The Monday Knee Jerk Reaction: Round Seventeen

Footy is a passion, not some cold hearted, spread sheet dominated rational exercise.

On a Monday, you want irrational reaction. You want emotion to trump reason.

What you really want is idiotic hysteria.

You've come to the right place.

Thursday

North Melbourne (85) v Western Bulldogs (134)

It was all things North before the game for North Melbourne’s centenary celebrations, and it’s certainly something to celebrate.

Despite being under pressure for decades, and with the VFL/AFL at times wishing they didn’t exist, North still abides.

If anything, they’ve outperformed teams with more fans, better facilities, more money and with the AFL often prioritising talent for other teams.

Before the game, there was a talk to the players from Denis Pagan, a clash between an old school coach and a new generation.

In front of the crowd and the TV audience, Pagan told the players he’d watched their previous performance and was less than pleased. If he’s willing to do that publicly, imagine what he used to say when no one else was listening.

The Roos responded, starting well, with Nick Larkey having the chance to kick five goals in the first quarter but missing a shot on the siren.

North’s good start was hampered when Luke Davie-Uniacke suffered a concussion in the first quarter, but the Roos hung on until the second half.

The Doggies got on top after that, kicking 10 goals to North's five.

Have you ever noticed that the good teams can score more than the bad teams?

It’s just a little insight I’ve picked up from years of watching football.

In the end, the Doggies got loose, and there could be no greater tribute than getting loose for Tom Liberatore playing his 250th match.

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Friday

Carlton (59) v Collingwood (115)

Carlton were already coming off a bad week.

Someone had spraypainted three bits of graffiti at IKON Park. We know it was a Blues supporter, be there was meant to be four bits of graffiti, but in true Carlton fashion they got tired and gave up after the third.

It’s a testament to the Blues problems that this could have been worse.

The gap from the top to Carlton is wide and seems to only be getting wider, which is made worse by the top being Collingwood.

The lack of chemistry between the Carlton players made me feel like I was watching me on a date.

The Blues played so poorly that if it was any other team but Carlton, people would accuse them of tanking.

It’s sad when people don’t even respect you enough to accuse you of tanking.

As for Collingwood, against the old enemy, they saw they were down and crushed them. As a Pies fan, it’s everything you could ever want.

West Coast (52) v Greater Western Sydney (111)

Coming off the bye, the Giants eased back into things with a light training session against the Eagles.

Finn Callaghan was insane, doing what he liked, and even though it was against the Eagles, it was still impressive.

As for those Eagles, I can confirm they showed up in the correct uniform and did know which end they were kick towards, and that was about it.

When I was just a small boy, going to Perth to play the Eagles was a daunting proposition.

These days, it’s like getting your car serviced. It’s expensive and requires a bit of logistics, but it’s not something you worry about.

Saturday

Essendon (74) v Gold Coast (115)

Essendon have really got the whole ‘almost enough effort but not enough to win’ going.

Against the Suns they hung in there until the fourth quarter, then the brave performance logged for the day, they got ran over.

Perhaps nothing summed up the Bombers at the moment than when Nate Caddy collided with an umpire, and Caddy was the one winded and the umpire was fine.

Amazingly, the Suns look like they could make finals. The little team that could, with no help from anyone they have pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.

It just shows you what you can achieve if someone gives you millions of dollars and a heap of top draft picks.

Geelong (124) v Richmond (52)

Sam Lalor got injured again and I’m ready to call it: the Tigers will not make finals this season.

Against the Cats, the young and depleted Tigers were never really a chance.

It was one-way traffic after quarter time.

Instead, it became a matter of guessing when Jeremy Cameron would boot his 700th goal.

It took until the third quarter, but finally he did it and I could turn this off.

Brisbane (120) v Port Adelaide (92)

It was a brave showing by Port in this one, given they had more injuries than an episode of The Pitt.

Dante Visentini and Esava Ratugolea went down early, then Sam Powell-Pepper went off with a season-ending knee injury.

Despite the setbacks, Port kept coming, and matched the Lions physicality. Like when Joe Richards kneed Dayne Zorko.

Zorko was furious. As a clean player, he has no time for cheap shots.

In the end, the Lions just had too many advantages, after all, one of the best things to happen to you is for the other side to lose three key players to injury.

There’s no doubt that the Lions are good, the question really is, are they better than Collingwood good?

A lot of people’s happiness rests on the answer to that question.

St Kilda (74) v Hawthorn (94)

This was everything you’d expect. Hawthorn did just enough to win, and St Kilda did just enough to not win.

Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera again proved he’s the best hyphenated player going around, and could become the best going around.

Wanganeen-Milera is the sort of player who can transform a side from a club that has always struggled and hasn’t tasted premiership glory since the 1960s into a powerhouse of the competition.

If he left, though, you might as well just shut up shop and never play a game of football again.

I think that’s a reasonable summation of the situation.

Sunday

Sydney (94) v Fremantle (83)

Dockers fans are having a completely normal season. Despair, then hope, now on a knife edge between the two, with probably more despair to come.

While it’s always tough to win at the Andrea Bocelli Cow Paddock, the Dockers would have hoped to win this to sandbag their position in the top eight.

Instead, they drop this to the Swans, who have shown some late signs of life recently.

The Swans are a longshot for finals, in fact I give them the same chance I have of making a friend, but they just need to keep winning games like this and they’re an outside chance.

Adelaide (90) v Melbourne (77)

Melbourne once again showed they can match it with the top teams, sometimes for whole quarters, but can’t do it for an entire game.

Even with a 28-point lead in the second quarter, every Dees supporter I know knew that wouldn’t be enough.

The Crows were just too good, and like all Melbourne opponents, knew if they got above 80 points, they could win.

I’m still getting my head around the Crows being a very good team.

For so long, they’ve made a series of unforced errors that, while amusing, didn’t exactly fill you with confidence that they knew what they were doing.

Since then, they seem to have improved by not self-sabotaging all the time.

It’s a bold plan that perhaps more clubs can follow. Not screwing yourself up seems to be the hardest thing to do in the footy world, and probably the wider one too.

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