John Crow Batty

Luke Jackson showing signs of his 2021 GF form according to The Age. Looks like that mystery knee niggle has been sorted out. “Luke Jackson was everywhere for the Dockers in his debut, sharing ruck duties with Sean Darcy, kicking a goal, and spending time behind the play in defence. He won the ball off the ground after a centre bounce and handballed to fellow recruit Jaegar O’Meara who speared a kick onto the chest of Nat Fyfe on the lead”

If Kozzie gives us a 100% this season and still leaves I won’t be upset. It’s his life and his choice but importantly if he stills delivers his best he deserves respect and gratitude. If he plays just good enough to keep his place in the side and still no contract signed I won’t be very pleased. Playing a halfarsed Luke Jackson certainly contributed to our late season decline in 2022.

I didn’t say it was Burgos fault. He had done his job well and there was nothing more he could offer us and left to rinse and repeat elsewhere. The big mistake was that the club believed continuing with his system could win us another flag.

Burgo’s system burnt the players out and no wonder he left after a couple of seasons. His method has a short use by date and he knows it. He’s another Ross Lyon who flogged the players to the limit for short term success. It was reported that Griffiths closely followed the Burgess system. The players were broken by mid season and it was inexcusable no one saw it coming. Barely any players rested for niggles and minor injuries all season. Only one debutant and bench players knocking on the door rarely used. Blame should be shared by the coaches as well for inflexibility and hubristic selections. They just thought “bang, bang bang” would happen on the flick of the switch till the very last.

I’ll wait to see if Kozzie develops the dodgy knee syndrome around midway through the season like what happened with Scully and Jackson.

On the park 3 times last season mostly during junk time for an average of 17 minutes each game. In Perth trying to to do the team thing busted his guts out tackling a WC player and earned two weeks rest.

True, but he been given bugger all chance to prove himself in the past two seasons.

Whe I first read the article in THE AGE focusing mostly on Harry being Jewish rather than his football talents, I thought here we go. Not unexpectedly antisemite comments followed. Was it necessary to print that article? He is Australian as well as not the first Australian of Jewish heritage to play the game. Media threw him under a bus as they do with others from non Anglo Christian European cultures. As for Lyon and Tim, they are not the sharpest or fastest wits around and in hindsight they perhaps regret not being on the ball.

One thing I noticed about the AFLW is that they are more mercenary. Lots of player changes. Still not a settled competition.

Being named Oliver is a good sign

I have always believed the Brownlow has been thoroughly corrupted by gambling and criminal activity for a very long time. Now I am more convinced. Without going into the dark side we have openly witnessed mental gymnastics worthy of a cross between Gary Kasparov, Olga Korbut and Einstein to get Cripps off his damning tribunal charges.

Ditch that Selwyn/Burgess fitness regime and we will be there. Flogging a horse to run hard only works for so long. No wonder Burgess only hangs around for a couple of seasons before moving on. He doesn’t want to be around when everything collapses. Like when Lyon coached the Dockers and Saints. Performed like a powerhouse for a couple of seasons before flaming out due to the players being pushed over the limit. He was unlucky not to get a flag like Goodwin did but we cant repeat the debacle of our second half of the season in 2023. We won’t build a dynasty with broken bodies. The penny dropped for Geelong and so should it for us.

Hope he divulges some hot tips on how to beat those [censored]

Unlike Max he had a fair bit of agro.

Sad that wanted to go but I can’t get the thought out of my mind with the similarity to the Scully situation. Both suffered chronic mild dicky knee syndrome that took the edge from their performances in their last season with us before curiously signing whopper interstate contracts. What’s the bet that like Scully he has a full recovery to his knee next season?

With Ablett’s issues at the time every other club would have let him go if they had him.

IMO our worst trades were when we got Kelvin Templeton and Peter Moore. Two stupendously highly paid superstars for the time who gave us absolutely nothing. Tellingly we only improved more or less immediately after they left. Templeton never really recovered from a serious knee injury sustained before he came to us and Moore just basically played for Brownlow votes.

Gawn is no where near as dominant contested marking as he was because players kick to him far too often especially in predictable set play scenarios. Opposition are aware and make sure there are at least two players around to make the spoil, make him pay for it, create a stoppage or ready to pinch the crumbs His numbers and averages are inflated because whilst still clunking them to keep up his average he drops a hell of a lot more or is effectively spoiled. His percentage is very low. What was once his major weapon has been more or less neutralised.

Confucius said that laws should be broadly based on ethics to make them enforceable. Narrowly defined and precise laws have too many loopholes. Would this philosophy apply to contracts?

The beginning of our downfall was when we started to choose to manage and absorb opposition pressure over applying our own in games

I switched off the TV at half time and took the dog for a long walk. Glad this season is over.

Why all the outrage? This and worse has been happening to ordinary First Nation peoples for centuries and nothing has changed for the better. However when the same discrimination happens to sportsman or celebrity First Nations person then mob mentality outrage becomes palpable. Many now want to care or pretend to so as to get their fix of conscious cleansing. Remember the Jurrah incident when he got celebrity justice and the best lawyers to get him off serious charges whilst his nobody co accused had to plead guilty to the same charges because no one would defend them. They got traditional First Nations justice. If most Australians really cared, these kind of outrages would have been extinct decades ago.

I observe that Collingwood play crap and wait for the opposition to tire or take the foot off the pedal before they make their surges and rely heavily on luck to go their way. But as is the case on putting too much faith in Lady Luck is that she gets bored eventually and declines to show up.

Jeremy Howe go and suck eggs.

If we only did not have the most banged up team because of playing injured players and the fewest game to game rotations as well as least injury subs used we could have mugged both of these sides.