The heart beats true

I can’t afford to go to Gather Round. It’s an absolute spud of an idea, and the only people who truly like it are those that are there on the AFL’s dime - and it infuriates me when they tell us how great it is all week. Any other week of AFL games played on substandard grounds with 4,000 people in attendance would be qualified as an unmitigated disaster. With 2 South Australian teams anyone who wants to go to Adelaide and see their team play is already guaranteed to get the opportunity every year regardless. So what this is is the AFL taking money from a state government at the expense of the fans. People will say ‘it’s an extra round of footy’, but it’s not a round I, or almost all, Melbourne supporters can go to. Gather Round sucks for the average footy supporter, and the sooner we all start calling it out for what it is the sooner the AFL might learn that it’s pushing us too far, and its product too thin.

After the Maynard incident Jonathan Brown immediately says ‘got to be better than that’ and then realises what he’s said and says ‘anyway, he’s earned himself a free kick’. The pandering to big clubs is ruining the game. I’m so bored by the AFL coverage. It’s making the game seem so fake and manufactured.

I imagine Isaac is just happy they didn’t call him Isack.

I picked Geelong tonight, purely because I firmly believe Essendon are very average, and have only elevated because of the extreme softness of their draw.

Craig McLoss.

Collingwood lobbied the AFL to play on the Gold Coast in the school holidays, so more of their supporters can go. I hope that ruins a lot of people’s holidays. Have fun at Movie World. 👋

But Dwayne said they’ve been Nicked? 🤣

Hahahhahaha

Footys alright.

Nice goal Benny Long.

Listening to Dwayne refer to all the Collingwood players by their first name makes me wanna vomit. Its super unprofessional.

I actually don’t disagree with this. My issue is with the amount of, and various nuances, of the rules. Over the last 2 decades the AFL has jumped at shadows to try and end a team’s dominance. No 3rd man up, the protected space around the mark, and the stand rule, are all direct results of Hawthorn’s 3 peat - which was really an issue the AFL created by giving the Hawks insane draft concessions at the same time as bringing in 2 new sides, which denied other teams talent. They don’t trust coaches to solve problems, but by constantly adjusting rules they actually give a huge advantage to the more experienced and better resourced teams. They need to create a fan lead charter, and then massively simplify the rules to reflect what its most important stakeholders want. I’m sick of hearing about how hard the game is to umpire. That’s the issue, and it’s easily solved.

If Melbourne got the umpiring that Collingwood do every week we’d have the last 3 premierships. They get away with murder.

More umpires has made the standard much worse. Within the game we have four officials adjudicating the rules differently. I could show 4 marks from last nights game (arguably the simplest rule they need to adjudicate) that were paid, and 4 that weren’t that look identical, and that was for both teams. I’m over the AFL and the umpiring. They’re deliberately made it obtuse, so they can use it to their advantage. It happens so consistently that it’s clearly by design.

I felt like the umpiring was incredibly inconsistent across the game. Marking in particular was so confusing.

JVR quietly becoming everything we’ve hoped.

Very good handball from Fritta

I hope whoever is ‘definitely not talking in the ears of the umpires’ reminds them it’s 6 frees to 1.

It was also paid by the umpire 50 metres away, not the guy right there.

The umpire paid a free kick to Lowman because he feel heavily. 🤷‍♂️

I’m thrilled with his development. If you watch the replay of his highlights from the weekend his timing coming back at the ball carrier is excellent. I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that when not battling it out with Brown and Schache he looks more comfortable.

I really liked Riv in the middle. I also thought that was Viney’s best game for months, and Max is just such a competitor. One thing I really noticed last night was how slow we deliberately went forward. I think we decided to support our defensive structure at all costs with Lever out, and it definitely came at the expense of our ball movement. Our tall forwards were all flying in packs of 4-6 players. Our ball movement looked very 22-23. In regards to ball movement I think it’s very obvious that Tracc is a massive loss, particularly forward of the middle. Imagine the Bulldogs without Bont. That’s what we’ve lost. Thinking about him in that way has certainly tempered my expectations for this year.

Waterman has become such a strong player. He really straightens them up.

This where the AFL has the umpiring all wrong. The 50 against Windsor (that had changed to not be a 50 over the last off season) was exactly the same as one that wasn’t paid when Tom MacDonald had a mark 40 metres out from Norths goal 3 minutes later. Afterwards the Melbourne defence went ballistic at the umpire about only paying it one way. Umpire 1. was clearly describing that the faked move handball is no longer a 50. WHICH BEGS THE QUESTION WHY DIDN’T HE STEP IN AND OVERRULE A CLEAR MISTAKE BY HIS PEER? He acknowledged to the players minutes later, so he knew it was wrong. This is why fans are so frustrated.

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