#than gw bruce is being right now

[daydreamerwonderkid]

I know WFA is too OOC for some people, but I need that shit right now.

I do love seeing the Batfam beating the shit out of each other. I like how messy their relationships are and I have always loved flawed characters.

But idk, man, Batman #138 just really crossed a line for me and I need a reminder that there are other depictions of Bruce that aren't so fucking heinous.

I'll take this shit:

Over this shit:

Any. Fucking. Day.

[monaisme]

Day 26: recovery

*TRIGGER WARNING: Features major depressive episode, suicidal thoughts, and self neglect

Day 26: recovery

No one was quite sure what Peter was feeling, if Tony was being honest.

On the first day after—well, Tony guessed that it could be called the confrontation, no one had really approached him at all. He’d been in the med bay first for his own treatment, and then to wait on word about May. Once he’d heard the prognosis, he was out of there like a flash and in his own room in the tower. They’d figured that he needed that time to process.

None of the Avengers had heard of this Green Goblin character before, but he’d apparently been an old nemesis of the Spider-Kid and had a vendetta against Peter personally that hinged on psychotic.

Peter had thought he was gone; had assumed that the quiet had meant he’d curled up and died in a hole somewhere, but he’d been biding his time. He’d been waiting.

It broke Tony’s heart to do it, but being Tony Stark meant that he needed to take care of things that someone like Steve couldn’t manage. He had to go. SHIELD wasn’t asking.

But Pepper said she’d check on him.

Pepper had noted how sullen and withdrawn he’d been when she brought his breakfast to his room. She had knocked and then waited... and waited. When he didn’t answer, she’d asked FRIDAY to confirm that he was okay. The AI informed her that his stats were within normal parameters but that he was unmoving in his bed, and Pepper had freaked. Visions of Peter falling unconscious during the night flashed through her mind so she’d used her emergency override and stormed in, breakfast tray and all— but he was fine. He’d covered his head with his blanket and decided to hide away from the world.

After taking a minute to calm down from her scare, Pepper had been certain she heard him crying. She’d tried so hard to comfort him, of course, but he’d pulled the blankets tighter around himself. Pepper figured she’d respect his need for some time alone so she’d patted him on his good arm and left him to it.

After thinking about it, she wondered if Peter needed someone from the team to lean on—someone who understood what he had gone through. She spoke with Steve who swore he’d take over. She could put it out of her mind.

She thought of all the meetings she still had pending on her list and Steve was Captain America, so she did.

Yeah.

Steve had gotten a completely different reaction from the kid. It was a quick and clear rage. Steve was bringing dinner. He’d knocked and then entered carrying a tray of sandwiches and some bottles of juice. Peter needed to eat, and they’d left him alone for lunch at Pepper’s request so...

The lamp flying through the air and striking the doorframe only inches from Steve’s face had been unexpected. The shrieks of ‘Get out!’ over and over and over again had been unnerving. The hate-filled stare from the red-faced Peter was more than upsetting.

And Steve had no idea how to deal with it.

Steve put down the tray of food with an apology and backed out of the room.

Things hadn’t gone well, and in a fit of emotional constipation, Steve Rogers chose to delegate.

Tower staff were recruited to drop meals off at the door until further notice.

No one ensured that they were eaten.

It was the fourth day after when Tony finally had his chance to come. He’d been busy dealing with Damage Control, inventorying an evil goblin lair, and a gaggle of idiot politicians who were demanding answers that he didn’t have. He’d realized too late that having a debrief with Peter after the confrontation would have been a good idea, but that was neither here nor there.

This was a new day and it was going to be great. Tony knew that Pepper had some trouble with Peter that first day, but he was here now. Peter just needed someone he was comfortable with to bring him out of his funk. Tony was bringing news of his aunt that was tentatively promising and he’d managed to get a buttload of bacon croissanwiches from Burger King, the kid’s favourite. The medical staff had even mentioned that Peter could potentially get his cast off today, so it was going to be a good day.

Tony arrived at Peter’s room clutching the brown paper bag, knocked out a ‘shave-and-a-hair-cut,’ and waited for Peter to open the door.

No answer. That was weird.

Tony knocked again. “Peter? It’s Tony. Open the door!” He waited a few seconds. “Peter, I brought breakfast sandwiches!”

Still nothing.

Tony thought for a second and wondered, “FRIDAY, Peter’s still in his room, right?”

“Yes, Boss. Peter Parker is in his room.”

“Perfect. Tell the Spider-baby to let me in. The sandwiches are getting cold.”

The AI responded in an unexpected way. “I’m sorry, Boss. Peter seems to be unable to respond.”

“Excuse me? Did you say ‘unable to respond?’”

“Yes, Boss.”

“Dammit, FRIDAY! Emergency override Alpha-1-1-9-Charlie. Open the damn door!”

The lock on Peter’s door unlatched and Tony rushed into the dark room, adding his bag of breakfast to a pile of uneaten and rotting food.  Tony half-registered what that could mean before rushing to the barely conscious boy.

Tony knelt on the floor next to the bed. “Pete? Hey, kiddo?” Tony tapped his gaunt cheek. “Can you hear me?” He ran his calloused fingers through Peter’s unwashed hair. “Kid?”

Peter blinked. “Tony?” he whispered.

Tony smiled. “Hey, Pete. It’s me.” He noticed the smell in the room. When was the last time someone had checked on him? “Are you sick, bud? Do you need me to call the med bay?”

Peter barely shook his head ‘no.’

That was when Tony saw the profound sadness in his eyes, “What’s goin’ on then?”

Peter shook his head again and closed his eyes. “No more.”

Not know what the boy was talking about, Tony pushed, “What do you mean ‘no more,’ Peter? I’ve been away, kid. You’ve got to give me more.”

He opened his eyes again, struggled to focus. “Can’ hurt ‘em an’more.”

At that, Tony scanned the room, wondered who ‘them’ was, and really took in what he was seeing. The food in the corner—Pepper had tried to bring him breakfast that first full day. She’d mentioned leaving the tray that he recognized. It was untouched. Tony assumed that the fact that there was no plastic wrap anywhere that the sandwiches had been left, too. This didn’t make sense. “Peter, when did you eat last, bud?”

Peter pulled the blanket over his head with his good hand, just like he’d done with Pepper, but Tony couldn’t allow it. He pulled the blanket from Peter’s weak grasp and took his hand in his. “Peter?” Tony felt the weight loss before he saw it, but then saw how bony and frail Peter���s wrist looked. “Peter, I’m gonna take a look at you, kiddo.” He pulled the blanket back and gasped.

“FRIDAY, contact Bruce, tell him to get here now!” Tony barked, “Let him know we need an IV and nutrients, ASAP.”

It had been at least three full days and the weight loss was already visible and disturbing, even through the sweat soaked pyjamas. “Pete? What’s goin’ on? Why aren’t you eating?”

He must’ve been delirious because he started babbling. “I can’t anymore, Ms’r Stark. They all die... ‘Cuz I‘m Spid’man.”

Tony thought he’d understood what he was saying, but why would Peter think...? Who died? Because he’s Spider-Man?

“Pete?” Tony leaned in closer. “Peter, I don’t understand, sweetheart. Please tell me.”

He looked like he was trying to cry, but was too weak or too dehydrated. “I can’t keep hurtin’ ‘em, Mis’r Stark...” Peter became more agitated as he listed the names, “Cap’in Stacey... Gw-Gwen... Ben...“

“Peter. Those aren’t your fault. I promise.”

