John Crow Batty

West Coast are generally a 10 goal better side playing at Optus.

If we get in a close game in Adelaide the umpiring becomes stacked against us at the finish as happened in 2018 against Port and in 2021 against Crows.

Port Adelaide’s now new umpire favourites.

I recall reading that Leigh Matthews admitting he never got into a fight outside of football in his life. We must remember that players with certain abilities were encouraged to be thugs by coaches and the games culture. Thuggery has through footballs history until recently has been a core tactic of the game. A throwback to aggressive zero sum what ever it takes to win Anglocentric colonial/settler culture. It is what it is and now only legal implications not player welfare keep egregious brutality in check.

Malthouse learnt his craft under Allan Jeans at St Kilda. Arguably the most thuggish team at the time.

Yep he did play for Kew. At the time Kelvin Matthews, Leigh Matthews brother who also played for Hawthorn came to our school and invited all the best school footballers to go down to train at Hawthorn. 5 of them eventually made it into the Hawthorn squad. Dipper was invited also because of his size and strength. At school football games he could run hard in a straight line and bowl opponents over but that was all to his game. He could barely kick the ball.

Jeans was senior sergeant at East St Kilda Police Station. The toughest most notorious police station in Victoria during the 1960-70’s. Dipper once said he was a very scary coach.

Yep I did.

Dipper was a true gentleman off the field. Went to school with him. A monster guy even then but carried himself with dignity and grace. Protected the small kids and school bullies and toughs feared him. Allan Jeans turned him into a football thug. Actually Allan Jeans should be on the thug list as well.

I love Roo’s set shot kicking action. Lots of Dunstall and Lockett vibes about it. Well studied and precise. Looks like 40 metres out is about his limit but so it was for those two.

Since the JVR incident we have lost a player every week due to suspension where before and for a couple of seasons we rarely had a player suspended. Coincidence?

Should be de gawn.

I hope the two games against North and WC soften up Collingwood like what happened with us at same time last season.

Some good signs back. Won clearances and contested possessions well. Poor set shot kicking kept Carlton in the game.

Fans see us backsliding. Fans were led to believe that we will challenge for another another flag. So far our results have been mixed, playing well below our best and not matching it with stronger clubs. Many fans will vituperate accordingly.

Lots of sliding door moments. Luck, avoiding injuries, building momentum etc will be decisive in second half of season. We are not there yet. Last season Collingwood rode their luck with winning all their close finishes in regular season but 2 close losses killed their finals campaign. Their game was matched in heated finals pressure.

Our pressure in the past two games has been great but it’s like furiously dog paddling to stop from drowning. We stay in the game but never look like pinching the game. A veil of negativity has closed over us.

Gawn/Grundy combination not going well. It’s like they play in their own individual bubbles who randomly float, flop and bounce around the ground. Cant dominate centre clearances or stoppages or even break even and their marking contests are predictably crumbed by the opposition ad nauseum. The game looks like moving past these former greats.

Delete

Team playing with no mojo. Narrm been boned by a kurdaitcha.

moderators please delete this thread.

On a serious note the Caminiti/Owen incident is very similar to the Neil Sachse/Kevin O’Keefe incident many years ago where Sachse charges at the ball and falls forward head first and hits O’Keefe’s knee who is coming the other way. Left Sachse a quadriplegic who eventually died of complications a couple of years ago.

The big Karrinyup shopping centre in Perth near my home is extremely busy today. Traffic everywhere, car park full and cars parked on verges risking fines. No one is home watching the WC game today and going for retail therapy instead.

Last night was deja vu for me. Was watching on AFL our game against Port in 2018 on a wet night in Adelaide. A real tough game like last night and we got murdered by maggots in the last quarter to make sure Port got up for a narrow victory. Uncanny the similarity.

North exceeded interchange limit from 75 to 76.