Maldonboy38

Love this. At the end of a working week, with the Dees on TV, with it being the family traditional take away food night, with a good bottle of shiraz ready to set breathing at about 7.30pm, and now you post this sublime synopsis. A thing of beauty is a joy forever. It took us 10 years to recover from our "benefits of losing" campaign. It is taking Carlton 20+ years to recover from their tanking and cash-in-brown-paper-bags era. The Crows are in the middle of a horror stretch after THAT camp which could mean they have no success for a while yet. Some issues have very long lasting consequences for AFL clubs. This is going to take the Bombers a LONG time to get over, and the reason is simple: hubris. They are so full of themselves from their board, to their past players coteries, to their cheer squad, to their trade and drafting personnel - the list is endless. They need an outside authoritative voice to come in and sweep it clean, but no way will they allow this. I love the fact that Clarkson has chosen North. It will rocky and turbulent at the Roos for the first 18 months, but their young list will respond well to him. I know he is not a particularly likeable personality (from all reports) but boy he gets the job done.

There have been some absolute howlers of footy shows, but this is the worst of them. At least many of the other failures weren't trying to take themselves too seriously. I see about 15 minutes of it 4 times per year by sheer dumb luck.. First, the agenda is compiled by the puppet master Hutchinson who now has the money and influence to plot and scheme a lot of behind the scenes power-mongering. All the while presenting himself as a bag of potatoes. Simply, he is a dangerous schemer who has an influence in a LOT of media and decision making. Second, it has Eddie in it. I don't understand how he has survived past the first 5 years of the Footy Show. Third, it offers a forum for rude journalists who think too highly of themselves to see who can p**s higher up whatever metaphorical wall is their chosen target of the week. Their arguing is cringeworthy. Fourth, Ross Lyon cannot talk unless he shouts. His insights are very good but he is no media performer. And last, Lloyd (who I despised as a player) is really really good, but can't get a word in unless a question is directed to him by name. Oh, and I forgot. Anything with Sam McClure in it should never be broadcast. Even Eddie looks OK next to this bloke.

I really feel for Rutten. It feels like he has barely had time and space to build a list, form relationships with key club personnel etc... Whatever happens I hope he stays in footy. Maybe we take him if Yze departs? As far s the Bombers being in crisis: - Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. ... take a breath Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. May they remain irrelevant and mediocre until the robots rise to kill us all.

Dees win, Blues lose, Pies lose, Bombers getting annihilated. Now THAT is an enjoyable weekend.

Come one man, we're Demons supporters who have just beaten the blues by a point, are now watching non MFC games and enjoying some banter. There is no hate here.

McCartin played on, took two steps off his line, was pressured, then took it over the line. Should have been a free kick to Swans because the Pies player ran over the mark, or a behind if the ump did not see that Pies error, a behind.

Punchable head does not mean anyone is going to go up to him and punch him. It's like calling someone a d**khead. Their head does not actually LOOK like a d**k, but is a great way to describe their attitude, in a fun, mocking kind of way. And in relation to diversity, how about allowing Mr. Steve, who made that comment, the freedom to express HIS view. Or is his view somehow outside your definition of diversity? I knew the Ginnivans, and I reckon they would laugh their heads off at this stuff, and don't see it as harmful or distasteful, just footy banter.

True, but he has some stiff opposition. Draper from Essendon? Rhys Matheson from the Lions?

Only change - a forward option to help out. Apart from the one-arm efforts and concrete hands, BBB must have contested 30 aerial contests, and was two-to-one or three-to-one every time. He needs a hand. Joel Smith is a point of difference option who I would consider heavily.

6. Brayshaw 5. Melksham 4. Petty 3. Oliver 2. Hunt 1. Gawn

When Curnow kicked that goal and the Blues fans thought they were in the finals made me puke. Knowing now they are grimacing and weeping makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Some players continue to struggle, but our team effort in those last 2 minutes has at the least given us our belief back.

Confession time. 3 minutes to go I got up and said "we're done, we can't do it from here. We've lost all our close ones this year". Well, bugger me. That was as close to a final as you will get. Not a great spectacle, but as tough as hell. Both sides will be very sore over the next 2 days. Delighted, shocked, annoyed, Exhiirated.

