For all the flack he cops he should be congratulated for his efforts (but not his errors) on the weekend. Along with Mundy, Dodd, Gilmore (or his) and Pav of course. (and a few others like Hayden, Grover for starters)

Congratulate DJ on last weekend's game? You may quote me.

"Ho, ho, ho, ho..."

third most clearances in the league for the round, you know.

his tackle and contested possession counts weren't too bad either

At the MCG on Saturday I was remarking to my partner how Des was looking not quite right - his shoulders seemed to slump and he just seemed to lack a kind of fire in the eyes. It was pointed out to me that he was wearing a black arm band - in fact, all of the Indigenous players were wearing them at the game.

Don't know if this answers anything, but for me it sort of explained things better than any of the post-game stuff that I heard.

I'm still '100% BEHIND HEADLAND'....

Polly I hope he doesn't mind your positioning.

I've called for DJ to be dropped back to the WAFL a number of times over his years at Freo and he usually makes a fool of me by playing a blinder in the following week.

In another thread I made the WAFL call; let's see what happens on Saturday.

i thought des played pretty well on saturday, he got a fair bit of the ball, and he was clearing it. i like him in the midfield. hope he's in the middle again against the hawks.

Pollyanna, I know Troy Cook's brother died recently - perhaps the armbands were in his memory?

He took a mark in front of goal and looked very flat as he walked back for the kick.. not excited. You'd expect him to be excited about having a reletively easy shot at the sticks in the first game.

If it was Troy Cook's brother's passing then that explains it.

RIP Cookey and Condolences to all family and friends.

He kept presenting in the forward 50 after the result was sealed, the glass can be half full or half empty, knockers say he only shows up when the heat is off conversely you could argue that he never gave up

He was probably our best midfielder and our 2nd best forward in the one game, and you want to drop him?? Compare his game to anyone but McPharlin and maybe a couple more and he would come off better.

Maybe it only showed on tv, but Des was great. He was hard, fast and skillful. If we'd had half a dozen Des's in the side, the players would have been able to slip off to the pub with 10 minutes to go in the last quarter.

Did I say skillful? At one point he was running forward with the ball and had another Docker also running forward 30m in front of him. Dessie chipped the ball over this guys head so that he could run onto it without breaking stride. Absolute magic.

Re: black arm-bands

yeah it was for troy's brother....

RIP BRUZ