Pates

Pies could well drop out with their injury list, they’re our chance. Dogs are better than what people have them credit for and are setting themselves up nicely for a tilt.

Agreed but when the club released the article about his move into defence I think the collective belief of demonland was that this would be to his detriment. We had a player in Harmes, this move seems to have killed his confidence and he doesn’t look sure of himself. Asking the question about Wagners inclusion, what is his position? I know he kicked goals in the scratch match last week but is that how we’re going to play him? For me I’ve had him in the list of NQR’s for some time and was really hoping I wouldn’t see him in the senior team all year.

Wasn’t expecting 6 changes, I sort of wonder if the selection committee started falling down a rabbit hole of sorts when changes started. Gawn was obviously going to be a walk up start when available and sadly for Preuss it makes sense he makes way. Jones in for Sparrow just makes sense, I really would love Jones to pull out a classic performance (maybe get one over his little bro). But after that as I said the domino’s started falling. TMac has had chance after chance and done very little, it’s sad to see him go from one of the competitions top forwards to what he is now in the space for 18-24 months. Brown deserves this opportunity. Fritta out is a big call but I’m ok with it, he had been doing very little lately particularly when the game is there to be won. This could be the kick up the bum he needs. Harmes probably deserves it as well but I think he’s been horribly mismanaged. I would’ve preferred to see a positional change that puts him in the forward line, potentially taking AvB’s role. Happy seeing Rivers back in, less thrilled about seeing OMac (though I’m a fan) and Wagner. I’ve tipped the Saints and these changes don’t fill be with confidence. Like so many other matches it’s going to be down to our midfield working harder than the opposition and taking our chances when they come. I’ve been feeling Weid has a big bag in him this year (he should had a couple already), if it happens this game it could be the making of him.

I might be in the minority here but Fritsch has been annoying me lately and to be honest I feel his recent goals have been a lot of junk time goals. It is a little concerning that they drop TMac as well which will surely drop our goal kicking potential. I could see us playing Brown as well as Preuss, Max does a lot of backline sweeper roles and we could play Preuss predominantly as our off-the-bench ruckman. Brown can move into a combination of Fritta/2nd tall, and we really need Melksham and AvB to do some positive this week. If it’s true Harmes is being dropped I’m disappointed in Goodwin and Co. He has shown himself to be a good footy player when used properly. If a positional shift were to happen I’d much prefer seeing him in the forward line playing as an offensive tagger on the dangerous opposing HBF.

This time the role is a little reversed as they are the ones higher on the ladder and probably been playing the better footy across the board. I think it’s times we got one back on them.

That actually isn't a bad point, because it points to both sides of the argument. It says the club holds itself on the results but it's also challenging the supporter base to buy in.

Wow when I left the score check I saw the Hawks up at half time by 36 points. I still would've preferred Essendon to lose but I have to love those Hawks fans having to endure some serious pain! I can't see Essendon making finals with their run home, but it could possibly still end up that our round 18 game is the finals tie-breaker.

I think that was his back wasn’t it? Copped a knee to the spine and initial thoughts were it’s just bruising and then it turned out to be a lot more severe.

When I saw the fixture had us playing Dogs and Saints back to back I said to myself we needed to get a win out of one of those two games. I just don’t see us being able to win the last four on the trot to make the finals. It requires a level of concentration and focus I just don’t think our squad has. Beat the Saints and I think that leads us into finals. I hate the Hawks and Bombers, but I’m quite happy to see Hawthorn winning.

I think every clear minded Dees fan would agree with that, ANB’s “force” on the tackle is higher. I couldn’t understand why the MRO handed it onto the tribunal. I would’ve accepted three weeks for Nibbler IF a tackle like Dahlhaus got one week. The ONLY reason why the tackles are different, aside from a little more force from ANB, was that the Adelaide player braced himself for the contact with the ground with for Dahlhaus’s tackle, whereas with Nibbler the player didn’t, he was more focused on trying to get rid of the ball. Also I have said this before but I’m pretty sure Nibbler’s “victim” has battled concussion issues this year, so the Adelaide medical report really suck the boots into him which weighted his suspension unfairly.

I think Weid will, I have more confidence in him kicking a proper bag this year over Fritta.

Weid as well, both should’ve had bags of 3-4+ this year were it not for bafflingly bad kicking.

