PREGAME: Rd 02 vs Hawthorn

[WalkingCivilWar 32,077]

19 hours ago, Dee Zephyr said:

According to WCW, those bays aren’t available yet because Hawthorn haven’t released them yet or haven’t decided what they’re doing with them. That answers my question lol

At this point we have an allocation in M33. Hawthorn will likely make the adjacent bays available, they’re just taking their sweet time letting us know.

Just like when we’re up the Punt Rd end in M3, it would be great to have as many Dees supporters in the bays on either side. Makes it harder for opposition fans to try to drown us out, coz they try, boy do they try.

Also, while we’re on the subject, anyone and everyone from the bays on either side is welcome to come down to the front of our bay before the match (every match) to borrow a small or medium flag, a *handheld banner, a large sign or a giant head to wave during the match. So long as they’re returned to us after the match. The players have told us they love the sight of so much red and blue, especially from the opposite end of the ground. We always have heaps of unused props during matches. Can only imagine how awesome it would look if everything was in use.

*just keep yer grubby mitts of this one. As you can see, it’s a birthday gift …

😅

[CHF 2,607]

I find it hard to understand why some are calling for Petty to come into the team for the Hawks. He has had one run in the practice match for Casey where, from reports, he played for 3 of the quarters and did not get very much of the ball. 

Meanwhile, we beat the Doggies by 7 goals in a meaningful 4 point match with a well functioning forward structure. I would hope that the selectors put together a team to win this Saturday by looking at the possible structure of the opposing team, the expected conditions and the form of the players and their ability to execute the game plans.

Petty does not have any sort of form line that would justify selection and I would doubt his match fitness at this stage of his comeback. I would play him at Casey until his form improves as I would a number of other players. 

[deejammin' 2,065]

BBB has done us a huge favour. I’d imagine the FD were hoping he would be a stop gap for us and help us eke out a win before we could bring Petty back. Instead he was so outstanding he gives Harrison another week to gain form and fitness in the VFL. Brown’s marking and competing in the air were brilliant as always but his work on the ground was the best it’s been since 2021. If he can play 10-15 games like that this year look out!

Windsor, TMac and Billings were also a revelation. 

Unless someone is sore and needs a rest no change this week. Hopefully Harrison can dominate at VFL level and demand his spot as I think Petty-JVR is our best tall forward mix and Brown will need done managing. 

Still buzzing from that win and very much hoping we can smash those Hawks!

[monoccular 16,120]

53 minutes ago, CHF said:

I find it hard to understand why some are calling for Petty to come into the team for the Hawks. He has had one run in the practice match for Casey where, from reports, he played for 3 of the quarters and did not get very much of the ball. 

Meanwhile, we beat the Doggies by 7 goals in a meaningful 4 point match with a well functioning forward structure. I would hope that the selectors put together a team to win this Saturday by looking at the possible structure of the opposing team, the expected conditions and the form of the players and their ability to execute the game plans.

Petty does not have any sort of form line that would justify selection and I would doubt his match fitness at this stage of his comeback. I would play him at Casey until his form improves as I would a number of other players. 

Totally agree .... but then someone selected Spargo in round 0 despite not having had a match sim, so who knows what the selectors will do.

[DEE fence 4,503]

4 hours ago, DubDee said:

But Fritsch did produce the Handball of the season to set up Trac for the sealer. 

He has the odd very quiet game but could kick 6 this week

He actually doubled KBs lifetime output, with 2 great HB, obviously one was sublime but the other was part of a score too.

[CHF 2,607]

58 minutes ago, monoccular said:

Totally agree .... but then someone selected Spargo in round 0 despite not having had a match sim, so who knows what the selectors will do.

True. I would hope that they will not make the same mistake twice in three rounds.

[titan_uranus 22,444]

6 hours ago, DubDee said:

But Fritsch did produce the Handball of the season to set up Trac for the sealer. 

He has the odd very quiet game but could kick 6 this week

It's a good thing that a genuinely quiet game from Fritsch still resulted in him having three shots on goal (all of which were kickable).

I think he was only goalless in a game (not including when he got injured in Alice Springs) once last year so it's a very rare occurrence.

[DEE fence 4,503]

Back to the game...

I respect Mitchell's coaching, the way he took away our wings a year or two ago, was well documented and showed some tactical flair, so I am apprehensive to see what he comes up with. However one of the things that I liked from Frogs game was the 'paced' attack with players clearly choosing between options rather than following a plan dogmatically.

