Red and Blue realist

He was pictured in training on the website, so assuming it was just an ear infection you can assume he's over that otherwise he wouldn't be out in the cold!

I reckon the club's would know, but their probably still waiting for official confirmation around the fly in arrangement from the state governments

Anyone have any idea why our game is still scheduled for 4:35pm? Why would the AFL and broadcasters want 2 games going head to head (our game is the same time as the Suns v Dogs game)? Surely given the lockdowns and the huge TV audiences they got last year they'd be better off starting our game at around 2pm and then have the games lead into each other, they'd get all the neutral supporters then, rather than having them split across the 1 time slot. There'd be no issues with us starting earlier?

I had the same thing, wondered if it was related to the few free tickets the club gives with some memberships? I didn't try and use them, just used the usual one

I think we've had a lot more down days that the doggies or cats, but from that we've only managed to lose 3 times and have won a few (Nth, Ess), whereas when the Dogs or Cats have been beaten, it hasn't been due to a down day, they've truly been beaten by better sides. My take on that is come finals, down days should be eliminated, which should be good for us.

I think @Skuit is 100% correct - the lights came on at the ground towards the end of the 2nd quarter (I remember showing my daughter they were now on), from that point we kicked 5.8 to the giants 3.4. Goody even said it was a game of 2 halves, lights off-lights on!

I got tickets for myself and my daughter, both members, and also 3 others on general admin about an hour ago. Make sure you're putting your membership numbers in at the beginning and then select general reserve - not best available and it might work?

Not sure if this has been mentioned in any other threads, but without having access to the actual data, there's a good chance that our Casey side was on average significantly older than our seniors. We've got 11 players on our list that who are 28 or older . Of these 7 played at Casey and 4 for the Dees, remarkably we were the second youngest team on the weekend just gone.

This is a good list to give people an idea of what is realistic this year, we've just re-contracted Gawn, Trac, Clarry and Salem on good coin, while the likes of Lever have redone their contract to allow those guys the coin to stay. While we'd be a very attractive destination now (game style, age demographic etc.) we simply don't have the cap space or the assets (no 1st round this year) to actually bring in big name, however it doesn't mean we can't look at free agents or specific depth pieces.

We won't get access if another club selects him in the first 20 picks, otherwise I think we still get the discount

There's a really good article on foxsports about goal kicking accuracy, I know all supporters of all teams have complaints about missed shots, but over time it can really tell a fascinating story. So far this year, we've been very poor (ranked 18th in both) at shot on goal and set shot on goal quality. So if we could improve slightly where our shots are being taken from, in theory we should expect to score even more, which is pretty good for the side that's already ranked 4th in points for. At the other end, one major improvement, has come from where we let other teams to take their shots from, ranking 2nd with shot quality against, we force players to kick from the pocket or further out. One thing we have encounter though is teams are kicking better than expected against us, even with the shots we are giving them. So if that returned to around normal expectancy and we managed to improve where we take our shots (both set and general) from, then there's still a bot of improvement left in the second half of the year! https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/where-every-club-ranks-in-the-2021-expected-accuracy-ladder-champion-index/news-story/001a4914d94d2a07907973ee3376bcdf

Not sure if this deserved a thread on it's own, but it'll be Covid based in a lot of ways, but our last 2 games have been the highest rating TV games for the season! While we might miss out on some gate receipts, having a lot of eyes on us will be great for our sponsors and future sponsors, and what's better we won both playing attractive footy! https://www.afl.com.au/news/628192/huge-ratings-for-2021-toyota-afl-sir-doug-nicholls-round

Spot on!

Every team plays 5 teams twice this season, we've got GWS, Hawks, Dogs, Crows and Cats, and at the moment only 2 of them are in the top 8. So it's just showing who's in the current top 8 who teams play twice.

Why not have it played at either Geelong or Ballarat, there'll be density limits, but at least they get a crowd of the teams supporters, not just a quarter filled stadium interstate. Plus if it's played in Ballarat then they won't have to worry about adding ice to the slide water, it'll be half frozen over already.

Coming back into the side I'm sure most would have just asked that he competes hard in the air, and at a minimum brings the ball to ground so our pressure forwards can go to work. We all would love him to come in and clunk huge grabs and kick 6 a week of course, but realistically he's doing what he's needed for. If you watch him attack the ball in the first contest against the dogs, he didn't mark it, but he split the pack open which allowed our ground ball guys to do what they do, the ball spits out the back and Harmes goals in 20 seconds. If you also watch him closely (just watch the goals highlights) he's indirectly involved in around 4 or 5 of our goals, again hitting packs, but also pressuring, blocking and also he did well corralling the macrae kick that resulted in one of Fritta's goals - he also stood up for Fritta after he Cordy was going after him when he gave away a free kick so he could kick his 2nd. Is he a superstar at the moment, no, is he playing his role in the team, that's a big yes. I thought his final against the cats might have been his Maxy style break out game, but I think if he keeps doing everything he is now then that will come.

