Macca

Probably because the umpires might have seen the incident as a football action only HQ are running scared but when will it stop? It's a collision sport and an aggressive sport so to me, actual transgressions are easy to spot Actions like a punch, elbow, or shoulder targeting the head area is obvious. Most of the rest of it is vague and highly questionable So is a player like Dangerfield going to miss a GF for a similar incident to the Sparrow one? Zero chance

Every now and again players are going to hit their heads on the ground as the result of a tackle So how do we differentiate? The same tackle more often than not will not result in a player hitting their head on the ground So if we punish the action alone, numerous players should be cited for the actual action, not the result e.g. the Kozzie incident is now punishable for the action alone But that's a shirt-front type action An aggressive tackle? Happens frequently in every game Can of worms

So what would be your attitude if it was Oliver, Gawn or Petracca on the eve of a GF? Players should not miss games for incidents like this. A fine is sufficient

The value of Sparrow is irrelevant to this thread in terms of whether he is guilty or not He's one of our players and we should go into bat for him as if it's Oliver and a GF berth at stake As for the incident, both players were moving at decent speed and it just looked like a normal tackle given those circumstances It's not as if Sparrow pinned him and then drove his head into the ground. Accidents happen and football actions should not be punished

@Diamond_Jim @Dee Zephyr @Grapeviney @layzie @roy11 @Winners at last @Jibroni @Jumping Jack Clennett @Sir Why You Little @loges @Pates Great news re the starting time for the FA Cup ... (finally) back to 3pm (Midnight AEST) June 3rd The first time since 2011 that the time-honoured FA Cup will be played at that time Back in the day we used to have FA Cup parties (or get togethers) As the game time gradually crept out to 2.30am, that changed But what a match-up! Man Utd vs Man City See y'all here on the night!! The Demons are playing Carlton the day before (Friday night)

Fair enough Well, interest is still high (now) with CL spots and even the title

*Conference League Glory??? Please

Ha ha! ... your sarcasm is obvious roy, don't be a bad loser tut tut You got outplayed pure and simple ... all that money and you didn't turn up An obvious hand ball not paid and a goal disallowed when your keeper fainted More possession but wasteful and non threatening. Tippy tap with no ambition Not good enough Better luck next time haha

Hammers were very good and we outplayed Man Utd ... could have easily scored another 2 goals at least Man Utd had a few chances but they'd be disappointed with their game, especially with a top 4 spot up for grabs West Ham have finally found some form and should finish the season well now

Yeah 2 years ... and in 1 of those years we won the SB Overall - defence was average at best The standout part of our game was Rodgers and his great arm But we put all our eggs on one basket which is not the fault of Rodgers And my view has been consistent for a number of years ... we should not have been a one-man team The management was at fault And there's a long road back ... dare I say it, we need a decent QB!!

I wouldn't say horrible ... just average or reasonably good. Lot's of playoff appearances He did coach 1 SB win and they aren't easy to win Not sure about the great defence ... average I'd say. Biggest weakness was our running game under McCarthy ... we were ok but never very good. Run defence - below average Too reliant on Rodgers in my view As for le Fluer ... more of the same. A bit beige?

So at what time will the appeal take place tonight?

My gut feeling is what was said earlier by another poster ... the JVR incident won't be a precedent, it can't be unless they want to cite numerous players every week There will be outrage for a time until the next story comes along. Meanwhile, a kid in his 5th game gets burnt But we must appeal, whatever it costs

May was the first person I thought of once JVR was cited May is expert at spoiling and making his opponent earn it. Maybe 4 or 5 times a game. And there are a stack of defenders right across the league who do the same So what happens now? Are all those defender spoils reportable? If so, a massive can of worms has just been opened Or, they've just made an example of a player they might deem as expendable

Are all these iincidents going to be cited? If so, we could have numerous citations every week ... if all it takes is incidental contact to the neck/head area Of course, it won't happen like that as it looks to me like they just want to send a message Every contested mark in the forward line brings with it a defender spoiling attempt. Often multiple defenders if the ball is kicked to a pack The class actions, CTE and litigation has got the AFL running scared. But their fear is a futile exercise anyway - if the sport becomes a version of touch football, no one will watch it So a spoil from behind brings with it a.possible/probable reportable offence? We must appeal

I'm reckoning we'll appeal and then we should be able to convince the tribunal that JVR was playing the ball in an attempt to spoil (a football move) Do that and he has to get off otherwise any spoil, anytime, could be deemed as a reportable offence (if any sort of contact is made to the head or neck area in those spoiling attempts) If he still gets weeks then a precedent will be set and we'll have stacks of players being cited on a weekly basis (or should do) It's a contact sport which means that incidental contact is going to made to the head area on a constant basis If it's a deliberate strike, elbow or shoulder or hip to the head then fair enough, cite the perpetrator But a spoiling attempt? No way

@layzie is spot on with regards to our lack of forward line pressure ... another way of looking at it is that we have been excellent in that area previously As well as that, in other areas of the ground we weren't exerting maximum pressure And they were exerting pressure with lots of numbers around the contests which often amounted to hurried disposals for our lads So Gold Coast played a very good game, maybe their best game this season, yet we won the game To sum up, we didn't bring our best but we didn't play poorly and in the end, we beat their best Apart from that, if we'd have been more accurate in front of goal, we would have wrapped the game up. Although, there seemed to be a gusty breeze about which caught hold of the ball occasionally 4 points banked

My gut feeling is that Kozzie has taken unders If so, admirable

Never in doubt

Turnovers are often not the fault of the player disposing of the ball An example of that is a player who is under pressure kicking the ball 50 metres downfield to a contest ... and if that contest is won by the opposition then the player disposing of the ball is credited with a turnover How is that fair? Back in the day there was a saying ... "You called for it, you get it" And a player having the ball kicked to him is by default, calling for the ball. And that player doesn't have to be actually calling for the ball or have an arm raised He is there as a target if he plays on the same team Why? Because he is in a position downfield where the ball is at some stage going to be kicked to him So the player who is calling for the ball should be credited with the turnover not the player who kicked it to him (unless the kick is way off line) The turnover stats are therefore not accurate and are often clearly wrong

1971 we were on top of the ladder (unbeaten) for the first 5 rounds whilst the Pies were in 3rd place for the same 5 rounds And in round 6 the Pies beat us to take top spot (we dropped to 3rd) By the end of the season we'd dropped to 7th after starting with an 8 & 1 record

Jeepers ... I must have wiped that memory as I can't recall that game. It was actually quite a shock seeing the scoreline on AFL Tables #EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind

I reckon by 3/4 of the way through the season JVR will have nailed down a KPF spot ... just a gut feeling The coaches will drum into him what's required and the penny will drop. To my way of thinking he just needs to get to the front position a bit more than what we're seeing right now. If he can do that he'll get more marking opportunities and put himself in line to receive the odd free kick (high contact, jumper tug, chopping of arms, in the back etc) And Gawn will get better, he just needs more game time. A bit rusty but he'll fire up forward soon enough So if the above happens we will need one of Brown, T-Mac, Petty* or Schache to grab the other spot. Surely one of them will put their hand up *Hibberd seems to have got a new lease of life so he can take Petty's spot down back if Petty is the 3rd tall forward HF Kozzie Petty Fritsch F Chandler JVR Gawn And that is the line-up we may see next Saturday up at the Gold Coast