Pates

Big day for us, this is line in the sand stuff. We lose and the season isn't completely shot but the fat lady will be warming up her vocal chords. It's interesting that despite not playing that great we actually almost still won last week against one of the top teams (I still struggle to see Brisbane as a top team), our defense really held their own when challenged and we had so many golden chances to kick goals that we squandered. With the forward set up of three talls I'm going to be interested to see how we play TMac and Weid, my thoughts are that they will try to rotate them between CHF and FF in intervals. With respect to Jackson who looked like a baby giraffe against Carlton but is looking more and more like an AFL footballer with each minute, I think we should try to keep him away from both Sam and Tom, my biggest concern with the 3 talls set up is that they may get in each others way so there needs to be clear information to all three of them what their areas are and what their roles are at the particular times. We also need Fritta, Hannan, and Kozzie (and the mids around the contest as well) to be hot on their heals and ready for the crumbs, this was something I thought Brisbane did a lot better than us last week. Finally, we simply MUST take advantage for having the dominant ruckman.

It's interesting that the game has transferred to us as home game. Clearly the AFL (and North) are keen to ensure they get their Tassie home game. Neutral venue vs North is certainly a better result for us than Tassie, less travel, and we have a good record at AO as well so absolutely no excuse now.

And Geelong, we really needed to pinch one of those games to give ourselves our best shot at being in finals contention. Rockliff is a big in for them, from memory he had a good game against us last year.

I know right! Season over and they're top of the bloody ladder, can we swap???? They must be a sexually frustrated bunch in Port Adelaide, lot's of sexual language. I gather they think that Gawn will have a good game, that or they think Max might just whip his manhood out on the middle of the Gabba.

What Brisbane did was smart for what they had, they read Max's tap and made sure to put immense pressure on the player receiving that and affected the turnover. Our ball winners were all fumbles for most of the night and that split second proved critical. So frustrating to see taps go straight to our players only for the opposition to come away with the clearance. As for the team it's an interesting and different look. My guess is that with Jetta out Lockhart will be given higher responsibilities back there and Harmes/Brayshaw will go back to help at times. I confess I'm not totally familiar with what type of player Sparrow is. Will we expect to see him more forward of the ball, in the middle, or in defense? I'm happy to see us having a go at playing three tall in the forward line. We watched in 2018 TMac and Weid work well together at the pointy end of the season, it would be great to see them do it again. Bennell out is not a surprise, I think he will be on a weekly rotation rather than backing up matches. Still can't believe he missed that goal vs Brisbane, that really felt like a gut punch.

Sadly we have had worse...

If it's risk management then Brisbane/GC would only be allowed 500 people maximum per game as well.

I just thought I'd add a little about the Jetta/McStay incident because I'm watching 360 and Robbo is joining the chorus blaming Jetta for it. What I will say is that Jetta plays a part in the IMPACT of the bump, it looks (and is) heavy because Jetta when he collects the ball does lead forcefully with his head. I 100% think this is something the medico should be chatting to Nev about because he can't keep doing this otherwise he could really get hurt. So that is one side of it. BUT every commentator is IGNORING the fact that McStay chose to bump as Jetta collected the ball. He tucked his arm in to collect him high rather than open his arms up to tackle. He was also running in on him so of course this is all happening quick but his made the decision to bump rather than tackle. The way the media seems to be collectively ignoring this very simple fact is infuriating. EDIT Also just wanted to say that McStay actually immediately put his hands towards Jetta to say sorry so it clearly wasn't an intentional "I'm going to take your head off" bump.

I'm no Spargs fan, but he did provide good energy in the forward line during 2018 and for a first year player to do that in a finals winning year that's a decent effort. If he's showing form I'd reward him like we rewarded OMac. That said it's pretty hard to forget one of the worst games I've seen by a Melbourne player in Spargo's round one WC performance. I'm not sure if this is a better option but I'd have ANB over Spargs if they were looking to rest/drop Pickett.

I saw that Goodwin made a comment on AFL 360 about it, not sure what the consensus was but the issue here is double pronged. Either way the point wasn't going to make a difference so do the umpires need to be instructed to have more "game sense" and if there is a situation like that then let the game go? In the end a good defensive mark ended up hurting us. But is that going against the integrity of the system by saying they'll ignore a potential review?

It is, and it's also easy to shrug it off by saying "well Melbourne is in lockdown and won't be seeing any live footy for the entire year so who cares" but if you're going to lump this in with first world problems then you equally can't worry or complain about anything to do with the club or the game. They're playing games, they've opened it up to crowds, they should be making it consistent in seating availability. Base it on government guidelines not how tight the hip pocket is.

