6 minutes ago, binman said:

Four talls - Rohan, Hawkins, Ratugolea and Cameron

 

And when we defensive ground balls or intercept, we will look to run off their talls at every opportunity. 

They are a slow team as it is. Four bigs, two of whom are lumbering types, just makes them slower.

I guess Rohan and Cameron are reasonably mobile .  I thought the pundits had been banging on for weeks now that  the way to penetrate our defence was to go in low and fast (centre breaks) or get it to ground. 

1 minute ago, Robbie57 said:

I guess Rohan and Cameron are reasonably mobile .  I thought the pundits had been banging on for weeks now that  the way to penetrate our defence was to go in low and fast (centre breaks) or get it to ground. 

Geelong is ranked No 1 for Marks inside 50 with nearly 11 per game on average, I don't see them with any real ground ball threat inside 50m.

58 minutes ago, Robbie57 said:

I thought the pundits had been banging on for weeks now that  the way to penetrate our defence was to go in low and fast (centre breaks) or get it to ground. 

That's a good point.

Given we won't give them space to lead into, surely four talls means they end up with a lot of high and long inside 50 kicks.

A lot of talk about Ratugolea being a really important in from a structural perspective. And that playing him will negate levers impact by forcing him to be accountable to a big.

Both valid points perhaps, but when it is all said and done he only had five possessions and one mark against an average Giants defence (how slow was Davis?). 

Edited September 6, 20213 yr by binman

8 minutes ago, binman said:

Ethan (and other Perth based posters), what's the vibe like over there atm in terms of the footy?

I was amazed the Cats v Giants game had a crowd of 44, 000. Incredible, particularly given one assumes there is no historic giants fan base.

I was even more amazed people were still booing the iumpires!

Before the tickets went on sale today I didn’t really pay all that much attention to the general vibe. But I’ve had plenty of people at work hit me up for tickets or access to them, majority are Eagles supporters who will be going for Melbourne. 

Me too! I have Eagles mates going to the game on Demon barcodes and all are barracking for Melbourne. I reckon we’ll easily have the crowd on side! 

5 minutes ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Before the tickets went on sale today I didn’t really pay all that much attention to the general vibe. But I’ve had plenty of people at work hit me up for tickets or access to them, majority are Eagles supporters who will be going for Melbourne. 

 

13 minutes ago, drdrake said:

Geelong is ranked No 1 for Marks inside 50 with nearly 11 per game on average, I don't see them with any real ground ball threat inside 50m.

What is the conversion rate for inside 50 marks? 

Been stewing on this over the weekend and pretty sure others have mentioned it, but this is almost the perfect inverse of 2018. They beat us twice, once after the siren back then. We beat them twice and once after the siren this year. 

Regardless of tactics, how much weight do we assign to the emotional motivation Geelong will have. 

We had a point to prove and a desire for revenge in 2018 and I imagine the same could be said of Geelong this year for this game. 

Is this something we should be worried about and how do we go about combatting it because its got me worried? 

So do we have the former president Glen Bartlett to thank for the WCE facilities? are we sharing them with another club? I think it is a real coup to be using the Eagles facilities, they are 1st class, and anyway well done for whoever got this done. And from social media I am detecting at least moderate approval of Melbourne, I am not kidding myself I don't think any Eagle fan loves us, but I can genuinely see a good crowd for the PF and at least not a chorus of boos for us. 

Feel too nervous and jittery to read this thread and discuss the game, lineups etc. I wonder if it would be different playing Port or the Dogs. The idea of losing to the Cats makes me sick to my stomach. Pregame jitters on a Monday 🤒

Next week if we make it, I think I'll be in a more celebratory mode, absolutely immersed in all footy discussion and media!

 

Edited September 6, 20213 yr by John Demonic

41 minutes ago, Tom Dyson said:

Been stewing on this over the weekend and pretty sure others have mentioned it, but this is almost the perfect inverse of 2018. They beat us twice, once after the siren back then. We beat them twice and once after the siren this year. 

Regardless of tactics, how much weight do we assign to the emotional motivation Geelong will have. 

We had a point to prove and a desire for revenge in 2018 and I imagine the same could be said of Geelong this year for this game. 

Is this something we should be worried about and how do we go about combatting it because its got me worried? 

Tom - we have the system to beat them. We have the system to beat any team as evidenced throughout the year (aside from Collingwood ;)..but we were heavily loading then ).

Geelong won't beat us. We only lose if we beat ourselves - poor midfield pressure, or inaccurate kicking for goal.

