Jaded No More

And we play very very well at Marvel. It holds no fears.

The thing that annoys me most about playing Geelong down in that shizen hole, is that attending the game is basically as impossible as attending an interstate game. Tickets are so limited and to get down there is not fun, particularly if it's a Friday night game. Good luck getting there on time if you're coming from Melbourne.

It definitely doesn't feel like we are the premiers when you look at some of the timeslots and locations we've been given. I don't think the AFL will ever see us as a big club no matter what we do.

Who do you have to [censored] to get a home game against West Coast and to stop getting games in Geelong? Unbelievable

Have always wanted to go to NT and combine the trip with this game. The cost of going up there tho is just mind blowing. Can’t be justified after two hard years of lockdowns.

The Twitter nuffies having a field day with Lever collapsing due to the Covid vaccine. My god we live amongst some truly stupid people.

Also a much much harder sport to succeed in at the highest level. It's a risky move to pick basketball over AFL in Australia unless you are an absolute A+ talent with a future in the NBA.

The money must also help... how many players retire and go straight into another job paying 6 figures? There must be a level of motivation associated with going around again if you know you're going to be bringing in a healthy salary for your family for another year. Of course you must be a damn good player to begin with and as you say a lot of luck with physical conditioning is required.

Yep if they had more premiership merch on sale, they would have sold out 3 times over. The shop was packed and empty. I was impulse buying stuff I absolutely do not need.

I would have thought we'd play Carlton in Round 2, as they'd be coming off the Thursday game, and we can't play Richmond as it doesn't give us enough of a break for the Anzac eve clash.

Really great day. Wonderfully organized by the club. I thought the presentation was wonderful. Great to have Jones and Jetta farewelled properly. Amazing to see Daniher so emotional. Fantastic for the players to have their kids and partners there too. Well done to the club. This will never replace the joy of seeing this happen live, and hopefully we can experience that in 2020, but it was a wonderful experience nonetheless.

I don’t like it but I’ll be there with bells on.

Neither do I. It’s a hard sell for me. I hate it. It’s completely going to alienate fans who live far away or have small kids or work late. It’s a ludicrous choice. Friday or Saturday night would have been much better. Also from a selfish perspective we were going to head away that week and be back for the weekend. I planned my wedding date specifically to be the week before the footy season started each year. Now they go and put us on Wednesday I can’t even have an anniversary holiday. My husband is thrilled I’m ditching him for footy again.

I’ll be there either way but really Wednesday night is so hard!

I reckon they'll sign up a heap of members this Sunday.

Ground balls in our backline was definitely our biggest issue. We got most our scores against in this fashion, because getting a mark inside our defensive 50 is very very hard as we are so dominant in the air. So teams had to force a spillage or kick goals from midfield. There is no doubt that we need to develop a new small defender who can go after those ground ball gets. Hibbo is on his last legs, and we've lost Jetta. It will be fascinating to see how we manage the defence next year with Tomlinson back.

Weather so far is looking very good. Sunny top of 21.

Wednesday is a trash idea!

Just in time for 31 degree weather.

I don’t even drink beer but would have got a case for my bar

I’ve got it on pre order. Will be my Xmas holiday read for sure.

I would suggest the WA boys will stay in WA until after Christmas and return in time for the start of pre season proper. It would be cruel to make them come home for 3 weeks of training, when they haven't been able to see their families in 2 years and when we know going back to WA is not guaranteed in the near future. They will probably all be doing their own programs in Perth, and given the late finish to the year, I assume the training loads in December will be quite light anyway.

Roos did something that nobody else could do at the time, he commanded respect and was able to do a lot of things regarding list management, game style, and training that a rookie coach could not do. He set standards, but more importantly he finally got a group of young players to listen and believe. It was never going to be a magic cure, but it started the ball rolling. I don't think anyone else could have done that, and certainly not so quickly. We were at rock bottom when he came, and a year after he left we made a prelim. And yes it took another 3 years to win a flag, but in the grand scheme of 57 years of failings, it was a very quick climb. We needed Roos and Jackson to make us a serious club again, and because Roos had no long term hat in the ring, he was able to do it without emotion and without selfish motives. He was the perfect transitional figure to claw us out of the grave we found ourselves in. Edit: and honestly after the disaster of Neeld, there is absolutely no way our members would have stood by another untried coach. It was too risky and we needed a big name to keep us afloat.

Trust Australia to act extremely slowly as per usual.

Given the stupidity of WA and their insane border restrictions I wouldn’t be shocked if the WA boys have been told they can stay home to spend Xmas with their families before returning to pre season. If they come back now they won’t be able to see their parents for Christmas.