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Had to wade through 20 pages on bf which was mainly bs about Collingwood, their changes and how to stop DeGoey going overseas and getting into more strife. Have omitted all that rubbish. Anyone would think they didn’t have a game coming up. I’ve left out all the unsavoury comments about Oliver. Carlton aren’t a great overlap side. They kept kicking straight to melbs zone defence. I think we are much better at providing run and overlap, and can exploit the dees using this Coxzilla to put on a clinic in a massive game at the G. Loves the big occasion in front of the parents at the G does big Coxy! So... Did Viney get looked at by the MRP or nah? The key as always v Melbourne is to keep May and Lever busy and avoid kicking down the line to them The Dees forward line is completely dysfunctional. Our defensive system should make a mess of them. This is a danger game for us, if Melbourne bring their best. The game before the mid season is always a challenge - feels like this looms as a danger game for me with players thinking about the week off. I'm sure Fly and the coaches will manage expectations within the playing group but some real challenges around selection this week It’s a bit unsettling as the past few years we’ve been the underdogs against this lot but this time we’ll be clear favs. They couldnt have been less impressive friday night but I’ve already seen in the media it’s their “mid year GF”. Seriously can these minnow clubs give us a rest from their manufactured pump up games I think it was clear we weren’t running on all cylinders the past 2 weeks whether that was intentional or not. Time to get the “All duck and no dinner” anger back out again Would be nice to make it harder for them to make top 4 as well, if we are top 2, the more interstate sides that finish top 4 the better I don’t think we’ll select a side to match Melbournes forwardline. More likely we’ll select our best back 7 and force Melbourne to adapt to that. If they go in undersized they’ll struggle with any long ball in the fifty. Gawn, Oliver & Petracca had the ball on a string last time we played them, and we still beat them. Not too worried about this game, Melbourne are our bunnies Be afraid everyone, Grundy has asked for the first bounce Woohoo! First clearance to the Magpies Might forget who he plays for and tap it straight to Pendles Irrespective of the Ins and Outs this week, based on recent form and Melbourne's woeful performance last week, we should easily account for the Demons. Yeah, I watched bits of that game and both sides were garbage. Melbourne were only slightly better than Carlton. Melbourne will be all huff and puff for the first 10 minutes and then we'll just smash them Pies to once again, make Lever and May redundant as we always do. Miochek to kick 4. Pies by 17. Lippa is a good in, but let's not build him up to be Chris Judd. Have no idea on the ins, only thing I know definitely is that I can't wait to beat Melbourne. Up there in my top three most despised clubs predominately due to their supporters! My Favourite, sort of: I tipped Melbourne by 20pts in my Tipping This has been the most ungracious lot of opp comments I have come across since Essendon. Not one ounce of respect. Anyone would think they are the recent premiers! I so desperately want us to beat them. Wipe the smile off their sneering faces. Importantly we need to break the string of losses vs them before we meet them in the finals. Get a bit of the psychological edge back. Reckon, we have this!! Dees by a heart-stopping 9 points!!

Can't see Tomlinson going out if there isn't another tall to bring in, Petty really the only option. Our backline looked the most inpenetrable it has in weeks with the three tall defenders. We gave up 44 points to a team with 2 Coleman medallists and Lever took 12 intercept marks

Kids are so soft these days.

He’s the only one who knows who his dad is!

It's actually an extremely easy thing to love a team's playing style but despise them at the same time.

So Hunter gets a week for standing still when an [censored] runs in to him with his head and no injury.JDG only gets 3 weeks for running and jumping into a kid wide open and concussed .I reallydont get it

In my neighbourhood it would go in the pot for stock.

You must have been rich and could afford a knife Jaded. In my neighbourhood, we'd get the dog to gnaw it off.

Round 21 it was and we went down fighting by seven, looking gassed and only scoring 3 goals in the second half. But the thing too remember is we smashed them in the first half. The numbers were all our way They only stayed in it because they kicked everything (five zip in the first) and we were wasteful. It was 10.7 to 8.2 at half time. Seven more scoring shots for only a 17 point lead. From memory, we were something like plus 35 expected score.

Sidebottom always runs amok against us and DeGoey is their best player imo.