If you look at this realistically we go in with significant up side. Top v Third; Injured v Uninjured; All Australian 5 v 1 (Stewart injured);  Under 22 3 v 0; Goal kickers over 20 5 v 3; Total stats top 10 3 v 0 etc etc. if it wasn’t for history and MFCSS all of us would be supremely confident. I for one am embracing this game I simply think we are the better team.  Of course it possible to lose but with all these advantages it will take a 1958 level upset for it to happen. It has taken to long to get here for me not to suck it up and enjoy the week. If doubt creeps in I remind myself of these facts and no matter what happens it is all positives compared with the despair of the Neeld era. I attended 87; 88; & 2000 and hoped rather than believed. This is a whole different wonderful experience.

We're strong, we're young, we're full of run. Bring the pressure and we'll get it done.

2 hours ago, S_T said:

Geelong handed MelbourneFC arguably the darkest day in our history.  And now they stand between us and our best chance of a premiership in most of our lifetimes.  It's going to be a very, very long 4 days....

As a Geelong based Melbourne supporter, the thought of losing to them on Friday night fills me with absolute dread.  

Agree, if we played them in a GF I had told my wife that if we lost I’d quit my job effective immediately.

Thats the downside to living near Geelong. 

Just thinking out loud here...

Would love to see Max go forward to square at the first bounce and let Jacko start in the ruck. Just to seriously [censored] with their collective heads. The would be some serious panic and a reshuffle to create some good chaos footy at the start

57 minutes ago, John Demonic said:

Feel too nervous and jittery to read this thread and discuss the game, lineups etc. I wonder if it would be different playing Port or the Dogs. The idea of losing to the Cats makes me sick to my stomach. Pregame jitters on a Monday 🤒

Next week if we make it, I think I'll be in a more celebratory mode, absolutely immersed in all footy discussion and media!

 

Uhm, are you in my head?! You must be coz you’ve just said exactly everything I’m feeling, verbatim. Especially the bit about pre-game jitters on a Monday. And no sign of letting up. A week of game-days. Good times. 

I'm quite busy at work this week so don't have time to think about the game.

That said i'm confident. We've fronted up pretty much every game this year, imposed our game style on the opposition and wrest momentum back when things weren't going our way. I'm sure we'll put in a performance on Friday night. Whether it's good enough to win time will tell but i don't think Geelong have a big performance in them. They'll be much more worried about us that we are of them. I don't care how they spin it that collapse in the last H&A will be preying on their minds

57 minutes ago, TRIGON said:

We're strong, we're young, we're full of run. Bring the pressure and we'll get it done.

Like a dees haiku 

4 hours ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Just booked five tickets for the game. All Eagles supporter mates coming but they’ve all agreed to wear Demons scarves. 
 

Please make sure they have their best booing voices ready for Geelong and the umpires. 

Thought I'd put this Stats Insider article here. On why your club might not win the 2021 Premiership

got ticket can't wait.

 

Is the cheer squad going ?

Yeah, we're fine...

I feel if we lost GF to Dogs could kind of accept it. 
Port - I’d be upset. 
Prelim - absolutely no way known could I tolerate in any way shape or form. Would make me ill 

11 hours ago, binman said:

At the risk of having a circular argument, I'm not 'adding in extra players'. 

YOU were comparing Brown, Tmac and Hawkins and Cameron - not me

I was talking about our talls in our forward line v theirs because that is who King was referring to. He was pointing out Ratugolea added to Cameron, rohan and Hawkins and that was a forward line the dees would 'die for'.

Which is bollocks. Which is the point I was making. 

Our forward line has had four talls most of the season, assuming you count fritter, which I do as he is a marking target, not a crumber. 

The current iteration - Jackson, Brown, Tmac and Fritter - is a good group of tall forwards. 

The cats tall forwards in Ratugolea Cameron, Rohan and Hawkins is also a good group.

But do you really think it is one that goody  would 'die for'.

Quite the contrary.

Bringing Ratugolea in at this late stage is evidence the cats don't believe the others can do the job in finals.

And probably an admission they need a player like Jackson who can do solid minutes as an around the ground ruckman (not a bull who only takes inside 50 stoppages   - that by the by we negated last time by simply using Max more often at ruck contests inside their 50).

Hawkins is one dimensional and really can only play out of the square. He has limited impact if not kicking goals. Which would not be a good fit for our game plan. Our forwards have to be able to run up and down the ground all day - particularly tmac, Jackson and Brown. And good zones beat the old school wrestle gorillas.

Cameron would slot into our side and game plan perfectly, and keep say tmac out. But fritter has rohan covered in every respect.

And Jackson is so far ahead of Ratugolea its not even a discussion.

So all things considered king's assertion they have a forward line we would die for is bollocks.

If you agree with King then that's OK. Each to their own

 

I know which 5 talls im taking every day of the week.

Cameron, Hawkins, Rata, Rohan and Stanely.

Tmac, Brown, Jackson, Fritta and Gawn.

 

 

How good is this! Well done WA Dee fans.

 

i'm taking 7 with me