Lucifers Hero

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Seriously? Our jumper is nearly all red and theirs is a mid range blue. This is the start of the Sir Doug Nicholls round - doesn't make sense to not wear it - no clash whatsoever!

Won't we be wearing our indigenous jumper, this week?

Update for Alex Neal Bullen's two year contract extension. Given how well Hibberd is playing he would be good for another 1 year contract. Goodwin is pretty confident Weideman will stay with the club. Well done to the contracting team for signing up so many OOC players early in the season and for bringing forward other contract renewals.

I think we will come out determined tonight. They blew it last week and they knew it. Last week I felt we didn't bring our 'game face' of earlier games when goals were taken in their stride with little fanfare/celebration and quickly ready for the next play. Handballs were targetted and purposeful. Last week I saw the 'hollywood hand ball' come back. Early goals received more than their usual backslapping/laughing. They celebrated hard after Clarry's last goal thinking the game was won so forgot to defend a very good lead. Tonight I want to see that steely 'game face' again. The one which says: we are here to be serious.

The media didn't name the Bulldogs 'staff member' who was at an exposure site. Appropriate that the same respect be shown to our club.

Gettable? Depends what happens when Dylan Shiel returns. Parish has excelled since Shiel was injured. Had he not been injured and Parish given a chance to play in his best position, I would say he was definitely gettable. Now, I doubt they will let him go. He has quickly become a well rounded midfielder, kicking goals. Shiel is 28, still young but probably not there for their next tilt at a flag (may that be decades away) so Ess may trade him out while he has good currency and continue their rebuild from the draft. If Shiel goes back to his midfield position and Parish is relegated back to a flank he could be gettable. I'm guessing Parish will sign with Ess for 2 years at which time he will be a RFA.

An outstanding article on how we changed over the preseason. Players went to Stafford's farm on the Mornington Penisula with no other coaches. The rest flowed from there with some big changes and little changes. It has been an all club effort. Far too many positive descriptions in the article to list. Special mentions were for Gawn, Viney, Petracca, Goodwin, Williams, Yze and the Board (for quietly changing the president). My take is that everyone has bought in and the whole club is now on the same page. Have we ever had that 'luxury'? This may not be the year of The Demons but I am confident we will be in contention for a lot of years to come. Premierships are incredibly difficult to win. If we there abouts for the next 5 years, playing prelim and grand finals I will be fairly happy. Get a flag or two and I will be ecstatic!

In an ideal world he would be rested, if my hunch is correct, that he is playing with an injury. However, lots of players go on the field carrying an injury: our own Salem for a number of weeks, Cripps, Neale, Max last year etc. They take pain killers and get injections. It seems to happen often, especially if the view is "playing doesn't make an injury worse"; an approach I don't particularly like as resting will, as you say, be good for recovery.

If people are looking at Melksham's stats last week they are looking in the wrong place. 10 d, 9 k and 4 m doesn't look great until they realise he played only 54% game time: barely played 2 quarters. I think he is carrying a foot injury perhaps connected to he one which kept him out for a while several years ago. Last week he enabled two goals in the first quarter with pin point passes, to keep us close to Adelaide. He barely played after the 1st quarter. He was far from our worst vs the crows - not even in the bottom 6 given his low game time. I'm not a Melksham but I can see that he plays a valuable role most weeks.

I misread the AFL site. A medi sub hasn't been nominated for this week.

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In: Salem Out: Jetta No surprise

Teams announced in about 30 minutes. Andy @Demonland will need to get the 'Teams' thread ready.

Liquour stores are an essential service, od so no excuse for not replacing that single malt Hang in there buddy.

Agreed. I was referencing to the poster's comment on success of other recent lockdowns with restrictions promptly lifted, implying the same will happen this time. This time is different. I'm sure the government didn't announce a longer lockdown to not upset everyone. This time we all need to get used to being locked up again for at least a few weeks.

The AFL has asked Richmond to spend the next 3 weeks playing interstate, moving the blockbuster Dreamtime game to Perth. The AFL would not surrender that game from the G lightly. One could be forgiven for thinking they have a 'heads up' from the Vic gov't that this time the covid lockdown might go on for a while. That we have gone straight to Stage 3 lockdown, which wasn't the case in the last two 'mini' lockdowns, also hints that this time lockdown might be prolonged.

