Anddddddd I’m back! 😛 What a start to the season it’s been! Absolutely LOVING the newfound attacking intent from the cats, and others, really good to see and highly entertaining. Whether it’ll deliver in September is unknown, but gee it’ll make the journey there all that much more enjoyable 🙂 was a cracking game on Friday night against a fellow contender, and despite the push at the end, the deserving team won. I guess with all the Lions hype going in, and the Carlton collapse up north, this puts us right up there yet again. Gotta say I didn’t see that coming going into the new season. With the two forwards firing and sharing the load, the cats are a gunning wild card this season. Whether it’s enough to handle Melbourne is yet to be determined, but promising signs early nonetheless.

Now to the Ollie Wines “conspiracy theories” – in my field of Psychology we traditionally call this input “cognitive dissonance,” but I’m going to go ahead and call it psychosomatic self-preservation. When the individuals subconscious mind is in a state of polarity with the conscious mind, it will do and say whatever it needs to in order to shield the conscious mind from the ugly truth which it has deemed incomprehensible. In this case the ugly truth would likely result in a total psychological breakdown, if not worse, so it feeds the conscious mind elaborate excuses and rationalisations to keep the mind functional and deviate from full psychosis. Had the author had a look around the globe he would have noticed a 1000%+ increase in these cases (and deaths overall, which have spiked since mid-2021 and only seem to be going up…), in all sporting fields and athletes. They are dropping like flies and pretty soon they’re going to run out of these silly excuses. I predict after another 5-6 drop in the coming months in the AFL $hib will finally hit the fan here and the ugly truth will spill out for all to see and consume. Having studied these conditions years ago after one of my favourite up and coming players in the soccer was unfortunately affected I can tell you this much, they are almost ALWAYS discovered during the early years, and rarely if ever go unnoticed well into a players twenties. Ollie Wines is presently 27 years old, so it is practically impossible for him to have had a “rare genetic heart condition” go unnoticed until now. Ditto many of the athletes who have so far dropping in 2021-22. So this whole “we’re just discovering it more now” trope needs to be called out for what it is, an absolute joke and a pretty ordinary attempt at deflection. You don’t need to believe me now, you’ll all see for yourselves in the coming weeks and months exactly why you were warned to steer clear of the you-know-what. That is if the recently forcibly released ” clinical data” from the manufactures with their recorded 1,291 side effects and whole host of other problems weren’t enough to worry you yet….

Exactly mate, finals and in particular Prelims haven’t exactly been kind to our sides during the last decade, but win or lose, you’d rather be in it at the pointy end, going on the roller-coaster of emotions throughout September, than watching on from the side lines as other sides do battle year after year. Best of luck tomorrow night! I reckon this time around (having learned the hard lessons from last year), they’ll get the job done and make the GF.

HUGE blow for the dogs, now Dixon can either feast himself, or bring balls to ground for others to feast, as they did against my cats. Seems we now have the battle of the healthy vs the wounded, Port and Demons practically at full health, vs the depleted Dogs and Cats. It will play a part, but if the Dogs can dominate in the middle (if Martin is actually back) then they can maybe mitigate this loss. Maybe..

Agreed Cloak, I’ve seen nothing from the group to suggest as much, they’ve been thoroughly professional all season long, and kudos to them for that, I’m sure they’ll come out tomorrow night and deliver a great performance. As for the overconfidence, I disagree. Looking over these comments today I couldn’t really find a single overly confident cat fan, I’d argue most are tipping the Dee’s lol.

haha stop it dab you’re filling me with hope! Yes you’re right, we have elite talent on all lines, more than enough to match your boys, it’s just our recent wobbly form and lack of rest that may catch up to us. I think that’s the basis behind most people righting us off, because to win we’d have to bounce back to form as well as not burn out against a fresh, young and hungry team. That’s why I still think you’re the favs, but who knows, the Lions were raging favs last year and we beat them by 40 points. It’s a Prelim, anything could happen.

Nah I’ve seen them play live, trust me I’m not underestimating anything. You’re rated elite in Midfield and Defence for a reason, and the forward line has quality, but are far from being among the best in the AFL (as reflected by the overall scoring this season). Kozzie I rate, and Brown can be a handful when he’s up and about, but the rest are so so at best (Jackson obviously has plenty of up side, whilst McDonald is simply out of form).