Peter didn’t hear him, “Mis’r Stark, I killed Gwen! An’ I hurt ‘em... Co’nel Rhodes, Liz... an’ May’s gonna hate me. I know i’s true.” Then he looked Tony is the eyes, need Tony to believe him. “’S true, ‘cuz I hate me, too.”

A knock on the door interrupted Peter’s confessional. Tony looked up at Bruce as he let himself in. “Thank goodness! Bruce. He hasn’t had anything since before the Goblin. Can you fix him up?”

Peter whined at the additional intruder in the room and then closed his eyes.

Concerned, Bruce rushed over and took Tony’s place by the bed. “What do you mean by anything?” Bruce took a quick glance around him and then focussed on the boy. He started pulling supplies from his large duffle bag. “Has he been sick? With his enhanced metabolism, going that long without eating could be--”

Tony knew exactly what it could be, and that was why he couldn’t bear the burden alone. “Bruce, I think he’s suicidal.”

And Peter started hyperventilating.

Tony realized what he’d done right away. “Shit. Peter, I’m so sorry. That was a real dumbass thing to say and I shouldn’t have, huh?” He didn’t want to move Bruce, but Peter needed him, too. “Here, I’m gonna just...” Tony rushed around to the other side of the bed and climbed on and over to Peter. He rested against the headboard, nudged up right next to Peter and started running his hand through Peter’s hair again. “I’m here, Pete. I just don’t quite get what happening, but I need you to be okay, and Bruce here is the best so...” Peter wasn’t focussed on much of anything, but Tony kept trying. “Did you know that Brucie here has seven PhDs and not one of them gives him permission to do stitches? Pretty incredible, right?” Tony hoped distraction would work.

It didn’t.

Peter tried to grasp at the covers he’d hidden under before, but his strength was leaving him.

“It’s okay, Peter, we’ve got you,” Bruce caught on to Tony’s train of thought. “And I promise no stitches.” He thought he understood what Peter was trying for and reached over the boy to pull the blanket over his legs. “You must be kind of chilly, hey?”

Peter tried to reach for the blanket again, but he was losing his battle with his panic attack.

“Hey, hey, Peter. You’re safe here.” Tony soothed from beside him. “I know you’re feeling pretty bad right now, but we’re gonna help you, okay?”

Peter shook his head ‘no.’ “I can’t—I can’t—I can’t—“ Peter’s eyelids fluttered shut and his head lolled to the side.

“Bruce?!” Tony called out.

But Bruce was already on it. He grabbed Peter’s wrist to check his pulse. “It’s there, but fast. Let me just...” Bruce was off and doing his ‘not a doctor’ doctor thing and that was all that mattered to Tony. Blood pressure, lungs and heart were checked. “He’s weak, Tony, and definitely needs medical intervention.”

Bruce dug through his bag again, pulling out an IV bag and assorted wipes and tape. He reached up behind the bed to place the bag on the hook all Avengers Tower superhero quarters had for exactly this reason and got to work.

“He’s really dehydrated, Tony,” he said after his third attempt at finding a vein. “If I can’t get this one then...” Bruce held his breath, checked the line, and then checked it again. “Oh, thank goodess! I’m gathering that the kid would prefer to be here in his quarters right now so...”

Tony nodded. “Yeah, and I’m not so sure I want SHIELD involved in something like this anyways, at least not yet. A broken bone is one thing, a shrink is something else...”

Both of the men thought of their “mental health assessments” and the stigmas they still fought back against. Hell, even Steve has shirked the whole assessment thing. Those SHIELD folks were hacks.

Bruce had to ask, though, “Tony, can you tell me how the hell this got so bad?” He was so confused. “I mean, we dealt with that other green guy a few days ago, and everything was fine.” Then Bruce thought of Peter’s aunt, still in the med bay while the doctors figured out how best to help her with her arm... “Okay, not fine, but still? How did we get from there to this?”

Tony seethed at the question. “I don’t know, Bruce. I thought I’d left people in place, but I guess I was wrong...” He wasn’t looking forward to those conversations. “When I find out, though, I’ll let you know.”

Bruce pressed a tender hand to Peter’s forehead to check for warmth, then kept it there for a beat longer. “We probably have a bit of time before he wakes up, but I’d like to monitor him for a while and maybe come up with a plan before then.”

Tony agreed. “Grab a chair, Brucie. I need to figure some things out, too, so you may as well be comfortable.”

“What do you mean?”

Tony sighed, “Before you got here, he was upset. I mean, he’s upset about his aunt, but he started listing other people that he’s hurt... and he said he’s killed—which we all know is total bullshit, but there’s something in this kid’s head that isn’t telling him the truth and it’s killing him.”

Bruce looked at Tony, “Well, then I guess we have some questions to find answers for so we can heal the kid.”

“I guess we do, Tony replied, “FRIDAY, who the hell is Gwen, and how is she connected to our Peter?”

FRIDAY responded almost immediately. “Sir, one match has been found for a Gwendolyne Maxine Stacey; born September 6, 2001 in Manhattan, New York. She died on August 14, 2015. Cause of death was reported as blunt force trauma to the head. Would you like me to continue, Sir?”

Bruce and Tony shared a glance. “Hit me, Girl.”

“While there were no witnesses to the incident, the autopsy report details evidence that the fatal injury occurred as a result of a fall from an estimated 170 feet in a campus clock tower.”

“Damn.” Tony ran his hand down his face in frustration.

“Sir, there is more.”

He almost said no. Almost. “Keep going then.”

“Yes, Sir. There is a note in the report that was not released to the public. The cause of death may have been a broken neck as both injuries would have been fatal and appeared to have happened simultaneously. Police reports indicate that a single strand of webbing was found on the victim’s torso. This, in conjunction with injures found on the body indicate that Spider-Man was on scene and had attempted to prevent a negative outcome. With the estimated velocity of the fall, the sudden stop from Spider-Man’s effort resulted in extreme cervical recoil, resulting in a broken neck and severing of the spinal column.”

Both men blanched.

“The Green Goblin was found on scene and confessed to being responsible for the death of Ms. Stacey, Sir. Would you like me to continue?”

“No thank you, FRI. That’s enough.”

They stood there, lost in their thoughts and staring at the boy who tried so damned hard all the damned time.

“2015 was just after Ben died and just before May sold their house to move to the apartment in Queens. He started going to Midtown around then, too.” Tony was recalling the basic information he’d looked at when he’d been searching for the kid for Germany.

Bruce was upset. “And neither of them ever mentioned this?”

Tony shook his head. “May has only just stopped spitting every time she says my name,” he joked weakly. “And the other is a teenage boy with abandonment issues. What do you think?”

Bruce smiled a little, “Got it.”

Tony paled further, “Oh, no. May.”

Bruce turned green, in a safely nauseous way. “He must have been trying to catch her in a way that would keep that from happening again. When Goblin tossed May off the building, he must have panicked.” Bruce was visualizing the confrontation, “And then with the greater height, plus Peter dealing with blood loss and a concussion—Oh, Tony! He did the best he could!” Bruce felt his pulse start racing, stopped speaking, took a calming breath, and resumed. “May should have been dead.”

Tony sighed, “We know that, but does he? ‘Cause he’s ended up with a broken arm and his aunt may never fully use her own arm again... Shit.” Tony rolled off the bed and paced. “This kid never gets a break, does he?”

“It doesn’t seem like it, but we’re gonna change that,” Bruce promised. “I know someone, he helps me with my, uh...” Bruce caught himself, and blushed as though embarrassed. “He helps me with my stress and is just a really nice guy. I bet he could help out with Peter.”

