Collingwood hit hard by the injury bug again

Both Scribe, coaches have an input in the off season in possible rule changes.

Your last paragraph addressed what I was getting at Toad. As I said Umpires are plucking free kicks for the 4th violation, which just angers fans and confuses spectators! At one stage in that game Heppel tackled a player who took two steps at which time Heppel swung him around and pulled him to the ground and the umpire paid in the back!. How Heppel wasn't paid for prior opportunity is baffling. Neither player knew what the umpire was paying. It's a mess.

Darling and barras sound like certainties, jk is pushing said its up to fitness staff, if lecca plays it will be with a wrist brace.

Matti it sounds like you will have the whole lot back according to Simpson.

Hoskin Elliott, treloar, dunn injured Others if brought back are under done. Wce still being tight lipped on any returning players. Cmon Sunday.

Collingwood hit hard by the injury bug again. Obviously there is a problem at Collingwood if so many players are catching this bug. Perhaps the solution is to clean the toilets more frequently.

I was watching on TV in a bar with no sound so did not get the interpretations from the commentators. But, there were plenty of frustrated Essendon supporters. However, I got most of the decisions for each side. So I don't know how hard it was to interpret. Essendon is the most penalised team in the comp for frees against while it ranks exactly in the middle of the field for frees for. Both Collingwood and Essendon received and gave away about the same number (+/-2) that they have for the total season up to round 16. So while many thought that the umpires were favouring Essendon the stats suggest that Essendon had an average game in this respect. Since this has been the case every week it suggests that Essendon has discipline problems in its approach to contests. I also felt that there were at least four frees to Mason Cox for chopping the arms that were not given. Given he is number 3 in the league for total contested marks, number four for average contested marks per game, and is one of the most accurate kicks for goal at about 74% accuracy, you can see why teams are choosing to block and chop him rather than give him a mark any where in the 50m zone.

Yet are still winning and still competitive. God I hate you Collingwood.

But is it fiddling with the rules Insult or is it that full time coaching staff have simply engineered it this way? People argue it was Roos, Wallace, Eade....who cares, it's time to take it away from the coaches with significant rule changes as clog footy has hit a crisis point in 2018.

The best indication as to the standard of umpiring in any sport is the reaction of impartial observers. I don't support either of these sides and thought the recent form of both sides might provide a distraction on a lazy day. The first half only made me angry. The lack of logic in decisions compounded by inconsistency left spectators at home, at the ground, commentators AND players wondering if the rules of the game had been changed overnight! Nothing ruins a game more than poor umpiring and it is even more noticeable in a sport which has been deliberately forced into overdrive by rule makers. It is impossible to understand why the rulemakers don't want players to have 5 seconds to consider options in an already ridiculously fast game, but when compounded by umpires unable to keep up with that speed, the skill errors that come with that speed and resultant crowd of players, that then has umpires plucking free kicks out for the 4th rule violation rather than the first, then it negates the desired attractiveness of a flowing game. Then have 60,000+ in the stands and the players close to the fence don't know they're the one being penalised and are then further infuriated by 50m penalties for not responding to direction. This game was destroyed in the first half by inept umpiring which ruined the contest for casual observers and the result then became a raffle. It is hard to watch the current version of AFL; players running around in tight circles only relieved by a hack kick to no one in particular, or a free kick plucked from god knows where to clear congestion, only for that congestion to form again 40m further up field. Players are running machines who can't accurately place the ball on their boot to hit a target or even worse kick it through a 7m wide gap from 15m away! All this fiddling with rules has made a mess of the game and the people paying to watch have no idea what the rules are anymore! How is it possible for a player standing outside the boundary to be called to play on and the whistle not then be blown to call for a boundary throw in? How can a player run along inside the boundary and be penalised for being in a protected zone? The game has lost its way. It is being tampered with to the detriment of the spectacle. Rule makers need to only step in when the players safety is at stake and leave the rest to evolve organically. Right now it is unwatchable for casual observers and a major frustration for those with a vested interest in a team.

2018 games played out of a possible 15. Darcy Moore: 4 Broomhead: 1 Fasolo: 1 Wells: 4 Greenwood: 5 Reid: 6 Aish: 6 Varcoe: 9 Adams: 12 De Goey: 12 Jamie Elliot: 0 Kirby: 0 J Smith: 0 Goldsack: 0 Then you add Treloar who will be very lucky to play at round 23, Dunn and now hamstring for Appleby and Hoskin-Elliott in trouble with a knee. Nathan Buckley surely coach of the year.