Not really a “benchmark,” more so just progress being made after the accumulation of a few games with a new system minus your best defender. Our “benchmark” would be between rounds 16 to 20 when we were keeping teams to 2-3 goals for 2-3 quarters per a game. Without Stewart we simply cannot replicate that, but given that attack is your biggest weakness perhaps they’ve got enough in the tank to keep your forwards somewhat quiet. McDonald, Jackson & Brown don’t exactly strike fear into the heart, but are carried by an elite midfield and defence.

haha I saw your comment earlier dab and couldn’t tell if you were taking the pi$$, trying to jinx us, or actually being serious. And to be honest, I still can’t tell now 😂 but you’re right about Blitz down back, it really helped stabilize us last week, and with Rata up forward should continue again tomorrow night. McDonald will need to play a good game to keep him accountable, far better than what he has been dishing up the last few weeks.

Sorry for the late reply Pablo I didn’t get a notification for your reply. To answer your question yeah I can, and it’s called success. Sure not in terms of cups for a little while now, but when you feature near the top of the ladder for well over a decade you’re bound to lose any sense of sympathy you previously possessed among oppo supporters. You being a tigers man can surely relate, having gone from most peoples second “pity” team to being outright hated by most. It’s a product of success, just as being universally loved is usually a product of irrelevance. If I had to choose I’d of course rather choose the success and its accompanying hatred, but it does get a little old sometimes. A bit of mutual respect among supporters wouldn’t be the worst thing for our game. I learned to let go of my irrational hatred for your mob, sometimes just wish others could learn to do the same lol…

How good was it! Best comeback I think I’ve ever seen because it came out of literally nowhere! Plus we had an obnoxious Dee’s supported behind us running his foul mouth the whole night, so was a joy to see him shut up and in tears by the end of the night haha.. and if you think you were nervous imagine being there, the whole stadium fell silent, nobody could bear to look, and when it went through it was like the second coming of Jesus in there, strangers hugging strangers, people screaming at the top of their lungs! I hugged at least 5 randoms myself haha, such great memories 😁

Agreed, I’m on Big footy as well but aside from the teams own pages (which are riddled with negativity) the other, “open” forums are full of immature commenters itching for a fight. I sometimes feel the demographic on there is between the ages of 9-15 lol. I’ve also noticed what you said about content form here being brought up, which is something I’ve suspected for a good while now. You should sign up, they don’t bother you with emails so no need to worry about that (I’m in the same bought, cannot afford anymore “notification” emails haha)

Lot of overconfidence in here today, so much so that you’d be excused for thinking Melbourne were a near dynasty team going for their 3rd cup in a row. Even tiger fans last year weren’t so openly and overly confident going into their prelim or GF… The Dee’s rightly go in as favourites but I if the players buy into this attitude and underestimate the cats as most of their fans are they may just find themselves beaten. Shame about Stewart because with him I’d still rate us as the best, but without him we’re back in the pack and far from secure down back. Hopefully they’ve had enough time now to sort things out back there without him. The midfield battle will also be crucial, but if Stanely can deliver another good performance, I think the rest of the boys will lift and at least break even. Danger is playing with a bad hand/finger injury so his down form is understandable, I’ve seen a lot of people criticise him recently without any mention of his fractured finger. Have you ever experienced a fractured finger? I have, and it’s bloody painful and REALLY difficult to play with, so cut the guy some slack. He was dominating before that ill-timed injury. All in all I’m really looking forward to these games, feeling relative calm knowing we go in as heavy underdogs. Win or lose, will always be proud of the boys for yet again giving it another fair crack. Yes losing finals hurts, but what hurts more is irrelevance, and knowing your season is over after round 23, year after year after year.

And? Where was Richmond’s representation aside from Dusty during 2017-2020? Aside from 17 no Richmond player got anywhere near it, whilst we had Danger (+ Kelly in 2019) tearing it up and on the podium every year, and it brought us zero team success. The Brownlow is a joke anyway, look back at 2019 and how often they gifted Fyfe 3 votes when his team was being belted by 40+ points each week on their way to a 13th place finish. It’s a popularity award, far removed from what it use to be.

