Jaded No More

It’s been pretty depressing so far. The good part is coming. I hear we win a flag in this one.

So I’m watching this with my husband who is a recent arrival to the Melbourne supporting club thanks largely to me refusing to marry him if he didn’t get serious about AFL and Melbourne… when that Geelong loss was shown and then that stat was mentioned, he turns to me and goes “how is it possible to be this bad?” He has no idea. Bloody bandwagoner!

Skipped quickly through the Neeld years. Thank god! 😂

Or Robbie. At least Neale got to see it!

That’s me but with Essendon’s final winning drought. It’s just so funny. Long may it continue.

If we get more than 70,000 that would be amazing. Having said that every Melbourne supporter I know, both die hard and half arsed are booked in and ready to go for next Wednesday. (Times like these is why I love my reserved seats membership) People are very keen to see the flag unfurling and to enjoy footy in person again. It’s been a very very long time. On both counts.

It’ll be on Kayo too. Every GF documentary goes into the history of the club. We just have a lot more history than most. I don’t see a problem with talking about the complete history behind the flag.

Oliver would also waltz into any team in the AFL tho. To me Petracca is chocolate icing and Oliver is self raising flour. Both are essential to make a good chocolate cake, but there’s no cake without the flour. Without the icing it’s just dry and not very appetizing.

Who I think will win if not us: Brisbane, GWS or Dogs Who I would be happy to see win (but it’ll never happen): Freo or Saints Team I prefer to poke my eyes out over seeing win: Geelong

Have been mine for decades. The grand final will forever be my favourite game of all time, but the smashing we handed Geelong in the prelim is a very very close second.

He does get a lot more uncontested and unsolicited touches

Getting to the juicy bits now… round 23. I hear it gets good from here.

Insufferable team.

Mitch Clark to me was an odd choice for a leader considering how much he was battling with off field. Why even put that extra pressure on him? It is as if we went “hey you’re from a different club that’s better than us, have a leadership role” (see also Dawes) Edit: gotta lol at the headline “the next step” hear from Mark Neeld. Spoiler alter: Next step was Centrelink.

I do agree that an umpire will never change their mind so why bother arguing. But sometimes I think asking a question if you really are confused by an umpire’s interpretation of a free, could help you avoid doing it again. Or perhaps pointing out to an umpire that your opponent is constantly pushing you out or holding you etc so the umpire is more hyper aware. Umpires are just people. They deserve respect like any person does, but they’re also not beyond criticism or reproach.

Great point. You bang on about the importance of respecting umpires, yet you don't respect them enough to support them to become the best they can be by offering them the ability to make a living doing it.

I think Viney becoming a father has really changed him for the better. It looks like he's been able to forge a bond with some of the 'dads' and find a better balance of family and footy. Gawn is someone who naturally just connects with people, young, old, it doesn't matter, he gets people. Viney is a follow me into battle, I will lead you there and I will die for you there type leader. I think they are very ying and yang but they balance each other perfectly. Player know they can go to Gawn if they are struggling emotionally or mentally for support, and to Viney if they need help with training standards, injury management or understanding their role on the field. Gawn is definitely the better of the two in the media, he is a great communicator, whereas I think Viney leads with his actions and players really respect that. Everyone feels invincible walking next to Viney on the field because they know he will have their back and give everything he has out there.

I would say we would have a much wider leadership group which is often spoken about by other players. It's just not advertised as it's unnecessary. We also have a leadership academy for young players too which I believe is lead by Choco. I know that Lever and ANB are both in the extended leadership group.

I am ALL for stopping abuse against umpires at all levels. What happened with Toby Greene last year was a complete disgrace. I just don't want the AFL to censor emotions. Players in the heat of a battle will show a range of emotions. As long as those emotions are not abusive or degrading/threatening to an umpire, they should be allowed to continue. Our players are not robots. I don't know if the free against Trac was actually against him or against Tmac who ran past and presumably talked back to the umpire, but I know that if we punish players like Trac for wearing his heart on his sleeve we will lose a big part of our game. I also thought Tomlinson getting 50 paid against him for questioning the umpire was soft. Healthy dialogue between players and umpires should be allowed. Max should be allowed to go to the umpire at the break and ask about a questionable free. Tomlinson should be allowed to say why did you pay the free, when the free was as borderline as it was. If we keep seeing an overreaction from the umpires like we did on Thursday night, the only thing that will happen is greater crowd abuse of the umpires, completely defeating the point of this whole rule change.

All these fools going hard and getting injured. Bruise free footy is where it’s at.

At least it happened in a meaningless pre season game and not during the season.

Would delist

Wishing you guys all the very best up there. It sounds and looks horrific!

He was just so loose. I don’t mind when he goes for a long run and misses a target. That’s fine and it’s what you get with him. But you can’t play down back and be miles off your man. He just was nowhere near anyone. Lever peels off but he has the IQ and skills to do if. Hunt just gets lost out of position. I think not having the usual generals down there and poor Lever doing everything didn’t help.

To be fair nobody considered depth would ever come close to replacing Salem. Or Oliver. Or Trac. Or Gawn. Rivers plays and it’s a different ball game. He takes the kick outs. He is accountable. Same with Hibbo. Petty plays and suddenly May out doesn’t hurt so much. The issue is all of our first and second choice players in the same area of the ground were out. Lever can only do so much and Bowey is playing game number 9. It took May and Lever a full year of playing together to make things cohesive. You can’t expect that synergy with Smith who lacks IQ and Hunt who is like a kid with ADHD who just ate a gallon of sugar. May or Salem or Petty play and we win even tho we were wasteful, lazy, sloppy and undisciplined. Hell if we don’t give away 2 centre circle frees because we can’t count to 6 we probably win too. That was pathetic to do twice in a quarter!