Jaded No More

If/when we win a flag, and finally gain some leverage with the AFL, my one wish would be to never ever go down to that hole again. No big Victorian club, regardless of how poorly they are performing, has had to play down there. We shouldn't be any different! If we need to play an away game against Geelong, make it at Marvel.

Agreed. We are not a bottom 4 side experimenting during a rebuild for goodness sake. A PREMIERSHIP is at stake. We won't make any structural changes to the side unless forced to due to injury. It is like for like changes only. Hence if Weideman is out, we either bring in one of the Browns, or revert back to a smaller mobile forwardline like we had in the first 6 rounds.

You are more likely to watch Melbourne win a flag than to die from the vaccine... put that into context!

To be fair there would be very few Dogs fans who live around that area. The 200 out of 7000 fans, is about the same ratio of Dogs fans who would have made it to that game had it been full capacity. It is very difficult to get tickets to games in Geelong, as the capacity of the stadium is about the same as Geelong's membership numbers. I wonder if the Dogs cheer squad would be allowed to attend, given they said you can only attend if you live in the region. Another absolutely idiotic rule to be honest. Fair enough if you have to be a member so you can be contact traced, but why can I go a religious gathering with 300 people in Geelong from Melbourne, but not an outdoor football match? These rules make absolutely no sense. About as idiotic as Sutton saying it's not that difficult to postpone a wedding, so hence the caps on numbers. Clearly never planned a wedding!

3 of those games are at the team's respective home grounds. While I completely appreciate our record against top 8 teams, the only side we beat on their home ground was the Dogs, and I wouldn't call Marvel a foreign ground. We lost to Adelaide in AO, so could very well lost to a much better team in Port there. Playing in Perth is always a very hard task, and I suspect West Coast will be close to full strength by then, and the less said about that dump in Geelong the better. These are very different propositions to playing a Cameron and Dangerfield-less Geelong at the G, Brisbane in Sydney, Sydney at the G and the Dogs at Marvel.

Geelong in Geelong is under 20% chance of a win. The only way we win this is if Geelong is injured or sewn up a top 2/4 spot they’re happy with and so are resting the old legs.

There is no resting of players after the bye, unless we get to round 22/23 and have a top 2 spot sewn up. Every single game matters now and we will not simply rest players unless they are actually injured and cannot play. If we don’t finish top 2 or at least in a top 4 spot that ensures we play our finals at the G, we are unlikely to win the flag this year.

The VFL is the only organization in Victoria more poorly run than the actual government of Victoria

7000 regional members allowed to the game on Friday. Lucky Geelong. Once again KOTD.

He’s copped a week.

If Hibbo is going strong Maynard can replace Hunt and make us instantly better. I also believe Rivers should end up on the wing eventually.

We lack serious depth in the small defender department. Hibbo is 32. Salem is elite. Hunt is meh. Jetta is finished. If we lose one of Hibbo or Salem to injury we are in trouble. Maynard can defend and attack. It’s a good combination and his age profile fits perfectly into our list. I would definitely pursue him. He’d be second on my list to Merrett.

JJ stiff. He was way better than Trac. If we had any cash in the coffers I would go hard for Maynard. Perfect replacement for an aging Hibbo.

I wonder if Brown was dropped for lack of fitness. When you play a whole team defense and have a strong focus on applying forward half pressure you need your forwards to be able to cover a lot of ground and go for repeat efforts. Maybe BB has been doing a mini pre season and will be picked once his fitness improves.

Call in sick. Best thing about COVID is nobody expects or wants you in the office if you so much as sneeze. Plus a COVID test is way better than talking to anyone about how we lost to Collingwood.

I am quoting myself for truth

Don’t disagree but they are two completely different players. Petty is a better comparison. Holding down a key position as a defender with 20 games is much much harder than being a forward. Ever. Petty didn’t have a good game, but from day one has always attacked the contests. Weideman is either timing his run poorly, or his hands are not strong enough in a pack situation. He doesn’t have the reach or the strength of Ben Brown. He is more athletic and mobile, which is why I suspect they have kept persisting with him. He does ok at ground level, better than Brown, but he isn’t creating enough contests at ground level himself nor commanding the ball in the air.

I don’t mind reverting back to a smaller forward line. But I don’t know if Tmac and Fritsch provide enough scoring or contested marking power come finals.

Agreed. It won’t make us much money either way. We have very few games left at the G before finals. We need all the time there we can get. I rather play at the G in front of nobody than play at that SCG dump in front of 8000 people. The only consideration would be to take it to the NT if we desperately need the cash.

They are a bottom 4 side and we are trying to finish top 2 and win a flag. How did they have more to play for than us?

Yep. Another massive overreaction by our state. Zero transmissions at the footy even when two positive cases were at games. Low positive case numbers. Clearly we don’t trust our contract tracers. Beyond a joke to already say no crowds a week out. Pathetic.

The only thing worse than a loss is when other supporters dump on supporters for dumping on the team. It’s a footy forum. If you don’t want to hear opposing opinions you should head to the China forum.

Jackson and JJ the only winners on the ground for me. Hibbo was good on Elliot. The rest need to burn the tape.

I think when you know what we are capable of and then watch us turn up and play like trash for 4 straight quarters you can’t help but feel cheated. Games will be lost. But it’s how you lose games and the sort of games you lose. We don’t seem to ever learn. We’ve missed out on finals before losing games we were expected to win and frankly this is no difference. To drop these games is so costly in such a tight competition and can well be the difference between a flag or bust.

Easy changes In: Viney, Ben Brown Out: Sparrow, Weideman Melksham medical sub