The heart beats true

Clayton is clearly injured, Brayshaw was our mop up player down back, then Salem had to quickly adjust to that after training all season as a mid. Now that’s done. We had to try something. I doubt the plan was to play Woey as a defender on McCarthy either. We shuffled around but it was always going to be tough with Clarry underdone and then Salem down.

There was an incident in the game tonight mid way through the first quarter where it looked, from where I sit, that Zorko stuck his leg out at Petty. It was 80 metres off the ball. Was this shown on the TV, or been discussed at all anywhere?

Agree. I thought Tom was great. He should be proud of how he’s competing.

Agree. We have no energy.

Folks watching on the TV, is the umpiring appearing very one dimensional to you?

Oh that's so exciting! Can't wait for the game now.

I know for a fact that Goodwin was openly and vocally furious at Koz after the Carlton loss last year for his actions in that game. I doubt he’s pleased.

I accept Koz was always going to go for this. I love him as a player, but he’s now missed 2 games against top 4 opponents this year because of suspension. It’s just hurting the team.

I often wonder if the AFL secretly loves the variance in throw ins. It helps create break away moments from clearance. I would imagine most coaches prefer a boundary throw in if they are chasing down a lead, over a ball up - where there’s far too much consistency and experienced sides can shut down the ball over and over again to create stoppages and drain the clock. It’s a quirk of our game, but it might be inadvertently providing the variance we need to keep the games dynamic.

I just read this too, and he absolutely nails the AFL on both their demands for Tasmania, and how the average footy fan has been marketed the lose of something. It’s great when a journalist actually does their job. So refreshing in the current environment.

Shai Bolton. He’s just incredible.

Nathan Williamson is umpiring this game after umpiring Thursday night. Is that common?

No. I did 6 months in the fashion/retail space and knew it wasn’t for me. From all reports the culture of all those places is toxic. Unnecessarily cruel, and successful in spite of themselves.

So Geelong won that game because of the terrible ARC decision?

He just glared at me. I suggest my smug face might have betrayed my ‘I’m not a football person’ narrative. They often employed former players. It wasn’t their fault, but they had no useful skills in the environment and only got the jobs because of who they were.

It was easily the worst place I’ve ever worked. I did 6 months, and somehow got years of stories out of it.

I very briefly worked for Cotton On, and aside from it being a horrible place to work, the highlight was being in a meeting with David Wojcinski, and pretending I didn’t know he was a former footballer. I casually said in a meeting, in front of 20 coworkers, ‘I just googled you, and the first thing that came up said you broke the jaw of some 17 year old kid called Jack Viney’. It was one of my career highlights.

That’s what fans come to the footy to see. 2 teams go hard at it with discipline and huge effort for 3 hours - only for the umpire to unequivocally decide the result with a decision that no one can hear or see.

It clearly hits Aish’s arm. Honestly. It’s just embarrassing how often it happens for some clubs at some stages. Anyone would think it was, I dunno, intentional.

If you don’t reckon the fix is in for Carlton this year you aren’t paying attention.

Cripps throws more than anyone in the comp.

Luke Jackson is such a unique footballer.

Essendon remind me of my year 12 results. They’re totally irrelevant now, but still a bit disappointing.

Not if you like bad jumpers and poor decision making.

They look to me a little like GWS early days. They’ve picked the best kids available over 3-4 drafts - but now have lots of mids and no structure to support it. It’s a risk, especially watching McKercher running around knowing he’ll be the first target for Tassie.