Lucifers Hero

I'm not sure it has been a PR disaster for the club. It was more like a lynch mob mentality among the brainless media. However, I would have liked the club to release the scan results (assuming they had Christian's permission). I'll settle for apologies writ large by every media person who went in boots and all.

So no-one came third ... I do agree with you initial comment - it was relatively easy; 'clues' not withstanding 🙃 Mr d, thanks for all your work to entertain and challenge us.

This should shut up the smart alec, uninformed commentators in the media. petracca-describes-traumatic-internal-injuries It took two lots of scans to detect anything more than two cracked ribs. "I don’t think we all understood the severity of it, to be honest. I think we got an initial scan around 8pm (or) 9pm. The first scan showed two cracked ribs, and then just a little bit of bleeding around the lung,” Petracca told Nova radio station. “I don’t know what happened. I think 15 minutes later one of the doctors was just checking my blood levels and noticed my haemoglobin was dropping severely, and my blood levels were dropping. So I [had] another scan, and that’s when they noticed on the next scan I had four cracked ribs, a grade-five spleen [laceration] and a punctured lung, too". “It went from being a four out of 10, to basically a 10 out of 10 – equivalent to a car accident. It seemed pretty full on. I had to go straight into surgery at 2am; open surgery. I wasn’t under anaesthetic because my blood levels were so low.” There is no way anyone could have known the extent of the injury at the ground so any criticism of our doctors for letting him play on is completely unfounded. Can't see it happening but Whately, Purple et all owe our doctors an apology. Unimaginable what Petracca has gone through especially having surgery without anesthetic albeit being 'gassed up'. A very brave and tough person. May soon elevate him to 'Hero' status in my eyes.

Mr d, clues are supposed to help find the answers not run people around in circles ...

I thought the same!!! More than the obscure that @Demonstone later claimed ... 'red herring' more like it 🙃

Whateley says: "Collingwood captain Darcy Moore and midfielder Jack Crisp both asked Petracca whether he should be on the ground given what they were seeing up close." Doubt that info came from a demon player or mfc. So it is the Pies PR machine again telling the world what 'good guys' 🤮they are.? I thought Whateley was better than to write an article where a few facts are dispersed in a diatribe of supposition and uninformed opinion. Lost any cred he had imv. As for Coll there are no words to describe the depth of my loathing for that club.

Struggling to contain the emotion 🥹😢😭 This '... I’m grateful I still have the opportunity to give it my all again in 2025...' sounds like it could have been really tragic. He is one of life's gentlemen and a great human. Wouldn't wish this on anyone but It is so sad to see this happen to such a guy, a guy who gives his all to his teammates, club and fans. Always with a smile. Love him to bits, 😘Christian.

Your implication is that dees fans have 'written off' the team? Easy to generalise but some examples where that has happened? And not sure what you mean by 'written off': Finals? Top 4? Premiership? The facts are: our recent results (trend) is not good. Ditto other teams vying for finals. Top 2 for us is virtually impossible. Top 4 is a challenge. We will make finals and it is up to the team to perform from there. Still a long way to go !! No reason why we can't go all the way.

I wonder how useful the 'Circle of Parity' is, as I don't see much correlation between each teams results. What it shows is each team can have a bad loss at some stage; it is just 'raw data'. It doesn't say much about performance or usefulness as an analytical or predictive tool. If it is used to explain performance it is better to look at the trend (and we aren't trending so well right now).

That shows the Brisb loss for us. Since then we have had bad losses to WCE and Freo. As we know any team can win on any given day. However, I wonder what the circle looks like for teams with 3 bad losses (we get a mulligan for the Sydney loss).

I will be going with full Demon gear including Premiership T-shirt and Premiership scarf. Damn pity they have the 2023 equivalent. 2023 should have been us !!!

I was going as its important to support the team especially when down. Also, too boo Maynard. However, I will now be watching the game with a household of mainly Collingwood supporters. I believe I will be evicted if I boo Maynard. Boo him I will, even if they can't hear the shouting nor see the rage in my soul 😁

I now can't attend Monday's game so would like to offer the ticket to a D'lander. It is in a demon bay M4 Row K. Demon Army is right next door in bay M3. I think it cost $65. I do not want payment but would appreciate a donation to a charity which I will suggest when I forward the ticket. PM me if interested.

Re your first point. It seems Goodwin is one of those coaches that didn't know. In his press conf today he said 'he assumed' this was the case, several times. Fair to read into that he didn't know.

The HTB discussion is a different thread. My point was about the seemingly 'secret' instructions the AFL is giving umpires which they fess up to only when they become public, as per the 3 examples I gave.

