Pates

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.

Early chance to test the “system” with a little bit of different personnel. That said Hunt played it most of the season last year, Smith was pretty damn close to a GF spot. Perhaps the only eyebrow raising part is Harmes at HB. I thought we’d moved on from this experiment, that said I do know there are times that the coaches play funny nuggets with the line ups.

Couldn’t agree more on this, our players were pumped but didn’t celebrate like it was over. Rather the whole club made it abundantly clear that job was far from over. (I vaguely remember there was some chatter about that as well from some commentators saying our club didn’t let them enjoy it enough! 🙄)

Seriously I can’t believe the Dogs are still going on about that song. Are they going to be annoyed about every bloody team singing it? It’s common for teams all around the world to sing it in celebration, that they feel like it’s been “stolen” by us just to rub it in their faces is pathetic and childish. If I was a dogs fan I’d be totally miffed by it thinking, “is the fact that we got destroyed after half time in the grand final not motivation enough?” We don’t need to do a thing to get in their heads, we’re already there. I’m getting super pumped for this Wednesday now, this will be my first live H&A match since 2018.

Watching it now, some emotional moments in there early as they build the story. Also just noticed something about the Max Gawn kick after the siren. Tom Hawkins is VERY CLEARLY moving around on the mark and not adhering to the stand rule. Obviously Max kicked it so the [censored] can suck eggs but only just noticed then, can you imagine if the umpire actually noticed and paid the 50!

🤣 I think I would actually respect him more if he said this!!!

If anyone here is a South Park fan I challenge them to read his comments in Cartman’s trademark sobbing and complaining. 😂 But honestly that’s how it reads, the sort of thing you’d hear primary school kids say about each other when the teacher then gets them to shake hands and play nice. All for trying to reduce umpire abuse and this could well be them going too far the other way in order to get to the right point but jeez it means we’re going to have to put up with some pretty hard to watch matches in the meantime. How about instead of immediately paying (super costly) 50m penalties they give warnings, saying “this is your only warning, next time we feel disrespected we’ll pay a 50”? Treat the players with a little understanding and humanity rather than expecting them to be happy they’ve had a free kick paid against them when they got their head taken off (as an example). The umpires have communication between them so they can very easily say to each other “number 13 for Melbourne on an umpire warning”.

Tomlinson getting a 50m penalty against for laughing? Did I actually hear that correct?

If not us then I think then Port will win. If not us I would like to see the Saints win. I know there are plenty that laugh at them having only the one premiership and now the longest drought, but we showed that they're made to be broken and I'd like to see them win it before the likes of GWS, Freo, and (lol) GC win their first.

I’d like a Deputy VC (May or Lever would be my pick) to have a clear chain of leadership positions should both Jack and Max be unavailable but I imagine such a thing does exist internally; it’s just the official roles presented by the club is Max captain, Jack vice captain. Hard to argue with the pair bring the premiership home!

I’m not sure about your argument of demand vs earn. As far as I’m concerned by putting themselves in there as umpires of the game they have earned the right to respect immediately. What does need to be considered is heat of battle and the fact that they do make mistakes and the players can be frustrated. Case in point, Kozzie getting his head taken off in the Grand Final and Trac going ballistic at the umpire. Now is that dissent? Maybe. But Trac has every right to stick up for his teammate.

I did a doco on footy fans for a uni project back in 2008 (doesn’t feel that long ago); p**f, f****t, c**t, and just about every other name (though thankfully never witnessed any racial slurs) was common place. I’m all for passion and creating an atmosphere but I’m definitely glad the language has tidied up (mostly, not all the time). Maggot worked when they were all in white, doesn’t make any sense now.

Don't worry people, it's the loss we had to have 😉. Haven't seen any of the game so I can't comment on anything tactically, I'd say this is a massive win for the Blues while for us it might achieve a few things. Firstly it's a reminder that the competition will forever get stronger, we are the hunted now so every game teams will be wanting to put up nothing but their best. Secondly it provides a sobering reminder to those that don't perform that your position isn't set in stone. It also might've given a bit of glimpse into how other teams may try to counter our system. Great to see Fritta picking up where he left off. Did Bowser play? His first taste of defeat as a Demon?!

Rotate between TMac and Weid. I believe (could well be wrong) there’s an extended bench for this game. Possibly Brown as well, a chance to experiment a little. We know our best 22 line up stacks up, maybe have a look at what the second string has to offer.

I’d be up for this, we need to look at Weid in combo with Brown. He wasn’t given proper game time last week.

Yep we could call Petracca “world class” but of course we’re the only place in the world that plays AFL!

She’s got great options on the table, channel Seven adores her (and with good reason, she’s a legend!), she could walk into most clubs as senior AFLW coach, and it comes as no surprise that a club would approach her for a role for the mens team. I’ve got zero doubt that her focus is on winning that elusive premiership, but she’s also been in the professional footy system longer than any female player. Wouldn’t surprise me if she takes a role that allows her best opportunity to spend time with her beautiful kids. Wherever she ends up, she is red and blue to the core.