Round 11: North Melbourne v Sydney Swans

[Melbournehammer]

I thought 32,000 was a pretty good crowd for last night's game.

Could someone who was at the game give me their estimate of the percentage that were Swannies fans? Watching the highlights later, it sounded like a very healthy percentage of the crowd was cheering the mighty Bloods!

Don't know whether this was answered but I would have thought we had 20-25% of the crowd. I was actually disappointed in our numbers last night. Once the north fans left at full time I guessed at about 6000-8000 swans

At Metricon the week before it was more like 50:50 I reckon.

[mcs]

We've got a pretty tough run home. We're facing 8 of the current top 9 teams (excluding ourselves of course) over the second half of the season plus GCS should be closer to full strength by the time we meet them in the final round.

That is true, but countered by the fact we only face GWS, Geelong and West Coast out of that group away. If our home form holds up, we will finish top 2. I wouldn't be too worried about GCS in Rd 23 - they'll well and truly be on holidays drinking by the time that game comes around.

- - - Updated - - -

My reaction was similar to Horse's: Richards was silly not to clear the mark - especially in that position of the ground - before attempting to dispose. He was trying to handball to Jetta but Waite had a piece of his arm which meant the handball was weak and dropped onto the ground.

The act of disposing of the ball from behind the mark, however poorly, is automatic play on - the umpire doesn't necessarily need to say anything.

The lesson here is to get sufficiently clear from the player on the mark (who is completely entitled to attempt to spoil kicks and handballs provided they don't overstep) before attempting to dispose.

That doesn't allow Waite to keep hanging on like he did however...

[Nico]

Where did I say he did anything wrong? And how did it take courage? I'm not sure if you've played footy or not but spoiling from behind with a knee up to protect yourself doesn't require any courage, it was a good spoil but he was hardly placing himself in a position to get hurt.

I didn't say that you said he did anything wrong. Yes I did play plenty of footy and have coached. I don't get your argument about courage in his incident. He came from behind!!! I am happy to disagree with you on what is courage.

[Industrial Fan]

is it just me or does Hannas get almost mortally wounded every week and come back on a few moments later seemingly unaffected?

[Doctor]

Yes, but you can't fault him on the incident with Hannebery - it was just a good hard spoil (although I can't see that it was particularly courageous). I love it when our defenders spoil like that when the ball comes into our defensive 50 (Grundy's probably our best at it). It was bad luck that Hanners was (slightly) hurt in the contest, but it's a contact sport and bruises happen.

Yes I agree. I was talking about his playing style in general, not the incident with Hannebery.

[Conor_Dillon]

I didn't say that you said he did anything wrong. Yes I did play plenty of footy and have coached. I don't get your argument about courage in his incident. He came from behind!!! I am happy to disagree with you on what is courage.

Wait, I'm saying that Ziebell's spoil didn't require any courage...but Dan waiting under a hospital pass definitely did.

[mcs]

The one other thing I forgot to comment on earlier - Parker's spins in traffic in the lead up to Buddy's match sealing goal - pure Class

[giant]

Don't worry, there is a long line of umpires of many a year that we all wonder how they got to AFL level without knowing the rules.

Well, I don't really think that's the case nor do I believe the bloke was cheating. To me, this chap really can not know what the rules are to have made such a call. That makes it a very special case of umpiring incompetence.

[111431]

I thought 32,000 was a pretty good crowd for last night's game.


Could someone who was at the game give me their estimate of the percentage that were Swannies fans? Watching the highlights later, it sounded like a very healthy percentage of the crowd was cheering the mighty Bloods!

I thought about 50/50

[Dosser]

Does anybody know when was the last time we played WCE in Sydney? Why are we always playing them over there?

[ugg]

Round 5 2010 - That's so long ago that Spangher was still in the Eagles colours!

Maybe the Swans have a say in it? After all we've won our last 5 against them at Subi, so why change a good thing?

[Doctor]

2 trips to Perth this year.

[Conor_Dillon]

Geez that was brilliant footy by Jack!

[ScottH]

The one other thing I forgot to comment on earlier - Parker's spins in traffic in the lead up to Buddy's match sealing goal - pure Class

Yes it was.

There were a number of times Parker should have been tackled easily, and he waltzed his way out of trouble.
Remarkable.

[RogueSwan]

...The act of disposing of the ball from behind the mark, however poorly, is automatic play on - the umpire doesn't necessarily need to say anything...

I am not good on all the rules but I don't think that is the case. Players have to wait for an umpire to call "play on" as a player moves sideways off a mark. They can't run at them until that call is made.
And isn't Teddy allowed to pull back his handball as long as he doesn't move of his mark? Or is that just every other team apart from the Swans?