Cheesy D. Pun

I agree with this with one exception and that's Caleb Daniel. We should have a forward tasked with looking after him all day. He can win possessions but every one of them needs to be under pressure.

Absolutely stoked with this.

Nope. The Demons are surfacing.

I totally understand what you're saying but he has every right to feel the way he does and to express it. The last part of your comment is full on - it's not the club (Essendon) he's talking about. In fact, the club is the villain in that story. They are other humans/friends that he feels he's representing - important people in his life who he shared a trauma with. As a football community, it does seem as though we ask players to be 'real', then when these moments take place, we're desperate for them to stick to the script. They genuinely can't win.

Absolutely agree. Smith is the perfect matchup for Naughton.

The only one that played definitively poor was Rivers but he probably has enough credit in the bank. Would absolutely love to see Jonesy as Medi sub for the granny. It's not easy sitting for 2 and a half qtrs before coming in, but Jordan seemed a bit off when he came on. Jonesy is next cab off the rank.

6 Gawn 5 Petracca 4 Viney 3 Oliver 2 Ben Brown 1 Langdon

Kicked the three best goals if his career in one qtr. Amazing.

Exactly. This translates to: we are absolutely not dealing with Melbourne again.

I find this view staggering. Next week, there will be four teams left. None of the four teams would go in clear favourites against any other. If our boys give it everything next week and come up short, I for one, won't be labelling them chokers.

Satisfied is not the right word, but it's been a fantastic season by any measure.

Absolutely agree with this. I'm on the fence but the discussion needs to happen.

What worries me is not so much his lack of input, it's the fact that he has looked cooked and is being overpowered easily at times. It has me querying whether his early start to pre-season means his year effectively ended a couple of weeks ago. I'm not stuck on this idea but it just concerns me a little. The week off could be just what he needs.

For some strange reason, I've grown to like Toby Greene but outside of clear accidents e.g umpire backs into player or vice versa, we can't be having to judge the sentiment of the player. This was easily avoidable and he walked straight through him. This shouldn't be decided based on anything Matt Stevic says. It was avoidable and there was contact, so there should be a sanction. Add in Greene's previous umpire contact and it should come back as at least a week.

Putting aside the fact that we probably can't do enough to appease Freo in a trade scenario, we also have to ensure that we don't push the current group to breaking point (ala Collingwood). We have so much potential growth in this group that adding another player in that younger age range raises potential issues as well as benefits. I'm not saying we can't pursue these kinds of players but it will require some exceptional management. Expectations around salaries will need to be tempered. For example, can you see Clarry accepting a deal for significantly less than Trac? If not, then we are not in the discussion for players like Cerra.

6 Trac (a little polish and he would have had 30 and 5) 5 Oliver 4 Gawn 3 Lever 2 Fritsch 1 Viney

We have shown time and again, that we are resilient and bounce back as well as any team. We need to play well tonight but if the result doesn't go our way, I'd still back us to find a way forward as we've done all season.

You can see Stanley go to pick Max up but someone calls him back to the goal line. Stanley turns with his arms out to his team mate as if to say why TF are you calling me back?

This is it in a nutshell. The coach is just one portion of the recipe for success and if everything else is in place, any coach in the system should be able to get a competitive result. That's why it drives me nuts when we hear of 'genius' coaches such as Clarkson but with no evidence other than results to support it.

Ridiculous decision. Two years is not enough time to build something and now they start again but with a demoralised playing and probably some overly aggressive old coach ready to drive them off a cliff.

Everyone on board! Momentum is everything and these are the moments when some kids will chose their teams. Plenty of time to be hated if we can have prolonged success. Now is the time to grow our supporter base.

I don't see the obsession with ducking as a marker for character. Tacklers and umpires adjust and the game gets better as a result. There may be some room for umpires to improve their adjudication of ducking but it's not the player's issue.

Their list is fine. Their administration is a shambles. It's a power-hungry boy's club that's eager to make decisions when what they need is stability. They're about to replicate the same mistake they'd just finished making by replacing a young developing coach with an old angry one. It's ludicrous. Maintaining stability is a proven recipe for success.

Yep. Far too good in traffic to be a forward only.

How good was his contested marking, last night! He is a beast for his size. That said, I can still understand people wanting JJ over him. I'm on the fence as JJ has looked very lethargic in his last few performances, so I suspect it's less about who is the better player and more about who can bring the heat.