Jaded No More

QLD going into a 3 day lockdown. Explains why the QLD teams abandoned state. Bring on the Victorian hub and let’s keep it going until the end of September. Cheers.

A Victoria hub just as we are about to play Port would be magnificent. Go on SA, [censored] your pants and shut the border to Victoria. You know you want to. You implemented restrictions with 0 cases. Better be safe!

Just got an email to say tickets go on sale at 3pm for our membership level (level 1 reserved seating). So if anyone didn’t get the email but is in the same category of membership, 3pm it is. I think those with reserved seats on level 2 can buy tickets at 1pm

I hope we are putting together some vision and sending it to the AFL for a please explain. It happens every week without a free and yet if you so much as fart next to some players you get a free.

I don’t disagree but I have my own medical reasons why I want to wait for Pfizer. A vaccine that should have been available here months ago if we just got it right. I think you cannot expect women in their early 30s (think fertility, pregnancy etc) to run to get the AZ given the world wide advice surrounding the age restrictions and risks. Or anyone else for that matter. I applaud anyone who does and I will be first in line to get Pfizer when it’s available to me. But you cannot rubbish a vaccine and keep chopping and changing the medical advice around it for a year and then expect people to get it without hesitation.

With the negative publicity around AZ, that vaccine is as good as dead in Australia. When you have the medical board say you should only get it if you’re over 60, but hell if you don’t hold us responsible for damages you can get it at any age, that is hardly a ringing endorsement. I desperately want to get vaccinated, but since I’m probably the next group up for Pfizer I rather wait another couple of months and get something that has proven safer and more effective. I would however be open to get AZ as a second dose if studies prove to be correct regarding increased immunity. The vaccine roll out has been a PR disaster on every level in this country. We are rolling out vaccinations that would normally take years to approve, within 12 months of their development. People are hesitant to put that into their bodies, and all the government has done is magnified the problems rather than highlight the benefits. No wonder people aren’t running for AZ. Then you have Israel, who’s prime minister said today they will vaccinate all 12-16 years olds across the country in the next 11 days. And they will. Such is the luxury of their amazing vaccination rollout. While my old [censored] can’t get half a vile of Pfizer 18 months into the pandemic.

Stringer is a low life scumbag. The off field stories I have heard about this guy from people who know him well, just makes me utterly disgusted to think this fat [censored] is earning hundreds of thousands of dollars, instead of dumpster diving for his dinner. Fits Essendon’s culture beautifully.

A good time to sell as well given the utter insanity of the housing market in Melbourne. They will more than likely sell it to a big developer who will build a tonne of townhouses. Absolutely no chance anyone is getting 700sqm land sizes in Bentleigh anymore. My husband works with volume high end custom builders and even they rarely do knock down rebuilds on full blocks of lands anymore (talking inner suburbs). Maybe one in 20 maintain their original block size. The rest subdivide and build 2 on a block. Sometimes 3. And their building costs start at $1mil. So you’re not exactly dealing with paupers.

His high possession count wasn’t very damaging. Sometimes disposals aren’t everything. May was a giant out there. He is worth his weight in gold and silver!

What would he know? BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I am not sure that he will do less defensively than Fritsch, but I am sure he would take away a better defender.

Please go post that on Bomberblitz and then report back on the complete meltdown that ensues. Bombers fans crying is a real favourite pass time of mine.

But goal kicking is partly a problem because we are playing a lot of part- time forwards in there, due to a lack of a true tall forward. You also end up robbing Trac of midfield minutes, which is not something I really want to do in finals. Yes we can score well, but for me it's less about the number of scores on the board, and more about the amount of time the ball is spending in our backline, because we aren't taking enough contested marks up forward and so the opposition can move the ball out of our forwardline with more ease. There is no doubt we won the game on Saturday because of our backline, and that is not the first time that has happened this year. We have won very few games this year because we kicked big scores. We've won them because we held our opposition to low scores. Now imagine if we can still do that but also increase the time we spend with the ball in our forward half? We would be even more difficult to beat.

