14 minutes ago, In Harmes Way said:

I'd have thought the AFL would be trying to minimise the travel burden (or maybe they have overall, and it's us that copped the short end of the stick?)

Norf vs Us in Tassie answers that one. Sending Port to Queensland to play us is another example.Why not send one team  at a time to Adelaide and they play Port and Adelaide and then the next team rotates in.

The AFL is still apparently being driven by an incessant desire for every last dollar.

2 hours ago, Action Jackson said:

I think injury lists are going to play a huge part the rest of this season. Teams with larger lists are going to really struggle to rotate their players to keep them fresh, which may result in additional injuries due to fatigue.

Port and Adelaide have similar lists to us, however both North and Collingwood are really struggling on the injury front. We really need to take advantage of this period. Anything less than 3 wins in the next 5 games will be a fail in my mind.

Looking through the injury lists of sides we will be playing during this condensed fixture period and they are as follows:

Port Adelaide

Adelaide

North Melbourne

 

Collingwood

Diverting off topic a bit but I noticed Jack Watts is not on the injured list for Port...does he just not make their team anymore?

1 hour ago, In Harmes Way said:

I'm amazed at the amount of travel we've got over the next 4 weeks; given we've also got partners and kids in the QLD "hub". Presuming other clubs in the same boat. I wonder if we are moving our whole team + entourage en masse between locations, or commuting back to QLD between games.

For reasons of minimising COVID community transmission, I'd have thought the AFL would be trying to minimise the travel burden (or maybe they have overall, and it's us that copped the short end of the stick?)

No, we'll be based in Qld and just fly in to SA and Tassie for the games, much like in a normal season. I'm sure there looking at taking the players straight from SA to Tassie, given that's a 4 day turn around and we play at night in SA, so we won't be leaving until Thursday that week and have to play Sunday, so they might go straight there? 

43 minutes ago, The Swimming Dee said:

Diverting off topic a bit but I noticed Jack Watts is not on the injured list for Port...does he just not make their team anymore?

He had a pretty serious injury, so it's likely he's over that but still needs a lot of conditioning and match practice before he'd be right to come into their team again.

6 minutes ago, Red and Blue realist said:

He had a pretty serious injury, so it's likely he's over that but still needs a lot of conditioning and match practice before he'd be right to come into their team again.

Few players come back from a broken leg at anywhere near their previous form. Best of luck to Jack. I hope he has planned his post football life.

15 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

So this means our final six games will be against: Essendon, Fremantle, GWS, St Kilda, Sydney and the Dogs.

The Dogs are the best of that bunch currently. We could cop GWS after they turn their form around over the next month. St Kilda always trouble us. But all six games are, at least on what we know right now, winnable (although a 2-4 run is on the cards, or worse, if we don't maintain our form from the last two weeks).

10 wins gets you ion the 8??

On form we beat Nth and Adel.

Which would mean we would have to win 5 of those 6.

We play port of a 4 day break. Do we rest 6-8 against port to give us the best chance of beating nth and Adel. Drop either of those games and it will make it hard.

Unless we beat the Lions and just go for it against Port. ?

3 hours ago, Red and Blue realist said:

This is spot on, and there's already been talk (I know the media are ramping up their usual waffle at the moment) about other clubs mass resting players, I don't think we should take that approach but certainly take the squad mentality. I wonder if Burgess will have some say at selection meetings, with his experience in the EPL and soccer world where they have lots of short turn arounds, but mainly due to the difference competitions they play. This means they put out different squads for different levels of opponent (or how much they value the comp their in). The talk last night was the Geelong or Collingwood could rest 10 first choice players against the like of Adelaide/North etc. I don't think we need to be that harsh but certainly should be thinking about taking the choice out of players hands and forcing some to rest or positional changes (have Trac forward all game, or even Maxy to CHB and if needed use them to help win a game). 

Burgess speaks a bit about this in the below podcast. Also gives some great background on his time at the Socceroos,Liverpool and Arsenal and Port.

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/brukie-and-burgo-the-podcast/id1519942623

 

Geelong will surely drop down the table during the remainder of the season. No Ablett or Selwood along with Stewart and Clark etc. An ageing list that will need rotation. Not a lot of depth.

There will be no excuses if we don't make finals, we are in a good position to go on a good run with a young fit, deep list.

4 hours ago, Demonland said:

Also of note is the * next to our match against North in Tassie. The Venue is still subject to Tasmanian Government Approval.

Could this match potentially not even be played in Tasmania?

Seeing as we're staying in the same property in Qld as North are it would make more sense to play it there...

Just now, rjay said:

Seeing as we're staying in the same property in Qld as North are it would make more sense to play it there...

It would but North probably have to play a certain amount of games in Tassie. We're likely to get a game in the NT for the same reason. North are playing 2 weeks in a row in Tassie and will likely have to fly back and forward from QLD.

27 minutes ago, Grimes Times said:

10 wins gets you ion the 8??

On form we beat Nth and Adel.

Which would mean we would have to win 5 of those 6.

