At the break of Gawn

1 minute ago, DubDee said:

Anyone else enjoying the Scott presser??

he is suppressing the rage

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).

1 hour ago, DubDee said:

Man I’m already a mixture of pumped and frequent visits to the dunny

Long day coming up tomorrow. 

might tell the kids to sleep in. 🤔

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?

23 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Brisbane's last 8 games

rd 16 Beat adelaide 52pts

rd 17 lost to St K 32 points

rd 18 Lost to Rich 20pts

rd 19 beat Gold Coast 49pts

rd 20 Lost to Hawks 12pts

rd 21 Beat Freo 64pts

rd 22 Beat Pies 85 pts

rd 23 Beat West Coast 38 pts

They've beaten up a few sides, had 3 losses and played no one in the 8

Not a scary proposition.

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.

7 hours ago, Dwight Schrute said:

Watching the replay of our last game against the Lions and it's such a similar game to the Cats game, we didn't finish our work and our pressure was a bit off and they got on top, we clicked back into our footy and we absolutely pulled their pants down. 

it shows that our best is THE best 

They definitely tried to isolate our defenders 1v1 which worked in the first half because our work rate and pressure was down and they had a fraction of extra time and space, in the second the pressure forced more high kicks and we won the battles in the air, even with Hipwood down there. 

they worked hard to make sure Salem got no time and space, knowing he's our quarterback, i suspect they'll go again with this and we will try the same thing with Rich 

Oscar McInerney was good enough to stop Gawn getting clean hit outs, but Gawn clearly has him around the ground, and our mids seemed to get the better of the chaos ball when Jackson is in there, what i love about him is he's so different to Gawn, he doesn't seem to have any real purpose beyond just getting his hand to the ball, and our players just react to it. when it's Gawn both sides are just watching his palm and it ends up with a bees to the honeypot situation. 

I think if we are going okay in the middle we can afford to send Petracca forward because Starcavic will have his hands full with Fritsch, so they won't have a good match up when he's down there 

Everything starts with Neale, like Libba if we can contain him, we can take away their engine room 

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.

2 hours ago, OhMyDees said:

Weather for Saturday night. 
9-17°c with 90% chance of shower 5-10mm….

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

8 minutes ago, Jaded said:

Sounds like Lions will be at full strength minus Hipwood and Ryner. 
Andrews and that god awful [censored] Robinson back for the Lions 🤮

Robinson doesn’t worry me, but Andrews is a very good player and someone who has a lot of mongrel about him. He blanketed Weideman last time. We need our forward line absolutely firing to beat them on Saturday night.

Lions have won their past two at Adelaide Oval. I feel you can only really count their form from 2019 when they became good. I know we play AO well, but it’s not a venue that has troubled them.

34 minutes ago, Accepting Mediocrity said:

Gawn, Oliver, Petracca and Lever are certainties to make the 22. May probably 50/50 - Aliir and Andrews have been outstanding all year as well, and one of those 3 will miss out. Weitering has also been great in a terrible side.

Charlie Cameron will take the small forward spot, but Kossie is a chance to make the squad. Fritsch probably doesn't do enough aside from kicking goals - not a knock on him, but he's probably competing with Greene who has been better. Salem will make the squad but probably wasn't good enough in the second half of the year to make the team. Some good players will miss out.

I reckon it will look something like this:

FB: Lever Andrews Stewart

HB: Rich May Dale

C: Merrett Oliver Macrae

HF: Stringer Hawkins Petracca

FF: Cameron McKay Greene

Fol: Gawn Bontempelli Wines

Int: Miller NicNat Steele Aliir

Agree with this team apart from these changes.

Out: Andrews, In: Weitering

Nicnat and Gawn to be swapped (I think Nicnat will get the nod)

Bont will probably be made C

9 minutes ago, Mickey said:

Nic Nat had the fourth most clearances this year. I think his impact has been enormous. Gawn is a much better mark but has only kicked 11 goals to Nic Nat's 3.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Nic Nat as the starting ruck.