Agree, tag Mcrae (Harmes). We could play Bont like we did Dusty: have a midfielder 'stand him' (a big ask for Jordon; maybe Melksham) when in the middle and let Hibberd close tag him when he goes forward. Those moves won't stop the Bulldogs entirely but they may be enough to stifle their forward forays and slow down their ball movement, giving our defence more time to structure up when they do get the clearances. Bevo is not shy about making in game changes so if our tactics work he will make moves to counteract them. We need to be very alert to his tactics. Not give it a quarter to see how it pans out like we have in the past, by which time they will pile on a bunch of goals and the game is gone.

Agreed rjay. Its just that people (not necessarily DL's) are demanding them 'now' and not all state governments want them. Lots of water to go under the bridge before or if state governments can agree on the way forward. I've read that the fed gov is working with Vic gov to build a centre at Mickleham, much to the angst of local residents, which is a start. But in the meantime...

Both the Adelaide game and the Dream time game were to be at the G. Now they are interstate and spend two weeks on the road. Three weeks if they stay in Perth, as is likely, to play Eagles the following round (and delay their bye for a week). Karma for whingeing about playing games at Marvel!! No point whingeing again as they won't get any sympathy from the AFL. A fox footy report saying the AFL isn't happy with their Marvel comments and trying to whitewash the Bolton punch up. Fox footy quoted Caroline Wilson as saying the large Bolton and club fines were because of the whitewash attempt and the Marvel and umpire whingeing. That should keep Hardwick quiet for a while.

I think there are lots of options. The dedicated facility is one but unfortunately that is not an option in the short-term. In the meantime it would help if they took +'ve people out of the quarantine hotels into a medi-hotel so that it doesn't spread thru the ventilation system of the quarantine hotel. And, fix the hotel ventilation systems. Neither Vic nor NSW have had a hotel outbreak since they fixed them. WA didn't learn from the Vic and NSW hotel outbreaks and failed to upgrade the hotel ventilation systems. The WA government had been warned by its own investigators there were problems with the ventilation system of the hotel that had their recent outbreak. While not yet stated it seems SA didn't learn it either so the Wollert man caught it there. And how good is SA's covid testing that someone with it is allowed to leave the hotel. Complacency by WA and SA, perhaps? Until there are better facilities, all states need to learn from each other and implement changes that will improve what we have in hotels.

The Dees/Ess Sunday game last year was postponed because McKenna tested positive on the Friday and the Saturday. It was a new situation and no time to develop contingencies. iirc McKenna had been in the weights room and attend meetings with his 'group'. The health department ticked this off as being ok and other Ess players did not need to isolate for 14 days. Unless one of our players or officials tests positive I see no reason why tomorrow night's game should not go ahead.

True, not yet and it may never be proven. This comment: "I don't think this error has had any bearing on this outbreak" didn't allow for the possibility that they are connected or that the 2 week delay might be detrimental to preventing an outbreak.

I don't wish to become the 'defender of the federal government' here but context is important. I believe you are correct in that they have direct responsibility for quarantine and border security. I'm not so sure of their powers on how far that is identification of infectious diseases vs treatment and implementation of solutions. It is a grey area where those quarantine obligations end and where state governments responsibility for Health administration start. It is my understanding that is why States undertook to implement the hotel quarantine program - the fed gov has no health administration capability. The States control all the health industry staff. The feds supplied some defence staff for Howard Springs but that is being handed over to NT who are having serious difficulty in finding the right type and the quantity of staff needed. But lets assume the feds did build quarantine centers in each state where do they get the doctors, security, cleaners, drivers, chefs, check in/out staff etc etc. The virus is getting out of hotels through staff or human error in administration. I'm not saying we should not move quarantine out of hotels. Simply saying that the feds taking over quarantine management or moving to purpose built quarantine centres will not stop the virus escaping from them. Workers take it out and spread it to colleagues, families and friends. Unless workers live in the quarantine centers it will still get out. Even then there are the drivers etc to and from airports that can catch and spread it. I just think there is no simple fix and fed managed remote centers isn't the panacea people (not saying yourself) suggest it is.

This outbreak is linked back to SA. SA have said they don't want a Federal quarantine center and will keep using hotels. The federal government has no constitutional powers to direct state governments on what they should do. A change of geography won't stop this happening again.