Jaded No More

I think they get to quarantine at home, which is a bit better than doing it at a hotel surrounded by your work colleagues for 7 days straight. But nevertheless, we both have to travel to Perth so it does even out.

I am quite shocked Oliver didn't get a perfect 10. He did have a quieter second half though. Didn't think Max was as influential as normal around the ground, and thought Steven May was just enormous on King who literally did not touch the footy. But what do I know. Nice to see Oliver leading the coaches votes. He isn't flashy like Bont, but his consistency is incredible.

Absolutely. Oliver played one of the best halves of football you’ll ever see then presumably got told to chill out after half time and was being locked down by Swallow (still got 35, 19 contested and 12 clearances). Lever and May also had excellent games as did Trac. But overall it was a pretty even performance across the board. Will be really interesting to see who they rated as best behind Clarry.

Because Geelong in Geelong is probably the hardest proposition in season 2021. They are very hard to beat down there and our record at that ground is abysmal.

But if we lost to Geelong, Port and the Dogs it wouldn't matter? At the end of the day every team loses games. It happens. We did it against mostly crap teams plus the Dogs once. Dogs and Geelong lost to more top 8 sides than we have, they just happen to have won half a game more than us in the entire year, so are currently sitting above us on the ladder. If anyone told you pre season we would be pushing for a top 2 finish with 3 games to go in the season would you have taken it? I really don't see the point of crying over the losses. They are done. All that matters now is what we do next. We can go on to win the next 3, or lose the next 3, and only those game will determine what happens come finals.

Yep Sydney really scare me. They are going to be very hard to beat if they make the top 4. They have the most balanced list in terms of attack and defence. A great balance of youth and maturity, and especially maturity in the middle which is important in finals. They know how to use the footy and how to kick goals. They play the MCG well, and have had the relative wood over us for a long long time. We barely beat them this year when we were on fire. I just hope that being away from home for so long takes its toll. Although it didn't for Richmond last year.

Can't see us finishing top 2 now, unless by some miracle of miracles we beat Geelong in round 23. Dogs and Cats unlikely to lose anymore, so we must keep winning to secure a top 4 spot and a double chance and home finals. Port and Sydney are by far our biggest competition. Port will likely lose to the Dogs and the showdown is always a 50/50 proposition, however I can't see how Sydney lose from here. 3 of the worst opponents you are likely to meet coming right up!

I think we are allowed to train, but that is about it.

There is a process in place to bring in a player a week following subbing them out. You can't do it without medical clearance from the AFL, which means you can't just sub someone out for bad form and then play them again the following week without a sign off from the AFL. So for Tom to play on Monday, the club would need to submit a medical assessment and get approval that he was legitimately subbed out and has legitimately recovered. It will be very interesting to see how subs are used in the grand final this year however.

Strong chance Brisbane won’t be able to play anymore home and away games in QLD given the government just extended their lockdown. Good for us!

How so? They said post match that he copped a big hit to the back and it was seizing up. That could easily get better in a week or worse. Back injuries are very unpredictable. He shouldn’t have to play with back spasms if the option for the sub is there. Likewise if he legitimately gets better with careful management during the week, then why is that making a mockery of the sub rule? We rarely used the sub rule this year. When we have all the players missed the following week (a broken face, an ACL and a concussion seem fair reasons to use a sub). We have done the right thing all year and if we get lucky with Tmac I doubt very much any questions would need to be asked. Having said that, I can’t see how a long flight and a week of hotel room quarantine will help his back.

One can only hope ??

Thought it was interesting post match that Goodwin said “if” we go to Perth. Is there any doubt around that?

I would rather finish 4th and play Dogs at Marvel. That ground holds no fear.

Nothing surer than us getting shafted. Lock it in Eddie.

It’s because nobody cares about GWS. If they were a club in a football city like Melbourne SA or WA there’s no chance he would still be coaching.

100%. And those calling her out are a disgrace. This woman won medals with broken bones and kidney stones and remained in the sport despite long term sexual abuse suffered within the team. She is anything but weak and I applaud her for taking care of herself. Fancy that [censored] Novak having a go at her for not handling pressure and then throwing a toddler level tantrum after losing.

GWS disappointing as always.

It was a training run. Was it fun? Yes. Was it good to get touch and confidence back into Jackson and Rivers? Yes. Was it good for Bowey? Yes. Was it nice to see BB starting to show his best? Yes. Does this mean anything in the context of the season outside the 4 points? No. It was not a competitive hit out today. We were fantastic and credit to us for going hard for the whole game even if our goal kicking dropped off totally in the last quarter. But we won’t play a worse team this year.

Women’s vault final is a boil over. Shame Simone couldn’t get up for it. She’d win it in a walk if she was right to go.

No Simone Biles again today. So sad. I was really looking forward to seeing her these Olympics. Hope she can get herself right for at least the last two individual events. She’s an absolute champion for the sport.

The fact that a country of 20 million odd people has more medals than basically every European nation and is top 5 against countries with millions, heck billions of people in the case of China, is a phenomenal mind blowing achievement.

My little home country of Israel with a historic gold medal win in the men’s floor gymnastics. Wow!

If Tmac and Salem are good to go I think it’s just one change. But I think it also depends if we want to rest players heading into finals.

Not necessarily. You need to get a clearance from the AFL to allow them to play the next week. Given we spent 12 hours flying around Australia yesterday I doubt the AFL would be so cruel as to say he didn’t have legitimate back problems.