Jaded No More

Just a phenomenal human being. Kind, selfless, thoughtful. He made tough choices for his family and he also made a lot of tough choices along his journey for the betterment of our club. How easy it would have been to go to another club that wasn’t a mess, that wasn’t losing weekly and relying on you to carry the heavy load. Honestly who would have begrudged him if he went to Geelong or Hawthorn for a cheap flag? Absolutely nobody. What he has done for our club few will be able to lay claim to. I hope he has a big smile and feels incredibly proud of this club on Saturday. Win or lose, we are where we are today because of the few like him who had the courage to stand up and be the difference and lead the way to be better.

Well my poor husband who has spent 18 months following every rule and who has all his employees and himself vaccinated, is now out of work for two weeks because people in this country don’t know how privileged they are. Thanks to the constant selfish sooking, pathetic anti vaxx tin foil hat wearing mother [censored] and lazy politicians sitting on their hands, I am not only missing my team play in a grand final that I’ve dreamed of all my life, I’m now trying to work out how we keep our business and employees from bankruptcy. [censored] wonderful.

Been wildly reported today that unless Clarko has a late change of heart, Voss will be announced senior coach. Honestly, good luck to him. The fish is rotten at the head over there.

Last team to do that and win a flag was Essendon in 2000....

Honestly if they put English on Lever that is a win for us. The problem with trying to shut down Lever is that he has the support of May and Petty. We lost May last week and our system still stacked up down back. We are a team defence. Yes Lever is important, but if he doesn't intercept it, May will, or Petty will. Oh yeah and this fella called Gawn who goes alright in an emergency. I agree though that Weightman is a worry. In fact, their small players worry me far more than their talls, although I recognise that Naughton is a very very good player who can hurt you. But ground ball is definitely our defensive weakness. It is why I would want Hunt to play over Hibberd. I think Hunt is better suited to play on Weightman. I worry Hibbo doesn't have the zip to go with him to be honest. If he does get off the leash, we can put May on him and shuffle the talls around though. Also need to watch out for Weightman ducking and throwing himself around like a sad ragdoll. He loves a free. Rivers on Hannan for me as Hannan will push up the ground and that suits Rivers. Unless they give Hannan the task to try and shut down Salem. That's what I would want if I was a Dogs fan. Salem is far more crucial to us than Hannan is to the Dogs. Same as I want ANB to literally not let Daniel out of his sight, and if ANB gets 2 touches as a result, than so be it. Who plays on Bailey Smith is going to be fascinating. Do we go head to head and let him and Langdon do their thing? Does Gus take him? Harmes? We match up well on the Dogs around the ground and I think their backline will be at panic stations if we start winning some clean ball in the middle and BBB and Fritta get a run at the ball. It will be a good game. I don't think either team will win by a big margin. It probably will come down to small moments, structures and who can capitalise better on turnovers and in front of goal.

Damn it, how will he get back in time to quarantine before the GF?! We are screwed!!!! 🤣

He definitely doesn't have the physique of a ruckman. I think he is very raw, but definitely has a lot of talent, and if Dogs weren't desperate for a ruckman, I think he would spend a lot less time in the centre square and lot more time forward. It's why they are pushing Martin who is 35, barely going, overweight and underdone. They needed a physical body to compete with Lycett and they know they need one to at least try and half Gawn's output around the ground. Where the Dogs excel is winning clearances from opposition's taps. They have played with a terrible ruckman all year, and that hasn't bothered them one bit. They won the clearances against the Lions 47-37 but lost the hitouts 45-32. Against Port they won the clearances 41-35 but got smashed in hitouts 49-24. So it goes to show they can play well regardless of the influence of the ruckman at ball ups. Where Gawn becomes so important is his play around the ground. Martin will try and shadow him, but there is no way physically he can keep up with Gawn who plays close to 100% game time every week. I suspect they will send Martin into the backline when Gawn goes forward, but more importantly I suspect they will use their smalls to try and block him on the wings and down back.

I would love to know what long term list planning they have going on. I doubt he would tell us who we are targeting in the off season, but just more around do we keep recruiting and trading for the now, or are we focused on long term sustained success by going for younger player and the draft?

