OTF

Aye, ridiculous. I thought the refereeing had been good to that point.

ASM hands all over him every time he gets the ball.

Or ours

I'm putting it down to the Villa cries of a foul put him off. Looks as though it's going to be a pretty open match.

Wilson, shocking miss that.

Ritchie still playing in a defensive role

Fite!

He'll have 6 years to recover if he picks up a knock.

You may not have noticed at first, but that's a video taken during happy hour.

How many of the steady flow of deaths are of people who are vaccinated? I know the average age of those dying there is pushing 80, though there are still plenty that are under 60 also dying. Just considering what will happen here when we inevitably begin to ease restrictions once the vaccination levels reach 70 or 80%.

I don't know what's worse, the fact that our fan base have legitimately gone through stages of grief about his signing, or Joelinton.

BUT thanks.

Me too, it's tragic. We're still in triple digits for total deaths (probably not for long) with the vast majority of those coming from the Melbourne outbreak last year that ravaged some aged care locations. With these high numbers there will be a lag and then the deaths will start rising.

Don't forget Boris not caring about deaths if they're elderly. Pretty unfortunate to be burdened with a self obsessed leader who can't organise his own hair let alone the well-being of a nation during a global pandemic.

You lot have had it a hell of a lot worse, and that's an understatement, I've been following through this thread, google and (don't laugh) Gogglebox. Absolute joke how things have gone there, and yet the UK is now held up as an example for the freedoms we can expect with higher vaccinations. Meanwhile your cases are super high still, and there's what should be an unacceptable level of deaths. That's the unavoidable reality when it's out of control. Imagine the potential to devastate the medical system without as high a level of vaccinations... that's what we're staring down the barrel of. Combine that with the division of the nation along state and political lines and it's not fun.

That's a pretty accurate summary. As I mentioned earlier thankfully the vast majority of the elderly have been vaccinated so that should limit the deaths, otherwise it would be undoing all of the work that has been put in to this point. So close, if only there had been a hard and fast lockdown in Sydney when the non-vaccinated allegedly non-mask wearing limo driver who had been transporting international flight crews tested positive. That was 16th of June. That person had spread it in a large shopping centre and from there it spread to a large party further west. Initially there was a stay at home order for four local government areas issued on the 25th of June. More than a week after the initial case. That turned into the start of the actual lockdown the following day and here we are in the back half of August with record cases and no end to the lockdown in site.

Smashed the new record for cases in NSW today - 633 in a state population of 8.2 million. Big numbers getting vaccinated but there will be some rough times in the coming weeks and months. To put the 633 cases into context in total across the country there has been approx 41,000 cases. There's only been a couple of days nationally where the count has been higher - during the peak of the last wave/outbreak in Melbourne, and that was not delta. Melbourne are treading water but hopefully trending in the right direction bringing in a quick lockdown but having to work with morons in the community like those at a well to do engagement party where 70 people attended that has resulted in 7 cases to this point. In NSW our largest hospitals are scrambling to stand-up new covid wards as the existing ones have reached capacity. Elective surgeries are on hold both at public and private facilities so that there are adequate staffing levels for the anticipated caseload.

Good move. 8 weeks into our slow to act lockdown here with seemingly more ahead than behind us.

How's everything looking over there? The case numbers seem to be a bit all over the place with a pretty steady flow of death. We're heading to a similar, though smaller scale case load with out current outbreak (nearing 500 cases a day in NSW). Our vaccination numbers are much lower that yours (about 50% have had at least one dose, only about 30% both) but thankfully high for the elderly. Particularly interested in the impact on hospitals as that is where the bottle-necks will be; ICU capacity and ventilator numbers.

Dummett in on the left. I quite like Clark but he's capable of the odd clanger and he's had an absolute shocker here. Shelvey and Hayden did not work at all there was no shielding for the defense. Perhaps they thought that with three CB it wasn't as essential but combined with wing backs who can't defend or were too prepccupied with getting forward it was disasterous. Basically it was a horribly coached defensive unit that lacked cohension. On ability I would have thought that would be far from our best, but then they just let go of a defender superior to most on the cheap. I'd not have us play with a back three, especially when only one of them in decent on the ball (Fernandez). It should be him with Lascelles (sad to say it) with Dummett on the left and Murphy's spot to lose on the right (to be replaced by Manquillo). Hayden to play in DM shielding the defense alongside Willock. I'm hoping Willock's return will add some end product for Almiron and that having a midfield that can pass with negate the need to have Shelvey send long balls up to Wilson.

I'd have Dummett there for sure, given he's an actual defender. Seems to always be not match fit these days though. At some point we'll have to give Lewis a run again before determining that he should be punted. Otherwise Manquillo should play there. Never Ritchie.

Just watched the replay of the 'penalty' - what a fucking joke - Murphy clearly gets the ball, cowardly video review to support the on-field ref's shit decision. The match hinges on that.

Nee chance, he's got absolutely zero defensive positional sense because he's not a defender and has never been. If he's close enough to make a tackle in the box it's a coin toss as to whether he'll kick lumps put of them.

We can switch our focus to what Bruce will say in the aftermath of this. I can see him pretending that this is a good result and that it will have been an entertaining return for supporters. Then switching focus to the excitement of being able to welcome Willock into the side next week.

I would hope that this is a long way off our best defense. Fernandez is the only one who should be starting, potentially Murphy formation dependent.