Poll
Question:
Who will you be barracking for on Saturday?
Option 1: Richmond
votes: 2
Option 2: GWS
votes: 21
Option 3: Don't Care......Carlton are not in it!
votes: 7
Option 4: Paul Kelly
votes: 0
Option 5: What game?
votes: 1
Fascinated to know how people are thinking. Many isolated comments made, good to see the collective!
Of academic interest only for me. Don't really want to see either team win.
GWS.
I'll probably support GWS or as I prefer to call them, AFL 4 (AFL 1 is Sydney, AFL 2 is Brisbane, AFL 3 is GCS and AFL 4 is GWS - the four sides artificially inflated through AFL support).
Hopefully if AFL 4 win then the AFL will stop bending over backwards to help them and will finally focus their unfair assistance on their last remaining project, AFL 3 (GCS).
Oh for a level playing field.
Injuries...
I couldn't support Richmond, even though I think they will win. They are a bunch of thugs and have been for years. I haven't forgiven them for 1973 yet.
Doesn't matter either way to me. Might barrack for GWS as they haven't got one but not bothered. Just hope to see a good game.
Toby (head like a racing tadpole) Greene and Gillon McLachlan ... so Richmond
Won't watch more than 20 minutes anyway
Not fussed either way as to the result.
But I am looking forward to the game...and the possible carnage.
Cant support Richmond, liked Leon Cameron as a player so I hope GWS do the right thing and knock the Tigers over.
GWS for me, Nthmond fans are already unbearable, they reckon it's in the can!!!
Giants.
GWS 3000%
And reckon they'll win. Tigers way over hyped....
Go Giants!
But cold hard logic says Richmond by 12 goals, unless ... Mumford does a ’Balme’. Now THAT I would like to see and it would go some way to assuage the lingering disgust from 1973.
I can’t bring myself to support an interstate team and particularly one that has profited at our expense >:(
I still have flashbacks to the opening minutes of the 1973 Grand Final and the shocked hush among the crowd when Fowler poleaxed Big Nick, but I think I can tolerate a Tigers win ... at the expense of GWS and the AFL.
Lynch has been a massive addition to the Tigers’ list, and I think that he will be the difference.
GWS for me, then a SOS can put a $800k 5 year deal on the table for one Lachie Whitfield, in return for P8 2nd round 2021.
The kid has a flag, GWS has the money to keep Jezza, and the low range picks for their accademy kids this year and next.
Win-win-win
Absolutely rooting for GWS, great for the competition a fairytale come true a young team.
Great story for the AFL at long last. Although wining 3 games in a row and to win at G against the tigers, very difficult.
But my gut feel is an upset is brewing. Go Giants
You know what I will never get my head around?
How anyone states we should support the victorian side.
State politics is irrelevant in team sports. Let GWS win now whilst we arent good enough to contend, and we can knock them off later.
Its generally from the older people who grew up with State of Origin being huge.
"Kick a Vic" rings alarm bells.
However, state of origin is long gone and now its all about damage control for supporters who don't have a team in the GF. Better to go for someone which won't give you the $h!ts for the next 12 months, hence interstate sides with no fan base to annoy you.
It’s easy Thry ... unless the opposition is Essendon ;)
One of the shocks I received when I did military service was the vitriol directed to Victorians from those from other states. South Australians and Western Australians were the worst, but New South Welshmen (they were all male :) ) and Queenslanders were involved too. Since then, I have disliked sporting teams from WA, SA, NSW and QLD in that order and in any sport. NSW jumps a few spots when it comes to cricket.
A couple of good mates are Tigers supporters and I know that they won’t gloat for more than a week. That to me is preferable to the gloating that we have to suffer from the Gloch and the pain of seeing Toby Greene with his mitts on the cup.
It's very 'Statist' argument. ;D
I saw a statistic once... I think it was in one of the annual magazines, that suggested a huge number of Carlton supporters actually lived outside of Victoria
For a vast number of those, myself included, we don't really give much thought to the Victorian aspect of the club.
Sure that's where the foundations of the club are, and Melbourne is where they play their home games.
But to us it's not Carlton /Victoria...it's just Carlton.
Truth is if you ran a line down the great players of the club some of our very best are non-Victorians.
A Carlton/Victoria v a Carlton/Rest of Australia would probably be a fair contest although the Vics probably have an edge... SOS v Kernahan would be a good match up....not sure how he'd go on Jezza though.
So if we're not involved as a club in a Grand Final for a lot of us there's no strong bond to support the Victorian side.
I believe as recently as two years ago we were still the most widely supported team in the country, Carlton's problem was that with so many supporters outside of Victoria we were not capable of converting high percentages to memberships. However, I think the most recent survey lists Sindney, Filth, Carlton in that order, but the Sindney figures are supported by rugby league fans who claim to support Sindney as their second side. The Filth have picked up a large growth in following in the Northern Territory, I suppose it's a popular destination for escapees!
Makes them better than Essenscum supports. I had the inglorious pleasure of spending the entire day with a bomber mate for 93 GF. He still bangs on about it. Makes me want to vomit.
Tigers supporters are ok, they spent so long in the wilderness they developed some humility, and we developed some pity for them. They might say the same thing about us when we finally snag another flag.
The only time I'd want Richmond to win a GF would be if they were playing either the Filth or the Drug Cheats. Since that's obviously not the case, hopefully GWS have another win left in them.
As for those of you who want Richmond to win, obviously you've forgotten how the feral scum stood and cheered when Kouta did his ACL against them in the 2001 semi - just an ar$e wipe of a club - I sincerely hope that Mumford collects a few scalps on Saturday.
