Pates

100% was worth getting and I personally think his on-field output was more than worth it, combined with the leadership and experience he brought to the club. He was able to bring across all his wisdom, I also vaguely remember that the year he came to us we had a really solid win/loss record with his playing (ie the games he wasn’t playing we were a much weaker team). I’m also pretty sure he was immense in the Cats and Hawks finals matches in 2018 (no one played ok vs WC).

Bit of a shame we aren’t playing later that evening, what an epic day of footy that could’ve been for Dees fans!!!

There’s been some pretty hard criticism on the bombers in the last couple of weeks, particularly in the perception of them not going hard enough. I would be shocked if they didn’t put in a massive game against us, coming up against the reigning premiers they’ll have a point to prove.

I’ve been working on the broadcast for AFLW all season, and both sadly and happily will be working on this game as well. The team has been in a clear upper echelon of the competition so I’m hoping they bring that on the day. There’s a part of me that wishes it was at Casey for the fact it’s a fortress of ours, MCG is a neutral venue. The Lions are a very good team as well but hopefully Harris pulls out a massive game against her old club. It’s free entry so everyone get there, they are a part of us and they’ll be counting on loud Dees fans that missed out on last years mens premiership to help them get over the line and into the Granny!

That’s what I thought this streak thread was about!

If he doesn’t get the nod this week the panel have zero brain cells. What a gem we’ve got here!

I think Tom’s role is to get to as many contests and ensure it doesn’t get marked by the opposition, although I think he was in the bottom rung of players he did provide that element all night. It’s frustrating that he doesn’t even seem to be going for the mark anymore, it’s just about crashing the pack. As I said in an earlier post, Weid has to take the opportunity now and make it impossible for him to not be picked. It’s Tom’s position to lose but Weid has to make a statement to force him out.

Wasn’t the best but take the win and move on. We had a few of these to start the season last year (in fact I vaguely remember our first 3-4 wins all hovered between 18-28 points). GC gave us a push, they look more like a team wanting to earn respect. We looked like a team that just wanted the 4 points and not much else, I’m good with us just ticking off wins. That said Kozzie and Trac really needed to nail their late shots on goal, luckily GC were struggling to hit the target as well. If Weid puts in a good run of performances TMac might start to feel nervous, if we’re including the latter stages of last season Tom’s form has dropped significantly since his injury last season.

In no way is it deliberate, the bloke in black is running full pelt at him and Tuohy is trying to get out of the way of all the other people. It’s a prime example of why this tradition is dangerous (I still love it!) but then he find the guy to give his wallet back. Pretty decent of him.

Congrats to Buddy, amazing player. Security were non-existent, that is some freaky scenes. Can’t see it happening again.

I see the Blues as being similar to us in 2018. Exciting, up and coming, win and final or two but not ready for the big dance. They look good though. Blues fans will be very up and about. As for the dogs, big chance they’re 0-3 by the end of next week.

If this continues Bevo’s presser will be interesting!

Get there Dees fans!

I hope the boys don’t go in underestimating them, their win last week (putting aside that it was against a very weakened WC team) could be a real confidence booster for them. I’m hoping we get off to a strong start much the same as last week and just keep them at arms length all game before breaking them. Would love for Kozzie to have a big one.

Totally agree, unless there’s been a shocking decision earlier in the game and I see it as a square up I hate seeing our players not play it in the spirit of the game and get rewarded for it. To be fair I can’t say it happens very often, Clarry is a bit of a flopper at times but plays the game as hard as anyone so can’t ever question his commitment to the contest. Weightman on the other hand plays the game soft, and plays for frees.

I must say I’m baffled by the Rioli decision, by the time he leaves the ground he’s taken his eyes off the ball and becomes totally ballistic. To use a Soccer analogy they give a red card to players who tackle dangerously the moment they leave the ground regardless of whether they get the ball. There must be a similar precedent set where if you choose to leave the ground in a dangerous manor and no longer show duty of care to your fellow player than you must be sanctioned. What’s the bet the Nibbler will do something similar and get 4-6 weeks.

