If you want some conspiracy, you could imply the umpiring howlers were the AFL's best attempt at securing some home grown Melbourne content for the finals series, because it's looking more and more likely to be a largely vacant MCG.
If for nothing less than avoiding the potential controversy of forcing two interstate teams to play a final in Melbourne!
Proper cynics might even claim the wildcard is the AFL's method of ensuring it meets the terms and conditions of the MCG contract. Otherwise the short term at least looks very bleak for Vic metropolitan based teams participating in finals.
For this season, Aints have the softest run home, they are almost a certainty after Cameron breaking his collarbone, Butters done, Nthmond a non-event. So it's likely our season is done, we might finish level with the Aints on points, it is not impossible, but we are way behind on percentage.
The bloke who pleasantly surprised me again last night was Derksen, I get he fumbled some marks in horrendous conditions, but you have to put that into context, he out positioned opponents and read the ball better to get there in the marking position in the first place. The mark itself is a confidence and experience thing.
FWIW, Smith had the fumbles as well, looking up instead of taking the footy, that is a first season player issue, he'll be better by the time he's in the 50 to 75 game range.
Evans showed us he is a genuine 24x7 player, he doesn't play the scoreboard, I hope some of his peers take note. I'd say after last night he's cemented in as one of our SFs, at least he would be if I was MC or Coach.
As for the umpiring, I understand the howlers in those conditions, but I do not understand the early gamer asymmetry. Ignore the stats, we were being given mystery frees in D50 late just to even things up, even the Dawks were looking bemused.
I'd never understood "Free Kick Hawthorn" before, I'd never really noticed, but I get it now! As for the most experienced umpire, he looked a bit Mr Magoo, all befuddled, time for retirement.
Riley looked okay but it was disappointing that the coach didn't trust him enough to start the final three quarters in the ruck.
I suspect out of everybody at the club, on this forum, in the football public and in the AFL media, that Josh Fraser knows a thing or two more about managing a young ruck through a first game than most.
And ignoring the ruck specific issues, how young players are managed early in their career can set the tone for their whole career, not so much the loss of contest but the loss of confidence, the psychological damage. I do not want to see young Riley up to be some clown's career bitch. Riley did OK in horrendous conditions for a young lightweight marking ruckmen, and my thoughts are if Fraser thought that was enough exposure it was enough!
I think everyone was expecting us to give them a really good run for their money, sadly, we have gone back to the Voss era standards.
Sack Voss
There some players out there tonight who are watching the start of their career termination.
I'll be gobsmacked if after tonight we don't pay any asking price for SoA, and go the rebuild for 2027. Fans will hate that, but the writting is on the wall.
Those bad habits I saw sneaking in last week are amplified tonight, keep watching and count how many times you see two Carlton players watching the ball roll past them each waiting for the other to pick it up.
Fraser's first 5 or 6 weeks were different, but the honeymoon is over.
I wish I was wrong, I hope we can have a miracle last, but it's unfolding as I posted earlier in the week and it's nothing to do with the conditions. There last game was a rocket, our last game an omen.
Together with the one i mentioned earlier from the PA game IIRC where the umpire paid a mark to a bloke 5m off the contest who had the ball punched to him for a 'mark', they are the 2 worst decisions i've ever seen in my time watching football. Both against us.
That's happened twice this season, I've never seen it before in history even back when we only had one umpire.
The Cerra 50m howler aside, umps arent the difference thus far. It's terrible ground positioning and trying to play dry weather footy. Take territory (off the ground preferably) and stop playing pack footy (they are sitting off and getting the footy when it spills or squirts out).
Agreed, the Dawks are sitting out the back waiting for a dumb blind handballs forward, that said the howlers have turned the game beyond doubt.
Having said that we are not helping ourselves so far, Dawks have adapted to the conditions better.
And that's the problem @cookie2 It's hard enough battling the umpires, but you don't need to shoot yourself in the foot.
The AFL correct a fuzzy follicale flicking the footy a blurry 70m away, but they won't correct deadset umpiring howlers visible from five angles in Full HD.
