The heart beats true

I’m not that pessimistic about it all. As long as Dwayne Russell isn’t involved I’m happy to fork over my hard earned to watch games I can’t get to.

Completely agree. I can not understand why the AFLPA allows any footage from the rooms during the game. Seeing a doctor having a private conversation with a patient is no place for ‘entertainment’. It’s atrocious.

I think this is spot on. As supporters we need to have an expectation that teams want to be incredibly defensive against us. If they don’t play that way they get sliced open like GWS last week. We are far, far from an ugly team - but we are going to get in a lot of scraps this year because on paper it’s the only way teams can stay in games. Every press conference this year Goodwin talks about patience. He knows it, the players know it, and we just need to remember it.

I love that we’ve completely stolen the Anzac Day tradition and made it much, much better. The night game is much more symbolic on camera - and so it’s the lasting media image of the round. It also doesn’t hurt that both Collingwood and Essendon are irrelevant. The pregame was amazing last night. I love that the teams sneak on to the crowd in the cover of darkness. It was all so well done. Great acoustics at the G too.

Tonight was my 9 year old nieces first game of footy. I almost sent her home at half time for fear that Children and Family Services would be called. It was ugly, and then we flexed for 10 minutes and it was over, and then it was a terribly boring last quarter. Strange game. And then after it was all over the crowd was again very subdued - like everyone expects us to win.

This annoys me so much too. He may as well say ‘kicking in the direction of my butlers pantry’.

If by poor man’s Dan Hanneberry you mean that he actually gets on the park and doesn’t just take 800k a year to sit in the stands, then yes - he gets paid a lot less, for a lot more.

Imagine putting in a poor performance for us with Salem, Viney, Lever, TMac, Hibberd, Tomlinson, Melksham, Bedford, Chandler, Majak, and Mitch Brown ready to come in. In all seriousness that is half of an AFL quality side ready to go.

These numbers are out. Richmond should have one more ‘free kick’ courtesy of Cotchin. In all seriousness had there been better vision of that incident, and had it been Alex Neal Bullen kicking Joel Selwood, ANB would have been rubbed out for 6 weeks. Do the media do anything any more? Clearly not report on incidence in the actual games.

This entire thing is a classic example of how the AFL ignores it’s stakeholders. They sent out a memo to clubs after round 3, but did absolutely nothing to inform the millions of people who watch the game about how the rule was going to be adjudicated. It seems incredibly arrogant. Seeing a smug Scott brother explain to us that we should have known it was going to be like this only makes it much, much worse.

I think, as others have mentioned, it should just be a stringent return to the ‘abuse’ ruling. Players putting their hands out in confusion feels like an overreaction - but any player uttering anything to the umpire is an instant 50. It often feels like things go too far before they settle at a place that the AFL community learns to live with. I think we are in that stage, but it’ll calm down.

I don’t think we are traveling that badly in terms of supporters. It was a terrible time slot against a team with literally zero local support. Membership and sponsorship is where the money is, and I think we are on track to have a record breaking year with both. No need to wring our hands over everything. We’re going well.

She paid a free kick for a push that wasn’t at all a push and would result in 300 free kicks a game of that’s what counts as a push.

I agree. ‘They’ are an absolute disgrace as an umpire and have zero game sense. Some of their decisions in that quarter were just in complete disregard for the way the game is played.

Terrible day for the AFL. I think Good Friday is a free hit in terms of entertainment, and they serve up this garbage.

This Good Friday ‘blockbuster’ is taking the theme of penance too literally. I don’t know what we all did wrong, but it was obviously really, really bad.

It’s going to be a long night for you.

Congratulations to Jeremy Howe - who after 100 games as a Demon went to Collingwood so he could finally be a forward. That lasted 2 games and he’s played the last 98 in defence - to bring up his 200. Meanwhile all his mates got a flag sticking with the Dees.

Living up to your name Franky.

Petty in, Tomlinson out

Im not sure why some folks continue to think Petty would ever play forward given we’ve spent the last 4 years developing and playing him as a defender. It’s not exactly Goodwin’s playbook to swing the magnets on the board - in fact I’d say it’s the antithesis of his coaching philosophy.

There is one glaring omission - The AFLW didn’t complete. So it’s a kind of paradox of quantum superposition given that this argument both proves and disproves Gil’s value.

If I had to work with Dwayne Russell I’d have a lot of ‘other commitments’ too.

I somehow seem to have caught a bit of Jordie speaking on various shows over the last few weeks. I find him knowledgeable without being sensationalistic. I’ve noticed that his relationship with Melbourne seems very immediate. He’s nostalgic about Hawthorn - but there’s very, very few players left from that era, and he watched as many of his mates left (some of them in circumstances that we now know were less than ideal). He has a lot of the older brother vibe with our players. I think they treated him with a bit of reverence in his time at the club and he appreciated it. He’s genuinely happy with where the clubs at, and he seems proud of his contribution - as he should be.

Yep, purely from a spectators perspective you can explain the stand rule simply. The ruck rules are like alchemy with a touch of reiki thrown in. It’s impossible to understand what’s going on. I’d also back up your argument for the deliberate rule - simply because the umpire justifies it by saying ‘insufficient intent’. So now he’s a mind reader?