Nasher

This mirrors every other game against poo teams like Richmond and Hawthorn. One half of both sides making our eyes bleed, before we cruise away in the second half and win by plenty. Even the West Coast game wasn’t that different except we forgot the skipping away bit. Love the Langdon to half forward move. He killed it. Huge vote of confidence in Windsor to play the opposite wing to Hunter. I will legit cry the day Max pulls the pin.

Why would Dusty leave Richmond for Norf or Hawf? I think if he was going to play for a non-contender he’d just stay where he’s comfortable.

Great to see Harmesy having a real dip in the last few weeks. Still got a lot of love for the lad.

Do you think the second quarter (score wise basically even) was a marked improvement in “effort”? I don’t. The game looked basically the same to me, we just found ways to score.

Sounds stupid given a 0.0 to 5.0 first quarter but I really didn’t feel like the score reflected the effort. It was our usual arm wrestle first quarter but the score somehow didn’t reflect. This game was a freak anomaly for mine. I write it off as a disappointing loss that we should have won and move on.

Imagine if we scored literally anything in the first quarter? Oh well. Trac, you are are bloody star.

My perspective after last week and this is: what we do against lowly teams don’t matter. Against Richmond, or Hawthorn, or whoever else, as long as we get the 4 points, nothing else matters. These are the games that matter. Beating the other top teams matter. We’re a contender in 2024 and we ARE good enough to win it. Love these Dees.

They’re right about the Sparrow/Viney thing though.

Presumably any offence that is punishable by suspension has the potential to cause injury, that’s why it warrants such a heavy penalty.

It’s @WalkingCivilWar

Hunter is available according to the injury report. I haven’t been following his injury- is he in the frame or will he need a Casey run? He is better than both Billings and Woey 2.0 if he’s fit. If not, it’s just May for Hore for me. Woey sub.

I went through the five stages of grief while waiting for the page to load.

Haven’t been on for ages because I couldn’t deal with the off field drama but I came in response to this news. I’m heartbroken for Gus but absolutely love this photo and it sums up my memory of him for me. Premiership hero and all time great in my mind and my heart. Love you Gus.

It’s a bit of a stretch to describe Oscar McInerney as a player we lost; he was never Melbourne listed and he spent most of his time at Casey kicking around in the twos.

There’s no way any ruckman with designs on being first ruck - and has the capability - is coming to us now after how the Grundy thing has played out. If that was me I’d be saying Brodie effing Grundy couldn’t get a game, what hope have I got? We need to develop some young rucks. We can start thinking of high profile rucks again when Max is closer or at the end.

Serious but with about 3 seconds of thought given to it bub. TMac is more likely, in any case I think a role shuffle is inevitable with a hybrid going out and the best remaining options being talls.

Out: Melk In: Grundy

I’m absolutely gutted for Melky. In career best form so late in his career and a real shot at some glory gone, for what was essentially a glorified practice match in terms of importance. I’m struggling to take away anything but that tbh.

Stoppages and clearances aren’t the only time midfielders touch the ball. Just sayin…

Tools at your disposal has to be part of it too. Mitchell doesn’t have the luxury of a starting midfield of Oliver, Petracca and Viney that Goody has. It would be obviously wasteful if we played a completely negative player in our midfield. Hawthorn just did what they needed to have the best shot at winning. I don’t mind it, but I’d definitely prefer to be in our position than theirs.

Satisfying win. Hawthorn have improved heaps on their early season form, and that was a legitimate arm wrestle for three quarters.

That goal will be burned in to my memory forever. The moment where I finally allowed myself to believe we might win the game and the emotional release of about 10 years that followed. Actually feel the tears again just thinking about it and I haven’t even watched the clip yet!

I often wonder if it’s a psychological thing that some people are just unable to enjoy anything after they get put under stress. I seethed and swore my way through the first quarter and a bit, but after we regained control in the second, we never looked like losing. The play that got the van Rooyen goal on half time was pure bliss, and the third quarter was dominance. The cue went in the rack in the last. Don’t forget that the two top teams failed this week, for the second week in a row. This competition is so tight that the bottom teams CAN beat the top teams. Hawthorn proved that last night. We got the job done, comfortably in the end. I’m content.

3 weeks ago, second place seemed out of reach. Now it’s very much in play. Jeez this feels a lot like 2021 with everything starting to fall in place at the right time. Stoked to be at Blundstone tomorrow now. There’s a lot at stake!

How is that different to the impact to the soft cap being "suspended"? I introduced the word in this case, but what you've just described is exactly what happens when something is suspended. They have to pay $100k in cash regardless, the "suspended" part only refers to how much gets included in the soft cap.