Opinion AFL 2024 Round 23 - Weekend Wrap & Liked, Learnt, Hated

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This season hey?! Top 8 positions have been thrown into further disarray, and they literally won’t be settled until the final game of the final round next week! Thrilling stuff. Let’s wrap…

Bombers v Swans, Friday night: Ok I get that Essendon have about as much fight in them as a pacifist on relaxants, but that was still a powerful performance from the Swans. No Warner, no Papley and yet they piled on 12 goals after half time and blew the Dons away. Everyone’s been saying they peaked too early. Given how some of the other contenders went this week, maybe they’re peaking at just the right time.

Giants v Dockers, Saturday arvo: A loss with huge ramifications for the Dockers, but it was actually a pretty good battling performance against a hot footy team. Jesse Hogan and Brent Daniels are the Batman and Robin of Western Sydney! They form a formidable one-two punch, and they’ve got a couple of guys called Greene and Green who go all right as well. You’ll need to show proof of NSW residence to get in to the MCG on Grand Final day folks, it’s going to be an all-Sydney affair.

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Suns v Demons, Saturday arvo: Until last week the Suns couldn’t lose at home and couldn’t win away. Somebody must have hypnotised them since. To be fair the Dees really needed this win, even if it was only for pride.

Magpies v Lions, Saturday twilight: No idea what the quarter time siren does to the Lions but that’s two weeks in a row where they’ve looked dominant in the first term only to lose the plot thereafter. Great win for the Magpies, but what they wouldn’t give to have another crack at those crazy final 15 minutes in Sydney last week.

Saints v Cats, Saturday night: Even Geelong supporters had said this one was a potential banana peel game, and so it proved. Don’t think anyone saw it coming at half time though… the Cats were in full control but then out of nowhere the Saints just steamrolled them.

Port v Crows, Saturday night: Words won’t do this one justice - it reminded me of that spiteful derby between the WA teams back in the early 2000s. The Crows looked in control until Houston mistook himself for a battering ram, but the sting understandably went out of them after that. Port got the win but their September ambitions are set to take a huge dive in the post-game wash up.

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Dogs v North, Sunday arvo: Sam Darcy found the kicking boots he lost last week and the Dogs put on a clinic in the first of a trio of Sunday afternoon shellackings! The end of the season can’t come soon enough for North now.

Hawks v Tigers, Sunday arvo: A shellacking it was, but not as big as it promised to be early on. Professional effort from the Hawks to set up a big lead early and then enter cruise control for the rest of the game. Some more rotten luck for Will Day put a sour aftertaste on it though.

Eagles v Blues, Sunday arvo: Yeah ok it was against a bottom 3 side, but this was some good backs-to-the-wall stuff from Carlton. They’d have had every excuse under the sun to drop this, and plenty of experts thought they would. Still in the 8 and a decent chance to stay there.


Don’t forget to post your Liked, Learnt, Hated below… along with any other thoughts you had about Round 23!
 
Liked: pacific air show. Photo attached

Learnt : pea hearted SUNS typical effort at end of the year

Hated : nothing specific so i will go with default of stupid 7 coverage and commentary plus white shorts away rule
 

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Liked seeing Dog’s win by a healthy margin. Got money on them for the cup.

Hated. Well, I get it, era of success brings about a decline, cycle of football etc … but it’s never good knowing your team is easily the worst. Except for the draft picks obviously.

Learnt. The bump is as good as dead. Can’t bump someone with the ball even if you don’t get them high. The game is going to look completely different in 15 years or so.
 
Liked: Sean Darcy has arrived, the Hawks first quarter, the even top 1-9
Hated: Hawks second quarter, Gold Coast 2024..terrible!!
Learnt: Giants and Dogs teams to beat.
 

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Liked Dogs and Hawks winning to keep their finals chances alive...

Obviously hated everything about that third thrashing of a bottom 3 side. I hated actually getting my hopes up, thinking we were a good chance against half a Carlton side, only to be belted almost as badly as when WE were the one with half a best 22. Hated our lack of composure, decision making, basic skills, how they cut through Optus like a knife through hot butter. How we made the biggest pretenders in the league currently look like flag faves. Given expectations (I expected to be competitive if we didn't win) the worst loss of the past 3 years imo. Oh and how was the 'hometown umpiring.'

Didn't learn much, except we haven't improved much and are in for a long off season. Big changes needed to see real improvement.
 
Liked: Geelong blowing a 5 goal lead, Melbourne enjoying the heat on the Goldy. Will Day not breaking his collarbone.

Learnt: Richmond have more pride than WCE & Norf.

Hated: Will Day almost breaking his collarbone.
WCE, Nth & GC...pathetic...not giving the fans much hope into the off-season.

On SM-S918B using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
Like the Saints second half and the Pies being denied finals, because you just know Melbourne would roll over next week if they were in contention.

Hated gutter trash, click bait encouraging ‘journos’ talking shit.
 
Liked: Collingwood's win still gives Geelong the inside track for top four, woohoo, state champs. I hate that this is my 'liked', which makes my head spin a bit.

