated us more that quarter than we have any time this game.

Their 3 goals have all come from some shocking free kicks up the field.

They have all the run atm.

They're going with an isolated forward line but once we get it out we stream forward well. They are banking on their forward out marking ours.

Umpiring has been ridiculous both ways. Regardless, we've fallen asleep.

There's nothing more predictable than a Bernie turnover and opposition goal. Fmd.

Weeds pressure and contest is all we could hope for. He will get there.

He's an elite pressure player who forces players to fumble just by the way he defends space.

I really like Weeds. That last bit was okay but he needs to learn to take advantage. He marked and Saints players ran off him. He could have ran into goal. He's contested well.

Harmes has stepped up.

That must be our first contested mark in the F50 in weeks.

Still over using it. Controlling the play but allowing Saints to get numbers back.

They don't look particularly enthused.....

Why do St Kilda supporters all look like they buy their merch from the Salvos? God they're an ugly bunch.

Crowd might push 50k by the look of it. My prediction 47k. AFL members is reserved to the front row between M19 and M21.

Probably the calmest I've been before a game for a while. Not because I think we'll win but because after the North loss I decided that using my energy is a waste and I'm just setting myself up for a ruined weekend. If we win it's a bonus. If we lose it can't be any worse than what we've had to put up with the last decade. That's the way I look at it. I'm sicking of holding the club to account and to see if they'll pass my "tests". It's not worth the energy.

The wrist slashing has reached peak.

No. They have been distributed to targeted groups such as migrants and tourists that have shown interest in AFL. They're not giving them away to randoms.

Lol if that's the case it would mean two more Finals losses for Richmond. Their fans would riot and Hardwick likely wouldn't survive.

It might boost crowd numbers by a fee thousand, 10k at an absolute maximum. I think 40k is a reasonable expectation regardless.

Is the AFL right serving only light beer at night games when everyone wants beer that actually tastes like real beer?

You're right. We have all round good blokes like Bugg.

Hawks would want more than Watts and that pick. Why would they trade a marking forward who can play back, for a confidence player and a pick? Granted they probably want to stock up but Watts is barely a depth player, he's either top 22 or a deck chair being shuffled in and out. Hawks will be looking to add useful depth to replace injuries.

Players tend to play on though with a bulging disc because it's common and is often passed off as back pain. Generally the best way to counter back pain is to strengthen lower and upper core strength and keep moving, and Watts is already well established there (as all basketballers tend to be which Watts was one). You can play through it depending on the location and I assume the FD thinking is that if it's not restricting movement pre game then it shouldn't hurt effectiveness in game, especially once the body warms up and the adrenaline is blanketing any pain. Anyone that has experienced back pain would know that the best medicine is full body movement as opposed to "resting" because then your body just tightens up and the pain is amplified. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a disc and they gave the all clear because you'll get a few players throughout a year that play through it in combination with therapy. In regards to this week it may be a case of waiting again until pre game to determine the severity of it. He seemed slow on the weekend, no so much restricted by movement. He also had stints in the ruck and worked his way into the game so I'm not convinced any injury he may have is dragging him down. He could have just been well held and struggled to influence.

Strange omissions.