AFL Season 2018

[Peppermint Lounge]

Three quarter time. Good quality game. Great pressure. Not many mistakes. Excellent GF.

[guttermouth]

Fuck what a game. Great to see Vardy who had so much bad luck at Geelong get a medal.....and Buckley still no medal

What an amazing comeback Eagles...

[Peppermint Lounge]

He’s got a Norm Smith at least. Congrats West Coast. Written off by so many this season and they win the bloody premiership.

[stanard]

As someone who only watches maybe 2 AFL games a year, why does everyone hate Buckley so much?

[guttermouth]

One word......FIGJAM

[Ambrose Burnside]

I ... I still can't quite believe it. Despite everything.

The first thing I asked my wife this morning was "did we really win yesterday?"

The 2018 season was like living in Trumpland, where facts don't matter.

Heading into yesterday's game we were 4-1 against the rest of the top 4. 5-0 if you consider home and away ladder rather than preliminary finalists. Our one loss was a narrow loss to Melbourne in Round 22 when Kennedy didn't play and Darling was knocked out in the first quarter. The "experts" tipped against us in every single final. Our record was fake news.

Undefeated in Victoria this year. I'm not 100% certain but I suspect we may be the first non-Vic team to boast such a record. We even beat Collingwood at the MCG earlier this year after losing Nic Nat before half time. Ignored and forgotten. Our record was fake news.

We were considered "lucky" to beat Collingwood in the Qualifying Final. Melbourne "didn't show up". Our Grand Final place was "wasted" on us. Fuck off. The fairytale narrative was on.

Then the mental gymnastics continued in Grand Final week where the MCG is a neutral ground the Eagles can't win at because it's Collingwood's home ground. Similar to the doublethink whereby Nic Nat is overrated, doesn't rack up enough possessions, but the Eagles can't win without him. I love Victorian "experts" sometimes. Especially Robert Walls

And then the game itself. Jesus Christ a Grand Final for the ages. 5.0 to 0.2 in the blink of an eye. But what separates this West Coast team from previous ones is sheer grit. We fought and fought and fought over the next two quarters to tie it up at three quarter time. Sidebottom was a non-factor. Grundy was a non-factor. Cox was handed a football lesson by Tommy Barrass. What the fuck was going on?

Then Collingwood slammed on the first two goals of the last quarter and I punched the wall with both fists. Praise the football Gods our walls are made out of brick in Perth otherwise I'd have repair works to do today.

That last play. It will live on in West Coast folklore, up there with Matera setting sail for home in 92 and the Chick smother, handpass, shepherd, Hunter goal in 06.

Jeremy McGovern, the highest paid footballer in WA history, who we discovered post-match was hospitalised for two nights after the Prelim with internal bleeding, took a big contested mark in defence. He kicked with precision (a West Coast trademark in 2018) to Nathan Vardy, who marked on his chest. In consecutive weeks Vardy shut down Gawn and Grundy and was only playing because Nic Nat was injured. Vardy kicked it long and Liam flyin' Ryan lived up to his name with a speccy. He quickly played on with another long kick to Sheed on the boundary. Contested marking, accurate kicking. Pure West Coast. Sheed, only playing because Gaff committed a capital crime, on the boundary, on the right side for a left footer, the Collingwood faithful losing their shit RIGHT THERE (it's OK when any supporter base other than the one that fills Optus Stadium shows passion, another Trumpland special) and he NAILED THE SHOT. GOAL OF THE FUCKING YEAR. And didn't he let the Collingwood mob know all about it afterwards

2018 Premiers. To the most deserving team of the year No Nic Nat, no Gaff, no Sheppard. PREMIERS!!!

Was nice seeing a lot of neutral fans supporting us over Collingwood too. I reckon only Freo fans (understandable) and Port fans (hilariously understandable) would have been barracking for Collingwood.

I love this game.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Was an amazing pressure goal from Sheed but you were very, very lucky not to have the whistle blown against you for Rioli blocking Collingwood’s Maynard from the contest.

[Peppermint Lounge]

As someone who only watches maybe 2 AFL games a year, why does everyone hate Buckley so much?

He was among the top 1% of elite players and captained, now coaches, the most infamous sporting club in Australia. Hate magnet. Toothless ferals gonna hate but Buckley is actually a good guy.

[Ambrose Burnside]

Was an amazing pressure goal from Sheed but you were very, very lucky not to have the whistle blown against you for Rioli blocking Collingwood’s Maynard from the contest.

Willie and Sheed had their eyes on the ball.

Maynard had eyes for Willie

[Peppermint Lounge]

Take nothing away from WC who deserved to win and all Sheed could do was mark and kick one of the great premiership winning goals. Maynard was still robbed there. You could see Rioli knew by the way he quickly looked to the umpire when the whistle blew.

Congrats on the win though. Pure grit as you say. Especially to come back again when Collingwood kicked two at the start of the last.

Robert Walls.

[Ambrose Burnside]

We'll agree to disagree. Seemed like a pretty standard 2-1 situation where two peeps are engaging in a test of strength then another floats in and takes the mark.

Stephenson ran about 25m without bouncing the ball to kick his second goal but that was in the first quarter so no one cares.

The better team won and it is glorious

PS: Sampi was held in 2005 when Leo Barry took that mark

[Ambrose Burnside]

Gaff re-signs, Freo sign this guy:

A glorious weekend really

[Peppermint Lounge]

Don't be citing cheap shots from other players in a post about Andrew Gaff k thx. At least Smith got out with his teeth.

