Maldonboy38

Not great viewing. Verrall doing well at ruck contests, White and Brown combining well at ground level (does this make them beige?).

Absolute rotten day outside, so am hoping to rug up, put the wood fire on when I can be bothered, and watch the Casey game. Unfortunately the game today is an away game so I will have to endure some 3rd rate parochial inarticulate commentator annoying the carp out of me, but otherwise I really enjoy the VFL. Love watching our younger listed payers running around. I hope Jefferson has another blinder.

I would prefer to keep TMac for 1 more season. Tall key position swingmen are rare and TMac has shown incredible skill at both ends of the ground. His fitness and mental toughness are also great for young players to see and imitate. I can see Disco Turner being our next generation swing man but it might be one more season away. Delist - Hunter, Smith, and Schache. Retire - BBB Lose to other clubs - Laurie, Tomlinson

Some considerations as I ponder our run home: Positive - our bevy of young 2024 debutante players have picked up the gameplan and AFL standard footy really quickly, meaning we are now in the contest for every game we are in. We are rarely blown apart, and if we are behind late in a game, come home with momentum. Positive - we travel well Positive - Melksham's inclusion has given our forward structure a whole new sense of strength and variety. Question - can our bevy of young 2024 debutante players keep it up through to round 23 and into the finals? Question - how long will Max be out of action? Negative - the form of Petty, Bowey & Salem. Negative - constant reliance on Woewodin, Laurie, Billings, or Howe to come in and pinch hit for one or two scattered games, only to be sub or emergency and have to return to play at Casey. Unsustainable I would think.

Great talking point. I reckon if you look back beyond 2000, when the game was much more often one-on-one, contested play was one player beating another player in a contest in the air, or on the ground. The only real marking packs were near the goals, and there were few ground packs because it was positional game play. A loose ball get on the wing with say Robbie Flower and Keith Greig both running for it was another form of the same thing. It is the heart beat and foundation of our game and therefore has to be a key indicator. It is simple logic for me that to win games you first must win possession of the ball, and all other stats have meaning once the ball has been won. The added phrase "key indicator of success" becomes relative to individual teams based on game plan and personnel. For example, the Geelong teams 07, 09, 11 were highly skilled and so maybe they emphasised skill more than contest. Hawks 13,14,15 were system based with Clarko's cluster. Lions 01,02,03 were probably very much based on individual players beating their opponents so might rate contested ball more highly. Players like Jack Viney, Scott West, Brett Ratten, Bobby Skilton, Kevin Murray, Paul Kelly - these are the payers all footy watchers love so much because they are elite at this central component.

I have been looking into this and reckon the best thing is to..... LEAVE THE B****Y GAME ALONE FOR 5 MINUTES. Stop sitting around boardroom tables, or workshops with consultants, or discussion groups from professional systems overseas blah, blah, b****y blah, and let our game be our game.

And more gold from Bombetrblitz: Season over, what. A pathetic effort but sadly not surprising from this club Go ■■■■ yourself Essendon you make me ■■■■■■■ sick I will sleep well tonight.

Great meme on Bomberblitz, with Forrest Gump stating "Essendon is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get".

The modern game can be VERY frustrating, but I am feeling pretty jolly right now. Hahaha, great start to the weekend.

Now, can the Crows defend this? The last 100 mins would suggest not.

I have been a bit of a fan of Matthew Nicks at Adelaide, but surely they have to let him go now, before the end of the year. They have a decent list now but can't defend and can't hold momentum.

Cox kicking 3 goals. THAT'S how bad the Crows are playing at the moment.

Rachele is a seriously gifted player and his positional awareness is outstanding, but boy his 2nd efforts are soft. If he doesn't get it first time, he stops.

The Bombers kick 2 goals and the commentators almost soil their trousers. Give me a break!

Crows tagging Merrett, Draper being slaughtered by O'Brien, Crows forwards killing the Bummers in the air - very enjoyable game so far. Long may it continue.

If I didn't hate Essendon so much, I would hardly bother with tonight's game - worst Friday night fixture in a long time. For me, I want to finish 1st or 2nd, 5th or 6th to ensure home finals. But it is too b****y cold and I am too stuffed of a Friday night to work out which teams winning or losing will get us there. So, Bummers to lose, Dees to win, watch Hawks and Pies bruise the living suitcase out of each other, and Carlton to continue their slow leaking of form as they ever so gradually deflate and exit the finals in straight sets. A good night for some Shapes, a Shiraz, and maybe a late Monkey Shoulder (one of the best budget scotch's available) as the Bummers and Crows bore me to death.

For such a brief time he was a freak ,a superstar, and a very very powerful footballer. You couldn't look away when he was playing. And he was a real old fashioned player who liked a cig and a beer, it made us fans love him even more. It still irritates me that in 1994, we had Lyon, Shwartz, Neitz and Jakovich on our list and we couldn't win a flag. We played the final series without most of them due to injury (if my memory is correct).

Great to hear it might be reverting to its original structure and purpose. Clubs who put in the time, money and effort for specific junior development get priority access. But I remain livid hat they changed it in the first place without any real thought or accountability, and now, with equal incoherent caprice, are going to change it back. Once again it feels like a reaction to something else, rather than something they have planned on its own merits. I like Laura Kane's public persona as an AFL representative, but boy, I reckon she needs to 'read the room' and have a broader understanding of the impact of these decisions.

This kid is a gem - natural footballer with vision, poise and skill. His understanding of positioning and game play is perfectly suited to defense at the moment and it would be wrong to remove that for 'possible' midfield time. It feels like we would be robbing Peter but Paul wouldn't get the same value. At least not yet. Having said that, his kicking is ridiculously precise and effective and I drool at the thought of him delivering it inside F50, so I think the move to the midfield in 2 years or so will be irresistible.

If it is not wet and slippery there is a higher chance of Fullerton playing against Freo than there was any chance he played against the Bummers. Darcy & Jackson are both quality ruckmen with different strengths, both much better than Draper, and I am not sure we can cope with no ruck versus these 2. With no inside knowledge this is total an opinion based on observation but it makes sense to me. I have watched a number of Casey games, and Fullerton is is no spud. I didn't think Moniz-Wakefield's game would transfer up to the AFL and I was totally wrong so Fullerton might surprise a few as well.

I thought our ball-up and boundary throw-in gameplan was intentionally different and brilliant. It looked to me that we did NOT spread quickly from these scenarios, but kept it tight moving it forward in the Richmond chaos style. And this might be because the Bummers are genuine pretenders and get flogged by teams who are strong in the contest and thrive in the battle. The work of Viney, Oliver, ANB and the much-maligned Sparrow was central to this. Also, it was like 2021, when we almost allowed teams to bring it through the wings only to stifle it at half back, turn it over and spread on the counter attack. May and MacDonald were pillars tonight. Great gameplan and coaching.

6. Langdon 5. McVee 4. May 3. Rivers 2. Windsor 1. Kozzie So many other players could have taken the 1 or 2 votes. JVR in the ruck, ANB on Merrett, Melksham very influential, Oliver great 2nd half.

I feel all warm & fuzzy after that. A really young team who physically dominated a soft, poor Bummers. Too many things that I liked to type them all out, so 5 game points: The love between the players and coaches after the siren. Our gameplan with Max out. All hail the Lord Goodwin! All our young boys. Wow. Our back 6. Langdon & Windsor. Elite wing positional play and they annihilated much bigger opponents.

We deserve the last 5 minutes. Effort down to 30%. Leaders need to stand up,

O, this is so, so sweet. A complete team effort, lots of goals, great coaching and it is against the Bummers.