Thinking back on all that Peter said, Tony added, “I bet he could help May, too.”

They were quiet again, then Bruce had a thought. “I’m not a psychiatrist, but I’m guessing this is major depressive disorder. I’ve done some research for my own...” Bruce stopped himself again, then rephrased. “Okay. I’ve researched it some, and I’m concerned about the whole not eating thing. I believe you when you say he’s suicidal, but starvation is not a common method for teenage boys. It may be a separate symptom. What do we do about that?”

Tony was already feeling overwhelmed by the situation as a whole. Find a solution to it was beginning to feel insurmountable. How could they do this?—Fix this boy while keeping prying eyes from discovering? And who could they trust? And how could they explain away so many people coming in and out of the tower? And...

“The cabin.”

“Sorry, Tony, you’ll have to explain that one to me. I’m lost.”

Tony stopped pacing and grinned big at Bruce. “I just bought a cabin! It’s supposed to be another engagement present for Pepper but, well...” Tony wondered again where she’d been these last days. “Well, maybe we can use it as a home base. The kid needs a break—hell! I think you and I will conveniently need a break, too. We can all head out, relax, enjoy the fresh air—and Peter can just rest. We’ll be close by. It’s only 45 minutes from the city if you drive like a grandma. We can have people come to us and no one will be the wiser!” The thoughts were flying. “I can get FRIDAY prepped for integration before too long and between the three of us, we’d have a busy work project and could have the cabin inhabitable in no time.”

Bruce just stared at Tony.

“Was that too much?” Tony seemed unsure.

Bruce’s mouth opened... and then closed, and then finally, “I think that’s perfect. And after she’s better, his aunt can come out for a bit. How would that work, space wise?” If they were talking logistics, he was going all in.

“Oh, there’s room. She’ll need to take some time off of work, and her boss is a real—“ And there, reality kicked Tony in the teeth. “Shit. Wait. We’re going to have to make some arrangement for the two of them. Get rent paid up for a few months, utilities, and so on.”

“Tony?”

“May is a nurse... was a nurse. We’re gonna have to work from the ground up on this—and we’ll have to tread lightly. May is as stubborn as they come, but she’s a mama bear if ever there was one, so she’ll do anything to help Peter.” Tony felt tired. “It’ll be a balance, but we’ll get them help, whatever they need.”

Peter stirred so Bruce took the time to recheck his blood pressure.

“It’s better. The fluids are helping... and between the two of us, we’ll figure out the rest. I promise. Okay, Tony?”

Tony thought of all the things this boy... his boy had already been through, and how he’d been alone against the world. He maybe thought of Bruce and himself, but only a little and how they’d been alone, too. There was no way Tony would allow that to happen for any of them again, and so he replied with an emphatic nod, “Okay.”

 @febuwhump

[darkspellmaster]

Young Justice Theory: Final Crisis connections

Given events that have taken place over the last three episodes and the clue that the episodes spell Prepare the Anti life equation, it’s becoming more and more clear that that Greg and Brandon probably are pulling from Final Crisis and the events surrounding it. 

The more I’m looking at the events of good old Final crisis the more I’m seeing stuff going down with the YJ crew that mirror stuff going on with Final Crisis. And, while I don’t think that this event will happen in this season, I feel like we’ll see this whole event going on with either Season 4 or Season 5. 

-New Gods are at war and Darkseid manages to manifest inside the body of a human, and making him want to be the architect of a new universe. On top of this a Monitor is placed inside a human to deal with his failings in his duties. 

So we know that Darkseid is up to something since he’s making deals with the Light. We also know that Halo’s powers came from the sky. The question is was it coming from outside her or coming from inside her already. She knows facts about New Genesis, and realizes a lot of things about  herself and yet she doesn’t connect to her past self. Meaning that there’s the option that this can either be the Mother box they pulled apart and put into her, or that this could be a New God that is reacting to things around her. 

We know Orion is missing, or rather away, according to Bear. Could he or another God be in her? This could also be a Monitor, as they can also come in male or female forms and being placed in her as her body has the ability through the Mother Box to connect to the New Gods. 

-New God Granny Goodness posses a body of a Green Lantern to frame Hal Jordan for Murder, and that leads to Bruce deducing who she is and him being captured. This also leads to the call to arms by the Heroes for a war against Darkseid. 

So how might this play in. Well we know that the VR Sets that  are being put out are pushing the GW network which is run by jerk faced G. Gordon Godfrey, aka,  Glorious Godfrey -who works for Darkseid himself. 

Oh but that’s not all. As others have pointed out these goggles seem to connect to Granny Goodness, the head of the Female Furies on Apokolips and also a right monster. While it’s clear that these goggles are being used for possible corruption purposes, I think they’re also being used for scanning. Namely to identify children who have Meta genes to exploit them to build the army that Darkseid needs, and more than likely it’s scanning for pieces of the equation itself. 

Granny could very well be Helga Jace or anyone in disguise, and it’s clear that the others in the Light have someone that they’re working with outside of Godfrey. On top of this, given what happens in Final, it’s very easy to see Granny getting her hands on Batman after maybe framing someone on the team for murder. 

Having the JL have to rise up against them would make sense, which could lead to other issues with the Light later. 

Keep in mind the ones that they are going after meaning to Apokolips their minds can be ore easily played with. And who are the ones using the VR sets the most? Kids. 

-Outsiders and the Judas contract act as a distraction and the possible infection of various characters. 

With team Batman working their own and the looming implications for the Judas contract coming into play it’s not hard to see this working in favor for the Light. It wouldn’t be that hard to see, through some means, Wonder Woman and others being infected while out in space and carrying the illness to earth. This could led to a lot of problems, namely the title of Antisocial  Pathologies. Which more than likely will be covering the whole situation with the bacteria named Morticoccous. 

-Time Travel again and the return of Bart and Conner. 

So in the original story Lois get’s mortally wounded when a bomb goes off and wounds her at the Daily Planet. Meanwhile Barry and Wally have to race against the Black Death -the death of the New Gods, and stop a bullet from killing Orion. Meanwhile both Bart and Connner were returned from their deaths via the LoSH from the future and the two sent back to help save everyone. 

Likely we’re going to see Barry and Bart doing the running with Wally returning along with Conner if he’s killed to stop the situation. This may tie into the idea that Barry may go into the future with Iris leaving Bart with someone like Max or grow up Bart, or leave Wally as the only Flash with Jay joining them. 

-Dan Turpin searching for Missing kids leads him to the Dark Side Club, failure to stop Orion’s death and the fall out of Darkseid using the Anti life equation on the humans. 

So we already have people looking for missing kids, although we don’t have a Dark Side Club, and we already have a missing Orion, so that all checks out and connects. I don’t think he’s dead...yet, but it could come into play later. 

Okay so this is somewhat important. The Anti Life Equation is more commonly a math problem that is a math proof of the futility of life. This is unleashed through the net in the original story. However! I don’t think that will happen this time. 

Behind Babs is the Oracle Eye. Now this is not the normal Oracle looking icon. 

That is the oracle Symbol. You know what the eye is for? 

This is Brother Eye, a program that was created by Batman due to his paranoia from his memory being erased by Zantana in Identity Crisis. Brother eye is a huge satellite that watches Metahumans and can infect people with nanotechnology. 

It’s more likely that Darkseid will wind up controlling this and end up using that to infect or corrupt the people of earth. 