[Ambrose Burnside]

IN: Hickey, Pick 20, Pick 61, St Kilda's 2019 4th rounder
OUT: Lycett, Pick 39, our 2019 4th rounder

I've included the Lycett loss/compo as we wouldn't have traded for Hickey had we kept Lycett.

I think we did quite well there!

[Peppermint Lounge]

Dylan Shiel choosing EFC ahead of bigger money offers from Carlton, Hawthorn and St Kilda. They're the kind of players you want in your side.

[Ambrose Burnside]

Apparently Gaff turned down $1.8m from North to stick with the Eagles

I bet the AFL will schedule a derby or a game vs North in Round 3.

[Ambrose Burnside]

Jack Watts

[Vince]

So how do we think our teams went at draft time? Personally, I'm extremely happy to use pick 1 and get Sam Walsh. A potentially quality mid with aspirations to become a captain. Cool under pressure. Clean with ball in hand. Everything we need moving forward.
The move I'm most pleased by is swapping next years 1st round pick for the Crows 1st round pick next year, to get their pick 19 this year for Liam Stocker. Not only is the kid highly rated (both the blues and tigers rated him a top 10 pick this year) but we took a risk- a risk that says to me the rebuild is over. Next years draft is not a concern to us, and no matter where we finish end of 2019, we aren't relying on our 1st round pick next year to give us some type of hope. We have enough quality players on our list now for us to move on-wards and upwards. There are no more excuses next year. A minimum of 6-8 wins would be required from the blues for Bolton to keep his job... We have a talented list that needs to show something.

On a side note, getting the Hawks' performance and conditioning manager, Andrew Russell, was the best off field trade we made! Supposedly he was a MAJOR factor in the hawks winning 4 flags and was the main reason injuries weren't a huge concern for the hawks. I believe he was at the bombers* during the late 90's-early 2000's as well as Port during their premiership year as well. Guy knows what he is doing and from what I'm hearing, isn't happy with the level of fitness some of our mids are at!

[Ambrose Burnside]

Carlton's trade reeks of Gold Coast's infamous 2017 trade with the Eagles:

Eagles receive Picks 21, 26, 37, 2018 second rounder
Gold Coast receive: Pick 50, 2018 first rounder

Given how the clubs finished, those 2018 picks ended up being:

Eagles receive 2018 Pick 20
Gold Coast receive 2018 Pick 18



Every one of the players we drafted in 2017 with Gold Coast's picks, played during 2018, and one of them, Liam Ryan with Pick 26, played in the Premiership

As to how we went this year, we were far more involved in the trading of picks than I thought we would be, and somehow ended up drafting 4 players within the top 40, without going into points debt, and while improving our draft hand next year (we gave Sydney our third rounder and gained their second rounder).

We ended up with Picks 28, 31, 35 and matched an Academy bid at 39. We love our second rounders!

[Froggy]

Docherty done another ACL, that sucks.

[Ambrose Burnside]

Pickett's gone down too. Injuries are the worst.

Except for what Daw must be going through. Jesus

[Ambrose Burnside]

My wife and I have been on the Eagles waiting list ("In the Wings" members) since 2012 (paying a cool $65 a year for the privilege, each spot on the waiting list entitles you to up to two adults and two kids, so the waiting list could be four times as long as advertised ), last year I was able to upgrade that to two 5 game "flexi" memberships (I believe that's a common membership type in Melbourne, at Subi the Eagles only offered full 11 game memberships, now at Optus they offer 3 and 5 game memberships too for those at the top of the waiting list), but I got an email the other day to say I can finally upgrade to full 11 game memberships

The Eagles hit 80k members in 2018 and Optus only holds 60k. And about 10k of that are reserved for the general public. So that gives you an idea of how long the waiting list is. And Subi only held ~40k

I have no doubt the only seats available will be right at the back of Level 5, but even those seats shit all over the best seats at Subi, so as soon as my window opens at 10am Friday morning, I'm jumping on. Two full adult memberships! Finally!

Now to go back-to-back

Last year my five games were vs Gold Coast (I wanted to see a win HA!), GWS (with a GWS supporting friend from work. Must be the only one in WA), the second derby (the Gaff punch game. Contrary to the media insanity which ignored what Optus Stadium and the commentators said, we had no idea what had happened until after the game because it wasn't shown on the big screens), the loss to Melbourne late in the year, and my wife and sister went to the demolition of Richmond. God damn it Also went to the St Kilda game courtesy of my uncle, and both home finals. Fuck yes they were amazing.

So yes, after six years on the waiting list, and one year on a 5 game membership, I'm finally there. Thank fuck they built Optus otherwise it would have taken a decade at least I reckon.

[Ambrose Burnside]

I'm in! Kinda halfway between the point post and the 50m arc, in the top tier as expected (but hey, they're the cheapest seats!). I was advised to avoid the south east side because of the afternoon sun (the sun was brutal during the Prelim, I think it was a 30 degree day), and I managed to score the opposite side of the ground, the city end in the shade!

I had a look at the view on the virtual stadium tool, and I have zero complaints. Optus is an amazing stadium.

[Froggy]

Sweet mate. Nothing beats watching the game live especially with TV stuff these way zoomed in I find I get really shitty watching it at home because you can't see how the play developed up the ground. They used to show a much further away view so you could at least see some of the up ground stuff happening. Just hope you aren't sat next to some real wankers.

[Ambrose Burnside]

Thanks man, cannot wait. Love watching the play develop, the way players shift and position themselves across the ground like a well-oiled machine. Seeing someone like Jeremy McGovern read the play perfectly when the ball is 200m away to pluck an uncontested intercept mark just blows my mind.

Can't believe Round 1 starts this week. It's been too long!