Jaded No More

As I said, optics. AFL house= stretcher very bad, broken nose we can’t get sued for. If Ballard doesn’t cop an earlier knock to the head (accidental), would he have even ended up on a stretcher? Where was the duty of care prior to this incident?

What if he looked at Ballard to assess his positioning to avoid a head clash or protecting his own body? He didn’t line him up off the ball ffs. He made a split second decision to try and impact the contest. If he doesn’t do that he gets called soft.

Last week this is called play on. We are not about protecting the head, we are about protecting the optics. One player is unharmed. One player is off on a stretcher. One player doesn’t even get looked at. One player cops 2 weeks.

It is beyond me why coaches and players aren’t allowed to make comments relating to the MRO but the media is able to judge and convict players. They are judge, jury and executioner. They should not be allowed to comment on this anymore than they would be allowed to comment on legal proceedings.

David King is still crying about what we did to Norf last week. Sad man.

1000%. If Ballard gets up and plays the game out this is not even a 50m penalty. Suns have confirmed Ballard is fine anyway. He felt something in the back of the neck (which is odd since JVR made contact with his face), and so a stretcher had to be called. It’s standard practice for all suspected neck injuries.

I was totally fine with Kosi getting two weeks. His was not a necessary footy action or even in play and had the potential to cause a very serious injury. The reality is tho, that basically every action on a footy field can cause serious injury. A spoil, a diving mark, a tackle, a speccy. If we start penalizing every action that ends in injury, whether accidental or not, whether in play or not, we are changing our game. We have to minimize risk by taking out actions that don’t contribute to the game. But we can never take the risk away from the game, and if you can’t even spoil a ball with the game on the line, then what can you even do? If Rivers dives for a spoil and the player chasing him accidentally trips over him and hits his head on the ground does Rivers get suspended? What if you go to spoil and break someone’s leg? Does Lever get suspended because he went for a spoil and his opponent landed badly and broke his leg? A split second in play decision to try and spoil cannot and should not result in suspension when 9 times out of 10 it won’t even result in a free kick. Just because Ballard felt something in his neck and a stretcher was called as a precaution, doesn’t mean JVR now has to miss two weeks of football. The AFL, as per usual, have taken it so far the other way, for fear of being sued, they are changing the game. For the worse.

And of course Chol isn’t even cited for a round house smack to Bowey’s head because Bowey had the nerve to get straight back up.

Exactly. We’ve copped some absolute putrid decisions and never appealed in recent years. ANB, Chandler, the list goes on of Melbourne players being made an example of. Sick of it.

We won’t challenge. We never do. But we absolutely should. A complete disgrace.

It’s a [censored] football action. It was in play and his intention was to spoil. For goodness sake why was Ballard even allowed back on when he already copped a head knock earlier? Absolute joke if he gets suspended. Which means he will undoubtedly get 3 weeks If he wore a Geelong jumper it would be play on 😡

Sydney are absolute trash at the moment, but surely they’ll give Freo a hiding.

The issue is not that Petty can’t be a good forward. He absolutely can be and he rarely gets outmarked which is exactly what you need from a tall forward. The issue is that at the moment, while he’s learning to play forward, our backline is losing too much without him, and our forwardline isn’t gaining enough to balance this out. We need him back, especially with May in just ok form. It not only makes us defensively better, it frees Lever up to play in his best intercept role.

You have to finish top 4 to win a flag. With an extra in season game, the double chance and the opportunity at an extra week off is more important than ever. Even if I think the top 8 will be made up mostly of Victorian teams, you also want the safety net of a home final. We have a good fixture once we get to the bye and over the constant travel. If we don't finish top 4, which means 16-18 wins, it will be a wasted season.

Commentators will always barrack for the underdogs. As a neutral supporter you also want to see the lower sides beat the top sides. It’s natural. However the JVR needing to be suspended campaign is putrid. Just a [censored] take.

He also said that we needed to arrest some momentum in the contested possessions in order to win. Which we did.

At least Hunter got involved. Where was Langdon?

Petty is not giving us enough up forward to justify how much we miss him down back. The defense is all at sea and we need him down there to help out May. BB might not be the answer but neither is robbing our backline.

To each their own. I’ve waited decades for us to be a legitimate flag contender. These windows are fleeting and they may not come around again for a long long time (especially with yet another new club coming in). I would hate for us to just be happy with home and away wins, because as we saw last year, it meant nothing in the end. We have to take advantage of the list that we have. It’s too good to not win another flag. And with Gawn, May, Hibbo all getting closer and closer to the end, and the competition being so even, we need to strike while the iron is hot. To only win one flag with this list would be a real underachievement. And to not win one at home in front of those of us who have waited their whole lives, would be heartbreaking.

Saints have the softest draw in the world. They could finish top 4 by virtue of beating nobody.

Why? In play, eyes on the ball to start with, made a very legitimate attempt at spoiling and unluckily connected. Happens 19 times a game. The player who got hurt was hit in the head accidentally earlier in the match. Why was he even allowed back on? If JVR gets suspended for that then the game is in trouble. Players need to be able to spoil. 9 times out of 10 nobody gets hurt and the other one time is a free kick and you move on. Chol hitting Bowey in the head late should be a suspension.

I hope and in fact I’m sure the club isn’t happy to get smashed in contested possessions when we are a contest first team. Just because you’re winning doesn’t mean you can’t improve. This is a very soft part of our draw. We took an easy kill against Norf and we will have an easy kill most likely next week. But get smashed in the contest like we did tonight against Port, Carlton, Pies, GWS or Geelong and we will likely lose. There is a lot to like about this season, but there is a lot to work on as well. Every team is in the same boat luckily. There isn’t one side that is miles ahead of us. But what is clear is that so far, fast ball movement thru the corridor and extreme pressure in the contest is the way to beat us, so we have to get better at it, because unfortunately our biggest threats this season play exactly this way.

Lol anyone who thinks Fritta will get dropped. Kick like he normally does and he ends up with his usual 3 goals. But yes definitely let’s drop him for all those amazing goal kicking forwards currently not playing.

I never said that todays form is the form we will have in September. I’m saying that currently we are miles off the mark on the key indicators that win you flags; defense and CPs. It’s nice to kick big scores, but grand finals are rarely won in a shootout. Nothing wrong with winning close games and banking the wins, but if you’re not improving you’re going backwards and it would be foolish not to look at the glaring issues we’ve shown all year. In my opinion we haven’t yet beaten any really good opposition. Sydney and Dogs are just ok. Brisbane killed us and we got very lucky against the Suns. And outside of that we’ve beaten 3 sides destined for a bottom 4-6 finish

He did. I’m shocked anyone is giving him votes. Had a shocker.