Pates

I think he will, but a lot whether he stays or leaves will be dependent on whether feels part of the future and part of the push towards us becoming a regular force. If he’s constantly going to be behind players then leaving to just about any club where he can get first team experience will be of benefit to him. It’s a bit of a shame the AFL doesn’t have a loan system similar to Football in Europe and the UK. I would gladly loan him to another club for a year.

I wouldn’t say our wet weather form has been great this year, mind you we did shift that against West Coast. I feel like a lot of our good ball movement comes off the back of intercept marking from Lever, May, Max, and Petty (to an extent). When the ball goes to ground in our defensive zones we look quite shaky. I don’t see any changes, apart from Hunt there isn’t anyone that I would say is a walk up start 22 that’s not coming available. Melksham and Hibberd who have been warriors for us would be in consideration for their experience but neither of their recent form demands they come in. Jones, the old favourite, would be in the thoughts for experience and sentimentality but he hasn’t played first team footy for a while. Jordon has been solidly in the best 23 for almost the entire year so he would be my pick for sub.

Amazing effort from Jayden, wouldn’t be risking him week one but give him some more time to get right and he could be really important to us. Smith would probably be the one to make way of the current group, Bowey came in for him but has put a foot wrong.

For what it’s worth I don’t think any of this noise will go near the players. I’ve never seen a more focused group of Melbourne players. I’ve kept a lid on it all year, just enjoyed the ride.

Bad luck to him that the only viable club sounds like Carlton, they genuinely seem like a basket case right now. Love it.

FWIW a friend of mine went to a cardiologist today who said the pop up vaccination clinic in St Kilda is a good bet for walk up injections as quite a few people are missing appointments.

I think NSW will be first, they aren’t going to get to Covid Zero and they have been the state to try to keep things open. VIC next, there’ll be a big push by Victorians when they see NSW open up and Danny Boy has been pretty strong on vaccinations being the pathway to freedom. WA last. McGowen indicating he wants COVID zero even after vaccinations have reached their targets is not only laughable but damaging. If they really want that then they won’t be able to have tourists while the rest of the country opens up.

Who was the guy on ABC chuckling at Max saying, “is he gonna miss? He’s gonna miss isn’t he.” Sounded like an absolute dope. The K-Rock is enjoyable because you can very easily see where their allegiances lie. Triple M was interesting because the main commentator didn’t even say he’d kicked it, left it to the female commentator to actually say it. All very enjoyable, all pretty much agreed that i) the Brayshaw insufficient attempt was ridiculous and ii) the 50m was correct. They were all unsure about Max kicking it as well (I was with them on that!).

He did actually look back at the umpire to say WTF. It was so obvious and I was absolutely gobsmacked the umpire missed it. Max was perfectly positioned, exactly where he was meant to be, the cats player with no eyes for the ball completely blocked him. I found it funny that the two pieces of analysis that King put forward in First Crack, one was a blatant free kick to Gawn and the other was a kick that travelled 10m but was given as a kick on goal. EDIT: thought this was the post match thread. So one more time, I love Spargypants!

I don’t think he’s on the level of Duckwood who would flick his head back from a tackle around the waist and he throws himself into contests he knows physically he’s less than a lot of his peers.

Love Spargo, but he has become one of those players that just about every successful team has ever had. Dogs have Caleb Daniel, back in the day WC had Phil Matera, I could go on and on but they are players that other clubs fans get so frustrated with because they are already tiny and they instinctively drop their position at the last second to draw free kicks. He does it, he knows what he’s doing.

A little bizarre of them to pluck that out and make an article but I was screaming at the TV on a number of decisions that were throws/incorrect disposal/HTB. That block on Max Gawn where he was in perfect position to mark the ball but the Cats player blatantly blocked him out of the contest gifted them a goal. The lack of consistency with the deliberate OOB really p***ed me off.

I had a listen to King then, and while I don’t agree with his sentiments I think he was more taking the viewpoint of being positive towards Scott and his tactics rather than not rating Melbourne. It was a strange position though because if you look at the course of the game that majority is played on terms that suit us, it was a period where we lost our heads and Geelong just had everything at the centre bounce work for them (as well as a touch of luck a couple of times). The better teams are then able to manage that game, but the cats sat back on their efforts of 10 minutes and allowed us to get back into it bit by bit. Then I bet you Goody and the team set themselves for that first 3-5 minutes to say let’s try to get a quick 2-3 goals and see how they react. I’ll be honest I’m a bit surprised at how much Geelong collectively [censored] themselves. For a team with so much experience (and plenty of quality) they had no answer.

Lol yeah sorry, not meaning to turn this thread upside down. That guy on the horse looked like he was trying to be Mel Gibson from Braveheart!

EDIT: Never mind I think he's holding his phone, they're still absolute wankers.

If those two finals in Tassie aren’t a packed house (to maximum COVID allowances assuming there are some) then they don’t have a chance of getting a team of their own.

Dogs, love the Bombers not winning a final.

There’s only one team that concerns me: Melbourne. To me last night confirmed what we have been afraid of saying, we are the best team this season. At our best I firmly believe we beat anyone else bringing their best. The cats were blisteringly good for 10min, but our players were also way off making mistakes we simply haven’t done all year. We rectified that and then brought the game back on our terms. So I just want us to bring what we have brought all year to the finals, we do that…well…I don’t think I can bring myself to say the words.

This image of Hawkins showing how he realised how much they stuffed up is just brilliant.

I wish I’d seen this live, I reckon I would’ve started tearing up myself. Love the bloke so much.

Well and not long after Tom Hawkins does the same thing to Oliver (harder) and they pay a deliberate out of bounds. You couldn’t make this stuff up.

What about Harmes/Viney doing a negating job on him. Both can be damaging in the other direction. It’s an inter scenario that has developed for us in that we’re now facing one of the form teams of the comp and they will be riding just as high from their last minute jump into the 4. We could’ve instead be playing a dogs team that have fallen into a heap, but equally dangerous. The Lions can be a bloody good team and can hurt you quickly if concentration drops (which it did for us in that 10min 2nd quarter spell). My concern is that when we started losing the centre clearances we looked completely out of it and the Lions have a really good midfield that can win a lot of the ball.

Surprisingly that’s quite complimentary of our team and not one of them mentioned the 50m penalty. Also very happy that they recognise they’re “dad’s army”. Their fall of the cliff will be quite something I think, they might hang in there next year but they have very little coming through.

I’ve gone to bed to try to sleep but I’m still buzzing, heart is pounding! I felt we could come back but that the deficit would prove to be too much, when we got it under three goals so quickly I suddenly believed and interestingly the cats went into their shells big time. The usual names tried pulling them out but the rest were cooked. We had them mentally.

I find it interesting that Tassie are considered an option. Who would actually willingly want to play there? If Tassie are an option than Alice should be as well. But I reckon Adelaide will be the best option, make Brisbane travel and we play AO quite well. Still in disbelief that we’re in this situation. Firstly that we’re top of the ladder at the end of the H&A season, and secondly that finally having achieved this we don’t get our earned advantage.