FIXTURE: Round 23, 2022

[Demonland 74,467]

[Bitter but optimistic 22,289]

Tough finish for the cats.

[Deetective Sgt. Taggert 389]

Another 6 day break for us. Lions play the previous Friday night albeit in Melbourne so maybe we break even there even though they have 7 days in between matches. 

[Rivers Run Red 187]

Last game would've been nice to see other results.

[praha 11,267]

lol Geelong gifted another dream run. Every [censored] year.

[Demon_spurs 1,984]

Just now, praha said:

lol Geelong gifted another dream run. Every [censored] year.

I'm not sure playing easybeats is good preparation for finals, ithas undone them the last few years

[Clintosaurus 7,953]

Wonder if the Giants give enough of a [censored] by then to have a crack against the Anchors.

[DubDee 26,711]

Good to get another Friday night game, should be a cracker

Much prefer having a good hit out against a quality team with the pre-finals bye rather than WC at home.

[Stu 1,075]

1 hour ago, Deetective Sgt. Taggert said:

Another 6 day break for us. Lions play the previous Friday night albeit in Melbourne so maybe we break even there even though they have 7 days in between matches. 

I think it balances out, plus the pre finals bye means there is less concern about player management given the two week recovery period available. 

[At the break of Gawn 4,515]

1 hour ago, Demon_spurs said:

I'm not sure playing easybeats is good preparation for finals, ithas undone them the last few years

True. 2018 they had a 100pt win against the Suns in round 23 at home and then they came up against us in week 1 of the finals…

[Guest]

*big sigh of relief* I booked and paid for flights and accommodation four weeks ago. 
coz I like living dangerously 😎

[Redleg 42,182]

To have any realistic chance of a back to back flag, we have to get to a QF at the G, with close to our best side available.

Given our last 8 games, I am not confident of that anymore.

 

 

[Jaded No More 68,976]

Another short break for us. What a time to be alive. 

[Demonstone 23,600]

Every "short" break must logically be balanced out by a "long" break over the course of a season.

Players say that there is little difference between six and seven days rest, but supporters love to whinge about it.

[Kev 10,930]

Love that we are getting prime time games.

Three friday and a Saturday night. The players will be pumped and are getting consistency of start time against quality teams who we may meet in finals. Given we make it.

I like the 8 day break before we play Carlton.  

Friday nights give our players and coaches the ability to watch the performance of the other teams, with more focus.

Really couldn't be happier.

 

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by kev martin

[DeeMee 924]

I reckon our best outcomes are either finish 2nd and face Brisbane or Port at home and if not, then fourth to play Geelong at the G. 

[titan_uranus 25,255]

5 hours ago, Demonstone said:

Every "short" break must logically be balanced out by a "long" break over the course of a season.

Players say that there is little difference between six and seven days rest, but supporters love to whinge about it.

Do they? I’m not being sarcastic - I just don’t know of players saying there’s no difference. 

Perhaps there’s little difference between 7 and 8 day breaks, but we know 5 day breaks are a bugbear of the AFLPA so there is clearly a difference between 5 and 6, and I’d hazard a guess a meaningful difference between 6 and 7 days too. 

But of more importance IMO is the timing of the breaks (this week is our second consecutive 6 day break), as well as the comparison to our opponent (last week the Dogs had 8 days off, this week Fremantle has 7). 

Last week as an example - on Friday night the week before the Dogs got home from playing St Kilda and commenced preparation for our match. In that time frame, we flew to Alice Springs, played in 20+ degree warmth, then flew back again, then started preparation on Sunday night. It’s often seen as a cop out but when we got steamrolled in the fourth quarter, I can’t help but think the shorter break and differing preparation played a role. 

Yes, across 23 rounds we all start in the same weekend and finish in the same weekend, but it’s not the impact on the overall season that matters, it’s the impact week-to-week. IMO we’ve had it reasonably tough. 