Meanwhile we would probably see Barry and Bart probably meeting Wally and possibly Conner in some future time line and fighting against the super human army that Darkseid created. More than likely we would see exactly how the supers that are not infected stay uninfected by the equation and possibly a cure to all of this in the form of a symbol by Anthro given to Metron of the New Gods. 

-Heroes of unlikely types. 

Given that Lex and Dr. Sivana play a huge role towards the end of this story helping to go against Darkseid I would not be surprised if we got the story point that, with the tech that Lex has, he and Silvana are able to get control from the Justifiers in this story with the heroes in the future and turn them back to normal so they can fight against Darkseid. We probably will see Damian here in this future. 

I’m really not sure how things will play out for the rest of the story. But given the ending being called Nevermore I think we may see some really depressing endings come out of this. 

Superman comes back from the future, and Batman get’s “killed” by Darkseid after escaping from being held by Commander D. The Flashes end up leading the Black death racer to Darkseid to kill him, meanwhile the Ray traces the Metron symbol across the earth freeing everyone, and then everything gets sucked into darkness after Wonder Woman releases Darkseid from the body of Dan Turpin. Superman, thanks to the LoSH finds a wish granting machine and has to sing to it to counter Darkseid, and winds up fighting against the evil monitor that has been mostly controlling Darkside. This leads to the army of Supermen from the multiverse to come and that leads to the arrival of various teams from across the multiverse to fight with the Darkness. In the end they win and Superman wishes for a happy ending. 

Turns out that Bruce isn’t dead, he’s sent back in time and has to time jump back to the future. This leads to the Battle for the Cowl, leading Dick to become batman, Damian to become Robin. Tim to search for Bruce as Red Robin and Jason to become a protector of Gotham. Barry Allen comes back from the dead, the Teen Titans reform with some fall out regarding Conner trying to figure out himself now, and Bart dealing with being dead and alive again. 

Honestly it’s hard to guess what they’re going to pull from this story but if I had to guess...

Return of Wally West from the Future. 

Batman “dying” 

Jason, Dick, Tim and possibly Cassandra fighting for the Cowl

Birth of Jon will come out of this I’m damn sure

Conner either deciding to go to the future because he feels he can do good there being with the Legion of Super Heroes. 

We may see hints of the Guardians of Oa taking on a bigger role or hints of the Crisis on Infinite Earths looming. 

I’m sure Young Justice Season 5′s crew will look very different than what we have now. 

Halo is not going to make it as I think she’s living on borrowed time.

Terra’s death and other things may lead to Brion staying with the team and helping them go forward. 

Forger will probably go back with the New Gods and become the Bugs leader. 

[fmlfpl]

Lineup Lamentations - Blank GW28

Our Transfers, Captains, and Starting 11s for the week!

No Walsh this week at all so thank you to both Derek and Guest for subbing into Friday (Thursday) My Life and also doubley thanks to Guest for subbing in for these Lambs.

<3 Pod Boys <3

—

GUEST JASON

TRANSFERS:

OUT: Aubameyang, Maupay, Mahrez

IN (for -4 points hit): Vardy, Jiménez, H. Barnes

Hits are good. Discounted hits for -2 are even better.

I’m contradicting some of my positions on the pod after a solid night of sleep and many dreams about Saka. On whether or not to drop Aubz it comes down to the simple fact of 2 matches > 1 match. That and the sound of Alon saying “Aubz and Vardy are the same player.”

Elsewhere, Neal Tha God’s watch has ended and I decided to go for Jimi over Jota. This transfer was meant to be a long-term hold and I feel like Jimi can better take care of my wants and needs on that kind of timeline better than fuckboi Jota. Harvey Barnes finally arrives and the people rejoice.

I hope everyone had a great Whiskey Thursday. Now let’s get to work.

GK:

Schmeichel (nor)

Woodman owners are unlucky this week with the blank so trusted backup keeper Schmikes comes in to cover. Normal service will soon resume but for this weekend I’m gonna be Like Schmikes.

DEF:

Alexander-Arnold & van Dijk (wat)

This father and son duo are the lifeblood of my defense and long may it last. Conceding to Moyes’ Boys last week was not encouraging but I’ll take it as a blip and trust that at Twatty the clean is still V V Due.

Stephens (whu)

Jack the Lad comes up against a garbage team with a garbage manager. Reasonable expectations of a clean but I’ll still consider myself lucky if it comes through.

Rico (CHE)

Fuck Rico and fuck me for owning him.

MID:

Salah (wat)

I would never sideways transfer you to Mane. Go on lad, collect your 3 points and fuck over the captaincy masses.

Barnes (nor)

I welcome this Pretty Young Thing to the squad with great anticipation. Long the apple of my eye-test, this patch of green fixtures has been drawing us closer and closer together for weeks. Well here we are. Let’s fuck.

Traoré (tot)

Eagerly anticipating the 20-minute appearance and 1 point return as per. He much prefers playing on the continent so fuck me, I guess.

FWD:

Ings (whu)

Lads, it’s West Ham. Dings will dong as Dings does.

Jiménez (tot)

I opted for the security blanket of Jimi rather than chasing Jota’s goals from last week. Fair chance that this spot stays untouched from here on out.

Vardy (nor)

Vardy is Auba. Einhorn is Finkle. Right then, simple transfer. But the true dumb thing that pushed me over the line on making this transfer was reading that Vardz is on 97 career prem goals. The thought of him hitting that hundo with a hatty on his 200th appearance… that’s narrative baby.

CAP:

Alexander-Arnold (wat)

As discussed on Friday My Thursday, I’m dead set on a differential cap this week. I’m sewing a scarlet “C” onto his chest so the whole world can see how much I love this lad.

—

ALON

TRANSFERS:

OUT: Aubameyang and Martial

IN: Vardy and H. Barnes

Look at us bringing in all the Leicester attackers!

In the end I decided against taking a hit because based on talking it out with Newcastle fans and Man. United fans and Slackers and people on Twitter I feel pretty ok about starting Hayden and B.Williams this week. Logic would say they start but even if only one of them starts I’ll take it.

I’m following what’s been a successful and good strategy for me which is going aggressive for the guys with high ceilings and going with guys I like and good fixtures to exploit etc... fundamentals... Vardy been missing pens and outta form and yet here we are and he’s got hatty potential against Norwich so we make those moves.

Barnes I just love and have loved since last season and he looks fantastic so I’m going there. I wasn’t feeling strongly enough about Bruno or Rich to spend 2.5ish million more on them... Also kinda cool this gives me 5m in the bank so if it ends up being a double GW next week I can basically get anyone.

GK:

McCarthy (whu)

Alex coming in to do a job here. This is why I have you bro get in there!!!

Good shout for a clean vs. West Ham always but who knows they scored twice vs. Liverpool what do I know?

DEF:

Alexander-Arnold & Gomez (wat)

Couple a lads going for it.

Big boon for me that my cup opponent does not have Trent so hoping for huge Trent scenes this week in what should be a clean... Although Watford played Liverpool really really well in the reverse fixture must be said.

Williams (eve)

I think expecting Williams back in at wingback with 3ATB for Man. United is very logical and reasonable.

It’d be a death sentence for United’s CBs to leave them 2 on 2 vs. DCL and Rich they’d just run them ragged imo so go to 3ATB which is where that formation came from in the first place to counter 442 it all makes too much sense.

BWill fresh and ready to bomb up and down the wings and get a yellow card and concede multiple goals for a 0 pointer. Get in.

