Pates

I really liked in the Pies game when he did that big first towards goal and I think it was Clarry that ran onto it. I think with Preuss it might be better to get the a bit of separation from the pack, obviously as long as it’s towards a plan that everyone is work to. Only concern is that the dogs have good speed in the middle and if they get onto it it could backfire very quickly.

I heard they’re playing him in defence at training, is there any particular reason for this? I’d be keen to know where is mind is at before looking at bringing him back. Coulf be a Mitch Clark situation where the damage has been done.

What was the question mark on English? Any way we can exploit it? I felt that Preuss held his own against Grundy (with Grundy clearly the classier player) so hopefully that may give him some confidence going into this match. Settled teams are usually good teams, happy to take the same group from the Pies game. I feel like we win this week finals are well and truly in sight, and we can push further up the ladder. A loss and we’re back to the pack again, back to fighting. I thought he was starting to gain a little confidence over the last couple of weeks, he’s getting to more contests and bringing it to ground he just isn’t clunking marks. His hands just don’t seem to being coming up in a confident way, it’s more like he’s swatting. But through his contested work we got a few goals last week, steps ahead.

And dodgy 50m penalty.

“The Demons are believed to have had the fewest membership refunds of any club.” Anyone that says we aren’t passionate and care about our club can suck on that! ? I never like our club going the early crow though saying we’ll be debt free by this time next year, if there’s one certainly in football it’s that nothing is certain. Still they have done a truly remarkable job in difficult times.

Barracking for a scrappy 35 - 35 draw between Dons and Tiges now, with half of the tigers players reported and suspended for 2+ weeks. Lynch to miss a shot after the siren to win the game. I also would like us to face them first/second week of finals and knock them out. Jeez him bringing the GF has definitely brought out some feelings I repressed!

Past: The Wiz Present: Hard to go past big Max

That makes my blood boil so much seeing that incident again. Let's put something into context here, Long got 4 matches for that sickening, disgusting, dog act of which he served 2 matches in the pre-season. 2 home and away matches against one of the worst act of cowardice on Grand Final day. Wallace also served his 3 match ban in the pre-season so essentially no punishment handed down. Should never be forgotten and Dimma is pathetic for making Schwartz sound like a cry baby for wanting to stand up for his mate.

Chat to Apple and Co's auto-correct, I think most Bradshaw's come from that.

The Foxtel website, particularly the Foxtel Go side of things is probably one of the worst sites in the world. On Demand takes forever to get updated, TV guide doesn't even work.

He kicked that cracker of a goal against North Melbourne as well, hit it so sweetly and it sailed through beautifully. Viney being injured and the midfield being restructured to give him more an opportunity could've been the best thing to happen to him (and the team by extension). Sometimes you create opportunities through best 22 players getting injured, would Weid have come on as strongly had he continued to share the forward line with TMac in those first few games back? Could we find something new with Preuss with Gawn and Jacko being out?

Unfortunately much like last year it seems the Tigers are going to position themselves strongly for a big push at the end of the year. Hopefully not though! Well done to the Ox for not firing up about it, he could quite easily have brought up Green getting disgustingly taken out behind play.

He definitely looks better when he’s patrolling through the middle of the ground. Interesting that his efficiency has improved as well, makes you wonder about how much of a difference lower confidence plays on every facet of a players game. I’d always had him as quite a good user of the footy until this year where he was absolutely butchering kicks. North and the Pies is definitely more what I remember from him.

Jeez I’ve lost a fair amount of respect for him with those comments as you say Essendon came out that day not to play fair but to bully, dominate, and hurt us. For him to bring up the Grand Final like that is pretty low.

That would make a mountain of sense, but I also guarantee the big name players would massively opposite it. One of the things the MRP used to have which I really agreed with was the reprimand system essentially meaning if you continue cheap shots then you get fined. Under that old system, Tom Lynch would be out for a week for repeated low grade offences. So too would Burgoyne have been suspended for repeated dangerous tackles. To me that just makes sense. I remembered thinking the same thing when Ablett got away with his cheap shots last year.

Anyone else loving seeing #nofreekickhawthorn!? The Pies game definitely squared the ledger a lot, we got one of the best rides I’ve seen from the umpires that night.

If Preuss and Gawn are both unavailable then it’ll be TMac main ruck with Tommo chopping out.

There are players that just like playing against us and Bruce has been that in the past, having said that the defensive structure is working at the moment so I think you back Tomlinson in. Maybe instead of one of their cutting us to shreds it’ll be one of our big lads getting a bag.

We’d have to win every game from here and that is not us, at least not from what I have seen. I’m enjoying the individual wins we’ve had and looking no further than the dogs. Lose that and we’re back to scrapping in the middle pack. Personally I can see us finishing around 6th if we continue our good form, perhaps with part of an eye on 2021.

Hopefully there were learnings from the Port game that can get us over the line, even if we have to scrap it.

Good call, throughout that coverage they brought up the “taps to advantage” and Gawn was killing it, as you pointed out our players had the fumbles that night and Brisbane hunted the first receiver causing a spillage and from there they just worked harder and smarter to get the ball out. It’s one of the reasons that while I’m obviously not happy about Gawn being out I think the club should be relishing the chance to have our players hunt the ball much the same way Brisbane did. We did it a few times against the pies but mostly they got first use, I think an English v Preuss battle with the midfield both teams have will be a really interesting contest. The way we are pushing at the moment I’d rather us get our skipper right than rush him back in.

I’m just waiting for him to kick a bag. At least two-three times this year he’s had the chance to kick 4 or more, and again against the Lions he could’ve won the game for us off his own boot, so his inaccuracies have cost him I’d say another 6 goals to his tally which would put him at the top of our tally. I’ve really like his game since he came in, he just needs to put it into a more rounded performance with accurate kicking and he could get himself a big bag. I also think that if he did that it would do huge things for his confidence.

Perhaps we get some games into him and try to push his value up. Until we got Jacko I had no issue about have Preuss in the background as a back up ruck but he’d be considered behind Jackson now in the heir to throne of ruckman at our club. How many years does he have left on his contract? Against Grundy he was clearly outclassed but he battled well and did some good things. It’ll be good to see him go against ruckmen that are more in his standard.

So we got through our horror start to the year (fixture wise) and we’re now in the patch of games where we should be considered either favourites or 50/50. I meant to write this before the pies but in a lot of ways our finals almost begin now. We can’t really afford to lose 2 more games for the year, so almost every game is considered an 8 pointer. Massive game for both clubs next week.

If this year was the experiment to work out how a midweek block of games was possible they’ve probably found out the 4 day breaks are maybe just too much for the athletic rigours of AFL. I didn’t think Tom was as awful as what some have said, maybe we give Brown a chance in his place but I wouldn’t be rushing to mess with the mix. I was worried about the functionality of the forward line as previous occasions it’s looked like Tom and Weid got in each other’s way, but they seemed to have more defined space and there is connectivity between forwards and mids. With the calls to drop Tommo, again maybe I can see where it’s coming from but the team defence was held up as a reason for our upward trajectory so again I wouldn’t want to mess with it. I think trialling Tommo in defence is worth it, he’s got the size and athleticism, seems to have a good footy brain, it’s just his kicking that is a real worry at times.