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I have a kiwi mate who was a loose Tigs fan due to some other friends. He is now a Dee and is coming to rnd 1. I will have to buy him a membership to push our numbers up.

Did you see Cripps last night ? He was a shadow of his 2016 and that's because he's underdone. This is where I place faith in the sports science guys and match committee to know who's right to go. Sometimes a player is only a week away, but that week can make a difference. Round 1 gets a lot of attention, but the season is long and every player we like doesn't have to be played in round 1 if it's deemed they're not ready.

With the inclusions of Smith and Hannan, this is easily the quickest team we've named in quite a few years. I like it.

Have watched him from day one at training, beautiful kick off both feet, got his non preferred wrong when chatting to him Another one like Hunt who looks like butter wouldn't melt, but onfield really agressive, one of the reasons we drafted him Just hope he has been given the go ahead to get airborne if it's there, we could be in for some fun either end of the field this Saturday

Very pleased we weren't tempted by Spencer and seem to have learnt our lessons from last year. The ball flys around quickly at Etihad and the pace of the game is too fast for a top-heavy forward line. I'd imagine Watts will pinch hit in the ruck. Hogan has worked on his endurance and will push up the ground to give us as a much-needed target coming out of defence. Wouldn't be surprised to see our small forwards playing fairly high and doubling back toward goal if we manage to break through St. Kilda's defence. Ball use out of the back half and hitting targets inside 50 will be crucial, I don't think there is a better side in the comp at killing you on the spread off a turnover than St. Kilda at Etihad. Excited to see Hannan and Smith debut, both look genuinely quick, a necessary attribute at Etihad. My doomsday scenario is St. Kilda's tall forwards getting hold of our young backs early. Riewoldt, Bruce, Membrey and McCartin would worry any backline in the league, let alone one decimated by injury, let's hope the Macdonald bro's and Smith can hold them. At full strength, I'd give us the edge, but without Kent, Tyson, Hibberd, Frost, or Vandenberg, and with St. Kilda at full strength (sans Joey) I'd have to give the Saints the (minor) edge. Let's hope I'm wrong. Excited to get down to Etihad tomorrow, Go Dees.

The one area the Saints have dominated us in the past is getting numbers around the contest & then smashing us on the spread. This is the area we lacked gut running & pace. I think we've shown in all our JLT matches that we have rectified this. Our MOST talented extractor did not play once against saints last year. Oliver.. who has developed a tank. If he can win 50/50s more often than not, & get the ball out to our new runners in hunt, stretch, hannan & smith. All of a sudden we look like a quick unit who can reverse the trend & beat saints at their own game. I'm not saying we're going to win, but i am saying we could finally have what it takes to beat the saints. Which we have never realistically been in that position.

I'm a bit bemused by Hannans selection but then I was bemused when Hunt was selected against the Pies last year as well.

I reckon its inevitable Clint, given the zone defence. Goodwin seems set on an attacking game plan which will result in leaking goals. Will we leak less goals than the Saints? We can only hope. All I know is that we are not going to win with an uneven contribution. We will need a complete team effort across the entire ground. We have added pace and grunt. That will help us. I suspect that a few Demons are going to upset a few Saints with their attack on the ball and man. Still a possible goal shootout in store. .

The way things are beeing written on here it is like the season is finished if we don't get over the line tomorrow. Based on that theory we should have finished top 4 in 2016 after beating GWS in Round One last year. Need to get a reality check everyone.

I have just rewatched his highlights (insomnia)! If he can bring similar style tomorrow then it will be an exciting game and very watchable! To me, he appears a fusion of Hunt and Howe in the way he backs himself and he will quickly become a fan favourite and a headache for opposition coaches identifying someone to line up on him. A good selection IMHO and I am looking forward to watching him and Hunt tear the Saints up! Go Dees! http://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/2016-11-26/pick-46-mitch-hannan-highlights

His selection was certainly a shock to me, but happy for the kid to get a chance. Wish him luck along with Joel.

Really sick of supporters who bang on about betting on St Kilda to win. If you're happy to outlay your money on an opposition team good luck to you but I along with many others I assume have no interest in hearing about it.

i hope we are not expecting too much from this kid, he is playing his first game and if he puts in a solid performance I'll be happy.

Acres being listed as an emergency is interesting. He's one of the players Saints fans tend to be most bullish about. I have a good feeling about tomorrow. Instincts served me okay last year, most telling examples being my bad feeling going into the Essendon game and my good feeling going into the Hawks game. Let's see how they serve me this season.

It's good to see the continual tinkering with the side. In, 2 experienced players and 2 talented debutants.

