At the break of Gawn

Expected Score: Port: 88.7 Pies: 56.9 Another lucky escape for Collingwood.

31% of Curnow’s 61 goals has come against the Eagles. Makes you wonder about the equality of this year’s Coleman medal.

Are we going for Geelong or Brisbane? I don’t want Geelong stealing 4th spot but at the same time 3rd spot is appealing.

Double whammy. Tigers will be up and about for next week and pick 3 blown.

We’ve only played him 1 game. We really should have given him more given time how much we’ve let JVR coast at AFL level.

Tomlinson is named on the field so he’s definitely playing.

I’m still concerned that Oliver’s timeframe isn’t actually getting any shorter. Before the Saints game it was 4 weeks. 2 weeks later it’s still 3-4 weeks. When are we going to get it to be 1-2 weeks? As it stands, Goody has ruled him out for Richmond, and I doubt he plays against North and do the plane trip. Surely the Carlton game is the target.

I think Chandler will replace Spargo. Can’t see us replacing Hibberd with him unless they want to put Bowey forward?

It’ll also be his 400th game as a Senior coach. Fantastic.

Probably makes the North game a bit more of a danger game. Tassie is never easy, but there’ll be added emotion to this game.

Speaking of Geelong, I checked that excluding 2020, the last time we didn’t have to travel to GMHBA was 2014. Every season it’s either only been one game a season and it’s been at GMHBA or twice and hence still a game at GMHBA. Is the reason for this because we’re an easy selection to get them to their 9 game quota which they need to fill against at least some Victorian clubs?

I know his name gets mentioned every week and people point out his pressure and tackling, but AnB’s turnovers are getting worse (had a team high 7). If it wasn’t for Spargo’s poor game, I’d almost suggest Chandler in for AnB.

Think I said this a couple of weeks ago, but Cats are our biggest threat to 4th place. Only saving grace is that they play Collingwood, Brisbane at the Gabba and Port (but at GMHBA) in the last 6 weeks.

I feel like we rarely win games like that so it was such a nice change to be the one who stole it as opposed to being stolen against. When I woke up this morning had to check again that it wasn’t a dream and we really did come back and win it. The Rnd 23 2021 win will always be my favourite come from behind win but last night is right up there. Reminiscent of the 2000 QF victory.

How did Gawn not give the handball?

Best thing Fagan ever did was get rid of Rich. All of a sudden Lions aren’t exposed in the back half for lack of leg speed.

Losing way too many one on one contests at the moment.

The Lions were terrible defensively last year. They’ve tightened up a fair bit since then. I’m not sure if this was covered in the podcast as I haven’t listened to it this week, but what was the main reason of us going more of a controlled style of play last week? Lots of uncontested marks, lots of switching etc. I wonder if that was because Goody realised the high forward press was causing too many poor repeat entries. I wonder if Goody is trialling more scores from defensive half chains so we can get better looks inside 50. We absolutely need to nail clearances and contested possession this week which we were poor at last week. Our forward 50 contested possession rate is still abysmal so I hope we can also improve that.

So clearly not a fatigue issue based on Richo’s comments. Just wondering why isn’t Schache getting a look in? He’s probably in better form and is a better ruck option than JVR.

The Saints threw everything at us in the first qtr and we took it well. I expect us to run away with this in the second half.

Next Friday’s weather isn’t looking great which makes this game even more important.

We’ve won 8 of our past 11 and 4 of our last 5 at Marvel. With the injuries the Saints have, and all the pressure on us during the week, I’m expecting a 5 goal win. Marvel is actually pretty convenient for me as I live on the west side so I’m making the trip tonight to the soulless stadium.

What is going on with Oliver? This seems totally mismanaged.

No way Petty forward. Let’s leave our back 6 settled. I’d give Schache a go, at least he can nail a set shot.