John Crow Batty

We were in the bloody 8 on Saturday morning.

Then you are picking on the wrong player for losing on Saturday.

Give up moaning about his suspension and (Hogan's). It was long ago early in the season and he's behaved since. If you want to [censored] a dead horse there are others more worthy.

Shame he got unjustly pinged for a lot of real brilliant ones that were too slick for the umpires eyes.

He has to sell a S**t sandwich because there's nothing else.

I guess this year we had no fear for North, Freo, Collingwood, Hawthorn, Brisbane, GC for starters. We had them beat for the first five seconds.

Every half decent side expects a couple of upset losses a season. A sliver of percentage kept us out of the eight and if we won half of the upset losses and finished off our wins we could have been top four. I watched all of these games live or on TV and we made North, Freo, Hawks, Collingwood, GC and Brisbane look like top four sides for most or part of those games. Even though we got very close in the final quarter of all of those losses there was a feeling it was like climbing Everest without oxygen to overcome one or a couple of goals. The same as in 2016. Their is some serious headspace issues to overcome at the club that is killing our progress.

Oliver is still a kid. No where near his peak and has areas to work on though he is already doing amazing things. He could be the greatest ever and will one day rival Greg Williams.

I have mine direct debited automatically which is lucky for the club because the inertia this club gives me leaves me without energy to go through the motions of rejoining or cancelling.

Not the player he was at his peak and never will we see that here but he has been a huge positive for us this season I believe. I rate him a 7/10. We just look more 'experienced' and mostly solid with him in the side. A perception I found lacking for the past 7 or 8 years.

I agree, when he does kick it he usually makes good choices and he is an excellent kick in all situations. There was a good example in the 3rd quarter where he was boxed in on the boundary with the ball after another go nowhere chain of handballs. He elected to do a kick around the corner and put an excellent ball to a dangerous spot just inside 50. The alternative was to put out another handball to a covered player or be pressured over the line.

A good friend of mine got burned financially by the "Big H" on matters unrelated to this. Good media operator and a bit of a personality but one not to get involved in business with. Problem with him was that he believed his own hype and really thought he was the "Big H" in real life also.

He has a wicked boot from long range. Rarely misses.

Would be better to rest him once Jones is back I would think.

It a been a hard slog in the past two months. Lots of travel, good opposition and short breaks. Be thankful we won more than we lost in that period.

And if we win it will take us to 11 wins and our best win result since 2006.

A persistent problem for the last decade has been poor kicking skills. Hibberd and Melksham have made a huge difference in improving that.

I think its great that all grounds are slightly different. Or else it would be like drop in pitchs in cricket. Will get boring if every ground and game is the same.

I think the kind of marshalling and leadership he brings is something that's been sorely lacking for over over a decade. For that reason alone he has been invaluable.

As I recall Rance also copped a lot of criticism early in his career.

Asking for a lot there given the feisty forwards we have now. The request has been made adnauseum for a long time.

Nothing like a good spread topped off by a fiver.

Speaking of forwards when was the last time one of ours kicked five or more? I know Hogan had a few big bags but that's a while ago now.

Does it make any difference? We can't win at the MCG anyway.

I got the impression that the Crows worked him more harder with pressure than usual. Didn't faze him though.