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I'd like to see Jones in there somehow. Still think he has a bit to give.

Here is another fantastic analysis article from ABC news in what is obviously an ongoing series (there have been at least 4-5 so far - last weeks was about the Suns). This exactly the sort of analysis i have been banging on about there needs to be more of during coverage of games, on the AFL website, in the print media on radio etc etc. Less gossip and guffaws and more information. It helps people understand the game better and appreciate the tactical work that underpins modern footy. It also shows just how hard the players run up and down the ground and how little space there is as a result. With the way footy is covered you just don't see that and even at the ground if you are sitting on the wing or near ground level it is hard to really appreciate. Whilst about the tigers this article is also very relevant for the demons as a we employ a similar, though not exactly the same, game plan (for example we are much more focus on winning contested possessions). Which is why we are close to the tigers in many of the statistical categories the article notes. It goes a long way to explain our struggles scoring and out low inside 5O conversion rate. And most of all it demonstrates why good kicking is so critical in modern footy. The giphs are super useful to help understand the point being made.The final one highlights a deep kick from Lambert to Lynch that sets up a goal. Of equal interest is the second last kick in that chain, I can't recall who it is from or to but it is kicked from the wing to a player in the centre square who has hawks all around him and has to go over the top of a hawks player (the hawks are all guarding space). In some ways this a new kick in footy as it requires a different skill than drilling a 40 metre pass to player leading into space. They have to be able judge the height of the kick and how to weight into space. No easy thing i'm guessing when you are bout to be tackled. The other thing about this article that is relevant is obviously we are playing ht e hawks and predominately uses examples of the hawks negate the tigers. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-16/richmonds-afl-dominance-shrinking-now-tiger-trap-sprung/12456660

Something like this?

Hawks have named Ceglar in their starting 22 but "AFL.com.au understands Ceglar – who has led the ruck for the Hawks this season – broke his toe early in last week's loss to Collingwood and will miss at least one week". Ceglar's broken toe. Clarkson playing mind games! Either Ceglar's injury report was a furphy or a late change coming up! We should thrash their team. They are old or have players with recent injury issues. They played short kick/mark, ring-a-ring-a-rosey in their back 50 last week like Cats vs us. But unlike Geelong they didn't try to attack because they can't run/chase. Too slow! And do they have any recognised forwards other than Gunston? Big question is will they come out all guns blazing after the blowtorch they received this week? If we show last weeks composure and move the ball quickly we will win. We have a much better team.

He might be annoyed, but he was a very late call up to our list. He's probably just stoked to be given a third crack at it. It will be one of Smith, Tomlinson or Jackson in for Tom Mac. Maybe Jones can also sneak in somewhere, but not sure who for or where they would decide to play him.

The last thing we need is Smith in the forward line spoiling our other forwards. Please let the experiment end.

"Upcoming byes won't be at the same time and are likely to be scattered across three or four weeks but Melbourne and Essendon won't have one". aflpa-boss-presents-contract-ultimatum-to-afl-on-fixture I don't mind that. Normally players would take a bit of a holiday etc. during the bye. But now they are stuck in the AFL 'bubble' effectively in lockdown at their respective hubs. They have and will have plenty of downtime between training and games for r and r. For those with a bye, 10-14 days without structured work is a lot of time for golf etc As long as there is no flight involved for the Ess game or at either end of the game we should be fine. What I wouldn't like to see is the Alice game to before or after it.

Pretty much why I wouldn’t do this. I don’t want to be responsible for someone thinking they’re safe from COVID when I can’t verify the quality of them.

Fair to say Saints fans would not be enjoying seeing Trac tearing it up.

Don't usually go in to bat for 'drysdale' but he's been pretty consistent on this for a while now 'Ohio', it's not just something he's made up. I just hope Paddy can get on with his life, it's sad for him that it doesn't look like football is going to be it going forward. The sooner he can move on the better. Good luck to the kid...

