Dr. Gonzo

"Yeaahh, good call ET"

Having a look at the ladder predictor if we win our next 2 games we should be safe

Game looks a lot better without navy blue and white on prime time

Can anyone explain to me why Brisbane are favourites against North? Easy money isn't it?

I find them boring to watch though. No long kicks just handball and short uncontested passes. Their momentum footy is frustrating to watch if you want the opposition to win as well, if you were playing against them you would just want to absolutely crunch them.

That's part of the price for getting the Anzac Eve game. From the other teams perspective it's a bit rich to lobby for Anzac Eve and then complain if we don't get a prime time game the week prior to allow us a longer break. As long as we get the same break as our opponents I don't see the problem.

320 isn't twilight it's late afternoon

If he couldn't get named this week with Melksham out he's unlikely to get another senior game.

Wellman was a massive loss - turned Frawley into an AA then after he left went back to being just a handy player

Does that include the Saints $1 memberships? Is it the AFLs final figures or just those reported by the clubs?

I agree although one thing I hate about him playing that far downfield is we lose a guy with legitimate goal sense up the other end. Unfortunately we need him down back but I'd like to see him further down ground in future (or float forward more for some goals ala Lewis last week).

I think people forget/underestimate how injury/illness interrupted his career has been. If nothing else I'm just glad he's managed to put a consistent season of footy together without being injured (fingers crossed!) Another season like this next year and he'll be primed to enter his peak and step up a level in effectiveness.

So he's gone

He did drop two simple uncontested marks on the weekend, just went straight through his hands. I'd be playing him deep and let TMac be the roaming half forward against the Suns and see if he can kick a bag and get some confidence back.

Oliver started at FF? No wonder we got smashed in the clearances early. We've got TMac and Hogan in the team and Oliver starts the game at FF?

We better get the Sunday game or I'm going to miss it again as I did last year due to my son's birthday party (my older son is also invited to another party that day). This floating fixture sucks and is irrelevant now as there is a bye pre-finals.

Even if he kicked it we would've won

If youre not happy after a win like that why would you even follow the game? Surely you got some enjoyment out of it.

It was pissing down rain for the last quarter and we stacked the backline and played the boundary for the whole quarter trying to defend our lead. So it wasn't as much a repeat of last week as an attempt to try and protect the lead. They probably went too conservative and made it too hard for us to score but we got the goal we needed right at the death.

Gutsy gutsy win so proud of this team tonight. Win next week and if things go our way we could be sitting in the top 4.

The presentation by channel 7 is a farce, I have no idea what they're going for. I used to junk they were trying to attract the neutral audience with their inanity now I have no idea. The presentation of the game is a definite issue, the whole thing is treated like a joke and feels like it's presented by a bunch of out of touch morons cracking dad jokes.

You can add to that stop scheduling [censored] teams in prime time slots in the hope they'll one day come good because they had a large supporter base 30 years ago.

Then coaches like Ross Lyon will go even more defensive to conserve players energy. They'll park the bus to use a soccer term and try and score on fast break. Rather win 6 goals to 5 than lose 17 goals to 12.

Aussie rules should be the easiest game in the world to umpire yet they've made the umpires so confused or direct them so much that no-one knows what the hell is going on from contest to contest. Half the time you see a contest and have no idea who the free kick is going to. Was that too high or did he take out his legs? Holding the ball or push in the back? Blocking in the ruck or jumping into the opponent? Footy is a game of "freedom" to an extent - players are free to go anywhere on the ground, players are free to attack the ball without interference and if they are interfered with they get a free kick. Interference means being shepherded more than 5m off the ball, being tackled above the shoulder or below the knee, being held without the ball and being pushed in the back. If they take possession, have prior opportunity and fail to get a clean possession away (a kick or handball not just the ball spilling out) they are penalised. Start paying these fundamental rules (particularly scragging of midfielders at contests and holding the ball when you have had prior opportunity and fail to kick or handball) and you will see the game open up. Blow the whistle as soon as a pack forms instead of waiting to see if it comes out in the scrum and ball it up and you'll see congestion ease.

The only thing that will make a difference while maintaining the fundamentals of the sport is reducing the number of players on the ground. For some reason they have a bee in their bonnet about this even though it wouldn't effect the actual gameplay at all. 18 per side has been the case since the game was played by absolute amateurs now we have world class athletes playing who can run all day yet the ovals remain the same size. 12 or 14 per side would probably do the trick. The other thing this would do is make zones obsolete as it is impossible to guard enough territory with that few players on the ground. It would force clubs to play a man on man style of football.