Big Col

Pretty sure that tonight's emergencies - Hunter, Hore and B Brown will be rested tomorrow and are the only ones up for consideration for Thursday night. I think there'll be no change except perhaps around the sub. Although Laurie only got one touch after he came on in the last Q he was good the week before. Still, I think I'd rather take Hunter and/or Hore. My preference: IN: Hunter, Hore (sub) OUT: Billings, Laurie Emergencies: Billings, Laurie, B Brown Of course, if Bowey is fully fit it changes this, but I think he can get a 3/4 run at Casey and be back for the week after.

6 - Lever 5- May (Cameron/Hawkins with 0.4 between them!) 4 - Petty (never doubted you....) 3 - Windsor (rising star beckons this week) 2 - Oliver (returning to form) 1 - Gawn Apologies to Fritta for his goals, Kozzie who was a live wire, and Trac who misses out on votes only because he should have nailed those 2 goal attempts and by his standards his game was just OK (21 disposals).

Wouldn't just love to have Carlton's forward line? We'd be unstoppable.

I can't help it but it seems like GWS are my no2 team. Love jesse and keep wanting him to kick goals. I always rated Bedford. We didn't give him enough love and he's a regular at GWS now. Even though Toby G isn't playing tonight, he is a fave of mine too. Plus my daughter reckons their song is the best. Maybe it's because I know w****rs who support every other team but I've never met a Giant's fan. I feel dirty. I need a shower.

It just sucks that we're playing Carlton on a 5 day break (vs 6 days for them)

I thought McAdam was excellent in the Casey game today. I didn't see all of the game but he took a number of really solid overhead marks in the forward line and kicked 2 or 3 goals. He really looked the goods to me. If we decide to send Petty to Casey to find form then I agree we should probably give Fullerton a go. I'm not as excited about this one though.

I certainly thought that too. For much of the game both teams had players behind the ball making long kicks down the line a poor option. We did a lot of short kicking and then tried to centre it. We stuffed that up many times. Because of these skill errors most of the goals scored against us seemed to come from turnovers when we were caught outnumbered in defence. We could have kept Richmond to half of their measly score had we played more conservatively. The tagging of Trac is a concern if other teams take it up and we don't have Oliver & Viney stepping up. Trac got better in the second half but was clearly rattled in the first. M Picket played a very good game. Hopper doing his hammy helped us win back the midfield. I think that the period from now until the bye is still the experimentation phase until we settle on what our best side is in the last part of the season. We've banked early wins. We have Geel, Carl, WCE, Stk, Freo and Coll before the bye. We should be aiming (and be happy with) 4/6 but 3/6 will be fine if we can learn what our best 23 looks like. I think we need to stick with Petty as a forward for a few more games, as poor as he seemed today, before we send him to Casey. I'm not sure when/if we should give up on the experiment but he was a very good defender. We're going to need top class defenders when May eventually retires.

Only sneaking views of the game during work, but so far I've seen three impressive overhead grabs from McAdam. I think we'll see him in the 1s very soon.

How about we have a dedicated AFL reserves competition? If that's too expensive then at least have a Victorian Reserves League - and let the standalone VFL teams play in their own separate competition. The Victorian Reserves League could play all their games on a Sunday afternoon, (allowing for emergencies from Thur-Sat games to play most games), and have extended benches so that players can be better managed (eg someone returning from injury might just play 3/4 of a game etc).

This HAS to be the standard now. I always thought it unlikely he'd get off but was bemused as anyone about Fogerty's collision with Fyfe being graded the same as Kozzie's. If your feet leave the ground and you hit someone in the head then you'll be suspended. Clearly Maynard would have got multiple weeks under the new rules.

Although unlikely, nothing would top off the weekend better than a come-from-behind victory by the Hawks in ther last quarter.

Think of it as an emotional hedge. We all want Collingwood to lose but if they don't you're financially rewarded. I have a number of friends who have won/lost lots of money betting against their own teams.

I'm so glad we don't disrespect our GF players like that (eg jackson) - and not really surprised that Collingwood supporters do.

Did I just hear Collingwood fans booing Ginivan?

I've been thinking the same. FWIW I think they will improve this season. Their VFL team took a big leap last year and are undefeated this year (2/2).

Nth have had plenty of drubbings too. Their percentage has been woeful for years. If you look at the past 4 years, it's worse than any 4 year period we had during Bailey or Neild years. Nth: 2023 - 3 wins 2022 - 2 wins 2021 -4 wins 2020 - 3 wins*(out of 17 games) Melbourne's three year bad patch of 2012,2013 and 2014 (where signs of recovery were obvious) yielded 4, 2 and 4 wins. 2011 had 8 wins. 2015 had 7 wins. We won 5 games in 2008 and 2009. They've had 4 very bad years in a row. If they have another bad year (as I stated in my post) without showing obvious signs of improvement they need help. I stand by that.

I've been running the line for the last few years that Nth didn't deserve high-end priority picks but if they don't show any improvement this year, they'll need some serious help. This is a worse hole than we were in. Priority picks that that they have to trade for players (similar to the mini-draft of GWS), increased salary cap, increased player list. They're at risk of having their young high pick midfielders not developing properly and/or leaving if they're not competitive soon.

6 - ANB (i have a serious man-crush) 5- Gawn 4- Viney 3- Rivers 2- Trac 1- Clarry

Oh yeah baby!!!! [will have a more nuanced comment later on.. but f$#% you PA and we are the greatest]

While I'd so love to see Petty up forward, he really is good down back.

Nearly throwing up from nervousness (although could be that I'm already on wine bottle #2 and the gsme hasn't even started). Big game coming from Jack V. I can feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it ... C'mon Dees

and J Smith (we're a player down atm)

Given the vagaries and overall inequities, compromise and inconsistency of the VFL competition (we SO need a dedicated reserves comp) I thought that today's effort was encouraging. The ideal spot for a reserves team IMHO is a mid to mid-high placed team (eg 5th-6th) that gives developing players a good look at both a winning and losing situations and that instills that victory only comes from team efforts (rather than an overdose of experienced AFL players). Jefferson looked good. Pity he got the yips. I'm happy for him to take his time developing before debuting. I'm significantly more confident about player development now than back in the days of MN and JW.

No, I'm not either (cough, cough)

Petty went well down back and will have to play there the next 2 games despite training as a forward all summer.