The heart beats true

Gawn got done for that years ago and was whacked by the club, which he acknowledges as the making of him. Jesse was at home watching his father die as a 21 year old. If any of these 4 have that as an excuse then I will accept that as highly unusual and stressful circumstances. Hodge got banned by his teammates for his last 2 indiscretions. So that tells you we handled this right.

This gives me enormous faith in the direction of the club. Didnt use it as an excuse before, during or directly after the loss. Gave those players a real whack when it would have been easier not too. This will be the making of us as a footy club. Successful clubs act this way.

So why didn't Sydney recruit Barlow and Petrie then? They had 4-5 of their best 10 out for the first 6 and lost them all. Because you can't set your team up for the worst scenario in one season. You have to plan for the future and the immediate need. Otherwise you'd never take kids below pick 25 in the draft and just top up on experienced rejects. If we did that we'd have: No TMac, Oscar, Hunt, Stretch etc.

Give it a rest. We have injury issues, not depth issues. Take Franklin, Reid, Hannebery, Heeney and Rampe out of Sydneys team last night, and then have them lose Kennedy at half time and you have sense of who we've lost. We honestly have 6 of our best 10 out. No one can plan for that. Barlow and Petrie are top up players for teams whose age demographic are flush with too many kids (why is we already have Vince and Lewis), or teams who are older and need to capitalise now. We have to be brave and recruit for the future too. No point having a strong older group and finishing 4-8th. Just look at North.

It's a very even competition with lots of close games. It's about as level a playing field as you'll ever see. We had a difficult period, but we also need to be able to accept that it's a difficult game. The younger guys need to know you have to show up every week, and I think the club managed it as well as they could have, and never shied away from the challenge and gave excuses.

If you look at the season as blocks of games, which Goodwin says they do, then we just went through the most difficult 18 days of footy we face for the season and came out with 3 wins. The outs are hard to judge as we just looked exhausted from the first siren. I suspect a month ago the plan for this week and last was to rotate 2 new players in each game for fresh legs, but that went out the window with 6 of our best 10 players injured - and even just copping 2 new injuries a game over the passed 3 weeks killed any chance to refresh with players knocking down the door. Injuries are an issue, but they are also a really good chance to see what we have. JKH will come in now, and will be expected to repay the contract faith. Kent and Kennedy deserve a shot. Positives: Oscar is looking fantastic, and I thought Frosty tried his hardest and at least makes opposition clubs think about him since his pace is such a weapon. Jetta has been great for 3 years.

Player X makes an obvious mistake. Ling 'That was a crucial mistake from Player X. You have to better then that at this standard of footy'. Repeat for each mistake made for 2 hours. That's it. That's all he's got.

We missed our cream players tonight delivering the ball. Sydney had a clear plan to out muscle us around the ball and stand up in the tackle. We are going places. Half or our side were depth players tonight.

I just don't reckon he had the cattle tonight

Honestly, this is the flattest I've seen us since 2016. I reckon we have 6 of our best 9 players injured now, and we have zero energy left from the draw. Not reading much into tonight.

What a great challenge tonight is. We are missing 5 of our guaranteed best, perhaps 6. I really want to see the same effort, intensity and belief in our system we got last week. The result will come from there.

Dangerfield likes his own work a little too much for me. I'd prefer to listen to Maxy. He doesn't seem to be trying to posture for a long term media role, he has a laugh at his own expense, and he seems passionate about life in a way you can't fake. How good was it at half time last week when he turned to Peter Bell and said 'wouldn't mind you roving to me'? I like Bob Murphy for the same reasons I like Max. Enthusiasm is infectious, and an ability to see the game as part of something simultaneously much bigger, and smaller, than life.

I can't tell you how I know this... But I heard you should only believe about 6% of all Demonland rumours.

