Pates

Who do you have us losing to in our run home out of interest? I have GWS and Saints.

Maybe it’s my MFCSS but I have us finishing on 9 wins and finishing 9th-10th. That’s at the bottom end of where I rated us and it shows how costly it was not being able to get over the line against one of the Lions or Cats. I expect us to lose this week, thought maybe just maybe they will be a little bruised up and tired from the game against the Lions, and you would hope the players want to pull their finger out to provide a better showing than the second half last week. This and the GWS game make or break our season, we win this week I think we make it.

Posted this in the Non-MFC thread, Nibbler should take the AFL to court for loss of match payments: This was what Gil said after Burgoyne got away with the first tackle this year: AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said the change would ensure the potential injury of a hazardous tackle would be taken into account by the match review officer when grading an incident. “We want to be clear; protection of the head is our highest priority and we want all players at all levels and age groups to better understand that these tackles shouldn’t be part of our game. “Dangerous tackles have the potential to cause head injuries, and it is essential that this is taken into account when assessing an incident under the AFL Tribunal guidelines.” What an absolute load of bull?! Corrupt is the only word

Nah he didn’t do anything in that game it was all the players. ?

This was what Gil said after Burgoyne got away with the first tackle this year: AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said the change would ensure the potential injury of a hazardous tackle would be taken into account by the match review officer when grading an incident. “We want to be clear; protection of the head is our highest priority and we want all players at all levels and age groups to better understand that these tackles shouldn’t be part of our game. “Dangerous tackles have the potential to cause head injuries, and it is essential that this is taken into account when assessing an incident under the AFL Tribunal guidelines.” What an absolute load of bull?! Corrupt is the only word.

Couldn’t care less if it’s the worst match in the history of the game, if North get the win that’ll be awesome on so many levels!

Main difference? No concussion, which was pure luck. This time the player put his hand out to protect the fall, Nibbler’s didn’t. I also thought ANB was done in by the medical staff saying he would be on reduced duties for at least a week before returning, but the injured player had battled concussion issues earlier in the year so of course they were going to do that. Of course the other obvious difference is that it’s a name player who doesn’t play for Melbourne. The MRO/Tribunal is the most biased piece of ? involved with the AFL.

Really glad he’s getting recognised for his work, he’s having a stellar season and was copping unfair whacks early in the year. Top 3 B&F will surely be May, Trac, and Gawn. Possibly even in that order.

I think one of the major problems was the “when will he go home?” It became a distraction for the club where players had to constantly trot out the usual line of “we love Jesse and we hope he stays a Melbourne player for the rest of his career”. You’d think if he were to return to us that would be one issue gone. The others are well publicised: attitude, off-field “interests” (won’t elaborate), and depression related issues which I have no doubt were cause mainly by the loss of his father, his own battles with cancer, injury issues, and being isolated from his family. He’s an older head now and perhaps like Bennell a change of scenery, but perhaps with familiar faces, could be of benefit to him. This is of course all speculation.

Seems like an interesting choice, I know there have been VFL clubs that haven’t been able to continue to operate following Coronavirus but how will flights and accommodation be paid for if clubs are struggling? Definitely shouldn’t be called the VFL; EFL, EAFL (Eastern Australia Football League), or ECFL (East Coast Football League).

I think that's harsh on Bennell for this year, he's had some decent games without lighting the world on fire but certainly his last game wasn't up to scratch. It's intriguing that we haven't really heard much about him since his last game so my thoughts are that they probably aren't looking to push him back into the line up any time soon. I think we could see him bob up towards the end of the year and who knows he could hit his 2020 peak at that point which would make him a weapon to unleash. I also personally agree with the point on Tom over Preuss, I think TMac would give us more across the ground and get to more contests. But jeez he must be close to being dropped for Brown.

I struggled to get though most of it, there were points I had tears in my eyes it's such a sad read. You can't help but wonder how many other players experienced this sort of awful treatment and how many amazing players were not only lost to the game but struggled to get themselves out of worse situations. The "defense" by his advocate at one of his tribunal appearances made me want to vomit it was so full of racist vitriol and bile. I'm glad his story got told, it needed to be heard to ensure we are always looking to do better. I hope this prompts St Kilda (and all clubs) to continue to reach out to their past indigenous players.

This year is a bit of a different feeling as well for me, more so because I really think where we are at we should be making finals fairly comfortably but we seem destined to have to keep fighting for relevance in the finals conversation. We haven't beaten anyone of note this year, the Saints (maybe GWS) will be our last chance to beat someone of finals quality opposition. While you could maybe argue the same in 2018, the difference was that we beat two top 8 teams right at the end and everyone knew that we botched the two losses against the cats. I can picture us making the 8 in the same way Essendon made it in 2019, just making up the numbers.