He only does that when it favours the Cats, not the other way around 😉 😂

Cheers Scotty 👍 I’m with Richie its definitely worth the few minutes it takes to sign up. Great footy community and banter on here, I initially only signed up to leave a few angry, ranting comments lol, but ended up sticking around due to the quality people and content.

loll first it was “terrorism” and now suddenly its “COVID” 😂 Probably realised “terrorism” had lost its 2000’s lustre and went with the latter, more contemporary narrative instead. Doesn’t really matter what nonsense they say, it stinks like a cash grab and I’m pretty sure everyone can see/smell that. So how about you spare us the spin and just be honest for once in your lives?

I would say it likely stems from the long and drawn out history of betrayal and manipulation from colonial governance. They’re not the only ones, plenty of other native and lower socio economic minorities feel the same way. Can we really blame them? The forced conclusion of the Tuskegee experiment really wasn’t all that long ago….

I can imagine 😂 sorry to hear it, would have been an awkward conversation when the owner came calling lol. The fallout for me was the complete loss of my voice for the next few days, and me and my gf dancing around the streets of Geelong afterwards like a couple of lunatics haha, was and still is to this day the best game I’ve ever watched/attended. But alas I too know how you felt, having copped something eerily similar from your mob 3 weeks ago. Just glad I wasn’t there to see it in person lol

Hmm that’s like me saying “because of ____” the Port fan everyone hates them on this site and for good reason. Strange that one person could hold such power over others on here, thought perhaps the club and its performance, culture and greater fanbase would present a better reflection to base judgment on. Rather than that one guy everyone loves to argue with (can think of one or two from just about every other club)…

plenty on this site, that’s for sure 😂 been snooping without commenting of late and mannn the Geelong hate train is in full tilt atm, certainly seems to amp up as we reach finals, plenty coming out of the woods to take pot shots and sling shizz (many of whom are already enjoying a finals free holiday with their clubs). Can imagine it’d be like a morgue in here if we actually go on to win the whole thing haha

Agreed, happens very often. Ironically we’ve copped that very effect two seasons in a row now against Port, reversed our own initial poor results over the Pies & GWS, and now will look to do it again against the Dee’s. I can’t help but recollecting 2018 when we got them after the siren in Geelong in a classic comeback win, before they did an absolute number on us at the G in the first elimination final. Fingers crossed the trend continues here lol

I had the pleasure of attending that infamous game in 2018 down at the cattery when Touhy won it for us after the siren from 39 points down and I reckon there’s been a bit of rivalry brewing ever since (possibly even sooner, after that last 20 seconds Gawn miss game in the same season). The Dee’s got some sweet sweet revenge soon after in the elimination final, before the cats avenged that defeat with an absolute belting in the rain the following season (another great game I had the privilege of attending). We then had a couple of close ones, and there seems to be real pride and passion every time we play now, and I’m personally loving it!
As for this latest clash, just wanted to say great summary of the recent encounter and overall form/chances CloudRunner. I think the Dee’s righty go in as favourites, but anyone who thinks they’ll blow the cats away and win easy are badly mistaken, the teams are very evenly matches, even with Stewart/Parfitt/O’Connor out + Danger playing injured. It will be hard fought and close, with nerves and possibly even hubris to play a part. Can only hope the Dee’s remain professional and don’t buy into the outside noise, overconfidence is a dangerous thing to flirt with during finals.

Agreed. The AFL might need to mandate him some psychological sessions to sort himself out, and I don’t mean with a “sport psychologist” either. He needs proper help. Has happened way too many times now and it’s only a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt.

loll oh most definitely, I’ve still got people commenting me back on posts on youtube from 5+ years ago, so you could say I’ve said a lot of regrettable things about a lot of past performances 😂 this time though I at least threw in that I could be delusional, which turned out to be true, so it seems I’ve learned at last 😂

Agreed, though I’m sure your boys will have learned from last years experience and hopefully not make the same mistake again. Gotta use this second chance to make the big dance, and then, who knows what could transpire..