I put 3 memberships into that total yesterday at the clubs office at the G. The only entity in our house not now currently a member is the cat. I think the cat is for the high jump !! Emma, the membership girl at the club is confident we will get 40,000.

There's some elements to this team selection that I really like, some elements I'd do differently - but what I'm really pleased to see is that Goody in picking his first up team hasn't gone safe. He's honouring the guys who have pre-requisite fitness through a hard pre-season and it gives the squad clear evidence that there's a spot in the team for you if you continue to do the right things. We have a good team on paper this week, and our depth understanding that they've got good future prospects given a match committee who fully considers all options. The only way is up.

36495 MEMBERS SIGNED UP FOR 2017 So This is probably the final update on the website that won't contain round 1 membership sales, so it will be interesting over next week to see how many come in... Hopefully between this and next weeks first home game at the 'G we can manage at least 2k in sign ups.

Frost is best 22, he makes the McDonald's much better.

Saints haven't picked Longer so they're going with a makeshift 2nd ruck too. Also interesting that they've gone with 2 tall forwards with one on the bench like we have. Saints know Etihad, and they pick their teams and play it to purpose, so we've probably done the right thing. Though I do agree with the bolded bit. It's all very well 'experimenting' with Spencer in preseason, but doesn't make sense to give him 3 out of 3 games, while the back-up ruck doesn't contest a single hit-out in the preseason.

Here is my tip for surprise matchup. Smith on Riewoldt. If Nick plays on the wing you need a tall player with pace, who can stay with him. Smith is quick, has some height and could be given the huge job to negate the champ.

Tom billionaire Boyd. 1 handball.

36,752

I love how people always say "X St Kilda player always plays well against us." We have lost 14 in a row! they all play well against us!!

Apart from Viney applying one of the best tackles on him, Weller usually plays well against us. If he's out then it's a good thing based on history.

Are we painting it, or changing the wood to aluminium?

Its all about midfield pressure. It doesnt matter what backman you have playing, if the ball coming into the F50 is delivered clean and without pressure the forward is going to beat the defender 9 times out of 10.

Weideman is 195cm and 95kg. All he needs to do is create a contest and have garlett, ANB, tracca and other mods feed off the loose ball. He is big enough imo to do this

The bench won't reflect the bench at the beginning of the game. They never do.

Not sure re Hannan, although one hears he's quick. The word inside the club from a senior coach is that Smith is as fast as Hunt.

In a closely fought game, I'd rather the team being advantaged in an area that we could be disadvantaged in. It may not matter of course but with so much attention being paid to detail these days, it may well matter. I'd have preferred to see the MC give Watts a decent amount of work in the practice games (if he was always going to play as the back-up ruckman in round 1) I understand he had to sit out the first 2 games but he could have spent at least some time in the ruck in the 3rd game. Rucking is hard work ... first of all the ruckman needs to know how to protect himself and in turn hurt the opposition ruckman. Then he needs to possess the ability to win the tap-out and place that tap to the teams advantage. So practicing the art of ruckwork is imperative.

Yep.. picked smith as at 190cm can easily match up against Bruce, membrey or mcartin. Hannan is also 190cm and is quick. Can match it with saints outside mids

In the end, somewhat surprised, somewhat disappointed. Looking forward to seeing Hannan play but not sure that he should be coming in ahead of Kent given he has also had a limited pre-season. Weideman very lucky to get a gig. Happy that Spencer is not playing. Not sure that ANB should be playing but I guess this shows that for all the pre-season talk about our depth (which happens every season), we still have a long way to go.

Frost, VdB and Harmes are not in our best 22. VdB couldn't hit the side of a barn. He lacks the finshing skills of an AFL player but good enough to be a very good VFL player. Harmes is also in that category. Terrific endeavour but lacks the necessary skills of an AFL player. The first thing Goodwin said at the WCE post match was "skill execution and turn overs hurt us". I think Roos/Goodwin have got them all as competitors now so the attention has got to be on our skill execution. I'm a fan of Bugg though as I think he's a terrific runner, but with the rise of our young midfield and the inclusion of Lewis, he's probably just outside. I think the biggest gift of an inclusion has been Weiderman. Theres's been lots of speculation about Watts selection yet I felt he showed more in his first half against WCE than Weids showed the entire JLT. I can't see a thrashing and am hopeful of a win but won't be surprised if the Etihad/Saints curse continues.

