Earl Hood

Great team effort tonight albeit against a banged up Pies unit who still had some great players, Sidebottom, Adams, Grundy et al. But looking at the game we had a few passengers so there is ample room for improvement on paper of course. Do we have better options for Tomlinson, Jones, TMac, AVB? Don’t change all but there are some options to include one or more of Hannan or OMac if the matchups are there.

Can we check our footwear during the break a few of our guys are slipping over. Looking for a big second half from Petracca and Oliver to take the game away from them completely.

I love modern umpiring. Last week Max had a serial pest charging into him repeatedly off the contest but that’s OK. Tonight Harmes takes a Mark with an opposition player coming front on at him. He throws a a clenched fist at the players thigh to let him know he didn’t appreciate the attention but wait that is a free kick! A north player runs back with the flight of the ball and gets collected, not high but that again is a free? I could go on about the tackles that start correctly but the player ducks their head so an arm goes over their head and that is a high tackle, then you get Kossie running onto a loose ball only to be obviously retarded right in front of the umpire but that is play on. I no longer know what the rules of the game are.

No chance we got last week so it will move on to another team. It has little to do with actual form.

6 Petracca 5 Oliver 4 Brayshaw 3 Lever 2 Weideman 1 Langdon

Should have had 5 by half time. He is a key forward taking marks in front of goal between 20 to 40m and near straight in front yet converting at about 20%. Convert 2.3 to 5 and you are a superstar! He is doing the hard work well but kicking??

Play Jack forward as a defensive forward who can also kick straight! But still has midfield time as required.

Great second half as we were allowed to get on top of North when finally the umpires largely put their whistles away and let the game flow. The first quarter umpiring should be subject to an AFL review, it was putrid and bordering on corrupt.

Gee someone running back with the flight got hit! Must be a free. I just about give up with the umps.

What was that free for against Hibberd?

Mind boggling stuff. The one where McHenry runs 50 meters away from the contested area to charge straight into Max right in front of the non officiating umpire was extraordinary. Max goes to ground not expecting the hit, umpire does nothing. Cornes said the umpire saw it but ignored it. To me it’s a reportable offence and the MRP should have picked it up. Never knew you could just run around cannoning into players off the contest whenever you felt like it.

No Eastern Suburban Churches Footy League. It was a huge league in the 70’s but disappeared years ago.

Played a lot of suburban footy in my time I do not remember that sort of behaviour at any time. Grabbing genitals would have got you a punch in the head as I remember it. Now I do remember being in the showers after training and the captain coach coming up to me to talk about selection only to find he was pissing on my leg! Boys will be boys I suppose!

Why is Pruess on the list if you don’t play him this week when Max is down, Pruess is available and you are facing an inform physical monster in Goldie? I suppose we are going to sacrifice TMac physically against Goldie, not sure why.

Hold on how many games are there in four weeks these days?

6 Oliver 5 Viney 4 May 3 Petracca 2 Jackson 1 Weideman

What is the High tackle rule? Is it contact above the ankles? This is doing my head in. That must about 6 high tackle frees to the Crows so far and none of them were dangerously head high in any way. Then we have had numerous in the backs that were nothing of the sort.

Holding the ball rule has anyone know what it is anymore?

Petracca?

WTF is going on with the umpires? In the backs not there, dangerous tackles, maybe but then you have to pay the others. What was that late reversal about?

Brodie Smith a late withdrawal.

Sorry he does have a tank now because we are playing him in the midfield this year. And you don’t necessarily need more tank to be on the outside than on the inside! You need to know where to run to, have some speed and have good disposal to be an outsider, Tracc has all of that.

But remember we had a kick on the siren to beat the Cats! This is a very odd season. If we get our act together we can compete with the best but then there is our worst!

Would be great to get a Rolls Royce outsider but they cost a lot even if you can poach one. Of our current players we have Langdon and we should be using Petracca in the outside role. I love Tracca in the middle but we have Oliver, Viney and Brayshaw who can play inside so how do we maximise Tracca on the outside? Does he play wing, then drift forward rather than play in the guts?

A free kick was brought back because a Geelong player blocked the Eagles player on the mark that allowed the Cats kicker to run around the mark. Hasn’t Hawthorn been doing just that for 10 years?