Game Day West Coast Eagles v Essendon, Finals Week 1 - 18:10 AWST, Sep 05, 2019

Who wins West Coast v Essendon?

  • WCE <10

    Votes: 7 4.0%
  • WCE 10+ to <30

    Votes: 19 10.9%
  • WCE 30+

    Votes: 97 55.4%
  • Essendon <10

    Votes: 20 11.4%
  • Essendon 10+ to <30

    Votes: 17 9.7%
  • Essendon 30+

    Votes: 15 8.6%

  • Total voters
    175
  • Poll closed .

dumdum

Cancelled
Jul 14, 2019
484
195
AFL Club
Brisbane Lions
The bombers have overrated key backs in Hurley and Hooker.

They have a soft midfield led by their captain who may well be the least damaging player in the AFL when he has the ball in his hands.

The bombers have built a very average list playing a game style which falls down at the important moments.
Hooker is just to slow for todays modern game. Hurley is fine, but if you put a Fitter more mobile tall Defender up with Hurley an i reckon they'd produce better results , Midfielders are to soft i agree with thqt comment
 

rmcq

????????????
Sep 6, 2017
1,331
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Richmond
They rely way too much on their half backs and wingers. Saad and McGrath were great but two players aren't going to get the job done.

Those weapons would be even better if they have a better game plan as you suggest, and more muscle around the ball to ensure it doesn't just fall on them.
I did notice a few times Saad running with the ball but nowhere to go. Seems a bit pointless.
 
May 13, 2008
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Hawthorn


Merrett deliberately pulled Naitanui's hair and Nicnat shoved him in anger. Fair enough. Wasn't as bad as it looked anyway. Merrett played the victim, hoping to win a cheap free kick. Look at the knob. He limply allowed himself to be pushed over. No resistance. Look at his raised arms. That's the telltale sign.

Bottom line: Squib Merrett made an arse of himself and got his just desserts.


Laughable that some people are getting on Naitanui's case about this. NFI.
Suspensions for pushing someone over after they pulled his hair. Pshhhhh 😆
P1ss off... Go watch figure skating or rhythmic gymnastics, you clowns.


I bet Merrett would have jumped up pretty quick to take his free kick.

Great result that the umpires did not get sucked in.

The only report that should come of this is Merrett gets 3 weeks for staging.
 
Apr 23, 2016
30,510
42,672
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Essendon
Love that Merrett threw his head back before the real force of the push came. Was looking for a free and flopped but there was more power than he expected and hit the astroturf/fence hard.

Lesson here is don't be a hair pulling, diving, soft chip scab and your team might stand a chance.

Merrett deserves a decent fine for the hair pulling, a holiday to start the 2020 if it was intentional.

Natanui grabbing him by the throat and throwing him in to the fence? Hardly needed any staging for that to be pretty ugly. Shall we grab Natanui and ask him to do the same to you - seeing as you're such a tough guy and all - and see how you go?
 

Ron The Bear

Up yer arse, AFL
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Naitanui would be in strife if Merrett was injured. "Potential for serious injury" is certainly a valid invocation, but is only used when the AFL are out to get you.

Fine for both, play on.
 
Naitanui would be in strife if Merrett was injured. "Potential for serious injury" is certainly a valid invocation, but is only used when the AFL are out to get you.

Fine for both, play on.

They only ever use it on Dustin Martin so he’ll get a fine. About what it’s worth IMO

Yeo might be in a bit of trouble too
 

Sector 7G

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 21, 2009
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Carlton
I did notice a few times Saad running with the ball but nowhere to go. Seems a bit pointless.
Problem with Saad's run is generally he tries to run around players and avoid contact and having to break a tackle. The one where Nic Nat ran him down is a classic example -started in the centre square and was run down on the wing. Team mates had no idea where he was going or what he was going to do and ended up just turning it over.
 

4THAWN

Club Legend
Mar 25, 2019
2,548
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Hawthorn
Bombers exposed. That midfield needs a change up, and quick. Devon Smith won't solve the problem. Joe Daniher would help them a lot, but they've still got other major areas to address.

Heppell-Merrett-Shiel-Mcgrath-Parish- potentially the weakest midfield to ever go into a finals game. At least Shiel attacks the ball with intent, and wants the pill to be his. Disposal needs improvement though.

