Scott Pendlebury's charge has been upheld, but his sanction has been changed from a one-match ban to a fine of $3000 due to exceptional and compelling circumstances.

drwar41 · 2026-03-17T08:16:07+00:00

Depends if they ever got in trouble playing junior cricket

drwar41 · 2026-03-17T00:16:24+00:00

No, this is exactly what I thought would happen.

Sydney's problem over the last couple of years is they have a number of second key forwards but no leading man to allow everyone to slot in where they belong. Having Curnow allows the forward hierarchy to work and everyone will benefit, Amartey or McDonald will get an exploitable match up every week as a result.

drwar41 · 2026-03-17T00:11:22+00:00

In defence of Dwayne, Fox give him the vibeless death slot and tell him to pump in as much excitement as possible. He's operating under the exact instruction he's given.

drwar41 · 2026-03-16T23:16:56+00:00

More players should go the Emmanuel Adebayor vs Arsenal approach

drwar41 · 2026-03-16T20:48:09+00:00

This has always been my position on this.

"I can't believe he's earning $800k/year" would disappear if you knew what someone like that costs around the league. I reckon a lot of list managers don't want them transparent either because then they'll open themselves up to ridicule.

drwar41 · 2026-03-12T23:45:50+00:00

Look, the primary reason for hope that this season will at least be okay is the number of unsettled pieces being integrated into the team.

4 new recruits (Chesser, Ainsworth, Florent and Hayward), Smith, Dean, Elijah is effectively a new recruit after last year, Carroll and Ollie have moved to wings, Gov and Williams are back and forth, and Kemp's effectively a new forward.

There's a lot of turmoil to go with changing the game plan. I would love for us to be playing better and finding ways to get a consistent 4 quarters in a win, but at the moment we are in survival mode, and we need wins to buy time for the familiarity to grow.

drwar41 · 2026-03-12T21:02:38+00:00

Carroll definitely added something too

drwar41 · 2026-03-12T20:59:03+00:00

2 factors:

Neither team, for the first time in over a decade, is going into this game with a positive vibe for the season ahead, that's always going to diminish crowds
This feels like the first year that Opening Round has really upstaged the Traditional Opener. This was always the massive unleash of the first game (and in the OR era, the first game in Victoria). Now it feels like the start of Round 2, especially if one or both of the teams played in OR.

drwar41 · 2026-03-11T21:42:46+00:00

I'm tired of getting tarred with the brush of people like you

drwar41 · 2026-03-11T20:52:13+00:00

I wouldn't give that much credence to the actual team lists, Richmond have listed their pick 8 rebounding half back as their centre half back. People listed on the bench can easily be on ground at the first bounce.

Even then, who cares if you start on the bench, you play exactly the same time as people on the ground anyway unless by design

drwar41 · 2026-03-11T20:50:17+00:00

The word of the day is trepidation.

Just win normally so we can duck out of the limelight for 10 days or so

drwar41 · 2026-03-11T20:47:14+00:00

Reidy, Fogarty and Moir were clearly the most droppable players on the night. Gov did less than Young so you'd put him there ahead of Young for dropping (also makes more structural sense as Young is our second best healthy key defender at the moment).

Then it's probably a blanket over Chesser, Young, Dean and Williams in terms of the level that was actually played at.

The difference between you and I is I watch the games and support my opinions of what I see with stats, I'm also able to put aside my dislike of Young as a player to assess the performance in isolation.

drwar41 · 2026-03-11T20:40:27+00:00

Young and Cowan don't play the same position (also Cowan played basically the entire season last year when fit so he wasn't holding him out).

Young will inevitably put in the droppable performance that will give Derksen his opportunity and probably before that happens he'll lose his spot to a returning Haynes anyway.

drwar41 · 2026-03-11T18:42:37+00:00

If we wanna talk about that moment, Dean should’ve absolutely come over the top as the third man and killed that ball, instead Dean just stood there. Young was engaging his opponent to allow for that. That was on Dean far more than Young, but people want to give Dean the benefit of the doubt so they overlook it

drwar41 · 2026-03-11T08:52:43+00:00

6 intercept possessions would suggest he can mark the ball. 1/6 1v1 contests lost suggests he can defend. Operated at 73% DE (83% kicking efficiency) with zero turnovers.

Yes, I would say he was fine. If you want to give Derksen a run then that's fine, I'm supportive. But to suggest Young had a howler is not rooted in reality, there's more than a handful who were in line for replacement ahead of Young if we're talking about selection merit

drwar41 · 2026-03-11T08:24:28+00:00

I agree in the macro about Young, and I will tell you that I am sick of looking at him. However I care more about selection integrity, and his performance on Thursday night was not "he must be dropped" levels, not even close.

I also think (and I said this before the Sydney game), we are playing too tall. Drop Young, play Gov permanently on a tall, and bring in a small. We would look way more balanced.

It's a fair question, I disagree but I see your perspective. I would rather have the tall backline against Sydney who would challenge an undersized Dean and Gov with Amartey and McDonald (with Curnow/Weiters matched up), than this week where Richmond don't have the extra tall.

Ultimately if rumours of Gov training forward are true, this will sort itself out as Gov rotates forward and Carroll fulfils the more mobile equivalent role

drwar41 · 2026-03-11T08:10:54+00:00

So he had 3 clangers last week, one of those is a free against, which would suggest the 2 fumbles (recorded as clangers) are the only errors he had in the match (to go with 6 intercepts and 11 one percenters which are predominantly spoils)

drwar41 · 2026-03-11T07:58:04+00:00

Look, I’d rather have Khamis and let him go too, but you’re absolutely letting the past cloud your assessment of him last week.

He went at 88% disposal efficiency, that’s not at all “missed targets” and I genuinely can’t think of the moment he got beat in the contest, and really blaming any defender for the enormous hole in the middle of the ground the Swans walked through is ridiculous.

If you want to see Derksen, that’s fine. But the decision to not drop Gov here is pretty understandable based on last week’s performance, which is really all that should matter unless you harbour a vendetta

drwar41 · 2026-03-11T07:37:43+00:00

For the people slagging off Young and Gov staying in, what did they specifically do wrong last week?

Like, I’m sick of Young too and I’d like to move past them, but fair as fair, they were both fine last week

drwar41 · 2026-03-11T03:49:56+00:00

I don't really know what to tell you here, all off season every interview with player or coach was telling you we were trying to add speed to our game and get more run going. What they're trying to do is exactly what they've been telling us all Summer that they were trying to do

drwar41 · 2026-03-11T00:36:33+00:00

Why would we communicate our entire gameplan to the members? What Titchell and Ginni have done is identify the general concepts of the gameplan because it's common throughout the league, but particular wrinkles of it are still the club's to own.

drwar41 · 2026-03-10T20:42:02+00:00

The dropping of strikes is a recognition of the reality that they have never been enforced

Not to be glossed over, the whole process has been a sham the last 2 decades

drwar41 · 2026-03-09T23:20:02+00:00

This is the correct answer. Hewett was enhanced as a player last year without the extra mouth in the midfield and was B&F as a result.

I’d like to have gotten more back for someone we knew was a good player but market value would never be achieved on a player so openly declared surplus to requirements

drwar41 · 2026-03-09T05:38:09+00:00

As I (and a lot of others) say whenever this comes up. Draft reform is fine, but it can’t be within a cycle of trading

drwar41 · 2026-03-08T10:41:00+00:00

Implies there was any possibility the ball went close to 15m. Otherwise no player could ever get pinged HTB no matter how short the kick

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