Pates

If this is coming out then he probably has already been told he’s not in the calculations for the GF spot. If he goes, thank for the service and good luck. If he stays, we could do much worse than him for depth. He’s been a good pick up and was super important in 2018, sadly injury has slowed him down like many others.

I don’t know how hard these filters are to make but I wonder if someone at the club could do a filter for Snapchat/Facebook that has the Dees logo and then Gawn-ifies the person who takes the photo (puts a long beard and bald head on the individual) could be a funny one for people to post to the club’s Facebook page.

I might go for a wander tomorrow and check out one of the two cafes. If I do I’ll post pics of them here.

I feel like Sparrow would be a good call to give the number 2, him or Rivers perhaps but I think the way Sparrow plays is in a similar no nonsense style to Jones.

Like so many that have come before him, he deserves so much better in terms of being able to play in a premiership/grand final/or even just finals. Sadly he got his chance early and he had to wait years before he got his chance again. I don't think there could be a single bad word said about the guy, he's been a warrior, a soldier, and a true clubman. Now he's the father of two beautiful twins to go with the two he already has. Congrats on a great career, thanks for the memories, and thank you for everything you have done. I'd made a video in tribute to his 300th purely for my own enjoyment earlier in the year, it's a bit corny but I reckon it'll tug some heartstrings. So here it is:

It was interesting seeing the doggies all down some pints after the game last week to get to the GF, I’m not sure if we did the same (someone can maybe she’d light on this) but it kind of looked like they were already celebrating as if they’d won it. I’m hoping they’re getting their heads nice and big, our boys sound focused and I’m happy with that. Just on a different topic, I’m not sure if people mentioned it in the game thread last week but it was really interesting to see the cats players lining up disconnected, while we linked arm in arm. I wasn’t sure if it was a choice by the cats leaders or whether it just happened but it definitely looked like our players were with each other while the cats looked like how they lost, as individuals.

If nobody offers anything for him worthwhile, and if there aren’t really many clubs interested I think we could do worse than offer him a 2 year deal at close to bottom dollar with performance based incentives. He has a bit of a Miller like feel about him, show plenty early and have a purple patch that makes him look like a future star but never seem to find that click into the next level on a consistent basis. Personally I say keep him, none of our current key forwards are spring chickens.

I was always a bit [censored] off with Melbourne for not taking him. He made a claim that he would refuse to play for anyone else other than Collingwood which I thought was super arrogant, I wanted us to call his bluff.

Anyone else find McLachlan to be a real moment killer with a lot of his calls? His call of Max’s after the siren goal was dour and now Max’s long range goal was a golf reference. Brayshaw is infuriating to listen to but at least he gets you pumped up.

It’s a bold strategy, I’m happy for them to continue with a practice match but would still really hope the players are told to take it easy on tackles, bumps, and spoils (looking at you Jack!). I would also hope that it isn’t going to be full length, give them enough of a run to feel fit and ready but don’t tire them out. Really wish we didn’t have this bye.

I’m in your camp on Hunt, if he was fully fit (which given he wasn’t named as an emergency I don’t think he was) then I was advocating this move for exactly the reasons you’ve mentioned. I also don’t feel like Jordon is an impact player, he’s more of a spare tyre for the midfield. I’m definitely voting for no change to the line up with Hunt becoming the sub.

Call me (Harrison) petty but I kinda would like to force them to wear the away strip, in fact I think it should be the choice of the highest placing team as to what strip their opponents wear.

I’ve got quite a few bulldogs friends, all pretty good supporters in that I don’t feel like they gloat a lot. They got a little lippy after their premiership win but never to the arrogance of the cats or hawks.

One thing that both preliminary finals showed is the importance of bringing the ball to ground from the tall forwards. There were actually quite a few moments where the ball was not in a favourable position for them but they just competed and continued to give our small forwards a chance. It was a stark contrast to Dixon at Port with his pathetic efforts, barely competed when he was out of position. Basically looked like he threw the toys out the pram.

Plus they’ve managed to fluke themselves into gaining a top academy pick in Ugle-Hagen while it looks like academy pick will be lost to us. They may well have been the underdog battlers back when they won their drought breaking premiership but they’ve had the list to be right in the mix since and until now haven’t made good on it. The fact their were against the wall was thanks to that pitiful fade out against port in round 23. The first 5min will be interesting to see how it’s umpired, they still did more throws than the Melbourne storm against port that weren’t called. It baffles me that they get away with it. Their dream run with the umps is one of the big things that has me worried, that last match up was a joke with ALL 50/50 calls going their way and us just getting blatant frees not even called. One thing that I take from that last meeting in a positive way is that we didn’t play well for 90% of the game but still only lost by 20 points. Importantly though, same scoring shots, they were accurate and we weren’t. Kick straight Dees!

Could see it going either way, the bye could be perfect timing for them to allow some players to get a much needed rest. Personally I would rather the GF be next weekend, this waiting around is excruciating!

We didn’t tag Bont last time, he murdered us. I wouldn’t say no to first bounce Trac goes next to him but either way there needs to be a plan. The big thing they did which every team who beat us did was not allow our defenders the chance to mark. They are very good at the fall of the ball in the forward line. We will be favourites but I see it as line ball. Dogs have their bite back.

The cats you could give a minor pass on their pathetic showing given they are an ageing list and we had the week off, but Port should be absolutely ashamed of that effort tonight. They had every reason to come out the stronger team but they were pathetic. An embarrassment. Once and for all proved that they were pretenders that didn’t deserve to finish as high as they did. Bring on the dogs, despite the final ladder position they finished I felt they were the second best team across the year. Now it’s time we proved it.

Agreed, particularly if May isn’t 100%.

Alright Port, you gotta grind now. That was soft as **** footy. This is why I’d prefer to play Port, pretenders.

Dixon and Grey needed to nail one of their shots, extremely poor misses and momentum killers. They need to get to quarter time and reset.

Extra time as well!

Jonesy has been and will forever be remembered as the ultimate team-first player, but there can be no doubting this decision. He is clearly a strong family man and his place is by his wife’s side as she bring these twins into the world. It’s a beautiful thing. He will cheer the boys on from afar and I have zero doubt they will have him in the back of their minds the whole time. Love you Nate. 💙❤️

Melbourne have just released an action figure of Ben Brown with his arms at full extension….

I loved hearing from his parents on the channel seven broadcast where they said he’s a really quick thinker to the point that almost he doesn’t even know what he’s doing next, so what hope do the opposition have?! This will sound ridiculous but I still think he hasn’t reached his peak power yet.