Yep, unfortunately I think Nicnat will be the starting ruck.

9 minutes ago, The heart beats true said:

We’ve been sold a dud here. I can buy it for the Grand Final in a place which will allow full capacity, because everyone will want to go because it’s a special occasion. 15,000 ain’t that. It’s just unnecessary travel for the team that deserves the right to play at home. The media will just roll over and put on their happy faces, but this is garbage.

100% agree with this. 15k all spaced out across the stadium is going to deliver very little atmosphere. This isn’t much better than playing at the G in an empty stadium.

The more the merrier I say. Having said that, I’ve noticed quite a few opposition supporters on Twitter wanting us to choke. We have long been the whipping boy for opposition supporters and one team that they love to call a rabble. Some people can’t stand the perennial losers starting to win and be successful as they fear their team will take that mantle.

I’m expecting no love from Freo, Carlton, Essendon, Saints and Pies supporters.

Absolute star.

He’s the best defender in the league right now and will be the first person the AA selectors put down when selecting the back 6.

Has also played in a GF so also has great finals experience.

Friday and Saturday nights will be capped at 15,000, while a maximum of 10,000 can attend each of the finals at University of Tasmania Stadium in Launceston
 

- Port at home doesn’t sound that scary anymore. 15k is very disappointing. Even if it got to 20k.  You could almost fill more people at the G with fully vaccinated Melbourne supporters. 

The way we won that was poetic justice.

- A horrible insufficient intent decision that has cursed us once this year almost cost us again.

- Max Gawn kicking the goal after the miss in 2018

- A goal after the siren at GMHBA which redeemed us for that Tuohy goal.

- A win to seal first on the ladder at a ground that has haunted us in the past.

You could not script it better!

I love this group and have so much faith that we can turn it around in any game. 
 

Bring on the Lions

3 more wins to go!

Just now, Whispering_Jack said:

A few years ago at this ground, we were dominating them and we were this far ahead of them only to lose on the last kick of the day. You never give up.

Had the home crowd cheering them on and had Omac on Hawkins.

think some supporters need to cool their jets here. We ain’t winning 7 in a row to win the flag. A tune up here and beat Port at home isn’t too bad. We haven’t lost twice in a row all year and there’s no way we’re losing 3 in a row.

1 minute ago, CYB said:

So do we want Doggies or Lions in the Top4. Do we think the Doggies can turn around the form in the finals. Lions look pretty good. 

I’m not sure the Dogs are likely to lose 4 games in a row. Martin will come back for finals which will straighten them up. We’ve lost to them once before. I’d choose the Lions over the Dogs, but 50-50 of Port at home vs Lions at a neutral venue.

8 minutes ago, John Demonic said:

I don't think there's any favourable matchup anymore, I've resigned myself to that. Going into this round, Port at OUR neutral venue was the best outcome, and look how that turned out with them putting in their best performance of the year.

Win or lose tonight, the QF will be tough whoever and wherever we play. And the differences will be minute.

Agree. Port at a neutral venue was our ideal situation. Lions have turned the corner. Losing to the Hawks down in Tassie has sparked something for them. Since then they’ve smashed Freo away, belted Collingwood at home and now looking likely to put away Eagles pretty easily.

7 minutes ago, BigFez said:

Almost prefer to play Port than Brissie tbh. 

Same. Brisbane’s forwards worry me a bit even without Hipwood.
 

Port look impotent I find. Dixon has been disappointing all year, Marshall is horribly out of form, Georgiadis is injured now. 

A Brisbane team (who belted us in the first half) in red hot form at a neutral venue or a Port Adelaide team at home with all their feral supporters who’ve won their past 6.

Neither task will be easy

Port at a neutral venue would have been ideal.

I’m barracking for the Dogs.

If we lose tomorrow, which is very likely, playing Port at home with all their feral fans could easily nudge them over the line against us.