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Bingo. We have a winner!

A little birdy told me Barry Prendergast is a regular poster on DL. Thinks Lever is perhaps the greatest footballer ever, thinks Tmac's younger brother isn't up to AFL standard and more than happy for Weids to ply his trade in the maggos until 2019. Yet to pick a smokey though. Oh and doesn't mind the odd condescending post or two hundred.

Funny how every year it's always next year that's the "superdraft".

Good to see Hoges having some fun with the boys. Lord knows he's due for a long run of better circumstances.

If we are a good team Watts is the icing on the cake. He doesn't need to be the flour or the eggs etc. He is the best finisher in the side. We need that. Who would you rather shooting for goal than Watts, in our side. I agree on keeping him as we will be better off with him when we are a good side, than having another mid draft pick that may get us another player that can't do what he already can. He was not to blame for the last round and people need to look at who was. For starters look at Garletts non efforts, Tysons 6 turnovers in the first quarter, several one arm tackle attempts , Bernies passing, Tom Mac's game etc.

If you are sick and tired of making excuses for the club, then don't let the rest of AAMI Park shield themselves behind Jack Watts. Critique the erratic coaching or the players that didn't show up for the first quarter against the Pies - because Watts doesn't need an excuse for that - he did show up.

Shiel was at the ball first, had won the ball and was in an extremely vulnerable position. Cotchin elected to bump, he didn't try and tackle or dive for the ball. He charged in with arm tucked, got him in the head and concussed him. The rules are there to protect the ball players. I don't really understand how there is an argument about this. If it's a suspension in a NAB challenge game or in round 5 it's a suspension in the preliminary final. The rules don't just change in September.

I heard KB was on the radio blaming him for the fact the Tigers will have to wear their clash jumper for the grand final.

Told BB this - I have been very close to starting a thread a few times since the GWS game, but will get around to it while I have a couple long weekends. Goodwin inherited a good situation and is new to this but I have a few concerns around his tactics and persona. Probably small potatoes considering where we were pre-Roos but that should be irrelevant now.

I'm so jealous. Why can't this be Melbourne

Why are the Tigers now in the Grand Final? Sure it's the strength of Dustin Martin, the class of Trent Cotchin, the sheer nous of Riewoldt and the stability of Alex Rance. Its adding Nankervis, Prestia & Caddy. Its adding small dynamic forwards. But there are 4 other key factors 1- LUCK ... no injuries all year (really only Nathan Drummond, 35-40 "list player" who did his knee). Amazing. Clean health for 40 others. 2- FOOTBALL ... football football and football. The Tigers had 330 possessions (200 kicks, 130 handballs) vs Giants 390 possessions (210 kicks 180 handballs). This was virtually the same in Tigers vs Cats. Other sides like Melbourne overpossess the footy and lose the footy in turnovers 3- GOALS ... the forwards kick goals. If you are inside 50, run and kick goals. Not a further 3 handballs and finally 4- G&D... tough determined footballers. No shirkers. Blokes all put their heads over the footy.

Danger kept playing because nobody took any notice of him lying on the ground.......

Get a grip, they need to unwind as well, not just from footy but from personal issues too. Hope they have a good break and come back fresher and rearing to go for preseason

Good on em. Hope Mnt Agung volcano doesnt decide to go off!

Barry Prendergast?

disappointed you couldn't have worked a banana into your analogy, mr leg

What a joke! And I confess I've fallen for it over the years. Draft quality does vary from year to year but future predictions are fraught. It's not even clear yet how strong the 2016 draft was let alone the 2018 draft. It's only now that there's some evidence for assessing the strength of the 2015 draft.

Sheedy and Scully......may the club just rot and eventually fade away. Their smug looks on the day that Scully went up to Sydney for 'just a look around' won't be forgotten .

Many good posts on this thread. Last night was the first time I'd really looked at Lever closely, and I would have rated his game about a 5 too. But at the same time, it was very impressive nonetheless. Just as Adelaide were determined to pressure Tuohy at every opportunity to stop Geelong moving the ball too easily out of defence,, Geelong had definitely worked out that they needed to try to stop Lever from coming in 3rd man up, and from peeling off into space to attack. So Lever was the one Crow that Geelong and their cunning umpire-conning coach felt they set up a specific plan against. They weren't hard-tagging him by any means, but they were undoubtedly trying to keep him away from aerial contests and to stop him breaking into space when Adelaide won a turnover or a contested ball in defence. Fair to say he struggled to get near it in the first quarter, and I wasn't much impressed, and wondered whether he could work his way into the game. He just did this really well. He didn't panic, he didn't try to do anything spectacular, he didn't get frustrated, he just kept working not harder but smarter. He seems to be able to avoid the guy who's trying to block him out while at the same time focussing his attention on the flight of the ball so that he times his run to perfection. He just worked away in an unobtrusive fashion, didn't do anything wrong, was there when he needed to be, didn't try anything too flash, just "kept his head". This was an incredibly mature way of going about it for a 21-year-old. On the other hand, I thought Geelong gave Laird & Seedsman much too much latitude, and being so "Lever-conscious" may well have played a part in this. So in a way he was prepared to play "just-a-game" in order that his team benefits overall. Of course, this reflects Adelaide's team-based approach to coaching. So a 5/10 game, but very impressive nevertheless. My two cents.

Abort Misson?