We play port of a 4 day break. Do we rest 6-8 against port to give us the best chance of beating nth and Adel. Drop either of those games and it will make it hard.

Unless we beat the Lions and just go for it against Port. ?

IMO it's too early for us to start looking at the run home and trying to work out finals calculations.

For one, we're only one-third through our season. For another, we're looking at two weeks of good form vs a preceding two weeks of poor form.

If we play vs Brisbane like we did vs Hawthorn, even if we don't win, I'll start to have enough confidence to say things like "we should be able to beat Adelaide and North" (as well as Fremantle, as that won't be in Perth, and Sydney).

But even in 2018, when we were good and we were considered to beat up on bad sides, we still dropped games to St Kilda and Port, neither of whom played finals that year. It's unlikely we're going to get through this year without dropping at least one game to one of those weaker sides.

Happy to play the bummer holes later.  If we played them in round 2, we were still stinking it up.  At least we are seeing some good footy being produced by the Dees.  Play like last weekend and we will wipe them off the map.  So we lose a bye week, but face a team when we are stronger / they are potentially found out.  Would take that any day of the week.

I seriously thought Tassie was closed. 

1 hour ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Norf vs Us in Tassie answers that one. Sending Port to Queensland to play us is another example.Why not send one team  at a time to Adelaide and they play Port and Adelaide and then the next team rotates in.

The AFL is still apparently being driven by an incessant desire for every last dollar.

As it should be, right now. Without the dollars, not only does the AFL men's competition suffer, so too will AFLW, junior development and grassroots football. 

North and Melbourne both being based in Qld and playing in Tassie is conceptually no different to North and Melbourne both being based in Victoria and playing in Tassie. Slightly longer travel time, that's all.

1 minute ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

As it should be, right now. Without the dollars, not only does the AFL men's competition suffer, so too will AFLW, junior development and grassroots football. 

North and Melbourne both being based in Qld and playing in Tassie is conceptually no different to North and Melbourne both being based in Victoria and playing in Tassie. Slightly longer travel time, that's all.

I'm not positive but it might not just be the slightly longer travel time. Having to fly in, fly out is way different in terms of preparation than coming a day or two before & getting a session in on an unfamiliar ground.

The Kangaroos are playing at BA the week before. It will be interesting if they get to stay in Tas or also fly in fly out. In any event they may have a slight advantage by having played there the week before.

39 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

IMO it's too early for us to start looking at the run home and trying to work out finals calculations.

For one, we're only one-third through our season. For another, we're looking at two weeks of good form vs a preceding two weeks of poor form.

If we play vs Brisbane like we did vs Hawthorn, even if we don't win, I'll start to have enough confidence to say things like "we should be able to beat Adelaide and North" (as well as Fremantle, as that won't be in Perth, and Sydney).

But even in 2018, when we were good and we were considered to beat up on bad sides, we still dropped games to St Kilda and Port, neither of whom played finals that year. It's unlikely we're going to get through this year without dropping at least one game to one of those weaker sides.

I hear what you're saying Titan but I personally find it hard not to have a look at the run home around who's in form and who's not.  I even found myself perusing opposition injury lists last night to see who's out over the next month which is something I'd never do but have found more time due to the boredom  caused from lock downs.

Not being able to help myself in looking, the next 5 weeks we play the top 3 teams and bottom 2 teams.  If we can't beat Adelaide and North who will be without at least Sloane and Ziebell then we should pack it in.

The last game sees us against the Pies who will be coming off a 4 day break without Howe and DeGoey and us off a 6 day break.  I'd love us to pinch that and at least jag 3 wins over the next 5 matches.  I think this is a reasonable goal as we should consider ourselves a decent team.

I'd take us sitting at 6 and 5 with noting we have two 'softer' matches we should win (Freo and Sydney).

We then just need to jag two wins from St Kilda, Dogs, GWS and the Bombers which are all 50/50 at this stage.

So all in all, we pretty much have one hand on the cup!

23 minutes ago, Demonland said:

I'm not positive but it might not just be the slightly longer travel time. Having to fly in, fly out is way different in terms of preparation than coming a day or two before & getting a session in on an unfamiliar ground.

The Kangaroos are playing at BA the week before. It will be interesting if they get to stay in Tas or also fly in fly out. In any event they may have a slight advantage by having played there the week before.

Yes, that might change things. Mind you, if I were North I'd seriously consider returning to the comparative warmth of Qld between the two games rather than spend an extra week in Hobart in winter.

Nasher might have a different view, of course.  

6 hours ago, BigFez said:

The way some people carry on about the Tassie game you'd think it was a long haul flight to get down here.  It's under an hour from Melbourne, the bus trip to Geelong is longer.

You can fly direct from Adelaide and Brisbane, Brisbane being the longer flight at 2.5 hours.

Our form down here isn't too bad.  We will [censored] North.

Having said that I have no idea why they made it a night match in August!  I went to a night match at Blundstone arena Richmond vs North a few years back and my eyeballs nearly froze.