I suspect one of the reasons he's saying this now is that it's so far removed from recent history the AFL would almost consider itself to be a different competition now. Knowing that they aren't going to be any good this year maybe the AFL will strip them of premiership points for the season, they still get to snag pick #1 in the draft and thus the Hawks get to regenerate their list while claiming the victim card. Not dissimilar to Essendon who 100% should not have been eligible for the number one draft pick in 2016.

This 100% is a problem. I understand the AFL wanting to minimise costs but everyone is suffering right now and the AFL have put forward the argument that the game running is a positive distraction for the country. It's a bad look for a stadium that is able both legally and in size to have more people is practically empty. I'm not sure if anyone as these contacts but if possible I would write an open letter/email stating basically all of what you've said, and also put in that it's creating an unfair bias towards the clubs that belong to the hub states, and email it to Glen Bartlett, Gary Pert, and Gil McLachlan, while also emailing the likes of Mark Robinson, Caroline Wilson, Gerard Whateley, Hutchie, and basically anyone you can link in on it. Post it on twitter, facebook, basically everywhere to get maximum exposure because it is actually a disgrace that they are stopping fans from going to a game by choosing to be cheapskates and not providing the staff. I have to imagine there are at least 1000-2000 people who would be keen to go to the game, even as neutrals missing sport.

I wouldn't disagree with any of these assessments, being a defender has got increasingly harder with rule adjustments over the years. Since I first started watching AFL in the mid-late 90s I've seen (this is from memory) these rule changes: - tighter ruling on push in the back - tighter ruling on holding the man/blocking - harder on chopping arms/spoiling the player not the ball - tighter deliberate out of bounds both with "walking the ball over" and the rushed kick out of defence - deliberate rushed behind (which players even now are confused about the rule) - and now a tighter (and inconsistent) ruling on HTB Seriously who would want to be a defender when they seem to be constantly making your job harder?

I love his aggression but he has a habit (like a lot of chasing smalls) to shove the player after they’ve kicked the ball. That’s completely pointless and gives them the ball for free downfield. Go the tackle or bump because both will panic them the next time, a shove isn’t going to do anything.

He definitely was trying to pass it to Langdon, but in that instance the umpire has no choice because the interpretation of the rule is tighter. They would look at it that Nev had not done enough to keep it in, they would also have probably imagined that even if that was his intention, in the moment he was keener to get the ball out. Nev had the ability to pick the ball up and handball or paddle it to Langdon.

I’d be comfortable with two weeks because Jetta was first to the ball and McStay was already in a bumping motion before Jetta “lead with his head”. I’m not arguing that Nev doesn’t do it, but he was already in a vulnerable position when McStay elected to bump. If it was a Melbourne player (ie May) I’d be glad not to get 6 weeks knowing our record with the MRO.

That’s what I would’ve said, make the cut off for buying the tickets Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning so it gives them the opportunity to staff the ground correctly. 500 tickets is a joke. Rules for different clubs again.

How many people were allowed to attend the Lions game? Given it’s a “home” game for us you would hope there might be higher allocation for Melbourne members living in QLD.

Second one for sure, I thought he rolled him enough to avoid a free and certainly a sanction, but I understand the reasoning and he just needs to pull it back slightly. First one is 100% a joke. Even Healy thought that and this is a guy that kept saying Jetta was leading with his head while picking the ball up.

I remembered watching the Petracca one and thinking how is that not 50 as twice the Lions player deliberately prevented Trac from getting the ball. Fritch's was definitely a 50 though, his mistake was that Fritta went to handball, then rolled over, and then handed the ball when he could've tossed the ball. It was silly and unnecessary as it actually made more sense to get things moving again. The umpires had one of those nights where up was down, down as up, and had very little consistency on things. The worst being the chip kicks, there was one incident where a Lions player kicked it to a team mate who was called to play on (correctly) and then kicked it back to the exact same position for the umpire to call a mark. To say it was frustrating is an understatement.

Something I always liked about how Neitz approached set shots was that he never did the dinky kicks, he always kicked through the ball with purpose. I wonder about the training that we have with set shots as that seems quite common. Weid could be a few steps away from being a very good forward if he can sort a few of his issues out and I feel that a lot of them are between the ears.

I find this equally amusing, we have looked a clearly better team since Weids came in. He missed those chances, they were all kickable and he squandered them. But he has given so much more than Tommy Mac in the few games he’s played, let’s not sure d ourselves TMac into was in awful form and somehow managed to escape he chop. Weid has given us a lot more than Tom’s efforts.

Tough selection, Weids and Jackson do enough again to stay in the team but I do wonder if they might bring Tom in for Hannan or Fritta. Jones keeps his spot but he needs to do more defensively, that’s something AvB which is well underestimated. I think Jetta on the back of two knocks and a poor game may be given a rest. In: Rivers, TMac Out: Jetta, Hannan/Fritch(/maybe Jones)

A quick second positive, no time to dwell on the result. They’ll review and look to bounce back quickly on Thursday. Selection this week will be interesting.