I wonder if our club will show interest in buying into Melbourne Storm, at one stage they shared our ground as a training venue, now I hear the Filth have become the front runners which would be an utter tragedy.
A number of suburban AFL club's now co-habit with soccer, some have even built significant hybrid complexes that leverage the shared resources to reduce direct overheads. It makes sense, we have certainly looked at stuff like this in the past, and I think we should seriously consider it again.
He did! Hard to believe but got the Collingwood discount....lol. Love the headline "Shock verdict as Tribunal finds Pie tackled dangerously... but overturns his ban anyway".
So, AFL thinks no Filth in finals, .................................. no way!
I think it's reasonable to assume Kemp has spent about 1/2 of his total possible game time forward of centre, maybe gets to 2 shots per game when in range. But if we apply that rule to all those forwards, and start counting the minutes players like McKay or Gunston were up the field, than the differential will be even worse.
Except for Fev, pretty much all of them spend game time up the field out of goal range.
Cooper Lord, who’d been in stellar VFL form, was held out of the twos over the weekend due to the Hewett injury and looms as a reinforcement if the on-baller doesn’t get up.
I was actually quite surprised before last weekend's game, given the heavy weather forecast, that Cooper didn't get a run as I thought he was OK in the VFL. If nothing else, he's more than capable in the collision stakes.
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.
