deejammin'

Threw it away, three teams have beaten us this year, three times we’ve beaten ourselves. It’s so hard to watch, we dominate the play for so little return, the opposition plays for five minutes and win. This season is slipping away. Lose any of the next three and we are fighting to make the 8. So disappointing and yet so predictable, it’s the same problem as last year and selection was bizarre. Drop JVR for Brown in the wet?! I’m realigning my expectations to hoping we can make finals three times in a row for the first time in the modern era. This is not a premiership team.

And another to Woey. Brilliant goal out of a pack. Howes, Woey, Laurie, Jordon, Turner all getting involved.

Verall looks a player. Might have a good developing ruck for the first time in a long time. Good start with two quick goals (Jefferson, AMW).

In: Bowey, Tomlinson Out: Hibbo(kidney, ouch) Jordan Spargo(sub) Petty forward, Brayshaw rotating through the middle/wing, Tommo back to full back, never should’ve been dropped. JUST WIN FFS!!

Shoulder?! (Please noooo!)

That was an easy kill, no Dangerfield, no Guthrie, no Cameron, we should be winning that. It was a chance to end Geelong’s season and cement ourselves inside the 4 if not chase top 2 and we threw it away. I still have belief that our best is good enough but we are the most inconsistent we’ve been for a long time. This and the Freo loss will hurt us, if only as they have kept those two teams alive. Gutted, we better rock up and show something against GWS!

Lower I reckon. I hope Freo only win two more games for the rest of the year. If Carlton beat them down they go! Suns will win enough games at home to eclipse Freo.

If only Sydney had got up this would’ve been the perfect weekend for us. With Brisbane and Saints playing next week as long as we beat Geelong next week we’ll either be a game and percentage in third or two games and percentage off fourth. Perfect.

#spoonmatle I believe! (How on Earth did we lose to them?! As Gawny says we really need a mulligan for that game)

The umpires are so one-sided towards Brisbane in this game it’s shameful!

If it hadn’t got so close late I wanted to start a mighty ducks style “quack quack quack” chant in Ed’s honour, sadly Max and Maysie dropped those marks and they kicked goals so I was too nervous to try it.

Or Salem who last played in last year’s finals campaign before coming back in on great form in recent weeks. If Petty is fit he plays seniors, don’t know where or for who though…

Agree with you 100% except we got within 4 points of Port in Adelaide. Sorry, I’m a pedant!

If GWS and WB can win the next two I think we’re home. Freo would struggle to rebound from that and a top 7 pick could be back on the cards. Particularly if Sydney and the Blues get a run on at some point. Go Giants!!! (Eewww I feel dirty saying it). If only we’d rocked up and besten Freo! Argh! They’d be 12th-14th and we’d be on for pick 4,5 or 6. Dammit!!!

Yes it’s rubbish we play Geelong at Geelong every year, yes it’s rubbish no where near the number of fans that would’ve attended will be there (I’d suggest this game gets 50k at the G next week), but let’s just win! Should Geelong lose to Port and then us then their game against Sydney in Sydney becomes a de facto elimination final with Geelong as many as three games out of the eight! It would be simply beautiful to put them out of contention. I think this was part of the reason for our angst after the Freo game, we had the chance to put them down where they belonged, we’ll still make top 4 but Freo outside the 8 when we have their picks would’ve been simply stunning. Let’s do it to Geelong! I’m waiting for the injury report before even trying for selection. Atm Spargo out Oliver in looks likely, Bowey, Petty, let’s see if there’s a mystery injury of the week, hopefully not but it would make selection easier…

That’s a narrative they create purely because they don’t like us. We are on track for record average attendees (43210, 1100+ per game on our previous best, even in spite of playing Essendon in Adelaide) and home attendance (52367). We are 6th in the league for average attendance and 3rd for home attendance (although a few teams are a game behind). Our membership is closest to 9th in the league so in terms of our fans turning up we punch well above our weight, but according to the football media and some on here we “never rock up”. Never let the truth get in the way of a good beat up!

I’d have Hogan, Bedford and Jackson back. Hogan and JVR would be a formidable setup. Both great marks and mobile.

Couldn’t this be manipulated though? If the red card is reliant on the player being out for the game medical teams might keep a player off if they know it would take an opposition star out of the game? If Hewitt had been fine but the WC medical staff knew DeGoey comes out of the game if they err on the side of caution wouldn’t this be a worry? DeGoey shouldn’t have done it to begin with but the AFL is already so bad at the MRO with the benefit of time and multiple angles, I shudder to think what mistakes could be made in the moment, especially if results are reliant on team’s own parochial medical staff being impartial.

He was listed as two to three weeks last Monday, 29/5. That makes King’s birthday Monday 12/6 exactly two weeks. Now it’s a long shot, there’s no mention of him returning in Goody’s presser for example. But if 2-3 was indeed true then there’s a chance he’s available this week. Otherwise we’ll have him cherry ripe after the bye. It’s probably wishful thinking to have him back for KB but it’s not insane, it’s within the stated timeline.

In that case I think just the two changes but I’m holding out fools hope.

In: Oliver, Petty, Hibberd Out: Bowey (concussion), Harmes (Susp), Tomlinson Chandler to sub.

Pies have had five ugly games. Should’ve lost to Adelaide and Essendon, pulled it out of the fire with some skill, but also some luck. They weren’t good today, WC are as putrid as it gets and they were clearly the better team for the better part of half the game. Pies were also far from convincing against North, particularly in the last quarter. Brisbane also smashed them, the only thing keeping them in that game at all was BT’s bleating commentary. They’re the best team in the league, but they’re not perfect. Pies are 1-1 (one at home, one away) against fellow top four teams. We’re 0-2(both away). Beat them and our records are the same where it matters. Bring it on.

Wins a win. Realistically if we’d kicked straight against Freo or Fritta had kicked his usual around the corner goal against Port we’d be in a great position. As it stands we’re a game plus percentage inside the four with a real chance to test ourselves next week. We haven’t hit our best form at all this season yet, but we’ve also not had our best team on the park yet. Oliver, Hibberd are MASSIVE ins, if we get Petty back then that’s our best 22 (minus Bowey). I liked the look of the JVR, Smith, Fritsch, Resting Ruck forwardline. Especially as it lets Petty come into the backline for Tomlinson when he’s fit. Let’s give it a few weeks. Salem is getting back to his best, McVee is a gun, Lever was back to his best, Maysie looking better. Gus playing better. Hunter and Ed looked good. Gawny finally found form in the last and Trac and Viney are huge. I get the frustration, that should’ve been a ten goal win, Fritsch, Chandler, Gawn and Rivers missing multiple easy shots killed us. But we won and when we finally click it’s going to be scary. Bring on the pies.

The good news is if that’s a week DeGoey is a month!!! Bad luck for Harmesy but I think given Oliver’s impending return and JJ and Woey showing a bit in the VFL he was going to have this week off anyway.

Hey now, hey now, the dreeeam is over!