Pates

That’s got nothing to do with the draft. That was the free agency system that made sure lower ranked clubs got properly compensated for their loss of important players to them. That wasn’t thievery, that was based on what Hawthorn were paying him.

This is a massive job from the AFL to get this organised in very quick time so credit to the on that. In terms of who benefits from all this I think we have to say we’ve got the better end of the stick. The players get to be in their own beds tonight and follow normal pre-game routine whereas the Suns would’ve had to pack in a hurry not knowing when they will be back. We also play Marvel quite well usually and this could be a good opportunity for our forwards to regain a little form. Would’ve loved WA to come out at the same time locking out everyone who’s been to QLD (us included) forcing them to play the game in Vic but obviously that’s not going to happen.

Is this a good preparation? Absolutely not. But is it better that the boys will have a good nights sleep and be able to play on a track they know a little more than GC? Absolutely. More proof that we need to adapt to the changing situations at every turn.

That Matilda’s win has got to be one of the gutsiest performances by an Australian team I’ve seen. The game ebbed and flowed, it was exciting almost throughout with both teams attacking. That penalty was ridiculously soft (isn’t VAR there to stop that bull****?), but what a response and the Aussie public need to get behind them right now. EDIT also how refreshing to see two teams in a knock out actually playing attacking football as opposed to being afraid to concede.

Great to see the bulldogs benefit from an academy player while we get shafted the very next year. It’s like the word “fair” is a swear word at the AFL.

Lol i hope this means the hawks have YEARS down the bottom end of the table!

Exactly my thoughts, everyone completely wrote off the Pies and their trip to Adelaide earlier this year. As I said in my earlier post, the club/players can look at this with “woe is us, we’re up against it” or they can say to each other “no excuses, leave it all out there and the get the win”. Fact is if we’re wanting to do more than make up the numbers in the finals than our players need to show that they aren’t the Melbourne of old and get the 4 points this week. I genuinely had thought the club, players, and even fans had shaken the Melbourne of old mentality. Sadly doesn’t look to be the case.

My guess sadly is that it will be fly up on the day, which means a stupidly early start. These sorts of situations can be seen as obstacles thrown up that suck or challenges that can galvanise the group. It’s bloody well time the players stuck their heads in and got the job done, we’ve had our slump, it sucks but move on and get the [censored]ing win. I love Max but his leadership has been found wanting in the last month, him, Jack, and the other leaders at the club need to be the ones to pull us out of this funk. You can’t expect the kids to do it. Oh and thank you @Lord Nev, you basically said everything I needed to say re: Jackson/Weid.

I think it’s because the alternative is to bring Weid in, and I think that would be seen as a backward step. We needed to drop some players though, been coasting and hoping that it will change for too long now.

Surprised that Hibbo got the chop, he’s a cool head to have back there usually. Still, good luck to Bowey! We’ve been found out in the small defender department lately so this is the young lads chance to make a place for himself in a team heading towards finals. Sparrow for Jordon is a good shout.

Glad to hear that it was all bulls***, would be nice if reporters actually reported news rather than starting rumours.

This will completely throw away any chance of Dees fans getting to see them play live in Melbourne before the start of finals. I know crowds are going to be a slow burn anyway but hardly a fan friendly decision. I totally get the reasons behind it, the club has taken a tough hit on our bank accounts but it still isn’t a great look for a club that’s pushing for premiership contention.

Why Darwin? We’ve made plenty of inroads in making Alice Springs our “home away from home”, and it’s much less draining. Not happy at all with this run home, if this is a club choice then it could well scuttle our season. Only thing that could making it work a LITTLE BIT better is if somehow our GC game gets shifted to the G or Etihad.

I think that’s it, most people cop the “bad days” with umpiring with the caveat that it swings about where one week you might get done over and the next week you’ll get a decent ride. It appears that the dogs aren’t getting that swing back and that’s where it’s a bit mystifying. Interestingly we were close to the top when we were in form though, so it definitely points that for us we are much more likely to be getting free kicks when we are at the top of our game (first to the ball, high pressure, better kicks creating marking infringements).

We wouldn’t be able to do our usual routine, the players would be away from their families and basically in quarantine. It’s also the fact of going to the draining conditions of Darwin and onto the pretty fast track and warm conditions of Perth, I could really see it having issues for us.

I’d hate us to be whiners like Scott but if we did a flyflo situation into Darwin and back that up with Perth that will completely destroy the players bodies coming to the end of the season. I hope the club is pushing for a Victorian game or at worst game on the Gold Coast.

When Kozzie lined up his tackle Richards was standing upright, when Richards saw Kozzie he ducked initiating the head clash. The head clash then meant that Kozzie couldn’t complete the tackle as normal as it turned it more into a clash of bodies. If Richards braces for that tackle with his body then he takes it in the midriff and is probably all good.

I totally agree the bias was disgraceful from the umps but the game was determined by us not taking our opportunities when they came. Overall Brown’s game was actually decent but his two early misses set the tone and meant we were chasing our tails from the point onwards. We rarely made the most of the periods where we had the territory and is it just me or do we never look like scoring from stoppages of late? The game was there for us to win, umps aside, we weren’t good enough to take it.

Love Gawny, but he goes to the same school of spin as Goody and it’s not a good look. We were clearly beaten in a lot of areas on the weekend and I would much rather hear our leader say something like, “we believe in each other, we need our fans to believe in us, but we know that what we did on the weekend and what we’ve produced lately isn’t good enough if we’re serious about challenging.” First step towards solving a problem is recognising you have one. Call a spade a spade, we’re in a slump.

Could not believe it when I heard David King suggesting Kozzie could be in trouble for that. Kozzie went the body, Richards instigated the head clash. For me all the slippery head high contact ones they get (particularly with the likes of Caleb Daniel) are part of the game, it sucks and it’s a little sneaky but so be it. It’s the fact that they get tackled and then will blatantly drop the ball without an attempt to dispose of it properly, or they throw more than you would see at a Storm game, and that the umpires seem to call those free kicks against us but not them. That’s not even mentioning the amount of times Max, TMac, May, and others got blocked from jumping at the ball and yet some how Hannan gets a free for a push in the back when he does an unrealistic attempt at a speckie. It’s the inconsistencies that anger fans.

The only thing that would make Scott happy would be all 22 H&A matches + finals in Geelong. The guy cannot help himself.

I remember that one, beggars belief that no umpire saw that at all even if the dimwit right there was too busy admiring his throw up. These are the ones that genuinely get you asking is the favouritism deliberate, it’s so blatant there can’t be any excuse.

Surely about time we get #freekickbulldogs trending. It’s out of control now.

It’s like his shoulders have a target on them for ever high flying player isn’t it? The last 4 rounds can be looked at a fight or an opportunity, we have to win hard games to finish the year which means if we do win games at the end we will have form coming into finals. Not unlike 2018, we have a tricky run home, last time we used it to springboard ourselves into a prelim. Time to stand up, are we or are we not better than 2018?

Kozzie was one of a few positives from the dogs loss, he seemed to have his bounce back and thrust for putting pressure on. Occasionally he goes a little too far (pushed in the back following a chase) but mostly it causes the opposition to worry themselves into making mistakes. He did some excellent smothers and pressure acts all night. Couldn’t believe it when I heard David King suggest he could be looked at for his tackle that resulted in the concussion of the dogs player. He went low and the dogs player ducked his head, not sure what Kozzie can possibly do in that situation.