[deanox 10,070]

1 hour ago, kev martin said:

Love that we are getting prime time games.

Three friday and a Saturday night. The players will be pumped and are getting consistency of start time against quality teams who we may meet in finals. Given we make it.

I like the 8 day break before we play Carlton.  

Friday nights give our players and coaches the ability to watch the performance of the other teams, with more focus.

Really couldn't be happier.

 

 

It's actually really interesting that we had terrible TV timeslots at the start of the year while in winning form but now that we aren't we are getting the good slots.

[deanox 10,070]

46 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

Do they? I’m not being sarcastic - I just don’t know of players saying there’s no difference. 

Perhaps there’s little difference between 7 and 8 day breaks, but we know 5 day breaks are a bugbear of the AFLPA so there is clearly a difference between 5 and 6, and I’d hazard a guess a meaningful difference between 6 and 7 days too. 

But of more importance IMO is the timing of the breaks (this week is our second consecutive 6 day break), as well as the comparison to our opponent (last week the Dogs had 8 days off, this week Fremantle has 7). 

Last week as an example - on Friday night the week before the Dogs got home from playing St Kilda and commenced preparation for our match. In that time frame, we flew to Alice Springs, played in 20+ degree warmth, then flew back again, then started preparation on Sunday night. It’s often seen as a cop out but when we got steamrolled in the fourth quarter, I can’t help but think the shorter break and differing preparation played a role. 

Yes, across 23 rounds we all start in the same weekend and finish in the same weekend, but it’s not the impact on the overall season that matters, it’s the impact week-to-week. IMO we’ve had it reasonably tough. 

I really think this is spot on. Comparative vs opposition, and it would be worse for shorter or 5 v 6 than longer ie 8 v 9 after a bye.

Also cumulative short breaks (ie repeat short breaks) would add up too.

I often wonder how much of it is also the luck factor each year. Some body soreness and injuries can be sorted with a single long rest of say 16 days. Others might need 8 otherwise they get progressively worse. Other injuries or niggles can come up fine repeatedly each week as long as they get just the right break, but if they get one day less just can't function.

If players have interupted preseasons the short breaks would have bigger impacts too, as the full rest is needed, no training or fitness could be slotted in.

So the type of injuries and fitness issues a club carries in any given year would really affect how the draw impacts the playing group. What's good one year might be terrible another year.

[Jaded No More 68,976]

18 hours ago, Demonstone said:

Every "short" break must logically be balanced out by a "long" break over the course of a season.

Players say that there is little difference between six and seven days rest, but supporters love to whinge about it.

I think it does add up though if you are continuously coming off 6 day breaks AND you have to travel AND you haven't had a proper bye like every other side did. 

[loges 6,767]

13 hours ago, DeeMee said:

I reckon our best outcomes are either finish 2nd and face Brisbane or Port at home and if not, then fourth to play Geelong at the G. 

Port ????

[DeeMee 924]

Port =Freo in my brain at that moment in time!

[layzie 34,528]

Great, another 6 day break.

Couldn't see them not making that the Fri night game though. 

[Bring-Back-Powell 15,562]

Yeah the breaks are starting to have an effect on us recently.

The Brisbane, Adelaide and Port games we had 10, 9 and 10 day breaks respectively and ran the game out strongly.

The Geelong and Dogs games we had 5 and 6 day breaks and ran the last 10 minutes of the game on quicksand.

Unfortunately this week we have back to back 6 day breaks albeit without the NT heat from the previous week.

We should be fresher for the Pies and particularly the Carlton game which is an 8 day break.

Lions game on a 6 day break shouldn't be much of an issue as it's a night game.

 

 

 

[Demon17 5,262]

22 hours ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

*big sigh of relief* I booked and paid for flights and accommodation four weeks ago. 
coz I like living dangerously 😎

Same here wcw. Good guess.

Except i don't trust the afl so booked return flight sunday to cover a saturday game.