MID:

Salah (wat)

Shouted on Thursday My Life that I’m thinking about the sideways Mo -> Sadio move because honestly the way Mo has looked lately and the fact he just gets triple team draped by defenders every time he’s on the ball I just do not like his prospects for regularly returning points.

That said he’s still a legend god so go on Mo prove me wrong.

Barnes (nor)

I don’t think I have it in my vocabulary to do a better write-up on Barnes then what Guest did up above so yeah just reread his poetry.

Hayden (BUR)

Isaac always finds his way into the 11 and this week he’s an integral part.

Hopefully the Geordies on Twitter are right and Bruce switches things up because they’ve been embarrassingly bad and Bentaleb is complete trash and so Hayden gets back in there. Go on.

McCarthy (bha)

Double McCarthy for me this week is interesting...

This Mc is the ultimate 1 point yellow card floor and 3 point ceiling kinda guy. We take it... Cheapest nailed mid in the game so whatever give it to me. If you offered me two points right now I would take it.

FWD:

Vardy (nor)

Alan Vardew hatty potential locked and loaded and ready to fuck. Very few shots and elite finishing he’s just like that guy Aubz who I just binned off and he has an extra match, what’s not to love?

Ings (whu)

Ingsy gonna keep Ingsing.

Jiménez (tot)

Steady Raul keep it going lad. Got a nice rest and should be ready to bang against Spurs.

CAP:

Vardy (nor)

I’m on Vardy now but there are all sorts of lineup nightmare cuck leak rumors on Twitter so I guess I might change off him before the deadline... My second favorite option is joining Guest on Trent especially since my opponent in the cup doesn’t own him. We’ll see what goes down. Godspeed.

[footyplusau]

After the siren: Flaws that could stop contenders

FIFTEEN weeks into the season and what remains abundantly clear is the premiership race is as wide open as it has ever been.

If you’re the AFL, it is the culmination of years of carefully crafted and meticulously implemented equalisation plans. On any given Friday, Saturday, Sunday (and the occasional Monday and Thursday) any team can beat another team. 

But what is also becoming clear is that the 2017 premiership might not be won by a champion team, necessarily, but perhaps the team with the fewest flaws.

So, at the risk of being branded the resident curmudgeon on AFL.com.au, let’s look at the flaw that might just hold back each of the premiership contenders in 2017.

• The run home: How the race for the finals is shaping up

Greater Western Sydney: On paper, the best team in the competition, but the clock is ticking on whether the Giants will be able to field their best 22 ahead of the finals. Brett Deledio hasn’t played, Stephen Coniglio will have missed half a season when he returns and Ryan Griffen likely won’t play until the start of the finals. And then there is the discipline issue that lingers just beneath the surface. Had Steve Johnson – whose absence arguably cost the Giants in their preliminary final last year – not given away a dumb 50m penalty on Saturday night that gifted the Cats a goal, GWS may yet have won.

Adelaide: The heaviest scoring team in the competition and if the Crows can play the game on their terms, they are really hard to stop. But they’re 4-4 in their past eight games and laboured to the line against the Blues on Saturday. Would they have made it past their fellow top-eight clubs on that effort? Debatable.

Geelong: There was a lot to like about the Cats on Saturday night – three debutants and almost getting the win away to the Giants. But they blew a chance to score a big win on the road and in such an even season, the ability to win on the road is critical. The Cats travel to the Gabba this week and then to Adelaide to face the Crows a fortnight after that. They need to take care of business on the road when they can.

Richmond: Seats aboard the Tiger train are filling fast after the slashing win over Port Adelaide on Saturday night. But can the 11th-best attack in the competition win a premiership? That’s what the Tigers need to deal with. A 2017 flag to the Tigers will be built on the back of a brilliant backline and it won’t be the first time that has happened.

Melbourne: A bit like the Giants, the Demons are struggling to get their best team on the park. And their next few weeks might see them without three midfield guns – Nathan Jones, Jack Viney and Dom Tyson. And then there’s the discipline. Having Jesse Hogan and Jordan Lewis unavailable earlier in the season arguably cost the Demons a win or two, Tom Bugg won’t be playing any time soon, while Dean Kent, Jay Kennedy-Harris, Ben Kennedy and Jake Spencer weren’t considered for selection last week after breaking club rules during the week. Not ideal. Not this year.

Port Adelaide: With the second-best percentage in the competition and the second-most points for, the Power can get the scoreboard working. But the form line is the worry here. Saturday night’s capitulation to Richmond – at home – continued a season-long trend of Port losing to teams in the eight. Even coach Ken Hinkley agrees there is no counterpoint unless his men knock over one of the big boys.

West Coast: Working out which West Coast will turn up week to week is the biggest issue for Adam Simpson. Are they the mob that meekly surrendered a comfortable late lead to Melbourne last week, or the group that travelled across the country the next, overcoming a couple of injuries to knock over the reigning premiers? It was huge for the Eagles to pick up a much-needed win at in Melbourne, but they’ve twice failed at the MCG this year.

• Around the state leagues: Who starred in your club’s twos?

Sydney: The Swans are the form team of the competition, having come back from a 0-6 start to the cusp of the top eight. Their best footy is the best in the competition. But how many petrol tickets have they spent to get back in contention? The Swans have no margin for error and cannot afford to flirt with their form. 

St Kilda: It’s all coming together for the Saints, but a look at their season shows a pair of three-game winning streaks. They’re riding another of those now, which adds to the intrigue of the Richmond game coming up. Win four straight at this time of the year and you start to have the makings of a really good side. The intensity that marked the win over GWS earlier this year was on display again for large parts of the Freo game. But is it the norm for St Kilda in 2017?

The Tribunal times, they should be a-changin’

Some of the inner workings of the AFL’s judicial processes were laid bare on Saturday in a deep-dive interview with AFL football boss Simon Lethlean on ABC radio.

It came after a huge week on the Tribunal front with the Bachar Houli suspension and subsequent AFL-led appeal, and then the crude Tom Bugg strike on Callum Mills on Friday night, which surely will be referred straight to the Tribunal when the Match Review Panel meets on Monday.

What we learned was that while the MRP’s standing as an independent body remains enshrined, Lethlean has a look at what incidents are likely to be reviewed and the recommended sanctions (and otherwise) before they are finalised. There may be times when the MRP seeks his counsel during its deliberations.

But it remains an antiquated system in some ways. It is almost the last vestige of a semi-professional competition once played exclusively in the suburbs of Melbourne, only on Saturday afternoons and run by administrators who could only deal with the affairs of the game at night once their days in the factory, classroom or office were done.

• Nine things we learned from round 15

While it is a given that Bugg will be going straight to the Tribunal, the fact that it won’t be officially confirmed until Monday afternoon is absurd. The medical report that Lethlean said the MRP will rely on in making its adjudication will be available well before Monday morning, given the Swans played on Friday night. There needs to be process, but there is also video technology (Telstra, being an official partner of the AFL, could surely help in this regard) that could allow the MRP to meet remotely, as early as Saturday to make its ruling following Friday night games and, increasingly, Thursday night games as well.

ANALYSIS: Bugg has only one move left

Until that happens, the Bugg episode will be replayed over and over and over again and the game won’t have moved on from the days of black shorts at home, white shorts away and black and white TV. 

The entire AFL judicial process will be reviewed at the end of the season, as it is every year. It is a complicated and multi-layered system. But just as Lethlean courageously defied years of convention by appealing the Houli suspension, he could add some speed and contemporary thinking to the MRP system that sometimes takes too long.