Don't remove them too early...BBO and friends would be enjoying the offers they are seeing. Anyhow, have put some loot in the account to make sure this site keeps going. We all need it in these times.....

Well said this is one time l have to agree with you rjay. You make a point with J Smith....Little boy lost...... You can kick your 4 goals playing a practice game and look good because the pressure is not as intense as they are mainly experimenting. It is a clayton's match so to speak. He has been given his opportunity many times however he does not cut it. He is definitely out of his depth. How many opportunities can you give a guy? IMO don't be surprised to see him delisted in the very near future.

As I've mentioned several times, I've come across Lyon a number of times at close quarters. Dreadful man. Sadly he was my favourite player back in the day which kinda makes it worse. i also dislike Watson. His smarminess is excruciating. The combination of Lyon & Watson is appalling. Can't stand McAvaney either. His demented growling sends me spare. His sucking up to Carey "duck ... duck ... duck" is ridiculous. And calling players by their nicknames e..g Sauce is painful. BT ... nup. Ling ... same. Brown's a meathead. Perhaps I just hate everyone? Actually, Reiwold despite being boring is capable of some reasonable comments. And I find Richo quite endearing. I'm going to bed ... night all. I think I've lost the plot.

I dont know what your expectations are but he was in our top 5 for pressure acts on the weekend and directly gave goals to Harmes, Fritsch and Bennell. He was our third highest for pressure acts the prior week against Richmond. He is just getting settled in.

Yep and then 3 grabs to Hawkins on a flank not long after....not paid. One of the most biased games of umpiring i've witnessed. Couldn't agree more re: the commentary team Rjay. How the hell Chanel 7 ever got the coverage back is beyond me. Certainly don't deserve it and never earned it at any point in the last 20 years or so. They have no idea, offer no added value and very rarely cover any nuances of the game or players. The inane platitudes and focus of Bruce on mostly the stars (in his eyes) drives me up the wall. Zero criticism at any stage of any officials and their decision making. Anything controversial (throws, obvious pushes in the back gone uncalled and holding the ball getting a free run tonight vs tight interpretation last week for example) mostly never gets a mention. In future i am going to turn those idiots off and just watch the game in blissful silence.

What a disgraceful game this is tonight. The Pies have tripled the Cats in the free kick count and 6 to 1 in the last with some of the worst/softest frees ive seen in quite a while. Well....since a West Coast dodgy game at home anyway. Probably not that long. Cats were never winning this one. Strict interpretation in favour of the Pies. The Cats getting virtually zip. As i write they just got their 9th but game pretty much done.

I suspect part of the reason for planning to end the season by 17 October is to allow room for the season to be extended should it yet become necessary. If I recall correctly, various contracts, including player contracts, expire on 31 October each year as, I think, does the financial year for the AFL and its constituent clubs. If that's correct, I could imagine that ending the season before 31 October might be desirable. Scheduling for a 17 October finish would give them a two week window to extend and still be done by 31 October. The AFL also would want to finish the season before it gets too hot especially if the competition is still stuck in Queensland where it will be starting to get humid in late October. It will also not want to compromise season 2021 by finishing so late this year that it interferes with the preparation for 2021, remembering that the players will still need a decent break before pre-season training for 2021 commences.

That was outrageous. On his own player and touched the ball as well.

Wish someone would have told me that before I made 13,000 of them!

Ross Lyon pointed this out on Footy classified last night. Haw have had bad looses to Geelong and Collingwood this year on the two skinny AFL grounds.

No, but we have plenty of MFC branded de-fib machines.

Let me just echo this post.

I think he means this one...

Don't worry Satan with such a half glass empty attitude we don't have to look fir any "minuses" in the fixture when you are in the job! You have obviously forgotten the AFL mantra of being agile and flexible! FFS just accept the scheduling etc. as it is about the only way we will finish the season before November or the virus completely knocks footy out of The equation. Just remember whoever wins will have competed in the hardest and possibly most confronting Season ever and it will be judged as CB one of the greatest flags ever!!!