We’ve committed to Casey and I don’t mind that, it’s better that we have an alignment that is secure and both parties working together than one where the other wants larger autonomy (which I believe was one of the major issues with the Sandy alignment). It does make sense from a geographical sense to have Port Melb as our club but I think that ship has now sailed and the Melbourne/Casey connection is strong (and I feel getting stronger). We were one of the few AFL clubs to actually commit early to our VFL affiliate being a part of our post-COVID future.

Whoever made the initial comment the MFC are referring to I just hope they don’t spawn more offspring. Baffling that people feel the need to denigrate others in such hurtful ways.

For anyone that has been to Alice for a match are there any conditional things that we may adjust to quicker given our experience with playing there in the past? I’d really like us to have any kind of advantage to exploit.

I find it interesting that almost universally the AFL media community agreed that Burgoyne was lucky to get away with a fine, why aren’t the same reporters holding them to account on Failhouse given the obvious similarities with ANB and the potential to cause injury being high. @Lucifer's Hero I agree that typically Whateley has actually been a decent voice of reason but if he’s ticking this off then I don’t know anymore. Seems everyone was happy to put Nibbler up as an example but no one wants to do the follow through.

We sold games to Brisbane for years which really annoyed a lot of clubs (that win in 2002 was something special though!). Never in season though, I suppose it’s all compromised so whatever.

The way the Tuggers are carrying on is reminiscent of the likes of the Hawks and Cats when they became the league leaders. I remembered the Cats getting up in arms about people questioning the “Buddy Arc” and Chris Scott whining about people talking about Selwood and Dangermouse’s ducking. So congrats Richmond, that’s what you’ve become. The team that is so used to getting their own way that when people question things about them they stoop to the lowest of lows.

A few weeks ago Bartlett was publicly disgusted by the poor effort against Port particularly with the lack of fight. It’s time he stepped up with this and publicly asks for a please explain from the AFL and make the club known as a club that won’t stand for this biased [censored]. I’m absolutely seething from this.

I’m beyond filthy, the same f-ing tribunal that hung out Nibbler has let Failhouse off. Please please please someone from the club HAS to say something. I don’t care if the AFL cuts of money from us, sanctions every player at the club, fines the president, I DON’T CARE!!!! I can’t fathom how the hell Nibbler gets 4 weeks and only a couple of weeks later, the same bloody action gets downgraded to nothing but a fine. The system the [censored], the AFL are [censored], and they can all get [censored]. I usually try to avoid the censorship from Demonland but this is an absolute disgrace.

The AFL should be pushing for a two week ban, Geelong should be kissing the MRO’s feet for only giving a week.

It won’t happen but I really want someone from the club to comment on this, it can’t help Nibbler now but it should shine a light on the blatant inconsistencies surrounding the MRO. He should’ve got 2-3 week straight off the bat from Christian, but the obviousness of them making an example of Nibbler because he’s not a name player was disgusting. With Failhouse getting one week it spits on the comments from Gil earlier in the year where he said that the potential for injury from the action would be taking into account and add further weight to suspensions. But of course it’s Geelong and a name player so the AFL will shrug their shoulders. Please someone from the club make a ****ing comment about it.

I know we’re talking about different incidents but the more disturbing handball(s) that Petracca did against the Bulldogs was the nothing 1m handballs that just puts us further back. It’s not handballing to space to create, its palming off responsibility. There was one in particular in the last quarter from the goal we had kicked to bring it back to 20 points, we actually had a clear clearance with Petracca running forward now instead of continuing his run and pumping it in there quickly he chose to short handball it I believe to Clarry who then did another short handball again and it ended up in Sparrow’s (I believe) hands who got tackled. Turnover - forward entry to the dogs - I think they scored from it and that was the game. It was the exact issue we’d had when losing games, no one taking responsibility and saying “I’m owning this footy and I’m going to get us across the line”. Bit of a diversion from the thread so I’ll pull it back by asking how a finger injury occurring in the gym can result in missing 4-6 weeks????

Glass houses and throwing stones. We have been an embarrassment to the AFL many times in the last decade, we were an embarrassment against Port a few weeks ago (a rare prime time slot).

I think that’s why this should actually be a breakaway competition with 14 clubs no more no less, I don’t get this idea of spreading out across multiple clubs, this could actually be an opportunity for as close to a reserves competition as we can get. Sucks but the clubs that don’t get an alignment should just exist in the VFL or perhaps they look at merging the the VFA with the remaining VFL clubs. With 14 teams surely they could play each other twice so they can remove the frustrating scenario of a team that has a bye in the AFL doesn’t have a bye in the reserves comp.