Jaded No More

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.

ANB and Spargo are not getting dropped. Kossi may be rested prior to finals for a week. The bigger issue we have right now is working out what is our best forward mix. Finals are 8 weeks away and we need to get it right. To me having a strong target up forward who can take pack marks or at least half aerial contests is going to be very important in finals when the pressure goes way up and you often see “kick it and hope” sort of entries. We can’t have 13 balls dropped on Spargo’s head and expect him to become a marking target. Nor can we rely on Fritsch to kick bags. He is an opportunistic forward and isn’t big enough to take on two defenders. I believe Ben Brown has to play in the next few weeks and we need to try and work it out with him in the side. He is a proven big forward and he’s battle ready. We know we will play finals. So now the question needs to be what sort of team do we want to field come week one of the finals.

I have to say the reaction from Simpson is vastly different to what it was last year when he had a big sook about going into a hub. Obviously realized his team isn’t an island and his club is going nowhere fast if they can’t win away from home (or at home for that matter!). Maybe just maybe the cursed state of Victoria which has been through more than all the other states combined, will finally benefit and our club can get some lucky breaks and play extra games at home. God knows we deserve some fortune!

I think Brisbane are better. They are more even across the ground. I think Dogs have a suspect backline. But time will tell.

But we could well finish 4th or 5th because of it. We have by far the hardest draw of the rest of the top 5 sides. We play Geelong, Port, Dogs and West Coast (away). The rest have maybe one game left against a top 5 side.

Port v Melbourne in Victoria. Casey, Kardinia, anywhere but SA please ??

Yep and our ordinary percentage thanks to our inability to put teams away is going to hurt us in the run home. Finish 3rd or 4th and get sent to play Lions at the Gabba would be a complete disaster.

Totally agree. But if those 5000 were more booing Essendon fans, I am happy they didn’t come.

Another massive percentage booster for the Dogs. While I don’t want interstate clubs in the top 4, I’m sick of the Dogs sniffing our [censored].

The other option is that some of those tickets were allocated to family and friends who didn’t go? ?‍♀️

I assume some people stayed away in the end. It was freezing and it was meant to rain.

We either win the flag from here or things go horribly wrong and we finish 6th and bomb out week one of finals. There is no in between for Melbourne. It’s all or nothing. My greatest fear is we don’t get to play finals at the G due to Covid.

SA closing their borders to basically everyone… could we get lucky and play Port in Melbourne?

GWS are such a disappointment. How is Cameron not under intense pressure? Is it because GWS only has 3 supporters?

Yep he’s the perfect leader for the nuffies of WA who want to be their own separate country but still enjoy that sweet sweet GST dollars.