Maldonboy38

The best are the best for a reason. Bontempelli - take a bow, that goal was a thing of beauty.

I loathe the Blues, but I have to give them credit on this last quarter. Away from home, hostile crowd, and they come out dominating.

Two good teams chucking everything at each other, but a LOT of unsuccessful forward thrusts, meaning most of the energy and effort being used up between the arcs. Port missing Rozee's class and speed.

I suppose defining "greatest" means some strange interplay between skill, influence, fan favourite, and club devotion. I'm going to use my Dees-mad mother (dec.)as an additional reference point to my own experiences and observations. To save myself all the angst of rating them in order, I will put my top 5 in chronological order: 1. Norm Smith 2. Ron Barassi 3. Robbie Flower 4. Max Gawn 5. Clayton Oliver Shwartz almost makes it. Would have been anything without injury. Stynes was a freak and changed the ruck role into being midfielders as well. Petracca is by far the best match winner, big moments player I have seen at the Dees. Stuey Spencer - Mum reckoned he could play in any era and excel. And just for the hell of it - MFC Freaks of nature: Farmer, Jakovich, Stynes & Jurrah. And last - Lyon and Brian Wilson are much better footballers than people give them credit for.

Patience, my young padawan, patience. This kid is a gem but he is not ready for the midfield yet. Yet. I see him in there in the next 2 years. Also we have no-one else with his poise and kicking skills to replace him down back.

Gives me strong TMac vibes. Solid and dependable, good team man, can play either end of the ground, safe in pressured moments. Is better than he often appears. Worthy of a thorough investigation depending on price.

6. Gawn 5. Salem 4. Tomlinson 3. TMac 2. ANB 1. Langdon

I'll take the win, but I need medication to get over the first 2.5 quarters of snooze fest. When we take risks and change the angle of play to come through the corridor, we really are dangerous and exciting. This was the best thing about the 3rd and 4th quarters. Great to see Tomlinson play so well. The gut run and repeated efforts of Langdon, ANB and Rivers looked top quality today. I was unconvinced about Billings and I remain unconvinced about McAdam. Hated those 3 last quarter goals. Best game from Oliver Viney and Trac as a trio in some time. Max Gawn - simply the best.

Woewodin is wasted as a sub. McAdam is looking so lacking in presence in every contest. St Kilda are terrible. It is good to be winning well again.

I am just soooo sick of all the positive spin put on "defensive structures", and we the Dees are among the worst. The 18 player defensive zone waiting for a turnover is such boring football. This game is atrocious, even if it is starting to open up now because we have decided to run and carry, and take some risks. Good that we are winning and winning well though.

I can see what they are trying to do, but in every good chain of footy between half back and half forward, that last disposal includes an easy turnover error. And it looks like they are tiring now and so Essendon begin to look ok.

I can't remember the last time I "barracked" for the Tiges, but I really like a few of their young players, and their game plan looks really good. If they can actually finish some of the good work upfield, they could win this. Repeated errors at half forward are killing them. And let me reiterate for umpteenth time - I despise the Bummers, so it is very easy to barrack against them.

Horrible game of footy, but game going to script. Freo keeping pressure on, lots of tackling and stoppages, keeping Pies at bay. Pies slowly pulling away due to Freo over using/abusing handball. Papley's over celebrating, Draper's ridiculous hair cut, commentators drooling over all things Daicos: all these things are annoying, frustrating and rage-inducing. But Maynard . . . this pretend tough guy is in a class of his own. Surely footy gods/karma/reap what you sow has to see him cop his right whack some time soon. Looks like a Pies template game. Close score, they will kick 2-3 goals in red time to win. Again.

Most of the changes look spot on to me. Not Hunter though. I have watched a few Casey games and don't see how they have picked him on that form. AMW is possible, but he looks more like a good VFL player in form, rather than an AFL ready player but that can be hard to read at times. I really hope Woewodin gets a full game. Looks steady and able to cope with speed and pressure at AFL level. If we have to play Hunter, let him be the sub.

Spargo was brilliant at this for two years and then it seemed to disappear. ANB, Bowey and Windsor of our current players. Salem at his peak, but seems to have lost dare and consistency. I would love one of Eric Gulden, Jordan Dawson or Gryen Myers.

He is developing well, gets to all the right places and presents in the air well. But he is another season away from being AFL ready and will be less effective than Petty or BBB.

6. ANB 5. Kozzie 4. Fritsch 3. McVee 2. Gawn 1. Viney (for effort, not execution) That was difficult.

I don't consider myself a ranter, but boy am I tempted tonight. We are simply not good enough. With this list, I cannot believe I am concluding this but the evidence is clear. The Premiership window looks now like a rear vision mirror, and our current list is performing badly across the ground - forward, defence, midfield. Our generational midfield is being beaten weekly at ground level, in the body-on-body contest, and on the spread away from stoppage. Our defence has a good system but gets exposed in one-on-one contests. I don't think we do a player dump and expose young players who are not ready, but BBB, Billings and Howe must be under the spotlight, and Petty needs to be dropped to find form. But my main rant is reserved for our kicking skills. Watching professional players get a ball at half back or wing, run a few steps unpressured, only to hit an opposition player on the chest over and over and over again. And if we do hit a target, the next kick inside F50 hots targets about 25% of the time.

Two things late in the last quarter: Stoppage 10 metres out from WCE point post, Oliver handballs to no-one TOWARDS their goal. Petty v McGovern on the wing, absolutely no contest at all. No strength or contest, just a simple mark to McGovern. My wife, who watches some Dees game, but isn't really into footy, said "it looks like they don't want to play". Worst I have seen the Dees play since 2019. No intensity or passion at all.

Really difficult to watch this. Our kicking and physical intensity have been horrid. Even when we do begin winning contests etc... our kicking for goal (4 of them from within 30 metres) is like country reserves footy.

I am starting to fear the same thing. Our worst is as bad as any, and our stock standard footy appears below Sydney etc... Our best is still as good as any but we are lucky to produce it for half a game. And our field kicking remains our Achilles heel.

Our lack of composure off half back is frightening. If we fix this, our forwards look a class above their backs.

If I do this, I will be legless motherless drunk by the 3rd quarter.

Our kicking off half back! Unpressured, horrible, leading straight to turnover scores against us. Getting seriously sick of it.

Did Rankine run too far - yes. But there are so many instances of players running much further without penalty. For instance, players playing on from a kick in after a behind. They now run 25 - 30 metres regularly without opposition or commentators saying a thing. Rankine has every right to feel confused. What is sad is the increasing amount of borderline umpires calls late in games that are causing or changing the outcome of games. Players now train for certain scenarios; maybe umpires need similar training.