Pates

If they cap the crowd this week then how about they do something about social distancing? Instead of cramming everyone into smaller zones make the entire ground available and have stewards requesting people give distance between the next person. It’s far and away the most baffling thing about how Australia has managed reopening of things.

Gawn nailed it plainly and simply, survival of the fittest. If Scott wants shorter quarters he’s basically admitting to the football world that he doesn’t think his players have the legs to go the distance.

I can see it that way, but I also would love to see them miss purely because after we beat them the tigers fans and players (and media) were all arrogantly saying, “oh yeah well done, but we’ll get you in the finals”. I’d just love to see them miss finals to come back at them saying, “sorry what was that about getting us in the finals?”

If we get a dry track this could well be poised for Brown to click into gear. He looked more confident against Port, the way he flew for contests and there were some that he either was unlucky not to clunk the marks or not get them paid. If we can get him more space he can definitely be damaging, and getting him confident and in form could be the final piece of our puzzle. Having said that, take no team lightly. Go in with finals like pressure and show the competition that we are ready to pounce.

Absolutely filthy we’re the ones that are copping this road trip. I’d say we should request the dogs game gets moved to Sunday arvo but then we could miss out of gate takings because it’s the worst time slot.

Hoping it’s NOT an omen for us as we are in a very similar position to them with history etc! First half England owned but I always knew that Italy would score so the Poms needed a second. Second half Italy flexed their muscles and I just felt if it went to a penalty shoot out Italy had the mental resolved (plus a beast of a keeper). I found it a bizarre choice to put so much pressure on a 19yo but those are moments where legends can be made, sadly it just wasn’t a good penalty. Really feel for the lad, it somehow always looks better when a team wins the shootout by scoring, losing it by missing/being saved is gut wrenching. I actually enjoyed watching Italy play in this tournament but last night they went right back to their dirty tactics style that make me thoroughly dislike them. The way Chiellini dragged and yanked back on Saka’s shirt to take him down epitomises their attitudes on “fair play”. Congrats to them though, they were across the board the best team of the tournament.

Dang I missed that, he was a great commentator. Puts a lot of the current ones to shame.

Agree with you on Quartermain and Lane, but Walls is past it. Way too often his analysis is based on what the game used to be and not what the game is now. I’ve always like Drew Morphett, straight forward commentary that doesn’t hype anything unnecessarily.

People always look back at Dennis Cometti and say he was the best, so it’s always good to ask why. Even at his most biased, Dennis still called the game down the middle. He got excited equally but also wasn’t afraid to say when a team really wasn’t in the contest. His little jokes were thrown in without making a big deal over it. He threw to the special comments people teeing them up without having it rammed down our throat. HE DIDN’T MAKE MISTAKES WITH NAMES, AND ON THE RARE OCCASION HE DID HE APOLOGISED IMMEDIATELY AND GOT ON WITH IT. What I feel like the commentators these days suffer from us this inane desire to be “iconic” with calls. They feel like they have to make every moment momentous. Calling the action correctly is the first thing they should be focusing on. I’ve always like Huddo’s call of Jeremy Howe’s mark against Sydney, “Hooowe did he do that?” Simple, quirky, and to the point.

I’m supporting England because of my roots and since I’m living here, but a fair proportion of England football fans are genuinely the combination of the worst of Collingwood and Essendon fans. Arrogant but have done nothing in recent history, massive sooks when it all goes wrong, and will turn on their players and managers the moment they do something wrong. Zero class. This doesn’t surprise me at all, and that [censored] should crawl back into his little hole and stay there.

Potentially season defining match tonight, haven’t really won a match in hostile territory this season so this is a big one. I would love to see Ben kick 3+ to really stamp his place in our forward line for us to push ahead.

Ok we’ve picked Brown, that’s part one. Part two is that we actually look for his leads and hit them up. Regardless of whether we have Brown or not we have to start looking for options inside 50 rather than bombing away.

Not time to panic, but time to be ruthless about what’s working and what isn’t. If that means Viney needs a game in the magoos to gain some form and confidence then so be it. If we have to drop a developing kid to fit Brown into the forward line to restructure things then do it. We have time to work out what our finals mix will be but we can’t sit back and expect things to fix themselves.

Well this was a **** weekend.

