Dr. Gonzo

And our players aren't. Again.

Vandenburg has been very good I agree, will be elevated to replace Petracca. Love Viney and Salems attack and Jones is busy being Jones (ie great). Our forward 50 entries are again tripe, Dawes seems to work hard for little reward, Bombers are attacking the game and ball at full pace we are just going along again. We are too hesitant and reactive and keep selling our teammates into trouble. It would want to improve in second half.

And the rest?

Dude come on - we're playing a VFL team and a bunch of kids. We've got close to our best 22 other than Vince Howe and Kent.

Haha come on man - if we win this by less than 40 points or heaven help us lose it will be a disgrace.

Cheers. I was listening to the Bigfooty podcast the other day and they indicated that the players would remain suspended until any appeal was heard.

If the players cop a suspension of say 2-4 games and ASADA appeals it am I right that the players remain provisionally suspended until the appeal is heard?

If the Bombers players get anything less than 6 months I'll be just about ready to give the AFL away and go and watch local footy on weekends. 6-12 months and I'll still be [censored] off because it will compromise the season and again impact some clubs more than others.

And they play Swans and Hawks round 1 & 2 - two teams you'd expect them to lose to anyway. Players back for round 3 is what I'm assuming the AFL is/was banking on.

On the one hand it is crap and Essendon need to bear ultimate responsibility. On the other hand the AFL have been caught with their pants down here as they clearly knew something was up and either tried to turn a blind eye or sweep it under the rug. Either way I think they have some culpability here and the situation is representative of the way the competition was run under Demetriou and continues to be run under McLachlin.

We wouldn't want to lose this one...

I agree and I think part of it is knowing when to pull the trigger. If you hesitate in the modern game the chance is gone and before you know you've got 30 players sitting in front of you. The second quarter we moved the ball quickly from half back which meant our forwards had room to work. On other occasions though we were too slow moving forward (either due to skills or decision making) which meant we'd stagnate at half forward and kick around the flanks. The other factor is that we use a lot of quick handballs out of packs trying to get a player free which quickly racks up the stats without having really got anywhere. The fact the Dogs had more inside 50's despite our clear dominance in play and possessions is a worry - had we been able to take our opportunities early (and really we should have had around 15 goals on the board instead of 9) they would never have had an opportunity to get back in the game. I think it will come though with experience, with the team being better drilled, players getting the game plan/positioning down until it's second nature and some of our NQR's being replaced by better skilled guys like Vince, Petracca, Stretch etc

The Dogs did seem to have an ultra flood on though which would have impacted our ability to hit up targets. Would it be better if we just blazed away bombing up to outnumbered forwards and getting killed on the rebound? When we got the ball on a break or switched play across half back we seemed to move the ball better than I've seen us do for years. It's definitely something we need to work on but it's better to maintain possession than turn the ball over.

Toumpas and Salem were both very good on Saturday, Toumpas started showing what he will be capable of with some more experience, his foot skills and footy intelligence will be a huge asset. Hogans attack on the footy was great to see as well and the new guys (Lumumba, Garlett, Frost and Newton) will be massive additions to the team. Dawes is one who I'm not sure on, Pedersen may actually be a better option unless he can improve his impact on the game.

Is that the generic ticketmaster page? If so it is the same for all clubs/AFL memberships and yes it is [censored] terrible. The AFL really needs to sort their (and their affiliate partners) online pages out the AFL/Telstra/Ticketmaster websites are like something straight out of 1997.

Cheers guys. May have to see if there's a torrent up somewhere...

Any way I can watch a replay of this? When I click the link on the website it's just a dead link I assume it was only a live stream and theres no replay?

I dont like it either but I'd put up with it if it was aesthetically pleasing. When you see the logo on products in the shops next to other clubs merchandise it just looks horrible and I can't imagine too many kids being drawn to it or wanting to wear it around. They want an emblem with a mascot on their merchandise and frankly so do I. It looks terrible on merchandise - no way I'd buy clothing with that plastered all over it. I'd definitely buy the retro stuff and have bought several items with the retro logo on it but the new logo just looks horrible on merchandise. It looks fine on a letterhead but on a tshirt or school bag/pencil case etc it's terrible

Wasn't that spreadsheet only created by Dean Wallis months after the fact and was never maintained to any sort of satisfactory extent?

That was the Troy Broadbridge memorial game against Essendon to put into perspective how long ago that was. 2006 we lost the first game against the ridiculously terrible Blues at Docklands which combined with the loss to them later in the year to give them 2 of their 3 wins for the year cost us a top 4 spot.

I just don't think a player who can take a speccy is really that marketable. Farmer & Robbo were because they could kick bags of goals as well but seeing a speccy a couple of times a game is great at the time but overall I don't think it has an effect on bums in seats.

Flankers who can't run through the middle are useless in today's game. You know what sells tickets and memberships? Winning games. What had a bigger effect Howe winning mark of the year a couple of years ago or losing by 100+ to Sydney in the same game?

Matt Jones and Dean Terlich finished top 5 the year before. In case you hadn't realised we've been really [censored] for almost 10 years. B&F placings are hardly relevant in that context.

Howe wouldn't get a run with the Hawks.

He's a great bargaining chip because I think other clubs rate him more highly than his output dictates.He is basically a flanker who can't run through the middle so if we can get a mid back in a trade (particularly one of GWS out of contract mids) I would do it in a heartbeat.