The heart beats true

Yeah, but they are playing the game with the right spirit.

Docklands makes teams look good - and causes they’re undoing on a real ground.

Brilliant hairdresser, better footballer.

I see the club is still selling GF guarantee memberships. Don’t be left out come September!

I feel sorry for Tomlinson. I felt like last year he worked really hard to keep his head up. This year he got thrown to the wolves when May was out, and then he looked really good in his only game with both May and Lever in with him. He’s only human. I have a dummy spit when someone doesn’t rate me on Demonland (which to be fair my dummy spits are always justified. It’s not my fault I’m always right). I can’t imagine how I’d feel if it was my work, and so public.

Tigers loading hard. Terrible goal kicking.

I reckon they made a great calling choosing to bowl. Put the pressure on us, and it worked.

Yes. Not great.

Have Richmond sold the goalpost padding to a sponsor? Is this common? Cant remember seeing it.

My god. The whinging. School holidays has killed the spirit of some of you lot. I’ll be there on Saturday night supporting the club that’s given me some of life’s most memorable moments. Get to the ground. Support the Dees.

That’s awesome. Thanks so much.

It’s one of the great parts of AFL club culture. The big question is…. Did Shaun Smith, Todd Viney and Shane Woewodin all play in the same team?

***Trigger Warning. Potentially optimistic information ahead. https://www.afl.com.au/news/963110/sharpshooters-to-shankers-can-history-repeat-for-misfiring-dees- This quote stood out…. ’Melbourne suffered a similar slump at a similar stage of the year in 2021, when Simon Goodwin's men went at an AFL-worst 37.5 per cent goalkicking accuracy from rounds 13-19.’

Obviously the situation is complicated, and possibly because it seems like Clayton has been historically fortunate with soft tissue injuries. He clearly didn’t realise what had happened, which makes it very difficult for the club staff to initially know what they are dealing with. You can only treat what you know. It’s obviously not a traditional presentation, and he’s obviously not a traditional athlete. Its entirely possible that everyone was just doing the best they could, and yet the result still sucks.

Love it. Good news never goes out of style.

Are you serious? I literally thought the only upside of this was that it would put an end to the rumours. So what now, our head of fitness is essentially acting out a pantomime for the press, with our star player, to throw people off the scent? He can’t execute what our fitness department need. That’s literally what you can see first hand. He’s frustrated and heartbroken. That people turn it into anything else is a sad indictment on the state of social media.

I took from that Presser that JVR is a few weeks away.

I was making a more broad observation about the state of football media. Im not sure what your last 2 paragraphs mean (which is not unusual). Feel free to whip yourself into your usual post loss frenzy though. You’re really good at it. 👍

The issue that I have with all football commentary is the consistent desire to focus on the last game, and not the game plan. Just like players are focused on game plan as opposed to recent result, the media is purely focused on the last game. I wish someone would fill the gap in between - where they tried to convey the nuances of how teams structure and play a certain way. Garry is doing his job, but for mine the brief for him is wrong, or should at least be more balanced.

I know nobody wants to hear this, but this is a huge part of our strategy going into the forward line. It’s designed to create either a mark, or a stoppage. Worst case scenario we get a stoppage and get set up behind the ball for multiple entries. We’ve been doing this for at least 3 seasons. The problem is that for the last 2 seasons every defensive coach whose watched 3 minutes of opposition intel knows we are going to do it. It also means we get a lot of repeat entries forward from stoppages. Sadly there is literally 30 players in our 50, making attempts at goal statistically a lot less likely. We play a very defence first game plan. We are literally defending the ground by kicking to 2 tall players in our forward 50. It’s infuriating, but it’s part of the reason we don’t get blown away in games either.

Everything is an opportunity. JVR, and Brown will be well served by Marvel. You’d also think we might back Tomlinson in and play Petty forward if needed too. Oddly it’s a good time for us to be playing on a guaranteed dry deck. Get some confidence back in our skills.

Fritta 7-8 weeks according to club. TMac 4-6. That’s our 2 best forwards from the last 5 years. Time to get inventive.

He’s not my type, but to each their own.

Harmes. Can’t have Sparrow, Harmes and ANB in the same side. One of them has to make way for someone who hits targets. ANB’s job is to cause stoppages with his tackling, which he does. Sparrow is more versatile in the middle. Charlie in for Harmes.

Huge effort to pull that together by the DA given the late notice on Harmes and the travel.