Dave, let it go. The info coming back to me from sources in the industry support what @drysdale demon and @dazzledavey36 are getting at - it's highly unlikely and probably very unwise for Paddy McCartin to attempt a comeback.

Check out Magnetic Island @Cards13 - beautiful lifestyle, one of the best primary schools in Queensland. Easy access to Mebourne via Townsville airport.

Punished again for something we didn’t do.

I think the tighter dimensions of the Sydney Showgrounds work in our favour in this compared with the MCG.

Kozi has slotted 2 goals and he's hit the post twice at this season i believe. As noted by @Fifty-5 he helped get us over the line vs gold Coast. Yes he could be scoring more, but the whole team could. Leave him in the team to develop his game and also the link up game with other players. Stats this seaosn 2.2 vs West Coast; 1 Goal asssist - 5 Scores involvements 0.1 vs Geelong, 0 goal assists, 4 scores involvements 0.1 vs Richmond; 1 goal assist, 2 score involvements 0.0 vs Gold Coast; 3 Goal Assists - 4 Score Involvements.

OMG that just totally confirms my view that you are a terrible judge. Kosi directly created Harmes, Fritsch and Bennell goals against GC. He is an absolute gun.

That is like saying we would have won by a greater margin if: Lever and May hadn't spoilt each for the mark GCS wouldn't have got the goal out the back (2nd qtr I think). Max hadn't tapped the ball into Rankine's lap in the last he wouldn't have got his third goal. Max didn't turn the ball over with a OOB around their 50m arc King wouldn't have received the kick-in to run into an easy goal. So Max's mishaps directly cost us two goals. Not criticising him; he was mighty. Just saying lots of players make mistakes; some directly cost us goals and some don't. I could pull various other examples that cost us a 'much greater margin'. Every week there are moments that cost us a game or the margin. Not yourself, but others on here have questioned Petracca's coaches votes on the basis of his mishaps. If coaches used that in their assessment then Max would not have got 5/4 as he directly cost us two goals and had a few other clangers.

How could he know for sure he was over his concussion issues? He might just be over it until he gets a rough tackle that makes his brain bounce around his skull again and suddenly he’s spending another month in a dark room, unable to string two words together with his girlfriend looking after him while wondering if this is the time he doesn’t get better? We got told the MFC were all over Kolodjashnij’s concussion issues too. More neck related, they said. Then he gets an innocuous knock early in the season and he’s missing in action with not much explanation from the club for a season and a half. I take “it’s all fixed” with chronic concussion issues with a grain of salt when there’s no way anyone can be sure until the next event. I’d have said the same about Brayshaw if his issues had continued on. His seemed to be more about repeat direct hits though, which were addressed with technical changes to the way he approaches contests (ie not head first) which seem to have ironed out the problem. It’s when the player seems to get concussed from innocuous contact that you really have to worry. It’s different with Bennell because it’s his calves, not his brain. If he wants to risk shredding his calves by stringing out an AFL career then yay for him. I wouldn’t extend the same autonomy of decision making to McCartin because the quality of life impact of a damaged brain is so much more severe than that of a calf. To me it’s not about footy. Others have raised stuff about KK clogging the list and whatever, but I don’t give a toss about that. If I was a decision maker at the MFC I’d be worried about making a decision that has a higher than normal risk of destroying a young man’s future entirely. There’s no way I can see past that.

I’d feel like we would be both taking on a risk and personally doing him a disservice by picking him up and prolonging his career. Sure that might be unfair - it could be seen as taking away a choice that is his to make, but I just don’t see why anyone would just keep on rolling the dice on a living person’s brain. All the potential footy related benefits just feel meh to me in comparison to that. Just find another player who isn’t another hit away from having his life erased.

and for the most telling book ever written about us...by our own Supermercado.......just to cheer you up during this time: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32955680-the-great-deepression

I will be removing them at the end of the month. I kept it going through July in order to attempt to recoup the losses the site made from March through to July. The site costs keep escalating and I'm going to have to fork out another $300 a year in an attempt to counter the site issues we are having post game.