3 goals per game is an insane barometer. There are very few if any forwards this year averaging 3 goals per game. It's not just about goals kicked. It's about how many long bombs inside 50 end up at ground level for Kossi, ANB or Spargo to mop up, versus how many end up directly in the opposition's hands, that is important with Brown. If he kicks 1 or 2 goals per game but creates 2 or 3 more, he is doing an important job. The more aerial contests we can half, the more time the ball can spend in our forward 50, the less time we spend defending in the opposition's attack and the more chances we give ourselves to put scoreboard pressure. This is how we want to play, we want to be a forward half team, but when Spargo is at FF because Tmac is rightly playing up the ground and Fritta is leading to the wings, what chance does that give us? Besides, Ben Brown will always command respect from defenders. It means if Jackson or Gawn drop inside 50, teams will be stretched for height. You leave Brown alone, he will destroy you. So you man him up and that frees other players and stops the constant 2 on 1 we often see in the forward 50. I think people forget what a good forward Brown is. Now maybe he's past it, or maybe he's barely played in 12 months, had no pre season, and is coming back from a knee operation. But I know that come week 1 of the finals, I rather him at FF than Fritsch. He will help us stretch the weaker backlines of the Dogs and Geelong, and help to make Andrews accountable against Brisbane. We know we are playing finals. Now we need to decide how we want our team to look come finals.

How did that Virgin flight attendant not know she was a close contact of a case in NSW? She was on 5 flights! That one just pisses me right off!

ANB is a player that will keep coming up in conversation because to the naked eye he doesn't do much in games. But he is one of the most important role players in our team, and I bet one of the first names on the board every week. He does a lot of things that are hard to see at the ground, and even harder to see on TV as the camera focuses solely on the action.

Absolutely. I thought the Adelaide game was one we could have won (or drawn) if the umpiring was called correctly for deliberate out of bounds. But as I said after the game, to blame the umpires is to wallpaper over obvious cracks which appeared in that game. You can scream blue murder about umpires, but if you have to rely on them to win games, you will always be in trouble, because the standard of umpiring is absolutely putrid and getting worse. You need to control the things you can control. Devon Smith abusing the umpire for a second 50, is something Essendon could control. Us setting up correctly at the bounce and not giving away a free is also something we can control. Goal kicking, defensive set ups and so forth. No umpire told Essendon to keep bombing the ball into May and Lever, and no umpire told Jackson to have a stroke in front of goal and dribble the ball to the opposition.

And Covid. No wait that's Victoria's fault.

I love Jones, but it is short term thinking to bring him in for Sparrow. Sparrow will be a player. He is calm under pressure, has a dash of speed Jones no longer does, and is great defensively. Jones brings experience, but where he excels, which is hunting the ball at the contest, is also where we simply do not need him. He has lost a lot of pace, which means he cannot spread defensively. I am not ruling him out, and maybe his experience and leadership will be vital come finals, but we are just now at the start of our window of premiership opportunities. Sparrow will be around for the entirety of that window. Jones will not. Short term thinking will hurt us long term. It's why we also can't just throw away Weideman or be impatient with Petty.

I think if you watch the replay, yes we got some favourable calls, but there were quite a few non calls that went against us too. Rivers a clear push in the back with a couple of minutes to go. Kossi taken high. Etc etc. 2 meter Peter paid a mark that well, wasn't really a mark. I too would be annoyed at the umpiring if the shoe was on the other foot, but to blame the loss on them is ridiculous. There are only 3 games this year that were won and lost due to the umpiring, and all were decided by 1-2 points. 11 points win with 6 more scoring shots is simply not a win handed to a team by the umpires. It just isn't. We got out to a 21 point lead at one point. No matter how bad the umpiring is, it won't do that for you!

Essendon fans ringing SEN to say they are not in the 8 because of the umpires. Yes that's right Essendon, you lost 8 games this year and the umpires are to blame for you not being in the 8. The umpires are also to blame for why we haven't won a flag since 1964

I am hoping if we have reserved seats we can just access those seats again with the electronic membership.

To be fair, at every game we have played this year, the opposition has been in it for at least parts of the contest. And Essendon were up to their eyes in it until 2 minutes to go. Did anyone relax on Saturday night? I was still worried until someone in the crowd said there was 50 seconds to go.

I would be thrilled to play Port in Geelong. Good practice for round 22, no home ground advantage to Port, and we can attend the game. Happy days. The MCG would be better but I’m not picky.

I can’t understand why these states are so dumb. WA had one case for goodness sake. What is the chance that one case infected the entire West Coast and Freo sides? Surely states can get each club tested prior to boarding a charter flight (say test 10 hours prior to flight, between getting tested and boarding flight players are in lockdown at home). You get off the plane, you go to the ground, you play your game, you get the hell out. There is no interaction with the community. There is no risk. Apart from NSW where there is currently a really bad outbreak, the rest of the teams should be let in and out for the purpose of playing. It really is idiotic when we play in such controlled environments.