Pates

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.

The old premiership quarter returns! I just look at our opportunities and it really hurts me. The lions has “chances” to ice the game but none we easy, a lot of the opportunities we missed were ones you’d expect the player to kick. Harley has a bit of an off night with his final touch, you’d normally back him in for the two opportunities he had, while Kozzie’s night was definitely made worse by his miss (even more so that he burned a teammate for an easy goal). I guess there’s no point harping on about it. They’ll know this was a golden chance miss, the Lions get away with this one, we need to make it up elsewhere. I remember the Geelong loss in 2018 ended up being used as motivation for bigger things. This has to happen here.

Close to it, he had a poor game and that cost us any chance we had of winning. Tempted to bring TMac in for him off that effort.

This one stings, the proof is that we can match it with the best teams in the competition. The frustration is that when the time comes we seem to be our own worst enemies. I like what Weid is bringing to the team but if he is going to be our long term FF prospect he can’t be spraying 20m slight angle kicks out on the full. It’s a gut punch to the entire team that works hard to get him in that position. We could (should) be sitting here saying his 3 goals won us the game instead we sit here saying his misses may have cost us the game (he wasn’t on his own). What really concerns me is that in the two close games we were pushing for the winning goal we seem to completely lose our heads and do silly things. That final forward thrust should have resulted in a shot on goal instead it ended up with an out on the full and Fritta giving away a stupid 50m penalty. Inexcusable. There are positives to take from the game, Jackson’s continued good form being one of them, but I hope the players are absolutely filthy with themselves right now.

Two games we’ve had chances to snatch the win at the end and both times poor kicks/decision making have cost us. We are our own worst enemies and this loss and the Cats loss is going to cost us.

We’ve kicked ourselves out of the game, every one of Weids kicks were very gettable. Bennell should’ve nailed his. We kick half of those and it’s a goal in it. Our own worst enemies, hard to watch when that happens. Gerrard Healy is one of the most insufferable people to listen to, I could list a dozen examples but it’s just constant.

That hurts, Bennell could’ve walked the ball over the line. We miss, they goal. Going to be very hard from here.

Negatives: Destroying us in the middle, our clearance winners are being given a football lesson. They’ve clearly done their homework on Max and his tapping, despite having easily the best ruckman on the ground we’re getting no reward for it. Ae lost our heads early in the quarter, started doing more hack kicks to nothing and our disposal became atrocious. Pulled it back a little but they were bringing a much higher intensity. Some good inside 50s ruined with poor kicking and decision making. I really wish Langdon had left his mark to Melksham, much better kick, I had very little confidence in him nailing it. The umpiring has been abysmal, marks not given, plucked free kicks out of nothing that cost us. And the Lions do 3 short kicks in a row in our forward line that should’ve been play on to put the pressure on them allowed to be called a mark. Positives: Not many, but their dominance didn’t cost us as high as it should’ve. They were all over us and had some great chances, I’d put the margin at at least 30+ if they had taken their chances. Our midfield needs to lift. By the way, the commentators continue to blame Nev for putting his head over the ball. He was picking the ball up, even if he had done what Dal Santo was saying there wouldn’t have been time to turn the body. For them to keep saying that Jetta basically created the contact is completely ignoring that the Lions player chose to bump.

Both teams had chances and both would feel like they could’ve got better reward for opportunities. Weid is taking grabs which is a plus but bugger me that miss was god awful. I hope there’s someone giving him pointers on what he’s doing wrong. Can’t be coughing up opportunities like that. Clayton’s kicking is becoming a liability. Twice he butchered it to give them an inside 50.

Poor Spargs! ?

If we’re to play finals we need to pull out wins against quality opposition, we lost to West Coast, Geelong, and Richmond albeit the cats one was close and I great chance to snatch it. We simply have to win one of this week or next week. I think we face Brisbane in an interesting time because they are in form and we are just starting to find some confidence. The Lions fans aren’t wrong about a couple of things, Gawn and Petracca are a large reason for our form but also the way we’re playing around the ground is a lot more reminiscent of 2018.