The heart beats true

That, and the behind the goals vision show this really clearly for what it is. Maynard was trying to physically impose himself on the game. To set an example. He stuffed it up terribly, and in my opinion if he gets less than 4 weeks he should consider himself very lucky. If Sam Collins did that to Pendlebury he’d get 6-8 weeks.

Tracc’s new interview on the MFC app sure does make it sound like this is more than a 12 day break for Gus. I can’t believe the media narrative around this incident. Angus is the son in law of a former player who committed suicide from CTE. If this isn’t the case that makes people stop and think then I give up. I’ve never seen this incident happen before. There isn’t another comparable ‘smothering attempt that caused concussion’ from the last 20 years of football, or anything even remotely close to this - that’s over 3800 games of football. I don’t wonder why that is. I know why. It’s because it was incredibly dangerous. Players legitimately trying to smother the ball jump as high as they can, meaning their trajectory is straight up. There’s 30 examples of that a game.

Let’s just see what happens Friday night. We don’t give up, even if we don’t execute we always give amazing effort. I wouldn’t write this team off.

And thus ends my least favourite weekend of football for the year.

Harris Andrews ain’t Steven May. He’s more of an interceptor. He’s been absolutely killed one on one tonight.

Duursma has struggled to be clean in this game and it’s killing his team.

I thought your response wasn’t very kind. I know you and I don’t always see eye to eye, but you add heaps to this community, particularly with your knowledge of junior footballers. I like it when different people engage on here, and making fun of someone trying to start a new conversation seemed counterproductive. 👍

He’s a gun. He’s absolutely massive too. He’s only going to keep getting better.

That wasn’t a football action. Maynard wanted to make a physical statement early, just like he did against Langdon last year. He stuffed it up, and he will be dealt accordingly. He never once watches the ball. If a Melbourne player did that I’d be so disappointed in them, just like I am with JVR’s action this week.

Even the cheer squad has a sign that reads ‘I’m definitely not an AFL employee’.

If I have to read one more post where people imply they know more because they once played football I’ll vomit. Just because I drew a map when I was 8 doesn’t make me a master cartographer. Making comparisons is embarrassing, and honestly, a little sad.

Jason Bennett is an interesting caller, because he calls the game. It’s just a shame he gets partnered with Darcy.

Don’t tell my nephews that. Lucky to get a Christmas card. 🤣

I suspect this finals season has been the tipping point for a lot of people and their relationship with AFL broadcasting. I love going to the footy, but I can’t stand it on the TV. For me Thursday nights TV was the pinnacle. Angus Brayshaw lay motionless in the middle of the MCG for an off the ball incident that will control the AFL media landscape for the next 2 weeks - but the broadcaster was showing us De Goey limping because he rolled his ankle. Their pandering isn’t helping anyone, and least of all the game. If Kayo had the option to just watch the game with crowd noise I’m guessing 80% of the audience would watch it.

I find is fascinating how aware our players are of the expected scores. We know they are shown the numbers mid game. Post game Tracc often speaks about it, and did last night again. The reasoning is simple - it highlights we are doing a lot right and solidifies good intention and behaviours. I do have some concerns over the psychological impact of it too though. It reinforces how difficult our system is, and how hard we have to work comparatively. It must be super deflating. I have concerns about our ability to back up again with the same system next year. We need some luck with injuries, and some fresh ideas forward of the ball - because it’s our Achilles heel, and it has been for 5 years.

Great points. Thilthorpe is a much bigger body than Jeffo and he goes missing for weeks at AFL level. Playing forward is hard, but developing forward is even harder.

Jon Ralph had the audacity to say tonight that Collingwood must be wondering ‘why them who has to be the test case for accidental collisions?’ No Jon. The person asking why them is Angus Brayshaw. There’s only one innocent party in this whole thing. He’s worked his entire career to be playing right now and he’s not able to play through no fault of his own. The handling of this has really shone a light on the horrific pandering the football media does to the bigger clubs. Ratings doesn’t equal truth, no matter how they try and sell it.

Agree. I wouldn’t want to take Laura on. She’s both a sharp legal operator and the new head of the department. Tough position to be arguing against.

You have to think after watching that the ARC has been told they must make a decision. Insufficient evidence seems to have been taken out of the mix. If only that was the case 5 weeks ago we'd be playing Brisbane tomorrow night at the G. Funny how things have worked against us this year. We can't take a trick.

That was clearly a touched ball by Carlton right? There's no issue here right?

Well at least those score reviews weren't controversial.

This is eerily similar. You can't give up starts in finals.

I don't think Carlton supporters have ever seen an AFL game before. They don't understand the rules.

The ARC makes a call, and they see what nobody else can? How are we still here?

Is that right? It hasn't come up in the commentary.