PREGAME: SF vs Carlton

[monoccular 17,430]

1 hour ago, Billy said:

Why does it say omitted??

Why is Tmac playing then, can only run in straight lines

Max has got a broken toe, Clarry a sore knee

Unless he’s told the club he can’t get up for the game should be playing, could be his last game

I understand that Max has had a toe injury for some time - may have been aggravated by 😎🇺🇸stomping it, but apparently trained freely.

1 hour ago, picket fence said:

Only if he leaps and takes Cripps out as well! Its called a Maynard manouever

Remember though, it is only OK if it involves a smother, and an opponent carelessly running into the spoilers shoulder.

1 hour ago, Engorged Onion said:

Whats the general consensus on how the midfield would go if we didn't have Gawn (or Grundy) 'dominating' hitouts... would we win more clearances, due to an ability to shark the opponents hitouts?

Hard to say really - sometimes I think Max's centre bounce dominance is a bit of a poisoned chalice. 

1 hour ago, YesitwasaWin4theAges said:

Small detail but i hope we are wearing OUR home strip tommorow night.

I like our away Guernsey don't get me wrong, but we are the HOME team.

 

The Blues can wear their beige pyjama top for all I care, but not the navy blue (that, incidentally, didn't seem to clash back in the days of black and white TV, or even before that.

1 hour ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Like the selections and I've got a good feeling about this game. 

A key man down in Brayshaw, I don't think our forward line could have functioned any worse and or we have missed soo many gettable shots at goal.  And yet we nearly still won it.

Listening to the likes of Gawn and Patracca, I think there's a determination and confidence that we can turn our performance last week around, just like we did with our form from around the mid season point when the outside football World was writing us off.

Jordan a no brainer.  Hopefully he plays like a star and cements himself a spot for the rest of the finals series, but even the standard Jordan solid output and gut running is what's required.

Tomlinson has shown enough that he's still more than capable on his day.  Perhaps the retirement announcement from Hibbo during the week was a concession that he can't quite play out a full AFL game at his and/or own standard of intensity and Tommo still can?  Also think Tommo will be playing out of his skin at this chance to play in big finals.

While Spargo's form this season hasn't exactly set the world on fire at times, something that does need to be remembered is that he's amoung the elite in the league at hitting a target inside 50 - something we sorely lacked last week.

I'd love to see Hibbo be the sub and it's a role he may still be well suited to, but equally I think we'd still get good returns out of Grundy or Schache if they get given the nod.  I think it's highly unlikely we'd have Laurie as sub again based on his lack luster performance last week, but also as we've gone fairly small in the main 22.

Frankly, the first half of last week I am sure that our guys were mentally shaken to the boots by the assault on their mate Angus.  Some looked almost in tears and shockingly pale.  

Hopefully they will all have had a chance to chat with Gus, regroup  and will want desperately to "do it for Gus", this week and the next two.

1 hour ago, DubDee said:

Blues wont kick a winning score against us. Goody has backed in our defence. Blues to kick 10 goals or less

Jake Lever, Adam Tomlinson, Jake Bowey

Judd McVee, Steven May, Christian Salem (Rivers)

 

and yes, it won't be pretty to watch

Don't want to be a spoiler, but last week we kept Colonwood to 9 goals, total being the magic 60 points, but didn't manage to win.

31 minutes ago, Demon17 said:

Is hibbo being saved for next week as the best chance against Charlie Cameron.?

Bold move but goody may believe is worth the risk to keep him intact. Let the boys take care of the blues while he's kept healthy.

17 - I suspect that this is what is happening.  Hibbo's Achilles is a week to week proposition, and he would be needed fully fit if we are to come up agains the Bears.  Needs a lot of rest in between, and I am sure he will be on a modified training regimen.

4 minutes ago, mo64 said:

You play polo on match days? Little wonder we get stereotyped. 😄

Tell Gil - he will immediately become a friend.

[rpfc 28,433]

13 minutes ago, Billy said:

I like JJ too, would have him in front of Hunter, I’m sure I’ll get howled down for that

Well, yes, because they play different positions. 
 

 

[Demon Dynasty 17,109]

47 minutes ago, Demon17 said:

Is hibbo being saved for next week as the best chance against Charlie Cameron.?

Bold move but goody may believe is worth the risk to keep him intact. Let the boys take care of the blues while he's kept healthy.

