bing181

Petracca has been good, even very good. If others were able to take advantage of his work, would look even better. On the negatives, not sure how Hunt keeps being given a pass. People banging on about Spargo, but Hunt has done next to nothing today, as most days (apart from the odd cameo). Same with Hannan. OK, Hannan, benefit of the doubt for the long layoff, but if you look at what's happening with both of the H's, and you look at what's happening up the other end of the ground ... night and day.

Skills. Confidence is shot.

Collingwood playing like last year's grand finalists.

Exhibit A.

Yes, his 8 disposals against the Giants were a real game-changer.

Next you'll be telling us that you're a stable genius.

"Institutional racism is distinguished from the explicit attitudes or racial bias of individuals by the existence of systematic policies or laws and practices that provide differential access to goods, services and opportunities of society by race. Institutional racism results in data showing racial gaps across every system. For children and families it affects where they live, the quality of the education they receive, their income, types of food they have access to, their exposure to pollutants, whether they have access to clean air, clean water or adequate medical treatment, and the types of interactions they have with the criminal justice system." https://fpg.unc.edu/sites/fpg.unc.edu/files/resources/other-resources/What Racism Looks Like.pdf

What, like last time he played at Casey: "Defender Oscar McDonald did his chances of a recall to the senior side no harm with a strong showing for the Demons in their one-point loss to Richmond at Casey Fields. McDonald picked up a team-high 22 disposals ..."

Spargo is fine. Has earned his place, certainly in relation to the other small forwards down there. Not to mention, not sure who he's keeping out ... Bedford? Team looks solid, just missing Melksham and Jetta for mine, Vandenberg would be handy as well.

Absolutely. Though not alone unfortunately. There are parallels with what happened to Goodes and what has happened in European football to black players like Raheem Sterling and Moise Keane.

“It was a massive weight on my shoulders,” he said. “It was a lot of pressure which I didn’t really enjoy too much. It affected me quite hard mentally and affected my footy as well."

Stating as a fact what is nothing but speculation.

Oscar was always going to keep his place while May wasn't available and Petty isn't ready. Interesting to see that Oscar wasn't named for Casey either. Perhaps just admin, though perhaps he's been carrying something (he had that injury at the end of the GWS game for example).

Agree with that. Out of those pairings, think they'll go for Garlett and Stretch. In spite of his weaknesses, Garlett is at least hitting the scoreboard, and Stretch hasn't been that bad, though what position would be play? Main interest for me is where Fritsch plays, hopefully he can now be moved further up the field (wing/forward).

Lever, May, Hore, Salem all named. JKH and Oscar out. Preuss, ANB on extended I/C, final team announced Saturday.

Oh for god's sake.

Same arguments re Lever.

Welcome to Demonland, a place where all ideas are mutually exclusive, where there is no context, no nuance, and where affirming A automatically denies the possibility of B ... even if you didn't mention B in the first place.

Firstly, we don't know what's going on behind closed doors, and secondly, it's worth noting that almost no AFL clubs employ specialist kicking coaches. Certainly none of the leading clubs do (from what I can see).

Because there's a difference between acquiring/consolidating skills and being able to execute those skills regardless of the circumstances. And not just in sport either. It's not an anti-training position, just a recognition that training-track training has its limits.

If he's hardly even been running, difficult to see that Lever will get up, not for AFL anyway. Fingers crosse for Hore at least.

Sure the TMac situation is disappointing - but he's not the only one. And therein lies the rub. When you have so many in the team underdone, then it becomes a downward spiral that sucks everyone into it. If TMac had come into the season underdone, but was part of a functioning and efficient forward line, at the front end of a functioning and efficient midfield delivering the ball to them as it should be, then I doubt we'd be having this discussion. In Tom's position, he might only get a dozen or so chances in a game to really have an impact, and with so few opportunities, it can be very hard to turn things around if you're underperforming, which then impacts self-confidence, decision-making etc.

No, just no. You can never make up for a lack of pre-season loading while you're playing games each week. Nor can you make up for the lack of time spent training *together*. There's a reason teams start pre-season early November.

Of course you don't.

Except that: - that's pretty well all he did - he offers next to nothing around the ground (11 disposals, 4 marks 2 weeks back; 9 disposals, 3 marks last week) - he offers next to nothing up forward (total score for the last 2 VFL matches is 1 point. Also, see above) - we have a ruckman - he would be given the runaround/run off his feet in the firsts against AFL-standard rucks - North Melbourne didn't get rid of him for nothing