Red and Blue realist

My guess is that McGuire heard the game might be in the NT and automatically went with Darwin, not realising the work we've put in around Alice Springs and that our NGA zone is linked to Alice Springs, while Gold Coast now have Darwin in their zone. I'm near certain that if we are playing a home game in the NT it'll be in Alice Springs.

That would only happen if they rescheduled all the game timings, and have the broadcasters agree, we couldn't play at 3:10pm in Darwin - it'll be 32 degrees! Whereas at Metricon it's only projected to be 22.

Wouldn't think so, Spargo was rated the 2nd best kick inside fwd 50 in the whole competition, it was something like 75% of his kicks inside 50 resulted in a score. So while he might not get much of it, he's what we need when we're struggling going into 50. Jetta has got much more of a defensive mindset, and we all know Jones is better at getting the ball than delivering it

I think if it was a different area of the ground, he'd say we require extra work (and has done that this year and in the past), but when it comes to goal kicking we've all seen clubs go through the 'yips' where it all of a sudden it seems like they'll miss everytime. The only way through that is backing what they know, their routine and eventually the confidence comes back. He's trying to remove doubt around their routines because that'll only make it worse. BBB looks shocking in front of goal at the moment, but a guy who's kicked nearly 300 goals in his career won't need a heap of extra work, just confidence, which is what goody is trying to show them he has in them - but they'd 100% be doing a heap of work on it in the background.

Our backline has been our shining light all season, but I think it needs a tweak right now. We're fantastic when the ball is kicked in high, either marking or spoiling and forcing a stoppage. However, we're not great when the ball comes in quick and goes to ground, and I think other teams have been working on getting the ball away from Lever/May and don't care if it goes towards one of their players or hits the ground to become more of a chaos ball. All our backs - Lever, May, Petty, Hibbo and Rivers are better at marking than when they need to run onto the ball on the ground. I think we need Bowey or Lockhart in there to try and force a contest or stoppage. We once again had more marks inside 50 - and yes conversion is probably our biggest issue - but it shows that teams are still able to score against us when they aren't marking. Stoppage goals can happen, and that's on the midfield as much as the defenders, but those goals we give up when it's the defenders vs forwards seem to me to be increasing and cost us a few goals a game.

I think Jetta's much better when he's got a set opponent, which is not really the way our backs are playing, they still like to zone, but I fear bringing him in won't help a great deal with those ground ball chaos kicks, because he'll stay on his man rather than attack it.

I'd rest Jackson, bringing in Weid, which then also means Weid is the 2nd ruck, something that has really helped his game at Casey. I've always thought he's one of the players that needs a hard contest early to get going and going into the ruck will help that. Jordon also should be rested, early season his tackling was elite, but that has really dropped off which is a sign that his tiring and probably being forced onto the wing a bit too much. I'd drop Hibbo, he's been very fumbley and I think we've got the defensive mix wrong at the moment, we need a smaller ground ball operator, other teams have worked out that kicking it high and long suits our defenders so hitting grass and getting chaos is working, so that's why I think we've sent Brayshaw back more lately, but he's not the answer - and having Salem doing that job has curbed some of his run/creativity. We need a really defensive small so I'd go Bowey or Lockhart. So out: LJ, JJ and Hibbo In: Weid, Bowey and either AVB or Melk (both play high half forwward, Melk has better delivery but can go missing, while AVB might offer an additional hard edge).

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.