And what a joke the so called "stars" Stringer, AMT and Fantasia were LMAO. Give me a spell. Port should NOT be recruiting fantasia. Just about as overrated as they come. AMT better fix up his problems, or else that new deal is going to bite them. Your star players can't be expected to do absolutely nothing every second week. Need a whole lot more from Tippa when he's not getting the ball on a silver platter. And stringer???? Bloke was so bad it's not even funny. He needs to let that fuel him for a massive off-season, because he was simply horrible.
 

Sector 7G

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 21, 2009
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Merrett deserves a decent fine for the hair pulling, a holiday to start the 2020 if it was intentional.

Natanui grabbing him by the throat and throwing him in to the fence? Hardly needed any staging for that to be pretty ugly. Shall we grab Natanui and ask him to do the same to you - seeing as you're such a tough guy and all - and see how you go?
Happy for Nic Nat to body slam me if I ever resort to pulling hair.
 
Jun 30, 2009
30,328
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Deroesfromgero
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West Coast
Other Teams
east perth
Nuthin to do with them being Victorian. The same flogs were 10 times worse in previous years about getting Hawthorn players suspended.

Anyways, Naitanui and Merrett will both receive fines. Haven’t people been paying attention this year? Everyone gets fined nowadays, whether you punch someone, bump them in the head or fart in the general direction of an umpire.
This is the same nicnat that had a new rule invented on the spot that you have to calculate your body mass vs the player you are tacklings body mass before you tackle him
 
Apr 23, 2016
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Problem with Saad's run is generally he tries to run around players and avoid contact and having to break a tackle. The one where Nic Nat ran him down is a classic example -started in the centre square and was run down on the wing. Team mates had no idea where he was going or what he was going to do and ended up just turning it over.

You do realise that evading tackles and avoiding contact is exactly what he's meant to be doing right? It's the rest of the forwards / mids refusing to provide options that makes things like that happen. Weird player to criticise, was one of the handful that actually bothered to try.
 

Witch1

Team Captain
Sep 4, 2016
385
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AFL Club
Fremantle
'Violent overreactions' define nearly every Fremantle supporters opinion of this incident.
Uh huh. My opinion has nothing to do with being a Freo supporter, mate.

Natanui is very fortunate that Merrett wasn't actually injured - could've suffered catastrophic head or neck injuries. It's a worry that Nic Nat displayed no self-control when reacting to annoying but harmless provocation.

It's a familiar story in our society. As I said, our courts, prisons and hospitals are full of tragic stories and broken lives where things just 'got a bit out of hand'.
 
Sep 2, 2008
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Essendon
What a stupid comment, anyone with half a brain can clearly see it's your players that a the dumb ones, they cant execute a game plan to save their lives, just really dumb.

Well if we don't have the cattle to play his style then change. how about building style on tackling pressure and contested footy? You don't need skill and brains to play a style like that
 
May 5, 2006
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West Coast
Uh huh. My opinion has nothing to do with being a Freo supporter, mate.

Natanui is very fortunate that Merrett wasn't actually injured - could've suffered catastrophic head or neck injuries. It's a worry that Nic Nat displayed no self-control when reacting to annoying but harmless provocation.

It's a familiar story in our society. As I said, our courts, prisons and hospitals are full of tragic stories and broken lives where things just 'got a bit out of hand'.

Merrett is lucky he plays footy in this era.

Want to play rugby in the 90s and pull Tana Umaga's hair and see how that goes?
 

Sector 7G

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 21, 2009
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You do realise that evading tackles and avoiding contact is exactly what he's meant to be doing right? It's the rest of the forwards / mids refusing to provide options that makes things like that happen. Weird player to criticise, was one of the handful that actually bothered to try.
Often he is avoiding tackles by running sideways and away from the goals. Hard for the forwards provide options when they have lead 3 times and Saad keeps running to less dangerous positions and they have no idea what he is going to do. Bruce was in raptures when Saad on his run and turned it over. Looked great but ultimately costly for the side. It has nothing to do with how hard he is trying.
 
Apr 23, 2016
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Essendon
Often he is avoiding tackles by running sideways and away from the goals. Hard for the forwards provide options when they have lead 3 times and Saad keeps running to less dangerous positions and they have no idea what he is going to do. Bruce was in raptures when Saad on his run and turned it over. Looked great but ultimately costly for the side. It has nothing to do with how hard he is trying.

No player in the league runs at 100%, Saad occasionally getting caught is well and truly the least of our worries given he creates far more opportunities than most. His lateral movement is part of the reason he's difficult to shut out of a game, sometimes it doesn't pay off, others it does. It's also best to ignore Bruce, he's well past it.
 
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