The heart beats true

There’s not enough mongrel in modern day AFL. Not anything illegal or thuggish, but just genuine physical aggression. Daicos keeps being left along at half back to do what he wants. Collingwood would send Maynard to him and rough him and make him earn it, so why doesn’t anyone else? It’s odd to me. Throw them off, go after him. Rattle them a bit. It’s all way too nice.

This is what I could never understand about Taranto and Hopper. They both played all year last year in the same GWS midfield - which looked well off the pace. How getting them to Richmond this year was going to make them so much better always baffled me.

Just once will a team slow the ball down against Collingwood and make them defend. What’s wrong with going slower and longer into their defence when they have a hole in terms of size there? I feel like we are all being forced to watch them play every weekend and hear all week about how they play, only to watch the games where it seems like the opposition coach has never seen their game plan before.

Brisbane decide when to try. They were embarrassing in round 1. I hope they get shown up on the road this year.

I was actually driving Maysy’s car that day, so it was me who got the last 3 points. Apologies everyone. Nothing to see here. Will call Vic Roads in the morning and clear this all up.

Gees I hope Kozzie is watching all of this unfold, and thinking about his future.

Salem 6-8 means he’s barely played any footy for 18 months. Is it the same knee he had trouble with last year?

He has the haircut of an absolute ratbag, which always makes for a more explosive forward.

The catastrophising on Demonland today was next level. Most of us have the resilience of fainting goats.

They sat off us at the centre clearances consistently. They were always on the outside. I’ve never seen a side capitalise on our mistakes in the centre so often. I wonder if this was part of it.

I love Hibbo. He only knows one way. Straight through.

The bump is dead.

He likes to overlook that they were horrible under him just 18 months ago with the same list. I’d be hiding if I was him. Nothing has changed except he’s not there.

They get such an armchair ride. The commentary is vomit inducing.

It’s the most frustrating rule. The umpires are so impacted by crowd noise, and far too often the players involved.

Holding the ball in front of goals is adjudicated very differently depending on the teams. That one to Collingwood was insane.

Is there something going on I’ve missed? Maybe something I should be amazingly anxious about?

Darryl?

Because some seem to be literally having a public anxiety attack. No amount of worrying about it will change anything in the next 24 hours. We will find out when we find out. Take a deep breath. Go for a walk. Pat a dog. No one died. The sun came up again this morning, and Geelong still got beaten twice in a row. It’s never as bad as it looks.

How much would I love to see Port get up today.

This isn’t new information. The is referring to test they did straight away that was inconclusive. It also mentions he’ll have tests this afternoon. I believe the flight was at 10, and Max would have been keen to come home given his family situation. Dont expect to hear anything until later tonight.

Jake Lever’s leadership was exceptional last night. He’s been brilliant this season so far.

A bit of calm wouldn’t go astray. Our 2 most structurally important players are Gawn and May. Max allows us to do things other teams simply can’t - including setting up more aggressively at clearance. The other reason we can do that - Steven May. Lose the clearance and he wins the ball back for us. Even the halfwits at Channel 7 said in the commentary last night that half way through the first quarter this was Fagan’s dream - No Gawn, No May. Imagine playing the Bulldogs without The Bont and Naughton, or Geelong without Hawkins and Cameron? The psychological impact of Max’s injury was clearly very profound. We all know how we felt. Imagine how the players felt about their best mate who they see everyday 6 days a week? No wonder they were flat. Last nights game a lot of things conspired against us. The most important thing was the way we regrouped and took control when given the chance in the last 10 minutes. That effort might have saved our season. Keep the faith.

Wait a second though. How’s that compare to our win loss ratio in its entirety over the same period?

Absolute garbage. We had a bad night compounded by the fact that the universe conspired against us. Salem, May, Gawn, and then greasy conditions that really suited them. All we could do at the end was come out and give it our all. That could be the most important 10 minutes of footy we play for the year. Percentage will split the good sides at the end. Im proud of that effort.