I'm pretty sure that was lumped in with the points based system which for me confused the whole thing, particularly when they then brought in the 10% downgrade for an early plea. They took out that system because people didn't like the carry over points. I would've thought the simple option is that if you have been given a low grade reprimand for a gut punch, low impact strike, or low sling tackle that puts you on an offender list that takes say 5 games to wipe off and if you do something low impact again you get a one match ban. Similar to the yellow card system in football. It stops players from doing the cheap little shots that isn't enough for a suspension straight off but then repeat offences gets a ban. EDIT: Just going with my 5 game offender list, I also think it should take 5 games PLAYED to clear your name. They can be VFL games but you shouldn't get a free pass from injury.

Bold choice going for a Preuss and Gawn combo, not against it either. The question comes do we play Weid further up the ground as the CHF and Preuss deep and give him a simple instruction of "if you can't mark it bring it to ground" then have Kozzie and Spargo darting around at his feet.

On the Melbourne website it says 4-6 weeks for his Hammy!!!!! ? If that's the case we might be putting him on ice until 2021! I didn't realise he'd done it that bad!

No one can compare to Adelaide this year, they are a category unto themselves. Here are some actual reasons that you can use on why we may lose to the Saints: - Similar to the dogs they seem to have good outside run, which we have been vulnerable to - when their pressure game is on they are always in it up to their eyeballs, when pressure comes on us we have wilted - King could have a day out against us if our midfield don't put enough pressure on up the ground - Ratten is a very good coach, and Goodwin was most definitely out-coached against Bevo this week - We always seem to lose to the Saints

Wow I forgot the Saints lost to North, if I needed a little helping of confidence that has given it to me! I'm not saying that we're a lock but certainly it points to being vulnerable to mental dips. I felt like our players went in with a bad attitude against Port and also came out with a bad attitude vs the Dogs in the second half. So much of winning games at the highest level come from what's between the ears, it's up to Goodwin and Co to get them working in the right way from the first bounce next week.

I'm not sure of the reasons people keep suggesting moving him back. He clearly doesn't fit there anymore, I'd easily have Oscar as a defender over Tom right now, not least because Oscar has been playing there for the last few years whereas Tom hasn't. I just don't know what is to be done with Tommy anymore, I think the injury from last year and maybe the form drop of the team has killed any confidence he had. He may well bob up for a random good game this year but it just doesn't seem to be happening. When Jacko is back to fitness and has had one run around in the scratch matches I'd be bringing him back in.

Fingers crossed we have our kicking boots from the Pies game and not the dogs game then. Moving on to different games, fingers crossed the Weagles get the job done against GWS today, and maybe pray from an upset from the Kangas. I could actually see that happening, Pies are so depleted and who knows maybe something random could happen for Shaw.

We lost to the Lions by 4 points, arguably matched them better across the game than the Saints did who should've been down by 30+ points at 3 quarter time.

Preuss Out Gawn In Sparrow Out Rivers In (give Harmes minutes in the middle and up forward) Other possible ins would be Oskar Baker for Sparrow and Hunt for Hannan perhaps? Melksham is a bit like Fritta they keep bobbing up for cheap goals here and there but both I feel aren't fulfilling their roles. Both should be aiming for 15+ possies and 1-2 goals a game.

Lions should've been up by 5 goals going into the last quarter but had to scrape it home. Felt not dissimilar to the game against us where they should feel lucky to have got away with it. The Lions are a good team but I could very easily see them going out in straight sets again.

I think the dogs game gave the players a harsh wake up call, I've got very little doubt we have players in the team that drink their own bathwater a little too quickly. By all means drink pints of it after you've won the premiership but until then we are still a side that has done nothing! At the start of the year I had us pegged at about 6th-10th, we've got games against 4 teams that we really should be beating + the saints game next week. I've done a little ladder predictor with us dropping two more games, Saints and GWS. It has us finishing 9th. I think it's actually really simple, we beat the Saints next week I can't see us missing finals. We lose and we have to win the rest of our games to make finals, 3 wins means we're in the lap of the gods.

Just watching a passage of play that concerned me for next match was how easy the Saints were able to get the ball out from a kick in to their half forward line. The dogs tore us to shreds off the back line and it looks like the Saints are more than capable of doing the same. Our pressure and desire to work hard is going to have to be on all match next week, and like what the Saints are doing right now, take our chances when they come (I'M LOOKING AT YOU FRITTA!!!!!!!).