binman

I'm not quite sure where i stand on this game yet yeater. Much will depend on selection and how the three boys who were concussed come up. All three are important, for different reasons. We need ANBs run as GWS will 100% look to use the width of the G, though not as much as say the Hawks, Pies or WC. The they will look to use the corridor more but still we need runners to cover them. Smith gives at the contest and up forward and the player who can play as a defensive forward on Shaw. And personally i hope they don't pick Preuss and Smith gives us that option. And Salem is the most critical of those three as we simply can't afford not have by far our best kick not playing this game. I've gone off Lewis to be honest and i think he will play out the season at Casey once Lever is back but i wonder if he comes in for Friiter or Stretch (although Stretch isn't like for like). But they also might decide not to make any changes and back the 22 from last game. So i'll keep my power dry until the final teams are announced Friday night.

If (and yes it is very big if) we get a win this week there will be some very positive vibes coming from the club with so many players on the cusp of being ready for senior selection.

Says a lot about the world we live in. We are dumbing down at an alarming rate. But fear not you are well and truly not alone. It appears to me the majority of people can't - or more likely simply can't be bothered- apply logic or intelligence to issues. Much easier to throw some wacko comment our there and expect people to react to said comment and then bat it back and forward. I feel old.

You obviously took no time to try and apply some logic to the question. Give it a go.

There are any number of reasons why they might publically say they didn't review that game when in fact they had. And much nuance in rhe statement the club did not review it. Apply some intelligence and thought to it and you will work out what those reasons might be and what the nuances might be.

Fair dinkum I'm getting fed up with this sort or rubbish. The way so many so called demon fans on this site insult omac is simply pathetic. This (ridiculous) thread is about teamates not sticking up for max. One of the players that reacts is omac, but still he's not immune from critisism. Our he man that everyone was drooling over pre season gets suspended in a practice game for being a stupid faux tough guy and misses round 1 and who knows costs us the game. Did you watch the game? Meek? Omac attacked contest after contest and despite the fears of darling and Kennedy rag rolling him more than held his own. Laid some big tackles and got smashed plenty of times too. And unlike Frost didn't make any brain dead errors, turnovers or clangers that cost us goals or chances to clear our defence. Don't believe me? Go look at omac's video of his involvement on statspro on tbe AFL website. His best game for the season. Joeboy even called it serviceable, which for him is akin to saying very good game. How about posters get around the young fella, who as is pointed out above is only 23. Still young for a KPD. Many seem to love Sam Collins for gc. Instructive he us older (just) than omac and was towelled up by tmac against us and I think cost them the game. Love him, hate him, ambivalent or simply don't think he is up to the job at least be happy we have him in the side atm while his two highly paid teammates sit out with injury, one for being an undisciplined peanut who despite being a so called leader didn't think to ask his new club what their expectations were for him in terms of getting ready for preseason. Now that's meek.

Right on. Would have clocked him, given them another goak snd copped a six week suspension.

It was that day.

The issue is that if you come to the afl with a suspect kicking technique it may improve a bit but will always be suspect. A gun junior like trac will have kicked a footy 100, 000 times. More probably. Hard to re train that. And a gun like trac would not have that weakness exposed as s junior. His skills would still put him above everyone.

I wondered if they might do that Friday night. Not the craziest idea, in part because playing him higher mitigates somewhat his biggest weakness - his kicking ie turnovers are not in such a dangerous spot.

That is exactly right. Those sort of blocks occur at almost every marking contest with multiple players contesting. Gawn gets blocked like that all the time. The other issue is where the free gets paid. That ridiculous decisions gifts them a goal, so a huge impact. The failure to pay a blatant throw (albeit one that is hard to see) gifts them another. When you consider the Smith error, which unquestionably was wrong and me likely would have resulted in a dees goal, and the fact we did not receive any frees for blocks that occurred near our goals then it is hard not argue the umpiring errors had a bearing on the result of the game (Yes, yes Macca we lost it with our rubbish kicks for goals so I AM NOT BLAMING THE UMPIRES). In isolation that is not great but it happens. But where it is the norm rather than the exception the supposedly elite competion has a real problem. And no amount of head I'm in the sand, let's not bag the umpires, it is a difficult game to umpire palaver will change that. But lets be clear I don't blame the umpires , i blame the AFL for not biting the bullet and having professional umpires like other elite sports.

