John Crow Batty

Wayne Gordon coming from Collingwood played in 1980 and 81 for us. Tragically he got cancer, had to retire and passed away in 1983 aged 29.

David Rodan, Tomas Bugg, Joel MacDonald and Alistair Clarkson. Now better known for post playing activities. Shaun Smith. Mark of the century but in hindsight a bad taste in mouth for other reasons. Jordan Lewis. Helped us get out of the doldrums.

I like to track JVR’s progress with Tom Hawkins. TH debuted a year younger but their stat comparison for their first two seasons are quite interesting. Both similar specimens at comparable age and development. Games, TH-19, JVR-26. Disposals-TH-196, JVR-227. Goals, TH-25, JVR-36. Contested marks, TH-23, JVR-22. Tackles, TH-24, JVR-57. There is a significant divergence in contested marks and tackles but these numbers reflects more how the game was played then and now. I can understand why the club has given JVR a long contract extension. His upside is huge.

Omitting context is an effective tactic to shape the narrative and result they want.

Many players who are not established stars sign extensions when running hot then their form drops. JVR not so hot at the moment. Hoping he goes against the grain and fires up big time.

The game was mostly an aberration for us. Clear from after the Adelaide game we were shagged out. We will be better after the bye but long term resilience is a worrying issue as demonstrated by the past two finals campaigns and this early hiccup does not inspire confidence.

Don’t mind the Gather Round concept but I would prefer it to be the first round of the season to minimise disruptions for clubs.

Awful, bloody awful punch out by Jackson back towards centre half forward for Carlton to get the hacked touched kick away. Should have gone for the boundary side. Horrible game by him.

The Edge of Reality

All is not lost, they can always bring Weid back into the side.

Dwelling in the esoteric here but Robbo has always reminded me of the loud drunken slob journalist GURU BRAMIN from the crazy 60’s comedy film THE LOVED ONE. The perfect real life channeling fiction portrayal.

Players used to be shorter but they were relatively naturally physically stronger for their size. Thats why Gordon Coventry and Bob Pratt could play key full forward roles despite being at the average midfielder size these days. Men in the old days were used to daily hard physical exertion and daily incidental exercise since they were children and not when they started gym work as teenagers as many do these days after relatively less physically challenging childhoods.

Demons 4, Adelaide Umpires 0.

The Eagles need to do a complete clean out of their off field coaching, administration and personnel. Thats where their major problems lie. Talks of assistance should not happen until they demonstrate they have made the hard decisions and demonstrated genuine efforts and hard yardage to restore their standing with the bountiful resources the club still possesses which make the majority of other clubs appear to be paupers in comparison. They also have good young talent to work with already and don’t deserve any extra assistance.

Umpire votes are cast at the end of games. Like at the end of any hard day at work, the last chore is done quickly so one can go home. I doubt much discussion and thought is given to the task. That’s the lot of Brownlow votes.

Flawed system that weights theoretical perfection and what ifs over the reality that in our game errors and chaos are a constant and ignores the rule that game play always resets after a score or stoppage. Kicking ten behinds in a row does not mean ten goals were missed. It only means a behind was scored after the last behind only.

There would be few umpires who have the guts to call out a player running off his line kicking after the siren. Consciously placing themselves to be heavily scrutinised and swamped with vituperation. Has it ever happened before?

I bet their spiritual home is Snowtown.

Certainly our gutsiest win for a long time. Only disappointment was conceding 89 points.

My wife dubbed Adelaide as the city of bad hair many years ago.

Yep we need a strong start. A close game at the death will see us get ripped off by the weak willed umpires succumbing to the feral fans. Happens to most close games in Adelaide. A fast start by us will shut them up.

Looking at the Sportsbet odds, Port at $1.46 and Demons $2.66 indicates punters see us as a significant underdog. I don’t recall odds like this since 2020.

Many fans hoped that scores were not too close at the end of games so that they could leave early in junk time and avoid the car park exit gridlock.

Becoming so predictable now. Big name player gets suspended. Tribunal hands out get out of jail free card.