The heart beats true

If you want a conspiracy theory, I’ll go all in… Clubs should ask the AFL now to tell the broadcasters NEVER to comment on whether an issue is reportable at any stage. By doing so they basically pour pressure on the league to respond. If they don’t ask them now, a big club (Carlton or Collingwood) will say that the commentators have unduly influenced a report on one of their star players (remember, they don’t get reported in play anymore) and use it to get them off. I reckon it could happen as soon as this year. I’ll put my tin hat away now.

We appealed Fritta a couple years ago and got him off. Let’s not turn this into another one of those weird threads about how the club is apparently ‘soft’.

Basically if the player doesn’t say he ‘heard a crack’ (which turned out to be nothing) and then the game goes on, this wouldn’t be an incident. WTF?

Ginnivan makes Cody Weightman seem much more likeable.

If you duck your head that’s your prior! Holding the ball! The umpires don’t know the rules.

Sydney’s goal kicking has cost them this game.

As an aside, I feel like 80% of the threads here on DL could be called ‘Conspiracy’.

BT barely containing his absolute disdain that the Swans are playing well. The standard of commentary for our game is frankly terrible.

Collingwood will keep giving you looks because of their game style. Go back quick at them, and take your chances. Sydney should be 3 goals up.

Swans goal kicking has been atrocious

I used to do a bit of work with Ballet dancers. Their feet would bleed in agony everyday, and they have to show up tomorrow and do it all again. Most of them are forced to retire by the time they are mid 20’s, and life changing ankle and knee injuries are incredibly common (very similar knee and ankle injuries to footballers). On top of all that it is one of the most toxic cultures in terms of body image and competitiveness. In terms of effort, endurance and dedication it’s a brutal thing to do.

It’s a multimillion dollar industry. Why doesn’t the AFL pay someone to transcribe the press conference questions to be shown on screen in the presser video? That would cost $100 per game, or $1000 a week. Hell, make it the club’s responsibility, sell it to a sponsor and put there logo on screen with the question. I don’t care how its done, it’s just embarrassing that it’s been a problem for 15 years.

Dermott literally just said ‘it’s a man’s sport, and that’s the way in needs to be played’. Except for when it’s played by women Derm. Did he mean tough, uncompromising, or brave? There’s lots of other words. Use them, or go.

Essendon play the Oval well.

I reckon todays footy should be quite enlightening.

I also think horrible weather in Victoria meant that a lot of footy fans watched the game. They just wanted us to get rolled, because we are a threat. Much like when we watch Geelong and Brisbane play we want the opposition to do well, but it’s exaggerated for the Suns because they don’t really threaten anyone yet. If that was a Collingwood Melbourne game most impartial supporters wouldn’t say a word.

Yeah, I agree. I don’t think we got it right last night, but it was obvious from the presser they had a theory. There’s no way that theory was allowing Anderson to put on a clinic through the midfield though.

People are only because that was what the commentary was saying. There’s no talk of the incredibly soft free kicks King got in the third. In the end they actually got a chance, and didn’t take it. So they weren’t robbed, they simply couldn’t execute.

This drove me insane. It’s such an obvious distraction.

I posted this in the post game thread, but if you want some different insight watch the press conference…. Watching Goodwin speak in the presser he was very confident that we could get them on turnover. I feel like we are trying to win differently. For years we’ve needed to smash the contested possessions, where as I think now we are often having a look at breaking even there, which means we use our match winners more sparingly. Goodwin spoke about this in the presser. I think it’s about winning games, but not taxing our best players every week, so they are fresher when needed.

I just watched The Round So Far on the AFL site. They spoke about the game as being a really tough contest, with a lot of brilliant individual efforts. Last year in the first 10 games the team said our game against GCS up there was our hardest match by far. We only got home by 13 points, and that was when we looked unbeatable. That’s a tough win last night I reckon. It wasn’t pretty, but I think that’s character building.

Watching the press conference Goodwin seemed very confident that we could get them on turnover. I feel like we are trying to win differently. For years we’ve needed to smash the contested possessions, where as I think now we are often having a look at breaking even there, which means we use our match winners more sparingly. Goodwin spoke about this in the presser. I think it’s about winning games, but not taxing our best players every week, so they are fresher when needed.

In the 3rd quarter the suns got 3 free kicks in front of goal, one to Ellis and 2 to King, all resulting in goals, and they didn’t show the replay of the incident once. Theres a clear mandate by both broadcasters not to show free kicks being paid in front of goal. That they don’t think we are aware of it is embarrassing. There’s an average of 27 seconds to show a replay of an incident before a shot for goal. The only logical conclusion is that they are trying to protect the umpires.

You’re so negative. The Suns played really well, and we played at 40% of our capacity, and we still won. You can’t win flags in May, but you can lose games that mean you won’t get there. That didn’t happen.

This game day thread is a great reminder of why I don’t often read the game day thread. It’s ok to acknowledge the competition is tough, and we are a big scalp. Have some faith.