They can claim all the outs they want. The reality is that in the last QB we were missing May, had an underdone Salem, Turner went off in the first qtr, Petty went off but played out the game under duress and Max was victim to a Cox running leap with knee in the back. Played out the game but never fully recovered from the back injury. All that after they gang tackled and mauled Langdon. Nonetheless, we were in that game right until 3/4 time. In the round 21 game half our team were carrying injuries so an easy kill for them. Nothing to really brag about. They can crow and rant all they like about their 'outs' - karma for last year. On Monday, a 2021 PF revenge like performance vs Geelong would be very nice

Lol Coxzilla. As if their game against the Blues was any better a couple of weeks back. It was Pies 8.5 to Carlton 6.13 after quarter time.

Since Twitter changed it's algorithms for timelines, I've had the unfortunate experience of seeing more and more tweets from Collingwood supporters this season. They are, without doubt, the most arrogant and ignorant bunch of supporters out there. Not only do they think they've already won the flag, they love to brag about being the biggest club, the only club where supporters turn up week-in-week-out, and the most successful club in the AFL (despite only winning 2 flags in 70 years!). If there's one game I'd just absolutely love to win this H&A season, it's this one.

I think it is because hard training puts a fair bit of stress on the body and that stress can effect the immune response.

What do they despise about us? Our civility and dental hygiene?

Actually, we're Redleg Members so on the opposite side of the ground (in more ways than one). I've worked and lived all over Victoria and have travelled to some poverty striken countries and there will always be haves and have nots. I do take your point about the gap getting greater. It's called the "transfer of wealth". These things are cyclical. Where we are in the economic clock at the moment is where people with real money swoop in and buy up shares, businesses and property. Knowing that is not helpful but it explains a bit. Being on the wrong end of all this is not pleasant. I've been there when I was younger and struggled with 17% interest rates. We had 3 maxed out Credit Cards and were buying groceries on a Coles Myer card. I made some good decisions and was lucky enough to get a better paying job but it took a decade to dig our way out of the mire. One of the better decision I made was to move back to Ballarat at the right time when things were much cheaper. Yes, Ballarat has all of the problems you've mentioned but I think it's a proportional thing and so far it's not out of control. If jobs start drying up and interest rates put people to the wall that will change. All I can say is, I wish you well and hope the Dees bring you a bit of cheer.

Don't want Sparrow making way, he's proved his worth in the last couple of weeks.

He was not a million miles off being back to his best against the blues. Watching the game live i thought how important he is to our side and how that importance is easy to overlook, in part because he is not partic flashy and as you suggest a lot of his great work is off the ball. The other thing i forget sometimes is how tough he is. Doesn't lose too many one on ones and has good dose of aggro.

Hopefully their team is just as cocky as the supporters.

Ah the Chris Scott defense

I f’ing hate that club and their disgusting supporters. Please can we finally beat them?!

Leaving aside the comments about the dees, you'd reckon they'd talk a bit more about the impact of their outs. Demonland would be if we were missing players of the quality of de Goey and Sidebottom, not to mention players like Mcstay, Elliot, mcreery and hoskin-elliot under an injury cloud.

I know I've said this before but it's so awesome to be involved in massive games like this.

I am not suffering, the small amount I have is enough, the system cannot victimise me. I am a frugal person, living within my means and consumption doesn't interest me. The Dee's give me something like a hobby, gets me out and about, and emotional drama. Just hope the price for attending doesn't get much more expensive, that the cheap seats aren't pushed too far away from the action, or the aggression from the division between opposition supporters becomes less "boo" and hate, and more "good play, well done" by one team to the other. Otherwise, a fence will have to be built between the greater AFL community. One last thing, perhaps it is harder for Dee supporters (noise volume) as we in the outer are often out numbered.

as someone who was at port when troy was, i'd be interested to know... did he always see himself going into coaching? how does he look back on his time with choc then compared to now, and what effect the relationships he had with coaches at both the pear and the tigs has had with the way he has approached his own career move into coaching? given he knew blair hartley at both the tigs and the pear, and geoff parker at the latter, how as a line coach does he go interacting with jason taylor and our recruiters and what they say about his future charges - like mcvee, turner/s, adams, etc. - coming thru? does he see himself changing 'lines' in order to get greater experience from a coaching perspective? tell him weaves says g'day!

Yes, though I haven’t seen any main session this season, but last time I saw a main session the focus was more on sims and execution of structures and processes. Could be because of the long break and they can push them, without game day fatigue. They were working them very hard. A few looked like they needed it, given some gasping, slouching and drop outs. Also appeared not like it too much, they went quiet and resigned to getting through it. Thought it was useful bonding being all in it together, and the congratulations and support they showed to each other after completion. The trainer (Selwyn) didn't inform them of how many sprints they were doing, showing lots of trust of him by them. Ended up going at about 3 sets, each 6×150 meters under 20 sec, with a 10 sec break between runs. The players had groupings that ran to various distanced coloured cones. There was also another set of sprints in between drills and some laps as a warm before drills.

