Dr. Gonzo

So - anyone at the game taking notes yesterday? Did we utilise this setup? Was it at every centre bounce or just haphazardly through the day? Was it only when Gawn was rucking?

Yep - and the only vision that is close to accurate is the goal line one to see if a ball is touched/marked before or over the line (see Tippett example from Friday). But the amateur AFL won't even fork out to ensure the goal post cameras are installed at every ground! What a farce.

No ads on Foxtel plus 2 kids means I had to a bit of running around in between as well.

Couldn't believe it I got inside switched on the TV and saw Petracca kick a goal. Went to the toilet came back to see Lions lining up for "their 4th in a row" according to the commentators. Had to rewind it to see what the hell happened

Yep- watching the game there were things to tear your hair out But looking at the scoreboard and stats sheet and there's not much more you could ask for .

I only saw the second half but we looked shocking at times and their kicking let us off. However you can never complain about a 10 goal win. Should've been 100+ but you bank the points and look to next week. Turn up with that attitude though and Port will do us.

Pedersen has been pretty good, I don't get the bagging. He's not a superstar but I think he gets the best out of himself. He won't drag us over the line but if we're playing well he plays his role.

Dunn competes, Garland doesn't. That's the difference.

At least that kind of "rubbish" is interesting

Yep especially if we can score some prime time games and home games against the Bombers and Blues more than once a decade. Our fixtures have been horrible for a long time always playing all bar 1 or maybe 2 of the non-Vic clubs as home games - is it any wonder we need to sell a couple of these to help the bottom line, especially with the decade of horror we've had.

Ideally? Yes Realistically? No It's easy to say "let others be nomads" but we have one of the lowest membership and supporter bases in the league. Success is built on dollars in footy and if we can help our bottom line by a million by selling 2 home games then we may have to continue doing so.

Ordinarily I'd agree but with the amount of manipulation the AFL does with the fixture you'd think requesting to have the bye following the Darwin game wouldn't be such a tough ask.

If they start stalling in the race to hit 40k I'll be buying an additional membership to add to the numbers (digital membership maybe?) It's more of a psychological barrier than anything else, to be able to say you've tipped over 40k is an achievement, looks better when marketing yourself to sponsors and gets more people thinking they'll jump on to join the ride. All going well if we start to hit our straps over the next few years I can't see any reason why we wouldn't be able to use this as a base and target 50k members which would be a massive achievement for the club. Nb. Does anyone know whether they break it down to "unique" members? For instance if I buy 3 memberships, when going out to sponsors they obviously won't care if we've got 40k members if it's only 30k unique members.

Two very winnable games and two 50/50's with one unlikely. Doesn't seem that bad but I agree the fact we have to play on the fast Docklands track the week following the Darwin game is a worry and would surely heighten the risk of soft tissue injuries due to fatigue.

It is unthinkable that hasn't happened to date. I cannot fathom the logic in not ensuring a bye follows a game played in the humidity of Darwin (for both us and our opponent). Surely the club has agitated for the bye to follow the Darwin game in the past? I just cannot comprehend it.

Mcstay killed us at Docklands 2 years ago.

That's what I thought. Not knocking it but I would've thought this early in his career contracts would be the last thing on a players mind. Was anyone even worried that he might leave?

It was happening several years ago.

Why is blood rule different from injury?

Anyone who is interested i cannot recommend reading "Time and Space" by Gordon Coventry enough. I've just finished it and this debate about handball/throw/flick pass has been going on for a hundred years and still isn't resolved it seems. Previously it seems it was VFL/WA on one side (handball) and SA/VFA on the other (flick pass/throw).

I disagree it happens too quickly - spectators can see it 50-100 metres away umpires within 10 metres shouldn't have an issue. The thing is its whether they want to stamp out the practice or not. When reviewing the tape through the week they can see who the culprits are so would be easy to be mindful of it. Next game don't give them an inch and pay htb against them when they duck/drop the knees and they won't do it the following week.

Very true, forgot about this. Hogan also started in the middle vs North from memory after a dirty day against the Dons.

I disagree- what McLean, Hunter, Grimes et al do is a variation on 3. They drop the knees and fall towards the tackler head/neck first actively looking for a free. Sometimes they do this as soon as they get the ball when they could otherwise have avoided/evaded the tackle. They are not merely dropping the knees when about to be tackled, they take possession and their first instinct is to drop the knees and fall towards the nearest opponent. I would argue this is "driving the head" into a stationary or near stationary player and should be seen as prior opportunity. If they fail to correctly dispose of the footy afterwards they should be pinged holding the ball. All it takes is for a few of these calls to go against them and you'll see the practice stamped out overnight. The alternative is it keeps occurring until someone breaks a neck or paralyses themselves. Just because a severe injury hasn't happened yet doesn't mean the risk isn't there for it to happen in the future. When/if it does happen the AFL will have noone to blame but themselves.

Yes match day flexibility would be great, haven't seen that since, maybe ever. That will come but these days it is generally just tweaks or reverting to something that has been practiced not a spur of the moment restructure. The days of Sheedy switching his forwards and defenders to bamboozle the opposition are done, not least of which is because nowadays all players are drilled in both offence and defense.

See my post above - they all looked fine to me bar one which was a blatant throw. What did you think of the ones they showed?