But surely if you agree full time professional umpires would improve things then you would support them being introduced. And if the answer is yes then that is an achnowledment umpiring needs to be improved. You are right that it is a devilishy difficult game to umpire. Made more difficult by the fact that unlike your examples of other sports it is 360 degrees. All the more reason to have pros, given the complexity of the rules and the difficulty of the decisions that have to make in spit seconds And for writing the rules more clearly for tbat matter. We are talking about a multi billion dollar industry. Near enough is simply not good enough when it comes to the umpiring of the sport. The AFL needs elite decision makers who are incredibly fit and can make split second interpretations of rules that always have shades of grey. And you need teams of them who have synergy and apply rules and interpretations consistently within games. Of course thst won't elimante mistakes. They still occur in those sports like the NBA that have fully professional referees not part timers who have other jobs. But they happen less, more is reasonably expected of tbem and those refs can be held more accountable. By the by I would argue basketball is equally difficult to umpire. Far less rules and a much smaller space but fast and congested. And in the NBA huge stakes.

It beggars belief. And it is a really bad look for the AFL that it was a WA umpire who obviously should have paid the free to Smith, but failing that applied the common sense approach the AFL were so happy with in the rampe non free call and occurs in 90% of situations where a player doesn't hear the play on call. Did he cheat? No of course not. But he made a blatant wrong call that changed the game and may have had a bearing on the result of the match. Leaving aside the discussion as to whether we can blame the umpires for our loss (of course it is our fault, we should have not missed so many easy chances) it simply is not acceptable for a supposedly elite, fully professional sport not to have elite umpires who, under pressure, make a high percentage of correct calls. The answer is simple. Expensive, but simple. Fully professional, full time umpires who are paid extremely well, have clear kpis and have incentives built in to their contracts to exceed those kpis. People love to compare AFL to other professional competitions like the NBA, NFL, EPL etc. It goes without saying that those competitions have full time referees. It is beyond a joke we don't. Would doing so eliminate errors such as the Smith one? No, of course not. But umpiring standards would absolutely improve, which they need to do if the sport is serious. And it would go along way with addressing the issue of difficulty attracting umpires to the sport. Pay AFL umpires 250k a year plus bonuses and you create a legitimate career option and pathway. And something they can do straight away is ensure all games in Adelaide and Perth don't have local umpires. Absolutel no brainer.

Are you serious? What on earth does that have do with kennedy making an unrealistic attempt at marking.

That drove me insane. And it perfectly captured the benefit wc get at home in terms of umpiring. If that was a dees player the crowd would have gone nuts after 15 metres and the ump would have responded with a free. Hurn? Crickets

And to add to that list a non 50 when a wc player ran within a foot of one of our players. So frustrating after harmed getting pinged twice and being further away and not causing a my interference against the hawks. Umpiring was appaling. We should write to the AFL for an explanation of the Smith free.

Fritsh should be droppoed for that alone. Add in his missed targets and really poor decisions then he is outski

Elegt- please stop posting

Not wet but likely to be very dewy, particularly in the second half. Overnight temp predicted to go down to 3 degrees.

Definitely hurt his ankle in that last tackle and was hobbling pretty badly. But why would they not make petty emergency in that scenario? I hope they don't play preuss. Conditions won't suit.

Agree. And on a slippery night he would struggle to mark and offer little once the ball hit the deck. No doubt this was factor in why WC did not go with a second ruck.

Sounds a bit on the buses

Loss is the most likely outcome od. And no shame in that. We have close to half of our best 22 out playing the reigning premier, who have most of their best available, at their home ground interstate. But hope springs eternal and whilst a loss would hurt (but not sting, assuming we give total effort) a win could change the trajectory of our season and be one for the ages. Beware the motivated underdog, coming off an inspirational last gasp win, who have nothing to lose. Go dees.

The dewy, slippery conditions will negate their biggest weapon- the marking power of Kennedy and Darling (as well as making it harder to maintain possession through kick mark possession chains). Tmac on the other hand is well practiced in not taking clean marks and taking juggled marks (joke btw). Dare I say it but the ground ball battle will be critical. Rioli a good in for them but let's hope he is a bit under done.

I have been a fan but I'm going a bit luke warm on him to be honest. I wonder however if the threat of being dropped curtails his game as he is incredibly risk averse with his kicking and in terms of when to play on after a mark 9often choosing to hold it at half back instead of a quick kick to a free player). Which is a shame because he is an accurate, if not long, kick and good by hand. Maybe with stretch of games he might be confident to take the game on a bit more. We need good kicks in the side, he is fit, works hard (so important at the moment in terms of getting across to disrupt or man the mark from the chip kicks to free player so many teams are using - which by the by is one reason I'm glad Baker has come in, he will chase and harry all game) and he has his chance to lock in a best 22 spot. JKH will take his spot if he can't do so.