On 6/15/2023 at 2:39 PM, GOLORDIE said:

Hi Andy, I apologise, but 50 years of journalism has made me something of a pedant. There is no such road as the Princess Freeway. The road between Melbourne and Geelong (indeed, between Sydney and Adelaide, of which Melbourne to Geelong is but a portion) was, when the various existing roads were linked up in 1920, originally named the Prince's Highway in honor of the visit of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII the Abdicator). Subsequently the name was bastardised by the bureaucracy (NSW 1993, Vic 2010) to the Princes Highway (as if there were more than one prince involved) and, more recently, following upgrades, the Princes Freeway. Not a girlie in sight, I'm afraid. I see this as another slight on the important but humble apostrophe, which is succumbing to the old Death by 1000 Cuts. Hardly anyone knows how to use the apostrophe these days, which can't help when people are trying to make themselves understood in posts on Demonland. Wouldn't you agree?  GoDees!  

A paragraph can be helpful as well.

 

@binman did you get on the Dees yesterday at $2.10? We’re now favourites at $1.85 to cats at $2.00 after the Dangerfield injury and their overall performance against Port. 

Edited June 16, 20231 yr by Stu

3 hours ago, Jjrogan said:

Geelong field arguably the worst midfield in the league. I don't see why this should be close other than they get to play with 4 extra players.  We'd have to be pretty horrendous at both ends of the ground to lose next week. 

Our last 10 games are 2 interstate top 8 teams at home, Saints, and 7 bottom 10 teams.  Pretty hard not to be thinking about September. 

 

 

The reality is that, too many times, we have gone down to Geelong (whether it be favourites or underdogs) and copped some awful floggings and awful umpiring decisions.

And I'm deeply, deeply scarred.

I'm really looking forward to selection for the cats.

They have followed through on the preseason talk of being more flexible in terms of how they manage players (though goody will never being too many in  unlike say bevo - values predictability too highly for that) -

Flexible both in terms of player management (eg hibbo, salo coming straight back in) and on field strategies like time on the ground and rolling more players through the middle.

Is this a target game? If so, they pick their best 23.

But if not, maybe they manage some players.

So maybe give jvr a spell? Easy to forget he is only nineteen.

Or maybe even give Maxy a chance to have a good break, and give brodie a solid run in the ruck in the process, perhaps wth smith giving him a chop out.

Petty was listed as a week on Monday - will they bring him in for the cats game? Or wait till the giants game, which would give him another full 9 day break?

Could chin do with a spell? Kozzie?

Spargo looks to be paddling a hit.  Maybe Laurie can come in for him.

Or they find a way to give Howes or woey a run?

They'll go with the analytics and their their elite coaching skills and knowledge.

I'll go with the vibe and suggest some new faces and some different roles will create a buzz and some energy in what could otherwise be a cold mid winter slog on the worst ground in footy.

And will increase our chances of winning.

Nek minit; no changes.

Edited June 16, 20231 yr by binman

3 hours ago, Pennant St Dee said:

Hope it ends like Corey Enright 300th, if I recall correctly that was the game where Big Gawny announced himself 

Night game. Fireworks before the game (literally, not metaphorically) to celebrate Corey. It felt like arrogance, and as one of the 280* Melbourne supporters there, was very very very pleased with the result. Bernie Vince was [censored] immense.

Plus the CHATANOOGA CHOO CHOO....

IS BAAAAAAAAACk🤩

7 hours ago, Jjrogan said:

Geelong field arguably the worst midfield in the league. I don't see why this should be close other than they get to play with 4 extra players.  We'd have to be pretty horrendous at both ends of the ground to lose next week. 

Our last 10 games are 2 interstate top 8 teams at home, Saints, and 7 bottom 10 teams.  Pretty hard not to be thinking about September. 

 

 

I've been thinking about september since last september

I think we're ready for it.

3 hours ago, picket fence said:

Plus the CHATANOOGA CHOO CHOO....

IS BAAAAAAAAACk🤩

From comments I've seen from Oliver, I wouldn't be so sure yet. He was in hospital for 5 days or so and said himself that he's coming from a long way back fitness-wise. Fingers crossed of course, though even if he plays, not sure we're going to see explosive Clarry in full flight.

10 minutes ago, bing181 said:

From comments I've seen from Oliver, I wouldn't be so sure yet. He was in hospital for 5 days or so and said himself that he's coming from a long way back fitness-wise. Fingers crossed of course, though even if he plays, not sure we're going to see explosive Clarry in full flight.

The amount of high intensity running he did on the ground post game that i witnessed, he must have been close to playing on Monday. I was amazed how well he was travelling.

I’d put good money on him playing given the ten days between games. 
Bloke even admitted to slipping out of the hospital for a run against doctors orders while cooped up in hospital. Wouldn’t be surprised if he ran 10km bare assed in a hospital gown while pulling a drip stand with him. 

On 6/13/2023 at 1:20 PM, Red and Bluebeard said:

True. The problem for me is that this stinks of being a "conditional" home ground for Geelong. Either it is their home, or it isn't. The long-term trend since the 90s seems to be consolidate at the big grounds (allowing generally more attendance). So this exception makes no sense to me (but there are plenty of other things in that category).

