Webber

Biggest kick at the club I’d say. From what I’ve seen, he’s gaining confidence in his ability to impact a game. Also has that elegant knack of seeming slow but having lots of time. Just needs to get it more, and impose physically in contests.

And yet the true irony is your presumption.

Yep, this explanation seemed logical to me too. People will only see the thing that meets their brief.

Because the ‘commentators’ they choose to cough-up said nonsense honestly don’t know any better. Which sadly their employers know and love. We just need better commentators.

He was good yesterday, constantly got hands to it in packs and outnumbered contests (his vertical reach in these cases is vital) and got his pair of goals, all of which would’ve pleased Goody. Not easy being the only real tall in the forward line currently, and wearing the best of the oppo’s defence, mostly in spoiling pairs.

Just watched the replay (1st time), and was expecting the umpiring to be horrendous based on this thread. It wasn’t. Yes, several clangers, and as happens in ‘crowd’ influence games, the umps aren’t keyed into looking for Dees frees as much as for the ‘crowd’ team, so only award them if they’re unignorable and egregious. Experience and conscious awareness of this by umpires goes a long way, but the AFL won’t admit the problem, so won’t properly look to solve it. The best umpires don’t succumb to crowd influence, so we need better umpires. Over to you AFL. As to the commentary, it was a typical low grade ‘underdog’ barracking effort, except for Jason Dunstall, who loves the Dees, and is one of Clarrie’s champions particularly, for reasons that he articulates very well, and often!

In my top 5 players. As pure and skilled a footballer as there is, great greedy goal sense and a team-based love of the game. Our most productive forward by some margin.

The chances of him playing again this season, based solely on the injury - Lisfranc disruption - are negligible. Part of this is down to loss of fitness whilst weight-bearing is limited and the catch-up then required. That it wasn’t a Lisfranc fracture bodes well however for next season.

Watched a good amount, and this was a very bizarre low disposal game. Mitch Brown on 20 disposals, but midfielders only in the teens, and yet was a complete domination, everybody played well. Much sharing!

All is not lost! Watch the ressies - Casey game at 1:45 on AFL app.

And this - “Over this season, watching Jordon mature in the role to the point where he owns one half of the ground has been a pleasure to watch. He has built and built this season to the point where over the last six games, he has averaged 25.5 disposals. With so much attention going on the run and carry of Ed Langdon (and with it, the defensive efforts of opposition coaches), Jordon has put together an impressive run of games. Yet, hardly anyone speaks about him. He snagged two goals to go with his 24 touches in this game, and added four inside 50s as he was once again a valuable contributor. Suffice to say, if the Demons make the big one this year, he won’t be sitting on the bench hoping to be subbed on. This bloke now owns a wing just as much as Ed Langdon does.” Mr. Mongrel Punt is however convinced that Gus Brayshaw is gone from the Dees, so his assessments aren’t all good.

“The Beast of Brunton Avenue”.

Too much. One example - “that quarter was the biggest mauling I’ve seen for years”.

Great quarter. No let up, and we win. For any of you watching on Kayo at home, have you ever heard a stream of more ridiculous hyperbole than that unleashed by David King? He is a frank embarrassment to football commentary. Almost everything that leaves his mouth is plainly ridiculous. Rant over! Can’t wait for Tracc and Clarrie to really get rolling!

Hmmm….does someone know something?!

…….the bookies will have got it right, despite how wrong it currently seems.

And hence why the contenders never back up a Giro d’Italia with a Tour de France. By the by, Max Gawn is a cycling nut (guests on the cycling podcast ‘Stanley St. Social’ consistently), and would undoubtedly align the two sports.

Is my personal experience of loading behaviour too. As cycling is so physiologically pure (i.e. miinimal requisite skills), the comparison holds only to those physiological outputs, but they simply drop drastically during heavy loading phases (wattage, speed, endurance, grinding the pedals). If ball skills were involved, I don’t doubt they’d deteriorate accordingly, The payoff of course is that ability to ‘dance on the pedals’ when you’ve loaded, tapered, recovered and primed. (I refer to my now dwindling ‘dancing’ days).

Spend it on a mid-season media controversy wrangler. Off-season they can be a minder for whoever might activate their mid-season needs, or a hit-man to knock off disgruntled ex-board members/off-loaded ex-players.

Okay @Demonstone, now give us the crims they were representing, you brutish mastermind. Couple of bushrangers there, a US terrorist bomber, a British serial murderer couple, Eric Bana and Faye Dunaway, but the rest?

I reckon I’ve watched all the Casey games this year that Daw has played. He’s very slow. Rucks well enough on the tap, and offers a presence there, but just wouldn’t be mobile enough around the ground, and his marking hands are only ok. Sam Weideman has rucked plenty enough to pair up with Dogga. I don’t doubt that’s how they’ll go. What that does to the Mitch Brown out equation, hard to say. The bold version is with May back in, Petty goes forward, and Tommo gets another crack down back. Either way, Max Gawn isn’t just our most important player, he’s the most influential player in the league. Could all just be ‘deckchairs’….

Match of the round this week I reckon. Andy’s MFCSS vs. binman’s calm optimism. Surely gonna test George’s mettle to sit somewhere in between, albeit with some expected queries over ANB’s position in the team 😉. Can’t wait!

And this is the alternative answer to our form, the rebuttal to the loading theory. It’s an almighty shift in our game-style, and anathema to the ‘Melbourne brand’ I would’ve thought, but why then did we win the first 10 games? Anyone?………………………………………..anyone?

The euphemism of ‘loading’ was invented for the term ‘overtraining’. Anyone who’s experienced this knows how form and freshness drop substantially, particularly at the back end of efforts/games/sessions. Are we overtraining, are we not? We’ll never know if the club won’t tell us. If we are, and our fresher form is just around the corner, Goody’s a very brave, very assured man with a plan. Could be a flag-winning plan. Again. If we aren’t,, then we’re not going close to the flag this year.,

The truth that dare not be spoken by the club, and unjustifiably so in my opinion, but for which this game (on top of the last two) is further evidence (and I’m not saying we know for sure, before my head gets ripped off!) is that we are loading heavily. Ask yourself what’s unique about these last 3 games. Answer = last half capitulations, particularly last quarter. Remember we’ve been leading at halftime in all. Then ask what would be the MOST OBVIOUS reason. Answer = we are tiring early in games, and a lot it seems. Really a lot! Then ask why they might be so fatigued, when at our best, we did the opposite. Then ask who our fitness coach is, and who he learnt from? See any patterns?