You can add what Neil Balme did to Geoff Southby and what that did to Southby as a player still riles me, could never support a Richmond team in any game.
Knights got Kouta that game?
Yep, anyone who saw that can't feel anything but the same, it's like those suggestions we bring Balme to Carlton!
re: Balme:...the old saying goes "A drowning man will cling onto a Serpent"....lets hope we never get that desperate. >:(
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-great-robert-walls-accuses-collingwood-football-club-of-dishonesty-backs-neil-balme/news-story/44eb5f7692d1228abf37168f43544987
“I’m really disappointed because Neil Balme is one of the best football people you’ll ever come across,” Walls said.
“He did a sterling job at Collingwood years ago, went down to Geelong, and now they do this.
“I am going to throw a couple of bricks at Collingwood. One, for telling us blow flies (lies), and two, for making life hard for Neil Balme.”
Walls also said he expects Balme to be highly sought after if he rejects Collingwood’s offer.
“Where one door closes, another opens,” he said.
“Wherever Balmey ends up, it will be very much to that club’s good fortune.”
Early onset dementia ?
No, but from a different era, all was fair game but not all thought so!
I long got over it. Southby has no issues with Balme either. I could handle Balme at Carlton if that were to theoretically happen.
His hit on Southby was a dog act in an era full of dog acts, some of which were perpetrated by those in Navy Blue. I'd pay double the going membership fee to have a quality operator like him at the club. If he's not helping us win a flag, he's helping some other mob. The past can't be changed. Chest thumping and holding grudges won't change the past and won't help us now.
Balme or Brad Lloyd ? Jesus.................
Where do you draw the line, at Whatever it Takes, I've heard that before!
No, not whatever it takes. I'm not suggesting anything illegal or immoral. I understand there are many CFC supporters who detest Balme, and in a way I do as well. But if Walls can forgive him, and he was actually there, the rest of us should take stock and understand that sometimes if you want to improve, you simply have to move on from the past. Trying to show that you're real Navy Blue by hating on Balme 46 years after the fact is good for populists, but not convincing for the rest of us.
I think that is very oversimplified, like forgiving Clarkson or Milburn, some might even think Dangerfield tunnelling of Judd wasn't just an accident!
I suppose it is how you judge individual incidents, what the legacy of those events were, some would argue Balme should have been charged by police and probably would be in modern times!
Gaff might have been lucky not to be charged, if the incident had been judged purely on events he probably should have been charged.
There is no room in the game for this stuff, having kids and their friends who play at a high level makes me acutely aware of it. I'm not sure time qualifies as a medium for forgiveness, I'm not sure time heals all wounds, if it does why isn't Jack or Fev back, has Judd turned the other cheek?
I don't think it's oversimplified at all. Many on here would fall over themselves if Clarkson was our coach, but Balme is a no go zone. Why ? Because with Clarkson you can directly connect success with the person, but with Balme you can't ? Because Southby was and is a favourite son and a club champion, and Ian Aitken was a bit of a nobody ? Because the Battle Of Britain was on foreign soil ? What's the difference ?
If you cross off your list every opponent who has ever wronged a Carlton player, what's left ?
Your debating the extreme using inclusive language, many does mean every, all or the majority, and nobody is suggesting every player who wronged Carlton is a no go, just look at Diesel and The Hyphen history!
But I think Balme's and Clarkson's acts were a reasonable point of demarcation for many!
What about Bootsma, if he surfaces a decade from now as a potential super-coach/administrator, is he forgiven?
I wouldn't rule out Hodge for what he did to sMurph, or Ziebell for what he did to Simmo, because to me they are acts of extreme brutality face on and at the fringe of fairness. Like the Mumford tackle Wallsy blew up about a few weeks back. These are things that heal in time, not like what Balme did, Clarkson did or Bootsma is accused of!
There's little point in getting tripped up over a couple of minor words. You know full well the point I'm trying to make.
Every person on this planet has the potential for redemption, and the potential to learn from past mistakes and not repeat them. Every single one. But first they have to want redemption, and second they must know how to achieve it. If Bootsma can do both those things, then yes, why not ?
Are there are some things that have no possible reparation, and without reparation is there still the possiblity of redemption, or even with reparation is there certainty of redemption?
Some might consider Bootsma's alleged acts beyond reparation in any frame of reference, I suppose this also raises the debate of the equality of voice. It would seem to me in that relative frame of reference we are not all equal, and the decision to open the door to the redemption of Balme might be Southby's alone as the sole person who has probably earned the right of veto, Walls or our opinions mean nothing!
What about contrition, has Balme offered any, is that the first step?
That first sentence is a philosophical / theological question well beyond my limited understanding of the subject, and well beyond the scope of a footy forum.
I dare say Walls has spent plenty of time with Southby over the years, and would know much better than us what Geoff really thinks.
Yet it is still not his or our decision.
Geoff Southby is a nice bloke who doesnt want to drag up old painful memories IMHO and I think his depression medication
wont allow him to hate either, just my take on things..
Balme could never bring himself to properly apologize either, just blamed his actions on the times when footy was more violent, yep great footballer administrator but an ordinary human being and I wouldnt allow him anywhere near my football club no matter how bad things were.
Better Tiger Balme than a fly in the ointment at Carlton eh EB?
The article that Paul quoted is from a few years ago.
Balme left Collingwood went to Richmond in 2017.
Ironically there's been lots of arguing for no good reason.
Working the room well Cookie 8), more like "I’m Balmey the Fly Straight from rubbish tip to you"...borrowing a line from the old Mortein ad and showing my
age at the same time. :-X