I wonder if given his tank, Goody gives ANB first shot at run-with all over the ground on N.Daicos. He must be made accountable and bumped/pushed etc at evry opportunity. he's not going to outrun Nibbler?

Not loading - increased training loads. Or, if that is still too triggering - a heavy block of aerobic and power conditioning And in any case, fatigue is the new concept requiring a trigger warning - loading is so 2022 No exuses!

Fairly obvious question from me: When Petty returns from injury, is his primary role for the remainder of this year likely to be as a defender or a forward?

I think Tomlinson will be needed as a third tall to counter Cameron and Cox drifting forward.

I don’t think people are expecting him to be everywhere. Just hoping for somewhere, rather than frequently nowhere. I do have a feeling he’s gonna lift on Monday though.

Put a band aid on it.

Collingwood are clear on top of the ladder. The general consensus seems to be that they move the ball fast, have accurate disposal and avoid the contest. I wanted to have a look at some data to dig a little deeper. I used @WheeloRatings excellent resource https://www.wheeloratings.com/afl_stats_team.html and looked for variables where the Pies are top 4 in For, Against or Difference categories - the numbers represent their ranking. I also looked for where they are bottom 4 and unsurprisingly there are very few but the ones that do exist support the contest avoidance explanation. I've provided some comments for each variable but others may have better insights and I invite them I think my basic conclusion is "yep - they move the ball fast, have accurate disposal and avoid the contest". I'll have a look at the MFC strength areas next and see where we might be able to exploit them.

Luxury....

So true. Back in my days, we’d just cut the foot off.

The cricket's on now channel 7, for those interested.

"This has been the most ungracious lot of opp comments I have come across since Essendon. Not one ounce of respect." They're not known as "The Filth" for nothing Luci. It is an epithet that has been well earned.

They couldn’t miss that night, they were 7 straight at one stage. Also, they kicked 6 straight against us on QB in the last. Add that to the 7.0 in the R21 game and it’s 13.0 in two and half quarters.

We had 65 inside 50s to 41 in our second game against them last year and 3 more scoring shots for a 7 point loss.

I'm always a bit weary of asking tactical questions. I want to know the answers as much as we all do but your simply not going to get the answer and nor should you.

It's only a flesh wound.

My understanding is that Nick takes approx 40% of their kick ins but not as a defender. By taking the kick in he's playing out of position from his usual role as either a mid or HF (and no doubt blending both at times), then heading downfield to to become the extra receiver at contests & stoppages per one of those roles. The role also changing So for roughly 40% of the time (with kick ins) someone needs to mind him as he runs out of the square and then either all the way to contests / stoppages or handovers taking place as he makes his way down. Im no expert in such things but i would think the very fact he's kicking in when playing as a mid, HF (& blending both) would make it somewhat trickier for teams to cover him on this side. Might play a significant part in the 'why' he racks up so many receives and takes off so often with a fair amount of space to work in racking up big numbers and causing chain havoc for oppos. Bottom line, at least when he's specifically taking kick ins, i don't believe we can just back our system in here. We'll need to address this separately if we're to counter him here imho.

It wouldn’t shock me at all, given the club have access to hospital care a short course of IV antibiotics could speed up recovery. Would obviously mean more doubt about his availability for Monday.

Is it Monday yet?

It's possible Collingwood select Mihocek, McStay, Cameron and Cox. Plus Elliott. They all played when fit earlier in the season (before McStay, Cameron and Cox went out with their various injuries). They could have three talls at any given time. If we drop Tomlinson for Hibberd, both Hibberd and May will have to play tall and Elliott will have to be taken by...who?

Can't believe Andy swore on the show!

Re 3 talls, I think Salem makes a huge difference to our ability to play 3 talls. He will take a while to get his touch back, but I watched him closely last week and his positioning is just elite. Whether it’s pushing up towards stoppages to stop the out the front exits from the opposition, or just being in an annoying position to mop up the scrubby kicks forward, he puts himself in positions that bring our interceptors into play. The last 2 weeks have been our statistically best defensive efforts this year, and Salem is a key reason (along with evening up the stoppage numbers since Clarry went down).

I've been reliably informed that exposure to the sun isn't good for a blister.