Quite possibly or...  he just needs to be managed... or he was left out for match up reasons.

Risky to toy with form at this time of the year imv in terms of 'saving' him for that one role.

I also feel he's a key spiritual character that the boys love to play alongside so not sure this is the greatest timing from that POV.

Especially risky for Hibb as he is reliant on us winning to get on the park again. 

Not that coaches tend to take these factors into account at the pointy end.  Just whatever's best for the team on the night/day as we witnessed with chunk with the GF selection.

No matter the reason in a round-about way it does give the players even more incentive to get through.

[Garbo 1,534]

I must be the only one here who didn’t rate Hibbos game last week, Elliott showed Hibbo was lacking in pace and  as a result we had to adjust our defence to stop pies exploiting it. I don’t think we will be seeing him again regardless of if we win this week

Edited September 14, 2023 by Garbo

[rpfc 28,433]

These changes are fine, from this we can draw a few conclusions; we want midfield production from a goer in JJ, and smarts and more box to box running from 50 to 50 in Spargo, the Tomlinson pick is for the resting ruck. 

They are very safe picks for a club that has to win this game. 

They are fine, and they will not be the reason we win or lose. How we erupt from defence when we turn it over will. How quickly we move it and whether we can get some looks in the corridor will. Whether we get it in the 50 quickly or delay and get bottled up will.

[kev martin 9,892]

11 minutes ago, Garbo said:

I must be the only one here who didn’t rate Hibbos game last week, Elliott showed Hibbo was lacking in pace and  as a result we had to adjust our defence to stop pies exploiting it.

Early on,  Elliot got free.

Hibbo's natural reading of the game got him back in to the contests, as the game developed 

[layzie 33,805]

25 minutes ago, Demon Dynasty said:

Quite possibly or...  he just needs to be managed... or he was left out for match up reasons.

Risky to toy with form at this time of the year imv in terms of 'saving' him for that one role.

I also feel he's a key spiritual character that the boys love to play alongside so not sure this is the greatest timing from that POV.

Especially risky for Hibb as he is reliant on us winning to get on the park again. 

Not that coaches tend to take these factors into account at the pointy end.  Just whatever's best for the team on the night/day as we witnessed with chunk with the GF selection.

No matter the reason in a round-about way it does give the players even more incentive to get through.

I think it comes down to which 2 of 3 games do you want Hibbo playing in. Yes we need go get there first but I'd hate to think he may not get up for those ones.

[titan_uranus 25,020]

The Jordon/Tomlinson selections are sensible and correct.

The Spargo selection I consider to be a major mistake. I do not like the look of our forward half when we have all of ANB, Chandler, Spargo and Pickett in it. When one of our "talls" is Joel Smith, we are severely undersized against a very good aerial backline.

Largely speaking I agree with those who say these selections aren't going to be the reason we win or lose the game. We will lose this game if we're -9 in CPs at quarter time. And we will not win this game if we continue to move the ball as poorly as we did last week. But, IMO the forward half selections aren't going to assist with the latter. 

[Rodney (Balls) Grinter 10,826]

27 minutes ago, Garbo said:

I must be the only one here who didn’t rate Hibbos game last week, Elliott showed Hibbo was lacking in pace and  as a result we had to adjust our defence to stop pies exploiting it. I don’t think we will be seeing him again regardless of if we win this week

I didn't quite read it that way, but I suspect that it could be that he's either struggling to fully run out games at the required level and/or finding it that much harder to back up every week that led him to the decision to call it quits.  He was showing the signs of this earlier in the season when he needed to be rested/managed for a game here or there.

Still if he's able to capably play out 3 quarters, or 2 games out of every 3, I think he's still more than handy as a substitute or backup depth, because the thing you know with the Pig is that he's a fierce competitor who won't shirk a contest or leave anything left in the tank doing his bit for the side.

[Demonland 72,193]

 

[Rodney (Balls) Grinter 10,826]

6 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

The Jordon/Tomlinson selections are sensible and correct.

The Spargo selection I consider to be a major mistake. I do not like the look of our forward half when we have all of ANB, Chandler, Spargo and Pickett in it. When one of our "talls" is Joel Smith, we are severely undersized against a very good aerial backline.

