At the break of Gawn

Would have loved for the Prelim to be on a Thursday night so the Cats only get a 6 day break.

Jack was one of my favourite players but it’s obvious now he didn’t have the drive to be a truly elite footballer. Jack liked the idea of the lifestyle of an AFL footy player more so than the actual hard work that’s required to be successful at it. People will ponder things such as what if we had drafted a player like Jack 10 years later than what we did in 2008. I’d argue that we wouldn’t have because his lack of competitiveness would have been identified earlier. I’m all for our club recruiting diverse personalities, and people will always have different vices outside of footy, however when it comes to applying your trade, you have to be 100%. There would be players out there who would put more effort into their footy who are also balancing life with 3-4 kids than what Jack was doing.

Obviously I have no idea of your financial situation, but for roughly $200 to guarantee a chance to see our first premiership in 57 years…that sounds like a steal to me.

I’m not sure what it is, but I really don’t rate Port. They barely beat a top 8 side all year, we made them look like pretenders, and then they went and beat an out of form WBD to clinch 2nd spot on the ladder. Geelong played one of the worst games I’ve seen them play on Friday night. Port were good, but Geelong had a horrible night. What Port do have on their side is a home ground full with their supporters - something Melbourne won’t have in the PF

I was thinking about starting a new thread but this current topic is pretty much the same. My question: When was the last time we were unequivocally the best team left in the finals series and favourites for the flag? From my limited recollection: 2018 - Richmond/WCE the clear favourites 2002/2004/2005/2006 - Certainly not us. 2000 - Essendon hands down. 1998 - North 1994 - West Coast/Geelong 1988 - Hawks 1987 - Carlton? 1964? I’m of firm belief that this flag is ours to lose, and anyone else who wins it is the underdog.

That would be the dream scenario. Cats still worry me too.

I’m not sure it’s been mentioned earlier in the thread, but I thought Chris Fagan’s impromptu comments at the end of his presser about Melbourne was a nice touch. To summarise, he said full credit to Melbourne, they are a wonderful footy team and are very hard to beat. I can guarantee you that you won’t hear those sort of comments from Chris Scott if we roll the Cats a third time this year in the Prelim.

Brayshaw had a good game but he really has to improve his decision making when he has the ball inside 50. Always looks to be in two minds and sometimes I think he should just have a ping.

I think I prefer to play the Giants. Their forward line isn’t as much of a worry, and they also play a contested game which I think we can beat them at. I know we lost to them earlier in the year, but I think we were struggling with our scoring and clearances which we’ve fixed up since then. With the Cats, I worry how easily they got a hold of us last time. Cameron and Hawkins can get off the chain and kill our premiership chances. Their over possessive ball movement can work really well for them at times. The reason we won last week was because they just couldn’t get their hands on the footy at all in that last qtr. The other factor is that, yes we’ve beaten them twice this year already, but beating a quality team like that three times in a year is difficult to do. If we do end up playing the Cats and win then we’ll be certainties to beat Port/Brisbane the week after I feel.

Surely if we play the Giants then Hibberd comes in for Smith to play on Greene?

Reckon Petracca just needs to kick a goal and then he’ll explode from there.

Some of them look super nervous.

That is an impressive list of highlights!

Every HS tipster apart from one person and the Kiss of death tipped us to win. In the age, no one tipped the Lions. 😬 We’re red hot favourites no matter how you look at it.

They actually won their QF final last year but then lost in the Prelim. Funnily enough, so did Port. The two grand finalists from last year lost their first QF. I feel this year is different though without the bye, so I’m desperate for us to win tonight!

Haha jinx!!

The man is delusional. Again said they dominated against Melbourne but fell away late.

O’Connor getting injured is a huge blow for Geelong. He’s their main tagger and if we come up against them in the Prelim, it’s comfortable knowing Oliver won’t get tagged by him.

I really feel Scott overestimated Geelong’s performance last Saturday night. You heard it through his post match comments, his coaches votes (he definitely gave 2 to Stanley after I heard him mention how good he thought he played against Gawn), and other commentary through the week. The fact is they played 10 good minutes for the game and Melbourne absolutely bashed them in the second half (in particular the last qtr).

I’m super nervous for this game more so than any final in 2018. In 2018 I was just happy we made the finals and winning two was just an absolute bonus. This time, we have genuine expectations on us to win the flag, so not winning it would be considered a choke by some.

Geez we have a good list.

Clarry is a superstar. I’ve just checked the round 23 votes though, and Scott strikes again. Bizarre voting. How did Stanley get more votes than Max?

The fact they are the highest scoring side in the league worries me by itself. I honestly feel this could be our toughest game of the finals series. I’d honestly love for us to win all 3 games by 50+ points but I somehow think it won’t come that easy to us.

This game will be won at the contest, and in particular, the middle. Zorko is their man and has been in great form. Shut him down and we’re in with a very big chance. In regards to their forwards, I’m mainly concerned about Cameron. I think Hibberd has to come in and do the job on him. Cameron will be too smart for Smith. We’re lucky Hipwood is out. He was looking very dangerous against us in the first half earlier this year but couldn’t capitalise. I think May will do well on Daniher and has beaten him in the past. Rivers will go to McCarthy who is dangerous in his own right while I think Lever will run off Ah Chee.

Where are you reading that? Just checked BOM and it says 50% chance of showers 0-4mm