We will be screwed again we had the Claytons bye . Normally players are given 4 days off after the game before the bye. Training loads are changed . The players had 24 hours notice but still played a scratch match . Then they had to focus on next match vs Geelong. No mental break and Doubtful of reduced training . As pointed out the other teams will get a legitimate bye with all the benefits.We wont get a chance to recharge our batteries . By the time we play Essendon we may not be in a position to play finals and Essendon might have a greater incentive to win. Players turn off mentally once teams cant make finals and it could be round 12 where a number of teams cant make finals.

On another note - how good would it be to see an AFL game for premiership points played on Tiwi ! Send Essendon and Hawthorn there and the place would explode.

Drop Kozzie? Tell him he's dreaming.

For this week's game I would play ANB. And I wasn't setting a bait just interested in other people's views.

Well said. This thread should be called the Oscar McDonald Apology thread......this bloke has copped way to much bagging on here in the past.

I said this in an earlier thread and I know we only have one real game to base his form on this year but I think the benefits of O'mac and Lever in the same team is undeniably true. "The first 6 or so rounds of 2018 when Lever had just come in to the team, O'mac shut down hawkins in round 1, he shut down Hipwood in round 2, he nullified ben brown in round 3, he didn't have a great game against hawthorn but he kept riewoldt out of it in round 5, he kept daniher goaless in round 6, he kept patty mccartin to 2 points in round 7 (which was the same round that lever got injured) and while he was alright for the rest of the season he was never as dominant." So far people have said O'mac relies on Lever or Lever relies on O'mac but i think it's safe to say that they rely on each other to both perform well. 2016 Round 1 (two point win over GWS), O'mac injured his ankle i think in the third quarter deep in our defensive fifty, it was three on one and even though he was limping about, he still tried his best to defend. I don't know about you but someone that has that much endeavour is someone I want on my team. He's always been one of my favourite players, keep shutting em down O'mac.

If we beat Hawthorn by 150 points this weekend then maybe we can start making that clear comparison.

If you think Smith was a headless chook playing back, have you seen him in a real game playing forward.

You must be joking ?? Weeds OUT?? What game were you watching ? he competed, did what was asked, crunched a few packs, presenting crumbing opportunities and when Tommy was out was our only tall, kicked 2 vital goals, and will get better with confidence AND GAMES. He stays in for the rest of the year in my book unless his form drops right of!

vandenBerg ran past Melksham to lay a tackle in the last quarter. Melksham has been no good since 2018.

No watch the reply, Langford was on his own hence why Gawn made the tap, Jetta was standing next to Rankine and not goal side. Ranking took off and left Jetta at his feet, no body contact nothing. Langdon was ready to receive the ball until Rankine came flying past and intercepted the ball, Jetta was no where to be seen. That's on Jetta, not Langdon.

since when? Dead set all of his kick have been chip little 25m passes. Can you show me or point out some vision I can see him supposedly kicking the footy a mile?

I get and respect all that, but I thought he was way OTT with it last night and felt more like him looking for excuses to plug his own new theory and jargon. Not every time a player choses the wrong option or doesn't execute a disposal can be put down to 'Red Mist' and even the best players have at least one or two clangers a game. On a slightly different, but related note, I also thought that the bagging of Gawn for his little chip over the boundary out on the full in the last quarter was uncalled for. For a gangly ruckman, Gawn generally has very clean skills and had played a ripper of a game. Yes it was a lapse, but Garry seemed to want to blow it up into a systemic flaw, again harping on about it for way more than it was worth.

How? The ground is owned by the state government and managed by the state government appointed MCG Trust.