While we won't get 120+marks this game and Billings might not have 15 marks for the rest of the year, our switching between line and diagonal/short will be too much I think for the Hawks to have coached against in a week. And I expect to see some pretty dour defending by the Hawks rather than taking the game on.

I also think we play just fine man on man, if they choose that option, we will cut them open, as we have great 1v1 players. Also watching several teams over the weekend I think out leg speed stacks up, Gunston is not the terror he was.

Our greatest kryptonite will be injury (like any team), not just because of what certain players bring skills wise, (I think we do use a systems based approach that replacement players understand), but that players like Gawn, Lever and May give us a psychological advantage. I might be delusional but not having them in the team will give teams more confidence to take us on. Not including the Giants in this they are looking very very good.

Also re this weekend, having re-watched the game several times now, (because watching long flowing chains of passes is very enjoyable) and paid a lot of attention to Tmac's game. I think he was almost disrespected (and I under-rated his performance as well at 1st, kudos to those that called it straight up) by the Dogs, and they were guilty of writing him off as the weak link. He played a Lever type game and was allowed much to much rope by the Dogs forwards, who were busy trying to work over Rick (and were scared of May). Anyway I don't think Sam will allow Tmac the same freedom this week, but with Rivers, McVee, Howe and Hore, I have great confidence that our backline might really stifle the Hawks this week. And I think Frtisch will get off the chain. Sorry a bit disjointed, sort of meant to be working.

 

[Diamond_Jim 11,819]

49 minutes ago, DEE fence said:

so I am apprehensive to see what he comes up with.

Straight up the middle rebound with the occasional angle

Turnover and rebound is how we win plus accuracy on goal

[Roost it far 6,191]

14 hours ago, 58er said:

Best post you have done Roost it.

Some people will not let Harry have a decent go as a forward and simultaneously want to end Tmacs defender reboot back to defence. 

We are now getting our KPosition players back. Let’s try them out as Goody has trained them ALL summer. 

Tmac’s form was of no surprise to me. He is a big unit and uses his body well. His disposal was definitely previously a tad off but he is much more experienced now. And if absolutely necessary we can send him forward in a cameo role. Shores up our backline beautifully. 

58er, I’ve done a lot of excellent posts, sure this was a good one but some of my early work was, dare I say it, groundbreaking. 

[picket fence 15,241]

18 hours ago, SPC said:

I was thinking that if we are that keen to play Petty, I wonder if this week TMAC could go forward and Petty play back. TMAC purely to free up Fritta or JVR as Sicily will likely take the more agile Key forward. 

As I keep saying.... Petty, literally did not get a kick last week and only touched the ball, incidently, he is waaay of on that performance!

[old55 21,356]

35 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

58er, I’ve done a lot of excellent posts, sure this was a good one but some of my early work was, dare I say it, groundbreaking. 

I especially liked the one where you said we might go well this year and win the flag but you were also worried that we might bomb out. Groundbreaking!

Edited March 20 by old55

[SPC 2,826]

21 minutes ago, picket fence said:

As I keep saying.... Petty, literally did not get a kick last week and only touched the ball, incidently, he is waaay of on that performance!

Hey Picket, I am 100% in agreement- Goody said he was set for the Hawks game and I’m not sure if his performance changed things. My only point is that if he is to play and not as a sub, it would be much harder to adapt to the game as a forward than a defender. 
The smart thing would be to give him 80% game time in the VFL and set him for one or both of the Adelaide games. 

[jnrmac 19,046]

9 hours ago, DEE fence said:

Back to the game...

I respect Mitchell's coaching, the way he took away our wings a year or two ago, was well documented and showed some tactical flair, so I am apprehensive to see what he comes up with. However one of the things that I liked from Frogs game was the 'paced' attack with players clearly choosing between options rather than following a plan dogmatically.

While we won't get 120+marks this game and Billings might not have 15 marks for the rest of the year, our switching between line and diagonal/short will be too much I think for the Hawks to have coached against in a week. And I expect to see some pretty dour defending by the Hawks rather than taking the game on.

I also think we play just fine man on man, if they choose that option, we will cut them open, as we have great 1v1 players. Also watching several teams over the weekend I think out leg speed stacks up, Gunston is not the terror he was.

Our greatest kryptonite will be injury (like any team), not just because of what certain players bring skills wise, (I think we do use a systems based approach that replacement players understand), but that players like Gawn, Lever and May give us a psychological advantage. I might be delusional but not having them in the team will give teams more confidence to take us on. Not including the Giants in this they are looking very very good.