Take out Gawn at training

Just want to remind a few folk about Hannan's career to date and his value for us. 2015, BOG in Ammos' A-Grade GF for Premiers, St Bernard's. 2016, BOG for Footscray in GF v Casey. I have a very good friend who is an insider at the Dogs who reckons he's the leap of Howe with X factor.

Don't care what anyone says, we are a better team with Jetta in it.

Dees to win by 27points. Petracca to be best on ground and prove why the saints made a big mistake not taking him at pick 1. ANB to kick 3 plus 2 assists if played as a crumbing forward. When played as a forward he is an opportunist and rarely doesn't score. I think it's his best position providing he gets the defensive aspects of his game right.

True, but how do you know they're at exactly the same levels of development heading into 2017 ? Misson may consider Hannan ready due to his training, match simulations and workload, but Kent not ready. How do you know this isn't the case ? To me it seems logical that it would be.

No, cos Gibbs will get his wish and be traded to the Crows. It was an entertaining game to watch - free flowing and high scoring. The likes of GW$, Swans, Footscray - basically, any side that puts on a scintilla of pressure - will hammer the both of them.

This is one of those ill-considered Chinese whispers type posts. I don't think anyone said he wouldn't get games, but some, like me, can see him having real pressure on his spot in 2017 due to a lack of run and offence to his game.

they must be very quiet !

We all see the games differently and how dull would it be if we didn't all see things differently? I don't share your view AF but that doesn't mean you're right and it doesn't mean I'm wrong. If Spencer wasn't going to play in round 1 then why on earth didn't our other relief ruckmen get some work in any of the 3 practice games? And it's very important that a weak area (in my opinion) at least gets some meaningful practice. In an ideal world we'd have a strong 2nd ruck playing (and that 2nd ruck doesn't have to be Spencer) ... breaking even or neutralising sounds a bit 'meh' to me. Why can't we have a distinct advantage? One could draw a conclusion that Spencer was earmarked to play in round 1 and the MC baulked at it at the last moment. Don't be thinking I'm a Spencer fan either - it's all about the team in my eyes. Here's a thought ... if Gawn stitches up Hickey, it probably won't matter. But if he doesn't ...

Pretty happy with the inclusion of Smith and Hannan - I've been worried for months that we'd go in too tall and they'd run rings around us like last time. These guys are both pretty quick with good closing speed and I feel really comfortable with the team we're putting forward. Happy for Tyson to miss this one - if we're needing influence of his style we can pop Lewis in the middle and cover him pretty well I think. The coach must see something I don't in ANB as I probably have him further down the list, behind Bugg at least. Hope he has a cracking game though. Cant wait, go Dees!

This is good for the tigers over confidence. I like them to remain mediocre . and I'd like Carlton to lose every game .

Want to see 10 tackles from ANB, don't care if he gets 5 touches.. He does that, and he's done his job as far as I'm concerned.

Tell you what, we've been left in no doubt about Goodwin's attacking game plan. Jetta in makes me happy, Hannan is a surprise good luck to the kid, may he kick goals with his first three kicks. Joel Smith is in for a serious introduction, likely to be the desperate drop-back tall trying to cover when the midfield cracks. And that's the game there - we've gone quite small in defence compared to the Saints forwards, just completely double-down on 'we will run and kill them all over the ground, and to hell with the occasional easy goal out the back'. Still mean's sometimes Jetta will be on Bruce, giving away a handy 17cm. Good luck to Nibbler and Weed. And good luck to Garlett's leg muscles collectively. Let's kick 25 goals and send the rest of the league into a cold sweat!

Think the panel is quite worried about the Saints ability to spread. Tyson probably the most vulnerable here of all the mids. Searching for additional closing speed with that selection. I don't know a thing about Hannan so the FD must be seeing something on the training track....including speed over first 10 meters or so.

I'm not a Neal-Bullen fan, but he's been included due to his pressure/tackling. When a side gets the ball inside 50 they try to lock it in and Neal-Bullen works in that regard. I prefer him forward than in the midfield, as he's a fumler under pressure and panics. He's aggressive though, so the forward-line makes some sense. Kent, Tyson and Hibberd are best 22 outs. vandenBerg arguable. Hannan is a smooth left footer with class. For him to be selected is very exciting, because he's obviously shown the club the attributes they saw when they drafted him. Clubs do match simulation every single week, so don't get too hung up on non JLT appearances, especially for players that were underdone due to injury (like Hannan) and not quite ready to go.

Trenners wants in on it. Jack Trengove‏ @jtren9 AFL 2017 Brownlow: M. Gawn - Coleman: J. Cameron - Watch this Space: C. Oliver (scary scary good - get around him!) #youhearditherefirst