Earl Hood

This is reminding me of when I played U17’s and the top side would show up with a dozen players over 190 cm and most with beards and sideburns! We amazingly seem to be undersized all over the ground but somehow they also have midfield players everywhere, running riot!

You would think We would man up at the stoppages!

Where is that guy Shultz?

Oh yes it’s Friday Night “not 15 play on” footy again!

Undermanned in the ruck, Petty being towelled up apparently but guess what we are winning the clearances just. Got to wonder about dominant rucks. Their real value is marking, spoiling around the ground, forcing teams to go wide, rather than the number of hit outs. Which is code for me saying we should have kept Grundy 😀!

FCS what were you expecting? He has put his hand up.

Thanks Umpires. No prior opportunity but a free paid.

My phone is saying no rain, it’s dry, no precipitation. How come I’m getting wet?

Gee Darcknee Moore putting in a blinder. He plays on no one and has hardly touched it, he had one crucial intercept under pressure, with a dodgy handball that should have been called a throw. Meanwhile Quanor has the job on Cameron.

You might be right but I would point out that Nick Daicos is the same height and only a few kgs heavier. Not sure if there is a power differential. Nicks doesn’t bullock his way through stoppages, like a Cripps or Viney but is still highly effective, maybe Judd has a little of what Nick has.

I think it was Garry Lyon who said he thought we should be rotating McVee through the middle. I agree it might be worth a try, he has most of the attributes. I too don’t like seeing JVR in the ruck, I thought Disco looked ok when he had a go in the centre bounces.

I haven’t seen it but on AFL form I am expecting the worst.

Bedford BOG and Hogan second best?

Yes true and maybe he left because we preferenced a couple of other small forwards ahead of him.

Gee that Hogan bloke, a tall forward who can take a mark, would be handy in our forward line too!

Gee wouldn’t mind Bedford’s smarts, tagging capabilities and leg speed on our list. Where did the Giants find him 😉?

Hey Schache was the 23rd best player on the list if we go by selection in the last and most important game we played last season, remember 😀!

Good to see the Bummers coming back, up to now Collingwood have been reminding me of the Harlem Globetrotters.

Have another look at the replay of the Petracca injury and Moore’s actions to cause the damage and his behaviour immediately after the impact. Sorry I am not convinced it was entirely an accident. If I caused that injury genuinely by accident I am sure I would at least inquire how the player was feeling and apologise. I didn’t see any of that.

As I have said before the AFL is demanding that players have a duty of care to other players when tackling, when bumping, we have eradicated the coat hangers and gut punches but we accept a player coming from behind, flexing his knee and driving it into a player sitting under a high ball. I agree it’s difficult to outlaw it as it’s such a great part of our game when players use their knee to gain height for a mark or spoil. iMO Darcy Moore wasn’t doing that in the Petracca case, he wasn’t using the knee to gain height or for protection. Given the severity of the injury inflicted, surely the AFL has a duty of care to protect players by putting Clubs on notice that this behaviour will be scrutinised in the future. The MRO could review any similar incident that results in an injury and make a call on whether it was careless, intentional, low or high impact use of the knee and decide the appropriate penalty. No doubt they will get things wrong but it would force players to change the way they jump into a pack.

Well Ben Long has copped a $3k fine for “the hit on Maynard” as AFL.com describes it! The Match Review Committee had an opportunity to make a statement with this one. It could have fined Maynard’ for staging or just stated that nothing to see here which would be code for Maynard took a dive. Epic fail!

Yes interesting that everyone has a duty of care these days. If you choose to bump and get them high you are in trouble, if you tackle you have a duty to the welfare of the player you tackle. But if you drive your flexed knee into the stationary, unsuspecting player in front of you on their blind side and smash their ribs and worse that’s OK it’s just part of footy apparently! I just hope Moore gets some reciprocal treatment from someone. Surely the AFL key forward fraternity would be noting this reckless behaviour and be thinking I better get him before he gets me?

First time I have ever noticed a player being on -4 AFL Fantasy Points about 20 minutes into a game. That was how well Oliver was going early on. Should be given a spell, perhaps a block of solid fitness training for 4 weeks like Geelong did with Danger!

Thoughts post match: why did the AFL change the ruck dual rules? They have gone full circle in 35 years. They brought in the dividing line to stop ruckman wrestling each other. Then the limiting circle to limit the run up ( which curtailed Jeff White’s dominance) and now we have reverted to wrestling again that allows big muscle bound brutes negate probably the best tap ruckman the game has seen. Please explain AFL! I thought the free kick for a faked handball to get the player on the mark to move was removed last year, but it’s back it seems. Regarding Oliver time for a spell at Casey. He is a liability. Let’s run the kids through there for the rest of the season. Let’s play Fritta up the ground for a few games. He has mobility and skills and needs to get involved in the play. continue playing the kids, the season is shot I think. Let’s work out who is part of future, now. Fitness - I have serious doubts about our stamina, ability to run out games.

That’s 2 goals to the umpires