binman

35 minutes in and they have barely mentioned the dees I get that it is the swans 150th celebration, but it is also the bloody opening round and we're pretty keen to hear about our club too.

Curious.

Before he came to the dees, i always thought he was super over rated. Don't get me wrong he's solid ruck, got tap work and he is a fit bugger. But he is dead slow and short for a ruck. Now that he has left, normal transmission can resume He's plodder. The idea that this an even battle is ridiculous. Max will school him.

How good has the England India test series been. Awesome test match cricket.

It's bad enough the media is out to get us without statisticians and mathematicians jumping on board the anti dees train! Even @WheeloRatings is agin us, predicting a 7.9 point loss: https://www.wheeloratings.com/afl_match_previews.html

I would be. In fact surprised is way too mild a description of what my reaction would if Fullarton plays in this match.

Berlin.

A terrific band. Funny you should mention the bass player, one of things i loved about them was their rumbling, swampy bass lines. The vid i posted, Passenger Blues, is a great example. Listening to it now on Spotify - they have 74 monthly listens , so plenty of scope for rediscovery! The Deadly Hume was also a great name for an indy band in the 80s given the indy rock circuit basically consisted of Melbourne and Sydney bands driving up and down the Hume in dodgy vans and old station wagons. And a tragically prescient name too. One of my all time favorite bands, and one that i really think was destined for greatness and huge popularity, particularly with the Nirvana lead grunge explosion on the horizon, was Eastern Dark (which i have little doubt you know well hardtack). Around for little more than year, they crashed their van on the Hume on the way down to play gigs in Melbourne (one of which i was going to, and a mate's band was supporting). Tragically their lead singer, James Darroch (ex Celibate Rifles - such a great, funny name for a post punk rock band) died, and the other two band members were seriously hurt. They had not long finished recording an EP, produced by Rob Younger of Radio Birdman fame (a brilliant producer) called Long Live the New Flesh. Realized posthumously, it is 16 minutes of simply fantastic power Ramones inspired power pop. Great, clean sound and mix too. One of the great Australian records. Best of health HT - positive vibes coming your way.

He had the right to brace for contact? Yep, that's exactly what he argued. A ridiculous argument. Because, one he initiated contact. Two, since when is bracing for contact defined as turning your body and bumping an opponent with your shoulder to their head? In fact to brace for contact in a situation where you are falling is defined in the Collins dictionary as: 'If you brace yourself against something or brace part of your body against it, you press against something in order to steady your body or to avoid falling' A definition difficult to apply to Maynard's decision to bump. And easy to apply to the logical way of bracing for contact when falling towards someone - putting both hands out to brace the fall. Why did the AFL not challenge Maynard's defence he was bracing for contact by choosing to bump rather than the way 95 people out of 100 would do in such circumstances if the aim was to protect himself? Again, try this experiment. Stand and fall face first to the ground. What is your INSTINCTIVE reaction to brace for the inevitable contact with the ground and protect yourself from harm? I'm not sure about you, but for the vast majority of people it ain't turning your body and smashing your shoulder into the ground. And (getting into the territory of whether this was in fact an unavoidable incidental football act, as opposed to the reckless act it so clearly was - as evidenced by the sickening impact) Gus was not really the 'ball carrier' as such. It's interesting you raise the viney example. IIRC he braced for contact, by turning his shoulder, when a player with the ball ran at him. He did so to protect himself from a danger HE DIDN'T INITIATE. And further, he wasn't moving towards his opponent, his opponent was moving - at speed- towards him In such circumstances, his decision to get into a ball to protect himself was completely reasonable. And unlike Maynard's decision to bump to brace for contact, is EXACTLY what most people would do to protect themselves in such circumstances. Unlike Viney, Maynard initiated contact. And critically, very much unlike the Viney incident, the ball had left the area. Remember, his argument was he merely attempting to smother. Well he got nowhere near doing so. The ball was 20 metres away by the time of contact. And finally, why did the AFL not drill down on the defence it was a football act? The obvious rebuttal to that spurious defence was that, sure a smother is a football act, but was that really a smother as it is generally understood? Running full tilt at someone who is running at you, jumping 10 foot in the air and completely missing the ball? That's a smother? A smother is generally understood to mean diving at the foot of the kicking player, hoping to literally smother the ball as it leaves the boot. So the person smothering has to be pretty damned close to the kicker - not 30 metres away. Besides, if it really was a 'football act' why is that first time (as far as I'm aware of) that a scenario like that has ever happened, where a player knocks out an opponent when attempting to smother?

