Nasher

Essendon fans hated him. Nothing would please me more than a big win with Melky BOG.

Lots of thoughts ran through my head watching that! Isn’t privilege such a tiered thing - Kozzy had a disadvantaged upbringing compared to Oliver or Goodwin, but compared to Nan he might as well have been raised in a palace. It’s so hard to fathom the idea of having to be out of town by 6pm or getting locked up. That was THIS lifetime, not some ancient history. Far out. Love that Goody, Clarrie and Shano took the time to head there with Kozzy and connect. The bond will run just that bit deeper with every step like that.

I guess we could squeeze both in if we must.

Max’s value isn’t in the ruck, it’s in his innate ability to always park his giant frame at the right place at the right time. We all laugh at Maysie going for him but why wouldn’t you? The opposition always kick it to him more than anyone on our side ever does. Whoever covers him better be prepared to run his chops off, because that’s the requirement.

Agree od, this is precisely the situation he’s on the list for.

The plan will be to play Fullarton and cross fingers and toes that he passes off as an AFL ruckman.

Even if absolutely nothing else good happens this year, I hope we rip Essendon a new one to the point where the entire football world calls them out for the pretenders they are, and their rancid, smug fans realise that this is yet another false dawn and that they’re still as irrelevant as ever. Please? I don’t think they’ve suffered enough yet.

Who wouldn’t? Not sure what gun goal kickers we have sitting on the shelf waiting for a game. The shelf compromises of NQR forwards like Laurie, Billings and Schache.

Optimism = we will make the 8 Pessimism = we won’t make the 8 Realism = we have a chance of making the 8. The pessimists believing they are the realists is the misconception of the ages.

Disco Turner thoughts? Jury is still out - I wish he was playing with experienced forwards ala 2021 vintage TMac and Benny Brown. I love his contest and the fact that he rarely wastes it - not impacting the game yet but it may come. I’m hopeful but not yet confident.

Adds a touch of cleanliness by foot that we’ve lacked, especially with Trac out. Future leader too IMO - important with the pretty lengthy list of players from WA we seem to be assembling. Loving his progress - hard to believe he’s still just a tacker himself.

We have the list profile of a team in the middle of a rebuild at the moment. If our best players this year had fired we’d have been in the flag window and it would have been against the odds. Nevertheless, there will be no post-flag bottom out like we’ve seen Richmond, WCE and Hawthorn have. We’ll be continually up there like Sydney and Geelong have been.

Would’ve been nice to claw back a bit more percentage but no complaints - we smashed them. It was a game dominated by youth - Rivers and van Rooyen in particular as best players. Despite the disappointing season this list has a lot of upside, and this season isn’t over yet.

I hate gatekeeping supporters. As a remote supporter, nothing annoys me more than supporters who claim superiority because they’re in the privileged position to go games when others can’t. But if the only reason for a supporter’s non-attendance is “to send a message”, that support sucks. A lot.

Loved the Kynan Brown tackle. Well done son. I loved it when the camera panned to dad - Ooze and Daniel Ward either side of him were going off their heads but poor old Doggy was crapping his dacks. I could relate.

Did you watch that last quarter? That definitely wasn’t the worst possible result.

Lol I’m a blue sky junkie, but this season is clearly boned. I’ve well and truly recalibrated my expectations.

Watched that with my Carlton supporting girlfriend. Enjoyed that all round - happy about the good mood in the house and happy that my suspicion that Essendon are pretenders is confirmed. Everyone wins.

Ready to hate them again as needed, but right now I don’t. Loved that for them. That felt satisfying to me like a Dees win.

Oh man, this is very rough viewing.

Some people enjoy being miserable. How you deal with disappointment is a choice - I don’t know why some people choose self-flagellation over and over.

Toe injury apparently

This has been a true 16th vs 18th, but seeing Aaron Keating reincarnated chasing down Liam Ryan made me smile. Good boy, love that effort.

Why can’t good medium-small defenders just stay that way? There is always, always need for competitive, skilled defenders in the back 50. I don’t understand the fixation with wanting to turn them in to midfielders all the time.

Every year since about 2020 was meant to be the year Geelong finally went off the cliff. I thought we might have punted them off it in 2021 but nope. The buggers seem to just be able to get up again, over and over. From now on I’m just going to assume they’ll be a contender again until I see with my own eyes that they’re not.