Jaded No More

Jesus Christ I feel so old.

Him swearing after the siren was gold. Not so soft now are we Mitchy? God I despise him. Bog ordinary footballer with a pseudo tough guy persona.

I thought I saw Vanders in Adelaide? He is surely there. Closer to selection than basically everyone in that photo bar Hunty.

GWS is the worst of the lot. Mummy is literally rolled out every few weeks when he's semi fit to just belt guys in the ruck. And I won't even mention Toby Greene.

I assume our ex president will be there, as he lives in Perth? I also heard it was 75 to WA and 55 to SA, hence why half the squad flew directly to Perth instead of jumping off in SA. Still, 75 is not a lot when you take your whole list, plus coaches, plus medical staff, plus media team. It leaves very little room for anyone else. I wonder if Pert went. I assume he has.

We missed goals that we normally would kick. Brown and Tmac with two goals they rarely missed, and Jackson with 2 posters, which is very rare. But we actually kicked really well on the run, except Trac who missed two he would normally get. I agree that bad kicking is bad football. Essendon and Sydney killed themselves on the weekend with poor accuracy. In fact, Sydney kick straight and they win no problem.

And this guy is meant to be their captain and spiritual leader. How [censored] would you be with his ridiculous ongoing behaviour? Lucky he plays for a club with no supporters, or the backlash would be massive. He has missed so many games due to his downright stupid behaviour.

I saw this photo. No idea how I missed him. The hat maybe. I really love that we took the whole team. Gives the young kids something to build on and look forward to, and the older players a feeling of being a part of the journey. We talk a lot about Jones, but my heart also breaks for Jetta. What a warrior he has been for us. At times the only decent defender holding together a shambolic backline. I hope he stays at the club in a mentorship capacity beyond this season. He would be a wonderful role model for not just our indigenous players, but all our young players. He is an outstanding person on and off the field.

As per Instagram, Hunt was running today and if you look carefully was doing some one legged jumps in the gym. Looks like he is a strong chance to return in 2 weeks, which is absolutely wonderful! Edit: I don't think anyone is picking on Smith. He is very inexperienced due to a mix of injuries and positioning. He wasn't terrible on the weekend, but we have two more wins left to get the premiership. We must pick the best possible team to get there. There is no room for player development or sentiments right now. As it is we are taking a big risk with Bowey, who while he's looked very poised, has only played a handful of games and is physically under developed. He would be an easy target for the opposition (Daniher tried it and failed), and he could blow up after a hard prelim slog. I don't think Smith is better than Hunt or Hibbo, and his body has not held up well in games, and therefore I would replace him with one of those guys.

His attack on the footy and defensive effort has taken his game to the next level. No doubt being dropped from the team before the prelim in 2018 was something that he hasn't forgotten. I assume the club told him that his goal output will become less of a focus come finals if he can apply more defensive pressure. To his credit he has really done that in recent weeks and it has also seen him be rewarded with big scoreboard impact.

Did Mitch Brown travel? I haven't seen him in any of the photos the club posted

I actually thought that our game on Saturday night was really well umpired. Except a couple of idiotic dangerous tackle calls, which went both way, it was a game where you didn't notice the umpires at all. And that is a good game. Say what you like about Ray, he is a good umpire.

If Hunt is fit it's not an involuntary change. It is bringing back a regular best 22 player for a fringe player in Smith who has just had 5 goals kicked on him. Our backline has been settled all year. Hunt got injured late, and I think we have missed his drive off half back. Smith is not only not defending that great, he is not giving us any drive off half. Bowey is giving us some, but he can't be expected to take the game on like Hunt has been doing all year. I am backing Hunt to come back if fit. Whether he replaces Smith or Bowey I don't know. Hibbo could very well come in if we play GWS to help with Greene. Time will tell.

I would play May on Greene, Petty on Himmelberg and Lever on Hogan. Viney will need to ride Greene when he's in the middle. Just absolutely pummel him at every contest. That is if he's even eligible to play! If Hunt is fit he comes in regardless of who we play. He has been a mainstay in our backline all year and he gives us a lot of drive and speed off half back which will stretch both Geelong and GWS, and he is also good at ground level. Smith is too unreliable. He is too raw and inexperienced in what has been a very settled backline. It is just too risky to play him. Cameron kicked 5 goals on him. Greene would kick 11.

Replacing a CHF in a prelim final is a really big call. Structurally it will be a massive change. Can't see us doing it, so long as Tmac can keep his opponent busy and bring ball to ground.

The lack of publicity and recognition for our Paralympians is really sad to me. I was shocked to learn we give our athletes $20,000 prize money for winning gold but our Paralympians get $0. What a disgrace.

As always, context is everything. Greene sought out the umpire in a break. He pointed a finger at him. He back chatted to him. He then chose to walk into him and then turn back and continue to chat to him. There was malice and aggression in that. Heppell is in play. Split second not watching action. He grabs the umpire instinctively to stop him from falling. Intention to intimidate and discredit the umpire in one. Accidental in the other. It’s like when sometimes a player accidentally knocks over the goal umpire. There’s no malice in that and the AFL has stopped punishing players for any umpire contact because it’s a fast game and accidents happen. Things that happen in play always need to be taken under the “split second heat of the game” consideration. Players can be so focused their peripheral vision fails them. I mean how many friendly fires do we see in games. It’s not disimilar. For me the bumping action from Greene is not the issue alone. It’s the entire interaction with Stavic. It’s aggressive and it’s disrespectful and it’s completely unnecessary. It’s 30 very ugly seconds that could set off a lot ugly behavior in junior ranks if we don’t stamp it out.

Look I don’t disagree. Geelong is a very experienced well drilled team. They have plenty of guns who can unleash. But they could barely keep up with us in the last half in round 23. 3 weeks later and still no break, three road trips and some bruising football later, I’m not sure that scenario gets any easier for them. I don’t want to meet them 3 times in a season, because law of averages suggests we are due for a loss. But I also don’t know how much more they have left in the tank. Likewise Greene back from a possible one week suspension against us in a prelim and Mumford kneeing Gawn at every Centre bounce is not something I want to deal with either!

Correct. His hit on Gawn deserved suspension. Although weirdly him being able to play next week makes the Lions a worse side so maybe it’s a win.

I imagine the pre grand final bye is there to help the winner of the Adelaide prelim to get across to WA to quarantine without it hampering preparation or pre finals events too much. It does mean that if Melbourne makes the grand final we would have played one game in 3 weeks which is not ideal. Hope Burgo has a plan.

There won’t be a bye after the semis. That will give the teams that won the qualifying finals 2 weeks off. No way in hell the AFL will do that. Only chance for a bye is prior to the grand final, and if Covid situation gets shaky they might just scrap it altogether.

May all semi finals be hard slogs with lots of bodies being hit hard.

Seriously Ross Lyon is a disgusting grub. Freo had to pay female employees hush money for the crap he did to them. He’s a disgusting human being and Langdon is entitled to his opinion of how he felt playing under him.

I definitely didn’t want Essendon to win but I also can’t be bothered with these cheating a-holes from the Dogs winning games thanks to soft umpiring. Lions will kill them. They are soft and lazy. Their game plan is too based around perfection which doesn’t work in finals. I would love them to get smashed next week.

He’s no Oliver. It’s ok. We won.