Also re this weekend, having re-watched the game several times now, (because watching long flowing chains of passes is very enjoyable) and paid a lot of attention to Tmac's game. I think he was almost disrespected (and I under-rated his performance as well at 1st, kudos to those that called it straight up) by the Dogs, and they were guilty of writing him off as the weak link. He played a Lever type game and was allowed much to much rope by the Dogs forwards, who were busy trying to work over Rick (and were scared of May). Anyway I don't think Sam will allow Tmac the same freedom this week, but with Rivers, McVee, Howe and Hore, I have great confidence that our backline might really stifle the Hawks this week. And I think Frtisch will get off the chain. Sorry a bit disjointed, sort of meant to be working.

 

I respect posts that discuss game tactics like this. Well done.

I think you are referring to the rd 7, 2022 game. We were 6-0 at the time. I recall that Mitchell had McGuinness tag Langdon to stop his effectiveness and he did a good job. They also handballed their way out of our fwd 50, switched the ball a lot and had scrubby entries into our D50 to try and nullify Lever and May.

They still lost by maybe 10pts but it was a wake up call on how to beat Melb, the reigning premiers.

Will be interesting to see how it evolves this time.

[Neil Crompton 4,789]

Can someone please enlighten me as to the definition of a centre bounce clearance - and who gets the stat? Is it the player who gathers the ball and handballs it to another, or is it the player who receives the handball and kicks it away from the centre? 
(if it’s the latter, then the old saying that “it is better to give than receive” obviously doesn’t apply to AFL stats).

[Biffen 12,342]

If  Harry (Tom) Petty is ready to go he plays.

Stop draggin' my heart around.

Otherwise we could be Free Falling.

I Wont Back Down on this.

He plays until the End of the Line.

 

 

[binman 38,441]

9 minutes ago, Neil Crompton said:

Can someone please enlighten me as to the definition of a centre bounce clearance - and who gets the stat? Is it the player who gathers the ball and handballs it to another, or is it the player who receives the handball and kicks it away from the centre? 
(if it’s the latter, then the old saying that “it is better to give than receive” obviously doesn’t apply to AFL stats).

This is from the champion data glossary. I assume it applys to all stoppages, including centre bounce clearances (there is no definition for cbc)

Clearance:

Credited to the player who has the first effective disposal in a chain that clears the stoppage area, or an ineffective kick or clanger kick that clears the stoppage area.

So, for example wuth our first goal against the Dogs, the one viney kicked, I assumed the clearance would have been credited to tracc.

But I checked the replay and maxy actually gets the clearance as he won a contested possession and handballed it out to tracc.

[dino rover 624]

10 minutes ago, Biffen said:

If  Harry (Tom) Petty is ready to go he plays.

Stop draggin' my heart around.

Otherwise we could be Free Falling.

I Wont Back Down on this.

He plays until the End of the Line.

 

 

If he breaksdown it’s alright?

[La Dee-vina Comedia 16,460]

17 minutes ago, dino rover said:

If he breaksdown it’s alright?

Only if he goes to the end of the line

[Biffen 12,342]

27 minutes ago, dino rover said:

If he breaksdown it’s alright?

He's Still Learning to Fly.

[leave it to deever 15,647]

16 hours ago, 58er said:

Best post you have done Roost it.

Some people will not let Harry have a decent go as a forward and simultaneously want to end Tmacs defender reboot back to defence. 

We are now getting our KPosition players back. Let’s try them out as Goody has trained them ALL summer. 

Tmac’s form was of no surprise to me. He is a big unit and uses his body well. His disposal was definitely previously a tad off but he is much more experienced now. And if absolutely necessary we can send him forward in a cameo role. Shores up our backline beautifully. 

You were right about Salo in the middle. 

Can ask if you think playing defence is easier than forward? Tmac couldn't get near the ball in the two finals but looked back to his best last round.

Is it easier to predict ball movement and hence get into position?

[leave it to deever 15,647]

55 minutes ago, Biffen said:

If  Harry (Tom) Petty is ready to go he plays.

Stop draggin' my heart around.

Otherwise we could be Free Falling.

I Wont Back Down on this.

He plays until the End of the Line.

 

 

The Mfc must....

Handle him with care.

[DeeZee 6,758]

I’d love to see Moniz -Wakefield get a run. 
He was great last week for Casey.
Along with Windsor , and Billing’s , he is another that could add to our Run and skill level. Even as Sub for Woewodin 

[Demonland 65,437]

Our game is low on the totem pole this week.

[Master Chief 72]

Full team announced tonight I assume?