deejammin'

He’s been playing as a back man and looking pretty good. He’s taller and bigger than I remember and looks very capable of playing 2nd or 3rd key back. He hasn’t been playing wing this year though.

The ladder when you posted was: 1. Melbourne 2. Freo 3. Brisbane 4. Carlton 5. Geelong 6. Sydney 7. St Kilda 8. Richmond History might be in trouble this year. The loser of Swans vs Richmond will drop out of the 8 to be replaced by the dogs when they annihilate WC (say what you will about the dogs but they flat track bully very well). If it’s Sydney they then play us and Port so could drop as far as 10th with their upcoming games over the bye. Meanwhile if it’s Richmond they could be dropping under Port when they play in round 13. Port’s destiny is in its own hands with Dixon coming back for their games against Essendon, Richmond and Sydney, win 2/3 and they’re well and truly back in the race. Sadly it looks like Geelong are safe but if Adelaide and the Dogs do us all a favour and beat them they’re back in the thick of the fight (with games against us, Carlton, St Kilda, Richmond, Port, GC and the Bulldogs again in the run home). From what I can see at least one change, possibly two are still likely, bizarrely, given where they sat only a few weeks ago Freo could drop out with games against us x2, Brisbane, Carlton, Sydney, Richmond, St Kilda, Dogs and Port in the run home. GC and the Pies are real wildcards here, if they continue their recent form of upsets they will shape the 6-8 positions. I hope we smash Freo and Sydney these next two weeks, not just because I always love us winning, but if both teams lose they are thrust into a HUGE fight to even make finals.

Great news on Ed, I reckon he plays, tough bugger. Viney back also is important. Good to see Salem, Harmes and Hibberd all tracking to be available for Brisbane. With a little luck we may finally get our full best 22 on the park to play just in time for our biggest challenger! This week: In: Viney Bedford Out: Dunstan Melksham (one of these twowill play sub) Viney is a no brainer, career best form and if he’s over the tightness/soreness in he comes. Bedford offered more than Melksham defensively this week (3 more tackles, 4 more pressure acts) while the rest of their games were pretty similar. Bedford just feels more dangerous to me so until Harmes comes back, Bedford should get the gig. This game just got more important to me, not because we need it, we’ve earned our break and can afford to drop one, but I hope it’s not this one as if we win in three weeks time Freo could be playing off to stay in the 8! So much for these challengers. Let’s bury them!

I still remember Frosty bombing a goal from 50 in a QB game for us. His crazy kicking looks a lot better when’s he’s kicking at goal.

Brisbane backline looks a lot less sure without Marcus Adams (who’s been in ripping form!)

Frosty!!! Looking good as a forward.

Go Benny! Congrats on your 150! Kick a bag!!

That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. How can a player who runs past the ball, chooses to bump, hits a player high be less severe than a tackle that is one motion, let’s go of the arms and is ultimately pretty unlucky. I had Ryan getting two, Chandler getting one, this is getting beyond a joke. Punish legitimate football actions that result in accidents, elbow blokes in the head (Lynch), kick blokes with your studs (Cotchin), bury blokes in a tackle (Hawkins), nothing, accidentally have a player lack awareness and be driven forward in a pretty good tackle, two weeks. Maybe Chandler deserved a week, maybe, but how is this so inconsistent and wrong so often?! And why is MFC so often on the end of the harshest rulings?!

We now hold the record for best opening to a season by a reigning premier (in the modern AFL era post 1990, if anyone wants to go back further be my guest). Previous was 8-0 Geelong 2018. We’re now the champions!!

It’s the luck of the draw isn’t it? My frustration is when they’re trying to make a game fit their narrative rather than calling it as they see it. Brown, Buckley and many others tend to just call the game on its merits whereas Underwood, BT and co and many on AFL.com are determined to have it fit into a pre-constructed narrative “Melbourne’s new weakness”, “which players will they lose?”, “they are showing signs of slowing down” “they can’t score high enough” rather than actually calling what’s happening. That’s when I turn it off. Ultimately though it’s just a small annoyance, we’re the undefeated reigning premiers heading into round 10, never thought I’d see the day.

Good post. Interestingly, the comparisons with Brisbane are reasonably favourable, they beat West Coast by 75 at home, us 74 away. Their 105 point win over North will be tough to top (not that it matters), but based on the VFL this week I’d give us a shot. I also agree we bomb a bit too much inside 50 and our forwards don’t seperate enough. But it’s good to have room for improvement after 9-0 with a 74 point win. Helps stop complacency.

Round 18 I think, Geelong’s record is 23 in a row we’re currently 16 in a row. Kelly got a lot wrong today.

Damn?! Really?! He’s very unlucky then, tore that VFL game apart today. I’d have had him or Bedford coming in for Harmes. Interested that others have Laurie, I see Harmes playing more rotating Wing for JJ/mid than HF but maybe I’m wrong.

I turned the commentary off at quarter time. Gives a much more balanced perspective, bizarrely so much of the AFL media are trying to construct negative views of us rather than acknowledge how remarkable what we are doing is. We are the first reigning premiership team in the modern AFL era (1990-, and probably well before but I can’t be arsed going back any further) to go 9-0, that’s incredible!! We’re 5 games + 40 points of percentage inside the top 8, 3 + 35 inside the top four and 2 + 20 inside the top 2. That’s all that matters, we’ll need to play better to win finals, fine, that’s ages away and by then we’ll have Salem back, and a host of VFL players pushing harder than ever for selection. Bring on the haters, we are the best!!

Somehow it wasn’t pretty but we won by 74 points and go two games plus percentage clear inside the top two. Oh and 9-0 is the best start to a season by a reigning premier in the history of the modern AFL!!! Woohoo! The commentators are driving me nuts, the difference between our 74 point win away and Brisbane’s 75 point win at home is shameful. We are the best team in it by a loooong way, stop talking rubbish!

Not a great quarter but just need to restrict their scoring and put a few more on. FWIW our percentage has already surpassed Brisbane’s on the live ladder. Lower opposition scores yield better percentages, keep going boys!

Freo’s next 3: Collingwood, Us, Brisbane. They could still drop to 7th by round 13. 😈😈😈

Woewodin is learning to play the wing beautifully, I assume we’ve been putting him with Ed at training. JVR is a super talent.

They’re in the game just so panicked kicking inside 50, many times now they’ve bombed off one step to no-one when they had far more time!

Good to know that despite their current predicament at AFL level the Roos have some quality talent coming through the VFL 🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪

I had often wondered what would happen if an injured or cramping player on the mark hopped when told to stand. There it is. Terrible fifty, no feel for the game, still not a fan of the stand rule when it’s applied like that.

He also reminds me of a young Jack Darling, although he’s a few centimetres taller already, back before Jack put on heaps of bulk and had a few injuries making him a little less mobile he and Van Rooyen moved almost the same way. He’s a real talent, great to be able to give him time to develop and then bring him into a champion team when he’s ready.

Whoops! Sorry guys!

Who’s keeping Tyson out of North’s side? You’d think with their form an experienced in and under mid would go alright? I was sad to see Hore go, he’s got so many good elements to his game, crueller by injury and our plethora of gun defenders. Jake Bell looks pretty good in the ruck, any chance of a sneaky mid-season pick? Dunstan is putting on a clinic!

Dunstan, Tomlinson and Bedford are too good for this level. Beautiful pass by Van Rooyen also. Lots of great stuff going on here. Woewodins ability to give a chop out kick across half back is also brilliant.