deejammin'

The only reason Kane is not doing his usual schtick of taking the most extreme position possible is because it’s Port Adelaide. He’s hopelessly compromised when it comes to them, any other club and he would be fire and brimstone. As for Healey this same attitude pervaded the whole Essendon saga, “it was a mistake”, “the weren’t really trying to get an advantage”, “they’re good blokes”. Blind Freddy could see what happened here, they tried to game the system to gain a competitive advantage and damn the potential health consequences for the player. As you say this needs to be taken out of the entire AFL’s hands, the boys club has shown itself to not be able to be impartial and adjudicate laws effectively in these scenarios. I’m sure any independent review panel would find this egregiously out of line. Medical negligence is a thing for doctors too, they’re not perfect and this situation appears to fit the bill!

Should the AFL try its usual Modus operandi of “nothing to see here” with a slap on the wrist on a busy media day it will guarantee this continues to happen. In this case Port didn’t go on to win and thankfully the player wasn’t hurt further but if a team is going to lose their best player to a mild concussion in a final we will see more migraines unless the AFL stamp this out now. It must be a HUGE fine or premiership points or preferably both. We’ve changed almost every element of our great game to protect players from concussion and its future effects, if clubs won’t follow the rules we have the book should be thrown at them. Failure to act on this undermines the entire AFL’s ‘commitment’ to protect players.

I was one who questioned whether Petty had earned his forward spot. Insane performance. Spectacular. If he can keep competing like that every week we’ve got one here, 6 goals a huge bonus. We still look a little undersized, I feel like there’s a spot if Grundy can get into dangerous form, but I’m not sure who for. Gawn is the greatest ruckman of all time, deserves a seventh jacket, English isn’t fit to hold his mouth guard. Won us the game again. Viney, unbelievable, Lever brilliant, JVR and Melksham outstanding. McVee excellence response in the second half, ANB’s best game for the year, when he plays well we look so much better. Salem and Riv so good. We had a few messy turnovers and silly decisions but ultimately are building nicely. Although it wasn’t a great game I think Tomlinson stays in, Smith is the ultimate sub and seems to always have impact without getting injured this way. Scary to think we still have Oliver in for JJ, Sparrow for Harmes, Fritsch for Woey and potentially Grundy somewhere. That’s an insane team!

I think if Petty comes in its forward, Tomlinson has been far better back recently. But it brings into question the whole winning spots by merit argument, we have an AA ruckman doing an apprenticeship in a position he is likely to spend less than 30% game time in and demonstrating ok form. When has Petty done his forward VFL apprenticeship? He has looked decent as a forward once this year, against a undermanned Hawthorn defence for a half before being injured. I’d have brought Harrison back via the VFL as a forward and had Grundy in. Gawn and Grundy can be a genuine strength, Grundy would offer us a lot more all over the ground than Brown last week and we’d be at an advantage against the second ruck rather than disadvantage with JVR and JVR could spend more time forward when Max rests and Grundy is in the ruck. I could go for the Grundy forward training when it was for the inclusion of a genuine forward, not a back man who’s had some ok forward cameos, let’s get a big advantage in the ruck and rely on Trac, Melksham, Chandler, JVR and a resting ruck to get the job done forward.

Hammy aside Clayton has been infamous for being beaten up in season. They regularly joked on Gus and Gawny about Clarry barely being able to get his hands above his head with sore shoulders. If he comes back in 3 weeks cherry ripe I think we could see something remarkable. A fresh superstar mid moving freely and chomping at the bit in a top four side, look out!

If the Hawks can jag one win before the last round and WC gets up in the game with Freo round 24 could see a good old fashioned tanking game between the Hawks and Freo! Maybe if we win our next four and lock away a double chance we could rest all our players to throw our round 23 game against the Hawks to improve our draft picks (joking!!! Joking!!! Don’t come at me!)

It’s actually even better than that: Port 2-1 Brisbane, Melbourne 2-2 Pies 1-2 (not sure where you have given them the extra win from but they’ve only played 3 games against top 4 so far with their only win over Port, they play again soon).

Hope so. If we’d beaten them it’d be safe. I also can’t let it go easily as we outplayed them but just didn’t put it away, they didn’t deserve to win. Anyway, how about these draft picks?!

Freo’s run home: Collingwood at the G Sydney in Perth Geelong in Geelong Lions in Perth Eagles in Perth Port in Perth Hawks at the G At worst we’re getting pick 7 at best, 4!

This is beautiful but it’s also so frustrating. That Freo loss is hurting us in so many ways, we’d be basically safe in the top four and Freo would be 15th giving us a number 4 pick!!! Argh!!

This Essendon Crows game looks like what Basketball would be if every score had a ball up. I wish we scored more but I’d hate to see us play like this, there’s no discipline or contest. There’s a middle ground that produces much better football.

Looked a hip flexor thing to me. Strange outwards twist of the whole leg.

Nice goal to AMW. Casey doing something our seniors need to learn to do, putting them away early. Howes looks a player, I’m interested in why he’s being played at HB, a crowded position on our list and not the wing. He has attributes we lack in our current two wingers he’s tall, a good mark, beautiful kick and tough. Is it a tank issue?

JVR takes a nice chest mark at 50. Misses an easy pass to Chandler who passes to Jefferson who gets punched in the head. No free, Schache gets a free in the ensuing throw in and goals. We’re on top atm.

Blake Howes classy. Beats two on the wing then a perfect kick. Jefferson taking two great marks and delivering a good ball to Schache who lost it in the sun. Laurie creates a good mark to AMW who misses. Getting back on top. Good experience for Verral in his third game playing on a genuine AFL ruck in Cambell.

According to Goody in the presser copped a knock to the ribs in the 1st that got worse as the game went on and as he wasn’t covering the ground well they subbed him. Says they’re very confident he’ll be right for next week, given Goody’s record with Clayton we’ll see him next year then 😈😈

We are now 3-2 against the fellow top 6 teams. Beat Brisbane next week and we will have beaten all except Port, who we lost to by 4 points, in Adelaide, in a storm. We’re not in great form, many of our best are well down and yet we’re a game plus percentage inside top 4. If we can get it to click against Brisbane next week we could lock away top 4. I’m backing in Gawn, Grundy, Pickett, Lever to bounce back after sub standard games for them. Hoping JVR kicks ten in the VFL tomorrow and replaces a small in the forward line. Hope Petty’s ok. The negativity around here is a bit over the top, yes, we’re not playing like a premiership team, but it’s July, just bank wins. Oliver, Fritsch back for finals, find some form who knows what happens. We used to lose our game after NT every year, we managed to win the last quarter by a goal coming back from a slog in the rain this year. I’m betting if Taj and Brown kick straight in that last quarter to kill the game and give us an easy 6 goal win there’d be a lot less anger in here. It’s understandable MFCSS after our last five weeks but we weren’t losing that game.

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.