Finally listened to ...It's a grand old flag ..... Great win from almost folding to winning the Flag...

Players drinking and partying in the off season is a real non event. The demands of an AFL player are rigorous. Supporters can't expect these guys to keep it up 12 months of the year. If they go out and get sh*t faced then they are no different to anyone else. Human. Side note: I hope Gawn doesn't spew on Hogan.

Actually just 0.5%

Love it that Jack is now being blamed for his crap media appearances. He can't do any media that the club doesn't want him to. Are we that desperate for attention? I'd like the club to have the nads to say no to any more media appearances from Jack and put someone else out there.

I don't think there's anything in it. They just bumped into each other. If he gets a one then Cotchin gets 2 or 3 and Lewis gets arrested.

So they sang its a grand old flag after both VFL premierships ... wonderful.

That final was of teams made up from volunteers. The AFLW comp improved out of sight from the first game to the finals series. Also, they don't kick as far as the men and a game is only 80 min vs AFL 120 min so the scoring will always be lower in the women's comp. AFLW will get better each year. Its worth hanging in there.

But he won the ball, he is within his rights to attack the ball hard and fairly which is what I believe he did. It's literally only a discussion because of the concussion which may or may not have been caused by the incident.

Could. Have. Tackled.

Rule number 1. Watch th incident in real time, not slo mo or frame by frame. 1 frame = 1/25 of a second you cannot expect anyone to make 5-6 different decisions in the space of 1-2 seconds. I believe both players were going for the ball, bracing before impact is a natural instinct and very hard not to do

I think the idea that Stringer is a scapegoat is over-reaching a tad. I think there's enough smoke to suggest a very large fire when it comes to his off field behaviour and he'll be hoist on his own petard! There are others in the same boat, and maybe Bevo is of the opinion that 12 months on and deep into a premiership hangover,that one head on a spike might be enough of a warning to others to tow the company line. Then again the problems maybe so deep that it's more than just a warning to the playing group its about excising dangerous cultural practices that if left to linger will completely ruin their chance at another tilt. Players like Stringer, Libba, and Biggs all mentioned and it maybe that none at the kennel next season.

They may not be the unbeatable juggernaut we all feared. A few are at the end or close to it like Stevie, Deledio, Griffin, Shaw and Mummy and they won't get the bucket full of first round picks again. They are now what they are just like every other team. They should have made a GF but haven't. They are still talented but lack some real mental toughness.

If you objective was the ball. Youd have both arms out to get it. Cotchin doesnt. In fact hes had enough time to pull one in and brace knowingly. I dont like the rules. I like the idea of bumping players. But in the current evolution of the rule Cotchin is in deep do-do. What he intended is all but irrelevant as its almost never taken into account. What will be ( as stands now ) is: What he DID. What he was ABLE to do. What injury was incurred to other player. Gonski

And their captain sticks fat with his players and doesn't bag them out in the media Nor does their coach

They will be appealing to the Vicco Pride element for sure. Amazing how many fall for it. I'd rather an interstate team win than any of the scummy Vicco ones.

Watch all hell break lose this week when only about 15,000 of their 75,000+ members get tickets. (Plus their MCC and AFL members). The will really go absolutely feral!! At least the crowd will be more even. Can't imagine the die hard Ess, Coll, Carl fans barracking for Richmond. Hardwick has already started the sob story of being the underdogs looking for the fairytale wave of love the WB had last year from neutrals.

He didn't attempt to bump, he did bump and he bumped his opponent who had his head down going for the ball, got him on the head and concussed him putting him out for the game. If that happened to one of our players and/or we were playing Richmond next week and he got off you'd be filthy (and rightly so).

This is hard for me Bartlett is right There i said it. Have to go shower now...

Anyone trying to blame Adelaide for us not playing finals is just embarrassing themselves.

Our problems are above the shoulders. Dave Misson has trained Olympians End of discussion

Best player for the Cats in the last two finals, why not revive the discussion? Showed some great run tonight in the mould of Daniel Wells, ie effortlessly a pace ahead of everyone and most of his disposals were very silky and leading his team mates into space. In the top 5 for distance covered per match too apparently.

GWS winning the Grand Final would be the equivalent of McDonalds buying itself a Michelin Star.

Well the afl basically [censored] fitzroy in the ass then created this monstrosity and have been pouring money in ever since. Id be bitter too

My view is that on that incident alone he wouldn't miss. But he's a serial sniper and his priors should be about to bite him. On a side note, losing Sheil at that point in the game was a huge turning point.

So which part of the your body can contact an opponents head? The AFL is definitely to blame. The AFL is run by people who have short term goals adjusting our game rapidly for their own benefits. If your a stickler for the current rules that's your choice. But this is almost more of an issue of Aussie Rules suddenly not being the enjoyable game people thought it was.

Agreed. A total embarrassment to himself and the club. A total liability and very poor body language and behaviour for his young teammates.

I feel so sorry for $cully - heeheehee Stevie J spent the whole game staging for frees and 50m - he was a total embarrassment

I think GWS should be awarded draft concessions for it.

Thought they were both going for the ball...

It's rubbish. I'm surprised people are so quick to even entertain a deal like that. We aren't trading Watts to move up 4 spots in the draft. Crazy stuff. Yes, I know, it's just a rumour, take with a grain of salt etc, but these are getting worse every day.