Learnt: I guess it's always liable to fall apart to an extent, in a season where you never really trust your team (or haven't since about Mother's Day). The premiership years, other years where we were a pretty kick-arse team despite not winning it all (2008, 2010, 2013, 2016) there were plenty of weeks where I just knew we weren't going to lose. Generally, I feel like a bit of a glass-half full supporter: I go into most weeks thinking we're a decent shot to win, but rarely go in thinking "this one's in the bag." Those great Geelong teams gave me a bit of that confidence. But when you go into pretty much every week thinking "We could easily lose this game," well, it seems probable that the wheels will come off at some point. First world problem for supporters of teams who've rarely finished top four in the last 15-20 years, but honestly it's exhausting supporting a team that's likely to finish top four, but who's gone 7-8 since the start of May and currently sits on a percentage of 107.7.

Hated: Just how quickly a team can go from sitting pretty to completely falling apart. The win last week was fantastic, gutsy stuff, then following Collingwood doing us a huge favour on Saturday afternoon, up to halftime on Sarurday night, we truly looked like we were putting in that classy performance I'd been waiting for after a few scratchy wins and a bad loss to the Bulldogs. We were genuinely looking great in the first half.

With Port also struggling against the Crows, it honestly looked like we could be well within striking distance of second spot, getting the percentage up to 110ish and basically closing that gap to GWS and Port (even if the latter ended up beating Adelaide) and raising the possibility of us catching both on percentage next week, even if both won their final (tough) games.

From there, the way the ladder has gone, even I would have had to give us a bit of credit as some sort of chance of the premiership, by virtue of being the only Victorian team in the top four and having a clear path to the grand final without having to go to the airport.

Whenever Geelong has a first half like Saturday night and a similar sort of lead, all I'm thinking as the third quarter starts is "We just have to break even this quarter, even if they outscore us by a goal or two, we'll probably be able to take care of business in the fourth quarter (we're generally good at that)." Just don't let them bang on 3-4+ more than us this quarter and we should be sweet.

One quarter of football. This flaky Cats bunch almost had me believing.
 
Liked: Collingwood's win still gives Geelong the inside track for top four, woohoo, state champs. I hate that this is my 'liked', which makes my head spin a bit.

Learnt: I guess it's always liable to fall apart to an extent, in a season where you never really trust your team (or haven't since about Mother's Day). The premiership years, other years where we were a pretty kick-arse team despite not winning it all (2008, 2010, 2013, 2016) there were plenty of weeks where I just knew we weren't going to lose. Generally, I feel like a bit of a glass-half full supporter: I go into most weeks thinking we're a decent shot to win, but rarely go in thinking "this one's in the bag." Those great Geelong teams gave me a bit of that confidence. But when you go into pretty much every week thinking "We could easily lose this game," well, it seems probable that the wheels will come off at some point. First world problem for supporters of teams who've rarely finished top four in the last 15-20 years, but honestly it's exhausting supporting a team that's likely to finish top four, but who's gone 7-8 since the start of May and currently sits on a percentage of 107.7.

Hated: Just how quickly a team can go from sitting pretty to completely falling apart. The win last week was fantastic, gutsy stuff, then following Collingwood doing us a huge favour on Saturday afternoon, up to halftime on Sarurday night, we truly looked like we were putting in that classy performance I'd been waiting for after a few scratchy wins and a bad loss to the Bulldogs. We were genuinely looking great in the first half.

With Port also struggling against the Crows, it honestly looked like we could be well within striking distance of second spot, getting the percentage up to 110ish and basically closing that gap to GWS and Port (even if the latter ended up beating Adelaide) and raising the possibility of us catching both on percentage next week, even if both won their final (tough) games.

From there, the way the ladder has gone, even I would have had to give us a bit of credit as some sort of chance of the premiership, by virtue of being the only Victorian team in the top four and having a clear path to the grand final without having to go to the airport.

Whenever Geelong has a first half like Saturday night and a similar sort of lead, all I'm thinking as the third quarter starts is "We just have to break even this quarter, even if they outscore us by a goal or two, we'll probably be able to take care of business in the fourth quarter (we're generally good at that)." Just don't let them bang on 3-4+ more than us this quarter and we should be sweet.

One quarter of football. This flaky Cats bunch almost had me believing.
Great post, love the way you’ve described the emotional teases, surprising ups, dashed expectations and rationalisations that we make as supporters. Sometimes all within a single quarter.

None of it makes sense but everyone on here immediately understands it - the lot of the footy fan.
 
Liked Dogs and Hawks winning to keep their finals chances alive...

Obviously hated everything about that third thrashing of a bottom 3 side. I hated actually getting my hopes up, thinking we were a good chance against half a Carlton side, only to be belted almost as badly as when WE were the one with half a best 22. Hated our lack of composure, decision making, basic skills, how they cut through Optus like a knife through hot butter. How we made the biggest pretenders in the league currently look like flag faves. Given expectations (I expected to be competitive if we didn't win) the worst loss of the past 3 years imo. Oh and how was the 'hometown umpiring.'

Didn't learn much, except we haven't improved much and are in for a long off season. Big changes needed to see real improvement.
They had most of their midfield and defence. The way they moved the ball made it pretty easy for their makeshift forward line. Didn't think we were ever gonna win
 

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Opinion AFL 2024 Round 23 - Weekend Wrap & Liked, Learnt, Hated

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