Swans throw players’ code out the window

Of course, what the MRP won’t need to take into consideration are the views of some of Mills’ teammates. Perhaps Bugg brought this all upon himself with his provocative pre-game Instagram message before the Bulldogs game a few weeks back, but the Swans were quite forthright in their condemnation of Bugg after Friday’s game, in a clear departure from the old-fashioned players code that would suddenly appear after a contentious incident.

Defender Nick Smith gave one example on 3AW: “(I was) taught to play footy the right way. You want to hurt your opposition, but not in that fashion.” It was the polite but direct sort of dig one would expect from the Scotch College-educated Smith. But there were no airs and graces from teammate Tom Papley, who told AAP simply that it was a “dog act”. 

We think that’s what Smith wanted to say, only he’s a bit too polite.

Nick Smith told Tom Bugg what he really thought on Friday night. Picture: AFL Photos

Lions’ den gets a lot more attractive 

That’s one hell of a coaching job Chris Fagan is doing at the Gabba after the Brisbane Lions came from 27 points down early in the final quarter to beat Essendon at Etihad Stadium, sending a huge 41,000 crowd home in stunned silence.

More weeks than not there has been a bit to like about the Lions and on Sunday it was four goals from the rapidly emerging Eric Hipwood and 29 classy touches in just his second game from last year’s No.23 draft pick Alex Witherden. When Lewis Taylor and Dayne Zorko play well, the Lions become that much harder to beat.

The Lions are on a journey and they’re savouring every moment. Witness the unbridled excitement from coach Chris Fagan afterwards in the coach’s box, on the ground and in the rooms.

The Lions can’t make the finals and will likely win the wooden spoon. But if you’re the No.1 rated junior in the country, you’d have few qualms about joining a club that has bottomed out and is starting its climb back to respectability.

• Forecast the road to the flag with the AFL Ladder and Finals Predictor

Other observations

1. 30, 30, 25, 95, 103 and 19. That’s the losing margins for St Kilda in their last six trips to Domain Stadium before Sunday. The Saints should have knocked over West Coast in round two, but ran out of steam, but they powered home with two late goals to Josh Bruce to beat Fremantle by nine points after trailing at every change. Before Sunday they had lost 11 out of 12 outside Victoria. Brilliant, brilliant win by the Saints as they put a major bogey to bed. 

2. All the Saints won’t take home to Victoria are the three Brownlow votes. They will go to Michael Walters, who with 32 touches, six marks and six goals, played one of the best games by a small forward you will ever see. Plaudits to the Saints, but the Dockers would have been worthy winners on his efforts alone.

WATCH: Six of the best from Sonny

3. It was a nice weekend for those making their debut, with Tyson Stengle booting two for the Tigers on debut in Adelaide, as did Wylie Buzza for the Cats in the draw against the Giants. Buzza now has the best name in footy, although not for too long. The potential debut of Irving Mosquito in 2019, perhaps for the Hawks as part of their Next Generation academy, has footy’s name watchers giddy with excitement.

4. Adelaide Oval has been the scene of a pair of nice redemption stories in the past two weeks. After being kept goalless in a half by Port Adelaide in round 11, the Hawks came back three weeks later to knock over the Crows. Richmond, meanwhile, lost by 76 points to the Crows in round six, before returning 10 weeks later to beat the Power by 13. The ghosts of the Tigers’ 2014 finals humiliation might have been put to bed once and for all.

5. The nice story of the weekend was Nathan Vardy kicking the sealer for West Coast against the Bulldogs on Saturday. The star-crossed big man managed just 25 games in six years for Geelong and sought a fresh start with the Eagles this year. And while he might have initially been thought of as cover for the season while Nic Naitanui’s reconstructed ACL slowly healed, Vardy has not skipped a beat all year. As he said in a candid post-game interview on Fox Footy afterwards, football is supposed to be fun, but it is anything but when you can’t get on the park. Also good for the Eagles on Saturday was key defender Eric Mackenzie, who has struggled mightily since injuring his knee in 2014. But his confidence is returning and it allows the Eagles to play Jeremy McGovern forward, where he is at his most dangerous.

WATCH: Vardy brilliance gets Eagles home

6. Trent Cotchin the best captain in the league? We’re not buying that just yet. But how good was the change-room vision of Cotchin calmly talking to a clearly rattled Alex Rance at half-time on Saturday night. The soothing talk must have had the desired effect because after a half of being run around by Jackson Trengove, Rance went back to being the best full-back in the competition in the second half and helped engineer a fabulous win. 

7. The Hawks have eschewed the hard tag in recent years and let’s face it, they haven’t really needed to. They’ve let the likes of Scott Pendlebury run amok in recent years but it hasn’t mattered much because overall talent would win out. So the Hawks have turned to youngster Dan Howe and in the last fortnight he has kept Rory Sloane to 23 touches without having much of an influence while on Sunday it was 250-gamer Pendlebury who was kept to 21 touches without ever getting on the leash. The coaching at Hawthorn remains very, very good.

The post After the siren: Flaws that could stop contenders appeared first on Footy Plus.

from Footy Plus http://ift.tt/2sDJd8e via http://footyplus.net

[workingclassdan]

2017 AFL season preview

How will your team go this year? Find out in my 2017 AFL season preview.

ADELAIDE CROWS The Crows defied everyone’s expectations in 2016 by thriving despite losing Dangerfield. Can they keep it up this season? Their brand of footy is really exciting, which aren’t words often used in relation to Adelaide.

BRISBANE LIONS The Lions’ women’s team won the right to host the grand final then lost it as a million Adele fans hell-bent on wanton destruction mangled the Gabba turf. If the men’s team want to win more than a handful of games, they could do a lot worse than drafting some women.

CARLTON BLUES Bryce Gibbs was so desperate to leave Visy Park he tried to go to Adelaide. Poor guy. The way the Blues played the pre-season I don’t think anyone wants to be there. A few players are just showing up to collect a pay cheque, especially Daisy Thomas.

COLLINGWOOD MAGPIES The Pies will have to do without Travis Cloke this year. How will they ever replace all those behinds he kicked? Pre-season highlight was Jordan De Goey who claimed he broke his hand “playing with his dog”, by which he meant punching on in a nightclub.

ESSENDON BOMBERS Should be a different team this year as a couple of dozen players get un-suspended this year. Can call on Mick Gatto to put the wind up a few opposition players the week before they play the Bombers.

FREMANTLE DOCKERS On the plus side the Dockers get Nat Fyfe back. Fyfe is a free agent after this season, so look to him to dominate to drive his price up. On the down side, they’re still coached by Ross Lyon, so best to look anywhere but at the Dockers.

GEELONG CATS Will have high hopes this year. Not for the premiership, but high hopes they’ll get another sponsor after Joel Selwood lost his licence for speeding and the TAC hightailed it out of Geelong like the Dukes of Hazzard.

GOLD COAST SUNS What’s going on at Gold Coast? Dunno. Who cares?

GWS GIANTS The only thing standing in their way of the premiership is that everyone has picked them for the premiership. The same people thought the Dockers had a good shot last year.

HAWTHORN HAWKS After years of dominance, the Hawks decided to share their stars with the other teams. To keep up the goodwill, they also rubbed out Hodgey for Round 1. Positive: Roughy returns after battling cancer. Negative: They drafted Ty Vickery, who is battling PTSD after years at Richmond.

MELBOURNE DEMONS The Dees might just win some games this year, but someone tell them the pre-season now counts for even less than it used to. Prediction 1: Jordan Lewis will learn what it’s like to lose more than four games in a season. Prediction 2: Sad Jack Watts memes will become the new Sad Keanu.