Alot to love in this post. Great, short lived Sydney band. Family. My second favourite city. Dees. Go redlegs.

The dees comms really does need to improve. I mean Nhill is not even in NSW.

And don't forget another ex pie didn't even consider it worthy of being looked at!

No, it's not that. It's just that he plays a critical role as a defender. Riv's run and carry from the back half is key to our transition game. And there is no obvious replacement, certainly not one with his skill set and/or could play the role to his level. By contrast we have langdon, Windsor, Hunter, Billings, nibbla, Laurie, howes and spargs who could all conceivably play on the wing.

But he DID bump. That's the point. That was never in question Choose to bump. Pay the price - that's the rule whether it occurs during a careless or incidental contact or not. Or a 'football act'. They didn't debate he bumped Gus. They argued he was merely protecting himself whilst engaged in a football act. A reasonable choice to make in the circumstances A shepperd is unarguably a football act. But CHOOSE to bump and you knock.a player out you are gone. Just as Maynard should have copped weeks when he CHOSE to bump rather than, say, just putting both hands out to Gus's chest to minimise the potential for harm for BOTH of them. If in that latter scenario he accidentally hit Gus in the head and knocked him out, yes that would not be reportable. BUT HE DIDN'T - HE CHOSE TO BUMP. Maynard owed Gus a duty of care once he chose to bump - and did not meet that duty of care when he hit him flush to the head.

I'm not being smart, but I can't see riv playing on the wing at any point. Through the middle maybe, perhaps occasionally swapping with salo

Here's hoping the shackster makes petty work hard for his spot.

Surely Laurie gets the gig. But spargo plays the same role as Laurie (high half forward) and chin plays closer to goal, so it feels as if we would be a small forward short if Chandler doesn't start. Perhaps the short, narrow SCG makes that less an issue than it would be at the g with all that space inside 50.

This is a big slider:

I assume so. I haven't tested it though Perhaps wait until we [censored] the Swans. Again, footy gods I'm joking (not joking)

Amazing what a practice match win does for the vibe! Those numbers might change of we lose tomorrow night. (by the way I'm not particularly superstitious, and it's plain crazy to think me writing the above might have an impact on the result tomorrow night - but out of an abundance of caution, footy gods please note i was JOKING!)

Indeed. But the real issue is whether it was a smother or pressure is immaterial. He should have got weeks because he chose to turn and bump - and flushed Gus with his shoulder. Text book. He had the option to put his hands out to protect himself and Gus. Which as Brad Scott said, is EXACTLY what he he would have done if that incident happened at training and Pendlebury was the player he was running at to spoil. Or as a poster noted here, a brilliant analogy i thought, if your 3 year old was on your bed and you fell towards them what would you do? What would your instinctive reaction be to protect your child? To protect your child, would you turn your body in mid air, brace and flush them with your shoulder? Or would you remain chest on and put your hands out in front to do everything you could to protect them? Hell, do the same thing with no child, just you but falling face first to the ground. What's your natural instinct? What's the natural instinctive reaction to protect yourself? Every time its putting both hands out to cushion your fall. NOT turn your body and smash your shoulder into the ground. It's why the AFL's prosecution was so pathetic. They completely allowed the pies movement expert to spout rubbish and not push back. Or even ask the questions above - which i would have thought are the logical questions. Or perhaps ask: 'Mr Maynard, you CHOSE to to turn your body and bump to protect yourself. That choice clearly protected you, but not your opponent. In hindsight, what other ways might you have CHOSEN to protect yourself AND show a duty of care to your opponent and minimise the risk of head trauma? Was turning your body and choosing to bump your opponent in the head REALLY the only option you had to protect yourself and your opponent?' You might ask those questions IF YOU ARE ACTUALLY TRYING TO GET A GUILTY VERDICT. Or you might call YOUR OWN biomechanical expert as a witness to rebut theirs. One that might for instance explain how many decisions can be made in a spilt second and how for example divers and gymnasts turn their body ALL THE TIME in a split second to minimise the impact of a mistimed dive or jump. Pathetic. The fix was so in It infuriates me.

Tough first round for the blues having to play the lions at the gabba at night without weitering and Walsh.

No wonder he has a gig in the footy media.