I personally would be saying it would be generous to say 65/35 split, save for the city end and the pocket in the punt road end they looked pretty baron. Not sure if that was because they didn’t want to witness the premiership celebrations or less incentive to get there unlike the Dees fans but I was a little disappointed in their turn out. Great to see us completely outnumber a Victorian team for support though. Still annoyed the AFL chose it to be a Wednesday night fixture though. Put that Friday night, Saturday day/night and that gets at least another 15-20k.

I think this is it, I get the feeling small forwards that come on quickly get this rush of blood where they suddenly feel they need to keep doing the spectacular. He’s still laying crucial shepherds and important pressure. He was so close to taking MOTY and he looked super lively early on. I have faith he’ll come good again, and you look at how the boys got around him at the end, he brings an important energy to the team. Salem for Lever, possibly JJ for Bedford. Give Kozzie some time in the middle.

Watching Ben Brown take those marks at the highest point 🥰. A bit more accuracy and he could’ve had an absolute bag. I think we could be seeing the start of him having a ripper season, he’s looking fit and confident.

Well this whole saga has gone crazy, Bevo/Dog apologising was predictable (and necessary), but then the leak of Morris saying those things, someone has gone down the “don’t get mad get even” path to deflect the story onto Morris. Now there will be people saying “well it’s ok that Morris copped his whack because look at him, he’s a grub”. I hope the two issues are made separate though, what Bevo did was unacceptable from an AFL coach. And the way Morris spoke of the female colleagues is unacceptable in any professional or general world environment. I’d say his career is in a spot of bother.

Really desperately wanted him to kick that goal at the end, love it when young players start a chain and finish it. Poor bloke must have been out of gas by the time he got it. Given the circumstances I felt he did a really good job and earns a place in the 22 next week.

There’s a difference between a fan forum discussing (at times irrationally) a story and disagreeing with the content or the way it’s been broken, and a coach outright slamming in front of his peers a journalist about a story that he got right about a possible big team selection call. You may not give a [censored] but it’s a media driven industry, there needs to be mutual respect and Bevo chose an extremely disrespectful and belligerent response to a pretty easy question. Al he had to say was, “we had our plans but the nature of the game is to be flexible and that’s what happened”. Straight bat, give them nothing. Instead he went on a tirade and created a story out of nothing.

Said this in the post-match thread, after all the carp the HS ran on Goody regarding allegations of bullying here is a coach being an actual bully towards a person doing his job whether you like him or not. He gets a story regarding a player being on the outs, there is no footy journalist who isn’t going to run it. His issue is the leak which is an issue for him and his club. The way we handled the Goody/Doctor/bullying allegations (non) story was textbook and professional. What Bevo did was unprofessional and actual bullying.

Firstly about Bevo, Goody got dragged over hot coals about alleged bullying behaviour but Bevo scolding a journalist for doing his job in front of his peers and attempted to gang them up on him live on TV over a story regarding a correct story about a player being out of favour. Compare that to our clubs response to the ACTUAL gutter journalism of dragging up something that is old news and trying to create controversy and create fractures. We laughed at it, called it exactly what it was as garbage, and got on with the job. Bevo has actually embarrassed himself and good on Tom Morris for standing his ground in the face of bullying behaviour. To the game, I’m pretty sure this is the first win I’ve witnessed live for actual points in about 7 years. Been away from Oz for 5 years, sitting in the MCG and watching the Dees was like seeing an old friend. Gave me chills. Although the margin wasn’t the same there were definite similarities to the GF. Us off to a flyer, getting challenged, leaders stepping up, and our system winning the day. We had some serious curve balls to deal with in Lever and Salem (fingers crossed on both), but a true team performance on the night. Trac is an out and out star, Brown looks dangerous (could’ve had a couple more), Fritta came into the game, and May was huge. We’ve won the GF rematch so we hold onto bragging rights, and we’ve proven we’re still on a mission. Oh and shout out to Smith, did very little wrong and justified his selection.

Lever being out has definitely dented my confidence, that said Lever didn’t have an insanely good game in the GF. Like always, win from the middle and starve the dogs of chances.