NORTH MELBOURNE KANGAROOS The Roos cleared room in their salary cap by retiring several of their champions. Maybe they’ve tanked earlier than any team ever has before. They didn’t draft anyone to take their places, so I guess the Roos are just sitting this year out to be well rested for 2018.

PORT ADELAIDE POWER You know what is more boring than Adelaide? Port Adelaide.

RICHMOND TIGERS Richmond fans have been waiting on a premiership since 1982. Their only hope might be if Dustin Martin’s dad has Mick Gatto’s phone number and they can have the opposition experience some “unfortunate accidents” like he’s working for Essendon.

ST KILDA SAINTS Saints fans have been waiting for a second flag since 1966. This group might actually be going places…mostly to Etihad, not to the MCG on grand final day. Geez, don’t get ahead of yourself.

SYDNEY SWANS We can say the same thing about the Swans every year – They’ll be up there again. And once again Buddy Franklin will make you feel like a thoroughly inferior human being. *Cries into an overpriced plastic cup of Carlton Draught*

WEST COAST EAGLES “We’re the Eagles, we’re flying high”. Seems like the Eagles of the early 2000s took the theme song a little too literally. Sam Mitchell is football’s version of Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense, he’s a ghost caught in limbo, his career is over but his body is stuck in purgatory for 12 months (Actually Perth is more like Hell). But there’s still some life left in the old boy, looking forward to him delivering a few lace out to Josh Kennedy.

WESTERN BULLDOGS Last year they kicked enough goals to win the flag. With Travis Cloke they can look forward to kicking a lot more behinds as well. Can they win another flag for Bob Murphy returning in defence? I expect Bob to do his other knee in the prelim to inspire the Dogs to win for their captain, and then Bevo will hand him a second premiership medal as Murph wheels his wheelchair into the steps of the grand final staging. Someone please install a ramp for Bob!

[footyplusau]

Spluttering Saints can still find some steam

Sometimes a mid-season break can derail a side just when it’s building a nice head of steam. And on some occasions, it’s perfectly timed. And when the bye rounds start next week, that’s what it will be for St Kilda.

A fortnight ago, the Saints had just won their fifth game from six, were 5-3 and on points, equal fourth on the ladder. But to say the last two games have delivered a reality check would be an understatement.

Play Video Don’t Play

Kangaroos clinch bizarre win over Carlton

Play Video Don’t Play

Previous slide Next slide

AFL plays of round 10

AFL plays of round 10

Top Cat takes a screamer, Buddy deadly but Burgoyne all silk, Garlett turns it on in Alice, Tiges rule Dreamtime at the G and Greene brilliance delivers in the West.

Kangaroos clinch bizarre win over Carlton

Play Video Don’t Play

Kangaroos clinch bizarre win over Carlton

Kangaroos clinch bizarre win over Carlton

North Melbourne amassed a huge lead over Carlton before somehow falling behind, only to respond with five last term goals.

Was Weitering confused?

Play Video Don’t Play

Was Weitering confused?

Was Weitering confused?

North Melbourne Midfielder Taylor Garner was in the right place at the right time to capitalise on a rare mistake from Jacob Weitering.

Collingwood dismiss Brisbane

Play Video Don’t Play

Collingwood dismiss Brisbane

Collingwood dismiss Brisbane

Collingwood kept their feint finals hopes alive with a win over bottom of the table Brisbane.

More umpiring controversy at MCG

Play Video Don’t Play

More umpiring controversy at MCG

More umpiring controversy at MCG

There was nothing in it late in the second term at the MCG and many were confused over this ruling.

Adelaide destroy Fremantle in wet

Play Video Don’t Play

Adelaide destroy Fremantle in wet

Adelaide destroy Fremantle in wet

The Crows demonstrated their Premiership credentials as they destroyed the Dockers.

Tigers finally clinch tight one

Play Video Don’t Play

Tigers finally clinch tight one

Tigers finally clinch tight one

Richmond have put four consecutive losses behind them with a 81-66 defeat of Essendon in front of a record regular season Saturday night crowd at the MCG.

AFL plays of round 10

Top Cat takes a screamer, Buddy deadly but Burgoyne all silk, Garlett turns it on in Alice, Tiges rule Dreamtime at the G and Greene brilliance delivers in the West.

Coach Alan Richardson could gild the lily and point out that the subsequent two losses have been to last season’s grand finalists. Fortunately for the Saints, he’s too smart for that.

The reality is that St Kilda is now 10th at 5-5, and facing a season-defining month after the break, taking in what is currently the toughest task in football, Adelaide away, a North Melbourne to whom they’ve lost on the last six occasions, Gold Coast then a second road trip to Perth to play Fremantle. It gets arguably harder still after that.

Key indicators: The Saints after round nine against the Sydney Swans. Photo: Getty Images

Assessing just where any team sits in the pecking order has been even harder than usual this year. But a side which finished ninth with a bullet last season and recruited well would have expected more come this point.

Of the Saints’ five wins, only that Friday night triumph over GWS stands out, those against Brisbane and Carlton routine victories, and Collingwood and Hawthorn beaten when they were at low ebbs. Have St Kilda actually improved at all? It’s a valid question.

The Saints are one win better off than at the same stage last year. They haven’t suffered as many heavy defeats. But most of the other key indicators remain about where they were. And some of the problems the same.

On paper going into this season, St Kilda appeared to have a midfield group now of sufficient depth to challenge the big guns. It hasn’t quite worked out like that.

Even with Seb Ross’ continued improvement, Jack Steven is still very much a barometer for the Saints. When he struggles, like on Saturday when he was effectively curbed by Bulldog Lachie Hunter, so do the Saints.

David Armitage’s loss through injury hasn’t helped, ditto the absence of recruit Koby Stevens in several games through illness and suspension. The drop-off and subsequent dropping of Luke Dunstan has been bad timing for both he and the Saints.

Jack Steele has been a handy pick-up and Jack Newnes is having a decent season, but it’s Ross and defender Dylan Roberton who have been St Kilda’s standouts so far. More of the midfield brigade needed to be among that number.

The Saints have an unhealthy number of players who should be regular midfield contributors but at this stage remain primarily small forwards who might have an occasional run on the ball. Jack Billings, Jade Gresham, Jack Lonie, Jack Sinclair, Nathan Wright and Darren Minchington are among that number.

So is Mav Weller, who at the moment contributes little either as a midfielder or even as a defensive forward. And none of that group hit the scoreboard hard enough, win enough ball or prevent their opponents winning it often enough to be carried and St Kilda still win more often than it did.

Things are still hard going when Nick Riewoldt is out injured, with a subsequent domino effect, making life harder than ever up forward for someone like Tim Membrey, who on Saturday had a still raw Paddy McCartin for company with Josh Bruce having lost all form and been dropped to the VFL.

For all that, the Saints continue to score at about the same rate as last season. It’s the midfield’s unevenness at the root of much of the problem, lack of defensive run seeing St Kilda regularly scored against out the back, and the percentage of uncontested possession allowed the opposition still the highest in the AFL.

The weekend off will at least give Richardson and his coaching crew a little more time to sit back and take a longer view of just where the Saints are at. And the picture isn’t completely disastrous.

The forward set-up can be fixed. The defence, in Nathan Brown and Jake Carlisle, has the necessary foundations for the next few seasons at least. And those midfield issues may improve simply with a still youthful mix getting more games under their belts.

