The heart beats true

The Eagles situation is very, very interesting. They sold their future for Tim Kelly, and now their list profile is horribly out of whack. Luke is a gun, but they’d have to give up at least 2 potential guns to get him. And then that leaves them further out of whack. Whose he going to be playing with in Perth in 4 years? All their best will be well gone. Meanwhile every list manager is trying to mimic us and get ‘waves’ of players coming through together. They’d be better off trying to turn pick 1 and 19 into say 4, 7 and something early 20’s.

Did anyone else see the boys stitched him up brilliantly last night and make him lead us off the ground after he did his ‘lap of honour’? I think he’s a Demon for at least the next 3 years. Seems very happy. What’s he going to learn from Nik Nat? How to be under prepared, over eat, and get on the park for 9 games a year?

You forgot Dwayne.

I don’t disagree with you, but every time I think it’s a football act involving a player without a name they get suspended.

Chandler is a certainty to get suspended. Player was concussed - check, Player who gets suspended isn’t a name player - check. That’s the AFL criteria I believe. Maybe he could change his name to Paddy Franklin before the review?

Id be very interested to have a look at the centre bounce and stoppage attendances that quarter. To my eye we tried a lot of different things.

Nibbler and Koz started very well. Need to be smart going forward. Barrass and McGovern are both very smart players.

JVR must be raging on a day like this. You kick 6 goals but if you take them off the teams tally we still win by 80 points. Takes the shine off it a little.

One of the things I think is difficult about junior umpiring is that in a lot of the leagues the system is designed as a ‘pathway’ - like it is for players. In reality what this means is you often have a 16 year old umpiring under 15’s by themselves. In a lot of the footy I’ve seen the umpires are heavily influenced by the crowds (of mostly parents) - mainly because they want to get out alive. This perceived, and often literal, bias detracts from the respect the players and clubs have for umpiring. To manage this the umpires are given no support, which honestly is a disgrace. Anyone under 18 should be supported by an adult umpire who can guide, and if needed step in and help. What 16 year old wants to be abused by everyone around? I think the industry needs to completely rethink umpire pathways, and ways to effectively support umpires with boots on the ground. It’s very different to player pathways, and it’s not helping anyone treating it similarly.

How the hell are Brisbane getting such an arm chair ride from the umps in Adelaide?

Essendon’s ‘season defining’ win couldn’t even define their next weekend.

Oh no Geelong lost 🥳

How many games of football in the last 10 years has Tom Hawkins kept Geelong in?

Ok, is it just me or has this completely been removed from the game? I can’t recall seeing one in the last few rounds.

Weekend work? How dare you! Oh, you mean the bloke that makes me my $6 Almond Milk Latte? Of yeah, he’s fine to work the weekends.

I would assume because if Max doesn’t get up Dogga goes into the ruck with TMac pinch hitting, and Mitch Brown plays as the stay at home forward.

I agree with this. I think he might have also had a look around having seen what’s happened for Ratten and Voss and thought ‘I’ll get out now, take a lower profile head of football role somewhere, and still come back to coaching once I’ve learnt from being somewhere new’. I actually like that the AFL is mature enough of an industry now for that to happen. It doesn’t feel so dire for the coaches.

This. 1000 times this. The metric of engagement is set at such a low bar that it’s become detrimental to what helps drive sport - which is passion. The AFL has some issues with deeper engagement, and it won’t be shown for another 4-5 years. I suspect the talent pool ain’t growing, while the players required at the top level is. It will make for a real problem. Imagine 5-6 North Melbournes.

Honestly, last grand final day nearly killed me. The wait was excruciating. I was an absolute mess by 10 minutes into the 3rd quarter. Oddly I became much calmer after that. Therefore I don’t mind the later start time on the condition we ice the game in the first quarter.

Well someone’s got to, because the non-Essendon public think the guy still stinks of drugs, medical ambivalence and denial.

I dunno. I watched that AFL doco series on Amazon from 2020 and Cameron just didn’t strike me as being much more than fury. I sometimes think the world mistakes seriousness with intellect and capability. Modern players need more evolved relationships. Just ask David Noble.

It’s an interesting one as longer term we need key forwards due to the age of whose on our list. In the short term (2022/23) I’d still be keen on a lockdown defender for a Charlie Cameron/Heeney/Weightman type. Nev and Hibbo used to be great, and I’ve been super impressed with Hunt. It’s purely that the ground ball in defence is almost our only slight weakness.

I think this season is being statistically skewed by the massive early drop in form from Port and the Dogs. If both those sides played true to last years form then we would look even further out in front than we are. To be fair I think we are the reason the Dogs have dropped off. The GF and then round 1 psychological damaged them. They KNOW they are a fair way behind us. As for Geelong I’m not sure it really matters. They have the experience and ground advantage to make top 4 anyways. It’s whether they’ve got the speed, depth and dynamics to do it in September - and that’s been the same question for 5 years.

I just watched the replay and aside from the fact we are a very good side I love seeing Jack Viney play footy these days. He’s very comfortable with his role, and he seems genuinely happy and relaxed on field. It’s so great to see after what he’s been through.

This doesn’t get anywhere near enough recognition around here. In all seriousness bar 4-5 games this has been what we’ve been doing for the last 35 games.