praha

I hope they keep Grimes because he's competent and a good depth player. Not great, but a good clubman who until we can improve our depth stocks, should stick around. As for Burgs, he has to tow the club line. He is essentially PR, not really "media". He is mostly objective with the occasional optimistic op-ed.

Personally can't see us winning more than 2-3 wins. Will be the second year in a row that they would have finished below expectations. My standard last year was 8 minimum, and 10 this year. Loses to Essendon and Saints, and the way they lost to Port have lowered my expectations of this team but 10 is still my pass mark. Finals won't happen this year. Essendon loss + the last two weeks have made it very tough.

I actually wasn't quite sure what bit of the game people were talking about and mostly ignored the noise, but watching that and I remember the moment vividly. I also remember thinking to myself, "Gee he judged that poorly". I didn't think twice about it. Didn't seem like he shirked the contest imo.

Easily in our top 5 most important players.

That is not what I meant. From an on-field perspective in 2010, we eventually struggled because you had young kids shouldering the load. We have added Vince and H to the fold for experience but in much the same way, we have very unexperienced players in areas that win and lose matches. I also said we have a stronger young brigade this time, but I guess you skipped over that part. In 2010 we had many young kids that showed promise, and the media was showering us with praise. It broke down. I am fearful of another breakdown, and I think we need another player of Vince's caliber into the club.

I use a VPN to geoblock and access watchafl.afl.com.au. Pay with my Aussie credit card and stream all games in decent quality, and hook it up to my television. International viewers have better streaming options and quality than we do in Australia. The fact the AFL YouTube channel, which is run by Telstra, is only at 360p max is comical. The NBN project from the start was a disaster. We won't know how it would have ended under Labor, but they blatantly lied about rollout dates close to the 2013 election to get votes, and blatantly lied about the sort of revenue the network would generate. Federal funding was going to end sooner rather than later irrespective of who was in power and the NBN was always going to need to generate private sector funding. It is one of the most poorly conceived infrastructure projects in our history. Labor's original plan to tender out FTTN to the private sector was the right one. Public companies are only accountable to politicians. The ACCC said Labor couldn't do that, which was a moronic choice. It was an economic, technological disaster from the start.

It has a strong stench of 2010, doesn't it? We have a stronger young brigade imo but it's almost like we've made the same mistakes. Most of our "depth" players have less than 30 games experience, so if we get injuries suddenly we're bringing kids in with zero experience.

I guess we know why Roos is pursuing with the likes of Omac, Wagner and Hunt, in the same way he pushed Frawley forward: preparing for the worst.

Reality is that these mini casinos keep a lot of clubs afloat. There are responsible gambling services, and these environments treat adults as they are: free-thinking adults. This country is filled with prudes. Everything needs to be taxed or banned, and then 20 years later the same people that wanted it banned want it "reformed" for tax revenue. It's a vicious cycle of stupidity.

And he didn't get that at Carlton. Malthouse was considered great at inspiring his troops but even at Collingwood, players of Garlett's ilk fell out of form and struggled to get back into it. He was discounted at the Blues, found form at Melbourne, and has lost a bit of confidence after a solid start to the year. IMO dropping him to Casey would be the worst for him.

Our forwards in general had a bad day. Hogan, Kent, Harmes, and Garlett all didn't have the influenced we needed to them to have for us to win. If only 2 of them were "on", we'd have won. He'll bounce back.

He's having a bad month. Conditions didn't suit him, which sucks because wet weather football should suit a guy like him. He'll bounce back.

So he's 2-3 weeks away.

Good that we came out injury free, especially after the NT trip.

We should smash the Pies. No excuses.

We've actually played well against North, Bulldogs and Hawks. Our most disappointing losses have come against the Bombers, Port, and Saints. If we played those three the way we player the former trifecta, we'd be 8-3. Not sure about you folk but I'm learning a lot about this team this year. We have the cattle now. It might take another 12 months but we have the cattle.

We do okay for long periods but the goals we give away tend to be from real amateur mistakes, and from the opposition running rings. I really hate seeing one of our defenders go up to punch the ball and miss it completely, or for all of our defenders to go up while 2-3 of their players hang back and pounce when the ball falls out the back. The major problem now is definitely inexperience. Our defence is our only liability at the moment and it will cost us a finals appearance. We are no where near finals-caliber with this backline. One more season and we should get there. How depressing.

He's still part of a massive liability that is out defense. We win and lose games in the back end of the ground. Both McDonald brothers having a shocking sense of defensive awareness sometimes, and Wagner and Hunt sometimes understate the level of pressure around them, leading them to get caught. Jetta is the only level-headed defender we have and can match it with talls better than anyone else can, which says a lot. We are far from a finals teams, and that's because our defensive stocks are terrible. I really hate seeing opposition teams get goals when 5 Melbourne players go up in the same contest, or when a Melbourne player goes for a punch like a fairy and misses it completely, or when they fall to the ground and their player jumps back up and snaps at goal, or when a forward marks against 2-3 Melbourne players, or when a forward smokes 2-3 Melbourne defenders who basically bump into each other and clash heads. I get it is a work in progress, but we are winning and losing games in the defensive end of the ground. It is a long turnaround and there is more pain we have to go through, I'm afraid. Need to move on from Dunn and Garland and so Hunt, Wagner and OMac are the future. We must deal with it, and as such, must deal with another year out of the finals. Harsh reality.

We played better wet weather football then them for three quarters but for whatever reason we were petrified to kick the ball of the ground. Hawthorn started doing it in the fourth and all three of their goals in the last come from kicks off the ground, which led to passages leading into goals. I don't believe we "tired" out that quarter. We had a number of opportunities to kick goals and either messed it up or passed it up. Far too often our players look to give it off when already inside 50. Ultimately, their experience got them over the edge, and they were far more refined in that last than we were at any point in the game. We should have won that.

If losing to Hawthorn again wasn't tough enough, Carlton will be above us on the ladder tonight .

Bit harsh. We were on top for 3 quarters with some lapses in each quarter. You could see their experience taking hold.

We would've won if Kent, Harmes and Garlett did their jobs and kicked goals.

Time left?

I'm confident we can win but scared of having my heart broken. Deadset want to leave and then just check the score when I get back. I can't handle it.

I'm scared.