Webber

I reckon there are such things as season-defining games, and today was the one, so I just can't agree with you Wiseblood. In respect to the 23 rounds/whole season idea, for the last third of it, we're solidly bottom six standard.

Based on today's effort, you couldn't be more wrong. We had 120 minutes today to prove we deserve to be play finals, playing against a team that clearly doesn't. We failed. It's that simple, and there's no other way to dress it.

Disagree. Unless we trade/recruit contested marking ability, we're going nowhere. All the teams better than us have it as a key pillar to their game. It's horrible to see it, but we've been exposed in the second half of the season as a bit the emperor's new clothes, because we can't control or win enough ball in the air.

Seems very likely.

Poor mental prep for the start of the game.....played like they had a lot to lose, which we did, and coughed up the win. The bigger problem, and sad to say it's going to stop us going much further in the coming years, is our contested marking. We are the worst in the AFL, and oppo teams are now exploiting it. That and the fact we've lost our clearance and stoppage domination due to who knows what, means the future's not so bright as it might have appeared, finals or no.

Jetta.

He IS Bluey Truscott. Reincarnation, baby, reincarnation. Ommmmmmmmm..........

This is fascinating. Makes me think that JT is now in the wrong era of footy. Put him back in the 70's with that endurance and football talent, and he'd be a week to week gun. Without the top end speed though, if you don't have the vision and ridiculous delivery skill of Sam Mitchell, you're an also ran. Horribly cruel for JT.

The the biggest emphasis is given to the muscle 'pillars' in the neck, upper trapezius (the no-neck rugby front-rower) and sterno-cleido mastoid (the diagonal running muscle that runs from base of skull to top of breast bone). New Zealand rugby has had good results in reducing spinal cord injury in juniors by emphasising the training of neck muscles. Spinal cord injuries are almost unheard of in pro-rugby. There's no downside to strengthening these neck muscles of course, except aesthetically, but the issue with whiplash and unexpected impact forces is the speed of response of these muscles being inadequate to prevent the contre-cous effect to the brain. In respect to Gus Brayshaw, they will have appropriately tackled the issue from every angle, but I reckon the biggest effect will be gained from his modified awareness of how he positions his body in contests.

No doubt some materials can absorb some of the forces, but at levels that won't protect against serious brain injury, so they're about as useful as braces to protect against instability in knees. The interesting aspect is whether the degree to which they absorb force would be practical (headgear wise) to wear on the footy oval, where the forces are less (as compared to car/bike) and thus able to prevent concussion. My suspicion is they'd all be running around with bubble-heads. Maybe in the future though.

I'm not sure the spinal cord is such a good 'anchor' F-5, as sufficient traction on the brain stem is effectively a death sentence. I don't doubt your helmet saved your skull, that's why they're absolutely worth wearing. Anyone who doesn't is nutty!

Helmets do nothing physically to prevent concussion, or more accurately described, brain injury. It's the same even for hard shell helmets, eg bike helmets. Either will only help to prevent superficial scalp wounds, bone (skull) bruising, and potentially skull fractures (depression fractures) due to a lateral spread of the impact force. Concussion occurs when the brain 'sloshes' inside the skull due to acceleration/deceleration forces secondary to impact and high speed whipping. There is however an unknown psychological contribution to helmets. Increased awareness of the wearer for their own head, and arguably even of the player coming at the helmet wearer. The converse argument would be that the wearer makes themselves a target.

Don't.

On current form we will win none of the last 3 games. It's that simple. Somehow, Goodwin and co. have to reverse the present mentality, deal with tiring younger players, find an answer to the diappearance of the swarming desperation around the contest that marked our best games, and get the players to take ownership. This is key, and seems woefully lacking. That GWS scored 8 goals in 15 minutes without a forward line (their 3 leading goal scorers, FFS!) tells me that even if we re-discover patches of our best, we are horribly brittle at the worst time of the year. Next Sunday will tell us all, but I fear that up against the likes of inspiring leaders like a retiring Nick Riewoldt with a last sniff of finals action, we will get utterly thumped. Call it MFCSS if you like, but I've seen this movie before (for 52 years) and nothing about this team and its capitulations tells me it's going to be different this time. The sadder potential outcome is that once more the football world will justifiably see us as pretenders, and laughably uncompetitive, which is a pervasive psyche and one the younger players could take into next year. As for destination club status, we will drop miles off it again. We've talked about season defining games a lot this year, but this Sunday's game truly wears that infamy.

Heartless, unaccountable football. And in just 15 minutes, our season is over. Wow!

We've avoid being slaughtered all this year, but not today I think. Hard to watch.

It's also where the Vineys live.

WOW!!!!! Watch the f***ing replay. HE DIDN'T DUCK!!!! Or position himself for the tackle. He ran straight and upright. Good God.

I feel your pain, binman. Having watched the Dixon head high tackle on Jetta over and over, as have you I'm sure, Jetta couldn't have done any better NOT to duck, so there can be but one explanation for the seeming delusion of others on here. Fake news! The Trumpist pathology is spreading, even to Demonland, and objective reality is no longer assured. Black is white, facts are flexible and the truth is alternative. Save your breath I reckon.

It's the 'happen too often' part of your assessment that is entirely subjective, and potential evidence of bias, particularly when put up against your stating the obvious that you 'want him to fix them and become a better player'. Of course we all want every player to be as good as they can be, it's the repetitive lack of apparent objectivity in judging their performance (relative to other players) that binman is highlighting. His seems a rock solid argument and yours just isn't.

Yours and VP's posts both beautifully reasoned and sensible. Excellent antidotes to bias and hyperbole.

bandicoot, you're pushing an unwinnable argument. Despite that Tyson and Viney were the pair almost singularly responsible for reversing the shift away from hard contested ball winning over the past 3 games, Dom Tyson is just going to be in the gun sights for a very vocal group on here. We missed him hugely and as you say he had a massive game.

6. Hibberd 5. Tyson 4. Jetta 3. Viney 2. Melksham 1. Hogan

What's being forgotten is that it was Jack's first AFL game in over a year, against a top 4 side. The reality is that Jack did everything asked of him, and did it really well. I reckon Goody and the coaching staff will be rapt with his role playing. All in all an excellent effort considering the adjustment in standard.

I watched footage of a couple of his run-throughs and couldn't determine which was the sore foot. Funny thing observer bias, you'll see a limp if you think there should be one. Try looking at the footage and see if you can name the dodgy foot. Either way, with an extra two days, expected levels of adrenaline, and the relatively conservative returns other players have had this year, I'm backing Jack and the rehab/fitness staff to have got it right.