Pates

I think a lot of people underestimate how important those three were to the side. Jones is still with us but has lost a lot of his ability to make contests and be effective around the ball. Lewis was huge for us in the two finals we won with moments of leadership and experience. His aggression and the way he stood up to pressure has never been properly replaced (May being the only one I could say has lifted the team like that).

Zero doubt the players went into the match against Essendon in their ASADA/WADA ban year thinking “how much are we going to win by today”. We’ve had big losses over our years, that has got to be one of the most embarrassing days I’ve experienced as a Dees fan.

Absolutely, and I made the point that their class players shon through when they needed to. But when you see the top teams win when their list has been hit hard by injury, while we continue to be inconsistent with a relatively fit list, attitude and instruction must play a big part.

A Port vs West Coast GF will be interesting at the Gabba, would both teams be given the opportunity to fly to the game? How much are tickets to the Grand Final going to be this year because if it’s made up of teams not including the Lions will the locals will out the Gabba?

It may be a boring opinion but I’m just wanting us to beat Essendon. Whatever plays out after that will be what it will be. I’d imagine that’s the mindset the team will be taking in as well. I listened to the DeeBrief podcast and they were talking about going in with the attitude of “we must smash Essendon by X amount” could end up as a distraction. Just go in wanting to play the way we did against GWS and the rest will sort itself out.

Yep it seems no matter how far we come we can't seem to get past this issue of turning good players into something more.

So much of it is down to attitude and instructions, also down to having those one or two players that can lift a team. Look at West Coast, they were decimated by injury but they had enough quality out on the park and those that came in just did their role. Jeez I'd love to see a Melbourne FC that could do that!

LJ is our future but I see no need to rush him back, I say we give Brown a run against his former side. A chance to prove his spot on the list for 2021.

He could've very easily ended up getting this one back, he worked extremely hard in that entire contest.

It's a good question, I'm sick of the commentators saying "he's a beautiful kick of the footy". It may come off the boot nice most of the time but he's inaccurate and has missed some absolute howlers. His mission over summer should be to become the most reliable set shot for goal in the team. Practice with crowd screaming in his ears, practice with one eye shut, with the ball having been dunked in water I don't care, but he needs to get better at it.

Bringing back AFLX's Rock, Paper, Scissors!

When you fail at something you are given an opportunity to learn from it. I've always found whatever I've done in life I have learned a hell of a lot more from "mistakes" and "fails" than I have from my successes. Yes this year is an opportunity to build and be better, if those in charge and with influence are able to do so then 2020 will be a fail but not a waste. Big IF though.

Hehe well if the totally ridiculous were to happen with BOTH Saints and Dogs losing and us making up ground I have us facing the Pies in the first week. ? 6th-8th this year are totally making up the numbers.

I agree, she’s a journo and she’s doing her job. Unfortunately her job seems to be directed at low hanging fruit most of the time but I think that’s less about persecution and more to do with they’re stories that have the higher interest and more likely to gain traction off. I don’t think she has a vendetta against us although I will say she does seem to have bit of a directed grudge towards North Melbourne and James Brayshaw (which I kind of every watching play out). She also definitely goes easier on her Tigers.

I was wondering the same thing, wondered if maybe it was his birthday or something and he’s just well loved in the club. They made more of an effort to wait for him then they did for our own captain in our first win of the season!!!

Either way if GWS win then we know what the equation is. An incredible situation to be in would be GWS beating saints by a slender margin of under 20 points and it creating a reason for us to go in guns blazing in the last quarter even if we are comfortably winning. I say bugger it all; Saints win, Dogs win, and we miss the finals, whatever! Let’s just focus on us giving Essendon fans a crap end to the season. The rest will go the way it goes.

100% I think it's fine for us to hope for results to fall our way (and of course seeing the filth miss is just an absolute bonus) but at the end of the day our club blew it with the opportunities laid out in front.

First nail in the coffin of our season goes in.

So instead of GC going into the final term in front by a point they have to reel in a 2 goal advantage with the momentum going the way of the pies. Holman you [censored].

Goes up the other end and goal to Pies. That could be massive for them (and us).

A little pet peeve of mine with the game of AFL, when the whistle gets blown for a free kick all the players stop and when it happens a player from the team that wins the free kick bursts away giving that team an insanely huge advantage. Yes if that player then goes onto kick it then it's 50m penalty but by stopping the play with the whistle you stop all momentum or ability for the defensive team to do their jobs because their focus is who's go the free kick. It's something I like in Rugby union where instead of calling or whistling the free kick they put their arms out to acknowledge the action and let the play continue.

Looking ahead into the future? ?

I'm glad he got some kind of sanction for his whack to Gawn after the match at least, really annoyed me that the commentators were almost enjoying watching him be a blatant thug. The one on Gawn in particular he was two players back and deliberately went the fist into Max's head. The Oliver one as well should've surely been a fine, again totally deliberate and designed to inflict pain.

That is a damn good point, fingers crossed GWS pull their finger out for it. They looked ridiculously slow on transitions against us.....we’ve got to be one of the slowest teams to transition!

Jeez looking at those highlights, 2016 in particular, makes you wonder how we haven’t been able to make a player out of him. What was interesting looking at the 2016 highlights was that he sat on the outside a lot at times for others to extract the ball out and then when he received he would just take off. I’m definitely keen to give him another year, and I think it’s as much on the coaching staff as it is for Hunt to make something of him.