I will lol if English tries to get physical with Max. Can you imagine. Libba on the other hand is a dirty little scragger, and if this goes on early in the game I hope Max has a chat to the umpire to say they are trying to block my run. At the end of the day they are not the first team or the last team that will try to limit Gawn. It has rarely worked, because he can go forward where he can't be blocked without getting a free. Same goes for trying to stop Lever. Sache will get a defensive job on him. First contest May runs into his back. Tactic over. The Lions are a big strong contested team. Dogs limped over the line thanks to some very handy umpiring. Then they came up against the weakest side I have ever seen front up to a prelim. Port did nothing. Physically tactically or otherwise. They were limp like 12 day old lettuce you forgot at the back of the fridge. Whereas Geelong couldn't keep up, but they certainly weren't soft at the contest.

Salem has been managed all year with his training load. Viney you'd think would be the same with his foot. Salem missed one game all year with soreness. Literally 0% chance he isn't getting jabbed and suited up for the grand final. Same with Viney. I would assume Viney would cut his own foot off before missing a grand final, just like May would rip out his own hamstring. We had a big session on Saturday, so today would be like a normal post game recovery session. Also probably why they aren't bothering to push Spargo's ankle. Whoever doesn't do much on Wednesday is in trouble though.

While I hate Scully for many reasons, I sort of understand why someone trying to be a professional footballer had no interest in being surrounded by teammates who had no standards and just wanted to get wasted on a work trip. Our culture was in the toilet back then. It's no wonder so few draftees went anywhere, or went elsewhere.

Still the most naturally gifted footballer I have ever seen in a red and blue jumper. He did things with such ease and grace, having come from literally nothing. Just remarkable what he could do without ever being in a formal training or education system like most draftees. He had vision, he had skills that made no sense, he was effortless on the field. I have no doubt that if he was drafted to Melbourne in 2021 instead of back then, things could have been very different for him. Can't blame him for having a lot of regret. He could have gone on to play some remarkable football if things turned out differently, and that would have changed not just his life but the life of his entire family. I hope his son can learn from his mistakes and forge a successful career.

It can be decided on things like goals conceded, marks inside 50 conceded, one on one contests won, intercept marks, rebounds from defensive 50 etc. Plenty of statistics that get recorded which are unique to defenders. Defenders are arguably the most important part of winning a flag. I have no idea how we just ignore them in awards. Absolutely deserve an award that specifically looks at them.

A lot of things went wrong for the club. But all paths lead somewhere and they led us to where we are today. Wines or not, Port are not in with a chance to win a flag. We are. If we take Wines maybe we don’t take Trac or Oliver. Maybe we don’t finish second last in 2019 and get Jackson. Things have a way of working out. I think they’re working out for us.

100% should be voted on by the coaches or an independent panel like the AA team. Umpires don’t know anything about the game beyond the rules. And even that’s questionable. Edit: Tmac polling more votes than Lever, May and Salem combined tells you everything you need to know.

I give 0 [censored] about this award. I’m just confused how the umpires can get it so wrong. You can give 2 out of 3 votes to players who played for a team that got comprehensively beaten by 41 points. It just doesn’t make sense. Yet Touk Miller clear BOG in an 11 point loss to the Dogs not one vote. Umpires are lazy. May didn’t poll a single vote (?), Lever with 5. Arguably our most influential players. Lever with the most intercept marks ever taken in the history of the game. Salem was superb in the first half of the season. One vote. Walsh with so many votes in a losing team. It’s a popularity contest.

28. 2 behinds. Not his best. I’m just confused how a man that kicks 7 goals gets less votes when his team wins by 41 points than two players on a losing side. The mind boggles.

I’ll tell you what Wines can’t win this week… the Norm Smith. Umpires have no idea. Wines did have a very good season so well done to him.

Adelaide with 2 and 3 votes. Lost by 41 votes 🙄

I have no words.

Definitely polled better than I expected him to. Wines will still win.

Oliver one vote versus Gold Coast????? What. The. [censored].

He’s not smiling and laughing with the opposition. He is a beast.

It’s because our boys aren’t there to make friends. They want to play footy and win. Bont seems like a nice bloke on the field.