This will be a good game. I think Geelong should be favorites and have the better form, their last two wins full of merit.

Melbourne got a bit beat up before the bye with Oliver and May both playing injured.

Our advantage is that we have had two long stretches between games and after taking a while we got our game going in the second half last week, we are the fresher team this time around. May, Oliver and Petty should be improved, we should be focussed and hopefully Geelong are a bit flat. 

11 hours ago, Tarax Club said:

Seven rounds + zero and it’s all preordained?  Premiers, Minor premiers, top four and final eight are all in, if you follow the orwellian logic of ‘the pundits.’

The fortune teller, oracle, soothsayer and gypsy woman collective on these boards needs to have a good lie down, a bex and a cup of tea. Moderators don’t leave the empty tea cup please.

Add the conspiracy theorists, AFL headquarters, the maggots, the media circus and the Flat Earth Society. It’s enough to send the self-flagellates into delirium ecstasy.

Next you have the MFCSS missionaries, juxtaposed with the messianic visionaries and then, there are the Statistics and be Damned sect. All confident in their self-persuasion and evangelically seeking further converts.

Followed by the coodabeen coaches, keyboard commentators, excommunicated physios and self-anointed sports medicine ‘professionals’, defrocked silks, ex-chalkies and other assorted hangers on. Feels like dragging fingernails down the blackboard whiteboard?

Those remaining, best go into hibernation. Set the timer post last Saturday in September. You’ll awake none the wiser apparently. 
 
 

Party Pooper..

21 hours ago, picket fence said:

Sorry to say it but Petty is waay overated here!

You do realise Adelaide were looking at offering 2 x first round picks for him last year? 

1 hour ago, Oxdee said:

You do realise Adelaide were looking at offering 2 x first round picks for him last year? 

Someone had spiked their pie floaters 

8 hours ago, deespicable me said:

This will be a good game. I think Geelong should be favorites and have the better form, their last two wins full of merit.

Melbourne got a bit beat up before the bye with Oliver and May both playing injured.

Our advantage is that we have had two long stretches between games and after taking a while we got our game going in the second half last week, we are the fresher team this time around. May, Oliver and Petty should be improved, we should be focussed and hopefully Geelong are a bit flat. 

I fear they may need the flu running through the list to even the odds. 

Hawkins is due ,Cameron is up and about all over the front end of the ground,Melbourne forwards can't catch it,Fritsch plays timid ,Kossies "pressure" is rarely a tackle and the ball will rocket out towards to two aforementioned Cats at speed preventing  anyone from stopping it .

No need to insult me ,I hope to be proved wrong

 

Wouldn't mind having McAdam ready if not just for a bit of X factor this week...we'll probably need it.

Hore for Woewodin and McAdam in for Laurie with Billings to be the sub

2 hours ago, IRW said:

No need to insult me ,I hope to be proved wrong

Ah can I sir please?  😃

Seriously Fritta plays timid?  (I have a vested interest - the avatar is Fritta standing the mark).

In one sense for his size he has to.  He tried the well timed bump against one of the Lions and ended up on his posterior.

On 28/04/2024 at 08:36, D4Life said:

I feel Marty Hore is like JJ was, gets ball, stops, looks, looks again, everyone manned up and then kicks it! Plus fumbles a bit!

Much prefer stick with giving younger players a go than Marty! I realise many others think he is good, but not for me.

I would like to see Hunter come in, probably Woey go out, as the one change this week!

If Petty starts slowly, move him back and TMac forward for this week.

He certainly was like this in 2019. We haven't seen enough of him to judge this year IMO, but clearly he's second in line.

4 hours ago, Oxdee said:

You do realise Adelaide were looking at offering 2 x first round picks for him last year? 

Should have taken it and ran!

10 hours ago, Willmoy1947 said:

Party Pooper..

Just checking…   RSVP?

22 hours ago, Roost it far said:

Nothing has to give except patience, in that many here need some regarding Petty.

Patience is a wonderful thing, but panic is another thing entirely, which is why my eyebrows were raised when Petty got a game in the ones on the back of a ZERO possesion game at Casey. Hnmm interesting times ahead!

It’s the same with every game but pressure and defensive running is a must. Geelong have SO MANY good kicks across the ground. Someone needs to make Miers accountable.

1 minute ago, picket fence said:

Patience is a wonderful thing, but panic is another thing entirely, which is why my eyebrows were raised when Petty got a game in the ones on the back of a ZERO possesion game at Casey. Hnmm interesting times ahead!

the interesting thing is the seeming acceptance that the VFL is not an adequate space for gaining match fitness by best 22 players.