It’s the greater weight of expectation as much as anything which has St Kilda being marked more harshly than before. And dealing with that is just another step in any side’s gradual learning curve.

So far, 2017 hasn’t been the giant step forward St Kilda fans were hoping for. But as the Saints reset for the second half of the football year, Richardson finding the necessary tweaks to the engine, that doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be one taken backwards, either.

After another loss, the Swans look dejected but even at 3-7 it’s tough to write them off. Photo: Getty Images

This is one weird football season. One in which there are virtually no certainties. One in which tipping is a lottery. And one in which, almost at the halfway point, we still seem barely to have separated any wheat from the chaff.

Check the ladder. Three games separate third  from 14th. And 15th just happens to be a grand finalist from last year. At 3-7, Sydney is almost out of contention now, but somehow still with a percentage of more than 100. That percentage, not to mention a couple of very impressive wins over North Melbourne then St Kilda, speaks volumes of the Swans’ competitiveness, even in what, by their standards, has been a disastrous year.

No one should doubt Sydney’s worth as a finalist if by some miracle they can still make it. Needing to win at least nine of their remaining dozen games, plus have many of the seven sides immediately above them stumble is, however, some sort of roadblock to get past.

How on earth do we separate this many contenders? Particularly over the next few weeks, when the bye rounds leave the ladder unbalanced?

Reliability has to be a key measuring stick for now. Geelong might be third on the ladder, but the Cats’ credibility is going to be put squarely under the microscope over the next month, starting with a home clash against Adelaide on Friday, but then after a week off, one against West Coast in Perth and GWS a fortnight later.

In a Melbourne Cup field, three sides at this stage loom as the most reliable.

One, the Western Bulldogs, shouldn’t be any surprise. Though they’ve never quite reached the heights of last year, the Dogs’ four losses have all been narrow, and form and injury issues means there’s still plenty of scope for improvement.

The other two, though, would have raised plenty of eyebrows at the start of the season. Port Adelaide’s percentage of 144.4 is phenomenal for a team only just inside the eight.

The Power probably should have beaten Geelong on Thursday night, but that was one of three narrow losses, while they also led the Giants at three-quarter time.

Richmond, meanwhile, however much the Tigers have fluffed their lines at big moments, has been within 13 points of a 9-1 record. Like the Power and the Bulldogs, they might not necessarily reach the same highs as others have.

But perhaps 2017 is a season where having fewer lows might be even more important.

The post Spluttering Saints can still find some steam appeared first on Footy Plus.

from Footy Plus http://ift.tt/2rLE9lZ via http://footyplus.net

[footyplusau]

In AFL nothing is certain, except Tasmania should have a team

The argument on behalf of a Tasmanian AFL team is won. Western Bulldogs’ president, Peter Gordon, who has seen his club go from pauper and premier, says there’s no longer an economic case against it. AFL boss, Gillon McLachlan, acknowledges the island state should have a team.

The onus is now on the AFL to find a way. And there’s the rub. A relocation is the wrong model and there isn’t a 20th team on the horizon. Would the AFL consider a 19-team competition, with a built-in bye, and fancy rankings and wildcards over the last month of a 24-week home-and-away season? You never know.

Tasmanian true believers might ask: “So why Gold Coast and not Tasmania?” Photo: Vince Caligiuri

The jury remains out, meanwhile, on the 17th and 18th clubs. It’s year six for Greater Western Sydney and they’re a flag contender. Yet last week they drew only 11,360 for a Collingwood game. That was 15.7 per cent down on the crowd for the equivalent match last year. Gold Coast is drawing 26 per cent fewer to Metricon Stadium now than in 2011, its debut season.

Not that former AFL boss, Andrew Demetriou, who drove the establishment of the two expansion clubs, will be switching philosophical horses while riding into the sunset.

Interviewed by Bruce McAvaney before a live audience in Adelaide recently, Demetriou made one concession to the expansion blueprint he oversaw. Gold Coast, he said, is likely to remain a small football club, of similar proportion to provincial Geelong. But GWS could become one of the biggest sporting clubs in the land. Demetriou remains confident about the venture he drove into what, in cricket parlance, might be termed corridors of uncertainty.

He expressed no qualms that $210 million will have been spent by the AFL on the expansion clubs through their first six years, with another $50 million still to come. Demetriou was reported as having said in the interview that the ninth game each weekend, brought about by the new clubs, is worth “more than $260 million in any year”.

This is an eyebrow-raising figure and Demetriou has since conceded that, if he said this, it was incorrect. For at that rate, nine games-per-round would be worth a total of $2.34 billion annually. That this is roughly double the aggregate of annual AFL and club revenues (after AFL contributions, pokies revenue, memberships and merchandise are excluded from the latter), indicates the impossibility of any one game each week being worth “more than $260 million in any year”.

The windfall achieved in the current television rights agreement provides an average annual payment to the AFL of approximately $418 million. It should also be recognised that the contribution made by each club to this figure is not equal. Collingwood, West Coast, and Sydney pull more viewers, for example, than North Melbourne, Gold Coast, and GWS.

Bear in mind, too, that the so-called “ninth game” is, in all but two weeks of the season (when the “expansion derby” is played), a half-portion of two games: the ones involving Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney. And these two games rarely draw big crowds or, one would imagine, large television audiences. Certainly, they feature infrequently on free-to-air TV in Victoria.

Measured by home ground attendance, the two expansion clubs have consistently attracted a collective attendance of just over four per cent of the AFL total. If that equates, even roughly, to their relative popularity as television fare, their combined contribution to the annual total rights figure would be less than $20 million. And that means it could take the entirety of this TV rights cycle, and much of the next, before they’ve paid for themselves.

Then there’s the Queensland issue. Brisbane and Gold Coast are both struggling on and off the field. Player retention is a serious problem. Leigh Matthews, football’s northern state elder, recently described the Lions as a “pit stop” for players they draft.

Poor attendance figures are an inevitable outcome. Scarcely any more people are going to Queensland AFL games now than was the case when the Lions had a monopoly. A steep decline in their crowds coincided exactly with the arrival of the Suns and the numbers suggest Gold Coast has eroded Brisbane’s south-coast following.

Now, even Demetriou is conceding that Gold Coast’s support base is unlikely to ever amount to more than that of a “small football club”. Tasmanian true believers might ask: “So why Gold Coast and not Tasmania?”

It’s quite a contrast from the mindset at the dawning of the expansion dream. Believers, at that time, spoke of the western Sydney and Gold Coast corridors as growing too fast to be ignored. This was the compelling part of their argument.

The AFL’s decision to opt for commercial expansion in preference to a constituency hungry for the game, has recently drawn comment from a couple of significant figures. Brisbane Lions’ first-season coach, Chris Fagan, is a Tasmanian whose entire 263-game career was played out in the island state.

Speaking to Fairfax media during the week, Fagan said: “I understand the market place argument for why Tasmania has not had an AFL team … but there is also that cultural side to football, and the four traditional football states being South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. It doesn’t seem right from a cultural perspective that one of those states haven’t been given an opportunity to have a team in the AFL.”

Days earlier, Nick Riewoldt expressed concern for the game’s health in his state of birth: “There’s a big risk of allowing the sport to wither on the vine. There are already signs that the game is weakening down south … just last year there was no Tasmanian drafted for the first since 1986.”

Powerful voices are at last speaking out. The AFL must find a way. Relocation of an existing team is certainly not it. 

The post In AFL nothing is certain, except Tasmania should have a team appeared first on Footy Plus.

from Footy Plus http://ift.tt/2rALnX5 via http://footyplus.net