Largely speaking I agree with those who say these selections aren't going to be the reason we win or lose the game. We will lose this game if we're -9 in CPs at quarter time. And we will not win this game if we continue to move the ball as poorly as we did last week. But, IMO the forward half selections aren't going to assist with the latter. 

Except Spargo is one of the best in the league at hitting a target inside 50 - totally sensible in that regard, trying to rectify the issue that we were so deficient in last week.  I'm also hoping we can play Patracca forward more this week with Jordan in the side as I also think this will help both or goal scoring capasity and inside 50 connection.

[praha 11,240]

We've somehow shortened to $1.66. I don't understand it.

[640MD 3,376]

I for won was extremely pleased to see those photos of Gus at training. And all the players pleased for him.

ho Dees 

[bandicoot 1,395]

1 hour ago, 1964nowMORE said:

It was clear from Brisbane game we excepted the dual ruck failed; since then it’s been all single Max. Gawn was BOG last week, perhaps on one leg, let’s back him to go again, he’s a genuine great who regularly performs when needed. I’m happy to back Max in.

 

if he gets injured that’s as [censored] as Trac or May getting injured. We can’t cover any of them regardless who the sub is.

Are you saying an injured mid is the same as a sole ruckman? Joke right? 

[layzie 33,805]

14 minutes ago, bandicoot said:

Are you saying an injured mid is the same as a sole ruckman? Joke right? 

I couldn't follow it at all. 

[Demon Dynasty 17,109]

Looking at our last three finals losses.

One of the common themes here is Viney well off his usually high level H&A performances.

Basically when Viney's well off his best we tend to struggle.

He's our version of Libba in the sense of giving us a stack of first use clearances when he's on.

The majority of our first use pretty much left to him and next in line... Max.

The oppo are probably putting significant time into stopping him just as they do with Max.

So whatever we do tomorrow we need a strategy to counter this as well as the barrage on Max.

Plenty of blocks for both.

Use JJ and Sparrow as alternate extractors in place of Viney (albeit inferior ones) for short stints with Viney maybe spending a bit more time on the bench or forward?

Goody and the FD have surely seen the light by now and have come up with a cunning plan!??

I'd be interested to hear other suggestions from you guys.

Edited September 14, 2023 by Demon Dynasty

[dee-tox 4,835]

1 hour ago, Garbo said:

I must be the only one here who didn’t rate Hibbos game last week, Elliott showed Hibbo was lacking in pace and  as a result we had to adjust our defence to stop pies exploiting it. I don’t think we will be seeing him again regardless of if we win this week

Collingwood's leading goalkicker kept to five kicks? Won or halved every one on one duel i saw. Pretty decent shut down job I would have thought. 

How exactly did we adjust our defence?

[Mel Bourne 4,515]

3 hours ago, leucopogon said:

Really reckon they should have picked Grundy for this one. Max resting at FF isn't a bad shout at all, he competes hard and would probably nullify their tall interceptors. At his best he can dominate the F50, remember 3rd quarter of the PF 2021? Anyway, not gonna happen now.

They've picked a heck of a time to gamble so radically with the forward/ruck setup. Losing Jackson has absolutely put us backwards way worse than I ever anticipated.

I guess there was a reason why we posted about five billion comments last year about how we didn’t want him to leave. 

[jnrmac 20,065]

4 hours ago, Travy14 said:

Tommo in is a bit baffling to me.  Could he play fwd and sit on Weitering?

I called this early in the week and was jumped on. But i think it's a good idea. Without weitering dominating they are vulnerable down back. Thommo is string and he's a good kick...

[DubDee 25,869]

3 hours ago, AzzKikA said:

Was it really that long?

felt longer

[DubDee 25,869]

1 hour ago, bandicoot said:

Are you saying an injured mid is the same as a sole ruckman? Joke right? 

two responses from the Coot:

Who is the resting ruck??!!?

Joke right?

 

new material please. or maybe question other posters without being antagonistic 

[Go the Biff 3,424]

1 hour ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Except Spargo is one of the best in the league at hitting a target inside 50 - totally sensible in that regard, trying to rectify the issue that we were so deficient in last week.  I'm also hoping we can play Patracca forward more this week with Jordan in the side as I also think this will help both or goal scoring capasity and inside 50 connection.

Except Spargo has barely had a kick since Round 5.

He had a bright start to the season but has been off since he got himself knocked out trying to duck a tackle.