Playing in Tassie isn't the issue. PLaying in Queensland, Adelaide and Tassie in a 10 day span before heading back to Queensland is the issue when you compare it to the fixtures of the other teams. Collingwood is the only other team with as raw a deal as us. Geelong have a 4 day break going from WA to QLD but they are in WA for 3 weeks then in Qld for 3 weeks. We are hopping from state to state to state to state. 4 states in 16 days its ridiculous!

We had better be ending the home and away season with a block of games in Qld. You can bet we will get another 4 day break to meet the maximum of three 4 day breaks per team, I am just hoping that it is shared around and plenty of other teams are copping 3x4 day breaks as well!

Us v Them

The Melbourne Storm attitude for years

Hopefully we are doing some work along side Bellamy and some toughness is absorbed

Darren Burgess could be the Ace Card

2 hours ago, Demonland said:

It would but North probably have to play a certain amount of games in Tassie. We're likely to get a game in the NT for the same reason. North are playing 2 weeks in a row in Tassie and will likely have to fly back and forward from QLD.

I saw an article the other day saying North were going to be based in Tas for 4 games

2 hours ago, Demonland said:

I'm not positive but it might not just be the slightly longer travel time. Having to fly in, fly out is way different in terms of preparation than coming a day or two before & getting a session in on an unfamiliar ground.

The Kangaroos are playing at BA the week before. It will be interesting if they get to stay in Tas or also fly in fly out. In any event they may have a slight advantage by having played there the week before.

North is playing in Qld the week before they play us. They have a game against Brisbane in Tas after our game.

2 hours ago, buck_nekkid said:

Happy to play the bummer holes later.  If we played them in round 2, we were still stinking it up.  At least we are seeing some good footy being produced by the Dees.  Play like last weekend and we will wipe them off the map.  So we lose a bye week, but face a team when we are stronger / they are potentially found out.  Would take that any day of the week.

Imagine if it was us vs them in the last round with the winner making finals.

I'd love nothing more than to smash them off the park and send them packing, but how bad would everyones MFCSS be in the lead up! ?

Squad depth is talked about a lot in the premier league during the busy December period, unless teams come up against the best teams they usually have at least 1-2 players that are usual starting 11 playing off the bench or not named.

Now we can’t quite do the same thing with the Dees aside from rotating in and out of the side but I wonder whether they may look at positional changes to give players rests. Such as playing Petracca predominantly forward for a match or giving Jackson more ruck time. 

Either way I think the club, with Burgess advising them of player conditioning, May have to be flexible and creative. 

As another aside I wonder if this could be something the AFL considers for future seasons. Cramming extra matches is in the middle of the season, end it with a bye, get an extra round for TV $$$. 

18 minutes ago, Pates said:

Squad depth is talked about a lot in the premier league during the busy December period, unless teams come up against the best teams they usually have at least 1-2 players that are usual starting 11 playing off the bench or not named.

Now we can’t quite do the same thing with the Dees aside from rotating in and out of the side but I wonder whether they may look at positional changes to give players rests. Such as playing Petracca predominantly forward for a match or giving Jackson more ruck time. 

Either way I think the club, with Burgess advising them of player conditioning, May have to be flexible and creative. 

As another aside I wonder if this could be something the AFL considers for future seasons. Cramming extra matches is in the middle of the season, end it with a bye, get an extra round for TV $$$. 

My guess is that the general public will accept a crammed schedule this year because of the circumstances but would prefer a more traditional roster in 2021. I'm not even convinved that Thursday night football (in a normal year) is wanted, although that could just be my bias against it. Cricket found that when it extended its season and played matches virtually every night people lost interest. Clearly there is a tipping point when too much of a product diminishes its value.

I expect, therefore, against logic, the AFL will try to cram lots of games into the mid-part of next season.  

7 hours ago, Deeko2 said:

I hear what you're saying Titan but I personally find it hard not to have a look at the run home around who's in form and who's not.  I even found myself perusing opposition injury lists last night to see who's out over the next month which is something I'd never do but have found more time due to the boredom  caused from lock downs.

Not being able to help myself in looking, the next 5 weeks we play the top 3 teams and bottom 2 teams.  If we can't beat Adelaide and North who will be without at least Sloane and Ziebell then we should pack it in.

The last game sees us against the Pies who will be coming off a 4 day break without Howe and DeGoey and us off a 6 day break.  I'd love us to pinch that and at least jag 3 wins over the next 5 matches.  I think this is a reasonable goal as we should consider ourselves a decent team.

I'd take us sitting at 6 and 5 with noting we have two 'softer' matches we should win (Freo and Sydney).

We then just need to jag two wins from St Kilda, Dogs, GWS and the Bombers which are all 50/50 at this stage.

So all in all, we pretty much have one hand on the cup!

To be honest, same with me.

I just have to remind myself that it's a fun, but largely fruitless, exercise.

Yes, we should beat Adelaide and North, and if we lose one that's going to be a shocking result...unless by the time we get to North they've won 3 in a row and turned their season around (see, eg, other clubs commenting on playing us a fortnight ago).

Anyway, in terms of opportunities to get to 9 wins, they are certainly there in terms of the opponents we have to come, but only if we play the way we played vs GC and Hawthorn.