I get your arguments, but clubs are already complaining about the soft cap being reduced, so there's less coaches and physio's etc. The resources get taking away from existing development programs to integrate the new draft picks into the footy programs, plus they are rarely anywhere near ready for AFL football, so the strength and conditioning staff need to put in extra work with them. So while the $$$ cost might not be huge, it's the opportunity cost that the coaches/staff have with existing players and those in rehab is what they weigh up as well.

Clubs are reluctant as there's a good chance the player won't do much more than top up their VFL list. I think there are only 4 from the MSD 2 year ago who are still on AFL lists, so around a 30% chance that the player will stay on a list and then generally they'll be 'role players'. Clubs probably don't want to be putting extra resources into these guys, when they can do that over the pre-season after the main draft. It sounds very exciting as a supporter and to the media, but it'll be a while before clubs truly embrace the mid season draft, and then they might wait until its a mid season trade period.

They were doing similar against us, plus there were also a few packs where Nankervis pinched Viney while he was stuck under people and Lynch used his elbow into the back of Max's head while he was going for a mark. Cats/Hawks/Lions etc. all did the same in their dominate periods, the unsociable hawks as they were called. I think it can be a frustration thing, when you are used to winning easily and you get challenged or start to loss, the bully boy option is what they turn too.

Do we know if Kobi George elected to stay in our NGA as a 19 year old? He might not get a look in at the MSD but could be worth a look come the national draft if we get him with the discounts?

I think the above point is greatly underestimated by many in the footy world (not just DL), historically the really good teams of late have only had a run of success when their best players have played a significant amount of games together, Geelong had Ablett, Bartell, Enright, Scarlett, Hawkins, etc., the Hawks had Hodge, Lewis, Mitchell, Roughy, Buddy etc., the Tigers had Cotchin, Dusty, Grimes, Vlaustin, Riewolt, Edwards etc. all getting to those 100 games played together before they really clicked and dominated. I know the Hawks might have pinched one a little earlier, and the Tigers have probably brought in more players from outside to complement their list, but in all cases it's been a core of around 8 - 10 very good players who trust each other and instinctively know what the others will do which then make executing a game plan much easier. I think we've now got that, and those guys who've only been on our list for 3-4 years from other clubs, May, Lever, Langdon, Tomo, Brown, Hibberd, Melk etc. all seem to come in and fit with those guys, as compared to trying to change the game plan to suit the recruits. It takes time and all those great recent clubs had speed bumps along the way, Geelong nearly got rid of Thompson, same as Richmond and Hardwick (they went 3-10 in 2014, and then 2-4 in 2015 and then 2-7 in 2016) so the heat was on early season for them before 2017, while the Hawks were ordinary in 2005/06 before pinching the one in 2008 and missed finals in 2009.

In 2016, North had the oldest list (by some margin) and also only played 2 teams who finished top 8 in the first 9 rounds, and 5 of those wins were within 16 points. Arguably we've already played at least 3 teams who will definitely finish top 8, also having played the teams currently sitting 9, 10 & 11 on the ladder, with only the Swans game coming within 2 goals. So we haven't had to fight out the wins as much. Having said that, and I mentioned in the changes thread, we should be giving some consideration to managing some of the younger guys to keep them fresh. Jordan, Pickett, Rivers and Jackson are all under 21and have played only 8, 22, 17 & 14 games each. They are all important to our set up, and also I think we need to have that squad mentality where we've got 28 - 32 players ready to go at AFL standard. Having this means there's less likely to be a major drop off, even though we will drop games during the year.

Yeah, the VFL game was postponed. Both Sparrow and Chandler were doing a heap of sprints after the game on the MCG, while I imagine the other VFL guys would have had a pretty big training run on Saturday. I wonder when they'll be tempted to 'manage' a few of the younger guys, Jordan, Pickett, Rivers and Jackson have all played less than 22 games each, so might be better to have a refresh at some stage rather than tiring and running up some poor performances. Not that any deserve to be dropped, just might need some smart management so they are al performing well all season, and well into the off season. I'd suggest that they could all potentially do with a week or 2 off during the season along with the bye. Both LJ and Kossie were a little down from what they've done for the rest of the season, it could have been the conditions, but we also don't want them burning out.

We've finally lost a last quarter, in fact we lost 3 quarters last night (by a combined 4 points). I wonder when was the last time we lost 3 quarters in a game and still won??

Given the Roosters (NRL) were also in the same cafe, I'm sure our game will still go ahead fine. The NSW gov't and the NRL will do whatever they can to continue on as normal, so it'll look weak on the AFLs part if they don't go ahead as normal. Not saying I agree with any of that, but it's how it will play out.