Lucifers Hero

Merrett is their linkman, their heart and soul, their playmaker. Stopping him will limit their kick-to-kick game around the boundary. Also, he has a lethal left foot so deny him that side. Stop Merrett will stop Essendon.

I would say TMac probably knows as he made the original comment.

The 'Mouse Pack' did good yesterday😁. @WalkingCivilWar any more info on who is considered part of the pack. TIA. Looking forward to many, many more games like yesterday. Love 'Colt's' feistiness and that Big Max took on that smug (but brilliant) upstart #9.

I'm surprised 'The Thug's' team didn't get a look in !!

Collingwood Essendon Collingwood Essendon Collingwood

I have to go to bat for @WalkingCivilWar who is the most positive poster we have ever seen on DL and definitely not one who ever shows the slightest mfcss.

It won't need to be something similar or as serious. A small knock in the back could rupture the spleen again.

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I agree you and @Neil Crompton He was very emotional talking about Bella. And who knows the long term risks of a grade 5 spleen injury especially regarding contact sports. They have a lot to weigh up and I hope will put his long term health first, as much as it pains me to even think he might hang up the boots. And before folks jump in and shoot us down for even thinking such, I'll just say some people and in particular females have a very good 'spidey sense' and as WCW says very good at reading between the lines be they verbal, non verbal or written. Nonetheless, hope we are wrong and 🤞and 🙏 for him and his health and happiness.

Thanks guys (and all those that liked these posts); really appreciate the support. You have really moved me 🥹

I've been on here long enough to know what DL is like. I didn't say Oliver should be replaced, or won't be better for the year nor that I expect him to be what he was in the past. I simply said I didn't think it was just an off night - something with which you implicitly agreed in saying 'next year he will be fine'. I've said he will come good in other threads. My 'pile on' comment wasn't about our conversation per se. It is an unfortunate aspect of DL that has crept in over the last year or so. Both the very positive and the very negative posters do it and I for one don't like it. It stifles good quality discussion for those of us who are generally quite positive, who can see the good and just occasionally the not so good about the club, coaching, players etc.

I'm a big fan of Oliver. Not sure why folks get so defensive when a poster describes what has happened in a game. And I'm proud of being a positive poster who has given a lot to DL. But I can't be bothered defending myself just because someone doesn't like what I quoted. It is now at the stage that no-one can say/report something that isn't positive without a mini pile on. Just when I was beginning to go 'back into the water' ... will now reinstate my self imposed DL ban and stick to responding to PM's.

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I heard you the first time 🙃 Edit: And the third time 😉

Can anyone explain why we used only 65 of our allowed 75 rotations? If players were as fatigued as some claim should we have not used another 8 to 10? Surely those extra rotations would have helped us stave off the Roos attacks in the 4th qtr and in doing so just maybe we could have scored or recovered some momentum. We won which is great but on another day not using those rotations will hurt us running out games or winning.

Max may have described Oliver's game as 'selfless' but some facts from The Age: “...he had a dirty night, unable to break the hard tag of Will Phillips. His tally of 14 possessions was his equal second-lowest from 176 games. Seven were turnovers... Wherever Oliver went, Phillips followed. By his side at every stoppage, and in his head... Oliver gave away five frees." iirc he also gave away at least one 50m. Had one tackle. That is not a 'selfless' performance nor is it team oriented play. By now Oliver should have learnt how to shake a tag or at least match his opponent in effort ie tackles. Phillips had eight. Was it just an off night for Oliver. Methinks, not.

That is a valid point, it can happen to any club. Sadly, It happened to us THREE times in the last year. They were all against Carlton. Each was influenced decided by a dubious 'touched' goal deemed a point or not adjudicated. 2023 H&A - Lost by 4 pts. Petracca goal claimed to be touched, goal umpire fell for it, ARC 'inconclusive'. Llater the Carlton players laughed about 'maybe' by a fingernail. Umpire's call stood. iirc, this cost us 2nd spot on the ladder. Oh, how different 2023 would have been. 2023 Semifinal - Lost by 2 pts. ANB's goal callled a goal by umpire then overturned as deemed to be touched off the boot by a late ARC review. Inconclusive vision but this time the umpires's call was overruled. This cost us a Prelim berth. No telling how far we could have gone. 2024 H&A - Lost by 1 pt. May's clear touch of a Curnow goal was not completed. ARC review was slow and field umpire bounced the ball to restart play without a review decision. Even Curnow knew it was touched. There may be other dees matches that were decided on a dubious call but those THREE that stand out the most for me as they had a big impact on our finals chances in 2023 and may do in 2024. It may be selective memory on my part but we seem to regularly get a raw deal at critical points of games/season.

Lever should be back this week.

Wrong thread.

As Christian was in ICU for the first 2-3 days I don't know what other 'lack of care' or contact from the club Morris could allude to. Alluding is just another way of throwing mud at the club with no facts to back it up. He is a lowlife.

You don't scare me !!! 😁

I'll wait until there is more info on this before commenting too much. For now suffice to say that it is very rare for non-family visitors to be allowed into ICU especially post covid.

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.