That is exactly why they will do nothing. They have a monopoly !!!

I wonder how many more secret changes to umpiring are festering at HQ. In the last month: Revealed they had told goal umpires to score review just about everything, until they were exposed and the media started complaining ... fans had been doing so for a fair while. Admitted they coached umpires to extend 'reasonable time' and treat DTB as 'falling out in a contest' etc until coaches started complaining. This 'whispering' in umpires ear and lord knows how many decisions were influenced. I just can't see any reason to do so in game. The 'positive encouragement' is just bs. (btw very fitting that 'Whispering Jack' started this thread). HQ has walked back on those but the scary thing is they didn't tell anyone, not even the clubs. I wonder what umpiring gem will be revealed next ... ? Frustration at umpires is part of the sport but the above just hangs them out to dry.

What a bunch of softies we are !!! But isn't it good to be humble fans in victory. Their plight must have touched a deep sore spot circa 2012 for us demons. They were trying but nothing was working for them and you could feel the player's despair. LOL! Had it been Coll, Carl, Ess or Geelong I would have said: No mercy allowed😇

I wasn't looking for replays of the frees so not sure why Max got so many. They were mainly in ruck contests so I assume they were holding which is difficult to see from the stands with so many players around the ball. And as you say some hiigh ones. Marshall nor team mates complained at all so the frees were there. I thought Clarrie played an OK game. Fierce as always. He improved as the game went on. He isn't a goal kicking mid so we need more value (meters gained) from his excellent ground level work. imv 'meters gained' (181) is a key stat for non-goal kicking mids). It was very low yesterday suggesting he isn't using his legs so disposals are very short distance albeit @ 91.7% eff. He had three i50's placing him 10th yesterday. So for a mid, his output ie after taking possession (distance (mtrs gained), goals, GA, i50's,) was on the low side especially as only 8 of the 24 were contested. So yeah, for mine it was an ok game. He will get back to his best soon enough and if we keep winning in the meantime all is good.

I agree with Salem comment. He had no CBA's yesterday so not really part of the midfield rotations. I saw his role a bit different to that of ANB and Kozzie. Once the ball was in play I saw Salem's role as a key connection in our goal to goal ball movement and key distributor from the middle to a free player. He has the smarts and finds time and space to pick a good option be it fwd, or sideways/back to switch to the other side.

Free kicks: 21 to 10 Aside from my delight at that I thought the game was well umpired. At the ground there didn't seem to be too many 'clangers' and rarely was there an uproar from the crowd over a free paid or not paid. I actually felt a bit sorry for the Saints - that moment of weakness vanished when they put on three junk time goals ...

Stand outs for me: Max's EIGHT frees. Yes, 8 !!! Marshall is a very good ruckman but clearly didn't know how to play Max right from the get go. Salem's game: FOURTEEN Marks. Yes, 14 !!!. At the ground it looked like once the ball was in play he placed himself near the centre square and was pivotal in ball movement (32 possessions, 24 kicks/8 HB, @ 75% eff). At times he went inside d50 to take the kick in. His role was similar to Gus's in parts of 2020/2021: in the middle of the ground and directed play. He looks very fit. Salem is the perfect person for that role. Smart, aggressive and accurate. Much less kicking long from kick ins, to Max in this game. No passengers yesterday. On the not so good: Chandler (off balance), Rivers (50m line) and Langdon (v tight angle) took difficult 'hero' shots for goal and burnt multiple free players front and square within 20 - 30 mtrs of goal. Except Langdon they had plenty of time to see the free players. While intent was admirable it wasn't good teamwork. Not a pretty win but great to get it. A beautiful day for watching a day game at the G.

Wright wasn't speculative. He was poorly developed and mismanaged at GCS along with others that have left. BTW, $500k pa was a bargain for Ess not so great for Wright.

The underlying assumption of our 2022/23 game plan is by sheer quantity of i50 we will kick a winning score while our defence keeps the opps to around 60-70 pts. Only problem is the first part of that assumption hasn't held because we can't convert the chances and kick points instead. imv that is a direct result of not having a tall genuine KPF. I doubt we can win a priership without one, regardless of our game plan.

It doesn't need to be from one Vic club to another. In 2020 Peter Wright was traded back to Vic (Ess) from GCS for a future 4th round pick on $500k a year. Out of favour with Dew. JT was reportedly keen on him in his draft year. I don't think we or anyone else chased him otherwise GCS would have got a better deal from Ess. Wright has starred since. We missed a trick there.