deanox

Definitely why they were drafted.

Does anyone think that perhaps, just perhaps, it is a coaching instruction/ game plan, that Kozzie and now McAdam launch at the ball in the air? Particularly given it is repeat behaviour that the coaches obviously aren't correcting. Rather than saying "they need to stay down and crumb" perhaps the direction is "launch and compete in the air to prevent intercept marking, and create a contested ground ball in our forward 50"? Sure, we need crumbers too. But the crumbers are useless if the ball is marked by the opposition.

I can only assume the swap between Fullerton and Brown was due to Fullertons fitness.

I don't think that's hyperbolic. If we lose two on the trot to no finals teams, it will seriously affect our chances in what is a very tight year. Win well and we will be 4th and 6 points off second. Lose and we'll be 9th and only one game from 12th. Most of the rest of the season are 8 point games. Saints North and the return game against WCE are the only games against non finals contenders. We just have to win them.

@Oxdee I reckon we are competing with both Freo and Collingwood in terms of our bracket of the ladder, albeit Freo is probably nipping at our heels while we are nipping at Collingwoods. Freo were favourites yesterday but only got the 2 points, meaning they possibly lost a bit of ground against us in terms of end of season position. Collingwood got a draw, which could be seen as a win given they weren't expecting any points, but as they already had a draw, and we have a better percentage, the two points aren't as valuable to them. So my gut says in the scheme of the season it was a good result for us. As long as we win games we should, of course.

Good result for us I reckon.

Yeah I won't watch 9 games but tbh I don't mind Thursday night football. I'll often put it on in the background, and for my life circumstances I don't mind going as it frees up my weekend for other activities.

Still a better timeslot that scheduling AFLW at 5pm on a Friday night in Frankston. Tbh I actually don't mind this timeslot as a viewer, it's a good time to put on tv around while doing things around the house on a Saturday, assuming it's being broadcast.

But until 2 weeks before the season he would have been sub at best.

I'm not sure this is uncomfortable for many. We rated Jordan enough to offer him a 3 year contract and he was regularly in our best 23, in fact we selected him in that best 65 times over three years. Bedford 16 times in his last season with us I'm sure we said to both of them that we faith in them improving and becoming a more permanent fixture in our best 22, but also that the next steps of their development were around how hard they worked and where they developed. I'm sure both the players and the club understood they'd need to push someone out of the team. So when an opposition club comes and says "here is our best 22, and this is your position and your role" and you ask them who the competition for that spot it, and their answer is players you believe you have comfortably covered, then it's not a surprise what they chose - the guarantee of play time.

I don't like it. As much as I dislike Foxtel/kayo, most of it is in one place. I am frustrated that rugby union is now on Stan, meaning I can't watch it without another subscription. Splitting it further will mean I watch less of these sports.

Valid points about the standing room, and I agree about the premium membership. I'm in redlegs and they give us an option to reserve a seat on Level 1 for free for the Hawthorn replacement homegame. I'd rather pay and extra $20 on my membership if needed and get a LVL 2 seat.

I understand the frustration but for games expected to have big crowds they don't have GA and the club communicated to members in February about purchasing tickets when the AFL opened everything up. Make sure you look out for it next year!

He's 33 in a couple of weeks. I'm not sure he wants to be there, club is keen for him to get to the 300 apparently. I reckon he'll go at the end of the year.

@Anti-Saint I think you should commit to the bit and make sure that every post starts with a statement of being anti-saint. Not just new threads.

If only today Tracca could've transformed into Tracca who'd tap it to Tracca who'd handball to Tracca who'd then stab a kick to Tracca who'd kick a goal!

The shortest million dollar per year contract ever?

Should Brayshaw and/or Smith be included?

In general the media does a very bad job of interpretation of stats. XScore does not represent what the score "should" have been and it can't be interpreted as who "should" have won. When Fox creates a ladder like this it's simplistic at best and bad for public understanding of the art of statistical analysis at worst. XScore tells us about the number of shots generated. XScore tells us about the quality of the shots generated (good or difficult scoring areas). XScore effectively gives us a measure of the expected score (based on expected accuracy) of the shots generated. It doesn't try to predict the future or alternative outcomes. Why does Goody use it? I expect he is using it as a measure of "is the game plan working? Are we generating sufficient shots of the right quality? Are we restricting the opposition shot quality?". It helps Goody discuss outcomes with the team without worrying about the scoreboard. "Don't worry about the score, here is proof we are generating the right opportunities" or "don't get ahead of yourself, we've been lucky so far, let's get back to basics". Of course XScore is influenced by game plan. It will take into a lot of measures but not all of them. I'm not sure but I doubt it includes: - player specific data (just AFL averages); - fatigue at the macro (what time of the quarter/game is it) or micro (what work rate has the player shooting for goal output over the last minute); - weather conditions like wind, rain, humidity; - other external factors like home crowd advantage and pressure; - the impact of repeat entries building fatigue or mental pressure etc versus a more relaxed game plan. So it can be improved. But it is probably something that the club's can track for themselves. Ie last year we often "won" XScore based on our repeat entries, bit maybe or XScore should only be compared against our XScore, not against Geelong's. Overall it is a helpful metric that tells you some things, particularly in conjunction with other metrics. It's not an alternative future predictor.

That is such a lazy stat too. It's simply top 6 in the points F and A. It's not even something like "within a set percentage of the leader". Meaning someone could be 7th, by 1 point, and they miss out, even though they are performing better than in previous years.

If people think Xscore is a bad stat then accuracy is even worse. Xscore is just accuracy but adjusted for factors such as shot location, in the play vs on the run, etc.

Essendon this year: Beat Hawthorn, Bulldogs, St Kilda (by 4 points), Adelaide (by 3 points), WCE (by 6 points) Lost to Sydney, Port (both very comfortably) Drew Collingwood Essendon could be 2-6 instead of 5-1-2.

On the assumption that Scott has (and does) show this type of bias, it is very disappointing. Think whatever you want of how he presents publically, he is one of the most influential people on modern AFL through his tactical approach to coaching at AFL level. It tarnishes what should be a great reputation.

Me too but the AFL have been very focused on the short term, with the exception of investment into GWS and GCS (although even that is short term with respect to tv rights and games in the local market in each state). Lots of decisions are focused on less than 12 months, and they regularly abandon or flip flop on things quickly if they don't have immediate return.

I think the AFL will use this to play a lot of rolling rounds. Games all week so it never feels like we have distinct rounds but instead football all week around. So yes there will be byes, but it won't be 14 days, it'll be 9 or 10 days.