John Crow Batty

Matt Taberner reported to be in doubt for Freo. Could not finish training today and has to pass fitness test tomorrow morning. Huge out for them if so and hard to replace.

Frustrating thing with Tmac is he has been getting injured when just hitting good form and it takes him ages to get it back once he returns from injury.

Delete.

Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and confusing Tribunal and MRP decisions.

That hard tackle on Langdon when he was vulnerable and in no position to absorb its force did not have the potential to cause injury?

If Ginnivan showed signs of injury, pain, discomfort or irritation because of the tackle then fair enough a suspension for Switkowski. What he did deserved a fine maybe for the bad optics.

Not just injuries. The TV commentators have influence also and the tribunal takes notice. With Langdon, the commentators said basically nothing wrong there. With the Chicken wing tackle there was expressions of outrage as with the Viney incident last season. The tribunal acts accordingly. If the commentators didn’t speak up about the chicken wing tackle I doubt anyone would have noticed. Then again if someone like Tom Hawkins applied that limp chicken wing tackle the commentators would have said he had nothing to answer for.

Switkowski is a good player and a big loss for Freo. But how pathetic is the tribunal? A weak chicken wing tackle applied with no force earns a two weeks suspension. He just basically folded Ginnivans arm behind his back. No signs of injury, pain or protest from Ginnivan. No sense of rational proportion at all.

“Super underdogs this weekend. Nothing to lose hopefully we throw everything we have against the dee's.” Tired of hearing this defeatism every week.

A lot of criticism for Ben Brown, but he set up the 2 goals that helped us break the game open late in the third quarter.

Why all this hand wringing over Carlton? There are always viable challengers. If we repeat we have to beat them. Premierships are not an armchair ride.

Its kind of like he had a footballing epiphany after his suspension late last season. Been a different player since.

The tackle was correctly applied. However the WC player lacked situational awareness and lost his balance because he was not braced for contact. No case to answer.

From recent memory Hawkins and Niknat have got off after applying similar tackles that have caused similar injuries.

This game is making me more nervous than if we were playing Freo or Brisbane. I could never trust WC to put in a shocker against us.

Reported that stars Shannon Hurn and and Andrew Gaff are now outs for WC due to “niggles”. Apparently now have only 23 fit players to choose from.

Take GA seating. There isn’t a bad seat at Optus.

They can have the praise, we settle for the four points.

Right now its up to the players if they want to turn up to play. Some bad cultural dissent appears there. It’s like week to week ask themselves should we have a crack or not? Witness their very impressive win against Collingwood. We saw the signs of this last season where amongst a smattering of good performances they were dreadful. Interesting to see what kind of effort they dish up against us. I would never write them off.

Imagine if we didn’t put the cue in the rack in the last quarter against the Hawks. Two out of three games they completely lose the plot in the last quarter. They was plenty of percentage for harvesting.

Swans having a forward line revolving around Franklin is starting to look like a mill stone around their neck.

At his age, he’s destined for the cattery.

Round 9, 2019 when the umpires robbed us at Optus Oval in the last quarter against WC. Since then Optus has been pure joy attending.

The concept and naming is a good idea but much going on there on the jumper. I prefer something more akin to the traditional elegant grace and simplicity of indigenous art. Reminds me of the old dreaded Schwabovian shield logo from the dark days. And why does the oversized bird of prey remind me too much of Meth Coke and the Dorks?

I think we are doomed.