If you think about it Geelong wanting to play at Geelong and not consolidate in the city makes sense. It also reasonable for the AFL to be ok with that. I hate Geelong just as much as the rest of us but they struck a lucky card with the Geography and the cess pit political pull they have.

2 hours ago, Beetle said:

Bloke even admitted to slipping out of the hospital for a run against doctors orders

"Clayton Oliver comes clean after 'slipping out' of hospital despite suffering a foot infection... but Melbourne superstar insists he did NOT go for a run"

'Definitely didn't go for a run, I couldn't run, I just wanted to get a change of clothes.'

"With the majority of his teammates enjoying a well-earned break after the win over Collingwood, Oliver was on the track on Thursday completing a 45-minute running session. “I thought I was pretty close (to playing last week), but going off today’s training session I was nowhere near it so probably good decision by the docs,” Oliver told 7NEWS.

“A week in hospital is no good and (I) wasn’t too flash today. “I didn’t realise how bad I actually was, foot feels fine, just a bit unfit.”"

16 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Maybe we have Grundy down one wing and Max down the other on kick ins...?

 

Last year they had guys like Blix jump into Max and smash the ball fwd 10-15m. Our smalls were at Max's feet so the Cats swept it away fairly easily

If that was he case then it was appalling coaching once again

Like Sydney didn't do last night we must kick goals when we have the opportunity and against ort and collingwood

 

8 hours ago, Beetle said:

Wouldn’t be surprised if he ran 10km bare assed in a hospital gown while pulling a drip stand with him. 

I did that once. 

Well, turns our I was dreaming and just fell out of my hospital bed.

Clarrie sneaking out for a durry

20 hours ago, Mel Bourne said:

It seems I’m one of the few people here that doesn’t mind Dangerfield. Hope he recovers well. 

He saved 2 people from drowning in Torquay a couple of summers ago. I can’t rag on him since then (he does love himself though)

No chance Oliver doesn’t play. Knowing how professional and dedicated and slightly unhinged he is, he is probably running 20km a day in the break. He will be fine. The man is a machine. 

4 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

slightly unhinged he is

Got some tasty anecdotes to share to get us through to next game day??😍

4 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

No chance Oliver doesn’t play. Knowing how professional and dedicated and slightly unhinged he is, he is probably running 20km a day in the break. He will be fine. The man is a machine. 

Machines don’t get infected blisters, Jaded. Machines don’t go THE HOSPITAL

No, we learnt a truth that we should have been protected from…

Clayton Oliver is…

A HUMAN.

 

19 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

Agreed. Dangerfield is so important to them. Is Guthrie excepted to miss again next week? That also helps. 

If May shuts down Cameron and without Dangerfield we should win. 

May usually gets Hawkins.

21 hours ago, The heart beats true said:

Dangerfield cops a lot for being a flopper and acting like he’s been mortally wounded, but to play out the game with a punctured lung would have been incredibly painful. He’s obviously tougher than he gets credit for.

Cant forgive him for the game in Adelaide in 2011 when Trengove tackled him and he squealed like a stuck pig. Said he was concussed. Trengove got 3 weeks for a perfect tackle.

Danger came back the next week and kicked 6 goals.

 

Have hated him ever since.

23 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

Port used Bergman on Cameron, an inspired choice. Matching his speed is probably more important than his height.

We’ve got some tricky choices down back:

Tomlinson - Hawkins
May - Cameron
Hibbo - Rohan
Lever - Henry/intercepting and not get turned around by crafty smalls?

Or do we go:

May - Hawkins
Hibbo/Rivers - Cameron/Rohan
Tomlinson - Henry
Lever - smalls

The Cats showed in the first quarter their crumbers are deadly and Rohan is super dangerous if he gets one on ones out of stoppages.

The midfield and forwards have to get pressure or we’ll be in trouble with a bigger slower backline.

Which means we also have to move the ball well enough to get in position to pressure. You can’t pressure bad turnovers, especially with the way the Cats go in to their uncontested kicking game.

Port are so good at switching and using the corridor and it opened the cats backline right up. We don’t have the same run and skills so we’ll have to muscle them at the contest and make smart decisions under pressure. Would be nice to have peak Clarry, I’m worried he’ll be rusty and wasteful. 

Petty has kept him quiet before. So without Petty its probably Thommo

9 hours ago, Wizard of Koz said:

If you think about it Geelong wanting to play at Geelong and not consolidate in the city makes sense. It also reasonable for the AFL to be ok with that. I hate Geelong just as much as the rest of us but they struck a lucky card with the Geography and the cess pit political pull they have.

I have no problem with Geelong playing all home games, without exception, in Geelong. The problem comes when they want to move home games to Melbourne to maximise crowds. That is a bit like Gold Coast moving big-crowd games to the Gabba. It seems Geelong can have their cake and eat it too in this sense.

FWIW, IF we were to win our next three games (cats, giants, saints) we'd be on par with where we were at the same stage last year, but without being banged up (hopefully). It's been mentioned earlier in this thread that six of our final nine games are against sides currently sitting 12,13,14,15,16,17 on the ladder.