Gap between our best and worst is too far. We look brilliant one moment and then nuff-nuffs the next. Apart from Melksham, our F50 play still lacks class.

Wow. Just wow. Blues goals from frees, 50m penalties, and our stupidity.

That miss by Brayshaw are the ones that kill me. Pretty much a free shot. No score at all. Really frustrating.

Fritsch and Melk need to start leading. With no movement, the only option for our midfield is to aim long for BBB who is surrounded by 3 defenders. And one of Spargo and Kozzie needs to rove the back of the pack where Saad is floating unattended.

Commentators gloating over a "great tight contest". I reckon it has been horrible to watch. Tacklefest, followed by Dees bombing it into the forward line with BBB attempting to mark with 1 hand, followed by more tackling, Blues kick a horrible blind ball to half forward, Dees intercept... rinse and repeat. Well done Melksham. Pittonet is a dill. We are a better team but need to CAPITALISE.

Two teams who have shown real weakness in the 2nd half. The last quarter of the game will be either a fierce battle or a skills-and-intensity fade out. Our best is far better than theirs, but they are good enough if we don't bring our best. I hate Carlton but I honestly don't know who will win.

I rate Ratten highly as a coach, and believe both St Kilda's system and their basic personnel is fine. They lack a dominant gorilla back man and have too many B grade midfielders with the same skill set. They have been monstered by injuries in 2022, and by appalling trade decisions over a 4 year period. As for goal kicking - every AFL team is having the same problem: i.e. losing games by doing everything right to win but missing goals. The 18-players-all-playing-midfield mindset of modern footy, where a network of players moves all over the ground in a defensive grid, is destroying the glorious art of goal kicking. But it is fixable. Look at Fritsch. Max King is a gun with a fixable problem.

And another miss...

Wow - you'd want to skin King alive right now as a Saints supporter.

No way will Goodwin take him back. He has a track record of knowing which players he wants to keep and has been forthright in jettisoning the rest. As soon as Goodwin was able to get it done, Watts was told to look elsewhere. As soon as Freo came knocking for Jesse, Goodwin showed basically no interest in keeping him. He likes defensive workers. Jesse would be a good fit for our forward 50, but his lack of defensive effort puts him outside Goodwin's target group.

I am as filthy as anyone after our loss last night, but I refuse to jump off the Dee train and re-join Neeld's "reality bus". We are the reigning premiers, 3rd on the ladder, with the best midfield and best defence in the league. Yes, we have a massive forward coordination issue including a single-idea game plan, no real power forward, and our kicking skills can be atrocious. But we are losing games through inefficiency and being beaten in big moments - both fixable things. I waited almost 6 decades for this. I'm not jumping off this until its over. I am expecting our premiership window to be open for 3 more years at least and I'm going to ride every bump, even if I get filthy mad it hurts sometimes.

Just watched Goody's press conference. Although he looked calm, focused and composed, it felt like he was barely holding his rage in check. I reckon he is filthy about that game, even if he is the master designer of the game plan. He was also VERY clear on his belief that our personnel and method are doing lots right and he has full faith. I might not always agree with him, but I love his positive team belief and doggedness.

My 2 bobs worth. Last night, we had the ball so much in our half of the ground, and kept it there for long periods or repeat entries means 2 possible things: pressure acts aren't required (we have the ball) or we are messing up the Pies as they move through the middle, taking possession and driving it back inside our F50. So, in this context I can understand why the pressure acts would be so low. What I cannot fathom is this: we took so few F50 marks (did we take any?) which means the ball hits the ground and this is where the pressure is required. And yet we didn't lay one F50 tackle for the night? Appalling! But more than this I see so few dynamic leads by forwards. Fritsch and Brown try but we need a better plan to make space for them to lead into. we don't have a single "clunker" on our list (you could HEAR Neitz mark the ball, and Carey. Curnow and Naughton do it now) Our small forwards rarely crumb properly. When they do it looks amazing because we see it so rarely. a gameplan of kicking to the left forward pocket. I know this is a defensive mechanism because it is a lot harder for the opposition to clear the ball out, but we do it EVERY time. Our midfield kicking inside F50 can be elite one minute and totally inefficient the next.