From the AFL website... Speaking after the hearing, Schofield delivered a thinly veiled swipe at Oliver's social media activity. "Being a little bit of a more senior player, I think it's always best to watch from the sidelines when things go to social media, so you didn't hear too much from me," Schofield said. Really Will? I would have thought a senior player gets more than 6 possessions too, but knock yourself out. I honestly think they challenged because they had nothing to lose. I think he's right on the edge of being dropped again. Senior player my arse.

What a wonderful night for people who think that wilfully throwing your elbows around is sportsmen like behaviour. Disgraceful decisions, both of them.

Well said SWYL. (I swear I thought this was going to a thread about Oscar. It's so refreshing to have multiple players improving).

Well, maybe not technically, but he was very open about the fact he told Adelaide he wanted to exercise his right to leave for Geelong as a Free Agent. Geelong knew it was such a good deal they then traded for him in order to keep other clubs from offering bigger coin. Perhaps I should have phrased it more like this 'Geelong got Dangerfield because FA became an option'. Without it I seriously doubt Adelaide would have entertained the trade.

http://m.afl.com.au/news/2017-06-25/richmond-defender-reported-for-hit-on-lamb Wow. That's 5 down to 4 minimum. Threw an elbow at a player behind the ball and knocked him out cold. You just don't see that anymore. Also, given that it's Carlton Doctor I'm sure the medical report will also show the incident caused whiplash, ringworm, Epstein Barr, PTSD, IBS, scurvy, restless leg syndrome and Ovarian cysts.

I hated watching Geelong win because they literally have one game plan. Stay in the contest until the last quarter and then let Dangerfield do whatever he likes to get you the win. If they didn't get him via FA I reckon they'd be a bottom 6 side, even with that home ground. He's a great player, but gees I wished he played for any other coach.

He got hit, so it's not staging. It looks delayed and not that forceful which I think is the issue - but it's semantics as there was definitely contact. What I absolutely love about this is that there are 2 players at Melbourne whose toughness I'd never want to question. Viney and Oliver. Im fully expecting Clarry to be insanely fired up next week. That's when he does his best work.

That was you? You bloody legend. I think a few thought that might have been me because of my earlier post, but I was on the wing. I love Melbourne supporters. We have this unashamed passion borne from years of being in the wilderness that means we are used to being outnumbered and just yell louder. We've got nothing to lose, and it shows.

Can't even discuss the actual game yet, only how the win felt. I was at the ground. I brought a ticket through Ticketmaster and some how ended up sitting in an Eagles reserved seating section. I literally could not see another Melbourne supporter. I was by myself. I cheered everything we did and got stared at, people whispered about me, one woman asked her husband if they could move away. I wasn't badly behaved. I was just passionate. Because those Eagles supporters they don't understand - I fell in love with this footy club in 1987. I was sitting with my old man on the half forward flank when Jimmy ran over the mark and Buckenara kicked the goal in the Prelim. I've sat through horrible horrible performances - multiple 100 point floggings at the G (just 4 years ago). I'd do it all again for that win, and the effort and energy we showed to drag ourselves over the line in that last quarter. When Tommy Mac kicked the last goal I went bananas. And then when the siren went I went absolutely ballistic. You know those sad people at sporting events going nuts who you think 'calm down mate, maybe you need more going on in your life'? - that was me! Im pretty sure I looked like the slow mo of Stevie J when he kicked the sealer a couple of weeks back - but in real time. It was ugly. I don't care. That was an absolute delight. I love this footy club, and I love that I at least have a place on the internet to share something like this with people who get it. Go The Dees. I believe.

At the ground. Beautiful night. Not going to lie watching our forwards line up for shots I wondered who will kick a score for us. But - Its a bloody good feeling seeing big Maxy out there with Jack Viney. There's a distinctly ugly street fighter vibe about our midfield. Go Dees. Get stuck in.

I reckon Daniher ran over the mark at the end and the umpire was paying a 50, but then paid the goal because it went through. The only thing that would have made that better is if Rohan missed and THEN got given a 50 to win the game. Essendon. ?

Daisy is too good for this network. She's all class and asks great, relevant questions that aren't sycophantic.