Lucifers Hero

Umpires can't even be consistent within a game; not to mention 'rule of the week'. MRO picks and chooses how he classifies infringements, the Tribunal is at the whim of its chairman, Gleeson who used to be the AFL's rep at Tribunals. Consistency is but a pipe dream...

His name has been on my profile as a favourite player since the day he arrived!

They defensive midfielders do that now and sure it is a ball up. Open to suggestions on how to stop the stupid and subjective suspensions and not risk impacting finals.

In what way...

???

A very easy fix: eliminate 'the 'no prior' rule: if ball is not immediately and legally disposed of it is HTB. This will eliminate so many other aspects of tackle/HTB confusion and illegal disposals eg throws. And players being taken to ground will become the exception with lower risk to a player's head. Not my original idea: I heard Nathan Buckley discuss it a few years ago. I get that the AFL wants play to be 'free flowing' rather than have lots of frees. What is more important free flowing game or protecting players and not have stupid suspensions. I reckon once players get used to a new rule they will dispose of the ball faster and play will be free flowing any way. My fear is that a team could have several players could before the Tribunal in finals for "accidents". What then! The AFL turns a blind eye to its rules and not suspend players or suspends them and disadvantages a team and compromises the integrity of the finals and possibly the GF.

Updated my avatar to Judd a month or two ago when he became my =#1 fave along side Hunt and Salem. Mentioned elsewhere that I really like how he just glides on the surface of the G. Different gait but TJ like. Very smooth operator, in every respect.

Other: Favourite: The final siren and being able to breathe again!! Honourable mention: when we out cheered the Collingwood boos of Grundy.

We were sitting right above you and it scared the beejesus out of me when that chant started. I'm thinking: OMG don't you guys know that is Coll out there, the luckiest finishing side in the AFL. Thank God the DA shut up; it was heart stopping enough without stressing about the chant backfiring. Loved it tho when the siren went. We all made enough noise, yeah?? 🙂🙂🙂

Who dared win the other year!!!

Not sure if what I'm about to say is covered in subsequent posts. I thought we did more than even up the stoppage numbers. Coll (and Geelong and Sydney) have always beaten us at stoppages and especially at CB by winning the clearance or post clearance possession then getting it to their wingman and running it straight to goal. We completely stopped this. Having Sidebottom out helped as that linking is a primary role. It completely stifled their ball movement on which their system is so reliant Game over! Much later than it should have been because of all the points we kicked. Also we were better at staying goal side of them at fwd stoppages except that ridiculously late goal by Daicos. Geelong whould be afraid!!

Updated for round 13. I've added the Home Ground for each game as it clearly is an advantage for Lions, Crows and Cats. Comments: Our %'age counts for an extra game lead so two games ahead of Brisbane, Saints and Bombers and three ahead of the rest of top 8 teams.. Today has reinforced my view that Top 2 is on for us. On paper we have the east draw with one top 4 team and 3 from 5 to 11 teams. On paper Lions, Cats and Pies have the toughest draw. Pies are on top but not in top form. Have a challenging run for a while playing a lot of teams desperate to consolidate their spot in the top 8. Could they slip from Top 2. It is the teams sitting 4 to 11 that will determine the bottom half of the top 8. Expect some big games amonst them. All the teams from 12 to 17 could cause a bit of damage.

Today showed we can beat the pies all over the ground and on the scoreboard, massively if we kick straight. While they are on top of the ladder our performance is comparable. They have lost to two top 4 teams and yet to play port. We have lost to two top 4 teams and beaten one. We are the better team. I've been predicting a dees vs pies GF for a while. I'll now go out on a limb and say the premiership is ours to lose!! Altho after today it could be a Dees vs Port GF!!

Even that is fairly tame. No abuse, no nastiness, no ridicule.

Very emotional seeing him walk thru the guard of honour. Very poignant seeing him walking unaided. It must have taken every ounce of energy to take that walk. I might have to change my moniker to Lucifer's Heroes to include him up there with the great Jimmy Stynes.

This tiger has been tamed🤨 Quite taken aback. No ranting and raving let alone showing vitriol. Any criticisms of their own quite muted. Incredibly nice to the Dees – I had to stop reading they were so gracious. Yes, not a word I would normally use for Pies fans. Maybe they got narky after the first two pages… Some typical comment (stopped reading after the first two pages): Full credit to the Dees, defensively they crushed us around the ground and played the game on their terms. Our smalls had no impact while May, Lever and Salem rejected the majority of our forward entries. I think we, along with them are clearly the best 2 sides in it going into the bye. When we are back to full strength as are they, it'll be a hell of a final Beaten up in the middle, and they had a plan to curtail our rebound which worked. They pressured the ball carrier and the players within the next 10m radius too. Not sure how we tackle this next time but you can’t kick long either - maybe looks for more shorter wide exit kicks then run forward. When we had our chances to get them on the counter attack we stuffed them up but regardless they should have been further in front. We don’t lose by much when we do but I wouldn’t hang out hat on it only being less than a goal today either. This was a great game also against good oppo to work out how to optimise our lineup Fight is still there which is the main thing. Some players showing their age. Hopefully reset after the bye. We are the worst contested marking side in the comp.... Only Collingwood could lose in a way which increases our self-belief. Melbourne played well. Outplayed most of the day Oh well. Can’t win them all. Dees were just that touch better. Gonna be a lot of fun if we face them in a final. Dees were great today. Felt like a great coaching performance for Goodwin. I haven't really seen us play that poorly and out of sync in a while. Maybe it was the flu thing, a few guys carrying niggles, looking towards the bye? Whatever it was, I don't feel too concerned about the result. This one made me laugh: Checking flights for Europe in September as we speak. I was expecting a full scale meltdown. I was all set to see DL colourful descriptions of them in this thread. Disappointed! Somewhere, on DL I predicted a Dee vs Pies GF. Still think that.

Haha! Win or lose I'm sure the shiraz will be ready back at The Manor!🙃 On second thoughts maybe it is flowing at the G or you have a stash to indulge, on the way back to The Manor...🙃

But for all of us who are optimistic and don't want to shout it from the rooftops then it is equally frustrating to read that those that do get high horsed. In fact it is boring as the same people on both sides have been pushing their own agendas for a long time. For mine, I just don't open threads where it looks like there will be a no win tug of war. And in other more sensible threads, I skip over the posters that I know get high horsed about their own views.

And of course there will be those that get all high horsed and self righteous to drown them out with their own positive views... Different opinions and some friendly argie bargie is what makes DL interesting as long as those at the extreme ends of positive/negative opinions don't get nasty or abusive. Will declare my own position. Win today and we are top 2. Lose today and we will definitely be top 4. That is all we need to do. However, I will not try and convince others to those views. We could all well heed this little piece of philosophy: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" .

Yes, it is ok. I have no doubt the AFL asked MFC if we were ok to delay squad/team announcements. Of course we would say yes as it might be us on another occasion. No AFL kowtowing to the Pies that I can see.

Ditto the ANZAC games.

There are rules around how many and what changes can be made to the announced teams. Excuse or not, if my hunch was correct that the delayed team announcements was so Coll could assess player fitness then it is very probably true.

Jane is saving her punishment until after the game:

You will just have to stay off DL for a few days to avoid them But we won't lose!

Go easy WCW, my Pies supporting sister (and her Dees supporting husband) spawned two Pies supporters who have produced 3 more Pies fans. (Can't bring myself to call them 'Filth' especially the little ones...more like heavenly cherubs). However, her first born child is a passionate Dees fan!❤️💙