I have never really liked Eddie McGuire…..it is a combination of things….the fact he is President of a club I despise, the way he carries on like he is President of the World and that his club is so much better than everyone else….I just don’t like him and I groan when I find out he is commentating Demon games. I try to switch off and ignore what he has to say and here is a selection of comments from the weekend game that give credence to my behaviour…

1) Saying we were 32 points down when we were actually 22 behind (perhaps I shouldn’t be so harsh – he did grow up in Broadmeadows after all)

2) Claiming Garland took a strong mark when it was quite obviously Jared Rivers

3) Banging on about how the Tigers were only 1% point behind the Blues for a spot in the 8 and how engrossed he was in this statistic…..Eddie there are 436 rounds left in the season!…..(as I said he is from Broadmeadows).

HOWEVER…..I am about to argue against myself here as I am in full support of Sir McGuire’s claim to fix the stupid review system!  It is an absolute joke!  I was completely discombobulated with how James Magner’s goal was disallowed and to be fair the Tiger’s were stiff as well.  None of these decisions actually had any bearing on the result (but that’s really not the point) though had Magner’s goal been allowed we would have been within a goal and on a roll….listen to Eddie please! (boy I never ever thought in my life I would be saying that!).

The controversy over the review system cast a shadow over the game on Saturday which saw a poor start by the Demons result in our second loss for the season against Richmond.  The start was really disappointing and unfortunately a worrying trend this year continues where teams get on a roll against us for short periods of the game effectively destroying any chance of a Melbourne triumph.  We were 26 points down before we even looked like scoring (by rights it should have been more had the Tigers kicked straight) and whilst we were 38 points down at the final change, the boys fought back valiantly to finish the game 23 points in arrears.  6 goals 6 in the last quarter was a pleasing result although it fails to erase the frustration of our shocking start.

We had some solid contributors on the day and here are some of them.

First off – cue the alogorithm – <NATHAN JONES> leading possession getter for the Dees. He finished with 25 touches and a goal in what is sure to be another ‘Bluey’ vote attracting game.  Colin Sylvia also pick up 25 disposals and snagged a goal and as I said last week he seems to be getting back to the form we all love to see from Silver.

I know Jack Riewoldt missed a few goals on the weekend but Chippa Frawley did an outstanding job on him restricting him to 1 goal (from a dodgy free at that).  He really has the wood on the young Tiger gun forward and a large contributing factor to Jack’s inaccuracy is the way Chippa forces him to lead wide resulting in inevitable difficult shots on goal.  Sadly there aren’t too many players on our list at present that you could say would walk into every AFL clubs’ best 22…….James Frawley is one of them.

Jake ‘the pencil’ Spencer!….now he is getting a mention for the first time in this report and this is based on some of his second efforts on the weekend.  He chased hard, tackled hard and really can hold his head up high after his efforts.

Another tall man in Stefan Martin played well on Saturday.  2 goals to go with 20 hit outs and 18 disposals equals a solid game by a man that I truly believe we have missed this year and let’s hope he can continue his form the rest of the season.

This Saturday we come against the Dockers. Freo are in good form at the moment and we are at our ‘hoodoo ground’ at Etihad Stadium. Fair dinkum….the last time we won there Ivor Warne-Smith was playing CHB but there is no time like this week to address our poor form at this ground and put a real dent in Fremantle’s finals aspirations.