I only caught the second half but wasn’t impressed by much. We have relied on our defence to win us games by the opposition giving us easy exits out and steamrolling it forward on the slingshot. Opponents have worked this out and are now either lowering their eyes or at least putting it to dangerous spots that make it hard for Lever and May to mark it. On the flip side we had SOOOOOOO many good opportunities to pinch this game but absolutely disgusting and inexcusable misses cost us. I liked Hunts run and endeavour but he needed to learn from his previous mistakes and pull the trigger at the right moment. So many balls into targets that we either outsized or outmatched in numbers. We had good forward connection early in the year, that has seemed to completely fail us now. TMac played a very good game as a CHF/FF but if he’s playing as high up the ground as he was today then we need a proper tall forward for him to hit up. Was this the first game we lost at selection? If BBB plays a solid game this weekend then get him in the team. We don’t have to finish top of the pops, but we have to get top 4 to really give ourselves a shot at the premiership.

Always the way that teams who have been up the top become sooks when things don’t go their way. Umpires never lose teams games, they may be contributing factors but the players and coaches are the ones in charge of the result. Much like us with Adelaide, we got dudded with the non decision at the end but we have 17 point lead with 5min to go. We lost that game not the umpires robbing us. Riewoldt should have a good hard look at himself and cop a hefty fine along the way.

He was gifted a few after earning the spot in the team, the selectors gave him the chance to build form and he failed to take the opportunity given to him. I’m sure Ben will be given the same chance when he gets in the side.

I think BBB has been left out to give him a body of games in the 2’s rather than bring him straight in after one good game. There could also be KPI’s that we aren’t aware of that the selectors want him to hit. Shame about Jonesy, I really hope it’s not serious. I want him to make one final push for selection towards the finals, make it really hard for them not to pick him. On the GWS side I’m surprised the De Boar has be dropped for this one given he had placed a blanket over Oliver before getting injured in the first meeting this year. Green is a big in for them, talk about match winners he almost did it himself against us last time out. For sentimentality I would’ve liked to see Hogan come in as well as I reckon the Dees faithful would’ve given him a cheer, at the same time though we know how dangerous he can be so would’ve been less cheerful if he kicked a bag on us!

Would be very interesting to know what vaccines they received. FWIW I’ve had my second AZ jab, zero side affects the second time for me. I think the media in the way they have reported things (lack of context to compared to other vaccines) has heavily influenced the government’s decision to make AZ for 60+ only.

I think there’s a bit of that in the way they speak about us, particularly channel seven. BT always sounds like the local drunk that keeps wanting to move the goalposts when they say “until you beat xxxx” or “you have to beat a team by xxxx points” or “you have to get player xxxx back to form before you’re really a threat”. I genuinely can’t stand both Hamish and BT with their calling of our games.

I’d agree with that, would be interesting to see if he accepted it. I could picture another club coming in with a 3 year deal on similar/slightly more coin. A bit of certainty would be very attractive to a young man. Stats wise it seems like he was much more involved which is good. I would personally get Ben Brown in but it could well be the club will want a body of two good games from him before earning a recall.

So still haven’t seen the replay but when I do it’ll be very interesting to watch after seeing the match rundown from the fox footy website. Seriously so ridiculously biased towards Essendon, and the commentary again reeks of bias against us. I really hate being one of those fans that “oh everyone is against us” but really the commentary from Seven always sounds depressed when we get on top but excited when we’re losing or the other team is coming back.

I’ve thought this for a while and thrown it up a couple of times. It’s a tricky call because in his last year on his contract it’s basically sending a message that he’s failing as a forward and he’s a magnet that gets thrown around now. But I do think playing him as a defender would teach him a lot, I wish they’d tried it earlier to be honest.

The discussion on Kozzie is a tricky one because there’s no doubt his last 5-6 matches have been largely ineffective but his presence creates danger than I’m not sure we have from anyone else. One option is we bring in Vanders for him, he’s high impact and has a presence as well but doesn’t have the same creative flair as Kozzie. For me he stays but gets told to simplify things, up his tackle/pressure count and team oriented acts. Brown has to come in if match fit. We can’t be experimenting leading into the finals so now is the time.

BB MUST earn his spot next week. If he puts in a solid performance for Casey (2-3 goals, multiple marks, team acts etc) then he comes in. But no one should come in without earning it.