The heart beats true

Collingwood’s defence looks super ordinary.

So that Collingwood don’t have 15 games at the G. I think that’s literally it.

Centre clearances have never been more important than they are in the current game.

Speak for yourself.

No Brett Lovett? What! He’s the greatest half back flanker in the history of the world. I’m offended.

I was asking because I was trying to figure out our MCG average. So it’s 9 games at 438k our average is just under Richmond’s at 48,660. I really want the club to ditch the NT, and healthy figures like this make a good case. Selling games, giving up home ground advantage, and forcing a team in a premiership window to unnecessarily travel makes no sense to me.

Is that including the absolute horror show that was the 3,000 people in Alice Springs?

Is this another camera (circled in red)?

This is my constant frustration with the ARC. It’s actually been turned into a court of appeal. Why is the ARC told the umpires called? The onus is then on them to overturn someone else’s decision. If the ARC looked at the footage without any precedent from the available angles on Saturday night they’d say the ball was clearly not touched. Instead they were tasked with overturning the on field decision, instead of looking at the footage objectively and making an independent call. That shouldn’t be the ARC’s brief. Their brief should clearly be ‘look at this and make your decision with much more available information than we have’. Then if they say ‘insufficient evidence’ it goes back to the umpire to make his (until now unknown) call.

I will say that I felt the umpire’s positioning in the forward line of both teams was much better on the weekend. I noticed them (Chamberlain in particular) working harder to be on the boundary side of the contest and award obvious free kicks to Curnow and Smith by being correctly positioned. I think forwards and defenders rely too much on the umpires being central, so it was good to see an adjustment by the umps. Also, while we are talking about the umpires, they are dirty cheats and costs us the game. Carry on.

That’s actually a really clean, simple idea. I wonder why they don’t implement that? It makes it so much easier for all footy fans to understand an infringement. We got rid of third man up and everyone adjusted. We should definitely implement this.

I reckon the Suns might catch Carlton on the weekend. Suns midfield is very good, and they’ve been super impressive up there. Carlton have played a lot of footy on adrenaline and atmosphere. That’s not exactly a calling card for Heritage Stadium. Will be a good watch. Miller will go to Cripps and they’ll back in Anderson and Rowell.

The fitness was glaringly obvious at the ground. Honestly they clung to that win for the last 10 minutes. It was an admirable effort, but they were shot, and we looked much fitter. Why I’m disappointed not to win the lesson for our boys is obvious. We have the legs, but we need a better plan for pulling teams out when they flood back - especially when we don’t have more contested marking players ahead of the ball. We also would be furious at the centre clearance goals we gave up to start the 4th. One less of those and we win. I’d be really surprised if Carlton can keep this up for another 6 weeks. They had 7 scoring shots to 10 after half time, but managed 6 goals (we went 5.5). That game goes for 1 minute longer in either the 3rd or 4th term and we would have won. Also, just to be clear, we did win. I still can’t believe there was ‘insufficient evidence’ that the ball was touched. If the ARC weren’t told of the umpires call they’d say that was a clear goal. They had their opinion swayed by the goal umpire because the angle that shows the ball wasn’t touched was the angle the goal umpire saw. If you showed that goal line footage to 10 people and asked them to say where was it touched all 10 of them would say it wasn’t. That the ARC is made aware of the goal umpires opinion is a clear fault in the system.

I don't think that's fair. Kane Cornes really rates us.

That was it! When you went did Tom Browne doorstop you for an interview, so you pretended to be on the phone?

This place looked very different to me. It was in a tight street - but Max could have gone to the regular place and just got a [censored] park.

The way I’ve heard what they are currently attempting to develop (and this was discussed by football journos, so take that for what it’s worth) is that it’s essentially 2 data points tracked at either end of the ball. The theory being that they then can measure the rotation of the ball through the time it could have come into contact with a player and evaluate if the trajectory shifts at all off the expected path. I imagine it’s similar to the ball path technology they use in the DRS for the cricket. So, if I understand it correctly, last night they would have been able to see if the ball deviated less than .01% of its expected path in the time it could have come in contact with a hand. If they get it right it’ll be a huge improvement. I also imagine it’ll help predict where the ball is when it travels high and the goal umpire asks to check - and all we have is vision from a camera 200 metres away at a weird angle.

No. History tells us that the ladder is a very good indicator of premiership credentials by August. It specifically tells us that finishing in the top 4 makes you 95% more likely to win the flag compared to other top 8 teams. We will finish top 4, hence we are in an excellent position. On top of that equation 2 of the other top 4 teams have very poor records at the MCG. So basically we are second favourites for the flag. But don’t just take my word for it. Shockingly there’s actually an independent industry filled with football mad people who wage money on what they see each week. They also have us second favourite. Hold your breath, because this might be hard to hear - we are a really good side, and have been since round 1 2021.

Channel 7 said it was a routine follow up appointment this afternoon (after reporting on it earlier in the day). Possibly a follow up knee scan to see how it’s looking. They specifically said ‘nothing to see here’. It did make me wonder how the cameras knew to go to the exact scanning place on a Sunday morning at 11am.

Any idea how they do this? I sat near the boundary for the first time in years last night and the abuse was wild. I know we did some chant stuff before we paid Collingwood, but I’d be fascinated to know how they prepare for that noise and abuse if anyone knows.

It’s all your fault! Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

This is horrible from GWS. They’ve choked.

That was the kick. Salem looked set to be in the top 20 players in the comp 2 years ago. His injuries and illness have crippled him.

I often wonder how in Australian culture ‘Muppet’ became a derogatory term? The Muppets are some of the best entertainment ever, and Jim Henson is a creative genius. Muppet is far too good a word.

My call for next week, based on watching Casey, is that Hibbo starts, Smith goes forward, Spargo comes in and JJ goes out. Spargo was really good, and was actively trying to put his hand up today. With that set up we get a few weeks to look at a more agile forward line, and Melk and Smith get to fight out a spot before Fritta comes back. I also think if we are smaller forward of the ball, we need elite kicking and more players running at the kicker - Spargo.