Dee Zephyr

6. Salem 5. Oliver 4. Petracca 3. Pickett 2. Tomlinson 1. ANB

For years we’ve sat and watched gun opposition smalls destroy us with their skill and turn games with something out of nothing goals. Last night felt like it’s our turn again now, watching Saints’ fans shuffle in their seats every time Kozzie went near the ball was a beautiful thing. Just amazing awareness and when was the last time we had someone snap a goal from nearly 50 out. So much to look forward to and a nice support crew building around Kozzie with the hard work of Spargo and ANB. Might not be a big thing but I liked there were no over the top celebrations post game, just the boys getting around each other for a great team effort. Lovely Sunday coming up.

Jones bench pressing Butler as Ling called it was even better on the replay. Very important time to break a tackle and start a goal chain late in the third quarter. Thought Jones was more than handy tonight. A lowlight was the lack of security in the stands, heaps of Covid coaches walking around and wiping hand rails, but no security anywhere to be seen in our section when four Saints’ fans got into a fight amongst themselves.

So happy, Saints had the better of us for about 10 mins in the second but very impressed with the way we swung the momentum back. One of Salem’s best games, he was unreal today.

Salem very very good

It seems momentum changed since they swapped Jackson and Max.

We have no one to kick to. Our forward 50 is empty.

A lot of finger pointing going on here...

Scott’s my fav....ripper goal

Just want to see manic forward pressure all night, don’t let them get out easy and we’ll go a long way towards winning this one.

Well done demonstone, if the goal was to have us spitting out our coffee all over ourselves you’ve succeeded.

Where’s the weekly ‘What they’re saying down at .........’ thread? Need to kill an hour and have a bit of a laugh before the team comes out.

Time for Casboult to make way for O Mac. Two very poor games so far.

Pies’ structure not allowing Blues a lot of run out of defence, forced them regularly to kick short.

He’s been listed as the sub again.

Blues and Pies are 127 wins apiece head to head.... I’m on the draw.

I didn’t notice it but apparently in our game only the umpires stood either directly behind the man on the mark or the player kicking during a shot for goal as to see when exactly the player with ball moved off the line. I also didn’t have a clue Trac’s after the siren shot for goal wouldn’t have counted as he veered off to the right and ump called it as play on.

On fitness, I heard Luke Beveridge on radio the other day and he believes the new VFL rule for 2021 isn’t giving young developing players the running levels that are required for AFL. Apparently the new rule has been implemented in VFL practice games and it’s the first time I’ve heard about it where each team is required to have 3 players stationed inside 50 during boundary throw-ins and kick-ins to reduce congestion. Problem was it caused too many delays as teams had to wait up to 20 seconds each time until those 6 required players retreated back inside 50. This could be another reason why new draftees might have to wait a while before a game. Bowey might play soon or he might not but there’s already a couple of AFL coaches not too pleased with the new rule.

Seemed a lot easier and quicker today than ticketek last week. Level 3 also.

Danger just said on 7 sport they won’t be appealing.

Didn’t realise that ANB was one of only three players to be charged with severe contact and did they just go to Siri?? Crikey

He has above average vision and is clean with disposal. Yes, we would love him to average 20 a game but that might not be what’s asked of him. His passing inside 50 was precise and what we needed. There was also a passage when coming out of defensive 50 in the last where he spotted a loose teammate and hit him on the chest on the inside when the easy option seemed to be down the line to a contest. He did come off hobbling after that pointing to the groin region and they did some work on it, hopefully nothing too serious as I think he did come back on.

Watched him closely on Saturday. Thought he got better as the game went on and finished strong. Don’t wingers usually switch sides each quarter? Found it interesting that Gus played the Northern wing most of the game and Langdon stayed on the Southern side. I’d like to see him back in the middle soon but was wondering after seeing him not contest a centre bounce if the coaches truly believe he’s our next best option after Langdon on the wing. Also curious if anyone else at the ground saw a pretty animated discussion with May and Gus after Freo kicked a goal punt road end?

Yeah...he’s ok, I believe I heard during the replay only 3 other players in the history of the game have had more possessions than Oliver in their first 100 games.I think one of the Crouch brothers, Greg Williams and the other escapes me. A couple of times he ran past us on the Northern wing and kicked the ball so beautifully and thought I would like him to kick a little more in a game. Just feel there’s so much more upside that I’d hate to see it elsewhere.

No way Jetta gets dropped, he looked reenergised to me. We’ll need every bit of his experience out there this Saturday night.