Really need to question the continued dumbing down of the VFL as a competition. I've no idea of the solution but post pandemic when the competition was eliminated it has gone downhill. Is it time to scrap the VFL?

14 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Patience is a wonderful thing, but panic is another thing entirely, which is why my eyebrows were raised when Petty got a game in the ones on the back of a ZERO possesion game at Casey. Hnmm interesting times ahead!

He’s too good for Casey and we had a giant hole in the forward half 

15 hours ago, Billy said:

Wouldn’t worry to much about Stanley, he is absolutely cooked, have never seen such a big bloke get pushed around and fall over so much in my life

Hopefully he doesn’t get dropped 

I take it you haven't seen much of Joe Daniher.

To me - result hinges on availability of Tom Stewart. If he plays they'll have a brick wall that we won't be able to penetrate.

I went to Geelong-Carlton and the Cats looked great across the ground. Their biggest weakness is Stanley who was deplorable. Max should be able to own the ruck.

We should have more explosiveness around stoppage, I'm feeling a big game from Clarry.

The other piece that is often overlooked is that our team is very experienced now. We don't fire on all cylinders every week and you can't draw too much from that Richmond first half.

My prediction if Stewart plays is flip of a coin. 

No Stewart and I see a Dees 3-4 goal win and a heap of expectation coming our way for the rest of the year.

 

I’m not scared of the cats, we’ll pop their winning balloon and win by several goals ❤️💙❤️

34 minutes ago, Sparrowsfart said:

To me - result hinges on availability of Tom Stewart. If he plays they'll have a brick wall that we won't be able to penetrate.

I went to Geelong-Carlton and the Cats looked great across the ground. Their biggest weakness is Stanley who was deplorable. Max should be able to own the ruck.

We should have more explosiveness around stoppage, I'm feeling a big game from Clarry.

The other piece that is often overlooked is that our team is very experienced now. We don't fire on all cylinders every week and you can't draw too much from that Richmond first half.

My prediction if Stewart plays is flip of a coin. 

No Stewart and I see a Dees 3-4 goal win and a heap of expectation coming our way for the rest of the year.

Unless Stewart had a particularly bad concussion, or hasn’t recovered well, he’ll certainly be playing, and we should assume he’s playing.

One comment that raised by eyebrow on the Geelong Bigfooty was this:

“Stanley plays better with at least a little continuity so I'd back him in against Gawn”

 

Is it easier to play aaa defender than a forward? I've posed this question before but I don't have a definitive answer as yet.

Based on Tmac and Petty it's seems so. On the occasion Petty has been in a defensive position this year he has been better . And Tmac looks like a new player this year compared to his efforts fwd last year.

I'm wondering because the apparent easy fix would seem to be to swap To and Tmac.

But we had Tmac play fwd for the last two years and he was a shadow of his old self complete wit two finals outings where he wasn't sighted. He was clearly injured/ lacking confidence.

So why is Tom doing well this year? Ok,he fumbled a few v the tigers but generally he's having a very good season. Is his body in better shape?  Why is he so much better? Again, Is it easier to play defence?

If not then maybe it would be bad to move him fwd. At least for the odd cameo to see if it's an option in  future games. Plus it could reinstate Petty's confidence and form.

We certainly need to play Disco fwd again and hopefully that's his new permanent role. Jvrs struggling to hold marks but he's been doing a solid job helping Max. It's a shame he hasnt he's only averaging just over one goal a game but he's still young. 

I believe that McAdam offered a lot at Casey so that's positive. But Bbb struggled. I would like to see Chandler scoring more. The other positive was young Laurie come in and take his chances and score two goals. So I believe even with Smith, Milkshake and Bbb out we still have the players capable of a 100 point fwd line. 

1 hour ago, Sparrowsfart said:

To me - result hinges on availability of Tom Stewart. If he plays they'll have a brick wall that we won't be able to penetrate.
...
The other piece that is often overlooked is that our team is very experienced now. We don't fire on all cylinders every week and you can't draw too much from that Richmond first half.

My prediction if Stewart plays is flip of a coin. 

No Stewart and I see a Dees 3-4 goal win and a heap of expectation coming our way for the rest of the year.

While we have some very experienced players, we also had five in the team against Richmond who had each played fewer than 10 games (Howes, Windsor, Laurie, Turner, Woewodin). 

 

https://www.afl.com.au/video/991955/petty-party-as-six-goal-show-uncovers-new-weapon?videoId=991955&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1690704583001&references=AFL_MATCH:4953

 

I'm backing Petty to turn it around as a forward.  He pretty much missed the entire preseason, so he has some catching up to do.  Definetely worth persevering.